Progress in Microwave Technology Applied to the Recovery of Precious Metals from the Secondary Resources

The recovery of precious metals from the secondary resources by microwave technology has emerged in recent years. Microwave technology as a new method for the recovery of precious metals has shown significant advantages against the conventional recovery procedures. This paper presents a review of the advances in microwave technology applied to the recovery of precious metals from the secondary resources. Many different applications are considered, including microwave-assisted leaching, microwave augmented ashing and microwave pyrolysis. In general, microwave enhanced recovery of precious metals from secondary resources.

A minimum traveltime ray tracing global algorithm on a triangular net for propagating plane waves

To address the problem of subdividing inflexible rectangular grid models and their poor definition of velocity interfaces,we propose a complex structure triangular net for a minimum traveltime ray tracing global algorithm.Our procedure is：（1） Subdivide a triangle grid based on the Delaunay triangular subdivision criterion and the relationships of the points,lines,and the surfaces in the subdividing area.（2） Define the topology relationships and related concepts of triangular unit ray tracing.（3） The source point and wave arrival points at any time compose the propagating plane wave and the minimum traveltime and secondary source positions are calculated during the plane wave propagation.We adopt the hyperbolic approximation global algorithm for secondary source retrieving.（4） By minimum traveltime ray tracing,collect the path from receiver to source points with the neighborhood point＇s traveltime and the direction of the secondary source.Numerical simulation examples are given to test the algorithm.The results show that the triangular net ray tracing method demonstrates model subdivision flexibility,precise velocity discontinuity interfaces,and accurate computations.

High-intensity laser-driven secondary radiation sources using the ZEUS 45 TW laser system at the Institute of Plasma Physics and Lasers of the Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Centre

The rapid development of high-intensity laser-generated particle and photon secondary sources has attracted widespread interest during the last 20 years not only due to fundamental science research but also because of the important applications of this developing technology.For instance,the generation of relativistic particle beams,betatron-type coherent X-ray radiation and high harmonic generation have attracted interest from various fields of science and technology owing to their diverse applications in biomedical,material science,energy,space,and security applications.In the field of biomedical applications in particular,laser-driven particle beams as well as laser-driven X-ray sources are a promising field of study.This article looks at the research being performed at the Institute of Plasma Physics and Lasers(IPPL)of the Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Centre.The recent installation of the ZEUS 45 TW laser system developed at IPPL offers unique opportunities for research in laser-driven particle and X-ray sources.This article provides information about the facility and describes initial experiments performed for establishing the baseline platforms for secondary plasma sources.

Study of the electrochemical properties of a transition metallic ions modified electrode in acidic VOSO_4 solution

Graphite material was used as the electrode for an all-vanadium redox flow battery, and the electrode was modified by transition metallic ions to enhance its electrochemical behavior. An porous graphite composite electrode has high specific surface area and high current density. The electrode modified by transition metallic ions has improved catalysis behavior that can catalyze the V（Ⅱ）-V（Ⅴ） redox reaction showed by cyclic voltammograms. This article studied the impedance of the modified electrode by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS）, and approved that the electrode modified by Co^2＋ and Mn^2＋ has a lower charge transfer resistance than the non-modified electrode. The effect of average particle size distribution is at lower frequencies that the slope of Warburg impedance is reduced by large particle size distribution. The voltage efficiency of the Co^2＋ modified electrode test cell is 81.5%, which is higher than that of the non-modified electrode.

High-performance formaldehyde prediction for indoor air quality assessment using time series deep learning

Indoor air pollution resulting from volatile organic compounds(VOCs),especially formaldehyde,is a significant health concern needed to predict indoor formaldehyde concentration(Cf)in green intelligent building design.This study develops a thermal and wet coupling calculation model of porous fabric to account for the migration of formaldehyde molecules in indoor air and cotton,silk,and polyester fabric with heat flux in Harbin,Beijing,Xi’an,Shanghai,Guangzhou,and Kunming,China.The time-by-time indoor dry-bulb temperature(T),relative humidity(RH),and Cf,obtained from verified simulations,were collated and used as input data for the long short-term memory(LSTM)of the deep learning model that predicts indoor multivariate time series Cf from the secondary source effects of indoor fabrics(adsorption and release of formaldehyde).The trained LSTM model can be used to predict multivariate time series Cf at other emission times and locations.The LSTM-based model also predicted Cf with mean absolute percentage error(MAPE),symmetric mean absolute percentage error(SMAPE),mean absolute error(MAE),mean square error(MSE),and root mean square error(RMSE)that fell within 10%,10%,0.5,0.5,and 0.8,respectively.In addition,the characteristics of the input dataset,model parameters,the prediction accuracy of different indoor fabrics,and the uncertainty of the data set are analyzed.The results show that the prediction accuracy of single data set input is higher than that of temperature and humidity input,and the prediction accuracy of LSTM is better than recurrent neural network(RNN).The method’s feasibility was established,and the study provides theoretical support for guiding indoor air pollution control measures and ensuring human health and safety.

Molecular characterization of effluent organic matter in secondary effluent and reclaimed water:Comparison to natural organic matter in source water

Municipal wastewater reclamation is becoming of increasing importance in the world to solve the problem of water scarcity. A better understanding of the molecular composition of effluent organic matter（Ef OM） in the treated effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants（WWTPs） is crucial for ensuring the safety of water reuse. In this study, the molecular composition of Ef OM in the secondary effluent of a WWTP in Beijing and the reclaimed water further treated with a coagulation–sedimentation–ozonation process were characterized using a non-target Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry（FT-ICR MS） method and compared to that of natural organic matter（NOM） in the local source water from a reservoir. It was found that the molecular composition of Ef OM in the secondary effluent and reclaimed water was dominated by CHOS formulas, while NOM in the source water was dominated by CHO formulas. The CHO formulas of the three samples had similar origins. Anthropogenic surfactants were responsible for the CHOS formulas in Ef OM of the secondary effluent and were not well removed by the coagulation-sedimentation-ozonation treatment process adopted.

Enhancement of the laser-driven proton source at PHELIX

We present a study of laser-driven ion acceleration with micrometre and sub-micrometre thick targets,which focuses on the enhancement of the maximum proton energy and the total number of accelerated particles at the PHELIX facility.Using laser pulses with a nanosecond temporal contrast of up to 10^-12 and an intensity of the order of 1020 W/cm^2,proton energies up to 93 MeV are achieved.Additionally,the conversion efficiency at 45°incidence angle was increased when changing the laser polarization to p,enabling similar proton energies and particle numbers as in the case of normal incidence and s-polarization,but reducing the debris on the last focusing optic.

Vertical distributions of wintertime atmospheric nitrogenous compounds and the corresponding OH radicals production in Leshan, southwest China

Ground-based multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy(MAX-DOAS)observations were operated from 02 to 21 December 2018 in Leshan,southwest China,to measure HONO,NO_(2) and aerosol extinction vertical distributions,and these were the first MAX-DOAS measurement results in Sichuan Basin.During the measurement period,characteristic ranges for surface concentration were found to be 0.26-4.58 km^(−1) and averaged at 0.93 km^(−1) for aerosol extinction,0.49 to 35.2 ppb and averaged at 4.57 ppb for NO_(2) and 0.03 to 7.38 ppb and averaged at 1.05 ppb for HONO.Moreover,vertical profiles of aerosol,NO_(2) and HONO were retrieved from MAX-DOAS measurements using the Heidelberg Profile(HEIPRO)algorithm.By analysing the vertical gradients of pollutants and meteorological information,we found that aerosol and HONO are strongly localised,while NO_(2) is mainly transmitted from the north direction(city center direction).Nitrogen oxides such as HONO and NO_(2) are important for the production of hydroxyl radical(OH)and oxidative capacity in the troposphere.In this study,the averaged value of OH production rate from HONO is about 0.63 ppb/hr and maximum value of ratio between OH production from HONO and from(HONO+O_(3))is>93%before12:00 in Leshan.In addition,combustion emission contributes to 26%for the source of HONO in Leshan,and we found that more NO_(2) being converted to HONO under the conditions with high aerosol extinction coefficient and high relative humidity is also a dominant factor for the secondary produce of HONO.