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Sargassum spp is an invasive macroalgae and an alternative feedstock for bioethanol production. Sargassum spp biomass was subjected to high-pressure technology for biomass fractionation under different operating conditions of temperature and residence time to obtain glucan enriched pretreated solids (32.22 g/100 g of raw material). Enzyme hydrolysis process at high pretreated solid loading (13%, w/v) and enzyme loading of 10 FPU/g of glucan was performed, obtaining 43.01 g/L of glucose corresponding to a conversion yield of 92.12%. Finally, a pre-simultaneous saccharification and fermentation strategy (PSSF) was performed to produce bioethanol. This operational strategy produced 45.66 g/L of glucose in the pre-saccharification stage, and 18.14 g/L of bioethanol was produced with a glucose to bioethanol conversion yield of 76.23%. The development of this process highlights the feasibility of bioethanol production from macroalgal biomass in the biorefinery concept.

In this study, microwave-assisted hydrothermal carbonization of waste coconut shell (feedstock) is reported. It is a thermo-conversion technique in which the feedstock was transformed into energy-rich carbonaceous material under mild conditions. The process was conducted in a microwave oven by heating the waste coconut shell in deionized water inside a pressurized vessel. The effects of different process conditions on the product yields, and the energy properties of the hydrochars were studied by varying the reaction temperature from 150 to 200 °C and residence time from 5 to 30 min. The results showed that there was transformation of the feedstock in the process due to the decarboxylation, dehydration, and demethanation reactions. This led to changes in the chemical and structural compositions, as well as increase in the energy properties of the prepared hydrochars. The higher heating value increased from 15.06 MJ/kg in the feedstock to 19.76 MJ/kg in the hydrochar. The energy properties of the hydrochars prepared in this study showed that microwave-assisted hydrothermal carbonization process could be a technique for converting waste coconut shell into high value-added product.

The time dependence of social practices at specific points of the day shapes the timing of energy demand. This paper aims to assess how dependent energy-related social practices in the household are in relation to the time of the day. It analyses the 2005 UK Office for\ud National Statistics National Time Use Survey making use of statistically derived time dependence metrics for six social practices: preparing food, washing, cleaning, washing clothes, watching TV and using a computer. The\ud focus is on social practices over temporal scales of different days of the week and months of the year. The main findings show that: washing has the highest value for the time dependence metric; using computers is the\ud least time-dependent practice; Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays have the highest time dependence for all practices; and certain energy-related practices have higher seasonal dependence than others.

Management is the process that determines the effective running of the business and the prospects for the development of the enterprise. Budgeting is a continuous process that requires constant looking into the future and analyzing. Here are considerable difficulties in the coordination of budgets of individuals. Considering the process of group budgeting, it would first be necessary to improve the flow of information between entities in the group.

AbstractThe current study investigates different methods to minimize the drag coefficient (CD) without ignoring the safety factor related to the stability of a vehicle, i.e., the lift coefficient (CL). The study was carried out by employing an SUV car analyzed numerically using one of the CFD software, Ansys. Four different models such as realizable k–ε, standard k–ω, shear stress transport k–ω, and Reynolds stress model (RSM). The considered models have been validated with experimental data and found in good agreement. The considered inlet velocity varies from 28 to 40 m/s, the results showed that the drag coefficient and the stability are both improved by applying a modification on the roof of the considered car.

The primary objective of the research presented in this article is to introduce an artificial neural network that demands less computational power than a conventional deep neural network. The development of this ANN was achieved through the application of Ordered Fuzzy Numbers (OFNs). In the context of Industry 4.0, there are numerous applications where this solution could be utilized for data processing. It allows the deployment of Artificial Intelligence at the network edge on small devices, eliminating the need to transfer large amounts of data to a cloud server for analysis. Such networks will be easier to implement in small-scale solutions, like those for the Internet of Things, in the future. This paper presents test results where a real system was monitored, and anomalies were detected and predicted.

The lifetime of offshore foundations is governed by a combination of harsh environmental conditions and complex service loads. The fatigue limit state (FLS) analysis needs to be performed in the time domain to capture the complex phenomenon. This study aims to investigate different parameters and design modifications that can impact the design life of an offshore jacket foundation. An OC4 jacket foundation is designed in industrial software from DNV and reduced to a super-element model. The super-element model is connected to an NREL 5-MW wind turbine designed in Bladed. The time-series loads are used to compute the fatigue damages faced by the foundation during the service life. The impact of soil non-linearity, marine growth, scour size, the mass of the transition piece, and the grouted connection’s design on the dynamic response and fatigue damages are compared. A 30% increase in life was observed by replacing the concrete transition piece with a lightweight steel configuration. The fatigue damages were considerably greater for the inclined pile in the leg grouted connection than for the leg in the pile concept. The study provides a different perspective by analysing the effect of design parameters and design changes in the complex and computationally expensive time-series domain.