Production of green hydrogen from sewage sludge / algae in agriculture diesel engine: Performance Evaluation.

Alternative fuel opportunities can satisfy energy security and reduce carbon emissions. In this regard, the hydrogen fuel is derived from the source of environmental pollutants like sewage and algae wastewater through hydrothermal gasification technique using a KOH catalyst with varied gasification process parameters of duration and temperature of 6-30 min and 500-800 °C. The novelty of the work is to identify the optimum gasification process parameter for obtaining the maximum hydrogen yield using a KOH catalyst as an alternative fuel for agricultural engine applications. Influences of gasification processing time and temperature on H2 selectivity, Carbon gasification efficiency (CE), Lower heating value (LHV), Hydrogen yield potential (HYP), and gasification efficiency (GE) were studied. Its results showed that the gasifier operated at 800 °C for 30 min, offering maximum hydrogen yield (26 mol/kg) and gasification efficiency (58 %). The synthesized H2 was an alternative fuel blended with diesel fuel/TiO2 nanoparticles. It was experimentally studied using an internal combustion engine. Influences of H2 on engine performance, like brake-specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency and emission performances, were measured and compared with diesel fuel. The results showed that DH20T has the least (420g/kWh) brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and superior brake thermal efficiency of about 25.2 %. The emission results revealed that the DH20T blend showed the NOX value increased by almost 10.97 % compared to diesel fuel, whereas the CO, UHC, and smoke values reduced by roughly 31.25, 28.34, and 42.35 %. The optimum fuel blend (DH20T) result is recommended for agricultural engine applications.

A chitosan-thiomer polymer for highly efficacious adsorption of mercury.

Thiomers have recently attracted attention as effective adsorbents for Hg2+. In the present study a chitosan- thiobarbituric acid based thiomer(CTG) was investigated as a potential adsorbent for elemental mercury (Hg°), inorganic mercury (Hg2+) and methyl mercury (CH3Hg+). CTG was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Adsorption experiments were performed to optimize the parameters for maximum removal of Hg°, Hg2+ and CH3Hg+. The experimental data fitted well to Freundlich isotherm and pseudo second order kinetic models with high R2 and minimal error function values. The maximum adsorption capacities were determined to be 1367 ± 96.9, 2493 ± 174.6 and 2531 ± 178.4 mg/g for Hg°, Hg2+ and CH3Hg+ respectively. Quantitative desorption of Hg°, Hg2+ and CH3Hg+ from CTG could be performed using 0.01 N thiourea, 0.01 N HClO4 and 0.2 N NaCl respectively.

Chitosan-Thiobarbituric Acid: A Superadsorbent for Mercury.

In the present investigation, chitosan (CH) was supramolecularly cross-linked with thiobarbituric acid to form CT. CT was well characterized by UV, scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, Fourier transform infrared, NMR, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray diffraction analyses, and its adsorption potential for elemental mercury (Hg0), inorganic mercury (Hg2+), and methyl mercury (CH3Hg+) was investigated. Adsorption experiments were conducted to optimize the parameters for removal of the mercury species under study, and the data were analyzed using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin adsorption isotherm models. CT was found to have high adsorption capacities of 1357.69, 2504.86, and 2475.38 mg/g for Hg0, Hg2+, and CH3Hg+, respectively. The adsorbent CT could be reused up to three cycles by eluting elemental mercury using 0.01 N thiourea, inorganic mercury using 0.01 N perchloric acid, and methyl mercury with 0.2 N NaCl.

Development, characterization and nasal delivery of rosmarinic acid-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles for the effective management of Huntington's disease.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to investigate the potential use of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) as a drug delivery system to enhance the brain-targeting efficiency of rosmarinic acid (RA) following intranasal (i.n.) administration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The RA-loaded SLNs was prepared by the hot homogenization technique, in which glycerol monostearate (GMS) as lipid, tween 80 and soya lecithin were used as surfactant along with hydrogenated soya phosphatidyl choline (HSPC) as a stabilizer, and were characterized for particle size, zeta potential (ZP), in vitro study. Nasal delivery of the developed formulation followed by the study of behavioral (locomotor, narrow beam, body weight) and biochemical parameters (glutathione, lipid peroxidation, catalase and nitrite) in wistar rat was carried out. RESULTS: Optimized RA-loaded SLNs using tween 80 (SLNPRT) have the mean size of (149.2 ± 3.2 nm), ZP (-38.27 mV) entrapment efficiency (61.9 ± 2.2%). 3-NP-treated rat significantly increased behavioral alterations, oxidative damage as compared with the control group. SLNPRT treatment significantly improved behavioral abnormalities and attenuated the oxidative stress in 3NP-treated rats. However, the nasal delivery of SLNPRT produced significant therapeutic action as compared to intravenous application. In the organ distribution study, brain drug concentration was found to be 5.69 µg, in pharmacokinetic study Cmax, tmax, t1/2, AUC values were found to be 0.284 µg/ml, 1.5 h, 3.17 h, and 1.505 µg/ml/h, respectively. CONCLUSION: The encouraging results confirmed the developed optimized RA-loaded SLNs formulation following the non-invasive nose-to-brain drug delivery that is a promising therapeutic approach for the effective management in Huntington disease.

Differential modal Zernike wavefront sensor employing a computer-generated hologram: a proposal.

The process of Zernike mode detection with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor is computationally extensive. A holographic modal wavefront sensor has therefore evolved to process the data optically by use of the concept of equal and opposite phase bias. Recently, a multiplexed computer-generated hologram (CGH) technique was developed in which the output is in the form of bright dots that specify the presence and strength of a specific Zernike mode. We propose a wavefront sensor using the concept of phase biasing in the latter technique such that the output is a pair of bright dots for each mode to be sensed. A normalized difference signal between the intensities of the two dots is proportional to the amplitude of the sensed Zernike mode. In our method the number of holograms to be multiplexed is decreased, thereby reducing the modal cross talk significantly. We validated the proposed method through simulation studies for several cases. The simulation results demonstrate simultaneous wavefront detection of lower-order Zernike modes with a resolution better than lambda/50 for the wide measurement range of +/-3.5lambda with much reduced cross talk at high speed.