Chemical Engineering June 2019 - 11

Ultrafine dust has a
big impact on the environment
A
n international study has found
that coal-fired power stations
emit more ultrafine dust particles
than road traffic and that
those dust particles can modify rainfall
patterns and can, in general, have considerable
impact on the climate. The
study found that filtration systems of exhaust
gas on modern coal-fired power
stations are the main source of ultrafine
particles. Ammonia is added to the exhaust
gases to convert oxides of nitrogen
into water and nitrogen. However,
ammonia is available at the right mixing
ratio for particle formation.
The study was led by professor Wolfgang
Junkermann from the Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology (Germany; www.
kit.edu) and professor Jorg Hacker from
Airborne Research Australia (Adelaide;
www.airborneresearch.org.au) - a part
of Flinders University (Adelaide; www.
flinders.edu.au).
The study's key findings are: Modern
coal-fired power stations emit more ultrafine
particles than urban road traf3452
BioN 7x4.875 ad_Layout 1 12/12/18 10:16 AM Page 1
fic; ultrafine particles can harm human
health; ultrafine particles can affect
rainfall distribution by increasing the
condensation nuclei count; ultrafine
particles can be transported in layers
with high concentrations for hundreds
of kilometers and then lead to localized
particle events. The study also
found that ultrafine particle concentrations
have increased continuously
since modern coal-fired power stations
were commissioned.
The study involved measurement
flights throughout the world in small
research aircraft equipped with highly
sensitive instruments measuring dust
particles, trace gases, temperature, humidity,
wind and energy balance.
" By redistributing rainfall events, the
ultrafine particles from fossil power stations
can lead to drier-than-usual conditions
in some places and to unusually
heavy rainfall elsewhere, " Hacker says.
With diameters of less than 100 nm,
ultrafine dust particles have a huge effect
on environmental processes. n
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
JUNE 2019
11
The process of optimizing glass
fiber sizing is complex, laborious
and time-consuming. " We expect AI
to cut the development time for optimized
formulations by more than
half, " says Axel Tuchlenski, head of
Global Product and Application Development
in the Lanxess High Performance
Materials business unit.
In traditional product development,
the complex composition of
glass fiber sizings and the numerous
variables when manufacturing
high-performance plastics require
extensive testing, the results of
which can be hard to predict. AI
can make an important contribution
in this case by getting the most
out of the available data. Supplied
from thousands of measurement
results from previous formulations,
raw material information and a host
of additional data, AI algorithms
calculate forecast models for improved
test configurations and parameters,
enhance these models
on the basis of the measurement
results from each individual test,
and finally propose an optimum
formulation. This procedure makes
product development much faster
than traditional methods. ❏
http://www.kit.edu http://www.airborneresearch.org.au http://flinders.edu.au http://www.bionomicind.com http://adlinks.chemengonline.com/73855-07 http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering June 2019
