Probing neutrino magnetic moment and unparticle interactions with Borexino

We discuss the limits on the neutrino magnetic moment and hypothetical interactions with a hidden unparticle sector, coming from the first neutrino data release of the Borexino experiment. The observed spectrum in Borexino depends weakly on the solar model used in the analysis, since most of the signal comes from the mono-energetic 7Be neutrinos. This fact allows us to calibrate the nu-e scattering cross section through the spectral shape. In this way, we have derived a limit on the magnetic moment for the neutrinos coming from the Sun (in which a nu_mu and nu_tau component is present): mu_nu<8.4E-11 mu_B (90%CL) which is comparable with those obtained from low energy reactor experiments. Moreover, we improve the previous upper limit on magnetic moment of the nu_tau by three orders of magnitude and the limit on the coupling constant of the neutrino with a hidden unparticle sector.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Some clarifications and references added. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Pumping seawater from coastal aquifers for supplying desalination plants

The lack of water in the coastal areas demands an onerous search for an appropriate solution. One solution is that of water transfer from areas of surplus, but this is itself problematical. Technological developments have introduced the possibility of utilizing desalinated seawater as a drinking water source at a competitive price. Abstraction from coastal aquifers that are connected to the sea appears to be the cheapest means of supply. However, pumping poses some problems due to the corrosiveness of seawater. These problems include the difficulties of choosing suitable sites for the abstractions, drilling method, casing, filter pack, as well as the design of a monitoring system to assess aquifer behaviour as a result of the generally high exploitation rate. The 31 boreholes that have been drilled in the Andarax Delta near the city of Almeria are cited as an example of a real application

About the limits of microfiltration for the purification of wastewaters

In the past, microfiltration was widely used as a pretreatment step for wastewater stream purification purposes. Experiences performed during the last years shows that microfiltration fails to maintain its performances for longer period of times. Many case studies demonstrate that the adoption of microfiltration leads to the failure of the overall process; the severe fouling of the microfiltration membranes leads to high operating costs with the consequence to make the treatment of the wastewater economically unfeasible. The boundary flux concept is a profitable tool to analyze fouling issues in membrane processes. The boundary flux value separates an operating region characterized by reversible fouling formation from irreversible one. Boundary flux values are not content, but function of time, as calculated by the subboundary fouling rate value. The knowledge of both parameters may fully describe the membrane performances in sub-boundary operating regimes. Many times, for wastewater purification purposes, ultrafiltration membranes appear to be suits better to the needs, even they exhibit lower permeate fluxes compared to microfiltration. Key to this choice is that ultrafiltration appears to resist better to fouling issues, with a limited reduction of the performances as a function of time. In other words, it appears that ultrafiltration exhibit higher boundary flux values and lower sub-boundary fouling rates. In this work, after a brief introduction to the boundary flux concept, for many different wastewater streams (more than 20, produced by the most relevant industries in food, agriculture, manufacture, pharmaceutics), the boundary flux and sub-boundary fouling rate values of different microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes will be discussed and compared. The possibility to successfully use microfiltration as a pretreatment step strongly depends on the feedstock characteristics and, in detail, on the particle size of the suspended matter. In most cases, microfiltration demonstrates to be technically unsuitable for pretreatment purposes of many wastewater streams; as a consequence, the adoption of microfiltration pushes operators to exceed boundary flux conditions, therefore triggering severe fouling, that leads to economic unfeasibility of the process in long terms