Ruey-Chyuan Shih

A single-chamber microbial fuel cell without an air cathode.

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent a novel technology for wastewater treatment with electricity production. Electricity generation with simultaneous nitrate reduction in a single-chamber MFC without air cathode was studied, using glucose (1 mM) as the carbon source and nitrate (1 mM) as the final electron acceptor employed by Bacillus subtilis under anaerobic conditions. Increasing current as a function of decreased nitrate concentration and an increase in biomass were observed with a maximum current of 0.4 mA obtained at an external resistance (Rext) of 1 KΩ without a platinum catalyst of air cathode. A decreased current with complete nitrate reduction, with further recovery of the current immediately after nitrate addition, indicated the dependence of B. subtilis on nitrate as an electron acceptor to efficiently produce electricity. A power density of 0.0019 mW/cm2 was achieved at an Rext of 220 Ω. Cyclic voltammograms (CV) showed direct electron transfer with the involvement of mediators in the MFC. The low coulombic efficiency (CE) of 11% was mainly attributed to glucose fermentation. These results demonstrated that electricity generation is possible from wastewater containing nitrate, and this represents an alternative technology for the cost-effective and environmentally benign treatment of wastewater.

Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique With Finite Source Element for Focused Transducers

A spherically focused transducer (SFT) can concentrate the ultrasounds to a focal zone that yields a better lateral resolution at a certain axial range. Unfortunately, this result is always accompanied by a loss of resolution outside the focal zone. The synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) is a type of digital signal processing technique that is commonly based on the point-source wavefront backpropagation (WFBP) theory to improve the axial resolution of the image. However, the ultrasound is refracted when it propagates through the couplant–specimen interface to detect the flaws in specimens; thus, the capability of a virtual point-source SAFT in refocusing ultrasonic energy is deteriorated caused by the phase aberration by an SFT. Therefore, in this study, the finite source element (FSE) refraction corrected WFBP SAFT imaging method will be introduced to reduce the phase aberration effect when refocusing a defocused ultrasonic image. Study results show that the axial resolution of the image is largely improved by this technique, but improvement is not yet attained in the lateral resolution. In addition, the signal-to-noise ratio of the image is enhanced. Therefore, for cases with a strong phase aberration, the proposed method is recommended for obtaining better image resolution.

Traveltimes and conversion-point positions for P-SV converted wave propagation in a transversely isotropic medium: numerical calculations and physical model studies

This study uses ultrasonic physical modelling to test the accuracies of numerical calculations of traveltimes and conversion-point (CP) positions for P-SV wave propagation in a horizontal transversely isotropic (TI) medium. Study results show that the traveltimes and CP positions for P-SV wave propagation on the isotropic plane of a TI medium computed using Fermat’s minimum-time principle are the same as those of using the isotropic non-hyperbolic moveout equation and the isotropic CP equation. However, for P-SV wave propagation on the symmetry-axis plane of a TI medium, the arrival times and CP positions of SV-waves are difficult to determine by any ray methods when the propagation directions of SV-waves are within the cuspoidal SV-wave group velocities zone. But the first arrival times and the propagation of the dominant energy of P-SV waves can still be analysed by ray methods. Based on the calculation of Fermat’s minimum-time principle, if the source-receiver offset is greater than a critical distance, the reflection angles of the converted SV-waves are fixed at a specific angle with a local maximum SV-wave group velocity of the neighbourhood area. This is because the converted SV-waves prefer to propagate along the cuspoidal directions with larger amplitude and higher velocity. Verified by the physical modelling, the Fermat’s minimum-time principle used to calculate traveltimes of P-SV waves is better than the anisotropic non-hyperbolic moveout equation. The physical modelling for the CP position experiment can give a clearer visualisation of the variations of CP positions in the profile, and the feasibility of using Fermat’s minimum-time principle to determine CP positions is also better than that of the anisotropic CP equations. Therefore, in the seismic data processing, Fermat’s minimum-time method is recommended to accurately determine the arrival times and CP positions of P-SV wave propagation in TI media. This study uses ultrasonic physical modelling to verify that Fermat’s minimum-time principle is better than the anisotropic non-hyperbolic moveout and conversion-point (CP) equations for calculating the traveltime and CP position of a P-SV wave reflected from a strong vertical transversely isotropic medium.