Structural investigation of glasses with doped some transition metal oxides under the influence of gamma irradiation

The ultrasonic velocity of the alkali-borosilicate with different transition metal oxides (TMO) has been studied using the pulse echo technique. The elastic moduli such as elastic constant and bulk modulus have been obtained from the experimental data. Changes in the structure with different gamma irradiation doses have been investigated by using FTIR spectroscopy and ultrasonic studies. The results show that structural changes in the BO₃ to BO₄ due to TMO and irradiation are obtained.     

Determination of effective atomic numbers and effective electron densities for Cu/Zn alloy

The mass attenuation coefficients, total interaction cross-sections, effective atomic numbers, effective electron densities and photon mean free paths of the Cu/Zn alloy were determined on the basis of the mixture rule at 356, 511, 662, 835 and 1275 keV gamma-ray energies. The gamma-rays were detected by using an ordinary NaI(Tl) scintillation detection system with a resolution of 10.2% at 662 keV.It was observed that the mixture rule is a suitable method for determination of these parameters. The effective atomic numbers and effective electron densities tend to be almost constant as a function of energy. There is good agreement between experiment and theory, calculated by WinXCom.     

Production of Ethanol from Sweet Sorghum Juice Using VHG Technology: A Simulation Case Study

The aims of this study were to develop the kinetic model and determine kinetic parameters describing ethanol production from sweet sorghum juice using very high gravity technology in the batch fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae NP01. The obtained experimental data were tested with four different types of model, based on the experimental data, accounting for the substrate limitation, substrate inhibition, product inhibition, and the combination of those three effects, respectively. The optimization technique to find kinetic parameters was non-linear regression using Marquardt method performed through numerical procedure. The chosen model with its kinetic parameters obtained in the batch mode was validated and tested against the other independent experimental data in the small batch-scale and large-scale fermenter, in order to investigate the applicability and scale-up effect of the model, respectively. Then, the obtained model with its parameters was applied in the simulations of the continuous and fed-batch operations to examine the concentration profiles of fermentation components with the variations in operating parameters such as the dilution rate, feed-flow rate, start-up time, and feed concentration. The results indicated that the kinetic model (the substrate limitation with substrate and product inhibition effects) was suitable to describe ethanol fermentation. In the continuous mode, using the dilution rate of 0.01 h^?1, the maximum ethanol concentration obtained was, approximately, 90 g/l whereas the simulated results from the fed-batch operation revealed that the maximum ethanol concentration at quasi-steady state condition was, approximately, 96 g/l. The start-up time of 21 h was the fastest time to reach the steady-state and quasi-steady state for both the continuous and fed-batch modes, respectively.     

Gamma-ray shielding and structural properties of barium–bismuth–borosilicate glasses

The attenuation coefficients of barium–bismuth–borosilicate glasses have been measured for gamma-ray photon energies of 662, 1173 and 1332 keV using a narrow beam transmission geometry. These coefficients were then used to obtain the values of mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic number, effective electron density and mean free path. Good agreement has been observed between experimental and theoretical values of these parameters. From the obtained results it is reported here that from the barium–bismuth–borosilicate glasses are better shields to gamma-radiations in comparison to the standard radiation shielding concretes from the shielding point of view. The molar volume, FTIR and acoustic investigations have been used to study the structural properties of the prepared glass system. The obtained results reveal that the formation of non-bridging oxygens occurs at higher concentration of Bi₂O₃.