Vol 50, No 6 (2016)

The chemical composition of sedge peat from the Egor’evskoe deposit as lowland peat from Amur oblast was characterized. The elemental composition of organic matter and mineral macro- and microcomponents was studied, and the distribution of bitumens, their fractions, and humic acids in the depth of occurrence was revealed. It was found that peat genesis processes occur over the entire vertical profile, and the most converted organic matter is formed at a depth of to 90 cm. The individual composition of alkane fractions consists of C₁₃–C₃₆ normal structure homologues with a carbon preference index somewhat higher than unity; the presence of pristane, phytane, and farnezane was detected. In the fractions of fatty acids, predominantly even compounds from C₁₀ to C₃₀ were identified with special distribution features at the separate stages of peat formation. The analysis of the individual composition of n-alkanes and fatty acids made it possible to supplement botanical characteristics with information on the contribution of macrophytes, algal material, and microorganisms to the formation of the organic matter of peat.

Experimental data on the briquetting of waste coals different in moisture contents and physical states with a binding agent for power-generating purposes are presented. A method for decreasing the moisture content of the briquetted waste coal is described. The proximate analysis of fuel briquettes from experimental batches is reported. A mechanism is proposed for the strengthening of fuel compositions.

A physicomathematical model of the extrusion of peat briquettes intended for the determination of the following solid fuel quality indices, which depend on the properties of briquetted peat, is presented: heat of combustion, elemental composition, density, uniaxial compressive strength, hardness, and water absorption. An inverse problem related to a search for the conditions of extrusion and the properties of raw materials necessary for ensuring the quality indices of peat fuel specified in the form of initial data was solved. The physicomathematical model developed is based on the results of experimental studies performed under industrial conditions on a crank press with an open matrix and on the interpretation and generalization of published experimental data.

The analysis of coal tar as a by-product of a merchant-coke plant (Karaganda) was carried out for the use of this tar as a plasticizer of rubber compounds. The replacement of bitumen by this tar as a rubber constituent in a weight ratio of 1:10 showed that the kinetics of vulcanization was noticeably accelerated and rubber characteristics such as conditional tensile strength, hardness, freeze-proof factor, and relative residual deformation were improved. It was found that the derivatives of phenol as the constituents of this tar exerted a considerable effect on the acceleration of the vulcanization process. In connection with this, the dephenolization of the product was performed, and it was used in a rubber formulation in the same ratio; as a result, the best characteristics of frost resistance, resistance to a hostile environment (an isooctane–toluene mixture), and ultimate elongation were obtained.

The use of natural polymers that form complexes with drug preparations is promising in the development of drugs of new generation. The possibility of complex formation on the interaction of humic acid salts with papaverine, benzohexonium, and B-group vitamins was demonstrated by calorimetric and potentiometric titration. These interactions can occur between the charged groups of a humic acid macroanion and the positively charged centers of drug molecules. The degree of binding of drug preparations by a natural polymer macromolecule can be determined by the charge and the structure of their molecules.