Process Engineering

Process Engineering

Designing Complete Mould QFT Multivariable Controllers

This project has been proposed in the doctoral thesis of professor Igor Egaña Santamarina of the Public University of Navarre, called “Design of complete mould QFT multivariable controllers”. Professor Mario Garcia Sanz, from the Department of Automation and Computer Science of the Public University of Navarre, has supervised the project.

Air traffic controllers and wind generator controllers

Control engineering involves the design of mathematical laws that modify the way i

Process Engineering

UCLA Researchers Use Fractals to Innovate Wireless Antennas

Antennas for the next generation of cellphones and other wireless communications devices may bear a striking resemblance to the Santa Monica Mountains or possibly the California coastline.

That is because UCLA researchers are using fractals — mathematical models of mountains, trees and coastlines — to develop antennas that meet the challenging requirements presented by the more sophisticated technology in new cellphones, automobiles and mobile communications devices. These antennas must b

Process Engineering

New Canning Process Cuts Energy Use and Boosts Food Quality

Canadians will eat better and will enjoy a healthier environment thanks to a new canning process for jars and cans. This innovative research is taking place at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Food Research and Development Centre in Saint-Hyacinthe.

The research project uses a technology that reduces energy consumption in the canning of products containing fruit, vegetable and/or meat pieces, such as sauces and soups.

The advantages include a 30-per-cent reduction in energy consu

Process Engineering

Sewer Sensors: Unlocking Hidden Defects with Advanced Tech

A remote control sensing device is being developed to detect defects in sewer walls.

Using both ultrasound and laser light, digital information on the condition of the sewer walls is fed back to a computer which can be programmed to spot problems.

The research is being carried out by a team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at King’s College London, led by Dr Kaspar Althoefer and Professor Lakmal Seneviratne. Funding is from the Swindon based Engineering and Physical Sci

Process Engineering

Enhancing Packaging Design to Prevent Product Recalls

“Recalling products because of design flaws in the packaging can be prevented.” Packaging experts badly needed in industry

Delft researcher Roland ten Klooster will defend his thesis on Monday the 30th of September at TU Delft. He has developed systematic plan for the development of packaging for products. Ten Klooster: “There are number of aspects play a part in the development of packaging, my model helps the packaging designer to see, and use these aspects.” In his thesis, Ten Kloo

Process Engineering

Imaging apparatus characterizes drops in ’dirty’ laboratory environments

A high-fidelity spectrometric system for studying the behavior of drops and particles in industrial flame reactors has been constructed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in collaboration with researchers at the University of Arizona. The instrument was used to study the potential of thermal combustors for reducing the volume of liquid nuclear wastes for safe, long-term storage.

Vitrification of radioactive waste into glassy solids is the most popular approach f

Process Engineering

Laser Technology Enhances Homeland Security Detection Methods

Instant detection for chemicals, explosives, and biohazards

A little over a year after September 11, a laser technique is lighting a new path to homeland security. In recent Army laboratory research, this technique instantly detected and identified various explosives.

Preliminary results indicate that it can also tell the difference between several close relatives of anthrax.

Recent breakthroughs now let it detect any known substance, at least in theory. The laser t

Process Engineering

Fine Art Restoration: Lasers Prove Safe and Effective

Art conservators have been slow to adopt lasers as restoration tools, preferring their trusty scalpels and solvents to untried technologies. But the first systematic study of the long-term effects of lasers on paintings should help ease their doubts: the results show that lasers can be superior restoration tools without sacrificing the safety of priceless works of art.

The findings are reported in the Sept. 15 print edition of Analytical Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Ch

Process Engineering

New Soot Filter Innovation for Diesel Engines Unveiled

In a Technology Foundation STW project, Coen van Gulijk has developed a new concept for a robust soot filter for diesel engines. As well as filter stages, the filter has an open canal so as to exclude the danger of blockage and thus fire.
The new soot filter consists of series of perforated ceramic foams. The surface of the ceramic is impregnated with a catalyst on which the incoming soot particles are burnt and released as gases. Ash particles from impurities in the diesel, which enter the filte

Process Engineering

Pressure relief for jet engines – Photon02

The aerodynamics inside jet engines are not completely understood due to the unpredictable nature of the air flowing through the turbine. However, a research team led by Dr Jim Barton from Heriot-Watt University, has developed tiny fibre optic pressure sensors that can for the first time be used inside jet engine test rigs. These sensors should allow engineers to collect data that will enable them to make more aerodynamic engines, which will improve fuel efficiency and engine performance, ensuring lo

Process Engineering

Fingerprint recognition gets true `Fingerspitzengefühl`

Will we pay using our fingerprint, or enter a building just touching a sensor? Does our mobile phone recognize our fingerprint? It is possible, as far as Dutch PhD student Asker Bazen is concerned. He has improved the verification techniques, resulting in a better result even for deformed and damaged prints. Together with a higher speed, the new methods can take away existing reserves for implementing fingerprint verification. Bazen is finishing his PhD research at the faculty of Electrical Engineeri

Process Engineering

Researchers develop ’fingerprinting’ for biological agents

Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a powerful new method for detecting infectious diseases, including those associated with many bioterrorism and warfare threats such as anthrax, tularemia, smallpox and HIV.

A research team led by Chad A. Mirkin, director of Northwestern’s Institute for Nanotechnology, has invented a technique for creating thousands of DNA detection probes made of gold nanoparticles with individual molecules attached. Much like human fingerprints, the

Process Engineering

Nano-Scale Medicine Delivery: Overcoming Pump Challenges

Medical researchers would like to use nano-scale tubes to push very tiny amounts of drugs dissolved in water to exactly where they are needed in the human body.

The roadblock to putting this theory into practical use has been the challenge of building pumps small enough to do the job. In addition to the engineering challenge of building a nano-scale pump, there is the added complication of clogging by any biological molecule that can occur in valves small enough to fit a channel the size of

Process Engineering

’Nanoantennas’ could bring sensitive detectors, optical circuits

Researchers have shown how tiny wires and metallic spheres might be arranged in various shapes to form “nanoantennas” that dramatically increase the precision of medical diagnostic imaging and devices that detect chemical and biological warfare agents.

Engineers from Purdue University have demonstrated through mathematical simulations that nanometer-scale antennas with certain geometric shapes should be able to make possible new sensors capable of detecting a single molecule of a chemical or

Process Engineering

Innovative DCP Technique Creates Dense, Complex Ceramics Cost-Effectively

A new way researchers have developed to make dense ceramics in complex shapes could lead to light, tough, and hard ceramic parts at lower cost.

The recently patented technique, called “displacive compensation of porosity,” or DCP, uses a chemical reaction between molten metal and a porous ceramic to generate a new composite material. The technique fills the tiny pores inside the ceramic with additional ceramic material. The resulting super-dense part retains the shape of the original ceramic

Process Engineering

Australian Researchers Develop Clean, Green Super Steel

Australian researchers have created the ideal manufacturing material of the future – clean, green ‘super steel’ that is double the strength of normal steel and resistant to fracture.

“Stronger steel means less material is required to support a load or resist a force, which should lead to lighter structures and vehicles,” says Deakin University researcher, Dr Georgina Kelly.

“This would deliver reduced energy needs and emissions in cars, and greater potential to develop more complex

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