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With the increasing popularity of coated paper, it has been more widely used in printing, publishing, product packaging and commercial promotion. However, coated paper is prone to cracks after printing and folding which exposes to a white area which is referred to as fold cracking. This study investigated the coating properties of paper and coating factors influencing the fold cracking and aimed to provide guidance on how to reduce the problems of fold cracking. This paper mainly discusses the effects of pigment proportion, binder dosage, solids content, coating thickness and calendering pressure on fold cracking of coated paper after printing. Experiments show that when the coating consisted entirely of calcium carbonate, the degree of fold cracking is most serious. With the addition of kaolin, the fold cracking reduces. When the ratio of the number of parts of calcium carbonate to kaolin is 25/75, the area of fold cracking reaches its minimum value of 10.28 %. With increasing solids content of the coating, the fold cracking decreases initially and then increases. When the solids content is 55 %, the fold cracking reaches a minimum. Increased latex content reduced coating thickness and an increase in calendering pressure gradually reduce the degree of fold cracking.

Crease cracking of paperboard is important to control for the appearance and structural integrity of packages. Crease cracking is affected by creasing operation variables, as well as the physical properties of the paperboard. However, the effects of the physical properties are not clearly known. The objectives of this work were to identify the key material properties that affect crease cracking and to clarify the effects of fiber composition and starch. Laboratory sheets were produced from bleached and refined softwood and hardwood commercial pulp at grammage and thicknesses that match a typical paperboard. To mimic papermaking operations, surface starch was applied via a bench-top size press. The sheets were creased in the lab over a range of penetration depths, and reverse-side cracking was measured. The results showed that less reverse-side cracking was correlated with higher tensile post-peak energy, a lower bending stress, and a lower z-direction (ZD) stiffness. The tensile post-peak energy is a measure of the resistance to crack growth via fiber-bridging. The bending force and the ZD stiffness influence the forces that create cracks. It was observed that decreasing the ratio of hard-wood-to-softwood content and reducing the amount of starch would both decrease crease cracking.

Cracking at the fold of publication and packaging paper grades is a serious problem that can lead to rejection of product. Recent work has revealed some basic mechanisms and the influence of various parameters on the extent of crack area, but no studies are reported using coating layers with known mechanical properties, especially for double-coated systems. In this study, coating layers with different and known mechanical properties were used to characterize crack formation during folding. The coating formulations were applied on two different basis weight papers, and the coated papers were folded. The binder systems in these formulations were different combinations of a styrene-butadiene latex and mixtures of latex and starch for two different pigment volume concentrations (PVC). Both types of papers were coated with single and double layers. The folded area was scanned with a high-resolution scanner while the samples were kept at their folded angle. The scanned images were analyzed within a constant area. The crack areas were reported for different types of papers, binder system and PVC values. As PVC, starch content, and paper basis weight increased, the crack area increased. Double layer coated papers with high PVC and high starch content at the top layer had more cracks in comparison with a single layer coated paper, but when the PVC of the top layer was low, cracking area decreased. No measurable cracking was observed when the top layer was formulated with a 100% latex layer.

In this paper, white pixel percentage (WPP) value, as an overall measure of fold crack damages, has been analysed with respect to selected parameters of sample preparation and digitalization process, as well as the results of residual tensile strength. The WPP values were derived by an automated image processing algorithm, developed earlier, based on extensive comparative analysis of the existing computer-aided methods. Results indicate that WPP values correlate well with the extent of fold cracks on the coated samples, as far as the used parameters of sample preparation and digitalization are concerned. In the case of correlation with residual tensile strength, results for samples folded in cross direction revealed that the extent of the visually registered fold cracks agree well with the actual damage, while for samples folded in machine direction, the overall strength losses weren’t alarming, although the fold cracks were detected correctly. In addition, results pointed out that the simplest sample placement position (inner angle of 180°) is not applicable for realistic sample representation. Furthermore, scanners could provide a superior image quality in lab conditions, but for industry application, a camera-based solution would be more purposeful, while micrographs are more suitable for traditional visual analysis.

Two suction rolls at the first press section of a 25 ft. wide paper machine developed cracks within two years of service. The rolls were austenitic stainless steel castings made of ASTM A 351 Grade CF8M alloy containing molybdenum. The rolls were exposed to slightly acidic white water (pH approximately 4.7) containing chlorides (45 ppm). Visual and liquid penetrant inspections of the rolls revealed extensive cracking at the roll inside surface. The cracks penetrated more than 30 percent of the wall thickness and a few cracks were several inches long. The cracks were preferentially oriented along the roll length and primarily at the roll inside surface. Field metallographic examination showed significant grain boundary chromium-carbide precipitation and intergranular corrosion. The roll failures were attributed to chromium depletion along the grain boundaries (sensitization) resulting from slow cooling of the casting to avoid large residual stresses. The roll manufacturer recommended a proprietary ferritic/austenitic stainless steel as the replacement material for the rolls.

Fold cracking is one of quality troubles of coated papers. In this study, the fold cracking of high grammage 2(250 g/m) coated paper made with the different pulp composition and layer structure of base paper was investigated. The single layered, high grammage base paper was prepared by mixing of hardwood and softwood bleached kraft pulp fibers with the different ratios. The high grammage coated paper showed the higher fold cracking than low grammage coated paper because of the increase in thickness. The increase in the content of softwood pulp fibers reduced the fold cracking in the case of high gram-mage coated paper. When the creasing process was conducted before folding process, the fold cracking of coated paper decreased. By manufacturing the base paper with multiply structure, the fold cracking of coated paper could be reduced significantly, especially when the BCTMP and OCC were used as a middle layer and the creasing process was car-ried out. The delamination of layers in base paper affected the fold cracking positively. Keywords: Fold cracking, coated paper, high grammage, multiply structure, creasing

High loading of base paper is regarded as one of reasons to aggravate fold cracking of coated paper. But the relationship between the ash content of base paper and fold cracking of coated paper has not been shown yet. We investigated the effect of ash content in base paper on the fold cracking of coated paper. Handsheets with three different ash contents (19.5-23.5%) were prepared, and double layered coating were applied on the top side of the handsheets. A gravimetric water retention meter (AA-GWR) was employed to fold the paper with a uniform pressure after solid printing on the coated surface. The fold cracking was digitized by calculating the cracked area by means of an image analysis technique. Results suggested that high ash content in the base paper increased the fold cracking of the outer surface of coated papers. In the case of inner surface greater fold crack areas were obtained, and the number of cracks decreased because long and wide cracks were formed. Reduction in tensile strength and thickness appeared to give greater fold cracking for highly loaded papers.

Paper-based asphalt felt, which is typically used as a waterproofing material, is one of the most problematic solid wastes in terms of disposal and environmental contamination. The laboratory work presented in this paper aims to propose a strategy for utilizing the reclaimed paper-based asphalt felt (RPAF) waste in hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavements as a means to mitigate the RPAF disposal problem. A series of laboratory tests, including viscosity, modulus, rutting, and cracking, were conducted to investigate the effects of RPAF additives on the engineering performance of asphalt-binder and HMA mixes. The corresponding test results showed that the addition of RPAF improves the viscosity and high-temperature performance of asphalt-binders. However, RPAF modified asphalt-binder exhibited inferior storage stability than the virgin asphalt-binder due to the difference in density between the asphalt-binder and RPAF components. Additionally, the effect of RPAF on the rheological characteristics of the asphalt-binder exhibited high sensitivity to temperature. The differences in complex modulus and phase angle of the asphalt-binder with RPAF additives were generally more significant at elevated temperatures. Similarly, RPAF modified HMA mixes outperformed the control HMA mix in terms of resistance to moisture damage, rutting, and cracking, respectively. Overall, the laboratory test results indicated that it is feasible to utilize RPAF waste as an asphalt-binder modifier to enhance the engineering properties/performance of the asphalt-binder and HMA mix whilst simultaneously addressing the environmental issues of RPAF waste disposal.

Fatigue cracking is a major distress in hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements. The coalescence of microcracks into macrocracks has been widely recognized as a prevalent cause of fatigue failure i...

Co-pyrolysis and CO2 co-gasification of paper and polystyrene blends in different mixture ratios were studied at 1173 K using a laboratory scale tube reactor and thermogravimetric analysis. The chemical composition and yield of the syngas produced was analyzed by a micro gas chromatograph to understand the influence of mixture components. Co-pyrolysis positively impacted the syngas yield exhibiting a synergistic influence on cracking reactions leading to increased gaseous yield having almost double the amounts of hydrogen yield. Co-gasification using CO2 increased the total gas yield with enhanced synergistic conversion. This effect provided a non-linear impact on the combustible gases in the gaseous yields when compared to the separate gasification of these feedstocks. The synergistic enhancement of co-pyrolysis conversion in paper-polystyrene led to lower char present for CO2 to react during CO2 co-gasification that lead to lower CO during the gasification of this blended char residue. The mixtures of paper with polystyrene provided increased product gas yields and enhanced conversion with an increase in polystyrene content. The results showed the effectiveness of producing high energy density syngas from co-gasification which can alleviate material handling issues present in segregation of waste, such as plastics and biomass providing uniform valuable product from diverse waste feedstocks with minimal need for classification.

Currently, thousands of kilometers of pipeline steels are transferring hydrocarbon fluids such as oil and natural gas in the world. Due to the fact that these pipes transport corrosive and high-pressure fluids from harsh environments, they are damaged and eventually degraded. Previous studies showed that sulphide stress cracking, hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) and stress corrosion cracking are the main destructive factors in these types of pipes. This paper focused on the HIC related failure in pipeline steel, since the role of texture and grain boundary character has not been completely recognized. Moreover, if pipeline damage is occurred by hydrogen cracks, besides the environmental pollutions, it will cost a lot to repair or replace the damaged pipeline steels. In this research, the factors influencing the initiation and propagation of the HIC cracks, such as hydrogen traps, inclusions, precipitates, microstructure and texture of steel have been investigated. Also, the existing solutions for improving the steel resistance to the HIC have been investigated based on the control of micro-alloy elements, texture and grain boundary engineering. For instance, some special dominant texture components and coincidence site lattice boundaries decrease the HIC susceptibility by providing the resistant path for crack propagation.

High ash-containing paper sludge ash (PSA) has been investigated in terms of its use as a low-cost catalyst for primary pyrolysis tar cracking in the two-stage pyrolysis of biomass. Experimental results showed that tar yields decreased significantly using PSA as catalyst in comparison with the thermal cracking experiments. A consequent increase in total gas yield was obtained. The yields of H2, CH4, and CO2 increased significantly under the catalytic effect of PSA, particularly the H2 yield almost doubled, while CO yields showed a slight decrease due to the consumption reactions. Thermogravimetric analysis of the fresh and spent PSA showed that carbon particles formed along with the tar decomposition, while the catalytic reactivity of the PSA was not reduced because of the participation of carbon particles in tar reforming. XRD spectrograms revealed that calcium-ferrite oxide (Ca2Fe2O5) was formed in PSA, which has excellent stability and catalytic effect on tar cracking and H2 production. The PSA still s...

In order to improve structural efficiency, environmental performance, and constructability, a new type of one-way composite voided slab system (TUBEDECK) has been recently proposed which combines profiled steel decks with cast-in-situ RC slabs. Because eliminating concrete volume to optimize flexural strength can significantly reduce the shear strength of nonprestressed concrete or composite slabs without shear reinforcement, a clarification of the shear resistance capacity is required. In this study, shear tests on a total of 12 specimens were conducted with slab thickness, the presence or absence of voids and/or steel decks, and tension reinforcement ratio as variables. The results show that combined flexure and shear dominated the behavior of both voided (V) slabs and TUBEDECK (TD) slabs, and web-shear cracking did not affect strength. Predicted shear strength based on the minimum web width was too conservative. Conversely, the shear strength prediction equations, which were proposed on the basis of the real cross-sectional area of concrete, predicted the capacity of both V slabs and TD slabs from a reasonably conservative perspective. A discussion on the influence of moment–shear interaction is also included, and an interaction design model is proposed in a further investigation.

Deterioration of the quality of oilstock makes it an urgent problem to use non-traditional hydrocarbon materials (heavy oil, bitumen, residues etc.). Processing of heavy oilstock (HOS) needs new methods that would be effective for the yields of light fractions, suppression of coke formation, and saturation of the liquid products with hydrogen. At the same time, expenses of HOS extraction and transportation are several times as high as those of light and middle oils that makes it necessary to minimize the capital and operational costs for the process. The review paper integrates for the first time the results of the studies of catalytic steam reforming of HOS as a potential alternative of the traditional processes for HOS upgrading based on decreasing the carbon content (thermal cracking, visbreaking, catalytic cracking) or on the saturation of liquid products with hydrogen (hydrocracking). Under discussion are main distinctions of the process from HOS upgrading with water (hydropyrolysis in sub- or supercritical water) as well as specific features of the catalytic steam cracking as dependent on the process parameters and catalysttype and putative mechanisms of the participation of water in the process.

Tribocorrosion behaviour of thermally sprayed cermet coatings: WC-CoCr deposited by HVOF and HVAF and Cr3C2-WC-NiCrCo applied by HVAF, was examined in paper machine environment in a pin-on-disc tribometer under the load of 20 N in electrolyte containing chlorides and sulphates, pH 4.5. Wear was the dominant degradation mechanism for all coatings, followed by corrosion-induced wear, the importance of which increased with rising potential. The overall material losses were lowest for HVAF WC-CoCr and highest for HVAF Cr3C2-WC-NiCrCo, the latter being related to the evident abrasive wear of the Cr3C2 phase and cracking along Cr3C2-matrix interface in the near-surface areas. Among the three coatings, contribution by corrosion to the damage was greatest in HVOF WC-CoCr, likely due to high degree of porosity.

Voided slab construction is a way of effectively removing concrete from middle section of a RC slab which has not a structural function, thereby reducing structural dead weight. Voided slab construction has advantages such as reducing self-weight, Cost efficiencies and fast Construction. However, floor stiffness of voided RC slab is less than its solid counterpart and there is gap in literature about structural behaviors of voided RC slabs. This research work presents experimental and numerical investigations of voided RC slab. Six solid and voided RC slab specimens of size 800mmx300mmx200mm were casted and tested until failure under one-point load. Also, leveraging advantages of FEA, effect of influential variables such as void size, loading type, concrete compressive strength, and effect of top reinforcement were thoroughly studied. Experimental test results indicated as compared to control solid RC slab, 60mm diameter paper tube voided RC slab exhibited 12%, 15.54%, 25.50%, 14.64% and 6.71% loss in strength, cracking load, stiffness, ductility, and toughness respectively where as for 90mm diameter paper tube voided RC slab respective values were 20%, 19.87%, 38.80%, 25.50% and 12%. Also, as void size increased from 60mm to 90mm, voided slab failure mode changed from flexural to shear. Finally, FEA, ACI 318M-19 and EC2 codes showed good agreement with experimental results.

Numerical simulations of masonry structures are often based on continuum macromodelling approaches that need constitutive laws able to phenomenologically reproduce the behavior of the material. To capture the deformation process up to failure, appropriate softening laws are needed to take into account the contraction of the yield stress domain caused by cracking and crushing. It is well known that softening may lead to localization of inelastic strain. This paper focuses on localization analysis of an orthotropic macro-scale model in the framework of multi-surface plasticity, which describes the in-plane behavior of masonry structures. Preliminary results reported in this short paper are limited to uniaxial stress states. Analytical localization conditions are first derived for uniaxial stress states with principal axes aligned with the material axes of orthotropy. Then, localization analysis is extended to an arbitrary angle between the principal stress axes and the axes of orthotropy.

This study is focused on creating value addition to kitchen waste (KW) by converting it into valuable product resources via microwave pyrolysis. The effect of the following on product yields and energy efficiency were examined in this study: (i) microwave power (140–700 W), (ii) KW: susceptor ratio (20:0 to 20:20 (g/g)), and (iii) pyrolysis temperature (200–600 °C). The KW was pyrolyzed without the addition of a susceptor and char formed during pyrolysis acted as a susceptor and enhanced pyrolysis energy efficiency (78%). An increase in microwave power has significantly increased the heating rate from 4 to 85 °C/min, and KW has produced 73 wt% of bio-oil and gases even at low microwave power (140 W). An increase in pyrolysis temperature promoted thermal cracking of KW, which resulted in decreased char yields (64–27 wt%), and an increase in gas yields (12–45 wt%). Bio-oil contains a significant amount of phenolics (35–50%) and its selectivity varied significantly with the variables probed. The selectivity of furan derivatives has dramatically decreased from 45 to 20% with the increase in pyrolysis temperature. This work demonstrated the feasibility of valorization of kitchen waste into various value-added products.

Cracking catalytic palm oil (CPO) into hydrocarbon fuel by saponification pretreatment has been carried out with bentonite and limestone-based catalysts. The catalysts used were Na-bentonite and Limestone NTT which were first analyzed using XRF, XRD, and SEM. Saponification pretreatment was carried out on CPO to facilitate the cracking process using a catalyst. The saponification product in the form of a mixture of soap and glycerol was then analyzed by DSC to determine the degradation temperature. Catalytic cracking is carried out in two stages, namely, the first stage hydrocracking at a temperature of 250-350°C using a stainless steel reactor is the source of catalyst Fe / Cr. The resulting distillate was then cracked again using a Na-bentonite catalyst and a TKNTT catalyst. The resulting fuel is a hydrocarbon fuel which is confirmed from the FT-IR results which indicate the presence of long-chain hydrocarbon compounds. This data is also supported by the results of the GC-MS analysis which shows that the fuel fraction produced is mostly biogasoline. Where cracking using a Na-bentonite catalyst produces a biogasoline fraction of 61.36% and a biodiesel fraction of 38.63%, THAT produces a biogasoline fraction of 88.88% and a biodiesel fraction of 11.11%. The characteristics of the hydrocarbon fuels that have been analyzed show that the calorific value of combustion is 6101 cal/g which is determined using a bomb calorimeter, and the cetane index is 62 which is analyzed using CCI. Both types of hydrocarbon fuels have met the physical requirements that must be possessed by biogasoline fuel based on SNI standards.

Heavy oils and bitumen are indispensable resources for a turbulent-free transition to a decarbonized global energy and economic system. This is because according to the analysis of the International Energy Agency’s 2020 estimates, the world requires up to 770 billion barrels of oil from now to year 2040. However, BP’s 2020 statistical review of world energy has shown that the global total reserves of the cheap-to-produce conventional oil are roughly only 520.2 billion barrels. This implies that the huge reserves of the practically unexploited difficult-and-costly-to-upgrade-and-produce heavy oils and bitumen must be immediately developed using advanced upgrading and extraction technologies which have greener credentials. Furthermore, in accordance with climate change mitigation strategies and to efficiently develop the heavy oils and bitumen resources, producers would like to maximize their upgrading within the reservoirs by using energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies such as the yet-to-be-fully-understood THAI-CAPRI process. The THAI-CAPRI process uses in situ combustion and in situ catalytic reactions to produce high-quality oil from heavy oils and bitumen reservoirs. However, prolonging catalyst life and effectiveness and maximizing catalytic reactions are a major challenge in the THAI-CAPRI process. Therefore, in this work, the first ever-detailed investigations of the effects of alumina-supported cobalt oxide–molybdenum oxide (CoMo/γ-Al2O3) catalyst packing porosity on the performance of the THAI-CAPRI process are performed through numerical simulations using CMG STARS. The key findings in this study include: the larger the catalyst packing porosity, the higher the accessible surface area for the mobilized oil to reach the inner coke-uncoated catalysts and thus the higher the API gravity and quality of the produced oil, which clearly indicated that sulphur and nitrogen heteroatoms were catalytically removed and replaced with hydrogen. Over the 290 min of combustion period, slightly more oil (i.e. an additional 0.43% oil originally in place (OOIP)) is recovered in the model which has the higher catalyst packing porosity. In other words, there is a cumulative oil production of 2330 cm3 when the catalyst packing porosity is 56% versus a cumulative oil production of 2300 cm3 in the model whose catalyst packing porosity is 45%. The larger the catalyst packing porosity, the lower the mass and thus cost of the catalyst required per m3 of annular space around the horizontal producer well. The peak temperature and the very small amount of produced oxygen are only marginally affected by the catalyst packing porosity, thereby implying that the extents of the combustion and thermal cracking reactions are respectively the same in both models. Thus, the higher upgrading achieved in the model whose catalyst packing porosity is 56% is purely due to the fact that the extent of the catalytic reactions in the model is larger than those in the model whose catalyst packing porosity is 45%.

Gasification is a multiphase process that converts the solid fuels into useful synthetic gas. Despite the potential of biomass gasification as a clean technique to produce a high caloric value syngas, it is not as well looked upon as its advantages suggest. In the present study, an ASPEN plus model of biomass gasification was developed with considering the kinetics of the reactions and tar cracking mechanism. Firstly, the model was validated against the experimental data in the literature. Next, a parametric study was done to investigate and evaluate the performance and produced gas composition of air–steam gasification of biomass. The effect of various operational parameters, such as the reaction temperature, equivalence ratio (ER) and steam/biomass ratio (S/B) on the gas product composition, products yield and the gasifier performance was investigated. The results showed that the increase of reaction temperature not only can enhance the H2 content in the gas stream, but inhibit the formation of tar. The achieved optimal conditions for production of maximum H2 content (16.18 vol %) were as follows: reaction temperature of 800 °C, S/B of 0.8 and ER of 0.211.

In this study, steam gasification and co-gasification of Japanese cedarwood and its commercial biochar were performed in a lab-scale fixed-bed reactor to investigate the feasibility for producing H2-rich syngas. Ultimate analysis, proximate analysis, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were conducted to understand the changes caused by the carbonization process. The effects of gasification temperature and steam flow rate on gas production yield from the steam gasification of the individual samples were investigated at first, which showed larger gas production yield and less tar yield for the steam gasification of the commercial biochar than that of raw cedarwood, indicating that the commercial biochar obtained from the carbonization process was more beneficial for the gasification. The co-gasification of raw Japanese cedarwood and its commercial biochar with different mixing ratios was conducted at different reaction temperatures. The synergistic effect was obviously observed. Especially, the commercial biochar with the highly porous structure and high content of alkali and alkaline earth metal (AAEM) species might provide the catalytic effect on cracking and reforming of tar derived from the raw cedarwood, resulting in a larger H2 yield. However, the catalytic effect and gasification reactivity of biochar would decrease by increasing the amount of raw-cedarwood in the blends due to the coke deposition on the surface of biochar.

The synthesis of the Ni-Mo sulfated zirconia (NiMo-SZ) catalyst and its application to convert waste cooking oil into biofuel was successfully conducted. The synthesis process was started with a sulfation process on the zirconia oxide (ZrO2) using 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 M sulfuric acid (H2SO4) through wet impregnation to obtain sulfated zirconia (SZ). Solid SZ with the highest total acidity value was calcined at temperature 500, 550, 600, 650, and 700 °C. Solid SZ calcined with the optimum temperature was treated with Ni and Mo metals at 1%, 2%, and 3% (w/w) through a hydrothermal method. Pure ZrO2, SZ, and 1, 2, and 3 NiMo-SZ catalysts were used in the hydrocracking of used cooking oil into biofuel. The results showed that the 1.5 M SZ catalyst calcined at 500 °C had the highest acidity value of 3.8137 mmol/g. The 3-NiMo-SZ catalyst had the best activity valuing at 80.54%, while 1-NiMo-SZ produced the best selectivity in producing gasoline fraction until 73.93%.

In yellow soybean, severe cold weather causes seed cracking on the dorsal side. Yellow soybeans carry the I or ii allele of the I locus and have a yellow (I) or pigmented (ii) hilum. We previously isolated an additional allele, designated as Ic, of the I locus, and reported that yellow soybeans with the IcIc genotype may be tolerant to cold-induced seed cracking. The Ic allele by itself, however, does not confer high tolerance. The association of a pubescence color gene (T) with suppression of low-temperature-induced seed coat deterioration has been previously reported. In the present study, we tested whether T is effective for the suppression of cold-induced seed cracking using two pairs of near-isogenic lines for the T locus in the iiii or IcIc background. In both backgrounds, the cracked seed rate of the near-isogenic line with the TT genotype was significantly lower than that with the tt genotype, which indicates that T has an inhibitory effect on cold-induced seed cracking. Furthermore, we also showed that gene pyramiding of Ic and T can improve tolerance to cold-induced seed cracking. Our findings should aid the development of highly SC-tolerant cultivars in soybean breeding programs.

MSW pyrolysis/gasification is regarded as a promising technology allowing for energy and chemical recovery. The condensed tar in the syngas will cause problems in the downstream operations and lower its conversion efficiency. In this study, effects of calcium oxide (CaO) addition on tar formation during the pyrolysis of three key MSW components including bamboo, paper pulp and polyethylene (PE) were investigated using analytical pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and a batch-type fixed bed reactor. The results from Py-GC/MS study agreed well with those from the pyrolysis in the fixed bed reactor, indicating that adding CaO reduced the tar yield and changed its chemical composition. However, the changes of the compounds in the tar were different among the pyrolysis of three MSW components. Taking the naphthalenes as an example, its content increased from paper pulp pyrolysis while it declined from bamboo and PE pyrolysis. Due to the rupture of ringed structures and tar cracking by CaO catalysis, the increase in H2 was observed. Compared with the pyrolysis of bamboo and paper pulp, higher yields of hydrocarbons C2 and C3 were achieved during the PE pyrolysis. The information about the tar formation derived from key MSW components can provide profound understanding of its generation from real MSW and favor the tar reduction or removal.

It is imperative to know the energy content of the char to ascertain its application, which is environmentally friendly and efficient. In this context, the higher heating values (HHV) of the char resulting from the co-cracking of residual fuel oil (RFO) with various other waste plastics have been determined experimentally. Experimental results of the proximate and ultimate analysis of the char obtained from the co-cracking process were used to estimate the higher heating values (HHV) using eight different correlation models. The char obtained from the co-cracking of RFO and polypropylene (PPI) was found to have higher heating values (HHV) of 31.02 MJ/kg, while the HHV of Bakelite (BL) showed 23.56 MJ/kg. The best among the proximate correlations considered in this study resulted in the coefficient (R2) of 0.971, the average bias of −0.68%, and absolute error of 1.70%. The most relevant among the ultimate correlation models resulted in the coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.980, whereas the average and absolute bias errors were found to be −1.29% and 0.25%, respectively. The proximate and ultimate analysis of the chars reveals a direct interaction between the reactive species during the co-cracking of RFO with various types of plastic waste used in the study.

Lignin and glass fiber were used as additives to improve the quality of road pavements and minimize moisture damage and cracking at low temperatures on asphalt pavement, according to a previous laboratory study. The aim of this paper is to make a significant contribution to the environmental assessment of the construction of road pavements using four types of asphalt mixtures based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology according to the requirements of ISO 14040, considering the impact of raw material extraction, asphalt mixture manufacturing, transportation, and wearing surface construction. The results of the environmental assessment showed that all studied asphalt mixtures do not offer any improvement in all impact categories, and three modified asphalt mixtures have a slight negative effect in all impact categories. The composite mixture has the highest negative effect of the studied three modified asphalt mixtures in all categories except in the marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential category and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential category, where the lignin modified asphalt mixture has the highest negative effect in these two categories but has the best environmental impacts on most of other impact categories. Furthermore, the negative effect caused by composite asphalt mixtures is minimal and thus can be used to improve the overall performance of asphalt pavement.

The study of the best experimental conditions and catalyst for the hydrogenation (HYD) of light cycle oil (LCO) for upgrading purposes was carried out. The objective was to examine the ability of two commercial hydrotreatment (HDT) catalysts for selective aromatic saturation. The effect of the hydrotreatment operation parameters (temperature, pressure, liquid hourly space velocity, H2/HC ratio) on the sulfur and nitrogen contents and in the saturation of aromatic hydrocarbons was also investigated. The goal was to obtain the highest conversion to mono-aromatic hydrocarbons from this di-aromatic (naphthalene derivatives) type feedstock, and at the same time to get reasonable hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) performance to avoid contaminant hydrocarbons for the next step (usually hydrocracking, HCK). An appropriate hydrotreated product with the highest concentration of mono-aromatic derivatives, a minimum reduction on the total aromatic content, and suitable decrements of sulfur and nitrogen compounds, was achieved using a cobalt-molybdenum supported on alumina catalyst, at 330 °C, 5.5 MPa, and a liquid hourly space velocity of 1.1 h−1. Additionally, the kinetics of the HDA was studied, assuming a lump characterization into tri-, di- and mono-aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, pseudo-first-order reaction rates between these conversions, and thermal losses and diffusional resistances to be undetectable.

Co-refining of fast pyrolysis bio-oil together with fossil oil in existing refinery infrastructure is an attractive and cost-efficient route to conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to transportati...