The impacts of replacing air bubbles with microspheres for the clarification of algae from low cell-density culture

Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) is a well-known coagulation–flotation system applied at large scale for microalgae harvesting. Compared to conventional harvesting technologies DAF allows high cell recovery at lower energy demand. By replacing microbubbles with microspheres, the innovative Ballasted Dissolved Air Flotation (BDAF) technique has been reported to achieve the same algae cell removal efficiency, while saving up to 80% of the energy required for the conventional DAF unit. Using three different algae cultures (Scenedesmus obliquus, Chlorella vulgaris and Arthrospira maxima), the present work investigated the practical, economic and environmental advantages of the BDAF system compared to the DAF system. 99% cells separation was achieved with both systems, nevertheless, the BDAF technology allowed up to 95% coagulant reduction depending on the algae species and the pH conditions adopted. In terms of floc structure and strength, the inclusion of microspheres in the algae floc generated a looser aggregate, showing a more compact structure within single cell alga, than large and filamentous cells. Overall, BDAF appeared to be a more reliable and sustainable harvesting system than DAF, as it allowed equal cells recovery reducing energy inputs, coagulant demand and carbon emissions

The Effectiveness of a Contact Filter for the Removal of Iron from Ground Water

Various types of modified filters were investigated to replace greensand filters which clogged when removing ground water. A properly designed uniform-grain sized filter can increase the filtration time more than ten times that of ordinary sand or greensand filters. The filter medium was obtained by passing commercial filter material between two standard sieves of a close size range, so that the resulting medium was of a uniform size. The head loss rate on such a medium was independent of the filter depth and was inversely proportional to the almost 3/2 power of the grain size. On the other hand, the filter depth was almost linearly proportional to the time of protective action. The effects of the grain size, filter depth, and filter material on the filter run were evaluated with a synthetic iron water; and optimum filter depths for each unisized material were determined. At identical filtration conditions, anthracite had a 70 to 110% longer filter run than the sand medium, and it was attributed to the greater porosity of the former. Expectedly, the time to reach initial leakage of the iron floc was greater with the coarse and more porous medium. but was reduced to an insignificant amount when the filter depth was increased to three to six feet. The performance of unisized filters on permanganate-treated ground water was much better than that of fine-grained greensand. Applicability of experimental data on an existing filtration theory was investigatedThe work upon which this report is based was supported by funds (Proj. A-025-ALAS) provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research, as authorized under the Water Resources Act of 1964

Three-dimensional localization of ultracold atoms in an optical disordered potential

We report a study of three-dimensional (3D) localization of ultracold atoms suspended against gravity, and released in a 3D optical disordered potential with short correlation lengths in all directions. We observe density profiles composed of a steady localized part and a diffusive part. Our observations are compatible with the self-consistent theory of Anderson localization, taking into account the specific features of the experiment, and in particular the broad energy distribution of the atoms placed in the disordered potential. The localization we observe cannot be interpreted as trapping of particles with energy below the classical percolation threshold.Comment: published in Nature Physics; The present version is the initial manuscript (unchanged compared to version 1); The published version is available online at http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphys2256.htm

Energy dissipation in DC-field driven electron lattice coupled to fermion baths

Electron transport in electric-field-driven tight-binding lattice coupled to fermion baths is comprehensively studied. We reformulate the problem by using the scattering state method within the Coulomb gauge. Calculations show that the formulation justifies direct access to the steady-state bypassing the time-transient calculations, which then makes the steady-state methods developed for quantum dot theories applicable to lattice models. We show that the effective temperature of the hot-electron induced by a DC electric field behaves as $T_{\rm eff}=C\gamma(\Omega/\Gamma)$ with a numerical constant $C$, tight-binding parameter $\gamma$, the Bloch oscillation frequency $\Omega$ and the damping parameter $\Gamma$. In the small damping limit $\Gamma/\Omega\to 0$, the steady-state has a singular property with the electron becoming extremely hot in an analogy to the short-circuit effect. This leads to the conclusion that the dissipation mechanism cannot be considered as an implicit process, as treated in equilibrium theories. Finally, using the energy flux relation, we derive a steady-state current for interacting models where only on-site Green's functions are necessary.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Parabolic Harnack inequality for time-dependent non-symmetric Dirichlet forms

In the context of a metric measure Dirichlet space satisfying volume doubling and Poincar\'e inequality, we prove the parabolic Harnack inequality for weak solutions of the heat equation associated with local nonsymmetric bilinear forms. In particular, we show that these weak solutions are locally bounded