Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are one group of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that are of international concern because of global distribution, persistence, and toxicity. Removal of these compounds from the environment remains a very difficult challenge because the compounds are highly hydrophobic and have very low solubility in water. A 900 W domestic microwave oven, pyrex vessel reactor, pyrex tube connector and condensing system were used in this experiment. Radiation was discontinuous and ray powers were 540, 720 and 900 W. The PCBS were analyzed by GC-ECD. The application of microwave radiation and H2O2/TiO2 agents for the degradation of polychlorinated biphenyl contaminated oil was explored in this study. PCB – contaminated oil was treated in a pyrex reactor by microwave irradiation at 2450 MHz with the addition of H2O2/TiO2. A novel grain TiO2 (GT01) was used. The determination of PCB residues in oil by gas chromatography (GC) revealed that rates of PCB decomposition were highly dependent on microwave power, exposure time, ratio to solvent with transformer oil in 3:1, the optimal amount of GT01 (0.2 g) and 0.116 mol of H2O2 were used in the study. It was suggested that microwave irradiation with the assistance of H2O2/TiO2 might be a potential technology for the degradation of PCB – contaminated oil. The experiments show that MW irradiation, H2O2 oxidant and TiO2 catalyst lead to a degradation efficiency of PCBs only in the presence of ethanol. The results showed that the addition of ethanol significantly enhanced degradation efficiency of PCBs.

In this study, batch fermentation of glucose to ethanol by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ATCC 7754) was carried out using 2.5 dm3 BioFlo®115 bioreactor. The main objective of this study was to investigate the kinetics of ethanol fermentation by means of the non-structured model. The fermentation process was carried out for 72 h. Samples were collected every 4 h and then yeast growth concentration of ethanol and glucose were measured. The mathematical model was composed of three equations, which represented the changes of biomass, substrate and ethanol concentrations. The mathematical model of bioprocess was solved by means of Matlab/SimulinkTM environment. The obtained results from the proposed model showed good agreement with the experimental data, thus it was concluded that this model can be used for the mathematical modeling of ethanol production.

The ethanol fire hazards will become more frequent due to the new established targets for the consumption of renewable energy sources. With this in mind, this paper aims to widen the current knowledge on CFD modelling of such a fire. As previous works rely heavily on the data of small pool fire diameters (below 1 m), this research deals with ethanol pool fire on a one-meter test tray, using our own experimental data. A mathematical model was developed and solved using a commercial CFD package (ANSYS Fluent). A new hybrid RANS-LES (SBES) model was employed to calculate turbulent stresses. Generally, the simulation results showed a good fit with the experimental results for flame temperatures at different elevations. In particular, a minor discrepancy was only observed for the top thermocouple (1.9 m above the tray). The flame heights computed with the CFD model were on average higher than the experimental one. Good agreement was observed for the radiative fraction and the axial temperature profile on the plume centreline. The latter showed an almost perfect fit between the temperature profiles obtained from CFD simulations and those calculated from the plume law for temperature.

The engine simulations have become an integral part of engine design and development. They are based on approximations and assumptions. The precision of the results depends on the accuracy of these hypotheses. The simplified models of frozen composition, chemical equilibrium and chemical kinetics provide the compositions of combustion products for engine cycle simulations. This paper evaluates the effects of different operating conditions and hypotheses on the exergetic analysis of a spark-ignition engine. The Brazilian automotive market has the highest number of flex-fuel vehicles. Therefore, a flex-fuel engine is considered for simulations in order to demonstrate the effects of these different hypotheses. The stroke length and bore diameter have the same value of 80 mm. The in-cylinder irreversibility is calculated for each case at the closed part of the engine cycle. A comparative analysis of these hypotheses provides a comprehensive evaluation of their effects on exergetic analysis. Higher values of accumulated irreversibility are observed for the oversimplified hypothesis.

This paper presents investigations on the removal of cyclohexane and ethanol from air in polyurethane- -packed biotrickling filters, inoculated with Candida albicans and Candida subhashii fungal species. Results on process performance together with flow cytometry analyses of the biofilm formed over packing elements are presented and discussed. The results indicate that the presence of ethanol enhances the removal efficiency of cyclohexane from air. This synergistic effect may be attributed to both co-metabolism of cyclohexane with ethanol as well as increased sorption efficiency of cyclohexane to mineral salt medium in the presence of ethanol. Maximum elimination capacities of 89 g m-3 h-1 and 36.7 g m-3 h-1 were noted for cyclohexane and ethanol, respectively, when a mixture of these compounds was treated in a biofilter inoculated with C. subhashii. Results of flow cytometry analyses after 100 days of biofiltration revealed that about 91% and 88% of cells in biofilm remained actively dividing, respectively for C. albicans and C. subhashii species, indicating their good condition and ability to utilize cyclohexane and ethanol as a carbon source.