1,720,965 research outputs found

    Thermodynamic analysis of the humidification-dehumidification-adsorption (HDHA) desalination process

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    The process of Air Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) for water desalination and purification can play an important role in the field of low-carbon water production from non-conventional sources. Our research group presented a novel process scheme consisting of a multiple extraction HDH with vapour adsorption (HDHA) and brine recirculation, able to approximate a closed-air closed-water loop with bottom temperature below the environmental one. This novel work presents the strategy of process optimization through the variance analysis and a mathematical algorithm of thermodynamic balancing adapted to this novel process. The results point out the optimization strategies and allow the literature comparison to show how HDHA can overcome the performances of conventional processes at similar conditions, also reaching acceptable values of second law efficiency. In fact, HDHA can overcome the GOR of similar “balanced” water heated HDH reaching GOR around 10 even at acceptable enthalpy pinch (around 15 kJ kg−1) with three air extractions.</p

    Numerical Analysis of VPSA Technology Retrofitted to Steam Reforming Hydrogen Plants to Capture CO2 and Produce Blue H2

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    The increasing demand for energy and commodities has led to escalating greenhouse gas emissions, the chief of which is represented by carbon dioxide (CO2). Blue hydrogen (H2), a low-carbon hydrogen produced from natural gas with carbon capture technologies applied, has been suggested as a possible alternative to fossil fuels in processes with hard-to-abate emission sources, including refining, chemical, petrochemical and transport sectors. Due to the recent international directives aimed to combat climate change, even existing hydrogen plants should be retrofitted with carbon capture units. To optimize the process economics of such retrofit, it has been proposed to remove CO2 from the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) tail gas to exploit the relatively high CO2 concentration. This study aimed to design and numerically investigate a vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) process capable of capturing CO2 from the PSA tail gas of an industrial steam methane reforming (SMR)-based hydrogen plant using NaX zeolite adsorbent. The effect of operat-ing conditions, such as purge-to-feed ratio and desorption pressure, were evaluated in relation to CO2 purity, CO2 recovery, bed productivity and specific energy consumption. We found that conventional cycle configurations, namely a 2-bed, 4-step Skarstrom cycle and a 2-bed, 6-step modified Skarstrom cycle with pressure equalization, were able to concentrate CO2 to a purity greater than 95% with a CO2 recovery of around 77% and 90%, respectively. Therefore, the latter configuration could serve as an efficient process to decarbonize existing hydrogen plants and produce blue H2

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Post-combustion CO2 capture by RVPSA in a large-scale steam reforming plant

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    Steam reforming (SR) of natural gas is the most widespread process to produce hydrogen. This paper presents a comprehensive simulation of an industrial plant for hydrogen production for the internal use in a refinery industrial complex based on the SR of different feedstocks. The reference plant is a 42,000 Nm3/h hydrogen production unit located in the South of Italy in the Refinery of Milazzo, Sicily. Hydrogen is produced from light gaseous hydrocarbons and purified by means of pressure swing adsorption technology. In the present work, a process simulation has been built on scientific basis and validated against field data at different feedstocks and operating conditions. The model correctly predicts the effect of relevant process parameters such as reformer feed pressure and temperature, steam to carbon ratio and plant load. In addition, the paper proposes the design of an industrial-scale rapid vacuum pressure swing adsorption (RVPSA) unit which was designed and simulated to capture carbon dioxide from the flue gas exiting the steam reformer. The RVPSA unit was integrated in the current plant enabling the concentration of CO2 with a purity of 96.64%, an overall recovery of 90.84% and a specific energy consumption of 628.93 kJ/kgCO2, thus meeting the requirements for transportation and geological storage. An energetic efficiency calculation was introduced to quantify the effectiveness of the hydrogen conversion process and to predict the effect of CO2 capture and some process parameters to the overall H2 production efficienc

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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