Abstract

The catalytic suppression of the pyrolytic onset temperature of Eucalyptus grandis using three fertilising agents is presented. K2CO3 and K3PO4 successfully decreased the onset temperature with a maximum suppression of -71 °C (10.2 % K2CO3) and -49 °C (10.5 % K3PO4). Higher loadings may achieve a maximum temperature suppression of ΔT(K2CO3)= – 94 °C and ΔT(K3PO4)=-55 °C. This implies that substantial energy savings for the synthesis of biochar via pyrolysis are to be expected as a result of this considerable temperature suppression. BET surface area, porosity and ion exchange capacity may have also been enhanced in-situ but is yet to be evaluated.

Abstract

When coupling the Free Piston Engine (FPE) to the Permanent Magnet Linear Synchronous Machine (PMLSM) to produce electrical energy, its intrinsic multi-directional and non-linear dynamics have been typically described in a simplified mono-directional and linear fashion when considering a system-level modelling approach. This paper presents a detailed, multi-directional, multi-domain model of the FPE and PMLSM. The model was implemented in an opposed-piston free-piston engine configuration and validated against experimental data captured from a prototype with identical parameters. The simulation results indicate a strong correlation to the experimental data, which captured the dominant dynamics of the FPE and proved the satisfactory accuracy and performance of the model. This study considers the characteristic multi-directional nature and non-linearity of the machine dynamics and its interactions with multi-physical domains such as electrical, mechanical, and pneumatic.