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High hydrogen yields have been obtained continuously from steam reforming of methane coupled with simultaneous CO2 capture[1], at lower temperature (630oC) and pressure (1 atm) than those typical of traditional processes (800-900oC,15-30 atm), using calcined dolomite and a pulverized commercial Ni catalyst, in a single step. On the other hand, a pure CO2 stream is obtained by subsequent regeneration of the sorbent, which could be stored. A bubbling fluidized bed contained in a quartz vessel was operated batchwise. First, the durability of a dolomite in multi-cycle CO2 sorption/desorption runs has been investigated: a remarkable reduction of dolomite activity is observed after the first calcination, but substantially stable activity was conserved up to the fifth cycle. Then the performance of sorption enhanced catalytic steam reforming of methane to pure hydrogen has been evaluated. Two well distinct operation regimes have been found: before dolomite saturation, H2 concentration in the dry product gas remained stable at 94-96%, and CO2 was completely converted into calcium carbonate; after a short breakthrough period, concentration of H2 at the exit of the reactor reduced its value that became approximately equal to the equilibrium value expected for methane reforming and water gas shift reactions.

Fluid transport by flow in random porous media is subject to hydrodynamic dispersion. In a series of pulsed field-gradient NMR experiments, we have compared flow induced by pressure gradients on the one hand and by electroosmosis on the other. The media were porous glasses with pore dimensions from 1 to 100 μm. With increasing flow rates, a crossover from subdiffusive to superdiffusive mean-squared displacement laws was observed in both cases. This demonstrates the competition between molecular diffusion and convection, and is a typical example of anomalous transport.

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In soft materials entropic and enthalpic contributions are of similar magnitude and balance each other. Therefore, the macroscopic mechanical and rheological properties and the phase changes are determined to a high degree by thermal motion of the atoms and molecules. Most of the relevant dynamics takes place on mesoscopic length and time scales in between the picosecond atomic scale and the macroscopic frame. Allowing for the proper space time observation window, neutron spin echo (NSE) spectroscopy uniquely allows to address these motions. Here we briefly present some key experimental results on the mesoscopic dynamics of polymer systems, starting from the standard model of polymer motion - the Rouse model. We briefly touch the role of topological confinement as expressed in the reptation model and discuss in some more detail processes limiting the confinement. In the second part we touch on some new developments relating to large scale internal dynamics of proteins by neutron spin echo. We will report results of some pioneering studies which show the feasibility of such experiments on large scale protein motion which will most likely initiate further studies.

Size dependence of solute diffusivity has been investigated using molecular dynamics simulations for a range of solute radii in a binary mixture consisting of solute and solvent species. We demonstrate that the Stokes-Einstein relationship between self diffusivity and solute radius breaks down over a range of solute-solvent size ratios. This is a result of the previously known Levitation Effect. Three distinct regimes can be seen depending on the solute-solvent size ratio. Several properties have been computed to understand the nature of solute motion in the three regimes.

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