Thesis (M. App. Sc.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-64). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.App.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-48). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

In this study, the response of a liquid-fueled resonant pulse combustor to changes in liquid fuel composition was investigated. Experiments were performed with gasoline- ethanol, gasoline-diesel, and gasoline-heptane mixtures selected to produce meaningful variations in the ignition delay time. A review of ignition quality tester (IQT) data provided an expected increase in the overall delay for gasoline-ethanol mixtures with increasing ethanol concentrations, and a decrease for gasoline-diesel mixtures with increasing diesel concentrations in the mixture. By taking the phase of the ion signal as an indicator of heat release timing, the experimental results showed an agreement of gasoline-ethanol cases with the IQT data with a near linear increase with increasing ethanol concentrations. However, for gasoline-diesel, there exit no linear relation with the IQT data. For the case of gasoline-heptane mixtures, the results showed a linear decrease in delay with increasing heptane concentrations. Furthermore, it was shown that small changes in the physical properties of the fuel can significantly in sequence the cold-start operation of the combustor and alter the coupling between the unsteady heat release and resonant acoustic pressure wave during resonant operation. Dynamic combustion chamber pressure, stagnation temperature and pressure are recorded after a fixed warm-up time to characterize the performance and operation of the device. Results are interpreted in the context of fuel sensitivity and performance optimization of a resonant pulse combustor for pressure gain turbine applications.

The goal of this research was to design, build and test a small burner and heat exchanger system that could be used as a source of heat for thermoelectric modules (TEMs) for the purpose of generating portable electric power for soldiers in the field. The project was conducted as a subcontract to Marlow Industries Inc. which was under contract from the U.S. Army. The scale of the burner thermal output was to be in the approximate range of 2 kW of heat production and it was to be able to operate on a liquid fuel, specifically JP8. The first burner investigated was a custom burner designed and built at UT. It was tested with various fuel and air delivery systems. Different methods to start it, with the goal of developing an electrical starting system, were also investigated. It was capable of operating at outputs over 1 kW, but was difficult to start reliably and fuel vaporization characteristics were sensitive to operating conditions. Two commercial burners were also studied, each with somewhat different designs. One of those burners, manufactured by MSR, was chosen to be further tested in conjunction with a heat exchanger and thermoelectric modules. The performance of the thermoelectric modules used in this study was determined to be very dependent on an attached resistive load, with a peak power output occurring at approximately 3 ohms. Power output was also determined to increase linearly with increasing temperature difference between the hot and cold sides of the module. Power output followed similar trends as open circuit voltage. The temperatures of the heat exchanger across its width were very uniform, but the accuracy in centering the heat exchanger over the burner could significantly affect temperatures. The time to reach steady state temperatures was relatively insensitive to the length of the heat exchanger. The presence of attached thermoelectric modules reduced the temperature of the heat exchangers and exhaust gas slightly. Reducing the heat exchanger length resulted in higher metal temperatures. Without cooling the cold side of the thermoelectric modules, performance increased while the system was heating up, but then dropped after reaching a peak. Cold side cooling improved thermoelectric performance by increasing its temperature difference. Active cooling with a blower and heat sink provided even better performance than passive cooling using just a heat sink at the expense of a larger parasitic load. The TEMs on the 5 inch long heat exchanger could generate 6.32 W with passive cooling, but active cooling would produce no net power. The 11 inch long heat exchanger could generate 12.8 W with passive cooling, and 16 W net could be generated with active cooling. A heat exchanger efficiency calculation showed that the 16, 11 and 5 inch long heat exchangers were about 94.4%, 93.4%, and 90.7% efficient respectively. This efficiency was defined as the ratio of the heat transferred to the heat exchanger to the heat released in the flame. / text

No description available.

The experimental apparatus employed in this investigation permitted a fuel droplet and an oxidizer droplet to collide in a nitrogen atmosphere at temperatures from 50°C to 430°C. The resulting phenomena were photographed with a 16mm Fastax camera. Experimentation was completed in three series of tests. The first series consisted of impacting hydrazine droplets with white fuming nitric acid droplets at an impact velocity of 35 cm/sec and at temperatures from 200°C to 425°C. The second series utilized the same fuel and oxidizer at an impact velocity of 122 cm/sec and at temperatures ranging from 50°C to 430°C. The third series employed an alcohol-aniline mixture as the fuel droplets, and white fuming nitric acid as the oxidizer droplets. The impact velocity was 35 cm/sec and the nitrogen temperature ranged from 50°C to 415°C. Ignition was not obtained in the two series employing hydrazine as a fuel. The droplets, upon colliding, underwent a chemical reaction and were blown apart. With the series utilizing an alcohol-aniline mixture as the fuel, the droplets, after collision, formed one large drop which vaporized rapidly. The vapors ignited with flame at temperatures over 200°C. / Master of Science

An experimental study of the ignition of liquid fuels injected transverse to a hot supersonic (M=1.65) air stream was conducted. The liquids considered were kerosene, CS₂ and water as an inert control. The major variables were: air stagnation temperature in the range 1500 to 2300ºF, injectant flow rate and injection angles from 90º to 45º upstream. The experimental observations were: temperature measurements on the wall near the injector and in the flow downstream of injection self-luminosity photographs and infrared photographs taken with a Thermographic camera. Special attention was directed at the behavior of the liquid layer that had previously been found to form near the injector. No unequivocal evidence of ignition of either fuel was found for normal injection at these conditions. However, clear evidence of ignition of CS₂ was found for the upstream injection angle for T_o ≥ 2030°F and 80 ≤ P_j ≤ 135 psi. Higher injection pressures and thus high flow rates failed to produce ignition at any temperature tested. Evidence of CS₂ ignition was found in the infrared photographs and wall and in-stream temperature measurements simultaneously. The infrared photograph indicated possible ignition of the kerosene for upstream injection, but this could not be corroborated with the temperature measurements. / Master of Science

Durante o crescimento da levedura Saccharomyces cerevisiae em meios contendo sacarose, a enzima invertase hidrolisa a sacarose no ambiente extracelular em glicose e frutose, as quais são posteriormente captadas pelas células por difusão facilitada. Num trabalho prévio, a localização da enzima invertase foi modificada nesta levedura, eliminando-se a forma extracelular e superexpressando-se a forma intracelular da enzima (Stambuk et al., 2009). Como resultado, a captação de sacarose por esta linhagem modificada (iSUC2) é realizada pelo co-transporte ativo com íons H+, implicando no gasto de 1 mol de ATP para cada mol de H+ extrudado pelas células para manutenção do pH intracelular. Como forma de compensar este gasto energético, espera-se que a linhagem iSUC2 desvie uma maior parte do fluxo de carbono para a geração de energia e, consequentemente, para a formação de etanol, em relação a uma linhagem selvagem. No presente trabalho, uma avaliação fisiológica quantitativa de uma linhagem com esta modificação genética foi realizada tanto em quimiostatos limitados por sacarose, como em cultivos descontínuos com sacarose como única fonte de carbono. Os dados obtidos em quimiostatos anaeróbios demonstram que na linhagem iSUC2 a enzima invertase ficou retida no ambiente intracelular e apresentou atividade absoluta total cerca de duas vezes maior que na linhagem-referência (SUC2). Além disto, verificou-se um aumento de 4% no fator de conversão de sacarose a etanol (Y ETH/S), em relação à linhagem SUC2. No entanto, como foi observado que cerca de 8 % da sacarose não foi consumida pelas células da linhagem iSUC2 durante o estado-estacionário dos quimiostatos anaeróbios, decidiu-se melhorar a capacidade do transporte ativo deste dissacarídeo nesta linhagem através de uma estratégia de engenharia evolutiva caracterizada pelo cultivo destas células em quimiostatos longos limitados por sacarose, em anaerobiose. Obteve-se assim, após cerca de 60 gerações, uma linhagem mutante (iSUC2 evoluída) com atividade de transporte de sacarose 20 vezes superior à linhagem iSUC2, sendo capaz de consumir toda a sacarose do meio de cultivo. Esta linhagem apresentou um aumento de 11% no YETH/S e uma diminuição de 27% no fator de conversão de sacarose a células (YX/S), quando comparada à linhagem-referência. A análise do transcriptoma revelou o aumento da expressão de vários genes codificadores de transportadores de hexoses, bem como genes relacionados ao metabolismo de maltose, incluindo o gene do transportador de alta-afinidade para alfa-glicosídeos AGT1, quando a linhagem iSUC2 evoluída foi comparada à linhagem iSUC2. Detectou-se que a evolução em quimiostato resultou na duplicação do gene AGT1, sem que houvesse mutação neste gene. Através da superexpressão do gene AGT1 na linhagem iSUC2, conseguiu-se gerar uma linhagem que apresentou YETH/S muito próximo ao da linhagem iSUC2 evoluída. No entanto, outros parâmetros fisiológicos, foram diferentes nestas duas linhagens, indicando que a duplicação do gene AGT1 não foi a única mutação que ocorreu durante o processo de evolução em quimiostato. Este trabalho ilustra o potencial da combinação entre engenharia metabólica e engenharia evolutiva para a obtenção de linhagens de levedura melhoradas, para aplicação na produção industrial de etanol combustível a partir de meios contendo sacarose. / When growing on sucrose-containing substrates, Saccharomyces cerevisiae secretes invertase that hydrolyses sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are subsequently assimilated by facilitated diffusion. In a previous work, the cellular location of invertase in yeast was modified, by eliminating the extracellular form of the enzyme and over-expressing the intracellular one (Stambuk et al., 2009). As a result, sucrose uptake by this modified strain (iSUC2) occurs by an active H+-sucrose symport system, in which 1 ATP needs to be used by the cells to extrude the proton co-transported. In order to compensate for this, it is expected that these cells will deviate a higher proportion of the carbon flow towards energy generation, and consequently to ethanol formation, in comparison with the wild-type phenotype (SUC2). In the present work, a quantitative physiological evaluation of the iSUC2 strain was performed in both batch and chemostat cultures. Cells from the iSUC2 strain harvested from steady-state anaerobic sucrose-limited chemostats retained all invertase intracellularly and showed a 2-fold higher total invertase activity, when compared to the SUC2 strain grown under identical conditions. Besides this, the ethanol yield on sucrose in the former cells was 4% higher than in the latter case. However, due to the high levels of residual sucrose during these cultivations with the iSUC2 strain, we attempted to improve the transport capacity in the iSUC2 strain by evolutionary engineering. After 60 generations of cultivation in an anaerobic sucrose-limited chemostat, an evolved strain was selected, which presented a 20-fold increase in the sucrose transport capacity, when compared with the parental strain (iSUC2), leading to almost no residual sucrose. During growth of this evolved strain in anaerobic sucrose-limited chemostats, the ethanol yield on sucrose was 11% higher and the biomass yield on sucrose was 27% lower, when compared with the SUC2 strain. Transcriptome analysis revealed an increase in the expression level of several hexose transporters, as well as many MAL-related genes, including the gene for the high-affinity permease AGT1. Indeed, it was verified that this gene was duplicated during the evolution experiment, but no point mutation was detected. By over-expressing the AGT1 gene in the iSUC2 strain, it was possible to attain a similar ethanol yield on sucrose, when compared to the evolved iSUC2 strain. However, several other physiological parameters were different in both strains, indicating that the AGT1 gene duplication was not the only mutation that occurred during evolution in the chemostat. To conclude, this work illustrates that the combination of metabolic and evolutionary engineering is a powerful strategy to obtain improved sucrose-fermenting yeast strains.

Este trabalho tem como principal objetivo mostrar os efeitos do uso de gasolina adulterada em motores de pequena cilindrada em seus desempenhos e durabilidades. Para tanto, foram realizados ensaios comparativos em três motores carburados de aplicação em motocicletas, de mesmas séries. Estes motores consumiram gasolina C, padrão brasileiro de combustível para motores de ignição por faísca, e misturas desta gasolina com etanol hidratado carburante e solvente C-9. Os resultados mostram alterações de desempenho, nas concentrações de gases poluentes produzidos e nos níveis de deterioração. / This work has as main aim to show the effects of the use of the out of specification fuels in performance and durability of the low volumetric displacement engines. So, it was carried out comparative tests in three similar engines, equipped with carburetors as fuel metering arrangement, applied in motorcycles. These engines worked with standard gasoline C, Brazilian reference fuel to spark ignition engines and blends containing hydrated ethanol and C-9 solvent. The results show changes in performance, in the pollutant gases concentration productions and deterioration levels.

CAPES, CNPq), Fundação Araucária, Agência Nacional do Petróleo (ANP), FINEP / Neste trabalho é apresentado um estudo sobre a aplicabilidade de sensores em fibra ótica baseados em redes de período longo como ferramentas para avaliar combustíveis líquidos. O estudo pautou-se em investigação experimental e no levantamento das principais características metrológicas dos sensores, incluindo a estimativa de incertezas segundo diretrizes recomendadas por organizações internacionais de padronização. Nesse sentido, investigou-se o desempenho dos sensores na determinação do teor de etanol presente em misturas etanol-gasolina. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que concentrações de etanol foram mensuradas nessas misturas com resolução de até 0,14% v/v. Adicionalmente, avaliaram-se os comportamentos dos sensores na identificação do teor de etanol em misturas etanol-água e propuseram-se dois métodos para que tais determinações fossem unívocas para toda a faixa de concentração de etanol. Nessa aplicação foi possível medir concentrações de etanol com resolução de até 0,17% v/v. Os sensores foram ainda empregados nas avaliações de biodiesel, de óleo de origem e de óleo diesel presentes em misturas binárias e homogêneas. Para tanto, três métodos foram desenvolvidos com o intuito de superar as limitações impostas pelos elevados índices de refração dessas substâncias, possibilitando quantificações sem demandar segregação de componentes ou fibras óticas especiais. Dessa maneira, viabilizou-se a identificação de teores de biodiesel em misturas biodiesel-óleo diesel com resolução de até 0,05% v/v. Por fim, implementou-se um método de interrogação de redes de período longo a partir da leitura de sinais de reflexão disponibilizados por uma rede de Bragg, o qual foi utilizado para avaliar misturas contendo óleo de origem e biodiesel. Nesse caso, as determinações dos teores de óleo foram realizadas com resolução de 0,10% v/v. / This work shows a study about the applicability of optical fiber sensors based on long period gratings as tools for assessment of liquid fuels. The study was based on both experimental research and evaluation of the main metrological characteristics of the sensors, including the estimative of uncertainties according to guidelines recommended by international organizations for standardization. In a sense, it was evaluated the performance of sensors for determining the ethanol concentration in ethanol-gasoline blends. The results obtained showed that ethanol concentrations were measured in these mixtures with resolution up to 0.14% v/v. The use of the sensors to measure ethanol in ethanol-water blends was also investigated and two methods were proposed to establish the ethanol content without ambiguity for the whole ethanol concentration range. In this application it was possible to measure ethanol concentrations with resolution up to 0.17% v/v. Optical fiber sensors were also employed for evaluating biodiesel, vegetable oil and petrodiesel concentrations in binary and homogeneous mixtures. Three methods were developed in order to overcome the drawbacks imposed by the high refractive indices of these substances, allowing quantifications without requiring segregation of components or specialty optical fibers. Biodiesel concentrations could be identified in biodiesel-petrodiesel blends with resolution up to 0.05% v/v. Finally, an alternative method to interrogate long period gratings that employs the reflection provided by a fiber Bragg grating was implemented to evaluate mixtures of vegetable oil and biodiesel. In this case, oil concentrations were determined with resolution of 0.10% v/v.