This review studies unwanted precipitation reactions, which can occur in SO2 absorption processes using a magnesium hydroxide slurry. Solubility data of potential salts in the MgO-CaO-SO2-H2O system are evaluated. The reviewed data can serve as a reliable basis for process modeling of this system used to support the optimization of the SO2 absorption process. This study includes the solubility data of MgSO3, MgSO4, Mg(OH)2, CaSO3, CaSO4, and Ca(OH)2 as potential salts. The solubility is strongly dependent on the state of the precipitated salts. Therefore, this review includes studies on the stability of different forms of the salts under different conditions. The solubility data in water over temperature serve as a base for modeling the precipitation in such system. Furthermore, influencing factors such as pH value, SO2 content and the co-existence of other salts are included and available data on such dependencies are reviewed. Literature data evaluated by the International Union of P... [more]

Increasing occurrences of waste fires that are caused by improperly discarded lithium-based portable batteries threaten the whole waste management sector in numerous countries. Studies showed that high quantities of these batteries have been found in several municipal solid waste streams in recent years in Austria. This article reveals the main influence factors on the risk of lithium-based batteries in their end-of-life and it focuses on the quantification of damages to portable batteries during waste treatment processes. Hazards are identified and analysed and potential risks in waste management systems are comprehensively assessed. In two scenarios, the results showed that the potential risks are too high to maintain a sustainable form of waste management. According to the assessment, a small fire in a collection vehicle is located in the risk graph’s yellow region (as low as reasonably practicable, ALARP), while a fully developed fire in a treatment plant has to be classified as an... [more]

Tunisia is a country that suffers from energy demand problems and environmental matters. Thus, Tunisian authorities desire to encourage the development of renewable energy sources, especially from biological processes, like anaerobic digestion. Therefore, this study is focused on the evaluation of biogas and bio-methane yield from the co-digestion of three available and abundant bio-wastes in the southern regions of Tunisia. The three different raw materials are an organic fraction of municipal solid waste, chicken manure, and olive mill wastewater. In this context, experimental work to evaluate the potential of biogas and bio-methane production was carried out at mesophilic temperature 35 °C and batch mode. The present work highlights the possibility of generating biogas from these organic wastes and reducing the amounts of the wastes to dispose of in landfills. The experimental study of the co-digestion process under specific conditions of carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), T, pH, and i... [more]

Ash-related issues from a considerable amount of alkali and alkaline earth metal species in biochar are major obstacles to the widespread application of biomass in thermoelectric plants. In this study, food wastes were converted into biochar through pyrolysis at 450 °C or 500 °C and four different demineralization approaches, using deionized water, citric acid, nitric acid, and CO2 saturated water. The chemical properties of the resulting biochars were investigated, including proximate analysis, concentrations of inorganic species in biochar and ash, and the crystalline structure. All demineralization treatments produced food waste biochar with sufficient calorific value (>4000 kcal/kg) and a chlorine concentration <0.5%. Among the inorganic species in biochar, Na and K exhibited a significantly higher removal rate through demineralization, which ranged from 54.1%−85.6% and 53.6%−89.9%, respectively; the removal rates of Ca and Mg were lower than 50.0%. The demineralization method w... [more]

A lab-scale packed-bed stripper containing Dixon rings was used to explore the effects of the process variables on the hydrodynamics and mass-transfer in a stripper using a mixed solvent loaded CO2. The variables are the liquid flow rate, reboiler temperature, and amine concentration, and the hydrodynamic and mass-transfer data can be determined using different models. In the case of hydrodynamics, the dimensionless pressure drop at the flooding point and the total pressure drop were explored first. In the case of mass-transfer, the correlation of the mass-transfer coefficient and the parameter importance were also observed. In addition, the number of plates per meter can be compared with the Dixon rings manufacturer. Finally, the performances of a mixed solvent and monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent were also discussed.

Defined by its potential for self-renewal, differentiation and tumorigenicity, cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered responsible for drug resistance and relapse. To understand the behavior of CSC, the effects of the microenvironment in each tissue are a matter of great concerns for scientists in cancer biology. However, there are many complicated obstacles in the mimicking the microenvironment of CSCs even with current advanced technology. In this context, novel biomaterials have widely been assessed as in vitro platforms for their ability to mimic cancer microenvironment. These efforts should be successful to identify and characterize various CSCs specific in each type of cancer. Therefore, extracellular matrix scaffolds made of biomaterial will modulate the interactions and facilitate the investigation of CSC associated with biological phenomena simplifying the complexity of the microenvironment. In this review, we summarize latest advances in biomaterial scaffolds, which are explo... [more]

Respimat®Soft MistTM is a newly developed spray inhaler. Different from traditional nebulizers, metered-dose inhalers, and dry powder inhalers, this new type of inhaler can produce aerosols with long duration, relatively slow speed, and a high content of fine particles. Investigating the effect of the key geometric parameters of the device on the atomization is of great significance for generic product development and inhaler optimization. In this paper, a laser high-speed camera experimental platform is built, and important parameters such as the geometric pattern and particle size distribution of the Respimat®Soft MistTM are measured. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the volume of fluid method coupled with the Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model are applied to simulate the key geometric parameters of the device. The effects of geometric parameters on the spray velocity distribution and geometric pattern are obtained. The angle of flow collision, the sphere size of... [more]

In this study, we investigated thermophilic (55 °C) anaerobic digestion (AD) performance and microbial community structure, before and after hydrogen addition, in a novel hybrid gas-stirred tank reactor (GSTR) implemented with a partial immobilization of the microbial community and fed with second cheese whey (SCW). The results showed that H2 addition led to a 25% increase in the methane production rate and to a decrease of 13% in the CH4 concentration as compared with the control. The recovery of methane content (56%) was reached by decreasing the H2 flow rate. The microbial community investigations were performed on effluent (EF) and on interstitial matrix (IM) inside the immobilized area. Before H2 addition, the Anaerobaculaceae (42%) and Lachnospiraceae (27%) families dominated among bacteria in the effluent, and the Thermodesulfobiaceae (32%) and Lachnospiraceae (30%) families dominated in the interstitial matrix. After H2 addition, microbial abundance showed an increase in the ba... [more]

In order to obtain an environmentally friendly epoxy system, L-tryptophan and guanine were investigated as novel green curing agents for the cross-link of diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A (DGEBA) as a generic epoxy resin model of synthetic and analogous bio-based precursors. In particular, L-tryptophan, which displays high reaction temperature with DGEBA, was used in combination with various bio-based molecules such as urea, theobromine, theophylline, and melamine in order to increase the thermal properties of the epoxy resin and to reduce the crosslinking reaction temperature. Later, in order to obtain similar properties using a single product, guanine, a totally heterocyclic molecule displaying amine functional groups, was tested as hardener for DGEBA. The thermal behavior of the precursor mixtures was evaluated by dynamic differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) leading to a preliminary screening of different hardening systems which offered a number of interesting hints in terms of bi... [more]

Double-deep multi-tier shuttle warehousing systems (DMSWS) have been increasingly applied for store-and-retrieval stock-keeping unit tasks, with the advantage of a reduced number of aisles and improved space utilization. Scheduling different devices for retrieval tasks to increase system efficiency is an important concern. In this paper, a Pareto optimization model of task operations based on the cycle time and carbon emissions is presented. The impact of the rearrangement operation is considered in this model. The cycle time model is converted into a flow-shop scheduling model with parallel machines by analyzing the retrieval operation process. Moreover, the carbon emissions of the shuttle in the waiting process, the carbon emissions of the lift during the free process, and the carbon emissions of the retrieval operation are considered in the carbon emissions model, which can help us to evaluate the carbon emissions of the equipment more comprehensively during the entire retrieval tas... [more]

With recent industrial upgrades, it is essential to transform the current forward supply networks (FSNs) into closed-loop supply networks (CLSNs), which are formed by the integration of forward and reverse logistics. The method chosen in this paper for building reverse logistics is to add additional functions to the existing forward logistics. This process can be regarded as adding reverse edges to the original directed edges in an FSN. Due to the limitation of funds and the demand for reverse flow, we suppose that a limited number of reverse edges can be built in a CLSN. To determine the transformation schemes with excellent robustness against malicious attacks, this paper proposes a multi-population evolutionary algorithm with novel operators to optimize the robustness of the CLSN, and this algorithm is abbreviated as MPEA-RSN. Then, both the generated and realistic SNs are taken as examples to validate the effectiveness of MPEA-RSN. The simulation results show that the index R, intr... [more]

The occurrence of Natech (natural hazard triggering technological disasters) accidents has generated a reflection about the need to manage adequately the risk to people, to the environment, and to the infrastructures subjected to natural events. For this reason, academia and industry have increased research in the process safety area in the last decade, strengthening quantitative risk analysis (QRA) methodologies for Natech events. However, these methodologies have some gaps that must be closed for a better decision-making process. In this communication a comparative analysis of the existing Natech QRA approaches is done, to highlight features and differences and to identify main gaps that should be addressed in future research. It can be mentioned that all the analyzed methodologies, which have been applied to floods, earthquakes, and lightning, are based on an initial one developed in 2007. The critical gap is that in all these methodologies, the final step is the risk calculation ba... [more]

The usage of lignocellulosic biomass in energy production for biofuels and other value-added products can extensively decrease the carbon footprint of current and future energy sectors. However, the infrastructure in the processing of lignocellulosic biomass is not well-established as compared to the fossil fuel industry. One of the bottlenecks is the production of the lignocellulolytic enzymes. These enzymes are produced by different fungal and bacterial species for degradation of the lignocellulosic biomass into its reactive fibers, which can then be converted to biofuel. The selection of an ideal feedstock for the lignocellulolytic enzyme production is one of the most studied aspects of lignocellulolytic enzyme production. Similarly, the fermentation enhancement strategies for different fermentation variables and modes are also the focuses of researchers. The implementation of fermentation enhancement strategies such as optimization of culture parameters (pH, temperature, agitation,... [more]

High removal of heavy metals using plant-based bioflocculant under low concentration is required due to its low cost, abundant source, and nontoxicity for improved wastewater management and utilization in the water industry. This paper presents a treatment of synthetic wastewater using plant-based Tacca leontopetaloides biopolymer flocculant (TBPF) without modification on its structural polymer chains. It produced a high removal of heavy metals (Zn, Pb, Ni, and Cd) at a low concentration of TBPF dosage. In our previous report, TBPF was characterized and successfully reduced the turbidity, total suspended solids, and color for leachate treatment; however, its effectiveness for heavy metal removal has not been reported. The removal of these heavy metals was performed using a standard jar test procedure at different pH values of synthetic wastewater and TBPF dosages. The effects of hydroxide ion, pH, initial TBPF concentration, initial metal ion concentration, and TBPF dosage were examine... [more]

This paper is about the research that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grow on aluminum foils without additional catalysts by atmospheric pressure microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (AMPCVD) with the precursor of argon-hydrogen-ethanol. At different temperatures, a series of experiments that CNTs grow on aluminum foils were done with and without the alumina layer. The EDS results showed that iron impurities in aluminum foils catalyze the growth of CNTs. By measurements of SEM and HRTEM, tens of microns long and multi-walled CNTs are grown. The CNTs’ content in the sample changes more with the increase in temperature. The Raman measuring shows that CNTs have fewer defects with higher temperature. Finally, by measurements of EDS mapping and XRD on aluminum foil, the growth mechanism of CNTs was discussed.

This paper addresses the study of a pyro-gasification plant designed, built, and operated to recover inert metals from different types of solid waste. Experimental tests were carried out using pulper as the solid waste. However, while a reliable composition analysis of the produced syngas was carried out, a precise composition evaluation of the pulper used during the experimental activities was not performed and the related data were characterized by unacceptable uncertainty. Therefore, with the aim of reliably characterizing the plant operation, a thermochemical model of the gasification process was setup to simulate the equilibrium operation of the plant and a vector optimization methodology was used to calibrate the numerical model. Then, a decision-making problem was solved to identify the most suitable optimal solution between those belonging to the Pareto optimal front, thus obtaining reliable composition data for the adopted pulper waste. In particular, four different identifica... [more]

The recycling rates, especially those from plastic packaging waste, have to be increased according to the European Union directive in the next years. Besides many other technologies, the pyrolysis of plastic wastes seems to be an efficient supplementary opportunity to treat mixed and unpurified plastic streams. For this reason, a pyrolysis process was developed for the chemical recycling of hydrocarbons from waste polyolefins. The obtained products can be further processed and upgraded in crude oil refineries, so that also monomers can be recovered, which are used for the plastic polymerization again. However, to achieve a scale up to a demo plant, a kinetic model for predicting the yields of the plastic pyrolysis in a tubular reactor is needed. For this reason, a pilot plant was built, in which different plastics and carrier fluids can be tested. Based on the data generated at the pilot plant, a very practical and suitable model was found to describe the plastic co-pyrolysis of the ca... [more]

The objective of this study was to determine the grinding characteristics of wheat with a low moisture content. Two kinds of wheat—soft spelt wheat and hard Khorasan wheat—were dried at 45 °C to reduce the moisture content from 12% to 5% (wet basis). Air drying at 45 °C and storage in a climatic chamber (45 °C, 10% relative humidity) were the methods used for grain dehydration. The grinding process was carried out using a knife mill. After grinding, the particle size distribution, average particle size and grinding energy indices were determined. In addition, the dough mixing properties of wholemeal flour dough were studied using a farinograph. It was observed that decreasing the moisture content in wheat grains from 12% to 5% made the grinding process more effective. As a result, the average particle size of the ground material was decreased. This effect was found in both soft and hard wheat. Importantly, lowering the grain moisture led to about a twofold decrease in the required grin... [more]

Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) has gained much traction due to its processing advantages over traditional manufacturing methods. However, there are limited studies which focus on process optimization for surface quality of AM materials, which can dictate mechanical, thermal, and tribological performance. For example, in heat-transfer applications, increased surface quality is advantageous for reducing wear rates of vibrating tubes as well as increasing the heat-transfer rates of contacting systems. Although many post-processing and in situ manufacturing techniques are used in conjunction with AM techniques to improve surface quality, these processes are costly and time-consuming compared to optimized processing techniques. With improved as-built surface quality, particles tend to be better fused, which allows for greater wear resistance from contacting tube surfaces. Additionally, improved surface quality can reduce the entropy and exergy generated from flowing fluids, in turn i... [more]

Biomass preheating in torrefaction at an industrial scale is possible through a direct contact with the hot gases released. However, their high water-content implies introducing moisture (around 20% v/v) in the torrefaction atmosphere, which may impact biomass thermochemical transformation. In this work, this situation was investigated for wheat straw, beech wood and pine forest residue in torrefaction in two complementary experimental devices. Firstly, experiments in chemical regime carried out in a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) showed that biomass degradation started from lower temperatures and was faster under a moist atmosphere (20% v/v water content) for all biomass samples. This suggests that moisture might promote biomass components’ degradation reactions from lower temperatures than those observed under a dry atmosphere. Furthermore, biomass inorganic composition might play a role in the extent of biomass degradation in torrefaction in the presence of moisture. Secondly, tor... [more]

This paper describes a study of the treatment of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) with an ethylenediamine-N,N′-disuccinic-acid (EDDS)-modified photo-Fenton system in ultrapure water and different natural waters. The results showed that the EDDS-modified photo-Fenton system is adequate for 2,4-DCP degradation. Compared with a medium containing a single organic pollutant, the removal of pollutants in a more complex medium consisting of two organic compounds is slower by around 25 to 50% as a function of the organic pollutant. Moreover, 2,4-DCP can be further effectively degraded in the presence of organic materials and various inorganic ions. However, the photodegradation of 2,4-DCP in different natural waters, including natural lake water, effluent from domestic sewage treatment plants, and secondary effluent from pulp and paper mill wastewaters, is inhibited. Chemical compounds present in natural waters have different influences on the degradation of 2,4-DCP by adopting the EDDS-modified p... [more]

Different antibiotics contained in manure, slurry, wastewater or sewage sludge are spread into the environment. The harmful effects of these antibiotics could be minimized by means of immobilization onto bioadsorbent materials. This work investigates the competitive adsorption/desorption of tetracycline (TC) and sulfadiazine (SDZ) onto pine bark, oak ash and mussel shell. The study was carried out using batch-type experiments in binary systems (with both antibiotics present simultaneously), adding 5 equal concentrations of the antibiotics (between 1 and 50 µmol L−1). The adsorption percentages were higher for TC (close to 100% onto pine bark and oak ash, and between 40 and 85% onto mussel shell) than for SDZ (75−100% onto pine bark, and generally less than 10% on oak ash and mussel shell). Pine bark performed as the best adsorbent since TC adsorption remained close to 100% throughout the entire concentration range tested, while it was between 75 and 100% for SDZ. Desorption was always... [more]

The thermal degradation behaviors and reaction kinetics of medical waste infusion bag (IB) and nasal oxygen cannula (NOC) were investigated under inert atmosphere with the heating rates of 5, 10, 15, and 25 K·min−1. Ozawa−Flynn−Wall (OFW), Kissinger−Akahira−Sunose (KAS), and Friedman were employed to estimate the activation energy. Coats−Redfern and Kennedy−Clark methods were adopted to predict the possible reaction mechanism. The results suggested that the reaction mechanism of IB pyrolysis was zero-order, and that of NOC pyrolysis was concluded that zero-order for the first stage and three-dimensional diffusion Jander equation for the second stage. Based on the kinetic compensation effect, the reconstructed reaction models for IB and NOC pyrolysis were elaborated by introducing adjustment functions. The results indicated that the reconstructed model fitted well with the experimental data. The results are helpful as a reference and provide guidance for the determination of IB and NOC... [more]

The aim of our study was to obtain rutoside (RUT) inclusion complexes in β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and in hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD), in a 1:1 molar ratio, using the lyophilization method of complexation in solution. The complexes were confirmed and characterized, in comparison with the raw materials and their simple physical mixtures, by SEM, DSC, and FT-IR analyses. The antioxidant activity of the compounds was assessed by using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and 2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazolin-6-sulfonic) acid (ABTS) radicals, determining the radical scavenging activity, and by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. The results revealed superior antioxidant ability for the inclusion complexes towards rutoside alone. The inclusion complexes were used as active ingredients in formulations of immediate-release tablets. The preformulation studies were performed on the powders for direct compression obtained after mixing the active ingredients with the exci... [more]

Blanch-assisted hot-air drying of pomegranate arils with blanching treatments 90 °C for 30 s, 100 °C for 60 s, and unblanched (control) arils were investigated. Effects of blanching on enzyme inactivation (polyphenol oxidase and peroxidse), colour, texture, and other qualities of dried arils were discussed. The hot-air drying conditions were 60 °C, 19.6% relative humidity, and 1.0 m s−1 air velocity. Results showed that blanching reduced enzyme activity by 76% and 68% for blanched arils treated at 90 °C for 30 s and 100 °C for 60 s, respectively, compared to unblanched arils. With regard to the total colour difference (TCD), unblanched arils were 20.9% and 16.6% higher than blanched arils treated at 90 °C for 30 s and 100 °C for 60 s, respectively. Furthermore, the total soluble solids (TSS) for unblanched aril increased significantly from 16.1 to 24.9 °Brix after drying, followed by arils treated at 90 °C for 30 s and 100 °C for 60 s (21.4; 18.5 °Brix), respectively. Among the blanchi... [more]