Effective application of livestock manures on rice paddy fields provides nutrient recycling and can improve the environmental sustainability of animal operations. However, current manure slurry ...application methods have two major disadvantages: poor application uniformity and nuisance odor emissions. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a multi-hose manure spreader for use in rice paddies with reduced odor emissions and increased application uniformity when compared to currently used systems. Both swine and dairy slurries were applied to a 0.5-ha field. The multi-hose spreader showed improved application uniformity and reduced odor intensity compared to the conventional splash-plate applicator. Splash-plate spreaders are generally reported to have a coefficient of variation of approximately 25% to 27% (not tested in this study), while coefficients of variation for the multi-hose spreader ranged from 7% to 14%. Odor indices measured using three different methods all indicated that the multi-hose spreader notably reduced odor emissions. Additionally, it was determined that the highest application uniformity was achieved with a high rotor speed (250 to 330 rpm) for both dairy and swine slurries. Higher rotor speeds provided more pressure in the distributor resulting in more uniform distribution.
The properties of LiCoO
2-coated NiO cathodes prepared by the solution impregnation technique were investigated. The electrode performance of the LiCoO
2-coated cathodes were comparable with that of ...the conventional NiO cathode at 1, 3, and 5
atm and the prepared cathodes showed no performance decay at least for the first 1000
h at pressurized conditions. The post-analysis revealed that the LiCoO
2-coated cathodes were effective in suppressing NiO dissolution up to 51% at 1
atm and 50% at 3
atm. However, the suppression of the NiO dissolution was found to be much less effective (about 11% of suppression) at 5
atm. The number of impregnations applied, in other words, the amount of LiCoO
2 incorporated into the NiO cathode seemed to have no significant effect on suppressing the NiO dissolution. The Ni contents in the matrix after the 1000
h operations did not vary with increasing the LiCoO
2 amount in the NiO cathodes from 0.25–0.8
mol%. In the cell with the co-flow configuration, the highest Ni content in the matrix was found at the gas inlet side and the Ni content in the matrix decreased along the gas flow direction.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Yttria-stabilized zirconia (8
mol%; YSZ) or samaria-doped ceria (Sm
0.2Ce
0.8O
2; SDC)-modified La
0.85Sr
0.15MnO
3 (LSM) composite cathodes were fabricated by formation of an YSZ or SDC film at the ...triple-phase boundary (TPB) of LSM/YSZ/gas. The YSZ film greatly enlarged the number of electrochemical reaction sites (ERSs) by increasing the TPB. The composite cathode was formed on thin YSZ electrolyte (about 30
μm thickness) supported on an anode and then I–V characterization and ac impedance analyses were performed at temperatures between 700 and 800
°C.
As a result of the impedance analysis on the cell at 800
°C, with humidified hydrogen as the fuel and air as the oxidant, the element
R
1 around the frequency of 1000
Hz is identified as the anode polarization,
R
2 around the frequency of 100
Hz is identified as the cathode polarization and
R
3 below the frequency of 10
Hz is the resistance of gas phase diffusion through the anode. The maximum power densities of the cell modified by the SDC sol–gel coating were about 0.53
W/cm
2 at 750
°C and about 0.19
W/cm
2 at 650
°C. The result implied that deposition of SDC in the pore surface of the cathode increased the area of the TPB, resulting in a decrease of cathode polarization and improved cell performance.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are recently emerged for the negative electrode of advanced lithium-ion batteries 1,2. Two transition metal oxides NiM
2
O
4
(where M was Fe or Mn), were synthesized by ...a simple and easily scalable sol-gel method and evaluated as anode materials for Li-ion batteries. Cyclic voltammetry and Galvano static charge/discharge investigations in lithium half-cells revealed a difference between the first cycle and the following charge-discharge cycles for both samples, which is characteristic for conversion-type electrode systems 3,4. NiFe
2
O
4
combines high abundant elements and significant lithium storage properties. Battery cycling showed that NiFe
2
O
4
exhibited excellent discharge capacity and rate capability, nonetheless of capacity fading with cycling. From the electrochemical tests performed, the specific capacity of NiFe
2
O
4
electrode at current rates of 10 and 20 Ag
-1
were found to be 365 and 150 mAh g
-1
, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, reports on such outstanding capacities of NiFe
2
O
4
nanoparticles as an anode at these high current rates are quite rare. Investigation by using Ex-situ XRD technique on the discharged and charged electrode were performed, and it was found that the material completely lost its crystallinity after first electrochemical discharge process. This fact restraint the reliability of conventional diffraction technique for the reaction mechanisms study 5. Thus, different spectroscopic techniques are required to apply for studying the reduced/oxidized electrode vs Li 6. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) and Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy measurements were used to study the environment of iron and nickel ions during cycling in lithium test cells. Ni K-edge and Fe K-edge XANES results give evidence of the successive steps in the reduction/oxidation mechanism of the oxide during the cell dis/charge. In a first step NiFe
2
O
4
reacts with lithium and the reduction of both Ni
2+
and Fe
3+
to the zero oxidation state and following re-oxidation in a second step were shown by a peak shifting related to energy values. In the subsequent (second) discharging process, nickel oxide was found to undergo complete reduction. In contrast, more or less amount of iron oxide remained in the oxidized state at the end of the discharge (end of third cycle). This incomplete reduction of iron oxide in the applied voltage range could be the main reason behind reversible capacity fading over the cycling often reported for this conversion electrode system.
References
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