The effectiveness of algae to treat NO2and NO in simulated flue gas was tested using Chlorella vulgaris in photobioreactors (PBRs) using NOxconcentrations between 30 ppm to 780 ppm. NOxdissolved and reacted in water to form NO3-and NO2-in the PBR growth medium, providing a nitrogen source that the algae readily assimilated for cell synthesis. Three 20-L photobioreactors were inoculated with a pure culture of C. vulgaris prepared in Bristol growth medium and algae were grown in the PBRs at 25°C and pH of 7.0 in a modified Bristol medium that did not contain nitrogen compounds. The C. vulgaris grew substantially using NO3-/NO2-as its nitrogen source for cell synthesis. The NO3-and NO2-were formed through the dissolution and oxidation/reduction of NOxfrom the simulated flue gas. Algal growth by assimilation of NO3-and/or NO2-allowed for continual dissolution of NOx, resulting in NOxremoval rates from the gas phase of up to 97%, with residual nitrogen of up to 7 mg-N/L in solution. Algae grew from an initial cell density of 3.1 x 105cells/L to cell densities of up to 1.85 x 107cells/mL and dry weights of up to 243 mg/L. Cell nitrogen content varied from 4-8%. PBR to treatment of gaseous NOxwas analyzed in terms of mass transfer rates, chemical kinetics, and biological growth.

No description available.

No description available.

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), caused by the oncogenic Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV), is an angiogenic tumor characterized by intense angiogenesis, inflammation and proliferation of KSHV-infected spindle cells. We describe the characterization of a mouse model of KS by transfection of a KSHV bacterial artificial chromosome (KSHVBac36) into mouse bone marrow endothelial-lineage cells which generated a cell (mECK36) that forms KS-like tumors in mice. Our results define mECK36 as a biologically sensitive animal model of KSHV-dependent KS with the following characteristics: (1) the pathological phenotype is a consequence of KSHV gene expression in normal progenitor cells subjected to in vivo growth conditions, (2) the histopathologic phenotype of the tumors resembles KS lesions, and (3) the model is suitable for analysis of vGPCR-driven tumorigenesis in the context of the whole KSHV genome. The mechanism by which vGPCR promotes tumorigenesis is not fully understood. The characterization of a Rac1 transgenic mouse model that produces KS-like lesions that highly resemble human KS has helped us to identify the potential role of Rac1, which is activated by vGPCR, in the pathogenesis of KS. The results from the RacCA transgenic mouse suggest that viral and host genes triggering Rac1 and ROS production may play an important role in KS tumorigenesis. We set out to determine how vGPCR physiologically activates Rac1 in KSHV-infected cells in the KS model mECK36. We found that KSHV oncogenesis in mECK36 is promoted by vGPCR activation of a paracrine oncogenic mechanism through PDGF-BB, which requires a Rac1- and ROS-mediated loop, leading to STAT3 transcriptional activation of c-Myc, VEGF and KSHV latent viral gene expression. We also found that the latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) upregulates the PDGFR in vivo, priming latently-infected cells to the PDGF signaling pathway. This oncogenic mechanism can be targeted with the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and FDA-approved PDGF receptor inhibitors to control KSHV-induced tumorigenesis. Our results highlight a ROS-dependent axis whereby Rac1 activating oncogenes and inflammatory signaling drive paracrine stimulation of neoplastic growth and angiogenesis in neighboring cells, defining this axis and its components as attractive anti-tumor targets in KS pathogenesis.

Oxides of nitrogen from coal-fired power stations are considered to be major pollutants, and there is increasing concern for regulating air quality and offsetting the emissions generated from the use of energy. Reburning is an in-furnace, combustion control technology for NOx reduction. Another environmental issue that needs to be addressed is the rapidly growing feedlot industry in the United States. The production of biomass from one or more animal species is in excess of what can safely be applied to farmland in accordance with nutrient management plans and stockpiled waste poses economic and environmental liabilities. In the present study, the feasibility of using biomass as a reburn fuel in existing coal-fired power plants is considered. It is expected to utilize biomass as a low-cost, substitute fuel and an agent to control emission. The successful development of this technology will create environment-friendly, low cost fuel source for the power industry, provide means for an alternate method of disposal of biomass, and generate a possible revenue source for feedlot operators. In the present study, the effect of coal, cattle manure or feedlot biomass, and blends of biomass with coal on the ability to reduce NOx were investigated in the Texas A&M University 29.31 kW (100,000 Btu/h) reburning facility. The facility used a mixture of propane and ammonia to generate the 600 ppm NOx in the primary zone. The reburn fuel was injected using air. The stoichiometry tested were 1.00 to 1.20 in the reburn zone. Two types of injectors, circular jet and fan spray injectors, which produce different types of mixing within the reburn zone, were studied to find their effect on NOx emissions reduction. The flat spray injector performed better in all cases. With the injection of biomass as reburn fuel with circular jet injector the maximum NOx reduction was 29.9 % and with flat spray injector was 62.2 %. The mixing time was estimated in model set up as 936 and 407 ms. The maximum NOx reduction observed with coal was 14.4 % and with biomass it was 62.2 % and the reduction with blends lay between that of coal and biomass.

The low NOx burner (LNB) is the most cost effective technology used in coal-fired power plants to reduce NOx. Conventional (unstaged) burners use primary air for transporting particles and swirling secondary air to create recirculation of hot gases. LNB uses staged air (dividing total air into primary, secondary and tertiary air) to control fuel bound nitrogen from mixing early and oxidizing to NOx; it can also limit thermal NOx by reducing peak flame temperatures. Previous research at Texas A&M University (TAMU) demonstrated that cofiring coal with feedlot biomass (FB) in conventional burners produced lower or similar levels of NOx but increased CO. The present research deals with i) construction of a small scale 29.31 kW (100,000 BTU/hr) LNB facility, ii) evaluation of firing Wyoming (WYO) coal as the base case coal and cofiring WYO and dairy biomass (DB) blends, and iii) evaluating the effects of staging on NOx and CO. Ultimate and Proximate analysis revealed that WYO and low ash, partially composted, dairy biomass (LA-PC-DB-SepS) had the following heat values and empirical formulas: CH0.6992N0.0122O0.1822S0.00217 and CH_1.2554N_0.0470O_0.3965S_0.00457. The WYO contained 3.10 kg of Ash/GJ, 15.66 kg of VM/GJ, 0.36 kg of N/GJ, and 6.21 kg of O/GJ while LA-PC-DB-SepS contained 11.57 kg of Ash/GJ, 36.50 kg of VM/GJ, 1.50 kg of N/GJ, and 14.48 kg of O/GJ. The construction of a LNB nozzle capable of providing primary, swirled secondary and swirled tertiary air for staging was completed. The reactor provides a maximum residence time of 1.8 seconds under hot flow conditions. WYO and DB were blended on a mass basis for the following blends: 95:5, 90:10, 85:15, and 80:20. Results from firing pure WYO showed that air staging caused a slight decrease of NOx in lean regions (equivalence ratio, greater than or equal to 1.0) but an increase of CO in rich regions (=1.2). For unstaged combustion, cofiring resulted in most fuel blends showing similar NOx emissions to WYO. Staged cofiring resulted in a 12% NOx increase in rich regions while producing similar to slightly lower amounts of NOx in lean regions. One conclusion is that there exists a strong inverse relationship between NOx and CO emissions.

New regulations like the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) will pose greater challenges for Coal fired power plants with regards to pollution reduction. These new regulations plan to impose stricter limits on NOX reduction. The current regulations by themselves already require cleanup technology; newer regulations will require development of new and economical technologies. Using a blend of traditional fuels & biomass is a promising technology to reduce NOX emissions. Experiments conducted previously at the Coal and Biomass energy lab at Texas A&M reported that dairy biomass can be an effective Reburn fuel with NOX reduction of up to 95%; however little work has been done to model such a process with Feedlot Biomass as a blend with the main burner fuel. The present work concerns with development of a zero dimensional for a low NOx burner (LNB) model in order to predict NOX emissions while firing a blend of Coal and dairy biomass. Two models were developed. Model I assumes that the main burner fuel is completely oxidized to CO,CO2,H20 and fuel bound nitrogen is released as HCN, NH3, N2; these partially burnt product mixes with tertiary air, undergoes chemical reactions specified by kinetics and burns to complete combustion. Model II assumes that the main burner solid fuel along with primary and secondary air mixes gradually with recirculated gases, burn partially and the products from the main burner include partially burnt solid particles and fuel bound nitrogen partially converted to N2, HCN and NH3. These products mix gradually with tertiary air, undergo further oxidation-reduction reactions in order to complete the combustion. The results are based on model I. Results from the model were compared with experimental findings to validate it. Results from the model recommend the following conditions for optimal reduction of NOx: Equivalence Ratio should be above 0.95; mixing time should be below 100ms. Based on Model I, results indicate that increasing percentage of dairy biomass in the blend increases the NOx formation due to the assumption that fuel N compounds ( HCN, NH3) do not undergo oxidation in the main burner zone. Thus it is suggested that model II must be adopted in the future work.

In this study, a two-bed electrically-heated regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) was used to test NOx formation characteristics from burning air-laden N, N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) and air-laden DMF mixed with methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). The RTO contained two 0.152 m ¡Ñ 0.14 m ¡Ñ 1.0 m (L ¡Ñ W ¡Ñ H) beds both packed with gravel particles of around 1.11 cm in average diameter to a height of 1.0 m, and the packed section had a void fraction of 0.416. Performances on the thermal destructions of DMF and MEK, the thermal recovery efficiency, as well as the gas pressure drop over the regenerative beds were investigated. Experimental results indicate that, with a valve shifting time (ts) of 1.5 min, gas superficial velocities (Ug) of 0.39-0.78 m/s (evaluated at an influent air temperature of around 30oC), and set maximum destruction temperatures (Tset) of 750-950 oC, there was no NOx in the effluent gas from the RTO with no DMF in the influent air. With only DMF in the influent gas, its destruction efficiencies were 96.3 (750oC), 97.4 (850oC) and 97.9 % (950oC), and increased with increasing influent DMF concentration from 100-250 ppm. Mole ratios of ¡§NOx-N formation/DMF destruction¡¨ were found to be in the range of 0.84-1.20, and the ratio decreased with increasing influent DMF concentration within the experimental range. With both DMF and MEK in the influent gas, no significant influence was found in the NOx formation ratio and the DMF destruction efficiency with influent MEK/DMF ratios of 50/100 - 1500/100 (ppm/ppm) and the set temperatures. The NOx formation ratios were in the range of 0.85-1.07. The Ergun equation was adequate for the estimation of the pressure drop for the gas flowing over the packed regenerative beds in the Ug range of 37-0.74 m/s. It was also found that the thermal recovery efficiency was decreasing with the increasing Ug and invariant with Tset.

Oxides of nitrogen from coal-fired power stations are considered to be major pollutants, and there is increasing concern for regulating air quality and offsetting the emissions generated from the use of energy. Reburning is an in-furnace, combustion control technology for NOx reduction. Another environmental issue that needs to be addressed is the rapidly growing feedlot industry in the United States. The production of biomass from one or more animal species is in excess of what can safely be applied to farmland in accordance with nutrient management plans and stockpiled waste poses economic and environmental liabilities. In the present study, the feasibility of using biomass as a reburn fuel in existing coal-fired power plants is considered. It is expected to utilize biomass as a low-cost, substitute fuel and an agent to control emission. The successful development of this technology will create environment-friendly, low cost fuel source for the power industry, provide means for an alternate method of disposal of biomass, and generate a possible revenue source for feedlot operators. In the present study, the effect of coal, cattle manure or feedlot biomass, and blends of biomass with coal on the ability to reduce NOx were investigated in the Texas A&M University 29.31 kW (100,000 Btu/h) reburning facility. The facility used a mixture of propane and ammonia to generate the 600 ppm NOx in the primary zone. The reburn fuel was injected using air. The stoichiometry tested were 1.00 to 1.20 in the reburn zone. Two types of injectors, circular jet and fan spray injectors, which produce different types of mixing within the reburn zone, were studied to find their effect on NOx emissions reduction. The flat spray injector performed better in all cases. With the injection of biomass as reburn fuel with circular jet injector the maximum NOx reduction was 29.9 % and with flat spray injector was 62.2 %. The mixing time was estimated in model set up as 936 and 407 ms. The maximum NOx reduction observed with coal was 14.4 % and with biomass it was 62.2 % and the reduction with blends lay between that of coal and biomass.

The use of urea (NH2CONH2) to remove nitric oxide (NO) from exhaust streams was investigated using a laboratory laminar-flow reactor. The experiments used a number of gas compositions to simulate different combustion exhaust gases. The urea was injected into the gases as a urea-water solution. The decomposition processes of the urea-water solutions and urea powder were examined. For both the nitric oxide removal and the urea decomposition experiments, a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer was used to determine the concentrations of the product species. The products from the decomposition were examined every 50 K from 500 K to 800 K. The dominant products were ammonia (NH3), isocyanuric acid (HNCO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). In case of urea-water solution decomposition, for gas temperatures between 550 and 650 K, the highest concentrations were for NH3 and HNCO. On the other hand, the concentrations of CO2 were highest for gas temperatures of about 500 - 550 K. For temperatures above about 650 K, the amount of these three dominant prod-ucts slightly decreased as temperature increased. ivFor the nitric oxide removal (SNCR) experiments, the gas mixture was heated to temperatures between 800 K and 1350 K. Depending on the temperature, gas composition, residence time, and urea feed rate, removal levels of up to 95% were obtained. Other by-products such as N2O were detected and quantified. The effects of the urea/NO (beta) ratio were determined by varying the urea concentration for a constant NO con-centration of 330 ppm. The effects of the levels of oxygen (O2) in the exhaust gases and the residence time also were investigated. Increasing the urea/NO ratio and residence time resulted in higher NO removal and increased the temperature window of the nitric oxide removal.