A Comprehensive Economic Stimulus for our Failing Economy

This paper presents a comprehensive plan to fix the ailing American economy, through a five-step approach. First, the Federal Reserve must continue to broaden the scope of monetary policy, by purchasing and selling long-term securities. Manipulating expectations through FOMC statements is another tool at the Federal Reserve’s disposal. Secondly, the government must enact fiscal stimulus to stabilize the economy in the short and medium runs, through investment in infrastructure projects, green technology, fusion technology, and science education. Additionally, the new fiscal policy must tackle the mortgage meltdown, which is weighing down the entire economy. Third, the regulatory system must be changed to reduce the likelihood of another financial collapse, starting with the nationalization of the ratings agencies. Ratings should be updated faster, with a numeric grading system rather than the pre-existing letter grades. Fourth, our globalized economy insures that a coordinated globalized response is necessary to recover. Global cooperation to reduce inflation and avoid protectionist policies is vital. Finally, the American bailout policy must be made clear, only giving bailouts to companies that are sound but financially strapped and those that are too big to fail

Chemical upgrading of sedimentary Na-Chabazite from Bowie, Arizona

Natural zeolites may represent one of the greatest under-utilized resources of the mineral world. Even with their unique character and properties, issues of consistency, homogeneity and purity preclude them from many premium applications. We report a simple method to upgrade mineral sedimentary Na-chabazite from the well known Bowie, Arizona, deposit to near synthetic purity and consistency. During this alkaline-silicate digestion process, initially soft chabazite ore granules gain substantial mechanical strength. This may allow direct employment in adsorption and purification processes without the need for binding and forming. These granules manifest significantly improved adsorption properties, including enhanced water and CO adsorptivity

Development of a Novel Mercury Cartridge for Mercury Analysis

Mercury cartridges, which are a key component of semicontinuous online mercury monitors, capture low-concentration mercury from the effluent streams of coal-fired power plants and subsequently release highly concentrated pulses of mercury for spectroscopic analysis. The most common sorbent used in mercury cartridges is gold-coated silica beads (Au/SiO₂), which form a reversible amalgam with elemental mercury. Ag/MC is a robust composite mercury sorbent, consisting of silver nanoparticles supported on the surface of natural chabazite, which can efficiently capture and release mercury from a real flue gas environment, making the material a potential alternative to Au/SiO₂ in mercury preconcentration cartridges. The performance of Au/SiO₂- and Ag/MC-based mercury cartridges in capturing low-level mercury in Ar-, SO₂-, and NO-containing gas streams was investigated systematically. Both SO₂ and NO were determined to be harmful to the performance of an Au/SiO₂ mercury cartridge. NO had limited impact on the performance of Ag/MC, but the presence of SO₂ led to reduced mercury recovery from the Ag/MC mercury cartridge. Soda lime was proven to be an effective, NO-tolerant SO₂ scrubber. Based on these results, a novel SO₂- and NO-tolerant mercury cartridge was designed and fabricated using soda lime as a disposable SO₂ scrubber and Ag/MC as the reversible mercury sorbent

Process Optimization-Based Adsorbent Selection for Ethane Recovery from Residue Gas

The design and optimization of a pressure/vacuum swing adsorption process for the separation of ethane (C2) from residue gas (2.4 mol% ethane and the rest being methane) is presented. To achieve this, experimental measurements, modelling and optimization tools are developed to characterize the adsorbents, define the cycle configuration, and find the optimal operating conditions for the process. adsorbents from two different families, namely, titanosilicate (Na- ETS-10) and activated carbons are chosen. Experimental high-pressure isotherms were measured and described using a dual-site Langmuir model. A rigorous one-dimensional model is developed to simulate the adsorption process. Three different cycle configurations are proposed and assessed based on C2 purity and recovery. The effect of feed temperature is studied and is shown to have 10 a high impact on the separation. Finally, a multi-objective optimization study is performed to identify the material that offers the best trade-off between the two objective functions: C2 purity and recovery. Among the adsorbents examined, Na-ETS-10 is found to provide best performance with a possibility of obtaining ≈ 76% purity at a recovery of 68%.Fil: Estupiñan Perez, Libardo. University of Alberta; CanadáFil: Avila, Adolfo María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Química del Noroeste. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia. Instituto de Química del Noroeste; Argentina. University of Alberta; CanadáFil: Sawada, James A.. University of Alberta; CanadáFil: Rajendran, Arvind. University of Alberta; CanadáFil: Kuznicki, Steven M.. University of Alberta; Canad