Earticle

Arsenic (As) is one of the elements having most harmful impact on the human health. Arsenic is a known carcinogen and arsenic contamination of drinking water is affecting on humans in many regions of the world. Adsorption has been proved most preferable technique for the removal of arsenic. Many researchers have studied various types of solid materials as arsenic adsorbent, and iron oxide and its modified forms are considered as the most effective adsorbent in terms of adsorption capacity, recovery, and economics. However, most of all iron oxides have small surface area in comparing with common adsorbents in environmental application such as activated carbon but the activated carbon has weak sorption affinity for arsenic. We have used an activated carbon as base adsorbent and iron oxide coating on the activated carbon as high affinity sorption sites and giving magnetic attraction ability. In this study, adsorption properties of arsenic and magnetic separation efficiency of the magnetized activated carbon (MAC) were evaluated with variable iron oxide content. As the iron oxide content of the MAC increased, adsorption capacity has also gradually increased up to a point where clogging by iron oxide in the pore of activated carbon compensate the increased sorption capacity. The increase of iron oxide content of the MAC also affected magnetic properties, which resulted in greater magnetic separation efficiency. Current results show that magnetically modified common adsorbent can be an efficiency improved adsorbent and a feasible environmental process if it is combined with the magnetic separation.

Removal of iron oxide scale from feed-water in thermal power plant can improve power generation efficiency. We have proposed a novel scale removal system utilizing High Gradient Magnetic Separation (HGMS). This system can be applied to high temperature and pressure area. We have conducted the lab-scale model experiments using φ50 mm filters and it demonstrated high removal efficiency in HGMS, but scale-up of the system is required toward practical use. In this study, we conducted a large scale mock-up HGMS experiment. We used the superconducting solenoidal magnet with φ400 mm bore and demonstrated that our HGMS system can achieve sufficient scale removal capacity that is required to introduce into both off-line and on-line system.

In this study, a cancer treatment by accumulating and aggregating ferromagnetic particles in newborn blood vessels was examined. It is necessary for this treatment to control dispersion-aggregation property of ferromagnetic particles. Ferromagnetic particles required in this method disperse at low magnetic field, aggregate at high magnetic field and maintain the aggregation even after removal of the magnetic field. In order to control the dispersion-aggregation property, the surface of magnetite particles was modified with higher fatty acids having different lengths. As a result, we succeeded to prepare propionic acid-modified magnetite particles that form irreversible aggregation by magnetic field. The model experiments simulating newborn blood vessels showed that these particles can block the flow by the magnetic field, and the blockage was maintained after removal of the magnetic field.

Comprehensive utilization of zinc smelting iron slag not only solves environmental problems but also creates huge economic benefits. This study was conducted on the enrichment and recovery of α-Fe2O3 from zinc smelting iron slag by superconducting HGMS technology. Several variables such as slurry flow velocity, slag concentration, magnetic field intensity and the amount of dispersing agent were tested in magnetic separation. In the experiments, obtained optimal magnetic separation parameters were 1.60 T of magnetic flux intensity, 600 mL/min of slurry flow velocity of, 15 g/L of slag concentration of, 0.10 g/L of dispersing agent. Under this condition, the content of α-Fe2O3 was increased from 86.22% to 94.39% that can approach the Chinese national standard requirements (A level) of iron oxide red. It was concluded that using superconducting HGMS technology was an effective method for the purification of α-Fe2O3 from zinc smelting iron slag.

The practical use of superconducting magnets is limited to medical equipment, energy equipment and the like. Therefore, it does not fully utilize the superior features of superconducting magnet or magnetic force. In order to overcome this blockage condition, The international Forum on Magnetic Force Control (IFMFC) was launched in Tokyo in 2010 by the magnetic separation researchers in Japan, Korea and China. The policy is to hold around the country every year, to apply the application to the engineering field of magnetic force utilization and information exchange about the development of applied science to mutual visit of researchers and to develop the application field of superconducting magnets in particular. The main object is to review the field of application of magnetic force with respect to published papers at 8 IFMFCs, and to introduce the trend of research forum utilizing strong magnetic force which is rare in the world. The United Nations is asking each country to achieve Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) targets for 2030. This IFMFC review will be utilized in this field.

To understand the effects of Cd substitution for Cu, (Pb0.5Cu0.5-xCdx)Sr2(Ca0.7Y0.3)Cu2Oz (x = 0 ∼ 0.5) compounds were synthesized and the structural and superconducting properties of the compounds were characterized. Resistivity data revealed that superconducting transition temperature rises initially up to x = 0.25 and then decreases as the Cd doping content increases. Room-temperature thermoelectric power decreases at first up to x = 0.25 and then increases with higher Cd doping content, indicating that the change in Tc is mainly caused by the change in the hole concentration on the superconducting planes by the Cd doping. The non-monotonic dependence of the lattice parameters and the transition temperature with Cd doping content is discussed in connection with the possible formation of Pb+2 ions and the removal of excess oxygen caused by Cd substitution in the charge reservoir layer. A correlation between transition temperature and c/a lattice parameter ratio was observed for the (Pb0.5Cu0.5-xCdx)Sr2(Ca0.7Y0.3)Cu2Oz system.

Although high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets have the potential merit of producing ultra-high field (>25 T), they have been not easy to apply to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) because of the difficulty of field homogeneity improvement. This paper presents a design technique of passive shimming for HTS magnets. Ferromagnetic shimming design code was developed though MALAB, which includes the optimization algorithm. The proper shim element size was determined by a simulation. This design technique was verified by a case study design of a 3-T HTS magnet. We succeed to improve field homogeneity of the magnet from 634 ppm to 6.39 ppm at 10-mm diameter sphere volume. Feasibility of passive shimming for all-HTS NMR magnet was confirmed by this result.

A cryogenic cooling system is designed for a 154 kV/ 2 kA three-phase hybrid type superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL). The superconducting modules of the SFCL have the operating condition of 71 K at 500 kPa. The total heat load of the SFCL including the cooling system is estimated at 9.6 kW. The cooling system of the closed loop is configured to meet the operating condition, depending on cooling methods of forced flow cooling and re-liquefaction cooling. The cooling system is composed of three cryostats with superconducting modules, cryocoolers, liquid nitrogen circulation pumps, a subcooler and a pressure builder. The basic cooling concept is to circulate liquid nitrogen between three SFCL cryostats and the cryocooler, while maintaining the operating pressure. The design criterion for the cooling system is based on the operation results of the cooling system for a 154 kV/ 2 kA single-phase hybrid SFCL. The specifications of system components including the piping system are determined according to the design criterion.