Theoretical Analysis of Concentration Polarization Effect on VOC Removal by Pervaporation

Pervaporation is an innovative membrane-based separation technology for volatile organic compound (VOC) removal from contaminated groundwater. Concentration polarization is a process phenomenon occurring in pervaporation and several other membrane-based separation technologies. Concentration polarization, defined as concentration gradient of permeating solute between the bulk and the region near the membrane surface, becomes a limiting factor in pervaporation separations using high-performance membrane materials in VOC removal operations. Thus, the ability to predict the impact of concentration polarization upon process performance is highly desirable in process design and optimization. A mathematical model was developed to illustrate the interplay between concentration polarization and process performance in pervaporation operation of VOC removal in a membrane channel with rectangular cross section. By incorporating pervaporative mass transfer, laminar hydrodynamics, and boundary-layer theory, the model was built to allow theoretical analysis of the sensitivity of flow velocity, feed concentration, and concentration polarization index (CPI) upon the transmembrane flux and longitudinal mass flow

Ionization in fast atom-atom collisions: The influence and scaling behavior of electron-electron and electron-nucleus interactions

We report cross sections for ionization of He coincident with electron loss from He, Li, C, O, and Ne projectiles. For He, Li, C, and O projectiles, the cross sections were measured directly, while the Ne cross sections were obtained by transforming results for He projectiles colliding with Ne. We find that, at energies of about 100–500 keV/u, neutral projectiles can ionize a He target almost as effectively as a charged projectile. The contribution to ionization due to electron-electron interactions is found to scale with the number of available projectile electrons. Comparing ionization by the bound electrons on projectiles to ionization by free electrons, we find that the cross sections for ionization by bound electrons are systematically smaller than those for free electrons

Field demonstration of pervaporation for the separation of volatile organic compounds from a surfactant-based soil remediation fluid

Abstract As part of a Department of Defense project, the US Environmental Protection Agency was responsible for designing, building and field operating a pilot-scale pervaporation unit. The field site was an active dry cleaning facility on the grounds of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC. The overall goal of the project was to remove tetrachloroethylene (PCE) from the soil beneath the dry cleaning shop using a surfactant-based soil remediation fluid and to recycle/reuse the surfactant. In order to reinject the recovered surfactant, the pervaporation unit was required to achieve an average 95% removal of contaminants from the extracted fluid over the duration of the test period. PCE removal averaged 95.8% during peak surfactant levels and exceeded 99.9% in the absence of surfactant, thereby meeting the reinjection requirement. Removal of a group of secondary contaminants at the site, termed Varsol TM compounds, was monitored via concentrations of three Varsol TM marker compounds: decane, undecane and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene. The pervaporation system processed 100,000 gal of groundwater and surfactant solution over a period of 70 days. In order to evaluate and validate process performance, a variety of process variables and properties were monitored over the course of the demonstration. Pervaporation costs are projected to be on the order of $20 per 1000 gal of surfactant solution treated for a moderate size system (10 gpm). Published by Elsevier Science B.V

Strong suppression of Coulomb corrections to the cross section of e+e- pair production in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions

The Coulomb corrections to the cross section of $e^+e^-$ pair production in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions are calculated in the next-to-leading approximation with respect to the parameter $L=\ln \gamma_A\gamma_B$ ($\gamma_{A,B}$ are the Lorentz factors of colliding nuclei). We found considerable reduction of the Coulomb corrections even for large $\gamma_A\gamma_B$ due to the suppression of the production of $e^+e^-$ pair with the total energy of the order of a few electron masses in the rest frame of one of the nuclei. Our result explains why the deviation from the Born result were not observed in the experiment at SPS.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe

Double Excitation of He by Fast Ions

Autoionization of He atoms following double excitation by electrons, protons, CQ+ (Q=4-6), and FQ+ (Q=7-9) ions has been studied. The electron-emission yields from the doubly excited 2s2(1S), 2s2p(1P), and 2p2(1P) states were measured at the reduced projectile energy of 1.5 MeV/nucleon for observation angles between 10°and 60°. The results indicate excitation to the 2s2(1S) and 2p2(1D) states increases as approximately Q3, while excitation to the 2s2p(1P) state varies as approximately Q2, where Q is the charge of the projectile. These charge dependences are significantly less than the Q4 dependence expected in the independent-electron model, suggesting the interaction between the two target electrons is important in creating the doubly excited states

Population of Highly Excited Intermediate Resonance States by Electron Transfer and Excitation

Coincidences between two sulfur K x rays were detected from collisions of hydrogenlike S ions with H2 gas in the projectile energy range between 150 and 225 MeV. These K x rays are emitted in the decay of doubly excited states formed in the collisions via transfer and excitation. The excitation function for two coincident Kβ transitions peaks at about 175 MeV, slightly above the expected KMM resonance energy for resonant transfer and excitation (RTE). This demonstrates the occurrence of ΔN≥2 transitions (i.e., KMM and higher resonances) in the RTE process. The cross sections for the population of the very highly excited states are higher than those predicted by theoretical calculations that use dielectronic recombination rates folded with the Compton profile for the bound electrons

Cloud type comparisons of AIRS, CloudSat, and CALIPSO cloud height and amount

The precision of the two-layer cloud height fields derived from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is explored and quantified for a five-day set of observations. Coincident profiles of vertical cloud structure by CloudSat, a 94 GHz profiling radar, and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), are compared to AIRS for a wide range of cloud types. Bias and variability in cloud height differences are shown to have dependence on cloud type, height, and amount, as well as whether CloudSat or CALIPSO is used as the comparison standard. The CloudSat-AIRS biases and variability range from −4.3 to 0.5±1.2–3.6 km for all cloud types. Likewise, the CALIPSO-AIRS biases range from 0.6–3.0±1.2–3.6 km (−5.8 to −0.2±0.5–2.7 km) for clouds ≥7 km (<7 km). The upper layer of AIRS has the greatest sensitivity to Altocumulus, Altostratus, Cirrus, Cumulonimbus, and Nimbostratus, whereas the lower layer has the greatest sensitivity to Cumulus and Stratocumulus. Although the bias and variability generally decrease with increasing cloud amount, the ability of AIRS to constrain cloud occurrence, height, and amount is demonstrated across all cloud types for many geophysical conditions. In particular, skill is demonstrated for thin Cirrus, as well as some Cumulus and Stratocumulus, cloud types infrared sounders typically struggle to quantify. Furthermore, some improvements in the AIRS Version 5 operational retrieval algorithm are demonstrated. However, limitations in AIRS cloud retrievals are also revealed, including the existence of spurious Cirrus near the tropopause and low cloud layers within Cumulonimbus and Nimbostratus clouds. Likely causes of spurious clouds are identified and the potential for further improvement is discussed

Resonant Dielectronic and Direct Excitation in Crystal Channels

We have observed dielectronic and direct excitation of H-like S15+ and Ca19+ and He-like Ti20+ ions in silicon channels caused by collision with weakly bound target electrons which behave as a free-electron gas. As in vacuo, relaxation of the doubly excited states can occur radiatively leading to ions of decreased charge, but in a crystal channel collisional effects can cause double ionization. The effects are seen in both the x-ray yields and charge-state fractions, and, in the case of Ti20+, in charge-state x-ray coincidences