Abstract: Biomass torrefaction has gained widespread attention due to its benefits as a standalone process to improve biomass properties to be at par or similar to those for coal in electricity generation or as a pretreatment step before pyrolysis and gasification processes. It has also found application in other processes like steel production where it is aiming to replace coal or work alongside coal by co-firing the coal with biomass at certain proportions. There have been a lot of papers ...
Abstract: In a highly competitive world of commercial production of methanol, it is critical to understand and get methanol (CH3OH) synthesis chemistry and process engineering aspects of methanol production correctly. Methanol synthesis chemistry knowledge is invaluable as it is applied throughout the whole process of process design, plant design, optimization and during operation of methanol plant. A comprehensive review of methanol synthesis chemistry- for synthesizing methanol from syngas...
Abstract: In this study, bimetallic nanofiller capable of usage as reinforcement was synthesized from expanded polystyrene (EPS). Bimetallic materials consist of two different metals. The bimetallic nanofiller consisting of SrO and K2O was successfully developed by the hydrothermal method which many researchers have well utilized to prepare nanoparticles in recent times. This study aims to synthesize and characterize bimetallic SrO-K2O, nanofillers from recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS). P...
Abstract: In this paper, the preparation and characterization of ZnO nanofillers from polystyrene (PS) polymer waste for use as reinforcement was presented. This was done to achieve a better means of upcycling polymer wastes that have become social menace in recent times. The PS/ZnO nanofillers was synthesized through the hydrothermal synthesis of nanocomposites in an enclosed reactor. The reactor was kept in an oven at a specified temperature for a period. A product obtained was characteriz...
Abstract: The use of solar energy is in the upswing due to its environmental friendliness and abundance. That notwithstanding, efficiency remains a major problem in many of the applications. Mitigation is normally in the form of tracking systems. This paper therefore investigates dual axis solar tracking systems from two dimensions. Firstly, a review of extant literature was conducted to draw up a trajectory of where we are in the efficiency map, Therefore it was found that the current effic...
Abstract: In this article we review the different methods that are used for the desulphurization of pyrolysis oil obtained from used tyres. A lot of research has been done on desulphurization of crude oil and its derivatives, mostly diesel. Since pyrolysis oil has similar properties to those of diesel, the methods employed can be extended and applied for the purification of pyrolysis oil. According to the ultimate analysis, pyrolysis oil contains about 1.6 wt% sulphur which is above environm...
Abstract: The working conditions in oil sand mines in Northern Alberta, Canada, are greatly affected by the climate and geology. The ground is very hard and competent in winter but very soft during summer [1]. This changing behaviour of the ground has a great impact on the truck’s frame and the health of the operator because he is exposed to large Whole Body Vibrations (WBV). When the human body is exposed to large WBV for prolonged periods, it begins to have chronic back problems resultin...
Abstract: Research has shown that a huge portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is underutilized. Over the years, cognitive radio has been demonstrated as an efficient dynamic spectrum management technique. Energy detection is one of the widely used spectrum sensing techniques. However, its performance is limited by factors such as multipath fading and shadowing, which makes it prone to errors, particularly in low signal-to-noise ratio conditions. Yet, it still has a low computational cost,...
Abstract: LoRa is a communication scheme that is part of the low power wide area network (LPWAN) technology using ISM bands. It has seen extensive documentation and use in research and industry due to its long coverage ranges of up-to 20 km or more with less than 14 dB transmit power. Moreover, some applications report theoretical battery lives of up to 10 years for field deployed modules utilising the scheme in wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. Additionally, the scheme is very r...
Abstract: An investigation was carried out to evaluate the isothermal oxidation behavior of nickel based superalloys at 1100 °C for 120 h. The alloys which were microstructured and nanostructured were developed by spark plasma sintering system. The oxidation test was carried out at a temperature of 1100 °C in air at different exposure time up to 120 h. The nanostructured nickel based alloy possessed better oxidation resistance with the formation of continuous adherent alumina, chro...
Abstract: This paper investigates distributed algorithms for joint power allocation and user association in heterogeneous networks. We propose auction-based algorithms for offloading macrocell users (MUs) from the macrocell base station to privately owned small-cell access points (SCAs). We first propose a simultaneous multiple-round ascending auction (SMRA) for allocating MUs to SCAs. Taking into account the overheads incurred by SCAs during valuation in the SMRA, further improvements are p...
Abstract: The desire for advanced performing renewable materials and friendly to the environment has grown worldwide. Lignocellulosic materials have demonstrated great potential as reinforcing agents in the manufacturing of composite materials. Achieving such materials also depends on the optimization of parameters not limited to particle size, temperature, duration of treatment, manufacturing technique and the type of modification. Laccase enzyme, a biological modification deemed friendly t...
Abstract: Modern-day diamond sorting is achieved through the application of X-ray lumi- nescence (XRL) and X-ray transmission (XRT) techniques. Sorting with XRL is limited to the class range of 1.25 mm to 32 mm because of self-absorption associated with larger dia- monds, greater than 32mm. The effect of self-absorption is also a high-energy phenomenon in XRL. XRT is limited to sorting large size diamonds as the technique suffers poor contrast for diamonds smaller than 10mm. XRT measurements...
Abstract: This study investigated the use of copper smelter slag for the removal of phosphorus from secondary wastewater effluent through batch tests. The media was physically and chemically characterized and showed presence of Fe2O3 (45.22%), SiO2 (14.98%), Al2O3 (3.21%), CaO (1.99%), SO3 (1.77%) and MgO (1.33%). Scanning electron microscopy monographs revealed smooth and flat surface and no heterogeneity on the surface of the slag with visible micro pores before the experiment and less vis...
Abstract: A lot of effort and time is utilized in the planning and building of the cellular wireless networks to use minimum infrastructural components to provide the best network coverage as well as delivery of quality of service. Generally, path loss models are used for the prediction of wireless network coverage. Therefore, detailed knowledge of the appropriate path loss model suitable for the proposed geographical area is needed to determine the coverage quality of any wireless network d...