Recent Patents on Engineering - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2014

In the present work new concepts of de-orbit and re-entry modules for standard CubeSats are presented. On the one hand, these modules can be very useful to contrast the growing phenomenon of the Space debris and, on the other hand, to recover Cubesat payload and components after the end of the mission. The concepts are mainly based on deployable, umbrella-like, structures, useful to perform de-orbit and re-entry operations taking advantage from a substantial reduction of the ballistic coefficient. In the de-orbit configuration the deployable structure works only as an aerobrake. In this case the satellite lifetime may be strongly reduced, making it possible to match the CubeSat maximum decay requirement of 25 years, even for altitudes larger than 700 km. In the Earth re-entry configuration the ballistic parameter reduction produces also a sensible decrease of the aerothermal loads on the system, giving the opportunity to recover payload, potential data and satellite components. In this case the umbrella-like structure has both the function to protect the capsule and to control de-orbit and re-entry trajectories, in order to safely reach the desired landing site. The structure can be deployed by means of preloaded springs or other actuators and, once the umbrella is opened, the reference surface can be adjusted to control the trajectory with a kinematic mechanism driven by an electro-mechanical actuator.

This review is related to the process development for batteries and related waste. The review’s primary focus is the metal recovery and remediation of the following types of battery waste: alkaline (Zn-MnO2), saline (Zn-carbon), lithium (Li-SOCl2, Li-MnO2), nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd), nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), lead-acid, lithium-ion (Li-CoO2, Li-MnO2) and lithium-polymer. Various treatments have been developed to diminish the impact of hazardous metals on the environment and to preserve the valuable metal (e.g., Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) resources. Three main technological approaches, namely, pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy and physical treatments, have been proposed. This paper covers the developments in the field of technology for metal recovery from battery waste based on an analysis of 14 patents.

The membrane biological reactor (MBR) configuration has proven to be optimal for treatment of many industrial wastewaters, especially when optimized treatment efficiencies are an important consideration. Ceramic MBR is being consolidated as a reliable technology for industrial applications, due to the benefits of the system, while ceramic membranes may be an adequate alternative for anaerobic MBR application, due to evidence of low membrane fouling rate and the ability to rigorously clean their surface without at the same time reducing the effective membrane life. This review summarizes Recent Patents on Engineering that disclose key data for both the functioning of MBRs and the use of ceramic membranes. Specifically, an advanced control system for a membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment plant is disclosed, while an integrated biological treatment coupled to membrane filtration is proposed for advanced nutrients removal and reuse of treated waters. Recent studies have been focused on the production of a specific bioceramic membrane with selective adsorption effects and simultaneous digestion ability. Bioceramic membranes may provide effective carbon sources and required minerals to activated sludge microorganisms, while they can be used as biological media filter material for air filtration and wastewater treatment. Furthermore, bioceramics may adsorb phosphate ions and remove oxygen rich components such as nitrates from aqueous solutions.

In order to analyze the radiation thermal transfer of the LPG tank under the pool fire effectively, the wavelet finite element method has been applied in this research. First, the theoretical researches on the pool fire and the wavelet finite element method are summarized respectively, and some patents related to the wavelet finite element method have applied it in some engineering. Second, the basic theory of the wavelet finite element method is established. Next the thermal radiation transfer model is analyzed, and the flame model is discussed. Then the thermal radiation analysis of the LPG tank under the pool fire is carried out based on wavelet finite element method and experimental test. Finally, the affecting factors of the thermal radiation for the LPG tank under pool fire such as filling rate and wind strength are analyzed, and the corresponding thermal radiation rules are obtained.

The current work is aimed to give an overview on the most relevant patents available on dairy industry. To the aim, both processing and product innovations will be reviewed. In particular, novel tools applied to traditional dairy plants to optimize the heat treatments and reduce the disadvantages derived from the direct use of heat on product quality will be reported. Advances applied for delivering dairy starter cultures to better control contamination of process lines will be also discussed. Some relevant inventions to reduce the length of time required during the manufacturing or to decrease the aging time of dairy products will be presented. Finally, the advances to enhance functional and/or sensory properties of dairy products will be reported. In particular, processing methods to achieve milk-derived products with desired morphological and/or compositional characteristics will be reviewed.

Complex structure wells are now widely used in the development of marine oilfield, old oilfield and low permeable oilfield. During drilling operations, if the fluid velocity is lower than a critical value in annulus, cuttings in the highly-deviated segments and horizontal segments will accumulate and eventually develop cuttings bed, which affects the rate of penetration (ROP) and downhole safety. As a result, numerous inventions which show different hole-cleaning detection methods can be applied to determine cuttings concentration or hole-cleaning efficiency, and there are three methods for good hole-cleaning condition. The fluid rate control methods include increasing flow rate and injecting slug. The chemical methods include changing the rheology of drilling fluid and adding fiber sweep into drilling fluid. The mechanical methods include using pipe joint, annulus reducer, and different types of blades tool for rotary drilling, and centralizer and fluid velocity shift device for non-rotary drilling and rotary drilling. This review presents a summary of the main United States and Chinese patents available on hole-cleaning techniques.

As for the sensitivities of traditional Hausdorff distance to the noise and isolated point, which contribute to the lower matching ratio, this paper puts forward an improved Hausdorff distance model by genetic algorithm to optimize the transformation parameters. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the theory frame from different images matching techniques, a combined algorithm idea is proposed, using Hausdorff distance as the image measure function and using genetic algorithm as the search strategy to realize the image registration. Comparison with some recent patents on traditional algorithmexperiment shows that the improved Hausdorff distance by genetic algorithm can be a very good solution to robustness problem of the traditional algorithm, and has a higher matching speed in the case of the same edge points of image.