Microporous polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber membrane contactors for CO2 stripping: Effect of PEG-400 in spinning dope

In order to develop the structure of microporous PVDF membranes, PEG-400 was introduced into the polymer dope as a non-solvent additive. The hollow fiber membranes were prepared via a wet phase-inversion process and then used in the membrane contactor modules for CO₂ stripping from water. By addition of different amounts of PEG-400, cloud points of the polymer dope were obtained to examine phase-inversion behavior. From FESEM analysis, the membrane structure changed from a finger-like to an approximately sponge-like morphology with the addition of 4 wt.% of PEG-400. The prepared membranes presented smaller mean pore size (0.13 μm) and significantly higher wetting pressure (550 kPa) compared to the plain membrane. From CO₂ stripping test, at water velocity of 0.4 m/s, the PVDF membranes prepared by 4% PEG-400 demonstrated an approximate CO₂ stripping flux of 4.5 × 10⁻⁵ (mol/m² s) which is 125% higher than the flux of the plain membrane. It could be concluded that structurally developed hydrophobic PVDF hollow fiber membranes can be prepared by a controlled phase-inversion process to enhance the performance of gas–liquid membrane contactor.     

An experimental study of drag reduction by nanofluids in slug two-phase flow of air and water through horizontal pipes☆

This study investigates the effect of injecting nanofluids containing nano-SiO2 as drag reducing agents (DRA) at different concentrations on the pressure drop of air–water flow through horizontal pipe....     

Preparation of hydrophobic flat sheet membranes from PVDF-HFP copolymer for enhancing the oxygen permeance in nitrogen/oxygen gas mixture

In this study, poly(vinilydene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene)(PVDF-HFP) was used for preparation of hydrophobic membranes using non-solvent induced phase inversion(NIPS) technique. PVDF-HFP copolymer with concentrations of 10 wt% and 12 wt% was prepared to investigate the effect of polymer concentration on pore structure,morphology, hydrophobicity and performance of prepared membranes. Besides, the use of two coagulation baths with the effects of parameters such as coagulant time, polymer type and concentration, and the amount of nonsolvent were studied. The performance of prepared membranes was evaluated based on the permeability and selectivity of oxygen and nitrogen from a gas mixture of nitrogen/oxygen under operating conditions of feed flow rate(1–5 L·min~(-1)), inlet pressure to membrane module(0.1–0.5 MPa) and temperatures between 25 and 45 °C. The results showed that the use of two coagulation baths with different compositions of distillated water and isopropanol,coagulant time, polymer type and concentration, and the amount of non-solvent additive have the most effect on pore structure, morphology, thickness, roughness and crystallinity of fabricated membranes. Porosity ranges for the three fabricated membranes were determined, where the maximum porosity was 73.889% and the minimum value was 56.837%. Also, the maximum and minimum average thicknesses of membrane were 320.85 μm and115 μm. Besides, the values of 4.7504 × 10~(-7) mol· m~(-2)· s~(-1)· Pa~(-1), 0.525 and 902.126 nm were achieved for maximum oxygen permeance, O_2/N_2 selectivity and roughness, respectively.     

纳米流体对空气与水通过水平管道迟缓两相流的减阻作用的实验研究（英文）

This study investigates the effect of injecting nanofluids containing nano-SiO2 as drag reducing agents (DRA) at different concentrations on the pressure drop of air–water flow through horizontal pipe. The test fluid used in this study was air–water with nano-SiO2 particles at 0.1%–1%mass concentration. The test sections of the experi-mental set-up were five pipes of the same length of 9 m with ID from 0.0127m–0.03175m (0.5 to 1.25 in). Air–water flow was run in slug flow regime under different volumetric flow rates. The results of drag reduction (η%) indicated that the addition of DRA could be efficient up to some dosage. Drag reduction performed much better for smal er pipe diameters than it did for larger ones. For various nanosilica concentrations, the maximum drag reduction was about 66.8%for 0.75%mass concentration of nanosilica.     

Composition and antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil and extracts of Stachys inflata Benth from Iran

Composition and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of essential oil and methanol extract polar and nonpolar subfractions of Stachys inflata were determined. GC and GC/MS analyse of the essential oil showed 45 constituents representing 95.46% of the oil, the major components linalool (28.55%), α-terpineol (9.45%), spathulenol (8.37%) and (2E)-hexenal (4.62%) constituted 50.99% of it. Essential oil and extracts were also tested for their antioxidant activities using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and β-carotene/linoleic acid assays. In the DPPH test, IC₅₀ value for the polar subfraction was 89.50 μg/ml, indicating an antioxidant potency of about 22% of that of butylated hydroxytoluene (IC₅₀ = 19.72 μg/ml) for this extract. In β-carotene/linoleic acid assay, the best inhibition belonged to the nonpolar subfraction (77.08%). Total phenolic content of the polar and nonpolar extract subfractions was 5.4 and 2.8% (w/w), respectively. The plant also showed a week antimicrobial activity against three strains of tested microorganisms. Linalool and α-terpineol were also tested as major components of the oil and showed no antioxidant but considerable antimicrobial activities.     

An investigation of different gas injection scenarios as enhanced condensate recovery method in a naturally fractured gas-condensate reservoir

In gas condensate reservoirs, when the bottom hole pressure falls below the dew point pressure condensates are formed. This causes hydrocarbon liquid saturation around the well bore region. This phenomenon is called condensate blockage or condensate banking. Condensate recovery reduction due to condensate banking near the well bore region is an important problem in gas condensate reservoirs. The common method to prevent the condensate banking is gas cycling (reinjection of produced dry gas) into the reservoir that can contribute to the condensate vaporization, thus increasing the condensate recovery factor. The objective of this study was to find a suitable replacement for gas cycling. For this purpose, an investigation on the effects of injection of different types of gases (CO₂, N₂, and C₁) on enhance condensate recovery factor and pressure maintenance were performed. This research was done on one of the Iranian gas condensate reservoirs through a compositional simulator. The two-parameter Peng-Robinson equation of state (EOS) and Lohrenz-Bray-Clark correlation were used to model reservoir fluid properties through regression on the pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) experimental data. A fracture network was distributed over the reservoir, so a dual porosity/dual permeability model was selected for better evaluation of the fracture system. Then, various scenarios of natural depletion and CO₂, N₂, C₁, and gas cycling injection were studied. The results showed that CO₂ injection scenario being associated with the highest efficiency compared to that of other gases.     

Experimental study of argon dilution effects on NO x emission in a non-premixed flame in comparison with nitrogen

The effects of nitrogen and argon dilution on NO _X emission of turbulent propane-air non-premixed flame in a furnace are experimentally investigated. Dilution is an effective process in reducing NO _X emission, since diluents cause an increase in the mass flow of the fuel, and consequently the temperature in the combustion chamber and NO _X emission decreases. We measured NO _X emission and temperature for a wide range of dilution and equivalence ratios. The results show that nitrogen dilution is more effective than argon dilution in reducing NO _X emission. In addition, both dilutions caused the yellow color of the non-premixed flame to turn blue, which indicates more complete combustion and better mixing of fuel and oxidant.     

GC/MS analysis and in vitro antioxidant activity of essential oil and methanol extracts of Thymus caramanicus Jalas and its main constituent carvacrol

Chemical composition of the essential oil, antioxidant activity (DPPH and β-carotene/linoleic acid assays), and total phenolic content (Folin–Ciocalteu assay) of aerial parts of Thymus caramanicus were determined. The highest radical-scavenging activity (DPPH test) was shown by the polar subfraction of the methanol extract (IC₅₀ = 43.0 μg/ml) which was also higher than that of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT, IC₅₀ = 19.7 μg/ml). However, it was the nonpolar subfraction of the methanol extract that showed the highest inhibition (84.4%), as assessed by the β-carotene/linoleic acid assay, which was only slightly lower than that shown by BHT (93.3%). The antioxidant activities of the essential oil main component (carvacrol) were also evaluated for comparison. Total phenolic content of the polar subfraction, as gallic acid equivalents, was 124.3 μg/mg. Essential oil extracted from the aerial parts by hydrodistillation was analysed by GC and GC/MS. Fifteen constituents, representing 99.3% of the oil, were identified, of which the major ones, carvacrol (85.9%), thymol (3.3%), p-cymene (3.2%), γ-terpinene (1.8%) and borneol (1.3%), accounted for 95.6% of the oil.     

An energy-efficient power allocation scheme for millimeter-wave MIMO-NOMA systems

There are many challenges in fifth generation (5G) telecommunication systems, due to the increasing demands and applications. The most important of which are need to have higher energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE). They are critical in the practical multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) telecommunication systems. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) methods and millimeter-waves can be used in conjunction with MIMO systems to improve their EE and SE performance. In this paper, we investigate the application of NOMA and mm-Wave transmission in the downlink of MIMO systems. Then, we formulate the optimization problem for users in MIMO-NOMA systems to maximize the EE that is subject to minimum data rate to satisfy required quality of service (QoS) and maximum transmission power. To achieve the optimal power allocation for users, we reach a problem for the EE maximization that is non-convex and solution of the optimization problem is not trivial. We exploit a lower bound of the data rate and the Lagrange dual function to convert it to a convex and unconstrained problem, which is easy to solve. In the next step, we derive a relation for determining the optimal power allocation of users. In addition, a numerical algorithm is presented that can be used to solve the problem. According to the simulation results of the proposed algorithm, our method performs better and provides higher EE than both orthogonal multiple access and equal power allocation schemes.     

Energy efficient power allocation in MIMO relaying systems with the MRT precoding

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems perform well from the energy efficiency (EE) and the spectral efficiency (SE) points of view in fifth generation (5G) communication systems. This paper considers the operation of a MIMO system with a relay. The optimization problem relates to the EE maximization. This problem has two types of limitations, which provide a maximum transmission power and a minimum data rate for users. The encountered objective function is in a fractional form and thus it is a non-convex function. Besides, the problem is constrained. We utilize a lower bound analysis for the data rates, some properties of the linear programming, and the maximum ratio transmission (MRT) precoding scheme to obtain a convex objective function. Using the Lagrange dual function, we obliterate the constraints of the problem and then it is easy to solve. To improve system performance, users are divided into two groups based on their channel gains, and the maximum transmission power is reasonably divided between them. Two iterative algorithms are proposed to solve the optimization problem numerically, and finally we investigate performance of the proposed method.