[en] The agro-industrial sector of Malaysia produces a huge amount of oil palm and paddy rice. These generate a significant amount of renewable biomass solid wastes in the forms of oil palm shell and rice husk. Apart from this a huge quantity of scrap tyre is generated from the country's faster increasing usage of transportation vehicles like motorcycle, car, bus and lorries. These wastes are producing pollution and disposal problems affecting the environment. Besides energy is not recovered efficiently from these waste resources. From the elemental composition and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) studies of the wastes, it appeared that the wastes could be used for pyrolysis liquid oil production. Pyrolysis at present is deemed to be a potential method for the conversion of carbonaceous solid wastes into upgraded liquid products which can either be tried for liquid fuel or value-added chemical. A fluidized bed bench scale fast pyrolysis system was employed for this thermochemical conversion process of solid wastes. Silica sand was used as fluidized bed material and nitrogen gas as the fluidising medium. The products obtained were liquid oil, solid char and gas. The liquid oil and solid char were collected separately while the gas was flared. The maximum liquid product yield was found to vary with feedstock material fluidized bed temperature. The maximum liquid product yield was found to be 58, 53 and 40 wt. % of biomass fed at fluidized bed temperature at 500, 525 and 450⁰C respectively for oil palm shell, scrap tyre and rice husk. The solid char yield was 25, 36 and 53 wt. % of biomass fed at the condition of maximum liquid product yield for oil palm shell, scrap tyre and rice husk respectively. The oil products were subjected to FTIR, GC and GC/MS analysis for their group composition and detailed chemical compositions. The pyrolysis oil from scrap tyre was found to contain highest percentage of pure hydrocarbons (25 wt. % of total feed) with esters and oxygenated hydrocarbons containing silicone. The phenols were found to be maximum in case of oil palm shell pyrolysis oil (35 wt. % of total feed) with organic acids, alcohol, ketones and hydrocarbons. The pyrolysis oil from rice husk contained a maximum. percentage of ketones (28 wt. % of total feed) with acids, aldehydes, alcohol, phenols and hydrocarbons. Thus, the compounds were found to be prospectful for fuel and chemicals. The physical properties of the pyrolysis oils were presented and compared with typical wood pyrolysis oil. (Author)

[en] The pyrolysis laser is a technique allowing the production of amorphous powders whose grain size is below 100 nanometers. This technique has been combined with techniques involving aerosols and allowing the use of liquid reactants (Pyrosol process). These ultra-fine powders are used to prepare dense materials called nano-materials mainly ceramics. These ceramics have particular properties: they can be deformed at high temperature (1900 K) without presenting any cracks or major alterations on their surfaces. (A.C.)

[en] The paper describes the results of studies on the thermally oxygen-free decomposition of the polymer components of a car tire during its direct immersion into the molten liquid metal. The impact of the conditions of liquid metal pyrolysis of used automobile tires on the composition and form of the products obtained has been studied

[en] The thermolysis products of a number of nido-derivatives of decaborane of the B₁₀H₁₂L₂ type, (where L-NH₃, Py, quinoline) characterized by thermal stability are studied. It is established thermographically that the above compounds decompose before reaching the melting point, the start of their intensive decomposition is accompanied by exo-effects in the 237-260 deg C range. NH₃ and Py elimination does not take place but the processes of thermal transformations of these substances are connected with L decomposition. The pyrolysis products of these complexes are roentgenoamorphous phases containing boron nitride, carbide, boron, and carbon

[en] Evolution of paramagnetic centres in Polish medium-rank coal (85.6 wt% C), its macerals and photographically complex samples during thermal decomposition at 300-650 C was studied by EPR. Comparison of the changes in the paramagnetic centres system of the heated pure macerals and complex coal samples indicates strong interactions between individual macerals during the thermal decomposition

[en] A furnace simulating an element of the future commercial furnace is built on a semi-commercial basis for checking the efficiency of a vanadium catalyst. Investigations performed have shown that the prom ted vanadium catalyst is characterized by high activity and selectivity as to ethylene; while the yield of coke on it is very low. The promoted vandium catalyst for pyrolysis can be employed for a long time without loss of activity. The process pa.rameters obtained under laboratory conditions are completely reproduced under long-term semicommercial tests

[en] Low level solid wastes (≤ 2 mGy/hr) are managed either by compaction or incineration. Cellulosic wastes under go incineration to offer a volume reduction factor of 30-50, whereas rubber and plastic wastes are compacted to give a volume reduction factor of about 3. Conventional incineration of such wastes releases toxic gases, viz. Dioxin and Furan. High temperature plasma process is internationally accepted as an effective solution for incineration of all types of combustible wastes. The exhaust emissions out of this process are well within the standards prescribed by government agencies. The present article provides a brief account of efforts to demonstrate plasma based technology for management of all types of potentially combustible radioactive solid wastes. The 25kg/hr-capacity-system designed to carry out this activity has been equipped to treat wastes in a single step at a very high temperature (> 1500 K). Experience gained during the demonstration runs would help in scaling the system's capacity significantly higher to treat 50 kg/hr. The scaled-up version could see immediate deployment across several DAE facilities besides having potential applications for managing municipal wastes upwards of 100 tons per day. (author)

No abstract available

[en] Short communication

[en] Ultra-thin WO₃ films were prepared by thermal decomposition of WO₃-(octadecylamine) ODA multilayers deposited using Langmuir-Blodgett technique. The formation of WO₃ was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and surface morphology was found to have uniform for film thickness in range, 4-20 nm. The blocking properties of WO₃ films were studied as a function of their thickness using electrochemical method. Detailed analyses suggested that 9 nm thick film was sufficient to serve as blocking layer. These findings may be employed to fabricate organic (Dye sensitized and perovskite) solar cells employing WO₃ as blocking layer. (author)