Inductively heated plasma waste treatment for energy recovery.

An assessment of a decentralized inductively heated plasma waste treatment system for energy recovery has been done. The modular miniaturized high enthalpy plasma source IPG6 is a reference for the system and has been qualified for inert but also chemically aggressive gas compositions. An identification and review of applications were undertaken. Niches of high environmental and societal importance are considered: hospital waste (threshold countries), shipboard waste and marine litter. The wastes are reviewed deriving relevant parameter for a system analysis aiming for the derivation of energy production and efficiencies. The system analysis shows advantageous constellation due to the wastes' energy leading to self-feeding systems.

Improvement and extension of the generalized hard-sphere reaction probability model.

The GHS (Generalized Hard Sphere)-based standard reaction probability model commonly used in probabilistic particle methods is evaluated. We show that the original model has no general validity with respect to the molecular reaction. Mathematical consistency exists only for reactions with vanishing activation energy. For small energies close to the activation threshold the individual reaction probability for the special case of associative ionization of atomic nitrogen diverges. This makes the model extremely expensive, and nonphysical. An improved model is derived, and its implementation is verified on basis of the aforementioned reaction. Both models converge to the same value at large energies. The relative error of the original model with respect to the new model is independent of the particle pairing and, hence, of the reaction type. The error is smaller than 1% for collision energies in excess of 200 times the activation energy. For typical simulation problems like atmospheric high-enthalpy entry flows (assuming heavy-particle temperatures on the order of 10000 K) the relative error is in the order of 10(5)%.

Temperature optima for bacteria and yeasts from cold-mountain habitats.

Optimal temperatures for the growth of bacteria and yeasts isolated from several cold-mountain habitats were determined. The lowest optimal temperatures encountered were in the 10-15 degrees C range, even though most of the isolates were obtained from sites at or near 0 degrees C.