On event-planning and organizing

This year I have doing some event-organizing. I have not done any event organization before this year, in fact before last June.

Anyways, I had helped out with Research Day 2013 and CHBE Christmas Party.

UBC APSC Research Day 2013

UBC CHBE Christmas Party 2013

Both of these events are very successful, thanks for all the hardworking committee members and some of my helps. 

I learnt plenty from these events, such as I don't have to know someone very well to work with them, the biggest variable in event-planning is human factor and so on. But I think, the most important thing I learnt is that I don't have to be a genius to be part of an organizing committee, and I'm actually capable of doing what event organizers are able to do. 

I felt a tart more confident with myself and my own ability. Special thanks to Dr. S and Dr. L for allowing me to do all these things aside from writing reports and papers and reading journal articles.

Breaking news (at least for me): Malaysia aims to become the major wood pellets producer in Asia (!!!)

According to fordaq, Malaysia is seeking to become Asia's major wood pellets provide!
I'm surprised by this news released. I have not thought that my area of research is heating up in my home country!
Apparently, the demand for wood pellets in Japan, China and South Korea are growing due to implementation of renewable energy policies. The Malaysian authorities (whoever these people are) are planning to cover up to 70% of the total Asian wood pellets demand by year 2020. The Asian demand of wood pellet is projected to grow to about 10 million tons per year.
Comparing to demand forecast in Europe, which is 50 – 80 million tons in year 2020. 10 million tons per year in Asia is quite sizable.
There is even a new organization formed in Malaysia called the Pellet Association of Malaysia (PAM), which aims to gather manufacturers on issues like quality, pricing and volumes.
On the federal government level, a National Biomass Strategy-2020 has been developed to help the pellet industry to reach the proposed targets.

There was a Asian Biomass pellets Conference in Seoul, that was partially sponsored by Pellet Association of Malaysia (PAM). More detail news on this here.

Idea Collection 2

The last time I wrote my FIRST Idea collection was on August 8, 2013! That is more than 2 months ago. Now, I have another stack of paper waiting for me to summarize and compile into a single blog post. The paper stack is not as big as it is shown below, of course. I am trying to avoid that from happening.

So, a number of biggish events have occurred since August 2013. In chronological order, they are:
1. my colleague, Asal Hashemi's MASc Thesis defence on July 9, 2013 on Encapsulation of wood pellets
This taught me about the importance of good photos. Her wood pellets were shown in a straight row. That looks great and the sizes of the wood pellets were compared visually as well.
2. Linoj joined my research group, Biomass and Bioenergy Research Group as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in July 2013. During a group meeting, he mentioned that as graduate students of a research group, we should build on the researches that was done in the group and expand your own research on them
3. a Lab Tour of AMPEL Surface Characterization Laboratory on August 14, 2013. This made me realized that I have a great facility for surface properties analysis just right across the street! The laboratory offers mu-Ranman, SEM-EDX, XPS, ToF-SIMS and other high precision surface analysis.
4. a Visit to Williams Lake Pinnaccle Pellet Plant (image below) on August 20, 2013. This trip was just, "WOW!" Totally an eye-opener! They has no self-heating issues at the plant because the turnover of raw materials and wood pellets are less than 1 week!

IDEAS

1. Oxidation of extractives produce higher energy potential chemical species. Adsorption of this higher energy chemical species might have increased the calorific value of my wood pellet over close storage.
2. In the case of high moisture content, microbial degradation of cellulose & hemicellulose (C&H) especially by brown fungi reduces C&H content, and results in an increase of lignin content
3. On the latest account in October 2013, the price of wood pellet in Europe (German in particular) is €260-€300 per tonne!
4. Methanol formation in Kraft pulp mill is through the demethylation of xylans (i.e. hemicellulose) and lignin by hydroxidie OH- ion through rapid alkaline hydrolysis reaction

COMMENTS

I found that I have so many things and important information that I have written down on pieces of paper. Now that I look back to them, I felt that it is hard to write them all down. There are just so many information. I think I will write another Idea Collection real soon on the technical/research ideas that I have written down.

"Biomass as a renewable source of energy" & "Microalgal protein: a new source of plywood adhesive"

UBC APSC Research Day 2013 went successfully! Below is the projection during the evening reception of the Research Day in UBC Chemical & Biological Engineering Department.

As part of the organizing committee, I have spent almost 80% of my time working on the pre-event preparation and purchase and logistics. Now I finally got a bit of time to post summary of two of the latest literature that came in my google scholar alert.

1. "Biomass as a renewable source of energy"

Drożyner, P., Rejmer, W., Starowicz, P., Klasa, A., & Skibniewska, K. A.. 2013. Biomass as a renewable source of energy. Technical Science.

In this review, the authors actually focuses on the available/suggested technology in/for Poland. I like how biomass-related articles stated the fact that "Energy from renewable sources, although more expensive than conventional energy, has many advantages. It leads to reduction of carbon emission to atmosphere, is compatiable with rules of balanced development [1st time I heard of this], reduces the dependence on fossil fuels and is not as dangerous as atomic energy [LOL, biomass energy IS very dangerous huh...]. 

Biomass can be in solid state (e.g. briquettes, pellets), liquid state (biodiesel, methanol, ethanol) or gas form (biogas, syngas and hydrogen). In Poland, biomass is getting more popular to be used in electricity generation. The author briefly discussed 7 types of biomass sources: (1) energy dedicated willow (short-rotation coppice- SRC Willow), (2) sweet sorghum (shown in picture below), (3) giant miscanthus, (4) Jerusalem artichokes, (5) Oil palm [Oh, this is all over my country, Malaysia], (6) Agricultural wastes, e.g. straw, stems, manure, whey, mollasses. (7) Wastes of food and agricultural industry e.g. peelings, seeds, mill cakes of juice and beer production, distillery stillage, slaughter waste.

Then the article has a shift switch to Methane/biogas production through fermentation. An interesting process mentioned is a two-step production of hydrogen in 1st step and methane in 2nd step through fermentation of Laminario japonic i.e. kelp or Dashi kombu. I like plenty of Dashi stock in my miso soup.

2. "Microalgal protein: a new source of plywood adhesive"

Roy, J. J., Sun, L., & Ji, L. 2013. Microalgal proteins: A new source of raw material for production of plywood adhesive. Journal of Applied Phycology, 1-8.

My supervisor, Dr. S, mentioned that I might be working on understand the adhesives that bind wood pellets together. So, this will be my 1st review of adhesive literature on my blog.

Adhesives is predominantly based on urea or melamine formaldehyde technology. Formaldehyde has been recognized as human carcinogen. Thus, a safer, more sustainable method of adhesive production has to be introduced. Compared with plants, microalgae are more productive for biomass and proteins. They do not compete directly for farm land. Algal proteins have a much more balanced composition of amino acids. The reactive groups in these amino acids can be effectively used for chemical modification and cross-linking to improve the bonding quality of algae-base adhesive. 

The author produced Type II adhesive (Interior-use plywood adhesive, only slightly water resistant) from dry algal cells (Spirulina platensis and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii). They noted that protein in SPPI (Spirulina Platensis Protein Isolate) were already denatured in the preparation process and were not present as protein bodies as in soybean floor. Nevertheless, NaOH treatment of the protein isolate still signficantly improved the adhesive strength. CRPI (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Protein Isolate) made better plywood adhesive as it showed better adhesive strength and water resistance than SPPI, shown similar level as SPI (soy protein isolate). Overall, the microalgal protein isolates showed promising adhesive properties that meet the type II plywood standard. Glyoxal was found to be the best cross-linker for these two algae proteins. 

Introduction to Matlab

I wish to keep a record of my scanned file here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0wh0r411tmnx3cb/Introduction%20to%20Matlab.pdf

It is a freaking 3MB file....

The PDF is from Appendix A of Numerical Methods for Chemical Engineers with MATLAB application by Constantinides and Mostoufi (2000).

The thing is most important thing on this pdf is that, to import data,
we can type

load f3.txt

where f3 is a text file with an .txt extension

Addressing Marketplace Durability Issues with Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) Infected Wood (Summarizing Byrne & Uzonovic (2005))

Since I started working with wood pellets, I always feel that MPB wood has inferior quality than regular non-infected wood. The blue-stained wood of MPB wood made the wood appears "unnatural", which leads me to think that the wood is no good, i.e. lack of strength and durability.
But it is not true!

According to the work done by Byrne & Uzonovic (2005) and other wood scientists, the temperate bluestain fungi, unlike tropical bluestain fungi, does NOT damage the wood structure. Bluestain fungi are harmless and do NOT attack the wood itself but live on nutrients stored in a small proportion of wood cells.

Temperate Bluestain fungi on the wood surface (Byrne & Uzonovic, 2005)

Furthermore, According to tests done at Forintek Canada Corp, and other research laboratories, there is NO practical difference in strength between stained and non-stained pine. Bluestained wood is commonly used for construction in North America. The only concern is that bluestained wood has a higher water permeability which might cause the wood to retain more moisture ONLY if it is not well dried and stored. But wood is an perishable organic material at the right moisture content, whether it is bluestained or not.

Anyhow, well-treated bluestained wood CAN be used interchangably with non-stained wood. If the blue color is NOT desirable, the right combination of dark finshes can be used to hide any bluestain. The picture below is an example of dark finish that can be used to cover any bluestain.

I hope the general public is more receptive to the idea that bluestain wood is as good as non-stained wood, at least in the strength and durability point of view.

News summary II

News 1: European pellet consumption expected to triple by 2020

The latest report of consumption forecasts for 2020 range from 35 million metric tonnes for Western Europe (Pöyry) to 50 – 80 MMT for the total EU (AEBIOM). German is the largest producer of wood pellets in the EU, which produced 2 million metric tonnes in year 2013. Sweden comes second with total production of 1.35 million metric tonnes in year 2013. The production is expected to remain stagnant in the future years due to "weak investment climate and the limited availability of feedstock supplies".

Canadian wood pellet exports, 2012

News 2: US may cover half share of total European wood pellets imports by 2014
Quoting the new, in 2012, U.S. wood pellets exports were boosted by seventy percent to nearly 1.8 MMT, representing a value of US$ 331 million. That means the report gave a price estimates of $185 per MT.

Note: MMT is million metric tonnes; MT is metric tonne.

News 3: Korea looks to Indonesia for wood pellets
According to data from Korea, Indonesia offers the cheapest pellet, with the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price of US$ 131 per ton, below Vietnam’s US$ 144 per ton, and Malaysia’s US$ 141 per ton.
Following this news, I checked the quality of the Malaysian wood pellet (because I'm a Malaysian). After a quick google search, I found the specification of wood pellet for this company, TG Quantum Wood Pellet.

TG Quantum Wood Pellet Specification

the gross calorific value is 5299 kcal/kg, or 22.2 MJ/kg. That is at the higher end of dry mass calorific value of woody biomass. My wood pellet from Pinnacle pellet, which has no binder, has a dry mass gross calorific value is 20.3 MJ/kg. I am quite sure they added some extra binders into their wood pellets that causes the gross calorific value to be so high.

Summary [1] on Canadian Biomass Magazine

News 1: 2G CENERGY CHP supplier selling direct
Release Date: August 19, 2013

2G CENERGY CHP  , which is based in St. Augustine, Florida, USA advertises their cogeneration systems.

News 2: Pellet Gear Buyer Guide 2013

This Canadian Biomass Pellet Gear Buyer Guide lists companies that provide the relevant products or services for each of the following categories: dryers, pneumatic conveying ("air conveyor"), hammermills, pellet mills, screens and coolers, fire/spark detection and suppression technology, bagging and palletizing [Palletizer is a machine that provides automatic means for stacking cases of goods or products on to a flat transport structure (pallet)], dies and rolls, quality control equipment and services, and building contractors and engineering firms.

News 3: Norsask Powers Up

Norsask Forest Products lumber operation in northwestern Saskatchewan is expanding its bioenergy portfolio. Norsask is wholly owned by Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC), which in turn owned by nine First Nations communities around Meadow Lake.

MLTC currently has a R&D scale pellet plant and marketing arm, which produces up to 1 ton/hr. However, different than Canada's mainstream export-driven pellet industry, they plan to produce enough pellets to develop and feed five local pilot heating projects and to reduce the the dependence of local communities on oil or propane.

At the same time, MLTC attemps to get a massive 40 MW power generation project going (36 MW net). The $210 million project uses the residues from Norsask sawmill to generate power for local communities.

News 4: Plant could lead to cheaper cellulosic ethanol

The small flowering plant (pictured), Arabidopsis thaliana, produces an enzyme, caffeoyl shikimate esterase, whose genes can be switched off to control the formation of lignin. By blocking the production of this complex polymer, the researchers found that molecular structure of its lgnin was altered and became less complex, making it a more easily digestible feedstock to turn into fuels.

News 5: EU leaks biomass sustainability rules
The European Commission will seek to introduce EU-wide binding sustainability criteria for solid and gaseous biomass, according to a leaked draft of the directive proposals, but a date for its publication has still not been set despite market stakeholders waiting more than two years for the announcement.

All news can be found on Canadian Biomass Magazine website at http://www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca/

Fuel Characteristics of (1) Glycerol and (2) Yam peel Briquettes

As a by-product of biodiesel production, glycerol seems like a good candidate for fuel application.
However, according to this review paper, it is NOT!
The reasons are:

1. Low calorific value (~18.0 MJ/kg) compared to kerosene and gasoline (~40 MJ/kg), making it incapable to sustain a stable flame in a conventional burner
2. High self-ignition temperature (370°C) compared to gasoline (280°C) and kerosene (210°C)
3. Its viscosity is high, making it hard to be atomized.
4. High salt content (ash content of ~3.5%), can cause corrosion in the burner injectors and in post-combustion systems.
5. One of the products of glycerol combustion is acrolein, an hazardous irritant and a possible carcinogen.

In a separate paper, the fuel quality of yam peel briquettes was investigated. If you click the link, it will direct you to download the PDF of the paper.

I was interested with this paper because yam is one of my favorite food. The fuel quality is decent, but not as good as commercial wood pellets that Pinnacle Renewable Energy Group made. Below lists the comparison between these two fuels.

1. Gross calorific value as received (the analysis basis is not stated in the paper)
   Yam peel briquette: 17.5 MJ/kg ; PREG Wood pellet: 19.0 MJ/kg
2. Moisture and ash content as received (basis not stated)
   Yam peel briquette: 11.0%, 3.9% ; Wood pellet: 6.0%, 1.0%
3. Sulphur and nitrogen content (dry basis)
   Yam peel briquette:  1.4%, 1.4% ; Wood pellet: <0.02%, <0.05%
4. Bulk density
   Yam peel briquette: 500 kg/m3 ; Wood pellet: 700 kg/m3

As you see from the above comparison, you can see that the briquette fuel quality is inferior compared to wood pellet. However, quoting the paper, it is a good fuel for "household cooking and small scale industrial cottage application".

Idea Collection 1

I found that writing notes on pieces of paper help me to take note of my ideas and to organize my thoughts. But, I simply cannot write all my ideas on ONE piece of paper.
Thus, the problem of having hundreds of pieces of paper lying in my file, my office desk, and my personal table and thousands of ideas on those pieces of paper make going back to them very difficult.

So, I decided to stay writing them down in my blog once in a while.
This is my 1st Idea Collection! Let me embrace the chaos of the paper tiger!

IDEAS

1. "Through model selection, I found these variables are significant and provide the best fit.
   Paracemoneous : simplest plausible model with the fewest possible number of variables
2. Particle density = the weight of one pellet / the volume of one pellet
   The volume of one pellet is calculated from its dimensions (i.e. diameter and length), which in turn, measured using a caliper.
   Bulk density = weight of material in a container with a defined volume/ the defined volume
   True density = solid density = density measured using pycnometer!
   [Jun 5, 2013] Dr. Peng mentioned that pellet's bulk density is NOT a function of particle size. In fact, the pellet bulk density is the same for materials with different particle sizes!
3. If the fuel has higher degree of hydrogen saturation (mass of hydrogen per mole of fuel/ total mass per mole of the fuel), its heating value is higher. <-- more of my own speculation?? I'm not sure.

My COMMENTS

There are more things that were written down but they're mostly tasks and thoughts that either have already been implemented or is out-of-my-current-context. Seems like I'm doing decently well putting together my thoughts and reaffirmed that my paper-note-taking is worth while.

I look forward my next idea collection! :)

Expression of Uncertainties

According to Dr. S, there are actually uncertainties that I have not considered in my project. Personally, I'm not too sure what is uncertainties.
Dr. S told me to refer to ISO standards on estimating the uncertainties. Then I search on ISO uncertainties on Google. Holly molly, the ISO document is expensive, some of those is over $100.

Then I read this paper. A Comprehensive Comparison of Uncertainty Analysis Tools, and found that there is a guide called, Guide to the expression of Uncertainty in Measurement.

What's better is that the guide is FREE! :D

Here is the link! http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/guides/gum.html

Everything free is good for poor grad student like me.. :)

Comparison of Wood pellet standards

Comparison of ISO, IWPB and PFI pellet standards

Mr. Staffan Melin has kindly compiled this piece of information to compare THREE major wood pellet standards ISO, IWPB (I1, I2, I3) and PFI Pellet Standards A. This information should serve as a baseline for any wood pellet-related designs as it is widely referred to in the wood pellet markets.

For ISO and IWPB, Net calorific value (NCV) is expressed in constant pressure and in as-received (a.r.) basis. The range is 16.0 to 16.5 GJ/tonne.
For American PFI, however, the calorific value is expressed in gross calorific value at constant volume, and provided NO weight basis to adhere to.

For the wood pellets that I have received from Pinnacle Renewable Energy Group, they have NCV of ~18 GJ/tonne, a lot better than the standard. Their wood pellets are made from mainly pine wood residues.
I'm thinking the lower NCV standard is meant to suit a wider range of biomass pellets made from non-wood materials, such as agricultural residues and municipal waste. These non-wood materials have lower reported NCV of around 14-17 GJ/tonne.

For PFI standard, the heating value is not given because according to the standard,
there are no specific grade requirements for heating value, however densified fuel manufacturers must provide a minimum higher heating value guarantee on quality marked product when these standard specifications are used in conjunction with the PFI standards.

Note on unit conversion:
1 GJ/tonne = 1 MJ/kg
1 GJ/tonne = 2326 BTU/lb
1 GJ/tonne = 4168.6 cal/g

References:

1. ISO/DIS 17225-2: Solid biofuels -- Fuel specifications and classes -- Part 2: Graded wood pellets
2. IWPB Industrial pellets specifications - Final
3. Pellet Fuels Institute Standard Specification for Residential/Commercial Densified Fuel, 2011

Technical Presentation about Enzymatic production from fuels & chemicals from lignocellulosic resources

I went to a technical presentation by Dr. Lisbeth Olsson at UBC Forest Science Center today morning.

The title of her presentation is: 

Enzymes and microorganisms in the service of producing fuels, chemicals and material from lignocellulosic resources

The presentation room where Dr. Olsson was presenting

Her research are:

1. Identify and design enzymes
2. Optimization and investigation of the physiological properties of microorganisms, in particular, yeast

She mentioned that lignocellulosic materials are very complex and difficult to break down, although there are methods to break down the lignocellulosic complex. One of the well-established method is enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose.

She is looking for enzymes to:

1. degrade plant cell wall materials to feed sugar platform to produce ethanol
2. modify plant cell wall material to produce custom-made bioploymers (bio-plastics)
3. upgrade plant cell wall material to more valuable products, especially cinnamic acid related compounds

In her project with Sida and FIRI, she obtained microorganism samples from Vietnam to obtain fungal strains and yeast strains. Through a series of selections, she identify the enzyme feruloyl esterases which is capable of cleaving the carboxylic ester bonds. The carboxylic ester bonds are the primary bonds that bound cellulose and lignin together. 

Through process optimization experiments, she showed that the ethanol yield can be increased by 50% by applying feeding propagation of lignocellulosic hydrolases. 

Dr. Olsson also look into improving the cellular robustness to increase the yeast's ability to maintain its performance in face of perturbation and uncertainty. To increase the cellular robustness in acetic acid stress, a strain of yeast from vinegar is obtained and tested.

To remove inhibitors, mainly the toxic phenolic compounds, pathways of bio-conversion of phenolic precursors are investigated. She concluded that conversion, in general does not indicate detoxification, but some pathways are more preferable to convert toxic substrates to non-toxic ones.

Overall, Dr. Olsson stressed that we, as a global community in bio-economy, are moving towards high gravity processes to produce higher volume of bioproducts. Running high gravity processes is tricky thing to do. It can be done more effectively if we increase the physiological understandings of the microorganisms.

Calculator for Safe Storage time and Integration of Germination over Storage time model

 HGCA, Home Grown Cereals Authority (UK), subsidary of United Kingdom Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)
HGCA Quality Calculator for Safe Storage time
http://data.hgca.com/calculator/

Sadly, I cannot find the reference to calculation steps they use to calculate the safe storage time. I could  use that piece of information to explain my integration of calorific value over storage period.

YEAH, I found a paper that uses the same concept my supervisor, Dr. S suggested me to use to integrate the calorific value over storage period. Dr. S mentioned that he got the idea from a method that is used in estimating the germination percentage of grain over storage. I'm so thrilled!
http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0062868&representation=PDF

A number of symbols and their definitions

1. Thermal time (TT) model: Predict the effect of temperature on seed germination by assuming a range of temperatures, the base temperature for germination (T_b) is constant and the thermal time required for germination of a given fraction of seeds is a normal or log normal distribution among seeds in a population.
2. Maximum Lifetime Threshold (MLT): assume that there is a maximum potential lifetime for each seed, which distributes normally among individual seed in a population, and that the time to germination of a given seed is inversely proportional to the difference between the aging time and the maximum potential lifetime of that seed.

TT model
1/t_g     = germination rate
g           = germination percentile
T          = linear function of temperature at a suboptimal range
Θ_T(g) = thermal time to germination of a given percentage g and T. It is found that assumption of a log normal distribution of Θ_T(g) is applicable for germination prediction of aspen seeds, i.e.
probit(g) = (ln((T - T_b) x t_g ) - ln(Θ_T(50)))/σ_p,max
T_b       = the base temperature

MLT model
p         = aging time
p_max(g) = the maximum potential lifetime above which seed germination cannot occur for a given percentage g and is assumed to be normally distributed among seeds in a population
Θa       = an "aging time constant"

Aging thermal time model
ΘAT     = aging thermal time
ΘNT     = normalized aging thermal time

ASABE Citation Guide Summary

Based on Style Guide for ASABE Technical Publications
Further reference: ASAE Standard EP285.7: “Use of SI (Metric) Units.”

Numbers

1. From one to nine, use words, BUT always use digits for values followed by abbreviated units.
   e.g. Use 5 mL of water
2. From ten onward, use digits.
3. Two numbers occurs as adjacent, spell out the first one
   e.g. There were thirty 9 mm holes in the first section
4. When a number BEGINS a sentence, SPELL IT OUT or rewrite the sentence
   e.g. Fifty samples were prepare.
   OR We prepared 50 sample.

Unit of Measurement

1. Express all units of measure in SI (metric) units
2. There should be a space between the number and the unit, EXCEPT for percentage and degrees
   e.g. 5 g; 20 ha
   e.g. 37%; 27°C 
3. In a series of measurements, indicate the unit at the end, EXCEPT for percentages and degrees:
   e.g. 3, 6 and 8 cm
   e.g. 2°C to 10°C (NOT 2 to 10°C); 15% to 25% (NOT 15 to 20%)
4. Use a comma for four-digit and larger numbers:
   e.g. 10,000 kg (NOT 10000 kg)
5. Express derived units in exponent form with spaces between the elements of the derived unit
   e.g. 12 kg m^-2

Dates

1. Write all dates in day-month-year format, with no punctuation and with names, rather than numbers, for the months:
   e.g. 12 January 2002
   e.g. 29 April to 17 May
   e.g. 4 to 16 August
2. In tables, the names of months may be abbreviated to save space, as:
   e.g. Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May., Jun., Jul., Aug., Spet, Oct., Nov., Dec.

Abbreviations in Text

1. Spell out abbreviations that might be unfamiliar to the ASABE audience ONLY at their first occurrence.
2. Form plurals for abbreviations without an apostrophe
   e.g. PCs, CVs, PhDs
3. Omit periods after abbreviated units (expect "in." for inch);
   e.g. 5 m, 3.5 in., 30 cm
4. Abbreviate units only after a numeric value:
   e.g. 24 h v.s. Several hours later

Common abbreviations:

dry basis                 d.b.
standard deviation   SD
wet basis                 w.b.

Abbreviations in References

1. Do not abbreviate any words in titles of articles, chapters, books, or dissertations.
2. Use conventional abbreviations (not postal abbreviations) for names of states and territories.
   ONLY abbreviate names of states and territories in references! 
3. ASABE journals are abbreviated as Trans. ASABE, Applied Eng. in Agric., J. Agric. Safety and Health, and Biol. Eng. Trans.

See complete list of abbreviation for journals as well as states and territories in the Style Guide (Link in the 1st line)

Figures

ASABE applies the term "figure" to all types of illustration, including line drawings, graphs and charts, photographs, computer screen captures, etc.

Size (Note: 1 pica = 1/6 of an inch or 0.1666... in.)

For Applied Engineering in Agriculture and Transactions of the ASABE figures are general the width of a column (20 picas, ~8.5 cm, ~3.33 in.), but may be as wide as a page (41 picas, ~17.4 cm, ~6.83 in.). For other publications, make each figure no wider than the page width (for Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health and Biological Engineering Transactions, this is 28 picas, ~11.9 cm, ~4.67 in.).

Other rules

1. Insert each figure AFTER the paragraph that first mentions it. Every figure must be explicitly mentioned in the text of the article. number figures in order of their citation in the text and refer to them as figure 1, figure 2, etc. Abbreviate the word "figure" ONLY in parentheses, e.g., (fig. 1).
2. Type a descriptive caption below each figure. The caption may be a sentence fragment or a few sentences long.
3. NO titles in figures.
4. Place the legent either directly below the figure or within it.
5. Generally, It is NOT necessary to show all the data points and coordinate rulings.
6. If a point represents the mean of a number of observations, indicate the magnitude of the variability by a vertical line at each point.
7. Use boldface ONLY for x- and y-axis titles. Use all capitals only when necessary (e.g., for acronyms).
8. If a figure contains multiple elements, label them (a), (b), (c), etc., using eight point bold, and identify them in the caption (as shown in sample figure below).
9. You may  horizontal or vertical type alignment, but NO other angles.
10. All lines must be at least one-half point to reproduce in print and distinct from each other in appearance.
11. Color figures will display in color in the web version, but will be printed in grayscale. Please choose colors that reproduce as distinct gray values. DO NOT use yellow. Choose DISTINCT line types (dashed, dotted, etc.) as well as different colors.
12. Do NOT CROP IN WORD because the cropping will not be retained as the figure moves through out production process. Instead, open the figure and delete the unwanted elements, or crop the figure then cut it and "Paste Special" as a picture or metafile to eliminate the cropped materials.
13. Please provide .jpg or .tif files of photographs in case we need to enhance the images. When using a digital camera for your photos, use at least a medium setting for quality/file size.
14. For scans, use 600 dpi for black and white line art, and 300 dpi for color or grayscale (including photos).

 Tables

The data presented in tables should neither be duplicated in figures nor reviewed extensively in the text.

Size

For Transactions of the ASABE and Applpied Engineering in Agriculture, prepare each table to fit either one column (20 picas, ~8,.5 cm) or the page width (41 picas, ~17.4 cm). Tables in Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health and Biological Engineering Transactions should be NO wider than 28 picas, ~11.9 cm.

Other formatting rules

1. Number the tables consecutively and refer to them in the text as table 1, table 2, etc.
2. Supply a descriptive caption for each table
3. Please make your table in MS Word. Do not submit tables in a graphic format.
4. Do not include excessive text in the column headings. Place explantory information in the table caption, in the manuscript text, or in a footnote at the bottom of the table.
5. Do not include columns of data that can be easily calculated from other columns
6. Use horizontal rules to separate elements within a table. You may place additional rules under subheads or under heads that span two or more columns, and you may need to insert blank columns to achieve this. (as in the sample table).
7.  Use bracketed superscripted letters ([a], [b], [c], etc.) for explanatory footnotes within the table (as in the sample table). Assign footnotes to elements within a table in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom sequence.
8. Use asteriks (*, **) to indicate statistical significance, and explain the significance in a footnote.
9. Use lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.) to indicate statistical relationships among elements within a table, and explain the relationships in a footnote.

Equations

Rules on Equation

• Do NOT derive or reproduce recognized equations; rather, cite a reference to a source and refer to the equation by its standard name. State only those assumptions and initial boundary conditions needed to understand the development of the equation.
• For new equations, state all assumptions and initial boundary conditions and give sufficient derivation for the reader to understand the development. Show only those mathematical steps required for comprehension. Interpret the significance of the mathematics, and indicate the accuracy and range of usefulness of the equations.

Other formatting rules

Insert each equation into your manuscript at the point where you would like it to appear in the published article. Small equations may be incorporated in the text. Equations that are separate from the text are introduced by the preceding text and a colon (see the sample equation). These equations are numbered consecutively. Refer to numbered equation as equation 1, equation 2, or in parentheses as. e.g., (eq. 1)

1. When you can, prepare equations in using standard word-processing functions, superscripting, subscripting, and the Symbol font. Other use equation-editing software such as Equation Editor or MathType. Do not create equations that become graphic elements in Word as these cannot be edited.
2. The type style in the equation must match the type style in the corresponding text. Italicize lowercase variables. Do not italicize Greek Letters.
3. Supply the equation number, in parentheses, to the RIGHT of the equation. Do not include the equation number within the equation editor box.
4. Definte variables and supply SI units. If there are more than two such elements in an equation, then list them individually after the equation (as in the sample equation).

References

List all cited references at the end of the text in the References section.

Rules on General Organization of References

• Arrange the list alphabetically by the name of the first author; for references with more than on author, further arrange the list alphabetically by the names of the second author, third author, etc,
• List CHRONOLOGICALLY two or more references by the same author (or authors) from oldest to most recent.
• indicate, by adding letters after the year of publication, two or more references by the same author(s) in the same year
  e.g., 2007a, 2007b
• For use of abbreviations in references, see above in "Abbreviations in References".

Storage of torrefied pellets

http://www.bioenergy2020.eu/files/publications/pdf/3DO.2.1_Ehrig_etal_paper_homepage.pdf
Ehrig, R., Gugler, H., Kristöfel, C., Pointner, C., Schmutzer-Roseneder, I., Feldmeier, S., . . . Schipfer, F.Economic comparison of torrefaction-based and conventional pellet production-to-end-use chains.

Storage of torrefied pellets

Initial status

Diameter is 8 mm, their moisture content is about 10%.

Method of storage

After one month storage during January and February 2013, the storage pile was snow-covered and first samples were extracted from the surface and from inside the pile.

After storage status

The pellets on the surface

The surface of the pile is completely decomposed and wet
The consistency of the material is loose, crumbly and very similar to flower pot soil.
This layer of wet material had a depth of ca. 30 cm.

The pellet inside the pile

The torrefied pellets are in their original condition

CONCLUSION: The torrefied pellets purchased from the European market are not hydrophobic and their suitability for uncovered storage is limited.

RECOMMENDATION: The torrefied pellets should be handled, transported and stored similar to wood pellets.

2013-06-20 Day 2 BFN AGM

BFN AGM
Day 1

It is a sunny day. I woke up at 5.45am and felt hungry. There were nothing for me to eat. So I decided to get up and slack on my laptop. I ate my oat at about 6:30am and took a shower. 7:30 am, I was downstair, filling my stomach with delicious breakfast.

8:30am to 9:25am Welcome Remarks
1. CEO of BFN Donald Smith
He said Network's Premise is to satisfy the urgen need to develop sustainable and renewable energy sources from non-food materials. He called for proposal for new feedstocks which is not food and social, economic, environmental sustainability (SEES) proposal as well.

2. A member of the BFN director board Esteban Chornet
To make the biofuel production sustainable, we have to have many small immediate plants and a central depot/biorefinery plant to allow the most economic biofuel production

3. Secretary of BFN Lisa
"Looking for staff and funding is the fun of my job."
It is time to do a focused research and integrate all the research to focus on a set of defined goals, especially the SEES theme.
The most relevant research is one which combined industrial objectives and scientific understanding. Dr. S said that is exactly what my project is.

4. Jorin Mamen
Jorin's speech is so engaging. I totally focused on listening to his speech without making any notes. Now I forgot about what he said. :( That is so sad for me.

10:40am - 12:35pm
Dr S assigned me, Hamid and Asal to different meetings at different platforms. I got the central platform meeting. Dr S made me to present 3 slides before the meeting. So I embraced myself and tried to present what I know. I stammered but I got through it.
For other researchers in Central Platform, they presented mostly about pyrolysis bio-oil.
One interesting one is about Red Mud -- an alkali waste product of aluminum extraction (Bayce) process, which consist of Fe2O3, Al2O3, SiO2, and other oxide of metals. Dr Marcel Schiaf said that the red mud can be used to neutralize acidic pyrolysis bio-oil. Red mud itself will be partially reduced to simpler iron/titanium ore and bio-oil is activated to a neutral clear organic liquid.

1:30-2:30pm
Professor in Chemical Engineering Dept of UQTR
Described a reactor mobile to produce pyrolysis bio-oil.
His final messages are
1. Techno-economic studies are MANDATORY before implementing any biofuel refinery
2. Proper use of biomass will be a key Canadian asset in the future due to the size in forest residue available to us
3. Cost is always a problem, but when crude oil is high in price, biofuel will be attractive. Also, climate change is a good driver for the biofuel research, but it is not everything.

Day 1 in BFN AGM

BFN AGM

Day 1 (June 19, 2013)

Arrive at Holiday Inn Midtown Montreal at 5pm, Paid Taxi $45

6:30pm to 9pm

Reception and Registration

1.       Meet David (UBC MASc) here, talked about his research on TGA, he said there is a lot of (Gaussian) noise.

2.       Meet BFN talent manager, he is very good at marketing his idea. He said for emailing, I only need to be myself. Be polite enough, the email recipient will understand.

3.       Talked to a group of U of Toronto students (1 MSc and 2 Phd). They’re doing combustion modeling, modeling of black soot from biomass combustion

4.       Talk to Annie from BFN! :D She said sometimes when she is busy, she might answer very short and to the point. So don’t take it personally.

5.       Meet an Indian guy from U of Western Ontario (?), He worked on upgrade of bio-oil by fractionation for his Master. Currently he is a research engineer for his research group , researching on bitumen.

6.       Meet a Vietnamese guy (Nyguen), MSc in University of Manitoba. He worked on finding which gene in wheat control the expression of lignin. There is actually 10 types of lignin in wheat. He worked  on Eucalyptus plantation for his Master in Vietnam. To solve the problem with Eucalptus, he suggested rotation with other plants.

2013-06-15 Link for ECN biomass

ECN is the Energy research Center of Netherlands.
It provides an extensive database on the chemical and physical properties of biomass, such as elemental composition, calorific values and so on. The link is as below.
http://www.ecn.nl/phyllis2/

The terms, such as HHV, LHV, ultimate analysis and proximate analysis, used in this database is defined by the link below:
http://www.ecn.nl/phyllis/defs.asp

Today I'm reading ECN slides/report, entitled "Torrefaction – product quality optimisation in view of logistics and end-use". The internet link for the report is shown below.
http://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2013/l13028.pdf

2013-05-21 Literature review and Rainy day

The day was a rainy day. It is always a hassle to bring an umbrella to UBC and to step in ponds of water. 

In this gloomy day, I felt extra productive and I started on reading journal article that Google Scholar feed to me and writing down points that are of interest to me. Below is two article that I found interesting and I wish to share with anyone that is reading my blog.

Wolff, D., Walsh, E., & McDonnell, K. (2013). Practical experience with woody biomass in a down-draft gasifier. Journal of Technology Innovations in Renewable Energy. 2. 47-52.
This article compares the gasification products of Argentinian and German wood pellets. It concluded that German wood pellets are better than Argentinian one because:
(1) The German pellets have higher methane content (4.4%volume versus 2.8%volume).
(2) The German pellets have lower CO and H2 content. 
(3) Argentinian pellets harden on the gasifier wall after gasification while German pellets do not.

I agree with points (1) and (3) but I do not agree with (2). Higher CO and H2 should be made the syngas better to be burned in internal combustion engine.

Gillespie, G. D., Everard, C. D., Fagan, C. C., & McDonnell, K. P.Prediction of quality parameters of biomass pellets from proximate and ultimate analysis. Fuel, (0) doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2013.05.002

I like how this article describes High Heating Value (HHV). "HHV is a measure of chemical energy bound in a feedstock; this energy is released during combustion. HHV is considered the single most important property of solid biofuels; it is necessary for the design and operation of both small- and large-scale boiler to ensure biomass optimization in energy production, as well as the storage facility design."
The article have done an impressive work on statistically analysis. I should write my manuscript based on the article.

I continue on learning R and writing up. I am getting the hang of R and started writing some basic functions. These functions are awesome! For the example that I am showing, If I need to calculate a regressed response variable NCV ratio, y_r at storage time, D = 100, temperature, T = 100C, moisture content, MC = 10%, sealed C=0, white wood pellet P=1, I simply call pelletsensitivity(D=100, T=100, MC=10%, C=0, P=1), and bamp! I got my NCV ratio. (It is called pelletsensitivity because it is used for my sensitivity analysis!)

I have been focusing only on working on my R codes for a while.  But it is only 3 weeks before the BioFuelNet Conference!!! My task is to create a poster. I should do it as soon as possible.

2013-05-15 Meeting day, and new regression equation

Today morning at 8:30am, there should have been an individual meeting for me with Dr. S. He had mentioned in an email to me, he was busy with a phone call and was not able to come to the department on time. But I decided to wait for him with a hope that he might come. After 45 minutes of waiting while reading for the book I will mention in the following paragraph, I decided to return to my office.

I was reading a small book called "Statistics: A Very Short Introduction" by David J. Hand.
Its preface, saying that "The modern discipline (statistics) is all about the use of advanced software tools to aid perception and provide ways to shed light, routes to understanding, instruments for monitoring and guiding, and systems to assist decision-making",  is very encouraging for students to learn and use statistics.

The author says, "the misconception of statistics lies with those who do not understand what the numbers are saying, or who wilfully misuse the results. We do not blame a gun for murdering someone: rather it is the person firing the gun who is blamed." Personally, I think that is very true.

A news article from domain.b.com reported a finding from a journal article in Nature Chemistry "The hydrodeoxygenation of bioderived furans into alkanes", saying that the furans generated from hemi-cellulose and cellulose of non-food biomass can be converted to medium-chain alkanes, which are essentially the gasoline that we use in our cars!! One of my colleagues, Dr. Kumar is working on optimizing the enzymatic  conversion of cellulose to glucose for the purpose of ethanol production. He had published a number of journal articles related to that. He might be interested to know about this new process.

In the remaining of the day, I continue working on my linear regression with the help from David. He told me an important point about linear regression: "If you cannot explain the interaction terms, then leave them. They will ask you what do you mean by the product of temperature and moisture content. Stick with only the main effects (storage time X1,  moisture content X2, temperature X3, storage configuration X4 and pellet type X5)." Really, what does the product of temperature and moisture content tell you....?

So, without the interaction, I only have this not-so-sophisticated equation, with a lower R-squared value than before:

  But I'm happy with it because it is way easier to explain, for example, +0.01163X2 means that the ratio of NCVi/NCVf increases as moisture content X2 increases. To validate my regression modal, a cross validation with R function cv.glm was performed. The average residual that I got is 0.009, which is bigger than I expected. I expected somewhere around 0.005 or less.

Next step is to perform probit regression on the same data to see whether the method helps.

2013-05-11 Deep Cove Hiking Trip and R Gui

I went to Deep Cove today with my girlfriend for a hiking trip which was organized by UBC Graduate Student Society. The trip was a great chance for me to socialize with fellow graduate students and  It was a cloudy day and enjoy the greenery scenery of Deep Cove, North Vancouver. From the picture below, you can see that today was a cloudy day, with chances of rain.

 

But the trip turned out fantastic! The sun came out in the late morning. When we successfully reached the Quarry Rock after a 1 hour hike, the breathtaking view simply took my breath away!!

We had a brunch at the famous Honey Doughnuts & Goodies, and had a specialty doughnut. The food was good, but I had better doughnut (shown below).

After a good day of relaxation, the things that I am going to do are (1) to learn R, a statistical programming software from Youtube and (2) to talk to my parents.

 

Youtube is a great source of knowledge! A lot of times, simply reading doesn't allow deep understanding of a topic. An interactive video will usually offer a more comprehensive insight into the matter.

2013-05-09 Cooler sunny day, and linear regression

After a couple of days of sunny days, a thin blanket of haze has started to cover the sky of the city of Vancouver. Every time when this happens, it reminds me of what Dr. Lau taught me during my air pollution class: The haze in Vancouver is created from a chain of photochemical processes that creates nitrogen oxides from the emissions from cards under the condition of prolonged UV ray exposure. In other words, haze is inevitable in Vancouver during a week of sunny days. The beautiful North Shore mountains were covered by the haze.

Yesterday was my meeting day. I met my supervisor, Dr S, met with my workshop organizing commitee and met with my kind friend, David. Using a free statistical software, called R Gui, he helped me to generate a very very good multivariate (5 variables) linear regression from my net calorific value data with a R-squared value of 0.835!! He is the man of statistics!!

My previous attempts resulted in R-squared values that were only 0.700 or LOWER. Below is the resulted equation. It is pretty complicated eh? But only the highlighted terms are statistically significant, which means it can be simplified by omitting terms that are not highlighted.

However, I'm still figuring out how to present this to the VP of Pinnacle REG....
That is what I have spent my day reading and writing about.

Gym time! I shall stretch some of my muscles to release some stress.

2013-5-6 Nice weather continues

It was a gorgeous sunny day in Vancouver. I picked up a 24 hrs newspaper, and said a Malaysian election-related news!

In my office in UBC CHBE, I continued reading and writing notes on my "Experimental Design" book. It is very well-written and uses examples intensively. However, learning things by myself has been tiring, but I keep telling myself to keep going, only by pushing myself that I can learn. A friend of mine, David, who has a Master in Statistics, is willing to help me. He is working on his biomass logistics simulation project too. I wondered, was I a bit pushy..?

Yesterday, my supervisor, Dr. S sent me an email, saying: "it is a good time to start on writing my manuscript  for publication for my project on the effect of ageing on the net calorific values of wood pellet."
I searched up on how to write a journal article and found some articles in the UBC library, but yet to start digging in. This book caught my eye: "writing your journal article in 12 weeks: a guide to academic publishing success". A review here said that it is a good book that "offers sound advice, encouragement, and confidence building strategies that help novice writers create/recreate a written text that could be publishable". 

Later of the day, on the bus, I overheard a person, which is apparently a PhD student in UBC Electrical Engineering department  saying that if you want to go for graduate studies, make sure you are really serious about doing research. I know some people that just waste their time doing their graduate studies.

I asked myself, am I serious about doing research? The answer is a strong YES! What are the most urgent tasks that I have to do?
1. Complete my multiple variable regression for Pinnacle REG and contact them!
This is the reason that I am writing the "Experimental Design" book all day! Trying to get some ideas about the method to analyze my data.
2. Complete my description and explanation about calorific value and send to Ehsan and Dr. S.
3. Write a draft on the objectives of my project and send it to Dr S.
4. Start on creating a poster for my BioFuelNet AGM in Montreal!

Meanwhile, let me enjoy the good weather when it lasts!

2013-5-4 Good Friend, Great Weather, Continuing my reading

During this great day with great weather, I hang out with Julian in downtown Vancouver. We had lunch at VietSub Vietnamese Restaurant. Below is my food picture.

Julian is very brave to pick up a job at a house that rehabilitates pedophiles. Yesterday he worked in a graveyard shift from 12am to 8am. And had not sleep before meeting me in Vancouver downtown.

He told me that he got jobs at Wendy's and also at a Japanese Restaurant in Burnaby. Julian told me that "It is just by luck. Simply put in a couple resumes into different restaurant, then you can get a job." 

I think he meant that a job can only be obtained by approaching the employers and networking that you want to work for as shown in the wordle below by magma.ca/~raksim/jobsearch.htm. 

Being proactive, one of the most important characteristic of an effective person, is important in job search and everything else that involves social interaction.

After a long good hang-out, tonight I shall work on learning the research data analysis from the book "Experimental Design: with Application in Management, Engineering, and the Sciences". Data analysis has been long and tedious. Quoting a friend, "engineering is all about beautiful trends and patterns of data." As easy as it may sound like, creating such trends and patterns is another story. 

I shall sign off for today. Cheers!

2013-05-04 START OF MY BLOG!

It is this morning that I decided to start a blogspot to write down my thoughts and my experience during my graduate studies as a master student in chemical engineering.
It was a shock this morning that my brother sent me a message on facebook telling me that I am registered as voter. BN registered me without my consent.

Anyways, I decided that I have to write down the following EVERYDAY between 4 to 5pm!!
1. What, how did I do today. productive things or not-very-productive things
2. How did I feel today. Why did I feel this way.
2. What are the plans for tomorrow.
3. What are the interesting things that happens and the insights from it. Who did I talk to today.

As the poster here says, RESEARCH is ACTION! 
This blog is my small step to organize myself and to understand better my underlying beliefs that make me who I am.