Development of new steam methane reforming mobile plant with micro-scale catalytic channels

The search for clean alternative energy sources is vital to feed the ever-increasing world energy consumption. It is widely accepted that hydrogen is the cleanest and abundant energy source of the future. Currently, more than 90% of world hydrogen production is made via catalytic steam methane reforming (SMR). A performing catalyst favors thermodynamic equilibrium that ensures good hydrogen selectivity. This research explores the potential of SMR yield intensification using experimental micro reactor and active noble metal catalyst (Rhodium aluminide and Ruthenium aluminide). For that purpose, a laboratory scale SMR test rig bench was designed, fabricated and developed. A new micro channel reactor with interchangeable catalyst modules for methane conversion process was set up and tested. The rig is able to provide evaluation of SMR experimental tests, such as catalyst performance, conversion rate and products at output stream, with controlled reactants steam to carbon ratio up to 5:1 and reaction temperature up to 700°C. The developed conventional and noble metal catalyst for this research, affirmed and proved that the combination of test rig bench and micro reactor managed to generate methane conversion according to the theory related to material catalyst. From this work, reaction temperature 650°C and steam to carbon ratio of 3:1 were found to yield the optimum methane conversion and hydrogen formation for the developed catalyst. Using such setup, the use of noble metal catalyst was able to reform methane to hydrogen within 1 minute from the start of reaction as compared to 60 minutes using conventional catalyst. It was found that the rate of reaction (methane disappearing rate) of –r´CH4 (mol CH4 / g catalyst.s), for Rhodium aluminide yield the highest of 181.58, followed by Ruthenium aluminide with 154.39 and lastly Nickel aluminide of 1.32. The outcomes of this work has the potential to be scaled up for hydrogen production supply chain system of future fuel-cell electric vehicle transportation sector especially in any region with affordable natural gas price

Criterion-referenced and norm-referenced agreement between the mile run/walk test and the one-and-a-half mile run/walk test and the pacer test

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to test the reliability of the Mile Run/Walk Test and One-and-a-Half Mile Run or Walk Test,and the PACER Test 20-m, multistage shuttle run using criterion reference and norm reference as a working framework. Method – The sample for the study comprised 2,056 students, with male (n = 1159) and female (n = 897) randomly selected using stratifi ed random sampling, from the whole population of students aged 13, 14, and 15 years from 18 secondary schools throughout Perak, Malaysia. Two trials of the PACER Test and one each of the Mile Run/Walk Test and One-and-a-Half Mile Run/Walk Test were performed. The estimated criterion referenced reliability for the Mile Run/Walk Test and the One-and-a-Half Mile Run/Walk Test, and the PACER Test was obtained using the proportion of agreement (Pa) and ‘modified kappa (Kq) on FITNESSGRAM® Standards (Baumgartner, Jackson, Mahar, & Rowe, 2003) and the American College of Sports Standards (ACSM, 1999). Findings – Results of the study showed that the Pacer Test had high reliability for testing the maximum volume of oxygen among male and female students aged 13, 14, and 15 years old. The statistical analysis indicated a positive and strong correlation between test scores and repeated tests for the Pacer Test on male and female students aged 13, 14 and 15 years old with r = 0.94 to 0.97; 0.95 to 0.97 respectively, and was signifi cant (p<.05).Value – It is recommended that the PACER Test be used as a component of the Physical Fitness Test battery to replace the Mile Run/Walk Test and the One-and-a-Half Mile Run or Walk Test, which are still used by the Malaysian Ministry of Education,Teacher Education Division,Curriculum Development Centre, and also State Education Departments to test students’ cardiovascular resistance

Can technology boost development? E-Governance in India

LSE’s Dr Shirin Madon discusses the shortcomings of India’s e-governance initiatives, which she argues privilege data collection over data analysis and cultural contextualisation

Incentives for open science: New prizes to encourage research integrity and transparency in social science.

The high-profile political science study on same-sex marriage views in the U.S., now determined to be fraudulent, is the latest case exposing the need for incentive structures that make academic research open, transparent, and replicable. The U.S. study has been retracted, largely thanks to the discovery of inconsistencies in the data by an outside group. The academic community must continue to strengthen the systems that ensure the integrity of research evidence. Temina Madon shares the launch of prizes run by the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) that look to provide recognition, visibility and cash awards to the next generation of researchers and senior faculty who promote more open practices

Can village committees improve primary healthcare accountability in India?

LSE’s Shirin Madon argues that healthcare accountability in India does not draw enough on health workers’ capabilities to respond to local conditions and needs, and asks whether new democratic spaces can address the problem

Recurrence rates for SIDS - the importance of risk stratification

Objective: To investigate the importance of stratification by risk factors in computing the probability of a second SIDS in a family. Design: Simulation Study Background: The fact that a baby dies suddenly and unexpectedly means that there is a raised probability that the baby’s family have risk factors associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Thus one cannot consider the risk of a subsequent death to be that of the general population. The Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy (CESDI)6 identified three major social risk factors: smoking, age1, and unemployed/unwaged as major risk factors. It gave estimates of risk for families with different numbers of these risk factors. We investigate whether it is reasonable to assume that, conditional on these risk factors, the risk of a second event is independent of the risk of the first and as a consequence one can square the risks to get the risk of two SIDS in a family. We have used CESDI data to estimate the probability of a second SID in a family under different plausible scenarios of the prevalence of the risk factors. We have applied the model to make predictions in the Care of Next Infant (CONI) study7. Results: The model gave plausible predictions. The CONI study observed 18 second SIDS. Our model predicted 14 (95% prediction interval 7 to 21). Conclusion: When considering the risk of a subsequent SIDS in a family one should always take into account the known risk factors. If all risks have been identified, then conditional on these risks, the risk of two events is the product of the individual risks However for a given family we cannot quantify the magnitude of the increased risk because of other possible risk factors not accounted for in the model

Why Analyze a Sonnet? Avoiding Presumption through Close Reading

In the first session of my Introduction to Shakespeare course, I always teach one of Shakespeare\u27s best-known sonnets: Sonnet 130, My mistress\u27 eyes are nothing like the sun:\u27 I open with this sonnet because students frequently think that they know what the poem is about. W hen I ask the class, someone will usually give me the most common misreading of the sonnet: the speaker tells his mistress that she does not look like other women, but he loves her all the same. Rather than dismissing this reading, I ask many questions. How did you reach this conclusion? What do you already know about Shakespeare that leads you to this conclusion? What do you know about sonnets? I explain that this type of reading, which asks the reader to focus on the main idea;\u27 is something that we have all been trained to do. We project what we already know about a text onto our reading of that text