The present work is focused on the study of fluidization behaviour of biomass and sand mixtures in a laboratory scale test set up. The biomass materials used during the experimentation were rice husk, bagasse and sawdust. Two different particle sizes of silica sands were used in forming the mixture. The percentages of biomass in the mixtures were 2%, 5%, 10% and 15% by weight. The minimum fluid...

We use a novel satellite time series of size-partitioned phytoplankton biomass to construct and analyze classical and novel seasonality metrics. Biomass is computed from SeaWiFS ocean color data using retrievals of the particle size distribution with the KSM09 algorithm and existing allometric relationships to convert volume to carbon. The phenological metrics include the peak blooming date, bl...

Aerosol particle number size distributions and hygroscopic properties were measured at a pasture site in the southwestern Amazon region (Rondonia). The measurements were performed 11 September–14 November 2002 as part of LBA-SMOCC (Large scale Biosphere atmosphere experiment in Amazonia – SMOke aerosols, Clouds, rainfall and Climate), and cover the later part of the dry season (with heavy bioma...

Ethanol has been widely used as an alternative to fossil fuels. In recent years, much attention has been devoted to ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. In previous research, low-moisture anhydrous ammonia (LMAA) pretreatment was investigated due to its high efficiency and less washing compared to other pretreatment methods. The purpose of this study was to determine optimal conditi...

The inherent nonlinearities in the kinetics and heat transfer models of biomass pyrolysis have led to the applications of various numerical methods in solving the nonlinear problems. However, in order to have physical insights into the phenomena and to show the direct relationships between the parameters of the models, analytical solutions are required. In this work, approximate analytical solu...

A model describing both physical and biological processes in Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactors was developed. The main objective of the modelling was to take into account the transient growth of the microorganisms from the start-up of the reactor until a steady state is reached. In addition, the model considers the degradation of the substrate and its reaction with the biomass, wh...

Biomass is of growing interest as a secondary energy source. Biomass could be converted to energy especially by pyrolysis or gasification. Understanding the mechanism and the kinetics of biomass pyrolysis and gasification could be the key to the design of industrial devices capable of processing vast amounts of biomass feedstock. There are multiple reactions describing the decomposition of biom...

this study is aimed to identify sources of particulate matter with mean aerodynamic diameterbelow 10 μm (pm10) present in the atmosphere of the metropolitan area of mexico city (mamc), usingsamples obtained from january 1st to june 30th, 2009, analyzed with x-ray spectrometric techniques.minivol samplers were used to collect samples on polycarbonate filters in three sites (north, center, andsou...

Sludge bulking causes loss of biomass in the effluent and deterioration of effluent water quality. This study explored the use of nano zero-valent iron (NZVI with an average particle size of 55 ± 11 nm) for sludge bulking control. In two Modified Ludzack-Ettinger (MLE) activated sludge treatment systems, a single dose of NZVI at the final concentration of 100 mg Fe per L in the mixed liquor red...

The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) shelf experiences a highly seasonal flux of particulate organic carbon following the retreat of winter sea ice, which results in deposition of labile food material for benthic detritivores. We conducted a seasonal time-series study (November 1999 through March 2001) on the WAP shelf to determine the timing and magnitude of bloom deposition on the sea floor, an...