The performance of a fluidized cracking catalyst additive prepared from caustic-modified kaolin microspheres for gasoline S reduction was investigated using N2 adsorption, infrared acid-site characterization, X-ray diffraction and small-scale fluid bed reactor tests. The additive exhibited improved coke selectivity and yield distribution, and the S content of cracked gasoline was reduced significantly. The results indicated that a reactive mesoporous structure was formed in the modified kaolin.

This article considers the contentious invocations of history that have become prominent in debates about English public law. It presents them as uses of history not simply to understand English public law but to reform it, through the reconstruction of historic authorities or reappraisal of historical sources. This article addresses the criticism they have attracted by distinguishing different kinds of orthodox and unorthodox reformist history. It advocates their transparent use and thoroughly deliberative history for reformist purposes in public law. It does so in three distinctive ways: first, by suggesting implications of Coke's dictum on causal understanding for whig historical approaches in the common law; secondly, by reassessing Maitland's dichotomy between the lawyer's logic of authority and the historian's logic of evidence; and, thirdly, by arguing that much can be learnt from the methodological caution, deliberation and rigour promoted by comparativists in their developed literature on legal transplants and law reform.

Three typical cokes were used for experiments in order to clarify the relationship between coke properties and solution loss behavior and its influence on the post-reaction strength of coke. Isothermal reactions between coke and CO2 at 1050–1300 °C were stopped at a weight loss of 25%. The post-reaction strength of coke was tested by an I-Type tumbler. Coke chemical reactivity and pore structure were tested to analyze the coke properties. The results show that the reaction temperature caused the most serious degradation to three cokes that were different due to their different properties. If two kinds of coke have similar chemical reactivity, the one with the less developed pore structure has a lower temperature, causing the most serious degradation. If two kinds of coke have similar pore structure, the one with the higher chemical reactivity has a lower temperature, causing the most serious degradation. This knowledge contributes to a reference for evaluating the capability of coke strength for resisting solution loss.

Three hundred years after the first production of coke, the history of this importantbreakthrough, an energy transition that, together with the invention of the steam engine,opened way to the industrial revolution, is still thought provoking on subjects such asthe rate of change and the factors that are favoring or slowing down the rate of change,the role of infrastructure and technology in the development of industry, the role ofprotectionism or free-trade on technological changes and last, but not the least, thedevelopment of science and technology as tools for the improvement of the processes andproducts. From the first information of G. Jars and his metallurgical trips and the smallscale tests of the first pioneers of the Enlightment, to the development of large sizeplants incorporating new technologies, this history is that of the important social switchfrom a small scale peasant seasonal activity with many workshops, to the large scaleintegrated industry concentrated in a few places and connected with the suppliers and themarket by the new transportation infrastructure (canals, railways) developed incontinental Europe throughout the XIXth century. Scientists (such as Ebelmen, Lecocq,Boudouard, Berthellot) and technologists (such as the innovation brought by Belgianfurnaces) have played an important role in this mutation.

The Ternium Siderar steel plant in San Nicolas, Argentina, experienced a period of singleblast furnace operation in 2006, first due to one furnace’s unavailability, and later dueto the other’s relining. In order to exploit the excess steelmaking capacity, processeswere adjusted to reduce the amount of hot metal needed for the production of a ton ofsteel. The principal changes in the process are described in this paper: an increase inthe manganese content of hot metal to avoid manganese addition in the converter; heatingof scrap; coke additions; increase in pig iron; use of large quantities of SiC or FeSiduring the blow; temperature decrease at the end of the blow. All of this permitted anincrease in slab production compared with the standard process.