Decomposition of Toluene and Acetone in Packed Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactors

The influences of TiO₂ catalytic material and glass pellet packing on the decomposition efficiency of toluene and acetone in air by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactors were experimentally investigated in this study. The effects of both packing materials on the formation of byproducts such as CO and CO₂ were also evaluated. Experimental results indicate that the introduction of glass materials into the plasma zone of a wire-tube reactor would improve the decomposition efficiency of toluene and acetone compared to a nonpacked reactor. The apparent decomposition rate constant of a glass packed-bed reactor was 4.5–4.8 times greater than that of a nonpacked reactor. The results also indicate that the decomposition rate constant of toluene was approximately 2.6 times higher than that of acetone no matter which type reactor was utilized. The application of TiO₂ coated pellets in DBD reactors will enforce the hydrocarbon byproducts to further be oxidized to CO₂, notwithstanding, it will not significantly improve the performance of the reactors in the decomposition of toluene and acetone, and in the formation of CO. The results show that the best selectivity of CO₂ for acetone decomposition in a TiO₂ coated pellets packed-bed reactor was approximately 40% higher than that in a glass packed-bed reactor.     

Aggregation effects on evaporation and the air/water interface of dodecyltrimethylammonium hydroxide solutions

 The system dodecyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (DTAOH)–water was studied by surface tension, ion-selective electrodes and evaporation in an electrobalance. Results confirmed earlier conclusions about a stepwise aggregation mechanism in DTAOH solutions. The aggregation process started at a total concentration C _T=(2.51±0.10)×10^-4 mol dm^-3) which probably corresponds to the formation of dimers. At C _T= (1.300±0.041)×10^-3 mol dm^-3 there was a change in the surface and evaporation behavior, corresponding to the formation of small, fully ionized aggregates which grew with increasing concentration. At C _T= (1.108±0.010)×10^-2 mol dm^-3 the formation of true micelles with hydroxide counterions in the Stern layer did not change significantly the evaporation and adsorption behavior. This means that between this concentration and C _T=(3.02±0.28)× M28.8n10^-2 mol dm^-3, the changes in structure were gradual. At the latter concentration there was a sudden change in the monolayer state at the air/water interface, with a strong surfactant desorption, and a major change in evaporation behavior. The changes are compatible with the formation of few, large aggregates reducing the total concentration of kinetically independent solute units, which in turn increased the activity of the solvent. This phenomenon is in agreement with literature information. The reduction in the evaporation rate of water was mainly due to the reduction of the water activity, caused by colligative effects. The reduction of the effective area available for evaporation had only a slight effect in water evaporation. Received: 9 January 1997 Accepted: 19 October 1997     

Long-term study of an intermittent air sparged MBR for synthetic wastewater treatment

Membrane bioreactors (MBR) combine biological processes with membrane filtration. Advantages of MBR in municipal wastewater treatment include high effluent quality and reduced space requirements. Steady operation of membrane plants requires careful management of membrane fouling. Even though it might be impossible to prevent, fouling can be limited by techniques such as gas sparging. The injection of gas bubbles increases the shear stress and removes fouling material from the membrane surface. Most cited literature on air sparging refers to short-term experiments, often times in bench scale. The aim of this study was therefore long-term investigations in pilot plant scale of a 70 L reactor fed with glucose-based synthetic wastewater. The main focus was on enhancing permeate flux by air sparging. The results showed that using air sparging significantly increased the permeate flux was doubled even over several weeks. The findings were interpreted using the dimensionless fouling and shear stress number. The fouling resistance was found to decrease significantly with air injection ratios between 0.4 and 0.5. When air sparging was applied after a period without air sparging, the shear stress number doubled. This increase in shear led to a reduction of the fouling number by approximately 30%. During several weeks air sparging only a slow fouling number increase was. In contrast to that after air sparging was ceased, an exponential increase of the fouling number was observed.     

Volumetric, ultrasonic and viscometric studies of binary mixtures of dimethyl sulphoxide with chloro and nitro substituted aromatic hydrocarbons at T = 303.15 K

Excess volumes (V^E) ultrasonic sound velocities (u), isentropic compressibilities (K_s) and viscosities (η) have been measured for the binary mixtures of dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) with 1,2-dichlorobenzene, 1,3-dichlorobenzene, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, o-chlorotoluene, m-chlorotoluene, p-chlorotoluene, o-nitrotoluene and m-nitrotoluene at T = 303.15 K. The measured V^E values were positive over the entire composition range in all the binary mixtures. Isentropic compressibilities (K_s) have been computed for the same systems from precise sound velocity and density data. Further, deviation in isentropic compressibility (ΔK_s) from ideal behaviour was also calculated. The viscosity data are analysed on the basis of corresponding states approach. Deviation in viscosities are positive over the entire composition range. The measured data is explained on the basis of intermolecular interactions between unlike molecules.     

Discriminant Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds data related to a new location method of entrapped people in collapsed buildings of an earthquake

Discriminant Analysis is used as a part of a research, which aims at using expired air analysis for the early location of entrapped people under the ruins of collapsed buildings in an earthquake. This work focuses on the possibility of distinguishing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the entrapment area which originate from different sources. Five categories of samples were analyzed by Thermal Desorption-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). Expired air samples from healthy humans (Category 1) and fasting people (Category 2) were analyzed for studying the VOCs attributed to entrapped people. Headspace air of urban waste disposal bins (Category 3), headspace air of bags with decaying human bodies (Category 4) and urban air samples (Category 5) were analyzed for studying the VOCs attributed to background sources. Discriminant Rotation, a specific type of Discriminant Analysis was applied on the VOCs concentration matrix of the five categories. Combinations of VOCs that best discriminated each category were determined. Cluster Analysis was used to validate the results of Discriminant Analysis. The advantages and limitations of the method are presented and discussed.     

Variation of physicochemical properties in the aggregates of structual isomers

The regions of variation of density, enthalpy of formation, and detonation velocity of all of the formally possible structual isomers were determined for several molecular formulas of C,H,N,O-containing explosives. The histograms of the distribution of the structual isomers over these parameters were constructed.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 5, pp. 859–862, May, 1995.The authors are grateful to Mrs. I. D. Solodukhina for the design of the graphical material.The work was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 94-03-09323).     

The nonsymmetric pressure tensor in polyatomic fluids

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics calculations are used to show that polyatomic fluids can support antisymmetric stress. In a homogeneous system where the time dependence of vorticity is a step function, it is shown that the rate at which intrinsic angular velocity approaches its steady-state value ( = 1/2 × u) is determined by the magnitude of the antisymmetric part of the pressure tensor.     

加工误差对气体静压径向轴承的影响

建立了一种考虑影响气膜厚度误差、圆度和圆柱度误差的气膜厚度分布综合表达式,考虑加工误差对气体静压径向轴承的影响,进行了气体润滑有限元分析.分析表明:圆度和圆柱度误差对轴承的承载能力影响不大;气膜厚度误差为平均气膜厚度的5%时,承载能力变化约为10%.     

啁啾高斯光脉冲和群速度色散对带前置放大器光接收机灵敏度的影响研究

研究了啁啾高斯光脉冲信号对带前置放大器光接收机灵敏度的影响,以及群速度色散对光接收机灵敏度恶化量的影响.发现适当选取高斯光脉冲信号的占空比、啁啾分量、光接收机均衡滤波器输出的升余弦频谱波形滚降因子的值可以提高光接收机灵敏度;群速度色散存在时光脉冲的宽度并非越小越好.结果对实际光接收机的分析和设计有一定指导意义.     

机动车多点源排放空气污染物浓度解析模式

针对公路机动车排放源和环境特点，建立了风速和扩散系数随高度变化的公路机动车多源排放空气污染平流扩散方程。提出了在地面和对流层边界对污染物为全反射条件下的定解问题。引用Green函数的概念，提出了公路机动车多源扩散方程的求解思路，利用微分方程的特征理论，求得了Green函数的横风和垂直向分量。通过Green函数分量与排放源强的线性组合，得到了公路机动车排放为多点源、线源和面源时污染物浓度三维分布的解析解。指出了广泛使用的高斯扩散模式在公路机动车排气污染物浓度计算中的局限性。