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The metal sulfide precipitation process is a widely studied technology used to recover metals or remove pollutants from different aqueous sources. However, the conventional clarification stage used to separate the generated precipitates cannot effectively remove them from recovered solutions. Taking this into account, the current study focuses on developing a new separation method applied in metal sulfide precipitates, based on a membrane filtration process. Different operating conditions and metal concentration in the feed solution were evaluated for the separation of copper sulfide precipitates formed from synthetic cyanide solutions in ceramic microfiltration membranes. Results showed attractive values of flux and copper recovery. Flux results ranged between 0.9 L/m2s and 1.2 L/m2s for copper concentrations above 500 mg/L, and copper recoveries resulted closer to 100% at the determined optimal operating conditions (4.5 pH, 120% NaHS stoichiometric dosage, and 2 bar feed pressure). These flux values decreased up to one order of magnitude for diluted copper concentrations, due to a change of aggregation capacity of precipitates. This study has demonstrated that the membrane filtration process can be a suitable alternative for the conventional gravitational clarification, promoting better performance results in terms of equipment capacity, metal recovery, and process safety.

Although road-based freight transport has large external costs, it currently dominates the hinterland cargo transport sector in Europe. An increase of the automation levels of inland cargo vessels could advance their competitiveness, hence unlocking more sustainable inland cargo transport. Moreover, these improvements could pave the way for a potential future paradigm shift towards unmanned inland cargo vessels. Therefore, this study investigates the design of an experimental platform in order to study the feasibility and current or future limi­ tations of unmanned inland cargo vessels. To explore this design, the following three questions were handled: (i) How to design an industrially relevant research vessel?, (ii) How can an unmanned inland cargo vessel interact with or perceive its environment?, and (iii) How to control an unmanned or autonomous inland cargo vessel? The answers to these design questions delivered the blueprint to construct a first prototype of an unmanned inland cargo vessel. This prototype performed a set of outdoor experiments to verify and validate the made design choices. The successful execution of these experiments demonstrates that this vessel can serve as an experimental platform for further technological research regarding more automated or unmanned inland cargo vessels and provide fruitful insights for other research domains. ispartof: Ocean Engineering vol:201 status: Published online

Most flowering plants depend on biotic pollination and seed dispersal for successful reproduction. Pollination and seed dispersal are diffuse mutualistic interactions, in which many species with different effectiveness levels participate. However, anthropogenic habitat disturbance may hamper the impact of mutualists, jeopardizing plant recruitment. Important as it is, the effect of habitat transformation on the simultaneous contribution of pollinators and seed dispersers to plant reproduction remains little explored. Aiming to assess the effects of habitat transformation on the effectiveness of pollination and seed dispersal mutualisms, we studied a highly specialized system (a mistletoe interacting with one pollinator and one seed disperser), in native and transformed (abandoned Eucalyptus globulus plantations with native understory) habitats. Pollination and seed dispersal effectiveness landscapes were highly variable and did not differ between native and transformed habitats. Pollinator visitation and fruit removal, however, were higher at the transformed habitat probably favoured by a thick understory vegetation of shrubs and bamboo that provided additional resources to consumers. The resulting plant fitness was higher at the transformed habitat. Contrary to expectations, mistletoe reproduction was higher in the transformed habitat, suggesting that persistence of a highly specialized mutualistic is benefitted from the presence of a native understory vegetation that attracts mutualists and compensates for the often detrimental effects of habitat transformation., This work was supported by the American Society of Mammalogists, the Scott Neotropical Fund program of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo & Cleveland Zoological Society, the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, the Rufford Small Grants Foundation (10621-1), Idea Wild, and the Chilean Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT; AT-24121082). Final writing of this article was supported by FONDECYT projects 3140528 and 11160152 (FEF).

Distributed generation (DG) penetration in a system may affect power quality, and energy efficiency, if it exceeds a particular value, known as the system’s hosting capacity (HC). In this work, a comprehensive overview of hosting capacity and harmonic distortion limits is presented and discussed. The highest allowable penetration level of photovoltaic (PV)-based distributed generation units, hosted on typical industrial distribution systems, was analyzed in terms of the three power quality and energy efficiency performance parameters, namely bus voltage limits, line ampacities, and harmonic distortion limits. The analytical results show that the system’s HC decreases with increase in utility side’s background voltage distortion and load side’s nonlinearity values. The HC level was affected more by the nonlinearity of the load side than by the utility side’s background voltage distortion. Therefore, a single-tuned passive filter is suggested for maximizing the system’s limited HC. Further, an optimization algorithm was developed to find simultaneously the system’s HC and the parameters of the proposed filter, by considering the three performance parameters as constraints. The proposed filter design was found to attain a better level of HC than what can be obtained with a traditional filter design, based on current demand distortion minimization. This paper is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey under the project 116E110.

COMET–Integrated infrastructure for CO2 transport and storage in the west Mediterranean–is a join research Project co-financed by the European Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), which started on January 2010. Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) is a CO2 abatement option that can contribute substantially to the ambitious targets needed for climate stabilization. The significant role foreseen for CCS is based on several conditions, like the availability of a CO2 transport infrastructure or construction of such an infrastructure within the near future. The need to have a suitable transport infrastructure, its implications over time and its related costs have only more recently attracting the attention and getting priority in the R&D agenda of the European Countries. This is partly because research on CO2 transport and storage needs to be realized at the local-regional level, unlike the technological research on CO2 capture which is not country dependent. In this context, COMET focuses on assessing CO2 transport and storage in a geographical area that until now has received little attention: The West Mediterranean area, specifically, the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco.

Publisher Summary This chapter gives a background and overview of developments in the principal technological research and development and production processes for devices. The main focus is on the most important enabling technology for the production of the present and future generations of laser diodes and related devices. This process is crystal growth and involves the following sequence: bulk growth of single crystals, epitaxial growth of semiconductor single-crystal layers, ion implantation, device fabrication, and packaging and testing. On the open market, manufacturers of epitaxy equipment have developed their own proprietary processes that are an essential selling point for most customers. In conclusion, the new generation family of GaAs-based devices would probably not have been possible without the precision and versatility of the growth techniques described in this chapter. Epitaxy is likely to continue to be the foundation stone for all present and next generations of optoelectronic devices. Their importance is likely to continue to increase as even better process control and yields are established.

The demands placed on industrial automation systems have grown in many dimensions over the last two decades. Examples of such demands are increased size, functionality, speed, flexibility, simpler programming, quality, and decreased installation and commissioning costs. An emerging approach to meeting such demands is the use of Distributed Real-time Control System (DRCS) architectures and technologies. This chapter discusses key issues that are driving this trend in modern industrial automation systems and provides a framework for discussion and technological research.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on extract from a section on Research in an Electricity Council publication Electricity Supply in Great Britain—Organization and Development that summarizes the research activities of the supply industry in Great Britain. Commercial and economic research aims to predict how much electricity will be required in the future, where and for what purpose; to assess load characteristics and the cost of supplying various kinds of load; and to provide information about consumers' buying habits. Research in these fields provides important data for forecasting the country's electricity needs and planning to meet them, and also for developing the industry's policies with regard to tariffs, selective load building, and marketing. At the centre of the supply industry's research planning are the Electricity Council's Research Committee, concerned with technological research, and the Commercial Policy Committee, with commercial and economic research. A list of those research publications, which have significant statistical content and are available to workers outside the industry, is included as a supplement to the Bibliography.

The Centre of Research and Development in Higher Education (HDZ), university of Technology (RWTH), Aachen, recently started a program to raise awareness for and promote discussions on the impact of technology on society, within our university. The aim of the program is to shape technological research and development projects at our university taking into account their societal and ecological effects. The impact of technology on university teaching and research is becoming increasingly visible. We consider it necessary to think about and to promote discussions on the consequences of this process in a wider societal context. From the very beginning of a university project on technological development, the researcher is asked to consider its future effects on man and society. We assume that the most important element in this approach is the consciousness of the researcher himself for possible effects and the strong intention to minimize negative effects of technological development.