• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.50 no.4
• /
• pp.733-737
• /
• 2012

This study reports the microfluidic preparation of monodisperse multiple emulsions using hydrodynamic control. To generate multiple emulsions, we fabricate a microfluidic capillary device based on co-flowing stream without any surface modification of microchannels. Based on the system, we can successfully generate multiple emulsions (W/O/W) using water containing 0.5 wt% Tween 20, n-hexadecane with 5 wt% Span 80, and 10 wt% poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) aqueous solution, respectively. Furthermore, we control the number of inner droplets by modulation of flow rate of inner fluid at fixed flow rate of middle and outer fluid. The multiple emulsions having precisely controlled inner droplets' size and number can be applicable for multiple chemical reactions as an isolated microreactor.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.64-73
• /
• 2007

The catalytic activity of transition metals (Cu, Co, Mn, Fe and Ni) supported on ${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ for the oxidation of toluene was investigated in the microreactor of fixed-bed type. The catalytic activity of transition metals for the oxidation of toluene turned out to be increasing in the order of Ni$Cu/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts for the oxidation of toluene increased with the increasing loadings of copper, reached the maximum activity at 5% loadings of copper, and decreased with higher loadings of copper in the catalysts. The activity of $Cu/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts for the oxidation of toluene decreased with the increasing calcination temperatures. This might result from the decreasing surface area of catalysts due to the sintering of copper oxide as well as ${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ supports. The 5wt% $Cu/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts calcined at $400^{\circ}C$ for 4 hrs in the air showed the highest activity for the oxidation of toluene. Mutual inhibition was observed for the binary mixture of toluene and xylene. The activity of the easy-to-oxidize toluene was greatly decreased while the difficult-to-oxidize xylene was slightly decreased in the binary mixture of toluene and xylene. It might suggest that the inhibition of toluene and xylene in the binary mixture resulted from the competitive adsorption for the adsorbed oxygen on the catalytic surface.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.189-201
• /
• 1999

범용 열가소성 플라스틱(polyethylene(PE), polypropylene(PP), polystyrene(PS), polyethylene-terephthalate(PET), acrylonitrile-butandiene-styrene(ABS))과 폐윤활유의 동시처리 열분해반응 실험을 수행하였다. 반응실험은 40$m\ell$ 용량의 회분식 미분반응기(microreactor)를 이용한 실험과 1리터 용량의 autoclave를 이용한 실험의 두 가지로 구분하여 행하였다. 전자의 경우는 통계적 실험적계획법(statistical experimental design)의 하나인 회전계획실험(rotatable design experiments)으로서 오각형 실험계획(pentagonal experimental design)에 의거한 반응변수 실험을 수행한 후 반응표면(response surface)을 회기분석법에 의하여 분석함으로써 최대의 오일 수율을 얻을 수 있는 최적 반응조건을 추적, 결정하였다. Autoclave 반응실험의 기본적인 목적은 실제 연속공정에 있어서 열분해 반응기 거동을 모사하기 위한 전초단계로서 충분한 시료의 확보를 통하여 이 때 생성된 연로유의 체계적인 분석(비등점분포특성, 진공증류, 기체분석, 원소분석, 발열량, 비중 등)을 행함으로써 연료유 수율 및 품질을 모사하고자 하였다. 미분반응기 실험에 있어서 주 범용열가소성수지인 PE, PP 그리고 PS는 각각의 최적반응조건하에서 거의 100%에 가깝게 오일로 전환되었지만 응축수지인 PET와 그래프트공중합수지인 ABS의 오일수율은 각기 78% 및 90%로서 상대적으로 낮게 나타났다. Autoclave를 이용한 실험의 경우 혼합플라스틱을 폐유에 대하여 40wt% 혼합하여 열분해하였을 때, 80wt% 오일, 15wt% 코우크, 그리고 나머지 5wt%는 탄화수소기체(C1-C6)로 전환되었다. 진공증류(252$^{\circ}C$,2 torr) 결과, 기/액-분리도는 3으로서 이는 생성오일의 75wt%가 경질연료유(가솔린, 등유, 경유)로 회수 가능하였다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.34 no.12
• /
• pp.1785-1791
• /
• 2010

This paper describes a separable microfluidic device fabricated with PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) and glass. The device is used for sample preparation involving cell lysis and the DNA purification process. The cell lysis was performed for 2 min at $80^{\circ}C$ in a serpentine-type microreactor ($20 {\mu}l$) using a Au microheater that was integrated with a thermal microsensor on a glass substrate. The DNA that was mixed with other residual products during the cell lysis process was then filtered through a new filtration system composed of microbeads (diameter: $50 {\mu}m$) and PDMS pillars. Since the entire process (sample loading, cell lysis reaction, DNA purification, and sample extraction) was performed within 5 min in a microchip, we could reduce the sample preparation time in comparison with that for the conventional methods used in biochemistry laboratories. Finally, we verified the performance of the sample preparation chip by conducting PCR (polymerase chain reaction) analysis of the chip product.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.11
• /
• pp.1826-1832
• /
• 2007

We describe the fabrication of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEG-DA) hydrogel microstructures with a high aspect ratio and the use of hydrogel microstructures containing the enzyme ${\beta}$-galactosidase (${\beta}$-Gal) or glucose oxidase (GOx)/horseradish peroxidase (HRP) as biosensing components for the simultaneous detection of multiple analytes. The diameters of the hydrogel microstructures were almost the same at the top and at the bottom, indicating that no differential curing occurred through the thickness of the hydrogel microstructure. Using the hydrogel microstructures as microreactors, ${\beta}$-Gal or GOx/HRP was trapped in the hydrogel array, and the time-dependent fluorescence intensities of the hydrogel array were investigated to determine the dynamic uptake of substrates into the PEG-DA hydrogel. The time required to reach steady-state fluorescence by glucose diffusing into the hydrogel and its enzymatic reactions with GOx and HRP was half the time required for resorufin ${\beta}$-D-galactopyranoside (RGB) when used as the substrate for ${\beta}$-Gal. Spatially addressed hydrogel microarrays containing different enzymes were micropatterned for the simultaneous detection of multiple analytes, and glucose and RGB solutions were incubated as substrates. These results indicate that there was no cross-talk between the ${\beta}$-Gal-immobilizing hydrogel micropatches and the GOx/HRP-immobilizing micropatches.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.540-544
• /
• 2008

Pyrolytic characteristics of mixed plastics containing 22 wt.% HDPE, 17 wt.% LDPE, 27 wt.% PP, 12 wt.% PS, 16 wt.% ABS, 6 wt.% PVC have been studied in the batch-type microreactor of stainless steel. Thermal degradation experiments were performed at temperature of $410{\sim}450^{\circ}C$. The yield of each pyrolytic products were obtained by the weight measurement and molecular weight distribution of pyrolytic liquid products determined by the GC-SIMDIS method. It was shown that the yield and molecular weight of pyrolytic liquid product were decreased with the increase of reaction temperature and time. It was know that 20wt% of PVC composing of the mixed plastics was converted to the gas products of chloride during the pyrolysis process. The chain-end scission rate parameter was determined to be 50.2 kcal/mole of mixed plastics by the Arrhenius plot.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.155-160
• /
• 2011

Dimethyl ether draws an attention as a green fuel in recent years. In this study, we investigated dehydration of methanol to produce DME using solid-acid catalysts, a series of zeolite. We found that ceria took a role of promoting the reaction conversion as well as selectivity of DME formation as a cocatalyst to the zeolite catalyst. We varied Si/Al ratio and ceria percentage on the surface of the catalyst to get high performance catalyst. ZSM5-30 with 5 wt% ceria on the surface was found to have excellent DME selectivity and to be little influenced by water content in methanol feed. We proposed a reaction model and obtained kinetic parameters for the DME formation using the catalyst based on experimental results using a microreactor.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.22 no.10
• /
• pp.1406-1411
• /
• 2012

5,5'-Dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB) was selected as an electron transfer mediator and was covalently immobilized onto high porosity carbon cloth to employ as a working electrode in an electrochemical $NAD^+$-regeneration process, which was coupled to an enzymatic reaction. The voltammetric behavior of DTNB attached to carbon cloth resembled that of DTNB in buffered aqueous solution, and the electrocatalytic anodic current grew continuously upon addition of NADH at different concentrations, indicating that DTNB is immobilized to carbon cloth effectively and the immobilized DTNB is active as a soluble one. The bioelectrocatalytic $NAD^+$ regeneration was coupled to the conversion of L-glutamate into ${\alpha}$-ketoglutarate by L-glutamate dehydrogenase within the same microreactor. The conversion at 3 mM monosodium glutamate was very rapid, up to 12 h, to result in 90%, and then slow up to 24 h, showing 94%, followed by slight decrease. Low conversion was shown when substrate concentration exceeding 4 mM was tested, suggesting that L-glutamate dehydrogenase is inhibited by ${\alpha}$-ketoglutarate. However, our electrochemical $NAD^+$ regeneration procedure looks advantageous over the enzymatic procedure using NADH oxidase, from the viewpoint of reaction time to completion.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.9
• /
• pp.3409-3416
• /
• 2023

Licensing the next-generation of nuclear reactor designs requires extensive use of Modeling and Simulation (M&S) to investigate system response to many operational conditions, identify possible accidental scenarios and predict their evolution to undesirable consequences that are to be prevented or mitigated via the deployment of adequate safety barriers. Deep Learning (DL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support M&S computationally by providing surrogates of the complex multi-physics high-fidelity models used for design. However, DL and AI are, generally, low-fidelity 'black-box' models that do not assure any structure based on physical laws and constraints, and may, thus, lack interpretability and accuracy of the results. This poses limitations on their credibility and doubts about their adoption for the safety assessment and licensing of novel reactor designs. In this regard, Physics Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) are receiving growing attention for their ability to integrate fundamental physics laws and domain knowledge in the neural networks, thus assuring credible generalization capabilities and credible predictions. This paper presents the use of PINNs as surrogate models for accidental scenarios simulation in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). A case study of a Loss of Heat Sink (LOHS) accidental scenario in a Nuclear Battery (NB), a unique class of transportable, plug-and-play microreactors, is considered. A PINN is developed and compared with a Deep Neural Network (DNN). The results show the advantages of PINNs in providing accurate solutions, avoiding overfitting, underfitting and intrinsically ensuring physics-consistent results.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.799-807
• /
• 2006

The catalytic activity of $Pt/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts for the oxidation of toluene and toluene+xylene mixture was investigated in the microreactor of fixed-bed type. The calcination temperatures and loadings of $Pt/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts played the important role in the activity of catalysts for the oxidation of toluene. The increasing calcination temperatures and loadings of $Pt/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts increased the crystallite size of the platinum to result in the higher oxidation activity of catalysts. The catalytic activity for the toluene oxidation over $Pt/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts turned out to be increasing in the order of $500^{\circ}C\;<\;800^{\circ}C<600^{\circ}C\;<\;700^{\circ}C$ for calcination temperatures and 0.1 wt% < 0.3 wt% < 1.0 wt% for platinum loadings, respectively. The 1.0 wt% $Pt/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts calcined at $700^{\circ}C$ for 3 hrs in the air showed the highest activity for the oxidation of the toluene. The decrease of oxidation activity of $Pt/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts calcined at $800^{\circ}C$ might result from the decrease of active sites by sintering of platinum metals as well as ${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ supports. The 1.0wt% $Pt/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalyst showed the activity from the lower temperature at $120^{\circ}C$, reached the light-off temperature ($T_{50%}$) at $180^{\circ}C$, and leveled off its activity at $340^{\circ}C$ with the conversion of 100% 'Mutual promotion' effects were observed for the binary mixture of toluene and xylene. The activity of the easy-to-oxidize toluene was slightly increased with the existence of the xylene. It might suggest the different mechanism for the oxidation of toluene and xylene on the $Pt/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ catalysts on different sites, and its reaction of gaseous oxygen.