In order to reduce the environmental pollution associated with the conventional energy sources and to achieve the increased global energy demand, alterative and renewable sustainable energy sources need to be developed. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent a bio-electrochemical innovative technology for pollution control and a simultaneous sustainable energy production from biodegradable, reduced compounds. This study mainly considers the performance of continuous up flow dual-chambers MFC
fueled with actual domestic wastewater and bio-catalyzed with anaerobic aged sludge obtained from an aged septic tank. The performance of MFCs was mainly evaluated in terms of COD reductions and electrical power output. Results revealed that the COD removal efficiency up to 89% was obtained for wastewaters having an average initial COD concentration of 350 mg/L. Stabilized power outputs were clearly observed achieving a maximum value of 170 mW/ m2
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Reverse Osmosis (RO) has already proved its worth as an efficient treatment method in chemical and environmental engineering applications. Various successful RO attempts for the rejection of organic and highly toxic pollutants from wastewater can be found in the literature over the last decade. Dimethylphenol is classified as a high-toxic organic compound found ubiquitously in wastewater. It poses a real threat to humans and the environment even at low concentration. In this paper, a model based framework was developed for the simulation and optimisation of RO process for the removal of dimethylphenol from wastewater. We incorporated our earlier developed and validated process model into the Species Conserving Genetic Algorithm (SCG
... Show MoreThin films Tin sulfide SnS pure and doped with different ratios of Cu (X=0, 0.01, 0.03 and 0.05) were prepared using thermal evaporation with a vacuum of 4*10-6mbar on two types of substrates n-type Si and glass with (500) nm thickness for solar cell application. X-ray diffraction and AFM analysis were carried out to explain the influence of Cu ratio dopant on structural and morphological properties respectively. SnS phase appeared forming orthorhombic structure with preferred orientation (111), increase the crystallinity degree and surface roughness with increase Cu ratio. UV/Visible measurement revealed the decrease in energy gap from 1.9eV for pure SnS to 1.5 for SnS: Cu (0.05) making these samples suitable f
... Show MoreDye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) create imitation photosynthesis by using chemical reactions to produce electricity from sunlight. DSSC has been pursued in numerous studies due to its capability to achieve efficiencies of up to 15% with artificial photosensitizer in diffuse light. However, artificial photosensitizers present a limitation because of the complex processing of metal compound. Therefore, various types of sensitizers were developed and synthesized to surpass the artificial sensitizer performances such as natural sensitizers from bio-based materials including plants, due to simple processing techniques and low environmental impact. Thus, this study examines the potential and properties of natural sensitizers from the was
... Show MoreBackground : It had been indentified by histological, histochemical and morphometrical studies that peganum harmala is a mammogenic herb and borage officinalis is a lactogenic one . To complete our investigation about these two herbs , we performed electron microscopical study . Materials and methods : Rats were grouped according to their physiological status into three groups . Each group was subdivided in to three subgroups : one control and two experimental . The two experimental group were treated daily; the 1st one with an aqueous extract of peganum harmala seeds and the 2nd with an aqueous extract of borage officinalis flowers . After two weeks of treatment , mammary glands were employed for electron microscopical study . Resu
... Show MoreThis research is devoted to study the effect of different in weight percentage of Sio2 particles and glass fibers (5, 10, 15, 20) wt. % on the wear rate epoxy resin. The results show that the value of hardness increase with the increase for the weight percentage of reinforcing particles and fibers, while the wear rate decrease with the increase the load level of the reinforcing particles and fibers . The largest value of the hardness, and the lowest value of the wear rate for epoxy reinforced with 20% of SiO2, the wear rate increase in general with increasing the applied load.
This paper deals with modelling and control of Euler-Bernoulli smart beam interacting with a fluid medium. Several distributed piezo-patches (actuators and/or sensors) are bonded on the surface of the target beam. To model the vibrating beam properly, the effect of the piezo-patches and the hydrodynamic loads should be taken into account carefully. The partial differential equation PDE for the target oscillating beam is derived considering the piezo-actuators as input controls. Fluid forces are decomposed into two components: 1) hydrodynamic forces due to the beam oscillations, and 2) external (disturbance) hydrodynamic loads independent of beam motion. Then the PDE is discretized usi
This work studied the electrical and thermal surface conductivity enhancement of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) clouded by double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) by using pulsed Nd:YAG laser. Variable input factors are considered as the laser energy (or the relevant power), pulse duration and pulse repetition rate. Results indicated that the DWCNTs increased the PMMA’s surface electrical conductivity from 10-15 S/m to 0.813×103 S/m while the MWCNTs raised it to 0.14×103 S/m. Hence, the DWCNTs achieved an increase of almost 6 times than that for the MWCNTs. Moreover, the former increased the thermal conductivity of the surface by 8 times and the later by 5 times.