The eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on 19 September 2021, resulted in the deposition of large quantities of volcanic ash (VA), causing a great impact on the citizens. This work aims to study the properties of this volcanic ash as pozzolanic raw materials to establish their potential use in the development of sustainable cement. Results of chemical and technical characterization are presented. To achieve this goal, Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) was replaced with standardized percentages of OPC/VA: 10, 25, and 40%. Characterization studies were carried out using chemical analysis of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), chemical quality analysis (QCA), pozzolanicity test (PT) at 8 and 15 days, as well as determining the mechanical strength (MS) at 7, 28, and 90 days. The results obtained by XRF and QCA established that the chemical composition of the VA corresponds to that of the natural pozzolan typical of pyroclastic genesis. The PT test showed that the analyzed samples have a marked pozzola... [more]

Spectroscopy and its imaging techniques are now popular methods for quantitative and qualitative analysis in fields such as agricultural products and foods, and combined with various chemometric methods. In fact, this is the application basis for spectroscopy and spectral imaging techniques in other fields such as genetics and transgenic monitoring. To date, there has been considerable research using spectroscopy and its imaging techniques (especially NIR spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging) for the effective identification of agricultural products and foods. There have been few comprehensive reviews that cover the use of spectroscopic and imaging methods in the identification of genetically modified organisms. Therefore, this paper focuses on the application of NIR spectroscopy and its imaging techniques (including NIR spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging techniques) in transgenic agricultural product and food detection and compares them with traditional detection methods. A large n... [more]

In Saudi Arabia, Origanum vulgare is widely disseminated. In the present work, we used GC-MS analysis to identify the components of Origanum vulgare essential oil. The disc diffusion assay was used to assess the essential oil’s in vitro antibacterial efficacy against Gram-positive and Gram-negative Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The antimicrobial efficacy against many microbial proteins, including tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (TyrRS), DNA gyrase, and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), was further evaluated using molecular docking. Eighteen compounds were identified using GC-MS analysis, which constituted 99.81% of the total essential oil content. Terpinen-4-ol (34.3%), Beta-Terpineol (16.96%), 3-Epimoretenol (11.84%), and Alpha-Terpineol (3.86%) were the main substances identified. According to the antibacterial investigation, the inhibition zone against Staphylococcus aureus was 8 mm and 6 mm against Escherichia coli. High affinities were found between 3-Epimoretenol and tyrosyl-... [more]

In the laser powder bed fusion process (PBF-LB), components are built up incrementally by locally melting metal powder with a laser beam. This process leads to inhomogeneous material properties of the manufactured components. By integrating these specific material properties into a topology optimization algorithm, product developers can be supported in the early phases of the product development process, such as design finding. For this purpose, a topology optimization method was developed, which takes the inhomogeneous material properties of components fabricated in the PBF-LB process into account. The complex pore architecture in PBF-LB components was studied with micro-computed tomography (µCT). Thereby, three characteristic regions of different porosity were identified and analyzed. The effective stiffness in each of these regions was determined by means of resonant ultrasonic spectroscopy (RUS) as well as finite element analysis. Afterward, the effective stiffness is iteratively c... [more]

The thermoelectric (TE) properties of the BaM2Ge4X6 compounds, where M = Rh and X = S, Se, Te, were investigated by computational approaches using density-functional theory and semi-classical Boltzmann theory for electronic transport. It was found that these compounds bear good TE properties, in particular BaRh2Ge4Te6, for which the figure of merit was estimated to reach 1.51 at 300 K. As this compound has not yet been proved to be stable, we also investigated BaRh2Ge4S4Te2 by assuming that replacing tellurium by sulphur could stabilize the tellurium-containing structure. It was found that the TE properties are good. The quantum theory of atoms in molecules was used to investigate the nature of the chemical interactions that prevail in these compounds. A wide variety of interactions were evidenced, from van der Waals interactions to ionic and polar-covalent ones, which could explain the good TE performance of these compounds.

Porosity and water saturation are the most critical and fundamental parameters for accurate estimation of gas content in the shale reservoirs. However, their determination is very challenging due to the direct influence of kerogen and clay content on the logging tools. The porosity and water saturation over or underestimate the reserves if the corrections for kerogen and clay content are not applied. Moreover, it is very difficult to determine the formation water resistivity (Rw) and Archie parameters for shale reservoirs. In this study, the current equations for porosity and water saturation are modified based on kerogen and clay content calibrations. The porosity in shale is composed of kerogen and matrix porosities. The kerogen response for the density porosity log is calibrated based on core-based derived kerogen volume. The kerogen porosity is computed by a mass-balance relation between the original total organic carbon (TOCo) and kerogen maturity derived by the percentage of conv... [more]

Fractures and faults are critical elements affecting the geomechanical integrity of CO2 storage sites. In particular, the slip of fractures and faults may affect reservoir integrity and increase potential for breach, may be monitored via the resulting seismicity. This paper presents an experimental study on shale samples from Draupne and Rurikfjellet formations from the North Sea and Svalbard, Norway, using a laboratory test procedure simulating the slip of fractures and faults under realistic stress conditions for North Sea CO2 storage sites. The motivation of the study is to investigate whether the slip along the fractures within these shales may cause detectable seismic events, based on a slip stability criterion. Using a direct shear apparatus, frictional properties of the fractures were measured during shearing, as a function of the shear velocity and applied stress normal to the fracture. We calculated the friction coefficient of the fractures during the different stages of the s... [more]

Disruptions in the global market are influencing value and supply chains reminding businesses and industries that variability and diversity of supply chains may be essential for surviving and sustainability. Operations management of any business has to address these challenges in order to avoid any serious interruptions in supply of materials in production industries by seeking substitute inputs. At the same time, the technological development offers new materials with similar quality properties, making thereby the substitute material search more difficult in terms of selecting appropriate materials with a level of quality which is similar enough. Another aspect in shifting can be found in more social-related reasons addressing changes in the value chains like traceability, low carbonization, and a more customer-oriented approach, because of moving towards green digital business. In this sense the intention of this work was to propose an algorithm for customizing the process of identif... [more]

In this study, (Pb0.92La0.08) (Zr0.60Ti0.40) O3 (PLZT 8/60/40) ceramics were synthesized using a high-energy ball-milling technique followed by microwave sintering at different temperatures from 900 °C to 1200 °C. The optimal microwave sintering temperature for the PLZT 8/60/40 ceramics was found to be 1150 °C, which is relatively low compared with conventional sintering temperature. The sintered ceramics show the pure perovskite phase, uniform grain microstructure (1.2 µm) and high density (~99.5%). The polarization vs. electric field (P-E) hysteresis curves were used to investigate the ferroelectric and energy storage properties. The switching characteristic in P-E loops and occurrence of domain switching current in current vs. electric field (I-E) loops confirms their ferroelectric nature. The PLZT ceramics, which were sintered at 1150 °C, show the highest remnant polarization (Pr) of ~32.18 μC/cm2 and domain switching current (Imax) of ~0.91 mA with a low coercive field (Ec) of ~10... [more]

Worldwide experiences related to geological CO2 storage show that the process of the injection of carbon dioxide into depleted oil reservoirs (CCS-EOR, Carbon Capture and Storage—Enhanced Oil Recovery) is highly profitable. The injection of CO2 will allow an increasing recovery factor (thus increasing CCS process profitability) and revitalize mature reservoirs, which may lead to oil spills due to pressure buildups. In Poland, such a solution has not yet been implemented in the industry. This work provides additional data for analysis of the possibility of the CCS-EOR method’s implementation for three potential clusters of Polish oil reservoirs located at a short distance one from another. The aim of the work was to examine the properties of reservoir fluids for these selected oil reservoirs in order to assure a better understanding of the physicochemical phenomena that accompany the gas injection process. The chemical composition of oils was determined by gas chromatography. All tested... [more]

Applying phase change material (PCM) for latent heat storage in sustainable building systems has gained increasing attention. However, the nonlinear thermal properties of the material and the hysteresis between the two-phase change processes make the modelling of PCM challenging. Moreover, the influences of the PCM phase transition and hysteresis on the building thermal and energy performance have not been fully understood. This paper reviews the most commonly used modelling methods for PCM from the literature and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. A case study is carried out to examine the accuracy of those models in building simulation tools, including four methods to model the melting and freezing process of a PCM heat exchanger. These results are compared to experimental data of the heat transfer process in a PCM heat exchanger. That showed that the four modelling methods are all accurate for representing the thermal behavior of the PCM heat exchanger. The model with the... [more]

Harnessing energy from the sunlight using solar photovoltaic trees (SPVTs) has become popular at present as they reduce land footprint and offer numerous complimentary services that offset infrastructure. The SPVT’s complimentary services are noticeable in many ways, e.g., electric vehicle charging stations, landscaping, passenger shelters, onsite energy generated security poles, etc. Although the SPVT offers numerous benefits and services, its deployment is relatively slower due to the challenges it suffers. The most difficult challenges include the structure design, the photovoltaic (PV) cell technology selection for a leaf, and uncertainty in performance due to weather parameter variations. This paper aims to provide the most practical solution supported by the performance prioritization approach (PPA) framework for a typical multilayered SPVT. The proposed PPA framework considers the energy and sustainability indicators and helps in reporting the performance of a multilayered SPVT,... [more]

Electrical installations are a significant component of fire load inside a building, although they are often neglected in the overall fire safety analysis and are not subjected to any kind of fire safety evaluation of a building. A typical electrical installation unconnected to the mains was experimentally studied using a single burning item (SBI) test apparatus, fixed to two types of popular non-combustible or combustible (wooden-based) backgrounds simulating a typical building internal wall or ceiling. The semi-real scale test showed that poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) cable, commonly used in installations in buildings in Europe and used in SBI tests, showed high fire properties related to heat release, smoke production and flame spread to other interior elements. The results of the electrical circuit connected to the main measurements carried out showed a significant impact of the heating effect towards the uncovered surface socket, causing the possibility of easy ignition inside the in... [more]

In this work, a numerical model to study phase transition in unstructured packed beds of phase change particles for latent heat thermal energy storage is presented and implemented into the open-source CFDEM® coupling program. The governing equations for both fluid and solid particles are discussed. The presented model is validated using experimental data. The validated model is used to study the effect of bed structure (e.g., using multiple sizes of particles and mixing of multiple configurations of particles) on the charging and discharging of PCM bed. It is found that using smaller particles leads to faster charging and discharging of the bed. A decrease of 26% was achieved by changing half the bed into particles with half the diameter. Furthermore, it is observed that placing small particles downstream has more effect on increased charging speed than placing them upstream when charging the bed fully. A decrease of 20% in charging time and a decrease of 13% in discharging time were o... [more]

The aim of this article is to examine the progress achieved in the recent years on two advanced cathode materials for EV Li-ion batteries, namely Ni-rich layered oxides LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 (NCA) and LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811). Both materials have the common layered (two-dimensional) crystal network isostructural with LiCoO2. The performance of these electrode materials are examined, the mitigation of their drawbacks (i.e., antisite defects, microcracks, surface side reactions) are discussed, together with the prospect on a next generation of Li-ion batteries with Co-free Ni-rich Li-ion batteries.

Conversion experiments of wet and dry walnut shells were performed, the influence of moisture content on the hydrogen yield in the gas fraction was estimated and the resulted biochar structure was presented. Measurements of the biochar structures were performed using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy methods. The results demonstrate that heating rate played a key role in the pyrolysis process and influenced the biochar structure. Under fast heating rate, the interactions between the water vapors released and other intermediate products, such as biochar was enhanced and consequently more hydrogen was generated. It could also be observed that both biochar samples, obtained from wet and dry walnut shells, had an approximately smooth surface and are different from the rough surface of the raw walnut shell, but there are not obvious differences in shape and pores structure between the two biochar samples. The increasing of the biochar surface area versus pyrolysis temperatu... [more]

The present work applies a focal point of materials-related issues to review the major case studies of electron transport layers (ETLs) of metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) that contain graphene-based materials (GBMs), including graphene (GR), graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and graphene quantum dots (GQDs). The coverage includes the principal components of ETLs, which are compact and mesoporous TiO2, SnO2, ZnO and the fullerene derivative PCBM. Basic considerations of solar cell design are provided and the effects of the different ETL materials on the power conversion efficiency (PCE) have been surveyed. The strategy of adding GBMs is based on a range of phenomenological outcomes, including enhanced electron transport, enhanced current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and parameters, potential for band gap (Eg) tuning, and enhanced device stability (chemical and environmental). These characteristics are made complicated by the variable effects of GBM s... [more]

The latent heat thermal energy storage units are very popular because of their high energy density and almost close to constant temperature during the charging/discharging. In the present study has been proposed new shell-and-coil geometry with a shifted coil position to enhance the performance of phase change thermal magazine. The experimental investigations have been performed both for the melting and solidification process of coconut oil for constant wall temperature conditions. The experiments have been carried out for cylindrical as well as coil shape geometry of the TES unit. In the case of annular TES, the copper tube with outer diameter d = 10 mm and total length equal to 165 mm were used (4). In the case of shell-and-coil TES the coil has been also made of a copper tube but with an outer diameter d = 6 mm. The total length of the tube was 460 mm. However, the length of the tube element that has been used in the process of bending the coil had a total length equal to 360 mm. Th... [more]

Pollutants resulting from domestic combustion would have harmful effects on public health, causing disturbances in the atmosphere chemistry and the climate. In this work, the emissions from the combustion of pellets made of 80% poplar (organically fertilized) and 20% cereal straw (Triticum aestivum) have been analysed. Poplar wood from I-214 and AF-8 clones was obtained from fertilized and non-fertilized plots (CONTROL). Dairy wastewater treatment (MUD) and dehydrated sewage sludge (BIOSOLIDS) were the fertilizers employed. BIOSOLIDS-I214 pellets had lower quality standards, so its combustion was omitted. A flue gas sample was sampled together with the particles emitted. The I-214 MUD sample had the highest emitted CO value (1505 mg/MJ). Regarding HCl emission factors, there was a homogeneity in the results linked with the Cl content present in the raw material. A higher particle emission was associated with pellets with higher ash content. Particles were composed mainly for elemental... [more]

Aerosol is a multiphase system, created as a result of the dispersion of a liquid in a gaseous medium. The atomized liquids are most often water and fuel; however, they can be any other substance. Even a small addition of a substance that changes the rheological properties (i.e., the nature of the flow) can change the properties of the resulting aerosol. The most important parameters that characterize the aerosol are the outflow rate, the droplet diameter, the spray spectrum, and the spray angle. The latter is important when selecting atomizers, especially those working in groups on the sprayer boom. The spray angle is an important parameter of the atomization process, providing a great deal of information about the quality of the spray. This study presents the results of rheological tests and the atomization of aqueous solutions with varying concentrations of sodium carboxymethylcellulose (Na-CMC). We found that the spray angle decreased with increasing Na-CMC concentration in the sol... [more]

The article presents research on the comminution of copper ore in a self-constructed mill using high-pressure water jet energy to investigate the usefulness of such a method for comminuting copper ore. As a result, ore particles are obtained that are characterized by appropriate comminution and a significant increase in their specific surface, in turn allowing for potential further processing of the mineral. A comparative analysis of the efficiency of copper ore comminution, primarily taking into account the unit energy consumption and the efficiency of the milling process, clearly indicates that the energy absorption of hydro-jet material comminuting is lower than during mechanical grinding, e.g., in a planetary ball mill. The applicability of the technique depends on the brittle nature of the host rock, e.g., it is especially appropriate for sandstone and shale ores.

Bioenergy production from animal waste can be a key driver to achieving bio-economy goals. Developing a bio-economy sector could help to create opportunities for a circular system where not only people and the planet will be benefited, but it will also provide economic profitability to farmers, especially in the post-Covid period. To this end, manure production, its nutrient content, and bioenergy potential were estimated, along with their spatial distribution in the Lubelskie province, Poland. Farm-level data were processed and aggregated at the municipality level. Material balance equations were used to calculate the theoretical potential of livestock manure and bioenergy for different use scenarios: (1) Baseline (BC): direct manure application to land, which was compared against (2) Anaerobic Digestion (AD): anaerobic digestion to biogas with digestate returned to the fields (3) AD + Separation (AD + Sep): mechanical separation followed by anaerobic digestion, and (4) Surplus + AD:... [more]

The drilling of clay-rich formations, such as shale, is an extremely demanding technical and technological process. Shale consists of mixed clay minerals in different ratios and in contact with water from drilling mud. It tends to swell and cause different wellbore instability problems. Usually, the petroleum industry uses various types of salt and/or polymers as shale hydration inhibitors. The aim of this research was to determine whether nanoparticles can be used as shale swelling inhibitors because due to their small size they can enter the shale nanopores, plug them and stop further penetration of mud filtrate into the shale formation. Swelling of bentonite-calcium carbonate pellets after 2 and 24 h in water and drilling mud (water, bentonite, PAC and NaOH) without nanoparticles and with addition of TiO2 (0.5, 1 and 1.5 wt%) and SiO2 (0.5, 1 and 1.5 wt%) nanoparticles was measured using a linear swell meter. Additionally, granulometric analyses of bentonite as well as the zeta pote... [more]

The thermophysical properties of water-based Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 magnetic nanofluid were investigated experimentally. Consequently, the viscosities of 0.25 wt% and 1 wt% Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanofluid were 1.03 mPa∙s and 1.13 mPa∙s, each greater than that of the 20 °C base fluid (water), which were increased by 7.3% and 17.7%, respectively. The Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanofluid thermal conductivity enhanced from 0.605 and 0.618 to 0.654 and 0.693 W/m·°C at concentrations of 0.25 wt% and 1 wt%, respectively, when the temperature increased from 20 to 50 °C. The maximum thermal conductivity of the Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanofluid was 0.693 W/m·°C at a concentration of 1 wt% and a temperature of 50 °C. Furthermore, following a solar exposure of 120 min, the photothermal energy conversion efficiency of 0.25 wt%, 0.5 wt%, 0.75 wt%, and 1 wt% Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanofluids increased by 4.8%, 5.6%, 7.1%, and 4.1%, respectively, more than that of water.

Reservoir parameter estimation is one of the goals of amplitude-versus-angle (AVA) inversion and angle-domain common image gathers are the basis of AVA inversion. Therefore, the accuracy of kinematic and kinetic information on angle gathers is very important for reservoir characterization. Reverse time migration is one of the most physically accurate migration method. Generating angle gathers from reverse time migration with the Poynting vector method is very efficient. However, due to inaccurate angle measurement and uneven illumination, angle gathers calculated by the Poynting vector method are often not suitable for AVA inversion. In this paper, we propose an efficient method of angle gathers with accurate angular information and amplitude from reverse time migration. We firstly decompose source and receiver wavefield to their up-going and down-going parts by using analytic wavefield. We calculate propagation directions for source down-going wavefield and receiver up-going wavefield... [more]