Single Raw Material Research Articles

(Invited) Material Criticality and Energy Storage Materials

A critical raw material provides essential properties to an engineered material or system, has few if any easy substitutes and is subject to supply-chain risks or concerns about long-term availability. In lithium-ion batteries, cobalt, lithium and graphite frequently are cited as possible critical materials. In addition, for emerging energy storage technologies, manganese, magnesium, vanadium and others are possible critical materials. In some cases, supply-chain risks relate to geopolitical concerns about nations mining or processing a raw material. In other cases, risks are due to a material's being produced largely as a by-product or companion to other major or host materials - in which case, a material's availability depends on developments in the markets for both the companion and host materials. Over the longer term, society is not in danger of running out of any single raw material. Rather, it faces the prospect of mining lower quality mineral resources, implying higher costs and greater environmental disturbances unless offset by process innovations. This talk reviews the nature and degree of 'criticality' for those raw materials with actual or possible important roles in energy storage.

Carbon Nanotube Fabrication Based on Animal Red Blood Cells

Red blood cells of mammals contain both raw carbonaceous material (proteins) and catalyzer precursor (iron atoms of metal-organic hemoglobin molecules) for Carbon nanotube (CNT) fabrication by the chemical vapor deposition method. To demonstrate the possibility of CNT fabrication by using blood as a single raw material, livestock (sheep) blood droplets on silicon substrates were used as samples for pyrolysis in an argon and argon + butane atmosphere at 300; 400; 500; 7000 C. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, of the product of pyrolysis at 500; 7000 C, magnified up to 20000 times, shows dense bushes consisting of nano-size rods. The length of the rods reached 50 μm; widths were around 400 nm and less. The two carbon bands centered at wavenumbers 1340 and 1580 cm-1 in the Raman spectra of samples recorded using a low power-incident red laser (638 nm), demonstrates increasing graphitization of carbon atoms with rise of pyrolysis temperature. Both the SEM images and the Raman spectra indicate increasing formation of CNT, with an increase of pyrolysis temperature from 400 to 7000 C. No evidence of CNT formation at 3000 C was found.

Discovering the Potential of Organic Material in Architecture

Indonesia is abundant with natural resources in the form of organic materials from the earth and floral ecosystem. Based on natural resources, Indonesia’s buildings are built using the organic materials from their surrounding area, such as woods, palm trees, bamboos and rattans that can be used as architectural elements. The organic material reflects the architectural development in Indonesia, starting with a single raw material via the joining of different building parts up to the finished building. It also visualizes the identity which will be presented with local wisdom from the knowledge and the ideas. This paper aims to identify main organic materials in Indonesia regarding the physical properties and aesthetic values that are encountered by human senses. Materiality acknowledges as a flux that is passing processes of continual transformation; it is commonly called “thingliness” or “woodiness”. Furthermore, it encompasses three components, medium, substance, and surfaces, which are not separated or dominant from nature; it is built as a unified whole. This study proposes an idea to give impacts of the build environments on traditional and contemporary design. By adopting a sustainability approach to organic material selection and specification extends the inspiration in the design stage of the building process.

Within plant variation of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) produced from multiple raw materials in varying proportions: Chemical composition and in vitro evaluation of feeding value for ruminants

Chemical composition and feeding value of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) differ among types of raw material and ethanol production plants. Possibly more challenging, variation does as well occur between batches from the same plant. Although some comprehensive studies on within plant variation of DDGS exist, they are limited to DDGS produced from maize as the sole raw material. Nevertheless, the use of raw material blends may increase variability, particularly if proportions of raw materials vary over time. In the current study, 28 samples of blend DDGS were obtained from one ethanol plant over 420days in around 14day intervals. The raw material blend contained varying proportions of barley, maize, wheat and sugar beet syrup. Samples were analyzed in terms of chemical composition including minerals. Energy and protein values for ruminants were estimated based on chemical composition and in vitro methods. Descriptive statistics were calculated to describe within plant variation, which affected DDGS characteristics to different extents. Coefficients of variation (CV) ranged from approximately 3% for crude protein and metabolizable energy to >25% for starch, sugar and Na. Regarding protein value, predicted ruminally undegraded feed crude protein (RUP) varied considerably (CV approximately 13%), whilst in vitro results for intestinal digestibility of RUP and utilizable crude protein at the duodenum displayed consistency (CV<5%). Differing methodology impeded comparison with previous research, but results indicate that varying proportions of raw materials did not result in increased variability compared with DDGS produced from a single raw material. In addition, regression analysis was performed to examine correlations between raw material proportions and DDGS characteristics. Resulting equations have to be considered specific for the current set of samples and ethanol plant. However, equations generally reflected the proportions and ascribed quality of the raw materials. Particularly, reasonable correlations were found for proximate constituents, energy concentrations and minerals K and Mn. In contrast, other macro and trace elements either could not be predicted by raw material proportions or equations were difficult to interpret. Similarly, characteristics of the protein value displayed very limited correlation to raw material proportions. These findings were likely because minerals as well as composition, degradability and digestibility of crude protein are more prone to be affected by processing details. Thus, results suggest a limited potential to predict chemical composition of blend DDGS from raw material proportions and, on the other hand, indicate the considerable impact of processing on DDGS characteristics.

Decision support for additive manufacturing deployment in remote or austere environments

PurposeAdditive manufacturing (AM) can reduce the process supply chain and encourage manufacturing innovation in remote or austere environments by producing an array of replacement/spare parts from a single raw material source. The wide variety of AM technologies, materials, and potential use cases necessitates decision support that addresses the diverse considerations of deployable manufacturing. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews with potential users are conducted in order to establish a general deployable AM framework. This framework then forms the basis for a decision support tool to help users determine appropriate machines and materials for their desired deployable context.FindingsUser constraints are separated into process, machine, part, material, environmental, and logistical categories to form a deployable AM framework. These inform a “tiered funnel” selection tool, where each stage requires increased user knowledge of AM and the deployable context. The tool can help users narrow a database of candidate machines and materials to those appropriate for their deployable context.Research limitations/implicationsFuture work will focus on expanding the environments covered by the decision support tool and expanding the user needs pool to incorporate private sector users and users less familiar with AM processes.Practical implicationsThe framework in this paper can influence the growth of existing deployable manufacturing endeavors (e.g. Rapid Equipping Force Expeditionary Lab – Mobile, Army’s Mobile Parts Hospital, etc.) and considerations for future deployable AM systems.Originality/valueThis work represents novel research to develop both a framework for deployable AM and a user-driven decision support tool to select a process and material for the deployable context.

Setting simultaneous specifications on multiple raw materials to ensure product quality and minimize risk

Establishing meaningful multivariate specification regions on the multiple properties of a single raw material has been presented and illustrated by Duchesne & MacGregor Duchesne and MacGregor (2004) . However, the manufacture of most final products usually involves the use of many raw materials each with multiple measured properties and from different suppliers. Setting specifications separately on each of these materials is unreasonable since it is the simultaneous combination of the properties of all the materials that will affect final quality. This paper presents an approach to determining the acceptability of new lots of raw materials from multiple suppliers and of assessing the suitability of combining specific lots of materials currently in inventory that will minimize the risk of manufacturing a poor quality product. Multivariate statistical models based on PLS are used to determine the importance of all the properties of each of the materials and to develop the specification methodology. Use of the models for achieving improved control over the product quality is also discussed.

Linearly polarized Q-switched ceramic laser made with anisotropic nanostructured thin films.

A polarizing laser mirror was made of an alternating sequence of low and high refractive index layers of titanium oxide using glancing angle deposition (GLAD). Large refractive index contrast and large birefringence, reaching 0.5 and 0.1, respectively, could be obtained from one single raw material by changing the deposition conditions. The laser mirror could withstand a train of 2.7ns, single-mode pulses at 680Hz, λ=1030 nm, and peak power density of 670 MW/cm2 when used as an output coupler of a passively Q-switched (Yb0.1Y0.9)3Al5O12 ceramic laser. The polarization extinction ratio was found to be better than 30dB both in continuous-wave and pulsed regimes. These results indicate that polarizing laser mirrors made from nanostructured thin films with GLAD, in addition to being simple to fabricate, can withstand high pulse energy density.

Characterization of clays from the Corumbataí formation used as raw material for ceramic industry in the Santa Gertrudes district, São Paulo, Brazil

The Ceramic District of Santa Gertrudes (CDSG) is the largest producer of ceramic floor and wall tiles in Brazil. Tile manufacturers in the CDSG use the single raw material, clayey rocks from the Corumbataí formation. Mineralogical, chemical, thermal and microstructural characterization of the clayey rocks from the Corumbataí formation have been performed in order to better understand effect of the studied properties on dry route tilemaking process. The results revealed different compositional features among the studied clayey raw materials. The bulk samples were dominated by clay minerals associated with quartz, feldspars and minor amount of hematite. All samples were complex mixtures where different types of clay minerals (illite, smectite, illite–smectite, kaolinite–smectite, chlorite, sometimes kaolinite) coexist in variable amount. The amount of clay minerals increased with a higher degree of weathering of studied samples. Different technological behavior was expected for studied raw materials due to their heterogeneous nature, in terms of mineral composition and weathering degree. To improve technological behavior of studied materials during tilemaking process an upgrade of the currently used raw materials preparation is recommended (raw materials maturation, more aggressive milling of raw materials, addition of plastic component and homogeneous mixing of plastic and non-plastic components).

A Novel and Simple Method for the Synthesis of β-SiC/SiO2 Coaxial Nanocables in a Large Area: Polycarbosilane Pyrolysis.

In the present work, β-SiC/SiO2 coaxial nanocables are synthesized in a large area via direct pyrolysis of polymeric precursor method, in which, polycarbosilane acts the single raw material. The morphology, chemical composition and detailed microstructure of the nanocables are characterized. The core of nanocables are single crystalline β-SiC nanowires with diameter of 30 - 60 nm grown along [111] direction. The uniform coating layer is amorphous SiO2 with thickness of 15 nm. Based on the pyrolysis process of polycarbosilane, the Vapor-Liquid-Solid growth mechanism is discussed. Furthermore, field emission measurements show the turn-on field and the threshold field are 3.2 V/μm and 6.5 V/μm, respectively. This study shows that β-SiC/SiO2 coaxial nanocables are promising for field emission display device and other vacuum electronic devices.

Lithic cultural variability during the Gravettian in the Cantabrian Region and the western Pyrenees: State of the art

The field and laboratory work carried out in recent decades have substantially changed our vision of various aspects of the Gravettian in the Cantabrian Region and the western Pyrenees. The objective of this work is to carry out a critical synthesis of the available data for the lithic industry of the Gravettian in this region, according to raw material procurement, exploitation strategies and typological markers. Thereby several aspects are of importance: (1) the alternating availability of high quality raw material, where two territories can be divided: one to the West, where raw material acquisition is showing a wide range of raw materials (notably flint, quartzite, quartz), and one to the East, where assemblages are completely dominated by a single raw material: flint; (2) the great similarity between different reduction strategies, mainly in relation to flint; and (3) an existing polymorphism throughout the territory in case of the tool types, within which protrude two typological groups: back elements and burins, notably the Noailles burins. The latter are massively present in the eastern part of the Cantabrian Region and the western Pyrenees. This variability does not seem to correspond to chronological phases, but has to be probably understood in functional terms.

Study on the Synthesis and Application of Core-Shell Structured Nanoparticles of Fe3O4

This study addressed different materials to coat iron oxide, after using co-precipitation to synthesize. During synthesizing iron oxide, FeSO4•7H2O as a single raw material , was emphasized as a precursor salt. In advance, FeSO4•7H2O was oxidized into trivalence by using hydrogen peroxide, allocated Fe(Ⅱ)and Fe(Ⅲ) mole ratio as one to two, and synthesized ferric ferrous oxide nanoparticle by sodium hydroxide co-precipitation, which TX-100 was a protective agent to disperse uniformly.Depend on the morphology of several nanopartical types through the processing, separation of precursor salt solution and NaOH solution in pump by adding TX-100 solution would get Fe3O4 ratio more evenly. Besides during the experiment, variety loading of NaOH and dispersant, using two- stage method to add NaOH as well, rod and particle mixure would obtain.XRD, SQUID, HRTEM and SEM were used to analyze the particle size, uniformity, Magnetic, and Crystal structure. Also, intend to find the relation among synthesis and properties, and continue to work on electrodes for battery application to seek the optimal performance corresponded to synthesis conditions.Preparation of Fe3O4@Ag was took AgNO3 and C6H12O6, the reductant, into Fe3O4 solution. Different mole ratio of AgNO3 and Fe3O4 were mix- coated. Through the process, surface modifier makes coating completely and uniformly. Later, same analysis entailed to Fe3O4@Ag product powder. The purpose was to examine its completely coating, thickness, and magnetism.

StatSAW: modelling lumber product assortment using zero-inflated Poisson regression

Realistic forestry value chain simulations require accurate representations of each component. For primary processing, this is complicated by the fact that a single raw material is converted into a wide range of lumber products. The aim of this study was to develop statistical models for predicting lumber product assortment from tree size information, while taking into account the high proportion of zeros in the data. Lumber recovery was simulated from a database of 1013 laser-scanned Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns &amp; Poggenb. and Abies balsamea (L.) Mill. stems using the sawing simulator Optitek. The number of boards per stem of specific products was modelled with zero-inflated Poisson regression using stem diameter and height as covariates. The number of boards per stem was strongly related to both diameter and height, but also changed according to input prices for lumber products. Zero-inflated models outperformed ordinary Poisson regression in all cases. The developed models will be integrated into simulation tools designed to optimize processes along the entire forest value chain from forest to end user.

Study of the hydrothermal treatments of residues from fluidized bed combustors for the manufacture of ettringite-based building elements

Fluidized bed combustion (FBC) waste is generally unsuitable for making ordinary cements and concretes, and its alternative uses are therefore worthy of consideration. In the present work, FBC waste is investigated as a potentially suitable single raw material for the manufacture of building components based on ettringite, a compound characterized by low density, high fire resistance, significant mechanical strength and usefulness as the main component of preformed lightweight building materials. The hydration behaviour of two FBC waste samples (a fly and a bottom ash) was explored within curing periods comprised between 2 and 24h at 55°C, 70°C and 85°C. X-ray diffraction and differential thermal analysis were employed as main experimental techniques in order to evaluate the distribution of the hydration products. The role of the raw ash chemical and mineralogical composition, operating temperature and time in the ettringite formation was highlighted. The fly ash was more prone to generate ettringite which, after 2h-curing time, tended to form and decompose earlier, as the curing temperature and time were further increased. The selectivity of the reactants toward ettringite can be enhanced by the addition of blending components.

A NOVEL METHOD TO SYNTHESIZE N-DOPED CNTs ARRAYS VIA CHEMICAL MODIFYING POROUS ALUMINA MEMBRANE

N -doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) arrays were fabricated via simply chemical modifying porous alumina membrane (PAM) with dopamine. The diameter of N -doped CNTs is about 60–70 nm. The N / C atomic ratio is calculated to be 0.05 and the main functionality is pyridone/pyrrole N . This chemical modifying method can be used to fabricate mass of N -doped CNTs arrays in one step with single raw material.

Life cycle assessment of European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus) consumption. A case study for Galicia (NW Spain)

European pilchard or sardines (Sardina pilchardus) are an attractive raw material to extract from Iberian waters, since they constitute a cheap source of protein and they are a popular product among consumers. This has led to a wide range of final products available for consumers to purchase based on this single raw material. Therefore, this study presents a cross-product environmental assessment using life cycle assessment of three different final products based on sardine landings: canned sardines, fresh sardines and European hake caught by using sardine as bait. In addition, the products were followed throughout their entire life cycle, considering different cooking methods for each final product. Results showed high variability in environmental impacts, not only between the three final products, but also when one single product was cooked in different ways, highlighting the importance that the consumption phase and other post-landing stages may have on the final environmental profile of seafood. Results are then analysed regarding relevant limitations and uncertainties, as well as in terms of the consumer and policy implications.

The scramble for the Amazon and the "Lost paradise" of Euclides da Cunha

fortunes of late nineteenth century's imperial and industrial powers depended on a single raw material - rubber - with only one source: basin. And so began scramble for Amazon, a decades-long conflict that found Britain, France, Belgium, and United States fighting with and against new nations of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil for forest's riches. In midst of this struggle, Euclides da Cunha, engineer, journalist, geographer, political theorist, and one of Brazil's most celebrated writers, led a survey expedition to farthest reaches of river, among world's most valuable, dangerous, and little-known landscapes. The Scramble for Amazon tells story of da Cunha's terrifying journey, unfinished novel born from it, and global strife that formed backdrop for both. Haunted by his broken marriage, da Cunha trekked through a beautiful region thrown into chaos by guerrilla warfare, starving migrants, and native slavery. All while, he worked on his masterpiece, a nationalist synthesis of geography, philosophy, biology, and journalism he named the Lost Paradise. Da Cunha intended his epic to unveil Amazon's explorers, spies, natives, and brutal geopolitics, but, as Susanna B. Hecht recounts, he never completed it - his wife's lover shot him dead upon his return. At once biography of an extraordinary writer, a masterly chronicle of social, political, and environmental history of Amazon, and a superb translation of remaining pieces of da Cunha's project, The Scramble for Amazon is a work of thrilling intellectual ambition.

An empirical approach to determine specific weights of driving factors for the price of commodities—A contribution to the measurement of the economic scarcity of minerals and metals

In recent years, commodity markets show a large amount of volatility and substantial price jumps, indicating an increasing economic scarcity in many cases. As this scarcity makes commodity procurement a critical issue for national economies, industry sectors and manufacturing companies, a number of criticality indices have been presented and utilized in science as well as in practice. These indices are mostly based on an aggregation of different key figures, both qualitative and quantitative. However, the weighting of the different factors is in most cases arbitrary or based on rough estimates.While this may be inevitable in some areas, we believe that an empirically based aggregation is desirable and to some degree attainable. While the broad concept of criticality is certainly hard to operationalize from a quantitative point of view, the economic scarcity is not only one important factor of criticality, but can be measured to some extent by the material's market price.Therefore, in this paper we show that each single raw material comes with a fundamentally different set of relevant factors for its economic scarcity. We determine those by performing an extended regression analysis on the market price (dependent variable) of 42 (out of about 60 industrially relevant) chemical elements, based on a broad range of empirical datasets, covering 11 driving factors (independent variables) and a 26 year time span. Our analysis determines specific weights for the factors of scarcity of each raw material and takes into account the material's individual characteristics.We expect these results to be valuable for refining the aggregation of criticality assessments, as scarcity is at least one aspect of criticality and many influence factors we analyzed are currently utilized in criticality studies. However, our results are contrary to a number of well-known studies on criticality of raw materials, which assign generic weights to the different driving factors of different commodities and therefrom derive a criticality index. Instead, our results suggest a specific model for every single material when assessing availability risks in criticality evaluation methods. Therefore we hope that our results provide an additional empirical perspective regarding the weighting of factors for criticality based on the economic scarcity of minerals and metals.

Optimal policies for a finite-horizon batching inventory model

This paper is concerned with finding an optimal inventory policy for the integrated replenishment-production batching model of Omar and Smith (2002). Here, a company produces a single finished product which requires a single raw material and the objective is to minimise the total inventory costs over a finite planning horizon. Earlier work in the literature considered models with linear demand rate function of the finished product. This work proposes a general methodology for finding an optimal inventory policy for general demand rate functions. The proposed methodology is adapted from the recent work of Benkherouf and Gilding (2009).

Protein-Based Hierarchical Suprastructures Derived from κ-casein Amyloid Fibrils and their use for Neuronal Differentiation

Functions are diversified by producing hierarchical structures from a single raw material. Protein-based suprastructures are considered to be versatile nanoscale materials particularly useful at the biological interface as their chemical natures could be easily modified. Their intrinsic biocompatibility allows them to be the junctional materials possibly employed between living cells and inanimate objects. In this respect, biologically compatible milk protein of κ-casein has been employed to fabricate higher-order suprastructures. In the presence of dithiothreitol and heat treatment, κ-casein transforms into amyloid fibrils with distinctive morphology attributable to mechanism-based fibrillar polymorphism. As the fibrils elongate to yield high aspect ratio during high-temperature incubation, the resulting fibrils laterally associate into liquid crystalline state by forming two-dimensional fibrillar array. Following a desalting process, the fibrillar arrays turn into three-dimensional matrix of hydrogel which could be selectively disintegrated by subsequent salt treatment. The hydrogel was demonstrated to be a matrix capable of exhibiting controlled release of bioactive substances like retinoic acid, which led to temporal and spatial control over the differentiation of neuronal cells. Therefore, the hierarchical suprastructure formation derived from the single protein of κ-casein producing one-dimensional protein nanofibrils, two-dimensional liquid crystalline state, and three-dimensional hydrogel could be widely appreciated in various areas of nanobiotechnology including drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Utilization of the field experiment results of University of Debrecen in the development of maize-based bio-ethanol production

Maize is currently the single raw material of bio-ethanol production in Hungary. The aim of our examinations is the observation of yield andnutritional characteristics of commercial maize hybrids in Hungary from the aspect of efficient bio-ethanol production. We set up a randomized block field trial. We determined the starch content and starch yield (t ha-1) of the 51 maize hybrids involved in the field trial.In laboratory conditions, we examined the amylose and amylopectin ratio and the amount of resistant starch of the selected 20 maize hybrids.According to our results, there is a significant difference between the starch yield the amylose component of the starch content and resistant starch of the examined maize hybrids. Our studies reveal that maize as a raw material must be selected based on the cultivation objectives. If the objective is bio-ethanol production, detailed knowledge of starch content is necessary. There is a significant difference among commercial maize hybrids in Hungary in terms of characteristics determining the producible amount of bio-ethanol.