Influence of oxidant agent on syngas composition: gasification of hazelnut shells through an updraft reactor

Thermophysical properties of engineering fluids have proven in the past to be essential for the design of physical and chemical processing and reaction equipment in the chemical, metallurgical, and allied industries, as they influence directly the design parameters and performance of plant units in the of, for example, heat exchangers, distillation columns, phase separation, and reactors. In the energy field, the search for the optimization of existing and alternative fuels, either using neutral or ionic fluids, is an actual research and application topic, both for new applications and the sustainable development of old technologies. One of the most important drawbacks in the industrial use of thermophysical property data is the common discrepancies in available data, measured with different methods, different samples, and questionable quality assessment. Measuring accurately the thermal conductivity of fluids has been a very successful task since the late 1970s due to the efforts of several schools in Europe, Japan, and the United States. However, the application of the most accurate techniques to several systems with technological importance, like ionic liquids, nanofluids, and molten salts, has not been made in the last ten years in a correct fashion, generating highly inaccurate data, which do not reflect the real physical situation. It is the purpose of this paper to review critically the best available techniques for the measurement of thermal conductivity of fluids, with special emphasis on transient methods and their application to ionic liquids, nanofluids, and molten salts

DENTRO/FUORI SOPRA/SOTTO Critica femminista e canone letterario negli studi di italianistica

Atti del Convegno Dentro/Fuori, Sopra/Sotto: Feminist Criticism and the Literary Canon in Italian Studies svoltosi presso il St Catharine's College, Cambridge 9th - 10th September 200

Sulla soglia: la narrativa di Maria Messina

L’articolo propone un attraversamento della narrativa di Maria Messina a partire dalla sua collocazione nel processo di quella rapida modernizzazione della società italiana che agli inizi del Novecento porta sulla scena nuovi soggetti potenziali. L’attenzione della scrittrice sembra essere focalizzata proprio sulla crisi del sistema patriarcale e sul contraddittorio venire a coscienza di diversi soggetti, in modo particolare di quello femminile. Un percorso doloroso e raramente coronato da successo, alla fine del quale c’è spesso soltanto la solitudine. La scrittrice sembra però anche dire e ribadire che indietro in ogni caso non si torna, dal momento che la legittimazione indiscussa del patriarcato si è incrinata e accade ormai che il re sia nudo. I modi e le vicende della costituzione della soggettività sono pertanto il filtro principale con cui si è condotta la lettura. L’analisi ripercorre diversi testi della scrittrice concentrandosi in particolare su alcuni nuclei tematici costanti nella narrativa messiniana, come quello della famiglia, dell’emigrazione, delle diverse rappresentazioni del patriarcato, dei rapporti padre-figlia e infine del rapporto tra coscienza e libertà. Infatti, una delle domande più importanti che si pongono è se e in quale misura venga rappresentata la possibilità reale che l’acquisizione di una coscienza porti ad una effettiva libertà

Biomass gasification: the effect of equivalence ratio on syngas quality in the case of externally heated reactor

Biomass gasification is a thermal process that aiming at obtaining the possible best quality of the product gas, in terms of heating value and composition. The reaction temperature is one of the most important parameters affecting the syngas quality. Several experiments show a close link between the air mass injected within the reactor (the equivalence ratio) and the temperature reached. In the proposed paper we investigate the effect of varying the equivalence ratio in the case of an externally heated reac-tor, on the temperature distribution within the reactor, and on the syngas quality (i.e., composition and low heating val-ue)

Analysis on the coupling of biomass gasification processes with a parabolic trough concentrating solar plant

The energy needed from gasification processes to convert a solid fuel, the biomass, into a gaseous one is usually supplied by the partial oxidation of the fuel in the gasification reactor. However, the use of solar power as an external thermal input is attractive to improve the energy content and the quality of the product gas. Solar parabolic trough (PT) technology, using molten salt both as heat transfer fluid and thermal storage medium can provide an energy input to a gasification reactor in a stable and continuous way throughout the whole process. The gas produced by a reactor supplied by solar energy has a better quality in terms of Low Heat Value, “cold gas efficiency”, “carbon efficiency” and tar content. Molten salt, acting as thermal fluid in the heat exchanger within the reactor (in the place of hot gas) increases reliability and avoids unsafe service interruptions for the facility. At the same time, the abovementioned Concentrating Solar Plant (CSP) plant can benefit from the syngas. In particular this latter may be profitable for covering the CSP nocturnal losses, decreasing the use of fossil fuel, allowing power production in cogeneration to be used as heat for salts heating up, in order to have a power generation extension. To sum up, this paper investigates the benefits ensured by this coupling to both plant technologies and explains the method to be used in case of agro-industrial residuals used as feed