[pt] A deposição de parafinas em dutos de produção e coleta é um dos principais problemas de garantia de escoamento na indústria do petróleo. Além das técnicas de prevenção e mitigação tradicionais, o uso de revestimentos internos antiaderentes é uma alternativa ainda em desenvolvimento. Uma extensiva revisão bibliográfica mostrou que muitas das informações disponíveis sobre este assunto baseiam-se em conhecimento de campo e os experimentos desenvolvidos em laboratório apresentam resultados contraditórios. A contribuição deste trabalho foi desenvolver um experimento em laboratório para avaliar a eficiência de superfícies revestidas com relação à prevenção da deposição de parafinas, eliminando o efeito de isolante térmico do mesmo e buscando correlacionar os resultados com as características da superfície como rugosidade, energia crítica e de superfície. O experimento desenvolvido consistia de um loop fechado contendo uma seção de teste em acrílico, com controle de temperatura dos fluidos, medição contínua de fluxo de calor e medição da espessura de depósito através de visualização com câmera. Neste trabalho foram avaliadas as superfícies de aço inox 316L (rugosa e polida), Teflon, Nylon 11 e carbono amorfo sob a forma de placas retangulares que eram acopladas à seção de teste. Os resultados parecem corroborar as conclusões de alguns estudos da literatura, mostrando que a espessura de depósito de parafina pode ser reduzida pela redução da rugosidade e pela redução da energia crítica e de superfície. A utilização da medida de fluxo de calor como medida indireta da espessura de deposição se mostrou promissora, porém a variação da condutividade térmica do depósito em função do número de Reynolds dificulta sua utilização devido à necessidade de calibração para cada vazão de escoamento. / [en] Wax deposition is a relevant flow assurance issue for the petroleum industry. Besides the well-known prevention and mitigation techniques for wax deposition, non-stick internal coatings have been proposed as an alternative solution to this problem. A literature review has been carried out and revealed that the available results, based on either field experience and laboratory experiments, are often contradictory. The present work aims at developing a laboratory apparatus to evaluate the influence of coated surfaces on wax deposition. The experiments were carried out at constant heat flux conditions to eliminate the insulation effects that are associated with the different coating. The tests conducted were aimed at establishing a relationship between wax deposition thickness,, surface roughness and surface energy. The experiments consisted of a closed loop circuit for the wax solution, employing a transparent test section where plates with different surface coatings were tested. Continuous monitoring of the heat flux removed and fluid and plate temperatures allowed total control of the deposition process. Wax layer thicknesses were measured optically with the aid of a digital camera. Five different surfaces were tested, namely, 316L stainless steel (rough and polished), Teflon, Nylon 11 and amorphous carbon. A key finding of these experiments is that the lower the surface energy or the smoother the surface, the lower the wax deposit thickness. However, the wax deposit reduction was seen to be highly dependent on flow conditions. As a side result of the experiments, the indirect determination of wax thickness based on heat flux measurements was shown to be a viable technique. Although the thermal conductivity of the wax deposit, a necessary information for the implementation of the technique, seemed to depend on the flow Reynolds number.

[pt] A tendência da produção offshore do petróleo é crescente. O transporte do óleo nestes ambientes frios (águas profundas) ocasiona a perda de solubilidade e precipitação das parafinas de alto peso molecular. A deposição de parafinas nas paredes internas das linhas é um problema crítico para o transporte do óleo, causando o bloqueio parcial ou total da linha, um incremento da potência de bombeamento e elevados custos de manutenção que são proporcionais ao aumento da lâmina de água. A pesquisa bibliográfica realizada neste trabalho revela que ainda existem discordâncias entre os pesquisadores sobre a relevância de cada um dos mecanismos de deposição de parafina conhecidos. O melhor entendimento dos mesmos resultaria em previsões mais acuradas das taxas de deposição que seriam muito importantes para orientar programas de manutenção e o projeto de novas linhas. A filosofia do presente trabalho é realizar experimentos simples, com propriedades de fluido conhecidas e condições de contorno bem controladas procurando um melhor entendimento da importância e relevância de cada um dos mecanismos de deposição. Para este fim, foram realizadas experiências de visualização do fenômeno de deposição para uma mistura de óleo-parafina escoando em regime laminar, submetida a diferentes condições de temperatura. Experiências feitas com cristais de parafina precipitados em suspensão mostraram que é necessário um fluxo de calor negativo para produzir deposição. Para fluxos de calor zero e positivo não foi visualizada deposição alguma. Adicionalmente, para condições de fluxo de calor negativo, foram realizadas medições da evolução temporal da espessura da camada depositada tendo como variáveis, diferentes números de Reynolds e gradientes de temperatura. Os perfis de deposição obtidos das experiências realizadas são informação importante e original que podem ser utilizadas para validação de modelos de simulação numérica. / [en] Offshore crude oil production is steadily growing. Oil transport in these cold environments (deep water) causes the precipitation of the heavy organic crude oil components like waxes. Wax deposition at the inner wall of pipelines is a serious problem in crude oil transportation causing the partial or total plugging of pipelines, increase in pumping energy and a high cost of maintenance that is proportionally greater as development depth increases. A literature research conducted in the present work leads to the conclusion that the relative importance of the wax deposition mechanisms is still misunderstood. The importance of this knowledge will result in more accurate prediction of paraffin deposition rates that would be very important to sub sea pipelines maintenance and design. The philosophy of this work is to make simple experiments with known fluid properties and well controllable conditions trying to understand the importance and relevance of each known fouling mechanism. Hence, wax deposition experiments were performed in laminar flow for different temperature conditions with a single-phase paraffin-oil mixture, having the particle migration visualization in mind. Experiments with oil mixture injection temperature below the Wax Appearance Point (with wax crystals flowing) have shown that it is necessary a negative heat flux to produce significant deposition. For positive and zero heat fluxes there was no deposition visualized. Also, the unsteady fouling state for negative heat flux was followed and their temporal deposition profiles measured for different Reynolds and temperature conditions. Those temporal and dimensional deposition profiles are original important information to be compared with numerical simulation.

Surfaces submerged in marine environments rapidly get colonized by marine organisms, a process known as biofouling. Fouling costs maritime industries billions of dollars annually. The most common methods of combating marine biofouling are toxin containing antifouling coatings which often have detrimental non-target environmental effects. These effects and proposed bans on harmful substances in antifouling coatings, mandates development of more environmentally friendly antifouling technologies. Of these, foul-release coatings, which minimize attachment and adhesion of fouling organisms (rather than killing them) are promising alternatives. Here I explored the utility of petroleum waxes as novel antifouling/foul-release coatings. I first investigated the responses of propagules (larvae or spores) of six common fouling organisms to wax coatings in the laboratory. A wide variation in the response of these different organisms, and in the different types of response (settlement, adhesion, etc.) by the same organism, was observed, but the most inhibitory coatings were those made from microcrystalline wax and silicone oil. However, in field trials in Sydney Harbour, paraffin waxes had the strongest antifouling performance, with activity up to one year (the trial duration). These waxes also had strong foul-release effects, with fouling that did attach mostly removed by a low pressure water jet. Composition of fouling communities on paraffin waxes differed significantly from other waxes or controls, with little or no hard fouling organisms (barnacles, bivalves) on paraffin. The mechanisms of antifouling and foul-release actions of paraffin waxes appear to be due to changes in surface properties. The surfaces of the paraffin waxes changed noticeably after 4 - 8 weeks immersion in the sea or in seawater aquaria. Antibiotic treatments showed that this change in surface appearance was due to biological (microbial) activity. Bacteria appear to remove the amorphous phase from the surface of the paraffin waxes, revealing an underlying crystalline phase, which is less affected by bacterial action. I suggest that these crystals form a microstructured ?bed of nails? of crystals of varying shapes and sizes which inhibit settlement and reduce adhesion strength of those organisms which do settle.

Crops adapted to dry conditions are essential to meet future food, feed and energy needs. Knowledge of interaction between drought tolerance traits and their response to varying water supply conditions would improve selection for yield stability traits. This study focused on determining the association between the QTL regulating the staygreen trait in sorghum with improved canopy temperature depression (CTD) as regulated by total and compositional epicuticular wax content in a recombinant inbred line population derived from BTx642 and RTx7000. Phenotypic data were collected in 3 replicated field trials and 1 greenhouse trial. Plants with higher leaf EWL had cooler canopies. Our results also confirmed that staygreen genotypes are able to maintain cooler canopy than the non-stay-green genotypes under drought and hot conditions. We have suggested that wax might offer a more stable indicator for selection of drought tolerance under a variety of weather conditions. Composite interval mapping identified a total of 28 QTL, fifteen of which had significant overlaps. The overlap between QTL for cuticular leaf wax and QTL for staygreen exhibits a departure from the QTL overlaps for other traits with that of cuticular leaf wax. We have also suggested that under drought stress, the QTL for staygreen may be expressed earlier in time (at anthesis) than had been previously believed.

Company Purtech in Dals-Ed manufactures molded polyurethane (PUR). Examples of products that include polyurethane are car seats. Robots are used to fill the molds with PUR and to apply the release agent (wax) in the empty molds. Turning from online programming into a graphical offline programming of release agent spraying robots is going to simplify the process by: Applying less of release agent to avoid polluting environment, to produce an easier removal of moulds, for the sake of homogeneous moulds and for economical saving in the cost of release agent Adaption of spraying paths to variation in production speed. Programming of complex spraying trajectories to deal with sharp geometrical subsurface Decreasing onsite programming time (when program a new workpiece or modify an old one); so that robots would be free for production. While turning into offline programming brought the challenges of: Impact of variation in the production speed Lack of 3D models of workcell’s equipments Robot joint configuration when paths and robtargets are in move. Physical Joint limits, Singularities & Reach limits Collisions within the cell space. At the end, the following objectives are successfully met: Adaption of spraying programs to variation in production speed by developing and embedding a method in those programs. Graphical offline generation of spraying trajectories and optimization of those trajectories to the Purtech condition of spraying allowed time for each carrier. Simulation of release agent spraying process; and producing of a well structured RAPID program that reflect the simulated process.

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential application of rice bran wax (RBW) organogel to replace solid fat content and create the fat network in ice cream. Ice creams with 10% fat or 15% fat were formulated with RBW organogel as the fat source, and two different emulsifiers were used: polmo, a commercial blend of emulsifiers which contains 80% mono- and diglycerides and 20% polysorbate 80, and Glycerol monooleate (GMO). Candelilla wax (CDW) organogel and carnauba wax (CBW) organogel were also tested for comparison. RBW organogel had the ability to form and sustain structure in 15% fat ice creams when GMO was used as the emulsifier. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the RBW crystal morphology within the fat droplet, when GMO was used as the emulsifier, was characterized by the growth of crystals at the outer edge of the droplet which increased fat destabilization and network formation. / Nestlé Product Technology Centre, France

It is only recently that studies have explored the use of olfaction in birds. Birds are now known to use odour cues for navigation, and locating food. Odours produced by the birds themselves can also function in nest recognition and even mate choice. The odours of most birds stem from the preen wax produced by the uropygial or preen gland. The wax is comprised of a complex mixture of esters and volatiles, and is known to vary in some species with age, sex, season, or environmental conditions. Its function has been associated with feather maintenance, but it may also play a role in sexual selection and chemical communication. In this thesis, I used the preen gland and its preen wax to perform comparative studies on the evolution of odours between island birds and their continental relatives. I used the birds of the Oceania region as a model system, where most passerines originated from continental Australia but have colonised numerous surrounding islands such as New Zealand and New Caledonia. As islands generally lack mammalian predators, and have less parasites and less interspecific competition than continents, these differences in environmental conditions likely shaped functional differences in the preen gland and its products. I measured the size of the preen gland and collected preen wax from a variety of forest passerines in Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. I found that island birds have larger preen glands and therefore likely produce more preen wax than their continental relatives. I also found that the preen wax composition differed among species, with a shift to birds on islands producing disproportionately lighter and more volatile compounds. I suggest that selection favoured the gain of more volatile molecules in island birds as they were released from the constraint to camouflage their odours that is imposed by mammalian predators on continental areas. It is possible that this also allowed greater communication through olfactory channels in island birds, and such communication is enhanced through the use of more volatile compounds. To support this hypothesis I showed that the South Island robin (Petroica australis) was able to detect and react to the odour of a conspecific (odours produced by preen wax) in the absence of any visual cues. From a conservation perspective, increased volatility of the preen waxes of island birds might place them at increased risk from introduced mammalian predators that use olfaction to locate their prey. However, in both laboratory tests using Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), a common exotic predator, and in field trials using rodent tracking tunnels, I found only limited evidence to suggest the odour of island birds places them at greater risk, and more experiments are needed to test this hypothesis. Finally, my findings of more conspicuous odours in island birds suggest new avenues of research for their conservation, including whether island species that seem especially prone to predation have preen waxes (and thus odours) that are also especially attractive to exotic mammalian predators. Conservation programmes to protect endangered island birds may even benefit from considering whether olfactory cues can be minimised as a method of reducing predation risk.

Open Studio: A Phase in Six Years of my Art Education is a true-to-scale reproduction of my graduate studio space, populated by a meticulously constructed life-size, wax self-portrait. Evoking Romantic imagery of the artist in the studio, the uncanniness of the wax figure creates an experience of the type that Mike Kelley has described as “banal [and] emptied of magic.” The figure’s eyes are closed and his gesture is as vulnerable as it is defensive. Almost teetering, but balanced within the space, the work poetically falls apart upon close inspection and reveals a narrative that’s open to interpretation.

Epicuticular waxes form a layer on the outer surface of all land plants and play a fundamental role in their interaction with the environment. Development of a rapid and accurate method for the characterization of these waxes could allow the use of wax composition as a novel phenotype during plant breeding and selection. In this study, the suitability of Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) for the characterization of epicuticular waxes was investigated. This method provides a “fingerprint” of the relative abundance of all constituents in the analyte based on mass, is suitable for very high throughput, requires minimal sample preparation, and is able to provide for the characterization of even complex biological mixtures. Herein, the suitability of DART-MS for analysis of epicuticular wax was investigated through analysis of samples of extracted wax collected from the flag leaves of a 279 line association mapping population grown across four environments with two replicates in both irrigated and drought treatments. Additionally, for a subset of samples, wax was collected from glumes in order to test for differences in wax composition between tissue types. In all, a total of 3,454 wax extracts were analyzed with three technical replicates. The above analysis generated a total of 13,164 mass spectra (“fingerprints”), made at an average rate of 30 seconds each. Multivariate analyses including random forest, principal component analysis, and linear discriminant analysis, were used to identify the presence of differences between the spectra of wax from different tissues (leaves/glumes) and treatment types (irrigated/drought). The peaks best serving as predictors of sample class for each comparison were examined, and tentative identifications were made through comparison of the associated mass with literature and publicly available databases. As a separate test of concept, the ability to distinguish between the epicuticular wax compositions of individual varieties was determined through analysis of a group of closely related lines developed at CIMMYT which differed in agronomic performance.

Surfaces submerged in marine environments rapidly get colonized by marine organisms, a process known as biofouling. Fouling costs maritime industries billions of dollars annually. The most common methods of combating marine biofouling are toxin containing antifouling coatings which often have detrimental non-target environmental effects. These effects and proposed bans on harmful substances in antifouling coatings, mandates development of more environmentally friendly antifouling technologies. Of these, foul-release coatings, which minimize attachment and adhesion of fouling organisms (rather than killing them) are promising alternatives. Here I explored the utility of petroleum waxes as novel antifouling/foul-release coatings. I first investigated the responses of propagules (larvae or spores) of six common fouling organisms to wax coatings in the laboratory. A wide variation in the response of these different organisms, and in the different types of response (settlement, adhesion, etc.) by the same organism, was observed, but the most inhibitory coatings were those made from microcrystalline wax and silicone oil. However, in field trials in Sydney Harbour, paraffin waxes had the strongest antifouling performance, with activity up to one year (the trial duration). These waxes also had strong foul-release effects, with fouling that did attach mostly removed by a low pressure water jet. Composition of fouling communities on paraffin waxes differed significantly from other waxes or controls, with little or no hard fouling organisms (barnacles, bivalves) on paraffin. The mechanisms of antifouling and foul-release actions of paraffin waxes appear to be due to changes in surface properties. The surfaces of the paraffin waxes changed noticeably after 4 - 8 weeks immersion in the sea or in seawater aquaria. Antibiotic treatments showed that this change in surface appearance was due to biological (microbial) activity. Bacteria appear to remove the amorphous phase from the surface of the paraffin waxes, revealing an underlying crystalline phase, which is less affected by bacterial action. I suggest that these crystals form a microstructured ?bed of nails? of crystals of varying shapes and sizes which inhibit settlement and reduce adhesion strength of those organisms which do settle.