A study of time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in B0 --> J/psi K0S and B0 --> psi(2S) K0S decays

BABAR has studied the time dependent asymmetries in the the decays B0 -> J/psi K0S and B0 -> psi(2S) K0S in a data set of 9.0 fb^-1 taken at the Y(4S)resonance. In these channels we reconstruct 168 events of which 120 are flavor tagged and used in a likelihood fit where we determine sin2beta. The flavor of the other neutral $B$ mesons is tagged using information primarily from identified leptons and Kaons. A neural network is used to recover events without any clear Kaon or lepton signature. A preliminary result of sin2beta=0.12+/-0.37+/-0.09 is obtained.Comment: 17 pages, presented at the 7th International Conference on B-Physics at Hadron Machine

Radiative Penguin Decays at BABAR

We report preliminary results based on a data sample of 20.7 fb^(-1) recorded at the Υ(4S) resonance by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II energy asymmetric collider at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. We have measured the branching fraction B(B^0→K^(*0)γ)=(4.39±0.41±0.27)×10^(–5) and measured a charge asymmetry in the B→K^*γ decays consistent with zero: A_(CP)=–0.035±0.076±0.012. We also searched for the decay B^0 →γγ and placed the 90% C.L. limit B(B^0 →γγ)<1.7×10^(-6). The search for the electroweak penguin decays B→K^(*)l^(+)l^(-) yielded the limits B(B→Kl^(+)l^(-))<0.6×10^(-6) and B(B→K*l^(+)l^(-))<2.5×10^(-6) at the 90% C.L

Experimental Investigation of Oxygen Carrier Aided Combustion (OCAC) with Methane and PSA Off-Gas

Oxygen carrier aided combustion (OCAC) is utilized to promote the combustion of relatively stable fuels already in the dense bed of bubbling fluidized beds by adding a new mechanism of fuel conversion, i.e., direct gas–solid reaction between the metal oxide and the fuel. Methane and a fuel gas mixture (PSA off-gas) consisting of H2, CH4\ua0and CO were used as fuel. Two oxygen carrier bed materials—ilmenite and synthetic particles of calcium manganate—were investigated and compared to silica sand, an in this context inert bed material. The results with methane show that the fuel conversion is significantly higher inside the bed when using oxygen carrier particles, where the calcium manganate material displayed the highest conversion. In total, 99.3–99.7% of the methane was converted at 900 \ub0C with ilmenite and calcium manganate as a bed material at the measurement point 9 cm above the distribution plate, whereas the bed with sand resulted in a gas conversion of 86.7%. Operation with PSA off-gas as fuel showed an overall high gas conversion at moderate temperatures (600–750 \ub0C) and only minor differences were observed for the different bed materials. NO emissions were generally low, apart from the cases where a significant part of the fuel conversion took place above the bed, essentially causing flame combustion. The NO concentration was low in the bed with both fuels and especially low with PSA off-gas as fuel. No more than 11 ppm was detected at any height in the reactor, with any of the bed materials, in the bed temperature range of 700–750 \ub0C

11,000 h of chemical-looping combustion operation—Where are we and where do we want to go?

A key for chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is the oxygen carrier. The ultimate test is obviously the actual operation, which reveals if it turns to dust, agglomerates or loses its reactivity or oxygen carrier capacity. The CLC process has been operated in 46 smaller chemical-looping combustors, for a total of more than 11,000 h. The operation involves both manufactured oxygen carriers, with 70% of the total time of operation, and less costly materials, i.e. natural ores or waste materials. Among manufactured materials, the most popular materials are based on NiO with 29% of the operational time, Fe2O3 with 16% and CuO with 13%. Among the monometallic oxides there are also Mn3O4 with 1%, and CoO with 2%. The manufactured materials also include a number of combined oxides with 11% of operation, mostly calcium manganites and other combined manganese oxides. Finally, the natural ores and waste materials include ilmenite, FeTiO3 with 13%, iron ore/waste with 9% and manganese ore with 6%. In the last years a shift towards more focus on CuO, combined oxides and natural ores has been seen. The operational experience shows a large variation in performance depending on pilot design, operational conditions, solids inventory, oxygen carrier and fuel. However, there is at present no experience of the process at commercial or semi-commercial scale, although oxygen-carrier materials have been successfully used in commercial fluidized-bed boilers for Oxygen-Carrier Aided Combustion (OCAC) during more than 12,000 h of operation. The paper discusses strategies for upscaling as well as the use of biomass for negative emissions. A key question is how scaling-up will affect the performance, which again will determine the costs for purification of CO2 through e.g. oxy-polishing. Unfortunately, the conditions in the small-scale pilots do not allow for any safe conclusions with respect to performance in full scale. Nevertheless, the experiences from pilot operation shows that the process works and can be expected to work in the large scale and gives important information, for instance on the usefulness of various oxygen-carriers. Because further research is not likely to improve our understanding of the performance that can be achieved in full scale, there is little sense in waiting with the scale-up. A major difficulty with the scaling-up of a novel process is in the risk. First-of-its-kind large-scale projects include risks of technical mistakes and unforeseen obstacles, leading to added costs or, in the worst case, failure. One way of addressing these risks is to focus on the heart of the process and build it with maximum flexibility for future use. A concept for maximum flexibility is the Multipurpose Dual Fluidized Bed (MDFB). Another is to find a suitable existing plant, e.g. a dual fluidized-bed thermal gasifier. With present emissions the global CO2 budget associated with a maximum temperature of 2 \ub0C may be spent in around 20–25 years, whereas the CO2 budget for 1.5 \ub0C is may be exhausted in 10 years. Thus, the need for both CO2 neutral fuels and negative emissions will become increasingly urgent as we are nearing or transgressing the maximum amount of CO2 that can be emitted without compromising the global climate agreement in Paris saying we must keep “well below” 2 \ub0C and aim for a maximum of 1.5 \ub0C. Thus, biomass may turn out to be a key fuel for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), because CO2-free power does not necessarily need CCS, but negative emissions will definitely need Bio-CCS

FPGA-Based Tracklet Approach to Level-1 Track Finding at CMS for the HL-LHC

During the High Luminosity LHC, the CMS detector will need charged particle tracking at the hardware trigger level to maintain a manageable trigger rate and achieve its physics goals. The tracklet approach is a track-finding algorithm based on a road-search algorithm that has been implemented on commercially available FPGA technology. The tracklet algorithm has achieved high performance in track-finding and completes tracking within 3.4 $\mu$s on a Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA. An overview of the algorithm and its implementation on an FPGA is given, results are shown from a demonstrator test stand and system performance studies are presented.Comment: Submitted to proceedings of Connecting The Dots/Intelligent Trackers 2017, Orsay, Franc

Avoiding CO2 capture effort and cost for negative CO2 emissions using industrial waste in chemical-looping combustion/gasification of biomass

Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a combustion process with inherent separation of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is achieved by oxidizing the fuel with a solid oxygen carrier rather than with air. As fuel and combustion air are never mixed, no gas separation is necessary and, consequently, there is no direct cost or energy penalty for the separation of gases. The most common form of design of chemical-looping combustion systems uses circulating fluidized beds, which is an established and widely spread technology. Experiments were conducted in two different laboratory-scale CLC reactors with continuous fuel feeding and nominal fuel inputs of 300\ua0Wth and 10\ua0kWth, respectively. As an oxygen carrier material, ground steel converter slag from the Linz–Donawitz process was used. This material is the second largest flow in an integrated steel mill and it is available in huge quantities, for which there is currently limited demand. Steel converter slag consists mainly of oxides of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), silicon (Si), and manganese (Mn). In the 300\ua0W unit, chemical-looping combustion experiments were conducted with model fuels syngas (50\ua0vol% hydrogen (H2) in carbon monoxide (CO)) and methane (CH4) at varied reactor temperature, fuel input, and oxygen-carrier circulation. Further, the ability of the oxygen-carrier material to release oxygen to the gas phase was investigated. In the 10\ua0kW unit, the fuels used for combustion tests were steam-exploded pellets and wood char. The purpose of these experiments was to study more realistic biomass fuels and to assess the lifetime of the slag when employed as oxygen carrier. In addition, chemical-looping gasification was investigated in the 10\ua0kW unit using both steam-exploded pellets and regular wood pellets as fuels. In the 300\ua0W unit, up to 99.9% of syngas conversion was achieved at 280\ua0kg/MWth and 900\ua0\ub0C, while the highest conversion achieved with methane was 60% at 280\ua0kg/MWth and 950\ua0\ub0C. The material’s ability to release oxygen to the gas phase, i.e., CLOU property, was developed during the initial hours with fuel operation and the activated material released 1–2\ua0vol% of O2 into a flow of argon between 850 and 950\ua0\ub0C. The material’s initial low density decreased somewhat during CLC operation. In the 10\ua0kW, CO2 yields of 75–82% were achieved with all three fuels tested in CLC conditions, while carbon leakage was very low in most cases, i.e., below 1%. With wood char as fuel, at a fuel input of 1.8 kWth, a CO2 yield of 92% could be achieved. The carbon fraction of C2-species was usually below 2.5% and no C3-species were detected. During chemical-looping gasification investigation a raw gas was produced that contained mostly H2. The oxygen carrier lifetime was estimated to be about 110–170\ua0h. However, due to its high availability and potentially low cost, this type of slag could be suitable for large-scale operation. The study also includes a discussion on the potential advantages of this technology over other technologies available for Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage, BECCS. Furthermore, the paper calls for the use of adequate policy instruments to foster the development of this kind of technologies, with great potential for cost reduction but presently without commercial application because of lack of incentives

Experimental investigation of chemical-looping combustion and chemical-looping gasification of biomass-based fuels using steel converter slag as oxygen carrier

Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a combustion process with inherent separation of CO2, which is achieved by oxidizing the fuel with a solid oxygen carrier rather than with air. As fuel and combustion air are never mixed, no gas separation is necessary and, consequently, there is no direct energy penalty for the separation of gases. The most common form of design of chemical-looping combustion systems uses circulating fluidized beds, which is an established and widely spread technology.Experiments were conducted in two different laboratory-scale CLC reactors with continuous fuel feeding and nominal fuel inputs of 300 Wth and 10 kWth, respectively. As oxygen carrier material, ground steel converter slag from the Linz–Donawitz process was used. This material is the second largest flow in an integrated steel mill, and it is available in huge quantities, for which there is currently limited demand. Steel converter slag consists mainly of oxides of Ca, Mg, Fe, Si and Mn. In the 300 W unit chemical-looping combustion experiments were conducted with model fuels syngas (50 vol% H2 in CO) and methane at varied reactor temperature, fuel input and oxygen-carrier circulation. Further, the ability of the oxygen-carrier material to release oxygen to the gas phase was investigated. In the 10 kW unit, the fuels used for combustion tests were steam-exploded pellets and wood char. The purpose of these experiments was to study more realistic biomass fuels and to assess the lifetime of the slag when employed as oxygen carrier. In addition, chemical-looping gasification was investigated in the 10 kW unit using both, steam-exploded pellets and regular wood pellets as fuels.In the 300 W unit, up to 99.9 % of syngas conversion was achieved at 280 kg/MWth and 900 \ub0C, while the highest conversion achieved with methane was 60 % at 280 kg/MWth and 950 \ub0C. The material’s ability to release oxygen to the gas phase, i.e., CLOU property, was developed during the initial hours with fuel operation, and the activated material released 1-2 vol% of O2 into a flow of argon between 850 \ub0C and 950 \ub0C. The material’s initial low density decreased somewhat during CLC operation.In the 10 kW, CO2 yields of 75-82 % were achieved with all three fuels tested in CLC conditions, while carbon leakage was very low in most cases, i.e., below 1 %. With wood char as fuel, at a fuel input of 1.8 kWth, a CO2 yield of 92 % could be achieved. The carbon fraction of C2-species was usually below 2.5 % and no C3-species were detected. During chemical-looping gasification investigation a raw gas was produced that contained mostly H2. The oxygen carrier lifetime was estimated to be about 110-170 h. However, due to its high availability and potentially low cost, this type of slag could be suitable for large-scale operation

Chemical-looping combustion with heavy liquid fuels in a 10 kW pilot\ua0plant

In this study, chemical-looping combustion was performed with highly viscous vacuum residue. A fuel reactor with a fuel-injection system for liquid fuels was designed and built for a chemical-looping reactor with the nominal fuel input of 10 kWth. The gas velocities in the riser section and at the gas-distribution nozzles of this unit are comparable to those of industrial circulating fluidized-bed boilers. Reference experiments were performed with an ilmenite oxygen carrier and two different fuel blends that contained 40 wt.% and respectively 80 wt.% of vacuum residue in fuel oil 1. Fuel conversion was in line with that of experiments from an earlier campaign, where fuel oil 1 was used as fuel. The fuel contained a significant fraction of sulfur, but no SO2 was detected in the flue gas of the air reactor. More experiments were performed using an oxygen carrier based on calcium manganite. The oxygen carrier was exposed to fluidization at hot conditions (more than 600\ub0C) for about 95 h, out of which fuel was injected during a total of 9.6 h. Undiluted vacuum residue, fuel oil 1 as well as different blends of these two were used as fuel. Furthermore, the parameters fuel flow, fuel-reactor temperature and air flow in the air reactor were varied to observe trends in fuel conversion. The experiments were carried out with a fuel flow corresponding to 4.0-6.2 kWth and an oxygen carrier-to-fuel ratio of about 1300-2000 kg/MWth (fuel-reactor bed mass per thermal fuel-power). With undiluted vacuum residue as fuel and a fuel-reactor temperature of 1000\ub0C, up to 93% of all carbon leaving the fuel reactor was in the form of CO2. Carbon leakage from fuel reactor to air reactor was usually below 1% for all fuel types tested, but no SO2 was detected in the off-gas from the air reactor. The reactivity of the calcium manganite-based material decreased over the course of the experiments, which is likely due to sulfur poisoning. No defluidization or agglomeration problems were experienced over the course of the experimental campaign