Art, Truth & Politics

Please read this post from My BattleField, I have found it very interesting.

Love

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
Rebecca- age 8
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6
"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7
"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"
Emily - age 8
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6
"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."
Cindy - age 8
"My mommy loves me more than anybody .You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6
"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
Elaine-age 5
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt ."
Chris - age 7
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4
"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
Karen - age 7
"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
Jessica - age 8
And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
"Nothing, I just helped him cry"
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.Father, God bless all my friends in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of your peace, which transcends all understanding. Amen.

Job Link

Looking for a job in Environment Industry? Then visit ENDS

Job hunting! (1)

Are you looking for a job in Engineering field? Do you want to work in your field? Well I have to say it is not difficult if you do it step by step. The only thing you need is starting job hunting on the right time and in the right place! If you are a final year student and you know that you will get your degree in a year then start looking for a job NOW! Do not waste your time by saying I have one year and I can do it in summer! Make a list of all companies working in your field. If you are a Chemical Engineer then make a list of all companies in chemical industry. Then shortlist them on the basis of your interest. Now go to their website and do a little research about them. Where is their base? What are they doing? what is their overturn? How many employees have they? etc. Then again shortlist them and you will come out with few companies that you really want to work for.

Continues...

Book Chart

Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment

by:
John Glasson, Riki Therivel, Andrew Chadwick

Price: £23.00

Are you looking for a good book on EIA? Are you going to work on environmental projects? So then this book is a good start for you. I am reading it and although I know most of the material there, the book is good written and organised. I recommend it for all people looking forward in working in Environment Industry.

Life is Life

What a great day I had yesterday! Well it all started early morning with a phone call from a friend! That was just the start...My friend had a problem and another friend was involved. Then my good friend got a ticket (£80.00) for parking her car in front of my flat just 30 min after the phone call! Then I received a great email from the company I was hoping to work for them. The email was just like a punch in my face and I was confused for several hours. Then after a lovely evening and night with Mayor of Battle City I bought two pizza and we went home after mid night hoping that everything will be fine day after. But that bloody day did not finish there. When I opened the pizza box they were GREEN! Yes the last thing we needed to complete our day. So I left the flat and went to the shop to change the pizza! After all, we went to bed 4 AM. What a wonderful day. But Life is Life and we go on and continue and we will never give up. This is life.

Welcome 4KhOOneh

Allow me to welcome my bother to our world....so please visit his 4KhOOneh

Link chart

Are you looking for a job or studentship in academia then see jobs.ac.uk

Can a PhD student get a job?

Of course we all looking forward to getting a job after doing our course, degree, MBA or PhD. Some of us think that more you study more difficult to get a job as there is a possibility of becoming overqualified. Giant companies prefer to employ graduates with a good degree, give them necessary training and then make them default for a specific mission. Yes, it is cheaper and less risk, as graduates follow company’s orders and guides line by line. But how about a doctor? A person who has developed high skills with good potentials and strong research background. Can he be a good employee? Can the company use him as a machine? Well, technically yes but not for a long time! I mean the process is new for a doctor but he will learn it very soon. Even he is able to modify or improve it. So after a period the process will be definitely boring. So eventually employing a doctor for a simple task will not be efficient. So where can a doctor go? To academia? If he doesn’t appreciate academia? If he likes to go to industry? Can he be employed as a professional? The answer is NO. I have tried and all the companies I applied are seeking for a professional with at least two years work experience. They do not count postgraduate experience as work experience whereas I believe it is and it is a priceless experience. The skills I developed during my PhD are useful and priceless. Skills such as:
- project management
- networking
- communicating
- presentation skills
- lateral thinking
- time management

and overall of all above skills I became a lifelong learner. I can find out about anything that I don’t know. So where can I work. I have one suggestion and that is CONSULTANCIES!
Yes, that’s the only place that you can go and apply your skills, using your project management skills and climbing the employment ladder very fast. You will be involved in many projects and will learn many new things. I think that’s the only place a person with PhD can be employed apart of academia.

Forgotten Empire

(Photograph taken by AMN)

Link Chart

What would be the next target of US in war against terrorism?

Tips on PhD

Always keep a record of anything you do!

Doing PhD?

To do PhD or not to do PhD? That's the question! This is a question that for the last three years I have asking myself. Also everyone I know asked me the same question! I believe PhD is a process and of course it has a product but it is more a process. A process that you go through it and earns and develop many useful skills. So if you have time, money and ambition to do it, do not hesitate.. DO IT! But if you are thinking by getting a PhD you will make more money, or you think it will be easier to find a job then do not it. PhD offers you something that you will never get in other places. It organise your mind. Here I have to say I know many cases that PhD students could not get anything from it and they just wasted their time. It really depends on you...how you deal with and how you mange it. So do it if and only if you are 100% sure.

Fun Time

تور بزرگ ملکوت
- سه شب بهشت، دو شب جهنم، دو شب برزخ- بازديد از مهم ترين مراکز فرهنگی، هنری، تفريحی ملکوت- بازديد از پل زيبای صراط- بازديد از معروف ترين مار دنيا؛ غاشيه- تجربه ی سفری زيبا بر روی شير عسل های رودخانه های بهشت- بازديد از بارگاه الهی و خانه ی جبرائيل- بازديد از اژدهای دو سر
هزينه های تور شامل :
- هزينه ی جابه جايی و اقامت همراه با صبحانه- هزينه ی ويزای بهشت هزينه ی جا به جايی با قاليچه ی پرنده - هزينه ی خدمات جانبی (حوری - قلمان)
علاقه مندان می توانند برای شرکت در تور و کسب اطلاعات بيشتر هر چه سريع تر با عزرائيل تماس بگيرند!
کنسرت بزرگ هايده و ويگن(برای حال دادن به زلزله زدگان شمال و بم که تازه اومدن اين جا)
با حضور افتخاری ايرج بسطامیمکان: آمفی تئاتر اصلی بهشت، آسمان هفتم!زمان: جمعه ی ديگه
علاقه مندان برای تهيه ی بليط و در صورتی که احساس می کنند به بهشت می روند، می توانند تا آخر وقت اداری چهارشنبه فوت شوند

My website

I have updated my website and now you can have my weekly news...so check:

http://mjeepz.tripod.com

Thanks,

MZ

Video of the week

Check it out!

Book Chart

From now on, every week I introduce a new book.
------------------------------------------------------

Persian Fire
The First World Empire, Battle for the West

By: Tom Holland
Publisher: Little Brown
Released: September 2005
Price: £20

Chemical Engineering and Philosophy

Introduction
Few days ago I was upset because of a personal problem. I went for a long walk to Norfolk Park where I sat and I review my whole situation. The park was so quiet and few pensioners walking around far far away. Sometimes we may ask ourselves why we are living? Why are we so hard on each other? Why do we expect everything to be so perfect? We all know that we are not living in a perfect world but why we expect that high standards in our relationships, education, job, food etc.? So I was thinking that before I decide to continue my career in chemical engineering I should have a good justification to do it. I reviewed all possible reasons that I might choose chemical engineering. Because I was inspired by all chemical plants? It is possible but also it would loose its attraction. Because my father is an engineer? Yes, it was one of the reasons but not any more! Because I was born in engineering environment and everything around me was combined or about engineering? Again yes but I was looking for better philosophy; something that helps me to continue forever. Something so powerful that not only me but also inspires anybody to contribute in building the world. I use this introduction to open series of notes about philosophy in building better world.

Engineering our mind

Today my second student graduated and left the university, it is a wonderful feeling. You know, I think I did my best for him. He sounds happy when he said bye and he thanked me for whatever I did for him. I believe I taught not only principles of engineering but also I gave him something that he can do more what he practised in the lab. He learned how to engineer his mind. He practised defining his problems and seeking affordable solutions for it. I think we all can go to chemical engineering books and memorise all of them. But analysing situations, making our mind, deciding effectively, predicting problems and managing ourselves are thing that we need to exercise. I know many good engineers with high level of knowledge but very week in making decisions or approaching problems. They are well educated but only on paper. For an engineer the most important thing is having a vision. It is like imaging whole the battlefield in their mind and finding the best affordable solution for defeating the enemy. So I had only one advice for my student:

Engineer your mind before doing anything else.

More on Chem Eng

From now on I promise to write more on Chemical and Environmental Engineering.

Friends will be friends

Many times I have been writing about friend and friendship. I might have written more about this matter than chemical engineering or my research. Maybe you all are tired of this subject. But to be honest our daily life is associated with other people. Others impact or change our moods. They can make us happy or sad. We can get hurt or heal. Hence, every second of our life is affected by people around us especially those we call them friend. So this is a fact that we can’t ignore the others and they can’t live without us. We need each other to survive. We need each other to have better life; to improve; to develop. So let’s read part of Queen’s song, dedicated to my good friends who are there for me always:

It's not easy love, but you've got friends you can trust
Friends will be friends
When you're in need of love they give you care and attention
Friends will be friends
When you're through with life and all hope is lost
Hold out your hand 'cos friends will be friends - right till the end

Now it's a beautiful day
The postman delivered a letter from your lover
Only a 'phone call away
You tried to track him down but somebody stole his number
As a matter of fact
You're getting used to life without him in your way

It's so easy now, 'cos you got friends you can trust
Friends will be friends
When you're in need of love they give you care and attention
Friends will be friends
When you're through with life and all hope is lost
Hold out your hand 'cos friends will be friends - right till the end

It's so easy now, 'cos you got friends you can trust
Friends will be friends
When you're in need of love they give you care and attention
Friends will be friends
When you're through with life and all hope is lost
Hold out your hand - friends will be friends - right till the end

Friend!

FRIEND is a beautiful word that we use it every day, such as my good friend, hi friend, miss you friend etc. But there is no written definition or regulation for friendship. There isn’t. You won’t find a single written sentence about principles of friendship. This makes it very difficult. Difficult! Because meaning of friendship varies from one person to another one. We all look for friends for different purposes. We try to make friends because they offer something that we don’t have. Because we are weak, we are limited and we can’t have everything by ourselves.

Some of us go after friends because of their money. The easiest thing that we may think of it, It doesn’t matter one pound or 100 pounds. We just go for it. We trade our time for money not for being with other people. Or they are looking for other things, CD, printer, paper, bicycle, accommodation, clothes etc. So will you call it “friendship”? I won’t. I call this group of people “low mind people”, people with low mind which are looking for things in this world.

Well there are other groups as well. A group of us looks for friends for not being alone. They are afraid of going outside alone. So they look for a company. They are more interested in talking about other people. They try to be centre of attraction by talking about others. I call this “Gossiping” not making friends. If we are strong enough and if we have strong character, then we don’t need to do anything to attract the others. Other people will come after us because of our ideas, personality and abilities. I called the second group “people with medium minds”. People who are goes after people for their own benefits. This group of people have lots of friends. It is better to say that they know many people, but few of them are true friends who care for them. I think they loose lots of their friends in time and they are always looking for new people.

And the last group, a group of people with great minds. This group of people are looking for ideas; they look for people with great ideas, strong personality and solid attitude. They usually have few friends, but true ones. They are not interested in abusing their friends. They just enjoy discussing ideas with them. They enjoy being with other people to know their world better. They help their friends by offering them their thoughts and feelings. They like to be with other people to learn from them. Learn to live better. They want to improve and develop their mind. They are true friends.

So at the end, I don’t like call everyone that I know a friend. Let’s read this poem together:

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.
And I never see my old friends face,
For life is a swift and terrible race,
He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.
And he rang mine but we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.
Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.
"Tomorrow" I say! "I will call on Jim
Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.
Around the corner, yet miles away,
"Here's a telegram sir," "Jim died today."
And that's what we get and deserve in the end.
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

7thWCCE 1

I have to say I am very pleased that I am in this big event. A great place which all great chemical engineers gathered together fot making this world a better place to live in. People from aroung the world are here sharing their experinces without any hesitation. I think we all have learn from that. In addition to that I have seen many Iranians mostly from Zahedan Univeristy. Although the qality of their works is matter of question, there is a hope when you do not find a scientist or engineer from other countries in middle east. I wish all those presenters luck and I hope they understand their responsbility in presenting Iran.

I will write more...

I will be back!

Well, another conference...I am going Glasgow for World Congress of Chemical Engineering. I will return 20th of July and I will write more then.

Friendship Test

What a strange world! One day we are happy and another day we are sad! In our life time we meet people and become friend. Everyone call themselves friend! But there is no written description of friend and friendship. That's why friendship is beautiful. It is like art. You build a relationship. You are painting a great picture. But you should be careful. A black spot may ruin your entire picture. So who are true friends? How can we test them? Is it really important to test them? The answer is up to you! We need to trust someone and because people do not want to take that responsibility maybe because of their own benefits, they may abuse your trust. So at the end you will find yourself alone! Then I think it will be good to examine our friends to see if we can trust them or not although the results may be upsetting. I usually test my friends in my own way and look at the results. Unfortunately some of them may fail. Not because they are bad. That isn't the reason. Because they are looking after something else. They have found their benefit some where else. So they can't be honest with you anymore.

But let me remind you that a true friend does not exchange you easily with his own benefits.

A great fellow told me that a true friend is like a star, always above your head, he is shining for you above your head even in cloudy days, even when you do not look after it.

Just a box!

Yesterday morning I went to the lab. I saw all my bottles and sample tubes are on the floor and their box is gone. Finding another box was an easy job to do. I found another box and returned all of them to the box. I found out that a professor in the department who was looking for a box took the box without asking me. When in a department a professor is behaving like this would you expect students to act differently? What do you call this?

Research time!

One day morning, you wake up, what a lovely day, a sunny day, everthing smiles to you and decide to go you small lab doing an experiment. Yes, I want to do it! I want it and I will. Nothing in the world can stop me...what a good day...Now you are in the lab. You take your sample and you want to weight it..So it is very easy...the easiest thing in the world of scince is weighing if you have a scale...yes scale...I need a scale..But where is it? It used to be there..on the bench..Ask staff if they have seen the scale...yes, the scale is gone..no scale no experiment..the scale is gone!!! Your good day...what a day...

Think about it..Our research environment is very important. Research or Hassle? If you are looking for high quality research then everything should be provided, I mean if you prepare everything, then later you have just think about the procedure and the experiment itself. But here you have to protect your laboratory equipments because other researchers do not give a damn about your project..What a world we are living in..We talk about G8 everyday..we talk about human rights everysecond and then we are simply blind about our behaviour!

Mass transfer of friends

It is matter of freindship..So what's the link to chemical engineering! I have to say nothing! I am going to use this space to express my feeling as I think my relationships and daily life is affecting my research quality!

Maybe you know few people in your life that you know very well they are not true friends, not very bright people and they are upsetting you by their behaviour!But you can't help the situation, as they are in your life! Once you trusted them and now you realised that they are not your type..But it is too late, they have entered circle of trust and taking them off the circle is not easy! Everyday you think how I should help myself in this situation! Shall I ignore them? Shall I fight? Shall I move to another place? How can I change it?

Here, filtering friends usually happens everytime, as we are all changing, we are moving, we are dynamic and our system is not steady state! So there is output and there is input and ofcourse in any system there is accumulation.

So people would enter your system ,exit (input and output of the system) and only and only true friends will be accumulated in your system. Now you should be careful, to take care of system temperature and pressure. You may spoil your system. I would say calculations in this system is very important and do not enter anyone. Also you should be brave enough to remove bugs from the system, so do not shutdown the output flow and leave it on.

Ture friends will be accumulated in the system under any condition.

My sweet little terrorist song

I'm detained
captured "in-framed"
I'm detained
and I destroy
I deny
I'm on a decline
this is just about how I'm definedand I'm a walking weapon
don't touch me couse I just might blow
legally I'm nobody , when I cross the border
I'm somebody meanmy international rights are in some poiticians thought
I'm just a dreamas I turn to this microphone and scream
I just wanna watch Dylan playin' live
I won't fly into Pentagon aliveand if they catch me on a plane from Amsterdom
believe me it's not for any political crime
I'm a living catastrophe
look how imprtant I've becomeand my brother in Palestinehe's even ten times more strong
but when they went to Afghanistanor fly to free Iraq I was singing in my room
when it bloomed in Japanand all the years of Vietnam
I wasn't even bornthis miserable world
we appear on their TV shows like creatures from another planet
if they ever knock on my door,
it's just for the oilor mysteries left from my ancient parents
I got my friend in California I die to see her but I can'tand my sweet cousin in Parisshe just wants to show me around
I'm detained
captured "in-framed"
I'm detained
from the AXES OF EVIL
I'm the right hand of the devil
I'm a terrorist though I haven't killed anyone yet
I'm a suicidal bomb, be careful, I might go off in the end of this song

So far So good!

Remember Modelling Story, well I am still busy with it! The main question to answer is why modelling? We model a system to predict system's behaviour with out doing any experimnetal work. If that is the answer, them I have got. For Estimation of trace elements release from fly ash three scenarios are provided:

1- Disposal in a percolation release regime
2- Utilisation as granular fill
3- Utilisation in road construction

Now there is use for the model. I am working on my results. Trying to find a way to use information from batch leaching test in order to estimate release of trace elements from fly ash samples under above scenarios. I think I know what I wnat to do. I don't want only to model fly leaching without any aim or objective, just showing my math skills! I was looking for a reason for it and I found it.

So full power ahead to solve it...Let you know the results when I got it.

Double diffuse layer!

Working on a theory to model trace elements release from fly ash particles. Please read:

Solid-liquid mass trasnfer during leaching of Ca from dilut slurries of fly ash

By: R. S. Iyer

1999


Let you know the results later!

Sunny day

Apart from my research, I had a wonderful time in Westorn park, close to the studnet union. I spent an hour there!

Transport processes

Looking to model transport processes from leachtes produced from fly ash lagoons! Well, I have to say that three processes are involved:

1- Advection
2- Hydrodynamic dispersion
3- Chemical recations

For modelling we need to right mass balance equation. It is very simple. The solution depends on your assumptions and it can be a simple diffusion equation to a 3D complex equation. For more details you can read Groundwater by Freeze.

A bottle of Argon

Well, another day, another story! Today I spent almost an hour to get permission to order two bottles of Argon for the ICP-MS equipment! As my supervisor was away today morning, I needed to ask somebody else to sign my order form. I learned that:

Stop doing any experiment and wait till your superviosr comes back!

No wonder some experiments takes so long!!!!!!!!

A visit to Brighton

First of all I learned not to trust BBC weather! or even Yahoo one! Don't ask me, just try it yourself. We double checked Friday weather, BBC said it should be sunny and hot. Well we all left Guildford head to Brighton.

First impression: It was not kind of the city that I expected. It was small and dirty. Even worse than Bradford!!!! I could not believe it, Brighton with beach...Oh you can't call it beach...No Sand...No sun...No babes...Sun No Sun.

Second impression: It has the best Fish and Chips...You don't believe me, try it yourself.

We returned to Guildford around 5 ish and I checked BBC website: it said Brighton is Sunny on Friday!!!

Poker in Guildford!

Playing poker in London with my best friends, far away from research and Lab! I needed it!

New model for batch leaching

Today I developed a new mathematical model for batch leaching test on the basis of Fick's law! Chemical reactions and diffusion have been included in this model. Finger cross for the model which I will put in practice next week!

No more research this weekend!

well, after two days hard work in the lab, carrying out Mass Transfer test and preparing the lab for nex week experiments (Leachin contact time), no more research this bank holiday weekend!

Third yera presentation, After it!

What a wonderful day! It was really great...Well the story: I was had 30 min which the guy before took 10 min of my time! So I had only 20 min for the presentation and question part! So I did it very fast. I talked like hell, a very short introduction, assuming that I am doing in a chemical engineering department, full of chemical engineers! But I slowed down in the rseults and discussion part, the mjor part of my work.

I undestood that no one listened to me! No one red the forst slide! No one knew my name except few people which I appreciate them. My supervisor is a great man, he always supports me and I appreciate his kindness and helps.

But the battle field was the question part, when the assessor asked an old question: Where is your model?

Just read his comment on my presentation:

Needs a outline (PS. I am sure he did not linsten ver well)
Thesis should have clear modelling and analysis of equilibrum.diffusion.

I have to add that in this project modelling was in the pbjectives. But I included Mass Transfer tests. Well, in reality, it is impossible to model leachability of trace elements from fly ash, where structure of a fly ash to another one is different. On the other hand, it will be useless to model leaching when the model will be applied on only one type of fly ash! There is no point in modelling fly ash leaching when to can not generilise it. I think the assessor does not know about these facts. He is assessing the project from his point of view and I strongly disagree with him.

Leaching Net

Check it out!

Third year presentation

Tomoroow I have to give a presentation on my PhD research. I am going to talk about batch leaching tests (Availability, TCLP and BS EN tests). I believe these tests do not present actual scenario happing in the environment! We need to design more real tests close to the enviornmnetal conditions. In addition to these, I will talk about leaching behaviour of UK fly ash and effects of pH and LS (Liquid-to-Soild) ratio on leaching process..

Free lime and Arsenic leachability

Well, after months working in the lab, today we found a relationship between free lime content of PFA (coal combustion fly ash) and arsenic leachability. I was very exciting. It was found that during combustion part of the CaO racts with As and the product is an insoluble form of arsein. On the other hand less arsenic will leach. For more information please contact.

Happy Nowruz

Happy New Year (Nowruz 1384) to all my friends and Iranian chemical engineers!

PS You can read more about Persia, persian culture and history on: www.iranchamber.com

Free lime in fly ash

We tried to determine free lime inside fly ash samples. It seems very difficult. Results showed very samll quantities of free lime in the first run! Chemical reactions are unknown at this time and we will try to identify them.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Availability Test

Determining maximum leachable contituents from fly ash is a hard job. It takes at least 6 hours to carry on the test. During the experiment, solution or leachate can contact the atmosphere and some elements may precipitate! This may affect final results and leads to underestimation of all available elements to leaching! So I believe it would better to proceed the test in a closed environment.

The world without engineers
By MZ

World Press Photo

Have a look!

Redox Potential

pH, LS (liquid-to-solid) ratio, temperature and of course fly ash composition are the most important parameters affecting leachability of trace elements from coal fired fly ash. How about redox potential? I believe Eh (or pE) may influence the stability of trace elements in fly ash. However, pH and Eh are related together. On the other hand, decreasing pH leads to increasing Eh. So how can I measure effects of Eh on mobility of trace elements from my fly ash samples in constant pH! How can I keep pH constant and change Eh?

Unit Converter

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Removing high volatile trace elements in coal power station by injecting high carbon fly ash

Coal as available source of energy is consisting of carbon and a mixture of various materials including trace elements. Thus value of coal is partially offset by environmental impacts of its combustion. In coal-fired power station, pulverised coal consisting 10% to 30% minerals (depending type of the coal) is burned at temperatures higher than 1600°C. In combustion zone, minerals and trace elements go under different processes including decomposition, diffusion and agglomeration. Trace elements in the coal are redistributed into vapour phase, bottom ash and fly ash during and after combustion. Coal fly ash, or pulverised fuel ash (PFA) is the well known coal combustion by-product which has been used for many years for a wide range of construction applications (Sear, 2001). The main constituents of fly ash are glassy aluminosilicate phases with lesser of mullite, quartz, magnetite, hematite and carbon (Swaine, 1995). However, composition of fly ash depends on several factors including:
- coal composition;
- furnace configuration; and
- combustion conditions.

In a 500 MW power plant, the coal feed is about 5000 t/d (using a typical UK bituminous coal). If the ash content is 15%, then some 750 t/d of ash passes through the boiler (Couch, 1994). In a recent study, fate of trace elements from a 1050 MW power station has been studied (Llorens et al., 2001). In order of magnitude, the transfer of trace elements from the power plant studied to be surrounding environment exceeds more than 10 t/year of As, Cr, pb, V, Li and B through atmospheric emissions, while more than 1 t/year of Li, Ba, Cr, Sr, V, Mo and B from fly ash and Sr and B from bottom ash was estimated to be potentially mobilised by leaching of solid combustion by-products. Hence, a typical power plant produces large amount of waste per day and it only needs a tiny proportion of this contaminates environments of power plants. In a modern power station burning pulverised coal, more than 99% of the fly ash is removed from the flue gases by some means of particle attenuation, usually electrostatic precipitators or the use of fabric filters. This means that most trace elements are also removed, the separation efficiency being 95 to 99% (Godbeer and Swaine, 1995). Trace elements with high volatility leave power station with gaseous phase. Albeit the proper operation of electrostatic precipitators or fabric filters ensures that most particles larger than 10 mm are removed from flue gases, there is possibility some large particles (larger than 10 mm diameter) escape power stations. These particles would return to earth’s surface promptly and hence near the source. However, fine particles are removed form the atmosphere by rain, snow and fog depends on local climate of power station.
There are several methods to control concentration high volatile elements such as mercury in exit of power station. One of these methods is adding additives like activated carbon. Activated carbon may be injected in top of furnace and then removed by electrostatic precipitators. Although activated carbon is an excellent adsorbent, it is expensive. Another alternative adsorbent is high carbon fly ash. It is reported that there is always some carbon in fly ash (Swaine 1995, Watt and Throne 1965, Roy et al. 1981 and Suloway et al, 1983). Amount of this carbon in fly ash depends on combustion condition in power station. Tighter emissions standards have meant the fitting of low NOx burners in power stations. These changes have lead to higher carbon in ash and also deposition pattern in the boiler. This high carbon fly ash can be injected into top of the furnace after air heater in duct and adsorb high volatile elements and then collected by electrostatic precipitators or flue gas clean up section.
In order to model adsorption of mercury by high carbon fly ash, Langmuir hypothesis were developed. Assuming that the adsorption process is not diffusion limited and concentration of mercury in top of furnace is 1 mg/m3 (average concentration of mercury in UK coals is 1 ppm). Therefore ω can be calculated for residence time in duct. At adsorbent injection rate of 1000 g high carbon fly ash per unit volume of gas, 18.9% mercury would be removed.

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