In recent years, the production of municipal sludge has gradually increased, and finding suitable sludge treatment and disposal technologies is an urgent problem that needs to be solved. Bio-drying of sludge is a relatively efficient and convenient drying method, but currently, there are still problems with unstable drying effects and high moisture content of dried products, which limits the subsequent utilization of bio-drying products. This article uses a thermal assisted bio-drying device that simulates carbonization waste heat reflux, and uses corncob, straw, sawdust, and rice husk as conditioners to carry out bio-drying of dehydrated sludge. The influence of the types and ratios of conditioner under thermal assistance on the bio-drying of dehydrated sludge is explored. The results showed that the moisture removal efficiency of the corncob and straw groups was better, and their material moisture content could be reduced to below 10% within 24 h. The lower calorific value of straw-s... [more]

The discontinuation of pumping and drainage activities upon the cessation of mining operations leads to the gradual accumulation of groundwater. This inflow into mined-out areas affects the properties of the rock, disturbing the previously stable goaf and exacerbating instability. In this study, we advance an existing theoretical framework pertaining to the residual deformation of mines by delineating the mechanisms through which groundwater influences the degradation of the overlying strata in goaf areas. Using analogous material simulation experiments and rigorous theoretical analyses, we clarify the specific mechanisms by which groundwater causes structural damage to these regions. The deformation of overlying rock is divided into three different forms: the compressive deformation of rock, the sliding instability of rock, and the rotational instability of rock. The main contributions of this study are its refinement of the existing theory of the residual deformation of mines, an ana... [more]

Plasma technology is increasing its applications in the textile industry for conferring surface functionalities through greener processes. In this study, plasma treatments are studied to improve the wettability of mycelium-based material, an emerging material with a lot of potential in the near future. The plasma effect was characterized by assessing the added functionality (wettability) and inspecting surface modifications with different techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Low pressure plasma (LPP) treatments were successfully applied into the mycelium-based material and optimal power of discharge and treatment time were set for this material (750 W, 17.5 min). With the optimized LPP treatments, the water absorption capacity of mycelium-based material was improved by 2000% and some surface morphological modifications were observed by SEM analysis. On the other hand, XPS analysis demonstrated how the plasma treatment change... [more]

The aim of this study is to purify industrial textile effluents by treating two types of commonly encountered dyes: blue maxilon (BM), of cationic nature, and black eriochrome (NE), of anionic nature. We intend to employ an innovative approach based on the adsorption of these dyes onto a novel vegetal biomaterial derived from Aleppo pine fibers (FPAs). A kinetic and thermodynamic study was conducted. The effect of some physicochemical parameters on both dye adsorption and FPAs was also evaluated. The modeling of the adsorption results was performed using Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin Radushkevich (D-R) isotherms. The results indicate that the equilibrium time strongly depends on the initial concentration of the two dyes, being 60 min with pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetics for both dyes. Adsorption isotherms under the optimal conditions of adsorbent mass, temperature, medium pH, and dye concentration were used to determine the maximum adsorption efficiency, which was c... [more]

The physical properties of shale reservoirs are typically poor, necessitating the use of fracturing technology for effective development. However, the high clay content prevalent in shale formations poses significant challenges for conventional hydraulic fracturing methods. To address this issue, CO2-based fracturing fluid has been proposed as an alternative to mitigate the damage caused by water-based fracturing fluids. In this paper, the applicability of quasi-dry CO2 fracturing in shale reservoirs is examined from three key perspectives: the viscosity of CO2 fracturing fluid, the fracture characteristics induced by the CO2 fracture fluid, and the potential reservoir damage caused by the fracturing fluid. Firstly, the viscosity of CO2 fracturing fluid was determined by a rheological experiment. Rheological tests revealed that the viscosity of CO2 fracturing fluid was significantly influenced by the water−carbon ratio. Specifically, when the water−carbon ratio was 30:70, the maximum v... [more]

This study investigates the impact of nanomaterials on different surfactant solutions. By measuring the parameters (including emulsification property, zeta potential, DLS, CA, IFT, etc.) of imbibition liquid system with nanoparticles and without nanoparticles, combining with imbibition experiments, the law and mechanism of improving the imbibition recovery of nanomaterials were obtained. The findings demonstrate that the nano-silica sol enhances the emulsification and dispersion of crude oil in the surfactant system, resulting in smaller and more uniform particle sizes for emulsified oil droplets. Non-ionic surfactant AEO-7 has the best effect under the synergistic action of nanomaterials. Zeta potential and DLS tests also showed that AEO-7 exhibits smaller particle sizes due to their insignificant electrostatic interaction with nanoparticles. Furthermore, the addition of nanomaterials enhances the hydrophilicity of core and reduces the interfacial tension. Under the synergistic action... [more]

The evaluation of flow dynamics in fractured shale oil reservoirs presents significant challenges due to the complex pore configurations and high organic material concentration. Conventional methods for petrophysical and fluid dynamic evaluations are insufficient in addressing these complexities. However, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology is an effective technique for quantitatively delineating fluid micro-transport properties across the reservoir core. This study presents an experimental methodology rooted in NMR technology to quantify the flow capabilities within the shale oil matrix. This approach incorporates high-pressure saturation flow experiments across seven distinct core samples to gauge the micro-transport phenomena of fluids across various pore dimensions. The results revealed that under high-pressure saturation, shale cores devoid of fractures demonstrated an average crude oil saturation rate of merely 19.44%. Cores with evident stratification exhibited a 16.18%... [more]

An ultrasonic plasticizing and pressing method (UPP) that fully utilizes ultrasonic vibration is proposed for fabricating thermoplastic polymer surface microstructures with high aspect ratios (ARs). The characteristics of UPP are elucidated based on the plasticization of the raw material, the melt flow, and the stress on the template microstructure during the forming process. Initially, the micronscale single-stage micropillar arrays (the highest AR of 4.1) were fabricated by using 304 stainless steel thin sheets with micronscale pore (through-hole) arrays as primary templates. Subsequently, anodic aluminum oxides (AAOs) with ordered nanoscale pore arrays were added as secondary templates, and the micro/nanoscale hierarchical micropillar arrays (the highest AR up to 24.1) were successfully fabricated, which verifies the feasibility and forming capability of UPP. The superiority and achievements of UPP are illustrated by comparing the prepared hierarchical micropillar arrays with those... [more]

In this work, a series of vanadium-substituted phosphomolybdic acids were synthesized and tested as the catalysts for the synthesis of solketal, a green fuel bioadditive, from the condensation reaction of glycerol with acetone. The objective was to demonstrate that an easily synthesizable solid catalyst can efficiently promote glycerol condensation with acetone at room temperature. The activity of pristine heteropolyacid (i.e., H3PMo12O40) and its vanadium-substituted cesium salts (Cs3+nPMo12-nVnO40; n = 0−3) was evaluated in condensation reactions carried out at room temperature. Among the catalysts tested, Cs4PMo11VO40 was the most active and selective towards a five-member ring solketal isomer (dioxolane). A high yield of solketal (i.e., 95% conversion and 95% selectivity to solketal) was achieved in glycerol condensation with acetone at room temperature within a short reaction time (2 h). The influence of the main reaction parameters, such as the acetone−glycerol molar ratio, catal... [more]

The effect of boron (B) on the microstructures and low-temperature impact toughness of medium-carbon CrMo steel quenched at 870~1050 °C and tempered at 600 °C was studied via Charpy impact testing and microstructure characterizations. The results showed that with an increasing B content from 0 to 50 ppm, the low-temperature impact toughness deteriorated significantly at quenching temperatures (Tq) lower than 950 °C but increased at a higher Tq of 1050 °C. Undissolved M2B particles remained and coarsened during the holding process due to the low Tq, decreasing the critical stress required for crack initiation and deteriorating the impact toughness accordingly. However, this detrimental effect of B could be mitigated by a higher Tq, and the favorable influences on the impact toughness improvement could be attributed to (1) the finer M2B particles formed during quenching effectively pinning the austenite grain boundaries (GBs), leading to a finer block size and a high density of high-angl... [more]

This paper presents laboratory devices on which measurements were carried out to prove the validity of the assumption about the reduction in vibrations transmitted to the conveyor belt structure generated by the impact forces of falling material grains in the places of transfer or on the hoppers of conveyor belts. In order to limit damage to the conveyor belts caused by the impact of the sharp edges of material grains, conveyor belts are supported by impact rollers or impact rubber rods. A special modification of the fixed conveyor idler is presented, which consists of inserting plastic brackets into the structurally modified roller axle holders of the fixed conveyor idler. Measurements showed that the specially modified fixed conveyor idler resulted in a higher damping of up to 15% of the impact forces of the falling weight on the rubberized hoop of the impact roller shell compared to the conventional fixed conveyor idler design. Measurements carried out show that the effective vibrat... [more]

This paper attempts to analyze and assess Yongchuan Xiuya tea quality quickly, accurately, and digitally. The sensory evaluation method was first used to assess Yongchuan Xiuya tea quality, and then near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was obtained, and standard methods were applied to the testing of the chemical components. Next, principal component analysis (PCA) and the correlation coefficient method were used to comprehensively screen out the representative components. Finally, NIRS combined with partial least squares regression (PLSR) and back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) methods were applied to build quality evaluation models for Yongchuan Xiuya tea, respectively, and external samples were employed to examine the practical application results of the best model. The cumulative variance contribution rate of the first three principal components of the ingredients in tea was 97.73%. Seven components closely related to tea quality were screened out, namely, amino acids,... [more]

This Special Issue of Processes, entitled “Synthesis, Application, and Biological Evaluation of Chemical Organic Compounds”, gathers the most recent work of leading researchers in a single forum [...]

Intelligent textile clothing is one of the most popular topics in the field. In recent decades, rapid advances have been made in the area of intelligent textile clothing research, and the intellectual structure pertaining to this domain has significantly evolved. We used CiteSpace 6.2.R4, VOSviewer 1.6.19, to evaluate and visualize the results, analyzing articles, countries, regions, institutions, authors, journals, citations, and keywords. Both a macroscopic sketch and a microscopic characterization of the entire knowledge domain were realized. The aim of this paper is to utilize bibliometric and knowledge mapping theories to identify relevant research papers on the subject of smart textiles and clothing that have been published by the China Knowledge Network Web of Science (WOS) within the last decade. It is concluded that the main topics of smart textile and garment research can be divided into nine categories: wearable electronics, smart textiles, flexible antennas, energy storage,... [more]

The Ordovician Wulalike Formation in the northwestern Ordos Basin is a new prospect for exploring marine shale gas in China, facing prominent problems such as unclear reservoir conditions and the distribution of enrichment areas. The types of reservoir space, fracture development, porosity composition, and physical properties of the lower Wulalike Formation are discussed through the multi-method identification and quantitative evaluation of reservoir space for appraisal wells. The Wulalike Formation in the study area contained fractured shale reservoirs with matrix pores (mainly inorganic pores) and permeable fractures. The fracture system of the lower Wulalike Formation is dominated by open bed-parallel fractures that are intermittent or continuous individually, with a width of 0.1−0.2 mm and spacing of 0.5−14.0 cm. The fracture-developed intervals generally exhibit bimodal or multimodal features on NMR T2 spectra and have a dual-track feature with a positive amplitude difference in d... [more]

The quality of borehole sealing is a key factor affecting the efficiency of gas production. A new water-rich grouting material (RW) with composite coagulant and other additives was prepared in this study to overcome the disadvantages of long setting time and low stone rate of traditional cement materials. When the coagulants A is 4 g and coagulants B is 2 g, the setting time of RW material was reduced by 60.85% and 50.62%, which significantly shortened the setting time of the RW material, respectively. Based on the orthogonal method, 29 groups of comparative experiments were designed to investigate the interaction mechanism between different additives on the performance index of RW, including setting time, water secretion rate, and compressive strength. Quadratic regression equations were fitted using the response surface method. All the correlation coefficients R2 of each response model were greater than 0.97, R2 and R2adj were less than 0.2 through variance analysis, indicating a hig... [more]

Porosity, permeability, and wettability are crucial factors that affect the oil−water displacement process in reservoirs. Under subsurface conditions, the integral effects of these factors are extremely difficult to document. In this paper, waterflooding experiments were carried out using a core flooding system monitored with X-ray dual-energy CT. The mesoscale, three-dimensional characteristics of water displacing oil were obtained in real time. The integral effects of porosity, permeability, and wettability on the waterflooding in the low-permeability sandstone reservoirs were investigated. It was found that if the reservoir rock is water-wet, then the residual oil saturation decreases gradually with increasing porosity and permeability, showing an increasing waterflooding efficiency. On the contrary, if the reservoir rock is oil-wet, the residual oil saturation gradually increases with improving porosity and permeability, showing a decreasing waterflooding efficiency. The porosity,... [more]

Zirconia ceramics (ZrO2) have been used for a variety of applications due to their superior physical properties, including in machining tools and dentures. Nonetheless, due to its extreme hardness and brittleness in both sintered and half-sintered forms, zirconia is difficult to machine. In this study, half-sintered zirconia blocks are milled with tungsten carbide milling tools which arecoated with diamond film using hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) at various substrate-to-filament distances. The objective was to determine the effect of substrate-to-filament distances on the coating thickness, diamond purity, coating grain size, and ZrO2 machining performance during HFCVD. The experimental results show that, in HFCVD, the grain size and coating thickness of the diamond film on milling tools tend to decrease when the substrate-to-filament distances decrease. Tool failure happened at a cutting time of 200 min for all coated tools. However, the machining quality in terms of... [more]

To study the corrosion characteristics of high-strength sucker rods in high-salinity well fluids under alternating stresses, a single-factor stress corrosion test was designed. The slow strain rate tensile test (SSRT) was carried out for four kinds of high-strength sucker rods under different Cl− and HCO3− concentrations and with different service strengths, and the variable stress corrosion cracking susceptibility was analyzed. The results show that the elongation loss and absorbed work loss of the H-grade ultra-high-strength 4330 sucker rod after stress corrosion are greater than those of both the high-strength 4142 sucker rod and the high-strength 20CrMoA sucker rod. The elongation and absorbed work loss of the 30CrMoA and 20CrMoA sucker rods are less affected by the changes in Cl− and HCO3−. With the increase in use strength, the elongation and absorbed work loss of the high-strength sucker rod increase. The change in the surface of the sucker rod during the corrosion process is in... [more]

Pyrolysis is a promising technology used to recycle both the energy and chemicals in plastics. Three types of plastics, polyethylene plastic (PE), polypropylene plastic (PP) and polystyrene plastic (PS) were investigated using thermogravimetry−mass spectrometry (TG−MS) and reactive force field molecular dynamics (ReaxFF-MD) simulation. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that all three plastics lost weight during the pyrolysis in one step. The thermal decomposition stability is PS < PP < PE. The activation energies and reaction mechanism function of the three plastics were determined by the Kissinger and CR methods. Meanwhile, the ReaxFF-MD combined with density functional theory (DFT) was used to calculate the kinetics, as well as explore the pyrolysis mechanism. The calculated kinetic results agree well with the experimental methods. The common pyrolysis reaction process follows the dissociation sequence of the polymer to polymeric monomer and, then, to the gas molecules. Bas... [more]

Straw, which is characterized by its low cost, large quantity, and rich supply of biomass energy, is often converted into energy that can be utilized in industrial production through pyrolysis technology. This paper examines the pyrolysis experiments of four kinds of straw (rice, wheat, peanut, and corn) from the Henan Province of China, conducted in an air environment with varying temperature-rise rates. Based on the experimental results, an analysis was conducted on the effect of the rate of temperature rise on the degree of straw pyrolysis and the pyrolysis characteristics of each type of straw. The activation energies of the pyrolysis reactions were calculated utilizing the Kissinger−Akahira−Sunose (KAS), Flynn−Wall−Ozawa (FWO), and Starink methods. It was concluded that the pyrolysis process of all four types of straw could roughly be classified into three stages: dehydration and drying stage, volatile release stage, and carbonization stage. Among the four types of straw evaluated... [more]

Water alternating gas (WAG) flooding is a widely employed enhanced oil recovery method in various reservoirs worldwide. In this research, we will employ SiO2 nanofluid alternating with the CO2 injection method as a replacement for the conventional WAG process in oil flooding experiments. The conventional WAG method suffers from limitations in certain industrial applications, such as extended cycle times, susceptibility to water condensation and agglomeration, and ineffectiveness in low-permeability oil reservoirs, thus impeding the oil recovery factor. In order to solve these problems, this study introduces SiO2 nanofluid as a substitute medium and proposes a SiO2 nanofluid alternate CO2 flooding method to enhance oil recovery. Through the microcharacterization of SiO2 nanofluids, comprehensive evaluations of particle size, dispersibility, and emulsification performance were conducted. The experimental results revealed that both SiO2-I and SiO2-II nanoparticles exhibited uniform spheri... [more]

Supramolecular gels are physically cross-linked hydrogels formed by non-covalent interactions. The synthesis, structure optimization, property regulation, and application expansion of supramolecular gels has gradually become the research hotspot in the field of gel materials. According to the non-covalent interactions such as hydrophobic association and hydrogen bonding, the supramolecular gel prepared in this study has excellent rheological properties and adaptive filling and plugging properties, and can be used in the field of drilling fluid plugging. In this paper, the microstructure, rheological properties, temperature resistance, and plugging properties of supramolecular gels were studied and characterized in detail. The experimental findings demonstrated that when the strain was less than 10%, the supramolecular gel displayed an excellent linear viscoelastic region. The increase in strain weakens the rheological properties of supramolecular gel and reduces the elastic modulus of... [more]

The wet oxidation of pharmaceutical sludge for the treatment and production of value-added materials was investigated. The experiments were carried out in a stainless-steel autoclave reactor with chemical synthetic pharmaceutical sludge. The highest removal rate of total suspended solids (90.1%) and volatile suspended solids (98.4%) was achieved at 260 °C for 60 min with an initial oxygen pressure of 0.8 MPa. Simultaneously, the total chemical oxygen demand removal rate (78.7%) and the soluble chemical oxygen demand removal rate (81.6%) were obtained. The volatile fatty acid concentration—including acetic acid, propanoic acid, isobutyric acid and isovaleric acid—increased to 4819 mg/L with pH 12.56, which indicated the possibility of improving the quality of wet oxidized sludge solution as a potential carbon source by adding reagents. Scanning electron microscopy images showed that the sludge became a loose porous structure after wet oxidation, which is beneficial for dewatering perfor... [more]

In natural gas exploitation, foam drainage, corrosion inhibition and hydrate inhibition of wellbore fluid are conventional operations. However, there is often a problem where multiple chemical agents cannot be effectively used together and can only be used separately, resulting in complex production processes. In this study, the final integrated formulation was determined: 0.1% sodium alpha-olefin sulfonate (AOST) + 0.3% dodecyl dimethyl betaine (BS-12) + 0.3% sodium lignosulfonate + 0.5% hydrazine hydrate. The minimum tension of the integrated agent could be reduced to 23.5 mN/m. The initial foaming height of the integrated agent was 21.5 cm at 65 °C, the liquid-carrying capacity was 143 mL, and the liquid-carrying rate reached 71.5%. The maximum corrosion depth also decreased from 11.52 µm without the addition of hydrazine hydrate, gradually decreasing to 5.24 µm as the concentration of hydrazine hydrate increased. After adding an integrated agent, the growth rate of hydrates was slo... [more]