Showing papers by "K. A. Suresh published in 2010"

Study on genotypic variation for ethanol production from sweet sorghum juice

Abstract: Sugarcane molasses is the main source for ethanol production in India. Sweet sorghum with its juicy stem containing sugars equivalent to that of sugarcane is a very good alternative for bio-ethanol production to meet the energy needs of the country. Sweet sorghum is drought resistant, water logging resistant and saline–alkaline tolerant. Growing sweet sorghum for ethanol production is relatively easy and economical and ethanol produced from sweet sorghum is eco-friendly. In view of this, it is important to identify superior genotypes for ethanol production in terms of percent juice brix, juice extractability, total fermentable sugars, ethanol yield and fermentation efficiency. This paper presents the study on the variability observed for the production of ethanol by various sweet sorghum genotypes in a laboratory fermentor. Five Sweet Sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) genotypes were evaluated for ethanol production from stalk juice (Keller, SSV 84, Wray, NSSH 104 and BJ 248). Sweet sorghum juice differs from cane juice mainly in its higher content of starch and aconitic acid. Data were collected for biomass yield; stalk sugar yield and ethanol production in five genotypes. Maximum ethanol production of 9.0%w/v ethanol was obtained with Keller variety (20% sugar concentration was used), and decreased for other genotypes. A distiller's strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (gifted by Seagram Distilleries Ltd.) was employed for fermentation. The fermentation efficiency (FE) was 94.7% for this strain. High biomass of yeast was obtained with BJ 248 variety. When the similar experiments were conducted with unsterile sweet sorghum juice (15% sugar concentration) 6.47%w/v ethanol was produced.

Nematic biaxiality in a bent-core material

Abstract: The results of a recent investigation of the nematic biaxiality in a bent-core mesogen (A131) are in apparent disagreement with earlier claims. Samples of mesogen A131 used in the two studies were investigated with polarized optical microscopy, conoscopy, carbon-13 NMR, and crossover frequency measurements. The results demonstrate that textural changes associated with the growth of biaxial nematic order appear at similar to 149 degrees C. The Maltese cross observed in the conoscopic figure gradually splits into two isogyres at lower temperatures indicating phase biaxiality. Presence of the uniaxial to biaxial nematic phase transition is further confirmed by temperature trends of local order parameters based on (13)C chemical shifts in NMR experiments. Frequency switching measurements also clearly reveal a transition at 149 degrees C. Differences between the two reports appear to be related to the presence of solvent, impurities, and/or adsorbed gases in samples of A131 used in the study of Van Le et al. [Phys. Rev. E 79, 030701 (2009)]

Stress-strain relation in the collapse of Langmuir monolayer of a dimer of disk shaped moiety.

Abstract: Langmuir monolayer of a novel molecule containing dimer of disk shaped moiety, viz., terephtalic acid bis-[6-(3,6,7,10,11-pentahexyloxy-triphenylen-2-yloxyl)-hexyl] ester (tp-dimer), was studied at air-water interface. The monolayer of the tp-dimer at air-water interface exhibited the coexistence of condensed and gas phases at large area per molecule which on compression transformed to a uniform condensed phase at lower area per molecule (1.80 nm2) and then collapsed at 1.67 nm2. The monolayer film transferred by Langmuir–Blodgett technique onto a hydrophilic silicon substrate was studied using an atomic force microscope. The topography image showed the film to be of height of about 1.5 nm corresponding to the edge-on configuration of the triphenylene moieties. We have studied the collapse of monolayer at air-water interface as a function of compression rate and temperature. We find that the collapse pressure increased with increase in the compression rate. The surface pressure of the monolayer is considered as stress and compression as strain. The strain rate is related to the collapse pressure by a power law similar to that found in the dendrimers. Our studies on the effect of temperature on the collapse pressure of tp-dimer monolayer showed that the collapse pressure decreased with increase in temperature. We have considered the Arrhenius temperature dependence of the strain rate and calculated the activation energy for the collapse of monolayer. Our analysis of the relative area loss as a function of time in the collapse region suggests that the monolayer collapses by the formation of nuclei of three-dimensional crystallites.

Design and simulation of resonance based DC current sensor

Abstract: A novel resonance based proximity DC current sensor is proposed. The sensor consists of a piezo sensed and actuated cantilever beam with a permanent magnet mounted at its free end. When the sensor is placed in proximity to a wire carrying DC current, resonant frequency of the beam changes with change in current. This change in resonant frequency is used to determine the current through the wire. The structure is simulated in micro and meso scale using COMSOL Multi physics software and the sensor is found to be linear with good sensitivity.

Ceramic Materials (Phosphors) for Display Applications

Abstract: Phosphors the ceramic materials should able to work in tough environment surrounded and bombarded by high energy Vacuum Ultra Violet (VUV), UV or electron beam radiations in any discharge tube. The plasma display panel (PDP) is increasingly gaining attention over conventional cathode ray tube (CRT)- based TVs as a medium of large format (60+”) television (TV), particularly high definition TVs (HDTVs). Improvements have been made not only in size but also in other areas such as resolution, luminescence efficiency, brightness, contrast ratio, power consumption, and cost reduction. The formation of a phosphor host and doping process by solid solution is critical and is highly dependent on the reaction temperature and conditions. Since the purity of starting chemicals is very important to the synthesis of phosphors, the starting chemicals are typically 99.9%, 99.999% in purity. Required amounts of starting ingredients are mixed in the presence of an appropriate flux (if necessary) and fired at high temperatures (1200 °C) in air or in a controlled atmosphere (N 2 , C, CO, or N 2 with 2-5% of H 2 ). The present paper reports the synthesis and luminescence characteristics of different ceramic materials (phosphors) for display applications.

Synthesis and Characterization of Sr2CeO4 Phosphor Doped with Erbium

Abstract: The present paper reports the Photoluminescence (PL) of the Sr 2 CeO 4 phosphor, singly doped with Erbium rare-earth ion with different concentrations (0.01, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1%).The phosphor samples were synthesized using the standard solid state reaction technique. The effect of Er dopant on the structural, morphological, and Photoluminescent properties of the samples are studied with X-ray diffraction (XRD), PL and SEM analysis. The PL emission of undoped Sr 2 CeO 4 phosphor was observed at 470 nm with high intensity followed by the primary Er emissions with good intensity at 525, 530, 549, 557 and 565 nm.

Frequency Detector Using Piezo Laminated Cantilever Beam

Abstract: A method to measure the frequency of the signal using piezo laminated cantilever beam is proposed. The frequency is detected from the pattern acquired from the sensor output. Electronics for the sensor is built using microcontroller 89C51 and is found to respond over a range of 3-35Hz with a resolution of 1mHz. The sensor is also simulated using COMSOL Multi physics software. The proposed method is simple and it does not consume power from the measurand.