Lightweight Polyethylene/Hexagonal Boron Nitride Hybrid Thermal Conductor Fabricated by Melt Compounding Plus Salt Leaching.

Application of porous polymeric materials is severely limited by their ultralow thermal conductivities. Herein, by promoting the formation of thermal conduction pathways, we fabricated open-cellular structured polyethylene/hexagonal boron nitride hybrid thermal conductors via melt compounding plus salt leaching. The structural analyses indicate that the inclusion of hBN can enhance the open-cell level of resultant materials. X-ray diffractions confirm the high in-plane alignments of hBN in each sample. Consequently, the test results evidence the superior thermal conductivities of our samples, and the thermal conductivities of each sample are characterized as functions of hBN loadings. Ultimately, our advanced porous thermal conductor with a low hBN loading of 3.1 vol% exhibits a high specific thermal conductivity of 0.75 (W/mk)/(g/cm3), which is 82.9% higher than virgin PE and far higher than bulk PE/hBN composites. Our work also intends to reveal the architectural advantages of open-cellular, as compared with the close-one, in fabricating porous materials with highly interconnected fillers.

Effect of microwave chlorine depleted pyrolyzate on the combustion characteristics of refuse derived fuel derived from package waste.

Thermogravimetric-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy was conducted to evaluate the combustion characteristics of refuse derived fuel (RDF) adding of microwave chlorine depleted pyrolyzate in the mass proportion of 5-15%. It studied the catalyze effect of chlorine depleted pyrolyzate on RDF combustion performance. The combustion process of RDF could be divided into four stages. The temperature range of the most significant combustion stage of 10-RDF was much more extensive than another three ones. According to the FTIR analysis, the addition of chlorine depleted pyrolyzate might promote the combustion of CH4 and carbonyls to CO2 and H2O earlier. Based on the distributed activation energy model (DAEM), the E value of RDF with chlorine depleted pyrolyzate added was much lower than that with no chlorine depleted pyrolyzate added. The chlorine depleted pyrolyzate enhanced the combustion performance of RDF with the lower ignition, lower burnout temperature, better combustion ability, better flammability and more outstanding combustion performance. The best combustion characteristic was obtained when the dosage of chlorine depleted pyrolyzate was 10%.

Enhanced lipid and biomass production using alcohol wastewater as carbon source for Chlorella pyrenoidosa cultivation in anaerobically digested starch wastewater in outdoors.

Alcohol wastewater (AW) as carbon source for enhancing Chlorella pyrenoidosa growth and lipid accumulation in anaerobically digested starch wastewater (ADSW) was performed in outdoor cultivation. The biomass and lipid production significantly increased while adding optimal amount of AW (AW/ADSW=1:15) during exponential phase. In comparison with blank ADSW culture, the optimal AW addition increased the biomass production, lipid content and productivity by 35.29%, 102.68% and 227.91%, respectively. However, AW addition caused severe bacterial contamination and the total bacterial increased by 4.62-fold. Simultaneously, the optimal consortia of microalgae/bacteria effectively removed nutrients from the wastewater, including 405.18±36.47mgCODCr/L/day, 49.15±5.54mgN/L/day and 6.72±1.24mgP/L/day.

Effects of low-temperature pretreatment on enhancing properties of refuse-derived fuel via microwave irradiation.

The present study focuses on pretreatment of enhancing the properties of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) via low-temperature microwave irradiation. These improved properties include lower chlorine content, a more porous surface structure and better combustion characteristics. In this study, low-temperature microwave irradiation was carried out in a modified microwave apparatus and the range of temperature was set to be 220-300℃. We found that the microwave absorbability of RDF was enhanced after being partly carbonized. Moreover, with the increasing of the final temperature, the organochlorine removal ratio was greatly increased to 80% and the content of chlorine was dramatically decreased to an extremely low level. It was also interesting to find that the chlorine of RDF was mainly released as HCl rather than organic chloride volatiles. The finding is just the same as the polyvinyl chloride pyrolysis process. In addition, pores and channels emerged during the modifying operation and the modified RDF has better combustibility and combustion stability than traditional RDF. This work revealed that low-temperature modification of RDF via microwave irradiation is significant for enhancing the quality of RDF and avoiding HCl erosion of equipment substantially.

Dechlorination of organochloride waste mixture by microwave irradiation before forming solid recovered fuel.

In order to form a modified solid recovered fuel (SRF) with low chlorine content, high calorific value and well combustion performance, low temperature microwave irradiation was applied to remove the chlorine of the organochloride waste mixture before they were mixed to form SRF. The optimizing conditions of final temperature, microwave absorbents and heating rate were also detected to obtain high dechlorination ratio and high ratio of hydrogen chloride (HCl) to volatiles. In the temperature range of 220-300°C, 280°C would be chose as the optimal low microwave modified temperature concerning at which the dechlorination ratio was high and ratio of HCl to volatiles was relatively high as well; The use of microwave absorbents of graphite and silicon carbide (SiC) had a pronounced effect on the dechlorination of organochloride waste mixture, and the dechlorination ratio was increased significantly which could be reached to 87%, almost 20% higher than absorbent absent sample; The heating rate should set be not too fast nor too slow, and there was no big difference between the heating rate of 13°C/min and 15°C/min; The content of Cl of modified SRF is dramatically decreased and reaches to a low level 0.328%. Hence, the modified SRF can be ascended from the third class to the second class according to the Finland chlorine Classes I-III. Moreover, the combustibility of modified SRF was substantial improved compared to the traditional SRF. The low heating value was almost 20.56MJ/kg which is close to the LHV of lignite coal and bituminous coal in China, and it increased by 60% over that of traditional SRF. Removing chlorine of organochloride waste mixture before they are mixed with other kinds of combustible waste to form a modified SRF which is expected to be an alternative fuel for combustion in the future.