Attaining High Temperatures

There are relatively few chemical reactions capable of heating matter to temperatures greater than 3000°K. Table II contains a list of some of these reactions and the theoretical flame temperatures attainable. These reactions have two characteristics in common (1) high exothermic heats of reaction and (2) stable molecular products with low heat capacities, since dissociation consumes energy and results in additional products which must be heated to the flame temperature. 

Theoretical Flame Temperatures op Some Highly Exothermic Reactions (A2) 

The importance of dissociation and the heat capacity of the product gases can be illustrated by comparing the reaction resulting in the highest reported flame temperature (G9) 

The reaction energy available per mole of product gas is approximately the same, 

Assuming ideal gas behavior and no dissociation, the theoretical temperatures, T, attainable from these two reactions should be proportional to the available heat of reaction divided by the average heat capacity per mole of product (C9 for CO and N2 = 8 cal./mole-°K., Cp for H20 = 11 cal./mole-°K.) (Nl). Therefore, 

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Fuel passing through certain hot zones of an aircraft can attain high temperatures moreover it is used to cool lubricants, hydraulic fluids, or air conditioning. It is therefore necessary to control the thermal stability of jet fuels, more particularly during supersonic flight where friction heat increases temperatures in the fuel tanks. 

Treatment of soils below the water table may not be feasible due to power requirements and difficulty attaining high temperatures deep in the subsurface. 

Air Preheating High temperature is attainable. High temperature is difficult to attain. 

A gas chromatograph is composed of several components within a special frame. These components include the injector, the column and the detector, associated with a thermostatically controlled oven that enables the column to attain high temperatures (Figure 2.1). The mobile phase that transports the analytes through the column is a gas referred to as the carrier gas. The carrier gas flow, which is precisely controlled, enables reproducibility of the retention times. 

To study the radiation effects on materials, a capsule test has been developed. The capsules, in u hich samples are inserted in a highly enriched U-Bi solution containing Mg and Zr inhibitors,. arc exposed in the BNL reactor and irradiated to the desired level. The test has the advantage of attaining high temperatures (700°C) and a high fission recoil density. 

The extremely high peak power densities available ia particle beams and lasers can heat the small amounts of matter ia the fuel capsules to the temperatures required for fusion. In order to attain such temperatures, however, the mass of the fuel capsules must be kept quite low. As a result, the capsules are quite small. Typical dimensions are less than 1 mm. Fuel capsules ia reactors could be larger (up to 1 cm) because of the iacreased driver energies available. 

Air preheat temperature requirements of 2250—2300 K are anticipated for natural gas-fired systems, and about 2000 K for oil or coal-fired systems (11). Use of 32—40% oxygen enrichment lowers the preheat temperature requirement to a moderate 900—1000 K, which can be attained with conventional metal-type tubular heat exchangers. Depending on the cost of oxygen, this is a viable alternative to the use of separately fired high temperature preheaters. 

High temperature is an important requirement for the attainment of fusion reactions in a plasma. The conditions necessary for extracting as much energy from the plasma as went into it is the Lawson criterion, which states that the product of the ion density and the confinement or reaction time must exceed 10 s/cm in the most favorable cases (173). If the coUisions are sufficiently violent, the Lawson criterion specifies how many of them must occur to break even. Conventional magnetic confinement involves fields of as much as 10 T (10 G) with large (1 m ) plasmas of low densities (<10 particles/cm ) and volumes and reaction times of about 1 s. If the magnetic flux can be compressed to values above 100 T (10 G), then a few cm ... 

Fig. 15. Temperature vs heat generation or removal in estabHshing stationary states. The heavy line (—) shows the effect of reaction temperature on heat-generation rates for an exothermic first-order reaction. Curve A represents a high rate of heat removal resulting in the reactor operating at a low temperature with low conversion, ie, stationary state at a B represents a low rate of heat removal and consequently both a high temperature and high conversion at its stationary state, b and at intermediate heat removal rates, ie, C, multiple stationary states are attainable, c and The stationary state at c ...

In the absence of a suitable soHd phase for deposition and in supersaturated solutions of pH values from 7 to 10, monosilicic acid polymerizes to form discrete particles. Electrostatic repulsion of the particles prevents aggregation if the concentration of electrolyte is below ca 0.2 N. The particle size that can be attained is dependent on the temperature. Particle size increases significantly with increasing temperature. For example, particles of 4—8 nm in diameter are obtained at 50—100°C, whereas particles of up to 150 nm in diameter are formed at 350°C in an autoclave. However, the size of the particles obtained in an autoclave is limited by the conversion of amorphous siUca to quartz at high temperatures. Particle size influences the stabiUty of the sol because particles <7 nm in diameter tend to grow spontaneously in storage, which may affect the sol properties. However, sols can be stabilized by the addition of sufficient alkaU (1,33). 

Low Temperature Process. The low temperature process was developed when B. licheniformis and B. stearothermophilus a-amylases became commercially available in the 1970s. These enzymes ate more thermostable, more acidutic, and requite less calcium for stabiUty than the B. subtilis enzyme used in the EHE process. Consequendy, the high temperature EHE heat treatment step was no longer requited to attain efficient Hquefaction. 

Dual-Enzyme Processes. In some cases, especially in symp production in Europe, a Hquefaction process is used that incorporates both a thermostable enzyme and a high temperature heat treatment. This type of process provides better hydrolyzate tilterabiHty than that attained in an acid Hquefaction process (9). Consequendy, dual-enzyme processes were developed that utilized multiple additions of either B. licheniformis or B. stearothermophilus a-amylase and a heat treatment step (see Eig. 1). 

The original catalysts for this process were iodide-promoted cobalt catalysts, but high temperatures and high pressures (493 K and 48 MPa) were required to achieve yields of up to 60% (34,35). In contrast, the iodide-promoted, homogeneous rhodium catalyst operates at 448—468 K and pressures of 3 MPa. These conditions dramatically lower the specifications for pressure vessels. Yields of 99% acetic acid based on methanol are readily attained (see Acetic acid Catalysis). 

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