Hormonal responses of broiler chickens to simulated crude petroleum flame and fumes

Hormonal responses of broiler chickens exposed to crude petroleum flame and fumes at varying distances over a period of 16 h daily were evaluated for 56 days in a poultry house. The burning of crude petroleum was simulated in a designed burner. The measured distances were 4, 8, or 12 m from the flame point. The experimental design was a two-factor factorial in a completely randomized design (CRD) with factor A as distance from the crude petroleum flame and factor B was the age of birds in weeks. One hundred and eighty Anak day-old broiler chickens were divided into four groups of 45 birds each, replicated thrice at 15 birds per replicate. Control birds were located in a separate poultry building without the flame treatment. Gaseous emissions from the burning crude oil were monitored. Proprietary broiler starter and finisher diets were fed ad libitum. Blood samples were taken at the fourth and eighth week for hormone radioimmunoassay from each treatment. The hormones assayed were growth hormone (GH), thyroxine (T₄,), and adrenaline. Results indicated that treatments did not significantly alter hormonal levels. The age of birds significantly affected the levels of all three hormones measured.     

风电场生命周期CO2排放核算与不确定性分析

提出了风力发电技术生命周期能耗和CO2排放核算的详细方法.应用上海某风电场数据进行核算,结果认为,风机生产阶段能耗和CO2排放占风电场生命周期能耗和CO2排放的比例均为最大,分别为68.23%和67.18%.不确定性分析认为,在所有强度参数中,钢生产综合能耗最为灵敏.风电场能耗强度和CO2强度分别为3.24gce/(kW?h)和9.47g/(kW?h),明显低于300MW火力发电机组的相同指标,分别为330gce/(kW?h)和915g/(kW?h). 20a服役期的50MW风电场满期后,同比300MW火电机组少排放CO2约234万t.     

Research and practice on fluctuation water injection technology at low permeability coal seam

In order to solve the problem of poor affusion effect on low permeability coal seam, the paper analyzes the micro process of the coal seam water infusion in wetting coal and determines the main factors affecting coal seam water infusion. The permeability of the NO.3 coal seam in east working face of Xingcun coal mine by MTS815.03 servo-controlled rock mechanical test system has been tested. Results show that when the peak stress in coal sample specimens reaches 48.53 MPa, permeability ranges from 0.5158 to 2.9576 × 10⁻⁸ Darcy, and it means that the coal seam is low in permeability and difficult in water injection. Based on the characteristics of low permeability and geostress situation, efficient fluctuation water injection technology with permeable agent and relevant process parameters have been designed. The surface tension of the permeable agent developed here is 31.18 m N/m when mass concentration reaches 0.05%. The permeable agent can permeate into 2 cm thick coal layer completely in 10 s, thus improving the wettability of water effectively and the water injection pressure fluctuates between 7 MPa and 25 MPa. The application of the technique in the 3rd coal seam in east working face of Xingcun coal mine shows not only single-arch injection experienced a significant increase on average, from no more than 10 m³ to 63.3886 m³, but also the effect of dust fall, cooling and rock burst prevention is remarkable.     

Tourism effects on the environment and economic sustainability of sub-Saharan Africa

This paper integrates tourism, economic growth, and environmental issues in a multivariate format. Unlike recent research on this topic, a panel data of selected sample nations of sub-Saharan Africa is adopted by using cointegration and panel regression models. The current research discovers both long-run equilibrium and short-run dynamics between economic growth, tourism, energy use, and carbon emissions in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, tourism and energy use show a highly significant direct impact on economic growth. In addition, tourism, energy use, and economic growth yield a highly significant positive effect on carbon emissions. Dissecting the region into oil producers and non-oil producers further suggests that the economic growth of sub-Saharan Africa has been accomplished by strong growth in tourism and energy use. However, there is highly significant evidence that in oil producing countries, CO₂ emissions are directly affected by energy use and economic growth and not by tourism. For non-oil producing countries, tourism and energy use but not economic growth incur a highly significant positive impact on carbon emissions.     

Development of an organizational framework for studying dust explosion phenomena

To develop a predictive dust explosion model or theory many considerations of the interaction between several complex multiscale processes are required. Due to practical considerations only some of the processes may be fully resolved, while the rest must be approximated or neglected. The current study focuses on constructing an organizational framework for dust explosion model development. The framework is organized based on progression of the explosion in time and geometric scale of the important features. Suggested methodologies are given to investigate the small-scale features and develop feed-forward approximations for predictive models at the larger system-scale. The concepts developed through constructing the organizational framework are applied to closed volume dust explosion testing and classification of several sources of experimental variance for this system is given.     

Experimental study on advantages of foam–sol in coal dust control

In China, more than 2.65 million coal mine workers are exposed to coal dust. Every year, new pneumoconiosis cases amount to 25,000, among which 6000 cases die of this disease. The figure is twice the death toll in production safety accidents. Occupational diseases seriously endanger life and health of coal mine workers, and restrict the healthy growth of the coal industry.The paper presented a study of foam–sol-based coal dust control. This was an experimental study of characteristics of foam–sol-based coal dust control, which features dust capture, suppression, and isolation. Comparative wettability experiments were carried out to determine contact angles of water, aqueous foam, and foam–sol solution. A new foam–sol generating system with a conical diffuser outlet was proposed.The experiment results clearly showed that the foam–sol features dust capture, suppression, and isolation. The wettability of the aqueous foam solution was better than the foam–sol solution, but the foam–sol technology had the better ability to capture the airborne dust, suppress the static dust and enclose the dust source, due to the excellent surface viscosity, strong cohesiveness and less volatile property. The paper concluded that the foam–sol could greatly improve the dust control efficiency and did not have main deficiencies that the aqueous foam technology had.     

Experimental investigation of the influence of inert solids on ignition sensitivity of organic powders

This work presents the results of the experimental characterization of the ignition sensitivity of solid inertant/combustible powders mixtures. Three inert solids (alumina, Kieselguhr, aerosil) and eleven organic powders have been considered and the following parameters have been determined: (1) the minimum ignition energy, (2) the minimum ignition temperature in cloud and (3) the minimum ignition temperature in 5 mm layer. The effects of the addition of inert solids are described and a simple model is proposed to represent the experimental results.Generally, increasing inert solid content in a powder leads to a higher minimum ignition energy as well as a higher minimum ignition temperatures in cloud and in layer. In some cases, the flammability is influenced above a threshold concentration value, which can be quite high (up to 85 wt.%). Indeed, the proposed model shows a zone below the minimum ignition concentration (MIC), which does not enable an efficient or safe inerting: either the admixed inert solid does not provide a sufficient effect, or it can even facilitate the ignition of the dust by notably improving its dispersability.The influence of key parameters such as the thermal conductivity or optical properties on the efficiency of the inerting by admixed solid need to be further assessed in a future work in view to better understand the mechanisms involved and to extend the scope to other types of oxidizable materials.     

广州机动车尾气中乙醛稳定碳同位素特征和排放因子

为了获得机动车排放源中乙醛的δ13C(稳定碳同位素丰度)特征及其影响因素,进行不同负荷下的发动机台架试验,采集不同怠速下的机动车尾气样品. 利用气相色谱-燃烧-同位素比值质谱(GC-C-IRMS)分析乙醛δ13C值,并与ρ(乙醛)进行分析. 结果显示:①在发动机燃烧过程中,乙醛的生成和消除反应同时存在. 在发动机低负荷运行时,乙醛的δ13C分馏值为负(-1.4‰~-0.4‰),表明生成反应占主导;而在高负荷运行时,分馏值为正(0.5‰~1.3‰),表明消除反应占主导. ②乙醛的δ13C值与其质量浓度无明显相关性,主要受发动机燃烧温度和尾气净化装置的影响. 整车尾气中乙醛的δ13C值在-29.1‰～-24.4‰之间,平均值为-26.5‰±1.6‰. 其中,汽油车为-25.9‰~-24.4‰,平均值为-24.9‰±0.5‰;柴油车为-29.1‰~-27.0‰,平均值为-28.0‰±0.6‰. ③南方机动车尾气排放源与植物排放源中的乙醛的δ13C值范围不同,表明δ13C值可用于大气乙醛的源解析. 通过机动车尾气中c(乙醛)/c(CO₂)估算广州汽油车和轻型柴油车乙醛的排放因子,二者分别为(13±16)和(169±106)mg/L.      

内河船舶柴油机的实际排放特征

利用由SEMTECH-DS和ELPI组成的PEMS(车载排放测试系统),对京杭运河江苏段具有代表性的12艘内河船舶进行实际排放测试,分析不同工况下CO、HC、NO_x和PM的排放. 结果表明:巡航工况下CO、HC和PM排放速率分别为0.093、0.019、0.018g/s,低于进、出港工况;而NO_x排放速率为0.347g/s,分别为出港和进港工况的1.66和2.90倍;不同工况外排NO占NO_x比例不同,其中巡航工况中外排NO所占比例最大(达到96.7%),而出港和进港工况则分别为93.6%和93.1%. 随着负荷增加,船舶 CO、HC、NO和PM的排放浓度增大,高负荷下CO、HC、NO_x、PM的排放浓度比低负荷分别增高89.23%、29.51%、44.72%和229.49%. 由颗粒物的粒径分布可知,3种工况下颗粒物数浓度的粒径分布呈双峰分布,分别对应核模态和积聚模态,粒径<120nm的颗粒物数浓度占总浓度的99.84%以上,PM_2.5数浓度占PM₁₀比例均超过99.9%.      

Alternative transportation fuel standards: Welfare effects and climate benefits

This paper develops an integrated model of the fuel and agricultural sectors to analyze the welfare and greenhouse gas emission (GHG) effects of the existing Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and a carbon price policy. The conceptual framework shows that these policies differ in the incentives they create for the consumption and mix of different types of biofuels and in their effects on food and fuel prices and GHG emissions. We also simulate the welfare and GHG effects of these three policies which are normalized to achieve the same level of US GHG emissions. By promoting greater production of food-crop based biofuels, the RFS is found to lead to a larger reduction in fossil fuel use but also a larger increase in food prices and a smaller reduction in global GHG emissions compared to the LCFS and carbon tax. All three policies increase US social welfare compared to a no-biofuel baseline scenario due to improved terms-of-trade, even when environmental benefits are excluded; global social welfare increases with a carbon tax but decreases with the RFS and LCFS due to the efficiency costs imposed by these policies, even after including the benefits of mitigating GHG emissions.