Engineering Commons^™

Investigating The Potential Of Blended Feedstocks For Biofuel Production Via Pyrolysis Process: Experimental And Aspen Simulation Approach, Hasan Jawad Hammood Al-Abedi

Doctoral Dissertations

"The development of renewable energy sources has become increasingly urgent considering the climate crisis and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Pyrolysis, which is decomposition of an organic feedstock without oxygen, is a thermo-chemical process that has garnered significant attention as a promising technology for sustainable energy production, capable of converting biomass and waste materials into biofuels.

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis behaviors of corn stover (CS), refuse-derived fuel (RDF), and oil shale (OS) in equal mass ratios. Utilizing a thermogravimetric analyzer and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the co-pyrolysis process is …

Towards Developing Visual Statistical Cues For Biodiversity, Abundance, Biomass Around Mariana Trench In An Embeddable Smart Module, Xiaoyu Li, Shidong Ren, Xue Geng, Hui He, Amaury Lendasse, Rui Nian

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Most Ecosystems in Mariana Trench, Still Remain Unexplored or Poorly Known. Recently, Advanced Underwater Vision Systems, Especially Those Deployed by the Remotely Operated Vehicles (Rov) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), Provide Us More Possibilities to Have a Closer Observation on the Deep-Sea Environments, Communities, Lifestyles, Even Behaviors of the Inhabitants. However, Online Visual Understanding is Still a Big Challenge in These Deepest Spots of the Ocean, Due to the Lack of Prior Knowledge, Poor Visibility, and Dynamic Investigation. in This Paper, We Are Trying to Make a Further Step to Develop Ecological Indicators in an Embeddable Smart Module, Capturing Visual …

Experimental And Numerical Investigation On Tar Production And Recycling In Fixed Bed Biomass Gasifiers, Jia Yu

Doctoral Dissertations

"Bioenergy has been utilized for domestic purposes since pre-recorded history and it catches the highlight in the recent decades because it naturally benefits the world climate and energy security. Gasification is one of the key technologies to efficiently and economically convert biomass into syngas and further into biofuels. Despite these outstanding advantages, biomass gasification suffers from the formation of unfavorable byproduct tar and the consequential tar elimination. Moreover, the collected tar is toxic and thus requires storage and strict deposit method to avoid environmental pollution.

To understand the mechanisms of biomass gasification and tar production, simulations with Aspen Plus were …

Dynamic Growth Rates Of Microbial Populations In Activated Sludge Systems, Peter George Stroot, Pascal E. Saikaly, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Results of mathematical modeling and whole cell 16S ribosomal RNA-targeted fluorescence in situ hybridizations challenge the widely held perception that microbial populations in "steady-state" activated sludge systems share a common net growth rate that is proportional to the inverse of the mean cell residence time. Our results are significant because they encourage bioprocess engineers to appreciate the differences in growth physiology among individual microbial populations in complex mixed microbial communities such as suspended growth activated sludge bioreactor systems.