In recent years, immune genetic algorithm (IGA) is gaining popularity for finding the optimal solution for non-linear optimization problems in many engineering applications. However, IGA with deterministic mutation fa...In recent years, immune genetic algorithm (IGA) is gaining popularity for finding the optimal solution for non-linear optimization problems in many engineering applications. However, IGA with deterministic mutation factor suffers from the problem of premature convergence. In this study, a modified self-adaptive immune genetic algorithm (MSIGA) with two memory bases, in which immune concepts are applied to determine the mutation parameters, is proposed to improve the searching ability of the algorithm and maintain population diversity. Performance comparisons with other well-known population-based iterative algorithms show that the proposed method converges quickly to the global optimum and overcomes premature problem. This algorithm is applied to optimize a feed forward neural network to measure the content of products in the combustion side reaction of p-xylene oxidation, and satisfactory results are obtained.展开更多
The rise in the use of global polyester fiber contributed to strong demand of the Terephthalic acid (TPA). The liquid-phase catalytic oxidation of p-xylene (PX) to TPA is regarded as a critical and efficient chemi...The rise in the use of global polyester fiber contributed to strong demand of the Terephthalic acid (TPA). The liquid-phase catalytic oxidation of p-xylene (PX) to TPA is regarded as a critical and efficient chemical process in industry [ 1 ]. PX oxidation reaction involves many complex side reactions, among which acetic acid combustion and PX combustion are the most important. As the target product of this oxidation process, the quality and yield of TPA are of great concern. However, the improvement of the qualified product yield can bring about the high energy consumption, which means that the economic objectives of this process cannot be achieved simulta- neously because the two objectives are in conflict with each other. In this paper, an improved self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm was proposed to handle the multi-objective optimization prob- lems. The immune concept is introduced to the self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm (SADE) to strengthen the local search ability and optimization accuracy. The proposed algorithm is successfully tested on several benchmark test problems, and the performance measures such as convergence and divergence metrics are calculated. Subsequently, the multi-objective optimization of an industrial PX oxidation process is carried out using the proposed immune self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm (ISADE). Optimization results indicate that application oflSADE can greatly improve the yield of TPA with low combustion loss without degenerating TA quality.展开更多
The issue of carbon emissions has been on the corporate sustainability agenda for some years. For those working in agricultural supply chains, the challenges remain significant, given the diverse direct and indirect e...The issue of carbon emissions has been on the corporate sustainability agenda for some years. For those working in agricultural supply chains, the challenges remain significant, given the diverse direct and indirect emissions occurring throughout the value chain. This study determines the carbon footprint of the supply chain of Costa Rican coffee exported to Europe, using best practice methodology to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, it was found that the total carbon footprint across the entire supply chain is 4.82 kg CO2e kgx green coffee. The carbon footprint of the processes in Costa Rica to produce l km of green coffee is 1.77 kg CO2e. The processes within Europe generate 3.05 kg CO2e kg-1 green coffee. This carbon footprint is considered as "very high intensity". This paper also identifies the sources of the most intense emission and discusses mitigation possibilities on which efforts must be focused.展开更多
Mining activity in Italy has been one of the main productive activities for millennia, particularly in the Tuscany region which has a great mining tradition, unfortunately characterized in the past by a management lit...Mining activity in Italy has been one of the main productive activities for millennia, particularly in the Tuscany region which has a great mining tradition, unfortunately characterized in the past by a management little interest to environmental problems. The area under study is the disused mine Niccioleta, in Val d'Aspra, located about 6 km NE of Massa Marittima in the province of Grosseto. The area is characterized by the presence of four major landfills, in which prevail quantitatively fine-grained materials resulting from the treatment by flotation of pyrite. The study of satellite images offers a new approach to the study of environmental problems. The results obtained from the RapidEye images showed the presence of pyrite and chalcopyrite followed from arsenopyrite, as confirmed by the analysis of diffractometer of the samples and by bibliographic data. RapidEye images lend themselves very to be used to monitor areas of disused mining deposits of ores with primary mineralization predominantly sulphides and subject to oxidized characterized by processes of oxidation/dissolution of pyrite sulphide most common and abundant. In fact, the results of this study have highlighted the potential of remote sensing applied to the study of mining areas, noting the possible benefits, both time and cost, which could be obtained by using these techniques.展开更多
Activated carbon was tested as metal-free catalyst for hydrochlorination of acetylene in order to circumvent the problem of environment pollution caused by mercury and high cost by noble metals. Oxygen-doped and nitro...Activated carbon was tested as metal-free catalyst for hydrochlorination of acetylene in order to circumvent the problem of environment pollution caused by mercury and high cost by noble metals. Oxygen-doped and nitrogen-doped activated carbons were prepared and characterized by XPS, TPD and N2 physisorption methods. The influences of the surface functional groups on the catalytic performance were discussed base on these results. Among all the samples tested, a nitrogen-doped sample, AC-n-US00, exhibited the best performance, the acety- lene conversion being 92% and vinyl chloride selectivity above 99% at 240 ~C and C2H2 hourly space velocity 30 h- 1. Moreover, the AC-n-US00 catalyst exhibited a stable performance during a 200 h test with a conversion of acetylene higher than 76% at 210 ~C at a C2H2 hourly space velocity 50 h 1. In contrary, oxygen-doped catalyst had lower catalytic activities. A linear relationship between the amount of pyrrolic-N and quaternary-N species and the catalytic activity was observed, indicating that these nitrogen-doped species might be the active sites and the key in tuning the catalytic performance. It is also found that the introduction of nitrogen species into the sample could significantly increase the adsorption amount of acetylene. The deactivation of nitrogen- doped activated carbon might be caused by the decrease of the accessibility to or the total amount of active sites.展开更多
Malaysia has undergone rapid urbanization and economic growth for past decades and is expected to continue to have an average economic grow at 5%-6% per annum in the next five years. This phenomenon of growth and purs...Malaysia has undergone rapid urbanization and economic growth for past decades and is expected to continue to have an average economic grow at 5%-6% per annum in the next five years. This phenomenon of growth and pursuit of socio-economic progress has great impact not only on the economy but also on community life style and environment. The concept of sustainable development was adopted by Malaysia government as early as mid 1990s to address some of the emerging environmental issues and more specifically on climate change issues recently. Malaysia government announced a commitment of voluntary 40% reduction in CO2 emission intensity by 2020 during the Conference of Party (COP15) meeting in Copenhagen in 2009. In parallel to this commitment of CO2 emission reduction, the concept of sustainable development in urban planning should incorporate a more comprehensive and quantitative approach in the preparation of development plan as well as in exercising the routine development control practice at the local planning authority. This paper prepares a quantitative scenario study on the establishment of low carbon society in Iskandar Malaysia.展开更多
The mobility and bioavailability of selenium is a major health and environmental issue and a main concern for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Chemically and/or microbially mediated oxidation of in...The mobility and bioavailability of selenium is a major health and environmental issue and a main concern for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Chemically and/or microbially mediated oxidation of insoluble Se-bearing particulate, such as iron selenides, to dissolved and mobile phases controls the transport and distribution of Se in the environment. The oxidation of ferroselite (FeSe2) by ferric iron was investigated in anoxic conditions. The redox reaction can be represented by: FeSe2 + 2Fe3+ = 2Se^0 + 3Fe2+. Kinetic studies indicated that the reaction can be described by second-order rate law, with rate constants of 0.49±0.01, 0.85±0.02, 1.84±0.04, and 3.29±0.13 L mol^-1 s^-1 at pH 1.62, 1.87, 2.23, and 2.49, respectively. The positive correlation between reaction rate and pH implies that diffusion of Fe3+ oxidant to the mineral surface is the rate-determining step. The strong reactivity of FeSe2 towards Fe^3+ suggests that ferric iron may play a significant role in FeSe2 oxidation process (e.g., by Se^4+, 02, etc.) and Se^0 should be the first reaction product. Also, it was shown that the reduction rate of Fe^3+ or Se^4+ by pyrite (FeS2) can be significantly increased in the presence of FeSe2, suggesting a stronger reactivity of FeSe2 compared with pyrite. The results obtained extend our knowledge about the subtle interaction between Se, pyrite and iron selenides in the environment, and give insight into the transfer of selenium from iron selenides to bio-available selenium (i.e., selenite and selenate) in the Se-rich environment.展开更多
Clean and highly efficient energy production has long been sought after, as a way to solve global energy and environmental problems. Fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy stored in fuel directly into electrici...Clean and highly efficient energy production has long been sought after, as a way to solve global energy and environmental problems. Fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy stored in fuel directly into electricity, are expected to be a key enabling technology for the pressing energy issues that plague our planet. Fuel cells require oxygen as an oxidant and require oxygen tank containers when used in air-free environments such as outer space and underwater. Hydrogen peroxide has been extensively uti- lized as an alternative liquid oxidant in place of gaseous oxygen. In addition to being an oxidant, hydrogen peroxide can donate electrons in the oxidation reaction to act as a fuel. This article provides an overview of the dual role of hydrogen peroxide in fuel-cell applications, including working principle, system design, and cell performance. Recent innovations and future perspectives of fuel cells that use hydrogen peroxide are particularly emphasized.展开更多
基金Supported by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (2012CB720500)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Key Program: U1162202)+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program:61174118)Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (B504)
文摘In recent years, immune genetic algorithm (IGA) is gaining popularity for finding the optimal solution for non-linear optimization problems in many engineering applications. However, IGA with deterministic mutation factor suffers from the problem of premature convergence. In this study, a modified self-adaptive immune genetic algorithm (MSIGA) with two memory bases, in which immune concepts are applied to determine the mutation parameters, is proposed to improve the searching ability of the algorithm and maintain population diversity. Performance comparisons with other well-known population-based iterative algorithms show that the proposed method converges quickly to the global optimum and overcomes premature problem. This algorithm is applied to optimize a feed forward neural network to measure the content of products in the combustion side reaction of p-xylene oxidation, and satisfactory results are obtained.
基金Supported by the Shanghai Second Polytechnic University Key Discipline Construction-Control Theory & Control Engineering(No.XXKPY1609)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61422303)+1 种基金Shanghai Talent Development Funding(H200-2R-15111)2017 Shanghai Second Polytechnic University Cultivation Research Program of Young Teachers(02)
文摘The rise in the use of global polyester fiber contributed to strong demand of the Terephthalic acid (TPA). The liquid-phase catalytic oxidation of p-xylene (PX) to TPA is regarded as a critical and efficient chemical process in industry [ 1 ]. PX oxidation reaction involves many complex side reactions, among which acetic acid combustion and PX combustion are the most important. As the target product of this oxidation process, the quality and yield of TPA are of great concern. However, the improvement of the qualified product yield can bring about the high energy consumption, which means that the economic objectives of this process cannot be achieved simulta- neously because the two objectives are in conflict with each other. In this paper, an improved self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm was proposed to handle the multi-objective optimization prob- lems. The immune concept is introduced to the self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm (SADE) to strengthen the local search ability and optimization accuracy. The proposed algorithm is successfully tested on several benchmark test problems, and the performance measures such as convergence and divergence metrics are calculated. Subsequently, the multi-objective optimization of an industrial PX oxidation process is carried out using the proposed immune self-adaptive multi-objective differential evolution algorithm (ISADE). Optimization results indicate that application oflSADE can greatly improve the yield of TPA with low combustion loss without degenerating TA quality.
文摘The issue of carbon emissions has been on the corporate sustainability agenda for some years. For those working in agricultural supply chains, the challenges remain significant, given the diverse direct and indirect emissions occurring throughout the value chain. This study determines the carbon footprint of the supply chain of Costa Rican coffee exported to Europe, using best practice methodology to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, it was found that the total carbon footprint across the entire supply chain is 4.82 kg CO2e kgx green coffee. The carbon footprint of the processes in Costa Rica to produce l km of green coffee is 1.77 kg CO2e. The processes within Europe generate 3.05 kg CO2e kg-1 green coffee. This carbon footprint is considered as "very high intensity". This paper also identifies the sources of the most intense emission and discusses mitigation possibilities on which efforts must be focused.
文摘Mining activity in Italy has been one of the main productive activities for millennia, particularly in the Tuscany region which has a great mining tradition, unfortunately characterized in the past by a management little interest to environmental problems. The area under study is the disused mine Niccioleta, in Val d'Aspra, located about 6 km NE of Massa Marittima in the province of Grosseto. The area is characterized by the presence of four major landfills, in which prevail quantitatively fine-grained materials resulting from the treatment by flotation of pyrite. The study of satellite images offers a new approach to the study of environmental problems. The results obtained from the RapidEye images showed the presence of pyrite and chalcopyrite followed from arsenopyrite, as confirmed by the analysis of diffractometer of the samples and by bibliographic data. RapidEye images lend themselves very to be used to monitor areas of disused mining deposits of ores with primary mineralization predominantly sulphides and subject to oxidized characterized by processes of oxidation/dissolution of pyrite sulphide most common and abundant. In fact, the results of this study have highlighted the potential of remote sensing applied to the study of mining areas, noting the possible benefits, both time and cost, which could be obtained by using these techniques.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21476207)the National Basic Research Program of China(2011CB710800)
文摘Activated carbon was tested as metal-free catalyst for hydrochlorination of acetylene in order to circumvent the problem of environment pollution caused by mercury and high cost by noble metals. Oxygen-doped and nitrogen-doped activated carbons were prepared and characterized by XPS, TPD and N2 physisorption methods. The influences of the surface functional groups on the catalytic performance were discussed base on these results. Among all the samples tested, a nitrogen-doped sample, AC-n-US00, exhibited the best performance, the acety- lene conversion being 92% and vinyl chloride selectivity above 99% at 240 ~C and C2H2 hourly space velocity 30 h- 1. Moreover, the AC-n-US00 catalyst exhibited a stable performance during a 200 h test with a conversion of acetylene higher than 76% at 210 ~C at a C2H2 hourly space velocity 50 h 1. In contrary, oxygen-doped catalyst had lower catalytic activities. A linear relationship between the amount of pyrrolic-N and quaternary-N species and the catalytic activity was observed, indicating that these nitrogen-doped species might be the active sites and the key in tuning the catalytic performance. It is also found that the introduction of nitrogen species into the sample could significantly increase the adsorption amount of acetylene. The deactivation of nitrogen- doped activated carbon might be caused by the decrease of the accessibility to or the total amount of active sites.
文摘Malaysia has undergone rapid urbanization and economic growth for past decades and is expected to continue to have an average economic grow at 5%-6% per annum in the next five years. This phenomenon of growth and pursuit of socio-economic progress has great impact not only on the economy but also on community life style and environment. The concept of sustainable development was adopted by Malaysia government as early as mid 1990s to address some of the emerging environmental issues and more specifically on climate change issues recently. Malaysia government announced a commitment of voluntary 40% reduction in CO2 emission intensity by 2020 during the Conference of Party (COP15) meeting in Copenhagen in 2009. In parallel to this commitment of CO2 emission reduction, the concept of sustainable development in urban planning should incorporate a more comprehensive and quantitative approach in the preparation of development plan as well as in exercising the routine development control practice at the local planning authority. This paper prepares a quantitative scenario study on the establishment of low carbon society in Iskandar Malaysia.
基金supported by the Special Foundation for High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal(2007-840,2012-851)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(11075006,91026010)+1 种基金the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Project(2013M530013)the Collaborative Project from the Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny,Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry,Chinese Academy of Sciences(KLMM20120203)
文摘The mobility and bioavailability of selenium is a major health and environmental issue and a main concern for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Chemically and/or microbially mediated oxidation of insoluble Se-bearing particulate, such as iron selenides, to dissolved and mobile phases controls the transport and distribution of Se in the environment. The oxidation of ferroselite (FeSe2) by ferric iron was investigated in anoxic conditions. The redox reaction can be represented by: FeSe2 + 2Fe3+ = 2Se^0 + 3Fe2+. Kinetic studies indicated that the reaction can be described by second-order rate law, with rate constants of 0.49±0.01, 0.85±0.02, 1.84±0.04, and 3.29±0.13 L mol^-1 s^-1 at pH 1.62, 1.87, 2.23, and 2.49, respectively. The positive correlation between reaction rate and pH implies that diffusion of Fe3+ oxidant to the mineral surface is the rate-determining step. The strong reactivity of FeSe2 towards Fe^3+ suggests that ferric iron may play a significant role in FeSe2 oxidation process (e.g., by Se^4+, 02, etc.) and Se^0 should be the first reaction product. Also, it was shown that the reduction rate of Fe^3+ or Se^4+ by pyrite (FeS2) can be significantly increased in the presence of FeSe2, suggesting a stronger reactivity of FeSe2 compared with pyrite. The results obtained extend our knowledge about the subtle interaction between Se, pyrite and iron selenides in the environment, and give insight into the transfer of selenium from iron selenides to bio-available selenium (i.e., selenite and selenate) in the Se-rich environment.
基金fully supported by a grant fromthe Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,China(HKUST9/CRF/11G)
文摘Clean and highly efficient energy production has long been sought after, as a way to solve global energy and environmental problems. Fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy stored in fuel directly into electricity, are expected to be a key enabling technology for the pressing energy issues that plague our planet. Fuel cells require oxygen as an oxidant and require oxygen tank containers when used in air-free environments such as outer space and underwater. Hydrogen peroxide has been extensively uti- lized as an alternative liquid oxidant in place of gaseous oxygen. In addition to being an oxidant, hydrogen peroxide can donate electrons in the oxidation reaction to act as a fuel. This article provides an overview of the dual role of hydrogen peroxide in fuel-cell applications, including working principle, system design, and cell performance. Recent innovations and future perspectives of fuel cells that use hydrogen peroxide are particularly emphasized.