An integrated electric−gas system (IEGS) is the manifestation and development direction of a modern smart power system. This paper employs the cloud-edge computing method to research IEGS’s optimal dispatch to satisfy data protection requirements between power systems and natural gas systems and reduce data transmission pressure. Based on cloud-edge computing architecture, this paper constructs a cloud-edge computing method based on the Multi-agent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (MADDPG) algorithm to solve optimal dispatch problems. Then, this paper proposes an IEGS dispatch strategy based on cloud-edge computing, which conducts distributed computing independently at the edge of power and natural gas, and the cloud implements global dispatch based on boundary information and edge learning parameters. This method does not require the exchange of all information between the power system and natural gas system, effectively protecting data privacy. This paper takes the improved IEGS of... [more]

As an important parameter of garment comfort, the thermal sensation of fabrics changes with factors such as sweat-induced humidity, making it a crucial area of research. To explore the coolness sensation of fabrics under different humidities, we tested heat transfer between fabrics and skin for 20 different fabrics with varying thermal absorption rates using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to objectively assess their coolness levels. Subjective evaluation was then obtained by having subjects touch the fabrics and provide feedback, resulting in a subjective evaluation of their coolness levels. We compared the objective and subjective evaluations and found them to be highly consistent (R2 = 0.909), indicating accurate objective classification of fabric coolness levels. Currently, random forest regression models are widely used in the textile industry for classification, identification, and performance predictions. These models enable the prediction of fabric coolness levels by simultaneou... [more]

The role of the horizontal well in developing unconventional oil and gas reservoirs is particularly significant. Different from vertical wells, horizontal wells are greatly affected by many factors, e.g., well track, surrounding mudstone, resistivity, and pore structure heterogeneity in horizontal and vertical directions. These make it difficult to evaluate reservoir parameters and determine optimized test layers. In order to improve formation evaluation in horizontal wells, it is necessary to carry out the research of analyzing formation anisotropy, predict physical property parameters, and classify formation to determine high-quality intervals. In this study, taking Triassic Chang 8 Formation in Shunning Region, Central Ordos Basin as an example, 40 core samples were drilled and applied for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP), and resistivity experiments. The porosity, permeability, resistivity, and pore structure anisotropy are analyzed. Res... [more]

A new approach to preparing a series of Co/Sm2O3 catalysts for hydrogen production by the dry reforming of methane has been developed. The catalyst precursors were synthesized with a simple method, including the evaporation of aqueous solutions of cobalt and samarium nitrates, followed by a short-term calcination of the resulting material. The as-prepared and spent catalysts were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, temperature-programmed reduction, and thermogravimetric analysis. The content of cobalt in the synthesized materials affects their phase composition and carbonization resistance in the dry reforming of the methane reaction. It has been shown that preheating in N2 atmosphere produces catalysts that provide a stable yield of hydrogen and CO of 94−98% for at least 50 h at 900 °C. These yields are among the highest currently available for the dry reforming of methane catalysts made from Co-Sm complex oxides. It h... [more]

Designing an efficient and recyclable adsorbent for cadmium pollution control is an urgent necessity. In this paper, cow manure, an abundant agricultural/animal husbandry byproduct, was employed as the raw material for the synthesis of magnetic cow manure biochar. The optimal preparation conditions were found using the response surface methodology model: 160 °C for the hydrothermal temperature, 600 °C for the pyrolysis temperature, and Fe-loading with 10 wt%. The optimal reaction conditions were also identified via the response surface methodology model: a dosage of 1 g·L−1, a pH of 7, and an initial concentration of 100 mg·L−1. The pseudo-second-order model and the Langmuir model were used to fit the Cd(II) adsorption, and the adsorption capacity was 612.43 mg·g−1. The adsorption was dominated by chemisorption with the mechanisms of ion-exchange, electrostatic attraction, pore-filling, co-precipitation, and the formation of complexations. Compared to the response surface methodology m... [more]

In this study, we present the highly efficient and rapid synthesis of substituted dihydropyrimidinone derivatives through an ultrasound-accelerated approach. We utilize copper ferrite (CuFe2O4) magnetic nanoparticles as heterogeneous catalysts, employing the well-known Biginelli reaction, under solvent-free conditions. The impact of the solvent, catalyst amount, and catalyst type on the reaction performance is thoroughly investigated. Our method offers several notable advantages, including facile catalyst separation, catalyst reusability for up to three cycles with the minimal loss of activity, a straightforward procedure, mild reaction conditions, and impressive yields, ranging from 79% to 95%, within short reaction times of 20 to 40 min. Furthermore, in the context of fighting COVID-19, we explore the potential of substituted dihydropyrimidinone derivatives as inhibitors of three crucial SARS-CoV-2 proteins. These proteins, glycoproteins, and proteases play pivotal roles in the entry... [more]

This paper presents a machine learning (ML) approach to predict the potential health issues of solvents by uncovering the hidden relationship between substances and toxicity. Solvent selection is a crucial step in industrial processes. However, prolonged exposure to solvents has been found to pose significant risks to human health. To mitigate these hazards, it is crucial to develop a predictive model for health performance by identifying the contributing factors to solvent toxicity. This research aims to develop a predictive model for health issues related to solvent toxicity. Among various algorithms in ML, Rough Set Machine Learning (RSML) was chosen for this work due to its interpretable nature of the generated models. The models have been developed through data collection on the toxicity of various organic solvents, the construction of predictive models with decision rules, and model verification. The results reveal correlations between solvent toxicity and the Balaban index, vale... [more]

The physical and chemical characteristics of the microwave discharge in petroleum solvent during hydrogen production processes involving Ar, He, and CO2 barbotage were studied. Gas chromatography, emission spectroscopy, high-speed photography, and shadow photography were used for diagnosis. The results demonstrated the dependence of hydrogen yield on the flow rates of Ar, He, and CO2. The maximum yield values of hydrogen were 791 mL/min and 811 mL/min, while the maximum energy efficiency reached 135.6 NL/kWh and 162.2 NL/kWh in Nefras with Ar and He barbotage, respectively. The dynamics of discharge structure and the rotational and vibrational temperatures of C2 molecules were studied.

The present research focuses on the application of peanut and walnut shells, in their natural state, for the removal of methylene blue (MB) from water solutions in batch and dynamic (flow-through) conditions. Under batch conditions, at a 100 mg/L MB concentration of aqueous solution, the optimum dose of the studied biosorbents was determined to be 2.5 g/L, reaching about 95−97% efficiency of MB removal for both materials. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were used to model and evaluate the experimental data under different initial concentrations of MB (25 to 100 mg/L). The determined maximum adsorption capacities are 41.50 mg/g for walnut shells and 46.80 mg/g for peanut shells. Under flow-through conditions, breakthrough curves are determined for three sizes of fractions (<0.25 mm, 0.315−0.5 mm, and 0.8−1.6 mm). For peanut shells, the smaller the particle size, the higher the adsorption capacity and the column breakthrough time. For walnut shells, however, the particle size seems... [more]

Açaí is a fruit native to Brazil that is found in Colombia, and it is recognized for containing more than 90 compounds with anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and other biological activities. In this study, a cradle-to-gate life cycle analysis (LCA) was conducted for the production of açaí powder, following the methodology outlined in the ISO 14040 standard. The investigation focused on examining the impact of utilizing or not utilizing the residues generated during the pulp extraction step as fertilizers. Four scenarios were analyzed and compared: (i) production of açaí powder via vacuum drying, (ii) via spray drying, and via the same two types of drying but using residues from the pulping operation as fertilizer (Scenarios 3 and 4). It was found that to produce 1 kg of açaí in a crop cycle, 1.17 kg of CO2 eq is produced. The drying stage in Scenarios 1 and 2 generated 8.04 and 7.93 kg of CO2 eq, respectively. Similarly, when solid waste is used as fertilizer, CO2 emissions barely increas... [more]

Select porous carbonate cores are used to carry out water-flooding oil micro-CT flooding experiments, and use image processing to separate oil, water, microfacies, and rock skeleton. The gray value is used to determine the distribution position of the microfacies sub-resolution remaining oil. The gray image resolution is improved by the SRCNN method to improve the pore identification accuracy. The distribution and evolution law of the sub-resolution remaining oil after the displacement is determined by the oil-water distribution results. Using the SRCNN method, the pore recognition accuracy of the original scanned images of the two samples was increased by 47.88 times and 9.09 times, respectively. The sub-resolution residual oil and the macro-pore residual oil were determined from the CT scan images after the brine was saturated and divided into five categories. With the increase in the displacement ratio, the columnar and droplet residual oil of the low-permeability samples first incr... [more]

High-pressure steam pipes inevitably suffered from the reciprocal interaction of high pressure and temperature during a long-period service, causing deformation and cracking. However, only limited studies about abnormal bulging caused by condensed water have been carried out. To study the relationship between bulging and condensed water, bulging tee joints belonging to high-pressure steam pipes were investigated with a macro visual inspection, chemical composition analysis, and metallographic microscopy. According to the analysis of the bulging samples, pearlite spheroidization was found in the abnormal bulging tee joint. The ANSYS FLUENT modeling indicated that the tube wall of bulging tees was continuously subjected to alternating stress, causing the cyclic transformation of the liquid−gas phase inside the tee joint. The results indicate that the stress produced by a condensed water droplet ranges from 532.8 MPa to 59 MPa, continuously exerting pressure on the tube wall of the tee jo... [more]

Ammonia (NH3), which has a 17.7 wt% gravimetric hydrogen density, has been considered as a potential hydrogen storage material. This study looked at the thermocatalytic decomposition of NH3 using a bulk Mo2N catalyst that was boosted by alkali metals (AM: 5 wt% Li, K, Cs). The K-Mo2N catalyst outperformed all other catalysts in this experiment in terms of catalytic performance. At 6000 h−1 GHSV, 100% conversion of NH3 was accomplished using the K-Mo2N, Cs-Mo2N, and Mo2N catalysts. However, when compared to other catalysts, K-Mo2N had the highest activity, or 80% NH3 conversion, at a lower temperature, or 550 °C. The catalytic activity exhibited the following trend for the rate of hydrogen production per unit surface area: K-Mo2N > Cs-Mo2N > Li-Mo2N > Mo2N. Up to 20 h of testing the K-Mo2N catalyst at 600 °C revealed no considerable deactivation.

Currently, China is the largest consumer of titanium (Ti), yet the development of its Ti industry is limited by numerous factors, such as industrial structure imbalance. This study aimed to evaluate the security of China’s Ti industry from 2010 to 2020, seeking to identify relevant issues and propose policy strategies. Firstly, a comprehensive evaluation system for Ti industry security was established, encompassing aspects of availability, economics, and sustainability. Secondly, the entropy weight technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) combination method and gray correlation method were employed to assess the safety level of China’s Ti industry chain in each year from 2010 to 2020. Additionally, the coupling degree and sensitivity were used to analyze the dimension layers and index system to determine those that negatively impact the safety level of the Ti industry chain. The analysis results reveal that the economic level exerts a significant influ... [more]

This study aims to predict and evaluate the transfer behavior of silicon employing SiO2-bearing fluxes during submerged arc welding. Unlike previous studies that only focused on chemical reactions in the weld pool zone, this research investigates the elemental behavior of silicon subjected to essential reaction zones in a submerged arc welding process. The proposed method is compared with the traditional thermodynamic equilibrium models, enhancing the understanding of silicon transfer behavior in the submerged arc welding process. It is demonstrated that relying solely on thermodynamics within the weld pool zone is inadequate for accurately predicting the extent of silicon transfer level since the loss of silicon during the droplet zone and the improvement in oxygen content in the molten droplet are not considered, resulting in an overestimation of the ΔSi level. Finally, the limitations of the traditional elemental transfer quantification method and corresponding corrective suggestion... [more]

This article reports on an experiment that aimed to investigate the effects of digestate and cosubstrate input with varying biochar concentrations on methane production in anaerobic digestion processes. The findings revealed distinct trends in methane production among the substrates. Further investigations were conducted to evaluate the effects of different types of biochars on biomethane production from raw cattle manure digestate. Four conditions were tested: one raw digestate condition and three digestate conditions containing 1% of a different biochar type to one another. BC1 (PEFC-certified spruce BC) and BC2 (oak wood BC) showed promising results in enhancing biomethane production. About 884.23 NmL of methane was produced, with a yield and productivity of 22.80 NmL.g−1 and 1.62 NmL.g−1.day−1 with BC1. However, BC3 (cow and chicken manure digestate BC) demonstrated lower biomethane production compared to raw digestate. Additionally, the study explored the effects of adding reagent... [more]

In order to realize the safe transportation of liquefied ethane pipeline in the Oilfield of China, it is necessary to fully study the process of pipeline replacement, operation and shutdown. The accurate calculation of physical property parameters and critical parameters is the basis of studying the gas-liquid two-phase flow and heat and mass transfer process of liquefied ethane in the pipeline. In this paper, different equations of states (EOSs) were used to predict the physical properties (such as density, dew point and dynamic viscosity) of ethane or ethane mixture, and the predicted results were compared with the corresponding experimental data from the literature. The prediction performance of different EOSs were evaluated by using two evaluation indicators, including average absolute deviation (AAD) and average relative deviation (ARD). The results showed that the PR-Peneloux EOS has the best performance for predicting the density of CH4-C2H6-N2 mixture with an ARD value of 4.46%... [more]

One of the more problematic textile wastewaters to manage is dyeing wastewater, especially methylene-blue-containing wastewater. Its release has a significant negative impact on ecosystems, which could harm the environment. Adsorption techniques are still an efficient technology to eliminate and remove the coloring agent. Tailing ash, obtained from the floatation process, was selected as an adsorbent in the present study. The purpose of this study was to analyze the performance of tailing ash (TA) for MB removal. The effects of operating parameters investigated were pH (2−10), stirring speed (50−150 rpm), initial dye concentration (20−100 mg/L), contact time (120 min), adsorbent dosage (0.5−2.5 g), and temperature (25−45 °C). The performance of TA pretreated with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and thermal tailing ash were also investigated. The experimental results for batch adsorption indicated that 96.23% removal of methylene blue took place at the optimum condition (pH = 10, initial adsor... [more]

This article focuses on the quality of hemp oil processing, specifically the filtration that is an important part of the technological procedure of processing vegetable oils. The aim of the research was to determine the effects of pressure and temperature on the filtration parameters when using plate filters. The research was carried out on an experimental measuring device with adjustable static pressure. The qualitative properties of the oil were observed in terms of analytical composition, microbial content, and changes in peroxide value as the indicator of oxidation stability. The change in pressure affected the oil flow rate, especially at lower pressure values. The increase in temperature of the filtered oil had a negative impact on the oxidation stability.

The integration of information technologies with the industry has marked the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and has promoted the development of industrial engineering [...]

The Carboniferous−Permian, coal-bearing, sedimentary succession on the eastern edge of the Ordos Basin in the Shilounan Block contains large accumulations of hydrocarbon resources. During the exploration of coalbed methane and tight sandstone gas in the study area, multiple drilling wells in the tight sandstone reservoirs have yielded favorable gas logging results. The Benxi, Taiyuan, Shanxi, Shihezi, and Shiqianfeng formations contain multiple sets of sandstone reservoirs, and the reservoir quality and the controlling factors of its tight sandstones were affected by sedimentation, diagenetic alteration, and pore structure. This study comprehensively examines the sedimentary environment, distribution of sand bodies, and physical characteristics of tight sandstone reservoirs through drilling, coring, logging, and experimental testing. The results indicate that the Carboniferous−Permian tight sandstones are mainly composed of lithic sandstone and lithic quartz sandstone. The reservoir qu... [more]

Computational intelligence (CI) techniques have developed very fast over the past two decades, with many new methods emerging [...]

Powder bed fusion (PBF), a subset of additive manufacturing methods, is well known for its promise in the production of fully functional artefacts with high densities. The quality of the powder bed, commonly referred to as powder spreading, is a crucial determinant of the final quality of the produced artefact in the PBF process. Therefore, it is critical that we examine the factors that impact the powder spreading, notably the powder bed quality. This study utilised a newly developed testing apparatus, designed specifically for examining the quality of powder beds. The objective was to analyse the influence of various factors, including the recoater shape, recoater gap size, and the different powder flow properties, on the powder bed relative packing fraction. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the variation in the particle size and shape across the build plate. The results indicated that all of the variables examined had an impact on the relative packing fraction, as well as the... [more]

In this work, Eucalyptus grandis sawdust was subjected to steam explosion as the first step in cellulosic ethanol production within a biorefinery approach. The effect of the moisture content in the eucalypt sawdust (8 and 50%) and pretreatment process variables, such as temperature and residence time, were evaluated along with the influence of the water washing of steam-exploded solids on enzymatic hydrolysis and C6 fermentation yields. All other process streams were characterized to evaluate the recovery yield of valuable co-products. A recovery of nearly 100% glucans in the solid fraction and 60% xylans in the liquid fraction, mainly as partially acetylated oligomers, was obtained. The best enzymatic hydrolysis efficiencies (66−67%) were achieved after pretreatment at 205 °C for 10 min. The washing of pretreated sawdust with water improved the hydrolysis efficiencies and ethanol production yields by 10% compared to the unwashed pretreated solids under the same experimental condition.... [more]

Previous studies on the co-combustion of sludge and coal have not effectively utilized the characteristics of the combustion process to predict thermal behavior. Therefore, focusing on these combustion process characteristics is essential to understanding and predicting thermal behavior during the co-combustion of sludge and coal. In this paper, we use thermogravimetric analysis to study the co-combustion of coal and sludge at different temperatures (300−460 °C, 460−530 °C, and 530−600 °C). Our findings reveal that the ignition improves, but the combustion worsens with more sludge. Then, we further employ curve extraction based on temperature and image segmentation to extract the DTG (weight loss rate) curves. We successfully predicted the DTG curves for different blends using nonlinear regression and curve extraction, achieving an excellent R2 of 99.7%. Moreover, the curve extraction method predicts DTG better than artificial neural networks for two samples in terms of R2 (99.7% vs. 9... [more]