“You're searching, Joe, for things that don't
exist; I mean beginnings. Ends and beginnings -- there are no such things.
There are only middles.” Robert Frost (American poet, 1874-1963)
ProQuest (http://www.proquest.com/)
serves as a clearinghouse for dissertations produced by graduate students from
all over the U.S. Most of the ProQuest
dissertations must be purchased.
However, some of them are available at no charge.
Use the link below to search and retrieve all open access dissertations:
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com
For example, searching
the ProQuest open access database for hydrocarbon results in several hits, among which
is …
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Recycling Carbon
Dioxide into Sustainable Hydrocarbon Fuels: Electrolysis of Carbon Dioxide and
Water
by Graves, Christopher Ronald, Ph.D.
Columbia University. 2010: 282 pages.
The purpose of this work was to develop critical components of a system that
recycles CO2 into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The concept is examined at several
scales, beginning with a broad scope analysis of large-scale sustainable energy
systems and ultimately studying electrolysis of CO2 and H2O in high temperature
solid oxide cells as the heart of the energy conversion, in the form of three
experimental studies. The contributions of these studies include discoveries
about electrochemistry and materials that could significantly improve the overall
energy use and economics of the CO2-to-fuels system.
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TIP:
Remember that there are lots more dissertations that are NOT open access. If you don’t find what you’re looking for in
the open access pool,
try searching for the dissertations in the restricted pool.
Searching
ProQuest open access for desulfurization, for example, will result in 0
hits. That just means there are no
dissertations listed in the ProQuest open access
database on the topic of desulfurization. Searching the complete ProQuest database would
yield much different results.
“There is always
a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity.” -- Paul Gauguin (French
painter, printmaker, and sculptor, 1848-1903)
China’s State Key Laboratory for Heavy Oil Processing has produced a number of interesting
articles over the years. Two of them are
listed below, along with links to the full text of each.
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Preface to the
special issue of the “2nd Saudi-Chinese Oil Refinery Forum (SCORF)”: advances
in multiple catalytic strategies for producing cleaner fuels and petrochemicals
Free Full Text Source: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13203-015-0135-9
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The development
of FCC catalysts for producing FCC gasoline with high octane numbers
Zhongdong Zhang, Zhaoyong Liu, et al.
Free Full Text Source: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13203-014-0075-9
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TIP:
Find more research published by this organization using the search string “State Key Laboratory for Heavy Oil Processing” in
Google® Scholar.
“Ballet's image
of perfection is fashioned amid a milieu of wracked bodies, fevered
imaginations, Balkan intrigue and sulfurous hatreds where anything is likely, and dancers know it.”
-- Shana Alexander (American Journalist, Editor, Host and Teacher, 1925-2005)
Two sulfur oriented events that might interest you …
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Sulphur 2015 International Conference & Exhibition
09 - 12 November 2015 -
Sheraton Centre, Toronto, Canada
Sulphur 2015 is now firmly established as the premier industry event for the
sulphur and sulphuric acid markets offering an annual opportunity for the
industry to meet, learn and network for over 30 years. The Sulphur conference
celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2014, as the world's leading annual sulphur
and sulphuric acid event, attracting over 600 industry professionals from 43
countries making it one of the biggest gatherings in the event's history.
Each year, the extensive programme covers key market trends, project updates
and supply and demand forecasts in the commercial sessions, with presentations
from respected industry figures; and high level analysis from CRU’s Sulphur
Team.
The two day split stream technical programme showcases the latest technological
developments to improve efficiency and compliance, and provides a high-level
forum for engineers from the sulphur and sulphuric acid industries to share
experience and develop solutions to common operational problems.
source: http://www.crugroup.com/events/sulphur/
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TSI's Sulphur
World Symposium 2016
Vancouver, Canada, April 11-13, 2016
TSI has announced the dates and location for the Sulphur World Symposium 2016!
Plan to join us April 11-13, 2016 in Vancouver, Canada! Click here for more!
source: http://www.sulphurinstitute.org/
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"I busted a
mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five." -- Steven Wright,
American comedian (b. 1955)
A recurring question from my clients is this … A vendor wants to do business with me, and claims to have a patent
pending. Why can’t I find it?
I explain the possible reasons for this.
But, since I am not a patent lawyer, I conclude by referring them to the
following very helpful site.
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How Come I
Cannot Find Patent Pending Info?
Posted on Sep 30, 2011 by attorney Danton Mak
This is not an unusual case: you see a "patent pending" notice on
your competitor's product. Yet when you go to the US Patent Office website, you
can find no information about the pending patent under the competitor's company
name. How come?
Utility patent applications are published generally 18 months from the earliest
priority date claimed in the application. Design patent applications are not
published at all. Before publication, the file is kept secret and 3rd parties
cannot get information on the application. If you do not find anything under
the company name, some of the possiblities could be:
1.It has been less than 18 months;
2.The pending application is a design patent application;
3.You looked in the wrong place (there are 2 separate databases, one for issued
patents, and one for published applications);
4.It is also possible that the applicant requested no-publication (generally
the applicant has to forego foreign filing of the application); or
5.Since all U.S. patent applications are filed in the name(s) of the
inventor(s) individually, searching by company name would not produce results
if there was no assignment of the application to the company.
One plausible alternative (if you still cannot find the information) would be
to order a right to use search. But that is typically quite expensive
(thousands of dollars, depending on the technology), and can only be justified
for major product lines.
Danton K. Mak
Sheldon Mak & Anderson PC
E-Mail: danton@usip.com
(Home Page) http://www.usip.com
Source: http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/how-come-i-cannot-find-patent-pending-info
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TIP: For
other helpful hints, use the Google® search string: why
can't i find patent
“I've done the
calculation and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not.”
-- Fran Lebowitz (American Writer and Humorist, b.1950)
Today’s TIP:
Use your Google® search string to search Google Scholar® (http://scholar.google.com/) to find
equally useful but completely different results.
For example, Google® search string dibenzothiophene OR
thiophene OR thiophenic served up an interesting site labeled EAWAG’s
Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database, which offers such pathways as the
Dibenzothiophene Desulfurization Map (see previous post: EAWAG’s
Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database).
Searching Google Scholar® using the identical search string yields different, but
quite useful, results. One result of
such a search is …
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Green Chem., 2015,17, 1647-1656
Few-layered
graphene-like boron nitride induced a remarkable adsorption capacity for
dibenzothiophene in fuels
Metal-free graphene-like boron nitride (BN) samples were prepared and applied
as adsorbents for removing dibenzothiophene (DBT) in model oil. The results
showed that the graphene-like BN exhibited a remarkable adsorption performance.
The adsorption capacity could reach 28.17 mg S g−1 adsorbent. Experiments have been carried out to
investigate the effects of the number of BN layers, DBT initial concentration,
and temperature on DBT adsorption. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were
used to study the adsorption of DBT on BN. The kinetic results showed that the adsorption
process was best described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Density
functional theory (DFT) was employed to prove that the Lewis acid–base
interaction plays an important role in removing DBT over graphene-like BN.
Source: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/gc/c4gc02053g#!divAbstract
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