Thin Film Evaporator (TFE) is a popular continuous distillation/evaporation technology for pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries, and has several equipment- and process- configurations that make fundamental modeling approaches very challenging. Specifically, moving wipers and lack of fluid dynamic and intra- and inter- phase mixing knowledge contribute to the difficulty of developing predictive models. In this article, we present a novel, simple, and practical TFE model developed for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) continuous manufacturing. The model couples thermodynamic and counter-current N-CSTR models, and is capable of predicting TFE performance using various process parameters as inputs. Model’s expanded usage is detailed for the case where the distillate to feed ratio was used to control the TFE.

Alkali and alkaline metal (Li, Na, K, Ca and Mg) loaded zirconium oxide catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation method. All the prepared catalysts were employed as active heterogeneous catalysts for the transesterification of glycerol (GL) with dimethyl carbonate (DMC) producing glycerol carbonate (GLC). The catalyst with 20 wt% loading of Li on ZrO2 showed maximum catalytic activity with 100% selectivity towards GLC. The structure and basic properties of the prepared catalysts were studied by XRD, HRTEM, XPS and CO2-TPD techniques. The effect of various reaction parameters like catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, the molar ratio of reactants on the GLC yield was also studied. For the first time the reaction product was quantified using 1H NMR technique. Considering the lesser availability of the kinetic study of the transesterification of glycerol with dimethyl carbonate, kinetic parameters were also studied. The Li/ZrO2 catalyzed transesterification reaction appeared to follow second order kinetics with activation energy (Ea) of 93.7 kJ mol−1. Thermodynamic parameters like enthalpy (ΔH‡), entropy (ΔS‡) and Gibbs free energy (ΔG‡) of the reaction were also determined.

Multilayered shape-memory composites composed of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) filled thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) (denoted as cTPU) and polycaprolactone (PCL) were prepared through layer-multiplying coextrusion. The phase interfaces and conductive pathways in the multilayered structure which can be tailored by layer-multiplying endowed the materials with tunable thermo- and electro-responsive shape-memory effects (TSME and ESME). Compared with the conventional blending composite having the same compositions, the cTPU/PCL multilayered system with high phase continuity and abundantly continuous interfaces exhibited better TSME, which could be further enhanced with increasing the layer number. It was revealed that the strain energy stored in cTPU layers would be balanced by adjacent PCL layers via interfacial shearing effect so that each domain could endow the maximum contribution to the shape-memory performance. Besides, the confined layer space allowed for a more compact connection between MWCNTs than that in the blending composite, while the original conductive network formed in cTPU tended to be gradually broken up during layer-multiplying. Moreover, an excessive conductivity may induce local overheating and even the melting of permanent domains, leading to undesired deformation. Accordingly, the multilayered composite with a proper layer number which exhibited suitable conductivity and efficient TSME achieved balanced ESME with quick recovery speed, excellent recovery ratio and good appearance retention. This work opened an avenue in preparing outstanding shape-memory materials with both thermal and electrical actuations, which showed great potential in applications of sensors, actuators, self-deployable devices, and so forth.

New fire barriers combining the use of two different intumescent paints and a metal laminate structure have been evaluated for the protection of steel. Different bilayers designs have been considered and composed of the overlay of two intumescent coatings with or without aluminum foils. All laminated bilayers were fire exposed in a high heat flux environment (116 kW/m2). The design with two aluminum foils and the overlay of both intumescent coatings reveals an efficient fire protection with a stabilization at low temperature after 30 min fire exposure. This design exhibits much higher performance than that of conventional intumescent coating. Characterizations (cross-section observations, expansion measurements, pull-off tests) were carried out on all samples to clarify the mechanism of action. This paper reveals a new way of thinking, and highlights that working on the design instead of changing the formulation of the intumescent paint allows to reach an efficient fire resistant barrier.

Every critical online unit in a continuous process must always function normally, and one or more identical unit is usually put on standby to sustain the uninterrupted operation. Although a few related studies have been reported in literature, a comprehensive analysis of the standby mechanism still has not been carried out. The objective of this research is to construct a generalized mathematical model to synthesize the multi-layer standby mechanisms for any given processes by minimizing the total expected lifecycle expenditure. A Matlab code can be developed accordingly to perform the required optimization tasks via genetic algorithm. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach have been demonstrated with the case studies concerning the pump system in a typical chemical plant. From the optimization results, one can obtain the optimal design specifications of the multi-layer standby mechanism, which include: (1) the number of layers, (2) the numbers of both online and spare sensors in each measurement channel, (3) the corresponding voting-gate logic in each channel, (4) the inspection interval of switch, (5) the number of spares for switch, (6) the inspection intervals for warm standbys and (7) the number of cold standbys. Keywords: Standby mechanism; Availability; Expected loss; Genetic algorithm

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are a class of green solvents that hold promising application in gas separation. With respect to NH3 separation, realizing reversible chemical absorption of NH3 is demanded, because the contents of NH3 in industrial streams are normally low. In this study, we found that N-methylacetamide (MAA) can form DESs with heterocyclic weak acids (HWAs) such as imidazole, 1,2,4-triazole and tetrazole. The DESs were characterized for physical properties, and evaluated for NH3 absorption performance systematically. The solubilities of NH3 solubilities in MAA+tetrazole DESs are much higher than those in MAA+imidazole and MAA+triazole DESs, since tetrazole is more acidic than the other two HWAs. In addition, the isotherms for NH3 absorption in MAA+tetrazole DESs display non-ideal profiles, suggesting the chemical behavior of NH3 absorption, which is further elucidated by quantum chemistry calculations and spectroscopic characterizations. Overall, MAA+tetrazole DESs are among the best solvents for NH3 absorption, with the NH3 solubility of 4.596 mol/kg at 313.2 K and 9.0 kPa. The absorption of NH3 in MAA+tetrazole DESs also show excellent selectivity over CO2, and good reversibility throughout consecutive cycles, justifying the potential use of MAA+tetrazole DESs for NH3 separation from industrial streams.

In this study, vapor-liquid equilibria (VLE) of binary, ternary, and quaternary systems containing fragrances were predicted using COSMO-SAC. A model variant including multiple energies for the description of different hydrogen bonds (alcohol-alcohol, alcohol-ketone, alcohol-ether) was used. Based on equilibrium vapor compositions, odor intensity and character of fragrance mixtures were calculated using Stevens' power law for olfaction intensity scale and stronger component model for quality perception. Very good agreement between predicted and measured data was obtained with COSMO-SAC. Model predictions were similar to UNIFAC outcomes, but without using any binary interaction parameter. Based on these results, this study also indicates the possibility to use COSMO-SAC to predict VLE in mixtures that contain fragrances with missing UNIFAC parameters.

In the refinery process, a vast amount of data are generated in daily production. How to make full use of these data to improve the simulation's accuracy is crucial to enhance the refinery operating level. In this paper, a novel deep learning framework integrating the self-organizing map (SOM) and the convolutional neural network (CNN) is developed for modeling the industrial hydrocracking process. SOM is used to map input variables into two-dimensional maps to extract process features. Then these maps are fed into CNN to predict the outputs of the hydrocracking process. The SOM adopted is free of training, which reduces the computational complexity, simplifies the application, and improves the prediction accuracy. Practical guidance on the application of the proposed framework is provided by comparing and analyzing different structures and parameters. Finally, an online modeling scheme is developed and applied in an actual hydrocracking process. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework has great performance in modeling the hydrocracking process and provides a good reference for process optimization.

Reduction of photocatalytic CO2 into renewable hydrocarbon solar fuels is considered to be a promising strategy that can simultaneously address global energy needs as well as the environmental concerns. To date, making use of a higher wavelength for photocatalytic conversion of CO2 to CH4 continues to be highly challenging. In this work, we report a highly selective reduction of CO2 into CH4 and CO through doping Ni species into CoFe-LDH as the visible light photocatalyst in conjunction with a Ru-complex sensitizer. A more interesting finding is that the selectivity of CH4 was raised to 78.9% as compared to 0% of CoFe-LDH, while the H2 evolution was suppressed to 1.7% as compared to 30.5% of CoFe-LDH under light irradiation at λ > 500 nm. The involvement of Ni2+ ions in the CoFe-LDHs layers has shown to promote the photoinduced electron-hole pair separation and thereby facilitate the photocatalytic efficiency. This work provides a new strategy for exploring the Ni-based earth-abundant photocatalysts for CO2 photoreduction.

Solvent vapor exposure could transform a crystalline or smectic liquid crystal (LC) film into nematic and isotropic phases under ambient conditions. The average time for such phase transitions are found to linearly reduce with increase in vapor pressure and reduction in molecular weight of solvents. Such responses of solvent vapor annealed phase transitions of a nanoparticle loaded LC droplet was then converted into an electrical signal wherein the electrical resistance reduced (increased) with time upon destruction (restoration) of orientational order of the LC matrix. Variation in electrical response was used to identify the volatile organic vapors, phase transition of LCs, rate of diffusion-absorption of solvent into LCs, and rate of desorption-evaporation of solvent from LCs. Pattern directed phase transitions on physically heterogeneous surfaces showed a faster (slower) kinetics on the thinner (thicker) patterns. However, for chemically heterogeneous surfaces, weaker (stronger) anchoring of LCs on hydrophobic (hydrophilic) patches ensured a faster (slower) transition.

A series of Cu-loaded biomass-derived activated carbon (Cu/AC) catalysts with various impregnation ratios were prepared by precursor impregnation (PI) and activated carbon impregnation (ACI) methods. N2 adsorption/desorption, ICP, XRD, XPS and TEM, etc. were used to investigate their physico-chemical properties. Their performance of catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of phenol using O2 as oxidant were evaluated. The results demonstrated the catalysts prepared by PI method have higher specific surface area and Cu content. In the catalysts, Cu species co-existed with Cu2+ and (Cu+ + Cu0). The content of (Cu+ + Cu0) in PI catalysts was higher, which was favorable for the formation of free radicals (O2-· and HO·), and then improved conversions of phenol and COD. The PI catalyst prepared with impregnation ratio of 3 exhibited the best catalytic activity for phenol oxidation. Meanwhile, the loss of Cu species was the main cause of catalyst deactivation.

Heterogeneous Electro-Fenton (EF) enables rapid elimination of recalcitrant organic pollutants without producing undesirable by-product, but a stable functioning of such processes remains challenging. In this work, a porous composite of ferric oxide/nitrogen/carbon (Fe2O3/N-C) with good EF activity and stability was fabricated from iron-based metal organic framework compounds (MOFs) and polyaniline via one-step pyrolysis. The incorporated Fe2O3 nanocrystals and the pyridinic and pyrrolic N species substantially render the material high catalytic activity for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) generation and activation. Efficient degradation of bisphenol A and several other organic pollutants, dominated by heterogeneous EF pathway was achieved in acidic solution. The catalyst had low Fe leaching (0.52 mg/L after 2-h reaction) and remained 98% of its original activity after 4 cycles of repeated use. Therefore, the Fe2O3/N-C may serve as efficient, stable and environmentally-benign heterogeneous EF catalyst for wastewater treatment and environmental remediation applications.

Although functionalization is known as a promising way to notably improve the performances of ionic liquids (ILs) in separation processes, studies thereon are mainly experimental trial-and-error based while rational design of functional ILs is scarcely reported. In this work, computer-aided IL design (CAILD) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation are combined towards rationally functionalizing ILs for the enhanced extractive desulfurization (EDS) of fuel oils. First, the UNIFAC-IL model is extended based on experimental data to specifically cover interaction parameters associated with four functional groups (i.e., hydroxyl, methoxy, vinyl, and cyanomethyl). A mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem is then formulated for the computer-aided design of functional ILs for the EDS task. Finally, MD simulations are performed to study the intermolecular interactions between the top IL candidates and model fuel oil components; by comparing with those for literature-reported ILs, the enhanced EDS performances of the designed functional ILs are well rationalized.

The aim of this work is to develop a Sliding Mode Control (SMC) scheme to keep an operation of a flash distiller in the Feasible Operating Region (FOR). Flash distillation is characterized as a simple single-phase separation system but operationally complex because it has a strong non-linear behavior due to the thermodynamic equilibrium, obligatory to reach the required component separation. Control of flash distillation processes must guarantee a good performance and robustness to get pre-separation quality before entering to next fractional distillation processes. A Phenomenological Based Semi-Physical Model (PBSM) is used here to represent the flash distillation process. The proposed control structure tries to avoid the biggest problem of the flash distiller, its recurrent restart due to temperature disturbances in the feed flow. The suggested control schemes, applied to a given separation, allow regulation of the pressure and the liquid level of the flash drum, keeping also the concentration of Propylene Glycol (PG) at the flash vapor outlet near to its set point, rejecting temperature disturbances. The simulation results show the features of the proposed controllers, which overcome some of the disadvantages of typical flash distiller controllers operating in the design conditions

The impact of the synthesis conditions on the structure and the radionuclide adsorption capacity of silylated clay minerals were evaluated in this study. Two green solvents were selected in this work, Phenoxypropanol and Glycerol respectively, and various synthesis temperatures (30, 60 and 90°C) were tested for the preparation of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) functionalized Laponites®. The resulted adsorbents exhibit various extent and location of the grafting reaction as a function of the used solvent and temperature. These modifications of the reactivity of the materials also impact adsorption and desorption properties of Co2+ and Sr2+. Whereas the two ions are well-adsorbed whatever the synthesis conditions and even in bi-solute experiments, the adsorption capacity is not systematically proportional to the amount of loaded APTES, highlighting the specific impact of the synthesis conditions. Finally, the very limited desorption in saline solutions suggests that the synthetized adsorbents display suitable properties for the removal of radionuclides from aqueous solutions.

The hydrodynamics and local turbulent mixing of parallel multiple liquid jets, submerged in liquid, were investigated by means of experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A renormalization group (RNG) k-ε turbulence model was used to simulate the flow field. The model was validated experimentally by particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. In the converging region adjacent to the nozzle exits, the recirculation region disappears, and there is only ambient fluid entrainment. Different jet arrays were compared to evaluate the effects of jet spatial arrangement on the hydrodynamics and mixing performance. A shorter mixing length in the merging region suggests that mixing is more efficient in the triple jet system than in other jet systems. Compared with the jet Reynolds number, the jet spacing plays a more significant role in determining the critical mixing regions, while the linear relationship between them is more sensitive than that for multiple parallel plane jets.

Silicon anode is a key component for high-energy lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Electrode binder engineering for Si anode has been calling increasing awareness. Here, we report a series of molecularly engineered conductive polymer binder, i.e., star-like polyaniline (s-PANi), cross-linked polyaniline (c-PANi) and linear polyaniline (l-PANi). As conductive binder, the molecular structure of PANi was found to play a key role in determining the performance of Si anode: reversible capacity of 1776 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at 500 mA g-1 was achieved using s-PANi as conductive binder, far superior than systems adopting c-PANi, l-PANi and conventional Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) binders. The correlation between binder molecule structure and Si-anode performance is found: star-like molecular structure is more advantageous over heavily cross-linked structure for it offers 3D-conjugated conductive network that are more resistant to cycle-induced large strain.

The fabrication of suspended gold/carbon composite nanofibers on carbon micro-posts by electrospinning of a gold/polyacrylonitrile (AuNP/PAN) blend precursor is proposed. The fibers were spun on a rotating drum collector for a short duration and carbonized at 900 oC in inert atmosphere. The in-situ fabrication of a monolithic carbon structure consisting of carbon nanofibers on carbon micro-posts ensures good electrical connection, thereby reducing ohomic resistive mismatch. It was found that the conductivity can be simply tuned about an order of magnitude as compared to virgin carbon nanofibers by the addition of gold nanoparticles. The conductivity was found to be increased with the size (5-20 nm) of the gold nanoparticles which engendered graphitic micro-regions in the pyrolyzed nanofibers. The effect of micro/nano fabrication technique on the organization of graphitic planes in the electrospun composite nanofibers studied experimentally and computationally and a templating effect of gold nanoparticles that causes enriched graphitization is proposed.

Nobel metal Pt composites show high catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) but limited in application by high Pt contents and therefore, the cost. Herein, a series of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) deposited 2D Ti3C2Tx MXene were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) method with relatively low Pt contents (0.98~3.10 wt%) and showed excellent HER catalytic activity and stability. The electrochemical results indicated that the prepared catalysts showed the optimal HER activity as the ALD deposition cycle reached 40, with overpotential of 67.8 mV approaching that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst (64.2 mV). The excellent behavior was attributed to the homogeneous dispersion of the Pt NPs and the good conductivity of the 2D Ti3C2Tx MXene supports.

A detailed techno-economic analysis of a novel Direct Air Capture (DAC) process has been carried out. In this process, carbon dioxide is separated from ambient air through wet scrubbing with an aqueous potassium hydroxide solution, while the solvent regeneration and CO2 recovery is carried out through Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis (BPMED), a novel process exclusively based on electrical-driven regeneration. The results of the techno-economic analysis showed that the regeneration process could be less energy intensive than other solutions, requiring as low as 236 kJ/mol-CO2. However, the high costs of bipolar and ion exchange membranes make the BPMED expensive. In the base-case scenario the total capture cost has been found to be 773 $/ton-CO2, in line with previous cost estimates for DAC, but large for a 2nd generation process. As for other DAC processes, this solution could become particularly interesting in the future, whenever cheaper renewable energy and more affordable and improved membranes become available.

Crystallisation is an important separation unit operation accounting for nearly 90% of organic molecules in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. Recently, continuous crystallisation was demonstrated to have several advantages over the conventional batch crystallisation in terms of improved product consistency, reduced labor costs/economic footprint and better process control. Continuous stirred tank crystallisers, however, are limited in mixing/ heat transfer capabilities and have issues like cyclical oscillations in product quality. Tubular crystallisers can mitigate these issues, however, suffer from issues related to particle settling and blockages. Fluidic oscillators with one or more feedback channels are gaining popularity in recent years due to the advent of microfluidics. Jet oscillations in fluidic oscillators were shown to consistently provide vigorous mixing and heat transfer above a critical Reynold’s number. In the present study, the feasibility of the fluidic oscillator as a continuous crystalliser was evaluated to mitigate challenges faced by previous continuous crystallisation technology. A novel ‘loop setup’ was proposed for continuous crystallisation and was investigated using the seeded anti-solvent crystallisation of paracetamol in a methanol-water system. The effect of key operating conditions of residence time, supersaturation ratio, operational mode, fluidic device, device orientation and seed size were investigated. Throughout the study it was observed that the loop setup gave product particle size distributions consistent with enhanced mixing behavior. Further, it was demonstrated that the proposed continuous crystalliser was better in terms of scale up in comparison with batch crystallisers. The presented results and approach will be useful to develop fluidic oscillators as a useful platform for continuous crystallization.

The electric field plays a key role in producing required fibers during electrospinning process. The effects of electric field on the jet motion, resultant fiber diameter, fiber membrane thickness, crystallinity and mechanical properties induced by three different melt electrospinning systems were investigated in this work, in a comprehensive and systematical manner. Intended for thoroughly understanding the electric field distribution, the numerical simulation was used in the experiment. And besides, the high-speed photography was adopted, with the objective of capturing the related and necessary images in the process of jet motion. Our simulation and experimental results indicated that both direction and intensity of electric filed play an important role in jet motion and resultant fibers properties, that is, an enhanced electric field with the same direction as original electric field results in a fiber with finer diameter, larger crystallinity and better mechanical performance due to higher whipping amplitude, greater whipping frequency and more efficient stretching of the jet; by contrast, the electric field distribution with opposite direction created by auxiliary electrode with inverse voltage produces an non-uniform fiber with larger diameter, smaller crystallinity, poorer mechanical performance and fluffy fiber membrane because of unstable jet motion and inefficient stretching.

We developed a novel technique based upon time-lapse InfraRed (IR) images to relate the effects of crude-oil oxidation kinetics on flow during one-dimensional homogeneous and heterogeneous laboratory-scale combustion tube experiments.} We performed combustion tube experiments under variable conditions including different sands (i.e., grain-size distribution), air injection rate history (constant versus variable), degree of packing heterogeneity and reaction heterogeneity. The latter is achieved by using reaction enhancing nanoparticles in controlled packing configurations. During every experiment, we obtain high-resolution IR images of the outer wall of the combustion tube that we calibrate using point-wise temperature measurements from a thermocouple. Here, a new experimental workflow that uses these images and combines knowledge obtained from kinetic cell experiments is used to isolate the spatial zones within the tube where so-called, low-temperature and high- temperature oxidation (pseudo-reaction regimes) occur during combustion tube experiments for the first time. Additionally, the IR imaging technique is shown to provide new insight into the propagation of the combustion front in homogeneous and heterogeneous systems and, importantly, visualizes gravity drainage of hot oil

An overview of the mixing performances of micro T-mixers operating with a single fluid is presented. The focus is on the relationship between flow features and mixing. Indeed, T-mixers are characterized by a variety of regimes for increasing Reynolds numbers; they are briefly described, in particular in terms of the three-dimensional vorticity field, which can explain the different mixing performances. The effects of changes in the aspect ratios of the channels are also reviewed. The role of instability and sensitivity analyses in highlighting the mechanisms of onset of the different regimes is then described. These analyses also suggest possible geometrical modifications to promote mixing. We focus on that consisting in the downward tilting of the inlet channels (arrow-mixers). Arrow-mixers are interesting because the onset of the engulfment regime is anticipated at lower Reynolds numbers. Hence, the mixing performances of arrow-mixers with varying Reynolds number are described.

This study investigates the bubble behavior in the lower part of the gas–liquid cylindrical cyclone (GLCC) experimentally and numerically. Malvern RTsizer and electrical resistance tomography were used to determine bubble size distribution and void fraction distribution, respectively. A discrete phase model was used to simulate the swirling flow field characteristics. The results indicated that as the gas flow rate increased, the small and medium-sized bubbles initially broke up and subsequently coalesced, whereas as the liquid flow rate increased, they only tended to break up. The gas core narrowed as the gas and liquid flow rates increased. The optimal gas-liquid separation performance was achieved when the liquid level was near 0.82 m. The separation mechanism of bubbles was analyzed via experimental observations and the simulated flow field distribution. An effective mechanism model based on bubble migration analysis was developed to predict the critical diameter of bubbles that can be separated.

A new green binder of Jatropha-oil based epoxy acrylate (AEJO) resin was able to replace coatings in non-ecology friendly technologies. The epoxy acrylate coating blended with nano zinc oxide to make hybrid nanocomposite as a corrosion protection coating applied to the mild steel panel. AEJO was synthesized and incorporated with different loadings (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 wt %) of zinc oxide (ZnO) fillers. AEJO/ZnO coating was applied on the mild steel substrates and characterized for corrosion protection performance by impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and salt spray test. XRD analysis and thermal properties by TGA were study. The surface morphology of the hybrid coating was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Incorporation of 5 wt.% ZnO loading showed the significantly enhanced the corrosion resistance through EIS as well as the coating performance. This study provides green based materials and protection to surface and interface engineering.

Two series of polypropylene samples (PP) were prepared by two MgCl2/TiCl4-type catalysts with diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP) and 9,9-bis(methoxymethyl)fluorine (BMMF) as internal donor (named as cat1 and cat2), respectively, at different hydrogen dosages. The results show that the molecular weights and microstructures of polypropylene were affected by the dosages of hydrogen which acted as a chain transfer agent in the propylene polymerization. For two catalysts, the molecular weights of polypropylene had an exponential relationship with the hydrogen dosages, to which the total defect contents and lamellar thicknesses (Ln) however showed a linear dependency, indicating that hydrogen exerted similar effects on the above polypropylene properties. However, there were differences in the linear relationships of mmmm contents and the hydrogen dosages for the two catalysts. Moreover, the linear relationship between the lamellar thickness (L1) of PP prepared by the two catalysts and hydrogen content is also different. It was suggested that for different catalysts of different internal donors the hydrogen chain transfer followed different patterns in affecting polypropylene properties. Our results provide guidelines to obtain special quality polypropylene by hydrogen chain transfer.

ABSTRACT: Epoxy derived from heteroaromatic compounds and their properties are seldom reported. In this work, two model epoxy monomers (EP-B and EP-F) were synthesized from isophthalic acid and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid. After curing with 4,4-diaminodiphenyl methane (DDM) in a stoichiometric quantity of 2:1, their properties were comparatively investigated, especially the formation and role of hydrogen bonding in them were identified. Results obtained from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic thermomechanical analysis (DMA), fluorescence emission spectra and static contact angle measurements showed that the cured EP-F/DDM system gave unexpected performances in higher glass transition temperature (Tg), fluorescence intensity and hydrophilicity. And the temperature-dependent fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis further confirmed that it was the more hydrogen bonding in the cured EP-F/DDM, involved with the oxygen heteroatoms in furan ring, led to its better properties. This work gives us some new insights into the role of electronegative heteroatoms in epoxy resin synthesized from heteroaromatic compounds.

Ternary polymer blends of polyamide 6 (PA6), polycarbonate (PC), and phenol novolac (PN) were prepared by a melt-mixing process. PN catalyzes the exchange reaction between PA6 and PC and promotes the generation of a copolymer, which improves the compatibility. Herein, the catalytic effect of PN was experimentally supported by an increase in torque during melt mixing and mass signals from copolymer fragments detected by mass spectroscopy. The characteristic behavior of the exchange reaction changed significantly with increasing PN amount. The promotion of in situ copolymer generation led to the formation of ternary blends, which show homogeneous morphologies and superior mechanical properties, such as high stiffness and good elongation, compared with the binary blends without PN. Using excess PN causes some drawbacks like brittleness due to decomposition of the PC component. A loading amount of 1–3 wt% PN was suitable for achieving a ternary blend with improved properties.

The synergetic removal of multiple pollutants in flue gas was investigated in a gas-liquid flow pattern controlling (FPC) column coupling with ultrasonic wave (UW). A pilot-scale experimental setup with the gas flow rate up to ~432 m3/h was developed for the removal of SO2, SO3, and fly ash. A comparative study was conducted between the FPC column and the traditional open spraying (OS) column to show the superiority of the FPC column. In general, the synergetic purification performance was significantly improved by using the FPC and UW. The SO3 aerosol removal efficiency in the FPC column was about 9.9% higher than that in the OS column. At the liquid-to-gas ratio (L/G) of 10 L/Nm3, the efficiency of SO2, SO3, and fly ash particle removal increased by 8.7, 5.3, and 6.6% with the introduction of UW, respectively. This enhancement effect of the UW became greater with increasing the L/G due to the increased liquid holdup. Furthermore, the energy consumption analysis was applied based on an actual WFGD system of a 660 WM power plant to estimate the energy penalty of the FPC and FPC-UW column.