Process Point Of View Research Articles

Bioenergy Yields from Sequential Bioethanol and Biomethane Production: An Optimized Process Flow

This study investigates the potential of different stages of the bioethanol production process (pretreatment, hydrolysis, and distillation) for bioethanol and biomethane production, and studies the critical steps for the liquid and the solid fractions to be separated and discarded to improve the efficiency of the production chain. For this, Napier grass (a fast-growing grass) from Effurun town of Delta State in Nigeria was used and the novel pretreatment method, nitrogen explosive decompression (NED), was applied at different temperatures. The results show that the lowest glucose (13.7 g/L) and ethanol titers (8.4 g/L) were gained at 150 °C. The highest glucose recovery (31.3 g/L) was obtained at 200 °C and the maximum ethanol production (10.3 g/L) at 170 °C. Methane yields are higher in samples pretreated at lower temperatures. The maximum methane yields were reported in samples from the solid fraction of post-pretreatment (pretreated at 150 °C, 1.13 mol CH4/100 g) and solid fraction of the post-hydrolysis stage (pretreated at 150 °C, 1.00 mol CH4/100 g). The lowest biomethane production was noted in samples from the liquid fraction of post-pretreatment broth (between 0.14 mol CH4/100 g and 0.24 mol CH4/100 g). From the process point of view, samples from liquid fraction of post-pretreatment broth should be separated and discarded from the bioethanol production process, since they do not add value to the production chain. The results suggest that bioethanol and biomethane concentrations are influenced by the pretreatment temperature. Napier grass has potential for bioethanol and further biomethane production and it can be used as an alternative source of energy for the transportation sector in Nigeria and other countries rich in grasses and provide energy security to their population.

Geodetic and Microgravity Measurement used in St. Mary’s Assumption Chapel

With an intersection on modern technologies into the sphere of geodesy and geophysics, there increase the number of possibilities of these technologies to be used. There are also ways to make the research and measurements more attractive for general public. There can be not only interest in the way of final results but also from the processing points of view. For example the sizes of historical sites need to be measured but the semi-product of processing can be also 3D model of the object. This product can be used for increasing of object attractiveness or as a base for next research. This is also the direction needed to be selected, to make the science more attractive and interesting for the public.

In situ crosslinked PMMA gel electrolyte from a low viscosity precursor solution for cost-effective, long lasting and sustainable lithium-ion batteries

To address the shortcomings of current gel electrolytes such as cost, processability, safety and sustainability, we report here on the in situ preparation of a crosslinked gel polymer electrolyte by polymerization of methyl methacrylate with poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate within a liquid electrolyte composed of an ethylene carbonate/propylene carbonate low volatility solvent mixture. Lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) is used as main lithium salt since it is stable thermally and vs. hydrolysis, which is advantageous for gel formation and recycling. Aluminum current collector corrosion and the efficient operation of the graphite anode are addressed via the use of lithium bis(oxalato)borate (LiBOB), vinylene carbonate and 1-propene 1,3-sultone as additives. The self-standing elastomeric gel electrolyte allows reaching conductivities close to those of the liquid fraction with a conductivity of 3.9 mS cm−1 at 20 °C probably due to a high mobility as suggested by the glass transition temperature that is almost unaffected by the presence of the polymer. From a processing point of view, the use of methyl methacrylate (MMA) allows decreasing the viscosity of the precursor solution for efficient wetting of the cell components prior to thermal polymerization. The good contact allows cycling graphite/LiMn0.33Ni0.33Co0.33O2 (NMC111) cells with a 2.1 mAh cm−2 areal capacity steadily for hundreds of cycles.

Romanian version of SDM-Q-9 validation in Internal Medicine and Cardiology setting: a multicentric cross-sectional study.

Shared decision making (SDM) is becoming more and more important for the patient-physician interaction. There has not been a study in Romania evaluating patients' point of view in the SDM process yet. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the psychometric parameters of the translated Romanian version of SDM-Q-9. A multicentric cross-sectional study was performed comprising eight recruitment centers. The sample consisted of in- and outpatients who referred to Hospital Units for treatment for atrial fibrillation or collagen diseases. Furthermore, patients who were members of Autoimmune Disease Patient Society were able to participate via an online survey. All participants completed the Romanian translated SDM-Q-9. Altogether, 665 questionnaires were filled in within the hospital setting (n = 324; 48.7%) and online (n = 341; 51.3%). The Romanian version had good internal consistency (Cronbach α coefficient of 0.96.) Corrected item correlations were good ranging from 0.64 to 0.89 with low corrected item correlations for item 1 and item 7. PCA found a one-factorial solution (similar with previous reports) but the first item had the lowest loading. SDM-Q-9 is a useful tool for evaluation and improvement in health care that was validated in Romania and can be used in clinical setting in this country.

Ruminant Ön Bacağında Anatomik Modellerin Oluşturulması

The veterinary anatomy education is taught as two phased, which are theoretical and practical education in Turkey. While in theoretical class a didactical instruction is presented, in practical class the learning process is consolidated by using mockup, model and cadaver. Nevertheless at the present time the mockups which are provided by commercially are prepared insufficiently as class materials. Therefore with this study, it was determined to create ruminant forelimb bone-joint-muscle-nerve models which are supported academically. For bone modelling 80 pieces of rectangular parallelepiped were prepared by using approximately 100 kg of clay, then by using carbon paper schemas were drawn on them. For polyester moulding bone modelling, by taking silicon pattern from the prepared model and reproducing with polyester moulding the mockups were made. The polyester models which were prepared for joint modeling were put together with steel construction as (to be) movable. During the process of muscle-modeling, colorful eva paper is used. For the nerve-modeling, forelimb nerves were placed on the main model which had been made before. Thus new alternative models were created for the purpose of education of veterinary anatomy. We are of the opinion that outcomes obtained from the study will give a different point of view in training process in veterinary faculties.

Study of a full scale oxy-fuel cement rotary kiln

Oxy-fuel combustion has been shown to be an attractive technology to be implemented in cement production with CO2 capture from a process point of view. Due to the market situations and future perspectives it is necessary that the technology can be retrofitted into existing plants. As part of the H2020 EU project CEMCAP, the study presented here investigates the retrofitting of oxy-fuel combustion technology on a typical full-scale cement rotary kiln of 3000 ton/year clinker capacity. The flame generated by a commercial burner has been modelled by CFD with a seven steps combustion reaction model, the k-omega SST turbulence model, and the discrete ordinates radiation model with the Weighted Sum Grey Gas model. The burner is composed of an annular outlet where coal is fed and nozzles from which angled high velocity jets generate a swirling motion for flame stabilization and mixing purposes. As in all rotary cement kilns, a high temperature low velocity secondary oxidizer stream coming from the clinker cooler flows coaxially to the burner in the kiln for heat efficiency purposes. A flame developing in air has been used as a reference case and several oxy-fuel flames have been characterized and compared. The oxy-fuel inlet parameters that are varied in the study are the oxidizer composition and flow rates in both the primary and secondary streams. The work presented is part of an optimization procedure based on iterative interaction with the process modelling of the whole cement plant with full oxy-fuel capture (not presented in this article). With retrofit application in mind, the objective was to reproduce a heat radiation profile to the clinker equivalent to that obtained in the air reference case. The optimized oxy-fuel case is characterized by a primary burner oxidizer of lower flow rate, but with higher oxygen concentration of up to 52.1% to generate the necessary heat in the near burner region.

Signal processing on graphs: structure preserving maps

Signal processing on graphs using adjacency matrix (as opposed to more traditional graph Laplacian) results in an algebraic framework for graph signals and shift invariant filters. This can be seen as an example of the algebraic signal processing theory. In this study, the authors examine the concepts of homomorphism and isomorphism between two graphs from a signal processing point of view and refer to them as GSP isomorphism and GSP homomorphism, respectively. Collectively, they refer to these concepts as structure preserving maps (SPMs). The fact that linear combination of signals and linear transforms on signals are meaningful operations has implications on the GSP isomorphism and GSP homomorphism, which diverges from the topological interpretations of the same concepts (i.e. graph isomorphism and graph homomorphism). When SPMs exist between two graphs, signals and filters can be mapped between them while preserving spectral properties. They examine conditions on adjacency matrices for such maps to exist. They also show that isospectral graphs form a special case of GSP isomorphism and that GSP isomorphism and GSP homomorphism is intrinsic to resampling and downsampling process.

Fluidized bed air gasification of solid recovered fuel and woody biomass: Influence of experimental conditions on product gas and pollutant release

The aim of this work is to study the air gasification of solid recovered fuel (SRF), and to compare it to the gasification of woody biomass (beech wood sawdust, and waste wood). This study focuses on the influence of several operating parameters: temperature – between 800 and 910 °C –, O2/C ratio – between 0 (pyrolysis conditions) and 0.34, and addition of steam. Experiments are performed in a bubbling fluidized bed at 1.5 bar, with a solid feeding rate of 1–3 kg/h. The yield and composition of the product gas is particularly looked at, together with the repartition of carbon into the different types of products (gas species, tar molecules). Sulphur release to the gas phase is also investigated.Temperature has mainly an influence on H2 and CO yields, which is attributed to char gasification enhancement. The addition of steam in fluidising gas induces an increase in oxygenated gas species yields (CO + CO2), related to char gasification improvement. It does not have any reforming influence on light hydrocarbon and tar, with even a slight inhibiting effect. Woody biomass and SRF show significant differences in product yields, which are qualitatively explained by the initial elemental composition and material content of each type of fuel.From a process point of view, the conversion efficiency improvement by varying the gasification conditions for SRF is limited compared to the higher efficiency obtained with woody biomass. Co-gasification of biomass – possibly waste wood – and SRF, could be a way to improve the overall efficiency, and limit pollutant content.

Machine Learning in Production – Potentials, Challenges and Exemplary Applications

Recent trends like autonomous driving, natural language processing, service robotics or Industry 4.0 are mainly based on the tremendous progress made in the field of machine learning (ML). The increased data availability coupled with affordable computing power and easy-to-use software tools have laid the foundation for using such algorithms in a wide range of industrial applications, e.g. for predictive maintenance, predictive quality or machine vision. However, a systematic guideline for identifying and implementing economically viable ML use cases in manufacturing industry is still missing. In particular, there is still a lack of a structured overview of concrete, industry-specific best practices that can be easily transferred to one’ s own production. Hence, this paper aims to summarize various existing application scenarios of ML from a process and an industry sector perspective. The process point of view mainly covers the main manufacturing process groups of DIN 8580, handling operations according to VDI 2860 as well as selected cross-process approaches. From an industry sector perspective, application scenarios from various subsectors such as the production of electronics, electric motors, transmission components and medical devices are outlined.

Fault monitoring based on mutual information feature engineering modeling in chemical process

Abstract A large amount of information is frequently encountered when characterizing the sample model in chemical process. A fault diagnosis method based on dynamic modeling of feature engineering is proposed to effectively remove the nonlinear correlation redundancy of chemical process in this paper. From the whole process point of view, the method makes use of the characteristic of mutual information to select the optimal variable subset. It extracts the correlation among variables in the whitening process without limiting to only linear correlations. Further, PCA (Principal Component Analysis) dimension reduction is used to extract feature subset before fault diagnosis. The application results of the TE (Tennessee Eastman) simulation process show that the dynamic modeling process of MIFE (Mutual Information Feature Engineering) can accurately extract the nonlinear correlation relationship among process variables and can effectively reduce the dimension of feature detection in process monitoring.

Predictive model of gas consumption and air emissions of a lime kiln in a kraft process using the ABC/MARS-based technique

The kraft manufacturing process is the main pulping process in the paper industry. The kraft chemical recovery process is an efficient technology that enables the recycling of the pulping chemicals and the generation of electrical power. However, this process presents substantial issues related to energy consumption and environmental emissions. One of the main fundamental elements of the kraft process is the lime kiln. Lime kiln gas consumption, SO2, and NOx air emissions are key factors from the energy saving point of view (i.e., energy efficiency) and environmental pollution in this industrial process, respectively. Knowledge of the process variables involved in a lime kiln and how these are related to gas consumption and air emissions is essential to predict the kiln’s behavior and minimize its environmental effects. The aim of this research study is to build a regression model for each one of the three prime variables (gas consumption, SO2, and NOx emissions) of a lime kiln employed in the paper manufacturing process using the multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) method in combination with the artificial bee colony (ABC) technique. These two statistical learning techniques were combined, thereby obtaining an easy-to-interpret mathematical model with a high goodness-of-fit. A coefficient of determination greater than 0.9 is obtained for all the modeled variables. Moreover, the particular contribution or importance of the input variables in each model is also calculated. The results thus obtained are a useful instrument to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of the lime kiln and the involvement of the process variables in gas consumption and gas emissions.

Examining the impact of e-government service process on user satisfaction

PurposeA government website is considered as an electronic government service delivery system (eGSDS). The authors look at this eGSDS from its process point of view. This study aims to expand the existing knowledge of e-government adoption, and to identify the significance of eGSDS process to user satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a quantitative technique using data collected from 197 respondents. Structure equation modeling has been used to test the model and the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe findings indicate that as the eGSDS process improves, a user’s perception of the government website’s ease of use increases, leading to increased perceived usefulness, which increases user satisfaction. The findings also indicate that eGSDS process has a significant impact on perceived usefulness and user satisfaction. This study provides evidence that the technological capabilities embedded in the government website processes are an important factor in determining e-government service quality and ultimately e-government user satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample used was sufficient for this study and allowed reasonable conclusions to be drawn, but cannot be considered representative of all e-government users in India. Further research may help to validate the findings and generalize the results to a wider population. This study extends the current literature that looks at e-government adoption. Academicians and information systems researchers may use these findings for further research.Practical implicationsThe research provides evidence that the technological capabilities embedded in the eGSDS process are critical in adopting e-government services. Government or concerned agencies may consider eGSDS process attributes (e.g. navigation, searching and transacting) while designing e-government service to give improved experience to its user.Originality/valueE-government websites have become an important point of contact with citizens for many public services. However, more study is needed to understand how Web-based technological capabilities of e-government services affect user satisfaction. This study is an attempt to explore the impact of the eGSDS process on e-government user satisfaction.

Extrusion-Based 3D Printing of Microfluidic Devices for Chemical and Biomedical Applications: A Topical Review.

One of the most widespread additive manufacturing (AM) technologies is fused deposition modelling (FDM), also known as fused filament fabrication (FFF) or extrusion-based AM. The main reasons for its success are low costs, very simple machine structure, and a wide variety of available materials. However, one of the main limitations of the process is its accuracy and finishing. In spite of this, FDM is finding more and more applications, including in the world of micro-components. In this world, one of the most interesting topics is represented by microfluidic reactors for chemical and biomedical applications. The present review focusses on this research topic from a process point of view, describing at first the platforms and materials and then deepening the most relevant applications.

Acoustically effective façades

Today’s city centres in European metropolitan areas are comprised of facades made of steel, glass and stone. These hard reflective facades are amplifying the perception of noise sources by human ears in their vicinity. Up to now in building designs this effect is neglected. Thus the number of people harmed by noise is increasing with the increasing noise levels on the streets caused by more and more hard reflective facades. To obtain control on urban acoustic spaces the focus of architects and engineers must be shifted to acoustics parameters. Several case studies in course of this research give evidence for the possibility of controlling the impact of noise sources on an urban space with modified facades. The experience and results of the case studies were merged to deliver a plot of a process chart for implementing the acoustical point of view in a building design process. Laboratory methods e.g. scale model measurements and impedance measurements were modified in order to be feasible in a building or facade design process. As with modified reflection properties of facade surfaces a sound reduction of up to 8 dB for specific frequency bands is feasible the building of quieter cities is in the responsibility of architects and engineers.

Delineation of the riparian zone in data-scarce regions using fuzzy membership functions: An evaluation based on the case of the Naryn River in Kyrgyzstan

Riparian zones contain important ecosystems with a high biodiversity and relevant ecosystem services. From a process point of view, riparian zones are characterized by the interaction of hydrological, geomorphological and ecological processes. Consequently, their boundary is dynamic and blurred as it depends on not only the local valley morphology but also the hydrological regime. This makes a delineation of riparian zones from digital elevation data a challenging task as it should represent this blurred nature of riparian zone boundaries. While the application of high resolution topography from LIDAR and hydraulic models have become standard in many developed countries, studies and applications in remote areas still commonly rely on the freely available coarse resolution digital elevation models. In this article, we present the delineation of riparian zones from the SRTM-1 elevation model and fuzzy membership functions for the Naryn River in Kyrgyzstan having a length of approximately 700 km. We evaluate the extraction of the underlying channel network as well as the different indicator variables. The maximum user's accuracy for the delineation of riparian zones along the entire Naryn River is 82.14% reflecting the uncertainty arising from the heterogeneity of the riverscape as well as from the quality of the underlying elevation data. Despite the uncertainty, the fuzzy membership approach is considered as an appropriate method for riparian zone delineation as it reflects their dynamic, transitional character and can be used as indicator of connectivity within a riverscape.

CHANGE ANALYSIS OF LASER SCANS OF LABORATORY ROCK SLOPES SUBJECT TO WAVE ATTACK TESTING

Abstract. For better understanding how coastal structures with gentle slopes behave during high energy events, a wave attack experiment representing a storm of 3000 waves was performed in a flume facility. Two setups with different steepness of slope were compared under the same conditions. In order to quantify changes in the rock slopes after the wave attack, a terrestrial laser scanner was used to obtain 3D coordinates of the rock surface before and after each experiment. Next, through a series of processing steps, the point clouds were converted to a suitable 2D raster for change analysis. This allowed to estimate detailed and quantitative change information. The results indicate that the area around the artificial coast line, defined as the intersection between sloped surface and wave surface, is most strongly affected by wave attacks. As the distances from the sloped surface to the waves are shorter, changes for the mildly sloped surface, slope 1 (1 : 10), are distributed over a larger area compared to the changes for the more steeply sloped surface, slope 2 (1 : 5). The results of this experiment show that terrestrial laser scanning is an effective and feasible method for change analysis of rock slopes in a laboratory setting. Most striking results from a process point of view is that the transport direction of the rocks change between the two different slopes: from seaward transport for the steeper slope to landward transport for the milder slope.

Kişilik Bozukluklarında Tanı Güvenirliği ve Cezai Sorumluluk

Devlet gücünün en çarpıcı yönü olan “cezalandırma hakkı” ve bu doğrultudaki “ceza” kavramıdır. Cezada ölçü, suçlunun kasıt ve kusur derecesi ile işlenen suçun ağırlığıdır. Psikiyatrinin ceza hukukuna yardımcı olduğu nokta ise suçun manevi öğesinin gerçekleşip gerçekleşmediğidir. “Cezai Sorumluluk” kavramı bir ruh sağlığı uzmanı için açık ve belirgindir. Akut ya da kronik bir zihinsel hastalık hukuki anlamda da ispat edilebilir bir tanıdır. Ancak buradaki soru tanısal orijin de değildir. Hukuki ya da cezai sorumlulukta fonksiyonel azalmayı tespit etmektir. Adli psikiyatri uygulamalarına bakıldığında -belli başlı akıl hastalıklarından farklı olarak- kişilik bozuklukları, genel olarak cezai sorumluluğu ortadan kaldıran bir fenomen olarak görülmemektedir. Elbette suç davranışları sadece kişilik bozukluğu nedeniyle meydana gelmemektedir. Araştırma bulguları, kişilik bozukluklarının genetik yatkınlıkla beraber çevresel koşullar ve olumsuz yaşam deneyimlerinin etkileşimi ile meydana geldiğine işaret etmektedir. Peki bu genetik –ya da- diğer faktörler bir insanın cezai sorumluluğunu azaltmakta mıdır? Burada tartışılması gereken, kişilik bozukluğuna sahip şüphelilerin cezai sorumlulukları ile ilgili ruhsal değerlendirme sürecinde kullanılan ölçütlerin işlevselliğidir. Adli sürece bakıldığında tanı koyma işlemi için psikiyatrın elindeki en önemli enstrüman sınıflamadır. DSM IV tarafından tanımlanmış olsa da kişilik bozuklukları kriterlerinin hepsinin birden bugüne kadar tam olarak oturtulamadığı da görülmektedir. DSM sistemi kısmi hastalıkların yarattığı fonksiyonel işlev kayıpları ile ilgili olarak bilgi vermez dolayısıyla buradaki ilgili tanılar hukuki zeminde adli sorunları çözemez. Böyle bir durumda, kişilik bozukluklarının yol açtığı, sosyal normlara uyma yeteneğindeki azalmaya nasıl karar verilecektir?

How does uncertainty impact opportunity development in internationalization?

The features of the internationalization of emerging market multinational companies (EMNCs) create a laboratory for extending theory. In this paper, we argue that a high level of asymmetry between prior knowledge and a non-incremental commitment, such as an acquisition, lies at the core of understanding these types of internationalization processes. Our proposed theoretical view is that while some uncertainties in opportunity development are known to the firms and can be managed by available knowledge, disruptive commitments can result in complexes of unstable and unilineal dynamics that bring about unexpected – and hence unforeseeable – uncertainties. These uncertainties may be a source of future unintended consequences that will have an impact on the firm as the internationalization process unfolds. This view is used for analysis of a longitudinal case study concerning the acquisition of a Swedish firm, Vargön Alloys, by the Turkish corporation Yildirim Group, focusing on the opportunity discovery and exploitation period between 2008 and 2013. By dividing uncertainty into two types (foreseeable and unforeseeable) and analysing the hidden problems that emerged after the sudden fusion of the two networks, the study nuances understanding of the emergent and non-orderly nature of the internationalization process as it unfolds. From a process point of view, the study may aid deeper understanding of complications when discovering and exploiting opportunities.

Polymer derived silicon oxycarbide-based coatings

ABSTRACTSilicon oxycarbide (SiOC) is a promising protective coating material. However, so far there has not been any comprehensive review to systematically evaluate the characteristics and properties of this material as coatings. In this review, SiOC compositions and fillers are examined based on their fundamental functions in the coating materials. From a processing point of view, different coating formation processes, such as plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition, dip coating, and spin coating, are discussed. As an intrinsic requirement and one of the most challenging aspects for SiOC to be used as coating materials, the stability of SiOC in air conditions is analysed and the degradation mechanisms of SiOC are discussed. Lastly, for different application needs, the physical and mechanical behaviours, electrical conductivity, and optical property of the coatings are presented. This first-ever systematic review on the SiOC system as coating materials is intended to provide guidance for future SiOC coating development.

Making Local Algorithms Wait-Free: the Case of Ring Coloring

When considering distributed computing, reliable message-passing synchronous systems on the one side, and asynchronous failure-prone shared-memory systems on the other side, remain two quite independently studied ends of the relia-bility/asynchrony spectrum. The concept of locality of a computation is central to the first one, while the concept of wait-freedom is central to the second one. The paper proposes a new DECOUPLED model in an attempt to reconcile these two worlds. It consists of a synchronous and reliable communication graph of n nodes, and on top a set of asynchronous crash-prone processes, each attached to a communication node. To illustrate the DECOUPLED model, the paper presents an asynchronous 3-coloring algorithm for the processes of a ring. From the processes point of view, the This article is part Theory Comput Syst algorithm is wait-free. From a locality point of view, each process uses information only from processes at distance O(log * n) from it. This local wait-free algorithm is based on an extension of the classical Cole and Vishkin's vertex coloring algorithm in which the processes are not required to start simultaneously.