[en] In our previous work, a significant improvement in organosilicon monomer distillation using parallel double-effect heat integration between a heavies removal column and six other columns, as well as heat integration between methyltrichlorosilane and dimethylchlorosilane columns, reduced the total exergy loss of the currently running counterpart by 40.41%. Further research regarding this optimized scheme demonstrated that it was necessary to reduce the higher operating pressure of the methyltrichlorosilane column, which is required for heat integration between the methyltrichlorosilane and dimethylchlorosilane columns. Therefore, in this contribution, a challenger scheme is presented with heat pumps introduced separately from the originally heat-coupled methyltrichlorosilane and dimethylchlorosilane columns in the above-mentioned optimized scheme, which is the prototype for this work. Both schemes are simulated using the same purity requirements used in running industrial units. The thermodynamic properties from the simulation are used to calculate the energy consumption and exergy loss of the two schemes. The results show that the heat pump option further reduces the flowsheet energy consumption and exergy loss by 27.35% and 10.98% relative to the prototype scheme. These results indicate that the heat pumps are superior to heat integration in the context of energy-savings during organosilicon monomer distillation. - Highlights: • Combine the paralleled double-effect and heat pump distillation to organosilicon distillation. • Compare the double-effect with the heat pump in saving energy. • Further cut down the flowsheet energy consumption and exergy loss by 27.35% and 10.98% respectively

[en] The major problem of the energy production in oil refineries is the high emission of CO₂ in China. The fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCC) is the key source of carbon emission in the oil refineries. According to the statistical data, the carbon emission of FCC unit accounts for more than 31% for the typical oil refineries. The carbon flow of FCC in the typical Chinese oil refineries were evaluated and analysed, which aimed at the solution of CO₂ emission reduction. The method of substances flow analysis (SFA) and the mathematical programming were used to evaluate the carbon metabolism and optimize the carbon emission. The results indicated that the combustion emission of the reaction-regeneration subsystem (RRS) was the major source of FCC. The quantity of CO₂ emission of RSS was more than 90%. The combustion efficiency and the amount of residual oil affected the carbon emission of RRS most according to the optimized analysis of carbon emission reduction. Moreover, the fractionation subsystem (TFS) had the highest environmental efficiency and the absorption-stabilization subsystem (ASS) had the highest resource efficiency (approximately to 1) of carbon. (paper)

[en] Emerging evidence shows that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is implicated in numerous kinds of malignant cancers, including ovarian cancer. In this study, we focused on the expression and function of long noncoding RNA lung cancer associated transcript 1 (LUCAT1) in ovarian cancer progression. We indicated that LUCAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in ovarian cancer tissues. Moreover, LUCAT1 expression was positively associated with tumor metastasis and clinical stage. Elevated expression of LUCAT1 decreased the survival rate of patients with ovarian cancer. In addition, we revealed that repression of LUCAT1 significantly suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion, whereas promoted apoptotic rate. Through online predictive tools and functional experiments, we demonstrated that LUCAT1 and HOXA13 were targets of miR-612. We showed that LUCAT1 and miR-612 suppressed each other in a reciprocal way. Moreover, LUCAT1 promoted HOXA13 expression through inhibition of miR-612, eventually leading to ovarian cancer development. In conclusion, our findings revealed a novel molecular mechanism that LUCAT1/miR-612/HOXA13 pathway modulates ovarian cancer progression.

[en] Highlights: • A home-designed bench-scale modular flowing-through electrolysis cells is proposed. • The MFTECs enables higher electrode active surface area and lower cell resistance. • An H-cell is used to study the unknown electrochemical behaviors. • A visualization study of the CO₂ desorption process in MFTECs was conducted. • An impressive increase of desorption current to 5 A can be achieved. Electrochemically-mediated amine regeneration (EMAR) is a new CO₂ capture technology with the potential to exploit the excellent removal efficiencies of thermal amine scrubbers while reducing parasitic energy losses and capital costs. To achieve higher efficiency and explore the industrial application of the promising EMAR system, a home-designed bench-scale modular flowing-through electrolysis cells (MFTECs) is proposed. The MFTECs with MEA solvent is carefully analyzed from electrochemical mechanism to bench-scale demonstration. Firstly, a series of electrochemical experiments were conducted in an H-cell to study the unknown electrochemical behaviors under various complex concentrations and temperatures, which provided a guidance to enhance the electrochemical performance. Subsequently, a visualization study of the CO₂ desorption process in MFTECs was conducted at different operating conditions (current, complex concentration, electrode position, and reaction time) to investigate the desorption performance of the proposed MFTECs system. This framework allowed for direct observation and comprehension of the CO₂ desorption process, as well as the movement and interaction of CO₂ bubbles in MFTECs. Finally, results indicated that the proposed MFTECs enables higher electrode active surface area and lower cell resistance. This will contribute to enhancing the regeneration performance and promoting industrial application of CO₂ desorption based on EMAR.