Influence of pre-sowing treatment of flax seeds in a magnetic field on biometric indices of plants

Pre-sowing treatment of flax seeds in a magnetic field increases its yield, reduces plant morbidity, improves their biochemical parameters and product quality. Under the action of the magnetic field, the rate of chemical and biochemical reactions in flax seeds, solubility of salts and acids, biopotential, ion transport, membrane permeability, seed water absorption and oxygen concentration in cells increases, which has a positive effect on plant growth and development. It is established that the change in the biometric parameters of flax during pre-sowing treatment of seeds in a magnetic field depends on the square of the magnetic induction, the gradient of the magnetic field and the velocity of the seeds. Based on the experimentally obtained growth curves of flax plants, it can be concluded that during pre-sowing treatment of seeds in a magnetic field, plants have the best biometric indicators throughout the growing season. The best biometric indicators were in plants whose seeds were treatment in a magnetic field with a magnetic induction of 0.065 T, with four-fold re-magnetization, a magnetic field gradient of 0.57 T / m (pole division of 0.23 m) and a seed velocity of 0.4 m/s. Under this mode of pre-sowing treatment of seeds in a magnetic field, the length of flax stalks increased by 10.5 %, straw yield - by 0.7 t/ ha, seeds - 0.79 t/ ha. Key words: flax, seeds, magnetic induction, seed velocity, magnetic field gradient, plant biometrics

Influence of magnetic field on sowing quality of flax seeds

The use of pre-sowing treatment of flax seeds in a magnetic field makes it possible to increase yields, reduce plant morbidity, increase their biochemical parameters and product quality. When treatment flax seeds in a magnetic field, the rate of chemical reactions, ion transport, membrane permeability, seed water absorption and oxygen concentration in the cells increase, which contributes to the improvement of seed sowing qualities. It is established that the change of sowing qualities of flax seeds during their treatment in a magnetic field depends on the square of magnetic induction, the gradient of the magnetic field and the movement velocity of seeds. With a change in magnetic induction from 0 to 0.065 T germination energy and germination of flax seeds increase, and with a further increase in magnetic induction begin to decrease. The change in sowing qualities of flax seeds is influenced by the velocity of their movement in the magnetic field and the gradient of the magnetic field, although they are less significant factors than magnetic induction. The best results were at lower velocity values and a larger magnetic field gradient. The most effective mode of pre-sowing treatment of flax seeds in a magnetic field is a magnetic induction of 0.065 T with four-fold re-magnetization, a magnetic field gradient of 0.57 T/m and a velocity of 0.4 m/s. With this mode of pre-sowing treatment of flax seeds in a magnetic field, the energy of seed germination increased by 30 % compared to the control, and germination - by 26 %.

Numerical Investigation of Oxygen Permeation Through a Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ Ion Transport Membrane With Impingement Flow

Ion transport membrane (ITM) is considered to be one of the promising techniques for the separation of oxygen from the air for clean energy applications. Studying flow configurations of gases around Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF) membrane is presented and discussed in this paper. The effects of the sweep mass flow rate and impingement configurations for the gases flow in the feed and permeation sides have been investigated. In this regard, flow with single or double impingement and impingement with different angles have been simulated and analyzed in order to identify the configurations that would provide the maximum permeation flux. Results show that increasing the sweep flow rate, directly, increases the oxygen permeation flux. It is also found that, in case of single impingement, decreasing the distance between the nozzle and the membrane (H), directly, increases the oxygen permeation flux for constant sweep side nozzle (slot) width (D). The permeation flux increases from around 2.9–3.66 µmole/cm2 s for the ratio H:D from1:1 to 1:4 (i.e., decreasing H to one-fourth of its value). Results show that the double impingement flow gives lower results than the single impingements by about 35.7%. The results also revealed that the optimum configuration is the parallel flow with vacuum in the sweeping side, which gives the highest permeation flux with an increase of more than 41% from that of the parallel configuration with a sweeping gas. Using carbon dioxide as a sweeping gas is better than helium.

Use of Ion Transport Membrane for Oxygen Generation to Enhance the Performance of the Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell System

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) processes have been studied to reduce carbon dioxide in power generation, especially in coal plants because they have been highlighted as the main source of carbon dioxide emission. In this study, the impact of oxygen supply method on the performance of the integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) with carbon capture was compared. The target system is based on a solid oxide fuel cell and uses the syngas produced by coal gasification as a fuel. In the reference IGFC, the oxygen required for gasification and oxy-combustion is separated through an air separation unit (ASU). On the other hand, in the system proposed in this study, oxygen is separated through an ion transport membrane (ITM). The temperature and pressure conditions, as well as the purity of the oxygen separated from the ITM, were assumed to be the same as those of the oxygen separated from the ASU, and the composition of the syngas was kept constant. The proposed system indicated a 4.0% increase in output and a 1.6%p increase in efficiency compared to that of the reference IGFC. In addition, performance was analyzed according to the operating condition of the ITM, and the change in performance within its possible operating range was found to be less than 0.3%, which was insignificant.