Simultaneous production of mesoporous biochar and palmitic acid by pyrolysis of brewing industry wastes

Pyrolysis of malt bagasse was carried out to obtain simultaneously a mesoporous biochar and an oil fraction rich in palmitic acid. The best result for biochar production was at 500 °C with holding time of 10 min. The yields of biochar and pyrolytic oil in this condition were, 29.7 and 33.9 wt%, respectively. The pyrolysis temperature and holding time influenced the yields of the products. An increase in pyrolysis temperature (from 500 to 700 °C) and holding time (from 10 to 50 min) caused a decrease in biochar yield, a reduction in the volatile matter content and an increase in the amount of ash. Additionally, in the range studied in this work, the increase of the pyrolysis temperature caused a decrease in the specific surface area and total pore volume of the biochar. Meanwhile, the biochar presented interesting functional groups and a mesoporous character, which can be a precursor to obtain adsorbents, or even, be used as adsorbent. The pyrolytic oil was composed of oxygenated aromatic compounds, the main fraction being palmitic acid (27.3%), which can be used in a number of applications, including biodiesel production. This work demonstrated that an available and problematic waste, malt bagasse, can be converted simultaneously into a mesoporous biochar and, into a pyrolytic oil rich in palmitic acid. Biochar and pyrolytic oil, in turn, are products of great value and can be applied in several fields

Supporting Engineering Processes Utilizing Service-Oriented Grid Technology

Speeding up knowledge-intensive core processes in engineering and increas-ing the quality of their results is becoming more and more decisive, since economic pressure from national and international competitors and customers is rising. In particular, these demands exceed the organizational and infrastructural capacities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) by far. Hence, combining complementary core competencies across organizational boundaries is crucial for an enterprise's continuing success. Efficient and economically reasonable support of knowledge-intensive core processes in virtual organisations is therefore a predominant requirement for future IT infrastructures. The paradigm shift to service-orientation in Grid middleware opens the possibility to provide such support along the product lifecycle by employing a flexible software development approach, namely to compose applications from standard components, promising easier development and modification of Grid applications. In this paper, a service-oriented Grid computing approach is presented which aims at supporting distributed business processes in industry (see section 2 for industrial scenarios) from top level modelling, workflow design and exe-cution to actual Grid service code (presented in section 3). Parts of this gap between processes and code can be bridged by semi-automatically generated Grid service code. Orchestration of these Grid services is also automated by using a Grid-enabled workflow engine (see section 3). The feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated by presenting an exemplary process chain from the casting industry (see full paper)

Phase-Sensitive Impurity Effects in Vortex Core of Moderately Clean Chiral Superconductors

We study impurity effects in vortex core of two-dimensional moderately clean su perconductors within the quasiclassical theory. The impurity scattering rate \G amma(E) of the Andreev bound states in vortex core with +1 vorticity of p-wav e superconductors with {\mib d}=\hat{\mib z}(p_x+\iu p_y) is suppre ssed, compared to the normal state scattering rate $\Gamma_{\rm n}$ in the energ y region \Gamma_{\rm n}^3/E_\delta^2\ll E\ll E_\delta\equiv |\delta_0|\Delta_\i nfty with scattering phase shift $\delta_0$ $(|\delta_0|\ll 1)$ and the pair-po tential in bulk $\Delta_\infty$. Further we find that $\Gamma(E)/\Gamma_{\rm n}$ for p-wave superconductors with {\mib d}=\hat{\mib z}(p_x-\iu p_y) is at most {\cal O}(E/\Delta_\i nfty). These results are in marked contrast to the even-parity case (s,d-wave), where $\Gamma(E)/\Gamma_{\rm n}$ is known to be proportional to \ln(\Delta_\i nfty/E) . Parity- and chirality-dependences of impurity effects are attributed to the Andr eev reflections involved in the impurity-induced scattering between bound states . Implications for the flux flow conductivity is also discussed. Novel enhanceme nt of flux flow conductivity is expected to occur at $T\ll E_\delta$ for {\mib d}=\hat{\mib z}(p_x+\iu p_y) and at $T\ll \Delta_\infty$ for {\mib d}=\hat{\mib z}(p_x-\iu p_y).Comment: 9 pages, No figures, To appear in JPSJ Vol. 69, No. 10 (2000

Mathematical modelling of clostridial acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation

Clostridial acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation features a remarkable shift in the cellular metabolic activity from acid formation, acidogenesis, to the production of industrial-relevant solvents, solventogensis. In recent decades, mathematical models have been employed to elucidate the complex interlinked regulation and conditions that determine these two distinct metabolic states and govern the transition between them. In this review, we discuss these models with a focus on the mechanisms controlling intra- and extracellular changes between acidogenesis and solventogenesis. In particular, we critically evaluate underlying model assumptions and predictions in the light of current experimental knowledge. Towards this end, we briefly introduce key ideas and assumptions applied in the discussed modelling approaches, but waive a comprehensive mathematical presentation. We distinguish between structural and dynamical models, which will be discussed in their chronological order to illustrate how new biological information facilitates the ‘evolution’ of mathematical models. Mathematical models and their analysis have significantly contributed to our knowledge of ABE fermentation and the underlying regulatory network which spans all levels of biological organization. However, the ties between the different levels of cellular regulation are not well understood. Furthermore, contradictory experimental and theoretical results challenge our current notion of ABE metabolic network structure. Thus, clostridial ABE fermentation still poses theoretical as well as experimental challenges which are best approached in close collaboration between modellers and experimentalists