Universite Du Quebec a Trois-rivieres

Other

Gaz De France

Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, As Represented by the Minister of National Defence of Her Majesty's Canadian Government

Gas Metropolitain Inc.

Societe Quebecoise D'initiatives Petrolieres

Institut De Recherche En Sante Et En Securite Du Travail

L'universite Du Quebec a Trois-rivieres

Universite Du Quebec a Trois-rivieres, Societe Quebecoise D'initiatives

Tapan K Bose

Raymond Courteau

Richard Chahine

Jean-Marie St-Arnaud

Pierre Gibello

Dominique Ingrain

R&eacute;my Simard

Sousso Kelouwani

Kalyan Ghosh

Jurgen H Achtermann

Louis Marchildon

Daniel Cossement

Kodjo Agbossou

Jean-Marie Saint-Arnaud

Carbon nanostructures for use as catalyst supports in hydrogen fuel cells are produced by mixing a carbon material with at least one transition metal such as iron and cobalt, subjecting the mixture thus produced to mechanical grinding, e.g. ball milling in a hydrogen atmosphere for a time sufficient for hydrogen to be absorbed into the mixture, and heating the mixture in an inert atmosphere at a temperature sufficient to crystallize at least one of the carbon material and carbide nanocrystals.

Carbon nanostructure catalyst support

A renewable energy (RE) system is disclosed which comprises an energy source providing unit, a DC bus, a buck converter, an hydrogen generator, an hydrogen storage, an energy conversion device, a boost converter, a DC to AC converter, and a monitoring system.

Control system for a renewable energy system

The signals to be measured are transformed in the system to discrete time digital signals by synchronous sampling. These digital signals are then processed by a digital signal processor for vector detection and for computing digital feedback sent to the sampling gates. The analyzer has improved characteristics in the area of linearity, drift and test port signal injection because of its highly optimized architecture based on synchronous sampling with digital feedback. It possesses unique characteristics such as the ability to tune to a harmonic or a subharmonic of the excitation frequency and a good sensitivity in a high impedance environment.

High precision RF vector analysis system based on synchronous sampling

The disclosure relates to a system for the detection of human presence in hazardous situations near moving machinery; appropriately shaped electrodes are placed in an area to be safeguarded and a radio-frequency signal of appropriate frequency and voltage is applied on the electrodes creating an alternating electric field around them. A bridge circuit is used to measure the capacitive impedance created by the electrodes and a dissipation factor is calculated from the real and imaginary parts of the impedance. If a foreign object is introduced into the electric field, the characteristics of the dielectric are modified creating a change of the value of the dissipation factor. The dissipation of energy in the high frequency region is much greater if this foreign object is a biological tissue as compared to other types of materials, such as conductors or insulators. Thus, the system detects human presence by noting the increase of the dissipation factor above a threshold value, and the movement of the appropriate machine part can then be stopped, thereby eliminating the danger of injury to the person.

System for detecting human presence in hazardous situations

A method and apparatus for measuring the gaseous flow of a fluid flowing along a duct, the apparatus comprises a processing and control unit connected firstly to a flow rate measuring device which delivers data representative of the flow rate Qm of the gas under the conditions of temperature Tm and pressure Pm that are determined by temperature and pressure sensors disposed in said duct, and secondly to a unit for determining the compressibility factor Zm, which unit delivers data representative of the dielectric constant .epsilon. of the gas flowing in the duct, so as to enable the flow rate Q of the gas to be determined as reduced to predefined reference conditions of temperature To, pressure Po, and compressibility factor Zo. The data representative of the dielectric constant of the gas is obtained by a capacitive transducer constituted by a cylindrical capacitor placed under the same thermodynamic conditions as applied to the flow of gas.

Method and apparatus for measuring gas flow

The invention is concerned with a high-density adsorbent comprising a compacted mass of high surface area carbon particles bound together with a binder and defining a network of substantially unobstructed micropores, the mass of carbon particles having been compacted under a pressure sufficient to cause a reduction of about 50 to about 200% in bulk volume of the mass and a corresponding increase of about 50 to about 200% in density, thereby providing a gas storage capacity increase of about 20 to about 100% over that of the high surface area carbon particles in loose or uncompacted form. The high-density adsorbent according to the invention is particularly useful in adsorption storage systems for low-pressure storage of compressed natural gas.

High-density adsorbent and method of producing same

A method and apparatus for measuring physical adsorption of a gas by a solid adsorbent are disclosed. Use is made of a capacitance cell in controlled gas flow communication with a sample cell initially under vacuum and containing the solid adsorbent. The capacitance cell is filled with an adsorptive gas at a predetermined pressure and the dielectric constant of the gas at the predetermined pressure is measured to determine a first density value. The gas from the capacitance cell is then allowed to expand into the sample cell for adsorption by the solid adsorbent, whereby an adsorption takes place pressure falls until eqilibrium is established. The dielectric constant of the gas at equilibrium pressure is measured to determine a second density value, and the amount of gas adsorbed by the solid adsorbent is determined from the first and second density values.

Method and apparatus for measuring physical adsorption of gases based on

The unknown capacitor or a standard capacitor are switched, one at a time, in parallel to a frequency setting circuit which sets the frequency of operation. The parallel combination of the unknown capacitor and the frequency setting circuit form a first parallel resonant circuit and the parallel combination of the standard capacitor and the frequency setting circuit form a second resonant parallel circuit. These resonant circuits are part of the feedback network of an oscillator. The bottom ends of the resonant circuits are connected to an instrumentation amplifier for maintaining the bottom ends at vertual ground in order to make three terminal measurements. A frequency meter is provided for measuring the frequency of resonance of the first resonant circuit and the second resonant circuit.

Apparatus for measuring capacitance of a low value three-terminal

A method and an apparatus for the precise determination of the compressibility factor of a gas sample are disclosed. Two grating interferometers are coupled together with one interferometer defining a refractive index interferometer adapted to provide a signal of information related to the refractive index of the gas sample and the other interferometer defining a pressure interferometer adapted to provide another signal of information related to the pressure of the gas sample whereby to permit measurement of the refractive index as a function of pressure. Each interferometer is capable of dividing a linearly polarized monochromatic laser beam into a measuring beam and a reference beam and causing the measuring beam and reference beam to travel along respective optical paths extending in close parallel relationship over predetermined optical path lengths. The refractive index interferometer and pressure interferometer comprise respectively two optical cells in tandem alignment and a single optical cell with each cell having elongated measuring and reference compartments arranged in close parallel relationship along the parallel optical paths of the measuring beam and reference beam to receive same therethrough, the measuring compartments of both cells of the refractive index interferometer being interconnected to permit gas expansion therebetween with the measuring compartment of one of the cells being connected to the measuring compartment of the single cell of the pressure interferometer via a pressure equilibrium chamber to provide the interferometer coupling. The expansion technique enables one to obtain accurate values for higher order terms of the Lorentz-Lorenz equation. This technique combined with the absolute measurements of the refractive index as a function of pressure leads to values of the compressibility factor comparable to the best PVT values, in a much shorter time as compared to other methods.

Growing community of inventors

Trois-Rivieres, Canada

Tapan K Bose