Two anaerobic acidogenic reactors, one mesophilic (37 8C) and one thermophilic (55 8C), were operated with a synthetic wastewater at a series of organic loading rates (OLRs). There was almost no difference between the two reactors for chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction, and degree of acidification at any given OLRs. However, the thermophilic reactor had a higher substrate degradation rate, ...

This project will examine inert fuels containing ZrO2 and MgO as the inert matrix, with the relative amount of MgO varied from 30 % to 70 % in ZrO2. Reactor physics calculations will be used to examine suitable quantities of burnable poisons from the candidate elements Gd, Er, or Hf with reactor grade Pu providing the fissile component, with up to 10 % of Pu. Ceramics will be synthesized and ch...

The successful operation of a high-rate anaerobic reactor, up flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor depends on the prevailing physico-chemical and biological conditions during its operation. The wastewater characteristics and composition, the hydrodynamics of the process, and microbial activity are critical for achieving long term, optimal reactor performance. Modeling UASBs can be benef...

In this paper, a reaction system consisting of two parallel, non-isothermal autocatalytic reactions in a Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) has been considered. Reactor chaotic behavior is possible for certain values of system parameters. Two types of controllers are designed and compared in order to control both the reactor temperature and the product concentration. T...

Exergy analysis and response surface methodology (RSM) is applied to reduce the exergy loss and improve energy and exergy efficiency of acetic acid production plant. Exergy analysis is run as a thermodynamic tool to assess exergy loss in reactor and towers of acetic acid production process. The process is simulated in Aspen Plus(v.8.4) simulator and the necessary thermodynamics data for calcula...

In this paper the design of a simple, space constrained chemical vapour deposition reactor for diamond growth is detailed. Based on the design by NIRIM, the reactor is composed of a quartz discharge tube placed within a 2.45 GHz waveguide to create the conditions required for metastable growth of diamond. Utilising largely off-the-shelf components and a modular design, the reactor allows for ea...

The effect of light scattering on measurement of UV absorbance and penetration of germicidal UVC irradiance in a UV reactor were studied. Using a standard spectrophotometer, absorbance measurements exhibited significant error when particles that scatter light were present but could be corrected by integrating sphere spectroscopy. Particles from water treatment plants and wastewater effluents ex...

A porous-dense dual-layer composite membrane reactor was proposed. The dual-layer composite membrane composed of dense 0.5 wt % Nb2O5-doped SrCo0.8Fe0.2O3-d (SCFNb) layer and porous Ba0.3Sr0.7Fe0.9Mo0.1O3-d (BSFM) layer was prepared. The stability of SCFNb membrane reactor was improved significantly by the porous-dense dual-layer design philosophy. The porous BSFM surface-coating layer can effe...

European Union’s (EU) (currently 27 Member States) shared-cost research has been organised in Framework Programmes (FP) of durations of 4-5 years since 1984. The 6th European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) Framework Programme (2002-06) and the current 7th FP (2007-11) have been allocated a fission research budget respectively of 209 and 287 Million Euro from the European Community (EC). In F...

In the past, oxygen delignification studies were mostly performed in batch reactors, whereby the caustic and dissolved oxygen concentrations are changing during the reaction. Also the lignin content and cellulose degradation of the pulp are only established at the end of an experiment when the sample is removed from the reactor. To overcome these deficiencies, a differential reactor system (cal...