Evacuated-tube solar collector (ETSC) is developed to achieve high heating medium temperature. Heat transfer fluid contained inside a copper heat pipe directly affects the heating medium temperature. A 10 mol% of ethylene-glycol in water is the heat transfer fluid in this system. The purpose of this study is to modify inner structure of the evacuated tube for promoting heat transfer through aluminum fin to the copper heat pipe by inserting stainless-steel scrubbers in the evacuated tube to increase heat conduction surface area. The experiment is set up to measure the temperature of heat transfer fluid at a heat pipe tip which is a heat exchange area between heat transfer fluid and heating medium. The vapor/ liquid equilibrium (VLE) theory is applied to investigate phase change behavior of the heat transfer fluid. Mathematical model validated with 6 experimental results is set up to investigate the performance of ETSC system and evaluate the feasibility of applying the modified ETSC in small-scale industries. The results indicate that the average temperature of heat transfer fluid in a modified tube increased to 160.32 °C which is higher than a standard tube by approximately 22 °C leading to the increase in its efficiency by 34.96%.

The calcined ground oyster shell was used as the adsorbent to remove As(III) from contaminated water under the presence of anions. The solubility and precipitation tests indicated that As(III), NO₃⁻, and SO₄^2- were removed by adsorption process whereas HPO₄^2- was removed by precipitation and adsorption processes. The adsorption results showed that, in bi-solutes, HPO₄^2- strongly interfered with As(III) removal. In the case of tri- and tetra-solutes, the adsorption performances of As(III) and anions depended on (1) the binding affinity between the sorption sites and adsorbates, (2) observed adsorption rate constant of adsorbates, (3) electrostatic interaction, and (4) adsorbates interaction.

To reduce the pollution emission from vehicles, an improvement on the combustion process is expected, leading to increased exhaust gas temperature. As a result, the development of new materials for an exhaust manifold used at higher temperatures is required. A cost-effective cast iron exhaust manifold treated by aluminising pack cementation was developed in the present work to combat the high temperature corrosion. Its kinetics under cyclic oxidation in N₂–12%O₂–10%H₂O at 850 °C was parabolic with the rate constant (k_p) of 5.66 × 10⁻¹² g² cm^–4 s^–1, about two orders of magnitude lower than that of the bare cast iron, which indicated the protectiveness of the applied coating. These results relate to the protective alumina formation for the aluminised cast iron and the formation of the less protective iron oxides for the bare cast iron after oxidation, as evidenced by the XRD and Raman spectroscopy results. The addition of 10% water vapour to N₂–12%O₂ thickened the aluminide layer from 344 μm for the sample oxidised in dry atmosphere to 409 μm for the sample oxidised humidified one. It accelerated the oxidation rate of the aluminised cast iron as the k_p value increased by 8.5 times, and also increased the hardness of the aluminised surface, as it was 364 HV for the sample exposed to dry atmosphere and 420 HV for the sample exposed to humidified one. The latter result implied the possibility of the hydrogen dissolution into the metal surface. The roles of hydroxyl ion and dissolved hydrogen on the oxidation and evolution of the aluminide layer after exposure to water vapour were proposed.

Co-based alloys are known to be high oxidation-resistant material and used in several high temperature applications. During high temperature oxidation, duplex oxides containing Co and Cr were formed. It was thermodynamically elucidated that when the growing scale was thick enough, the partial pressure of O ₂ in the scale dropped. Then, the reduction of CoO occurred for promoting O ₂ which was responsible for Cr ₂ O ₃ production. This work experimentally proved this point by in situ characterising Co-27Cr-6Mo at high temperatures in air by X-ray diffractometer in a grazing incident mode and metallic Co was confirmed to be formed by the reduction of CoO consistent with the image taken and analysed by field emission scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray, and electron backscatter diffraction. Furthermore, the change in lattice parameter and the phase transition were observed when the temperature was altered.