AD is regarded as a sustainable technology that could assist the UK Government meet internationally agreed GHG emission targets by 2050. However, the mature status of the technology is based on expensive systems that rely on high energy feedstock to be profitable. Meanwhile, the natural biodegradation of cow slurry is a recognised contributor to climate change despite having a relatively low CH4 potential because of the large volumes produced. Economic mixing is essential to the cost-effectiveness of farm AD but techniques applied are not always appropriate as slurry is a shear thinning thixotropic Herschel-Bulkley fluid and therefore challenging to mix. The apparent viscosity of slurry and the shear stress induced was most influenced by solids content (exponential change) followed by temperature (linear). Most shear thinning occurred before a rising shear rate of 20s-1 was achieved with the fluid acting near-Newtonian above. Thixotropic recovery occurred within 1 hour of resting. Rheological values were also much higher than previously reported. Highest CH4 production occurred in the first 10 days of the batch process using a range of mixing regimes with different shear rates and rest periods. During fed-batch operations, changing shear rate had a minimal effect on CH4 production using a 30-day HRT whereas shorter rest periods increased production. Specific CH4 production rate was highest when feeding and mixing coincided. However, when HRT was reduced (OLR increased) the CH4 produced by all mixed regimes significantly increased with highest values being achieved using high intensity mixing rested for short periods. Lower HRTs also requires smaller digesters. Parasitic mixing energy invariably had the most influence on net energy production. Signs of instability were evident after 20 days using the low HRT. Significant microbial adaptation was also observed as the experiments progressed. The research outcomes demonstrate that mixing regime and HRT can be managed to maximise net energy production whilst reducing capital expenditure.

Laser beam welding has been widely applied in different industrial sectors due to its unique advantages. However, there are still challenges, such as beam positioning in T-joint welding, and gap bridging in butt joint welding,especially in the case of varying gap width along a joint. It is expected that enabling more advanced control to a welding system, and obtaining more in-depth process knowledge could help to solve these issues. The aim of this work is to address such welding issues by a laser beam shaping technology using a novel deformable mirror together with computer vision methods and also to increase knowledge about the benefits and limitations with this approach. Beam shaping in this work was realized by a novel deformable mirror system integrated into an industrial processing optics. Together with a wave front sensor, a controlled adaptive beam shaping system was formed with a response time of 10 ms. The processes were monitored by a coaxial camera with selected filters and passive or active illumination. Conduction mode autogenous bead-on-plate welding and butt joint welding experiments have been used to understand the effect of beam shaping on the melt pool geometry. Circular Gaussian, and elliptical Gaussian shapes elongated transverse to and along the welding direction were studied. In-process melt pool images and cross section micrographs of the weld seams/beads were analyzed. The results showed that the melt pool geometry can be significantly modified by beam shaping using the deformable mirror. T-joint welding with different beam offset deviations relative to the center of the joint line was conducted to study the potential of using machine learning to track the process state. The results showed that machine learning can reach sufficient detection and estimation performance, which could also be used for on-line control. In addition, in-process and multidimensional data were accurately acquired using computer vision methods. These data reveal weaknesses of current thermo-fluid simulation model, which in turn can help to better understand and control laser beam welding. The obtained results in this work shows a huge potential in using the proposed methods to solve relevant challenges in laser beam welding. / Lasersvetsning används i stor utsträckning i olika industrisektorer på grund av dess unika fördelar. Det finns emellertid fortfarande utmaningar, såsom rätt positionering av laserstrålen vid genomträngningssvetsning av T-fogar och hantering av varierande spaltbredd längs fogen vid svetsning av stumfogar. Sådana problem förväntas kunna lösas med avancerade metoder för automatisering, metoder som också förväntas ge fördjupade kunskaper om processen. Syftet med detta arbete är att ta itu med dessa problem med hjälp av en teknik för lasereffektens fördelning på arbetsstycket, s.k. beam shaping. Det sker med hjälp av en ny typ av i realtid deformerbar spegel tillsammans med bildbehandling av kamerabilder från processen. För- och nackdelar med detta tillvägagångssätt undersöks.Beam shaping åstadkoms med hjälp av ny typ av deformerbart spegelsystem som integreras i en industriell processoptik. Tillsammans med en vågfrontsensor bildas ett adaptivt system för beam shaping med en svarstid på 10 ms. Processen övervakas av en kamera linjerad koaxialt med laserstrålen. För att kunna ta bilder av svetspunkten belyses den med ljus av lämplig våglängd, och kameran är försedd med ett motsvarande optiskt filter. Försök har utförts med svetsning utan tillsatsmaterial, direkt på plåtar, svetsning utan s.k. nyckelhål, för att förstå effekten av beam shaping på svetssmältans geometri. Gauss fördelade cirkulära och elliptiska former, långsträckta både tvärs och längs svetsriktningen har studerats. Bilder från svetssmältan har analyserats och även mikrostrukturen i tvärsnitt från de svetsade plåtarna. Resultaten visar att svetssmältans geometri kan modifieras signifikant genom beam shaping med hjälp av det deformerbara spegelsystemet. Genomträngningssvetsning av T-fogar med avvikelser relativt foglinjens centrum genomfördes för att studera potentialen i att använda maskininlärning för att fånga processens tillstånd. Resultaten visade att maskininlärning kan nå tillräcklig prestanda för detektering och skattning av denna avvikelse. Något som också kan användas för återkopplad styrning. Flerdimensionell processdata har samlats i realtid och analyserats med hjälp av bildbehandlingsmetoder.  Dessa data avslöjar brister i nuvarande simuleringsmodeller,vilket i sin tur hjälper till med att bättre förstå och styra lasersvetsning.Resultaten från detta arbete uppvisar en god potential i att använda de föreslagna metoderna för att lösa relevanta utmaningar inom lasersvetsning. / <p>Till licentiatuppsats hör 2 inskickade artiklar, som visas inte nu.</p>

Die erste Chemnitzer Brennstoffzellenkonferenz wurde vom Innovationscluster HZwo und dem Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkzeugmaschinen und Umformtechnik IWU durchgeführt. Ausgewählte Fachbeiträge und Präsentationen werden in Form eines Tagungsbandes veröffentlicht. / The first fuel cell conference was initiated by the innovation cluster HZwo and the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology. Selected lectures and presentations are published in the conference proceedings.

As nuclear energy grows in the United States and around the world, the expansion of the nuclear fuel cycle is inevitable. All currently deployed commercial reprocessing plants are based on the Plutonium - Uranium Extraction (PUREX) process. However, this process is not implemented in the U.S. for a variety of reasons, one being that it is considered by some as a proliferation risk. The 2001 Nuclear Energy Policy report recommended that the U.S. "develop reprocessing and treatment technologies that are cleaner, more efficient, less waste-intensive, and more proliferation-resistant." The Uranium Extraction (UREX+) reprocessing technique has been developed to reach these goals. However, in order for UREX+ to be considered for commercial implementation, a safeguards approach is needed to show that a commercially sized UREX+ facility can be safeguarded to current international standards. A detailed safeguards approach for a UREX+1a reprocessing facility has been developed. The approach includes the use of nuclear material accountancy (MA), containment and surveillance (C/S) and solution monitoring (SM). Facility information was developed for a hypothesized UREX+1a plant with a throughput of 1000 Metric Tons Heavy Metal (MTHM) per year. Safeguard goals and safeguard measures to be implemented were established. Diversion and acquisition pathways were considered; however, the analysis focuses mainly on diversion paths. The detection systems used in the design have the ability to provide near real-time measurement of special fissionable material in feed, process and product streams. Advanced front-end techniques for the quantification of fissile material in spent nuclear fuel were also considered. The economic and operator costs of these systems were not considered. The analysis shows that the implementation of these techniques result in significant improvements in the ability of the safeguards system to achieve the objective of timely detection of the diversion of a significant quantity of nuclear material from the UREX+1a reprocessing facility and to provide deterrence against such diversion by early detection.