Hydrogen production by catalytic cracking of methane over nickel gauze under periodic reactor operation

The catalytic cracking of methane over nickel gauze is proposed as an attractive alternative for the prodn. of CO-free hydrogen. The catalyst deactivates due to intensive coke deposition. Therefore, the reactor was operated periodically with the reaction followed by the catalyst regeneration by burning of coke in oxidative atm. The optimal reaction performance was found to consist of reaction periods of 4 min followed by 4 min regeneration periods. [on SciFinder (R)

Synthesis of ZSM-5 coatings on stainless steel grids and their catalytic performance for partial oxidation of benzene by N2O

The hydroxylation of benzene was carried out over a structured catalytic bed of ZSM-5-coated stainless steel grids. The catalysts demonstrated a 97% selectivity to PhOH at benzene conversion 11%. In addn. to achieving the same reactivity as traditional zeolitic fixed beds, the grid catalyst has several advantages gained by special arrangement of the catalytic bed, including: low pressure drop, improved heat and mass transfer and controlled hydrodynamics. [on SciFinder (R)

ZSM-5 coatings on stainless steel grids in one-step benzene hydroxylation to phenol by N2O: Reaction kinetics study

One-step hydroxylation of benzene to phenol by N2O has been performed over structured catalytic beds made of ZSM-5 coatings on stainless steel grids. The catalysts demonstrated high activity with a selectivity toward phenol formation of 98%. A detailed kinetic study was carried out with a variation in reactant concentrations, benzene/N2O ratio, and residence time. The results obtained suggest a surface reaction between benzene and nitrous oxide adsorbed on two different active sites

Proceedings of the second "international Traveling Workshop on Interactions between Sparse models and Technology" (iTWIST'14)

The implicit objective of the biennial "international - Traveling Workshop on Interactions between Sparse models and Technology" (iTWIST) is to foster collaboration between international scientific teams by disseminating ideas through both specific oral/poster presentations and free discussions. For its second edition, the iTWIST workshop took place in the medieval and picturesque town of Namur in Belgium, from Wednesday August 27th till Friday August 29th, 2014. The workshop was conveniently located in "The Arsenal" building within walking distance of both hotels and town center. iTWIST'14 has gathered about 70 international participants and has featured 9 invited talks, 10 oral presentations, and 14 posters on the following themes, all related to the theory, application and generalization of the "sparsity paradigm": Sparsity-driven data sensing and processing; Union of low dimensional subspaces; Beyond linear and convex inverse problem; Matrix/manifold/graph sensing/processing; Blind inverse problems and dictionary learning; Sparsity and computational neuroscience; Information theory, geometry and randomness; Complexity/accuracy tradeoffs in numerical methods; Sparsity? What's next?; Sparse machine learning and inference.Comment: 69 pages, 24 extended abstracts, iTWIST'14 website: http://sites.google.com/site/itwist1

A Survey of Bayesian Statistical Approaches for Big Data

The modern era is characterised as an era of information or Big Data. This has motivated a huge literature on new methods for extracting information and insights from these data. A natural question is how these approaches differ from those that were available prior to the advent of Big Data. We present a review of published studies that present Bayesian statistical approaches specifically for Big Data and discuss the reported and perceived benefits of these approaches. We conclude by addressing the question of whether focusing only on improving computational algorithms and infrastructure will be enough to face the challenges of Big Data