No abstract

In situ gasification chemical looping combustion (iG-CLC) is a promising coal combustion technology for implementing CO 2 capture with a low energy penalty. A novel iG-CLC cold experimental system was developed in the authors' previous work (Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2013, 52, 14208). It mainly consists of a high-flux circulating fluidized bed (HFCFB) riser as the fuel reactor and a cross-flow moving bed as the air reactor. As an extension of that work, in this study, we further optimized the iG-CLC system by redesignung the air reactor to enhance the carrying capacity of the gas flow and developing a two-stage separation system by adding a second-stage cyclone to the original first-stage inertial separator. Stability in operation and flexibility in adjusting operating parameters were achieved with the improved system. In the riser (fuel reactor), higher solids fluxes and solids holdups were achieved, which should enhance the gas−solid contact and promote the complicated heterogeneous reactions. In the moving bed (air reactor), the carrying capacity of the gas flow was significantly enhanced, which should lead to a great increase in the system power capacity. The confirmation of the ability to control the gas flow directions in the two reactors means that the gas bypassing between the two reactors can be restrained so as to ensure a high CO 2 concentration in the exhaust of the fuel reactor. The high global separation efficiency and selective separation efficiency of the new two-stage separation system for fine particles indicate that a high combustion efficiency of coal can be achieved with a hot iG-CLC system.

A method for synthesizing bulk nanocrystalline Cu by an electric brush-plating technique is reported. This brush-plated nanocrystalline Cu has a fine (26nm) and quite uniform grain structure and predominant high-angle grain boundaries. A pronounced strain rate sensitivity of the stress with an m of 0.104 and the Coble creep and a subsequent transition to the power-law creep were observed in room temperature tensile and creep tests. The dominant grain boundary deformation due to the truly nanocrystalline structure of this nanocrystalline Cu is responsible for the observed strain rate sensitivity.

A novel cold reactor apparatus for in situ gasification chemical looping combustion (iG-CLC) is proposed and investigated. It is mainly comprised of a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) riser as the fuel reactor and a cross-flow moving bed as the air reactor. The direct hydraulic link between the two reactors brings inherent simplicity and stabilization of the whole system. The CFB fuel reactor provides favorable gas−solids contacts over the whole reactor height. The realization of high solids flux operation conditions greatly enhances the solids holdups, and the gas−solids contacts and reactions in the riser. The moving bed air reactor has advantages in terms of having a low pressure drop, continuous solids flow, and large gas−solids contact area except for the risk of plugging and particle leakage caused by excessive high cross-flow gas velocity. Independent pressure adjustments between the two reactors could control the gas flow direction and restrain the gas bypassing to ensure high CO 2 concentration with little nitrogen dilution. The flexible adjustments of flow parameters (e.g., gas−solids residence time, solids holdups, and solids inventory) have been experimentally achieved with the cold model experimental system. Valuable data and operational experience for the further hot experimental system have also been obtained. The design process for the future hot experimental system has also been briefly discussed in this paper.

Drug combinations have been widely applied to treat complex diseases, like cancer, HIV and cardiovascular diseases. One of the most important characteristics for drug combinations is the synergistic effects among different drugs, that is to say, the combination effects are larger than the sum of individual effects. Although quantitative methods can be utilized to evaluate the synergistic effects based on experimental dose-response data, it is both time and resource consuming to screen all possible combinations by experimental trials. This problem makes it a formidable challenge to recognize synergistic combinations. Various attempts have been made to predict drug synergy by network biology, however, most of them are limited to estimating target associations on the PPI network. Here, we proposed a novel "pathway-pathway interaction" network-based synergy evaluation method to predict the potential synergistic drug combinations. Comparison with previous target-based methods shows that inclusion of systematic pathway-pathway interactions makes this novel method outperform others in predicting drug synergy. Moreover, it can also help to interpret how different drugs in a combination cooperate with each other to implement synergistic therapeutic effects. In general, drugs acting on the same pathway through different targets or drugs regulating a relatively small number of highly-connected pathways are more likely to produce synergistic effects.