title: King Lear Beyond Genres: paper for: Shakespeare Beyond All Limits: Australia and New Zealand Shakespeare Association Conference

authors: Houlahan, Mark

subjects: Shakespeare

abstract: King Lear beyond Genre: or, what does Lear really, really want? Famously the two main texts of King Lear, Q1 (1608) and F1 (1623), locate two distinct genres: a “historie” (1608), and then a “tragedie” in 1623. The bulk of the play in either text conforms to genre signals Renaissance audiences would readily understand, and which Shakespeare deploys frequently in plays tragical or historical that draw on Chronicle sources of Roman, British or Danish history. There’s a battle for succession, and rulership, at the end of the final scene, is passed to a new regime. The moral scale of the action is indicated by the frequent use of “high, astounding”, ethico-philosophical terms. When Lear triggers the division of the kingdoms in the first scene of the play, he initiates this kind of tragical history. For the duration of the play, the rest of the characters play lethally inside these genre boundaries. But what makes King Lear so compelling, so baffling and so difficult is that, when he goes into the storm, on the heath, Lear is, in effect, trying to leave that convention-bound play and enter a new realm of discourse altogether. This requires a new kind of dramaturgy, a third kind of genre for which, even now, we don’t really have a name. In the end, Lear enters back into the historical/tragical terrain where the play begins. It’s the friction between these kinds of playmaking, I will suggest, that are at the heart of the text’s “power to claw”.

text: King Lear Beyond Genres: paper for: Shakespeare Beyond All Limits: Australia and New Zealand Shakespeare Association Conference King Lear beyond Genre: or, what does Lear really, really want? Famously the two main texts of King Lear, Q1 (1608) and F1 (1623), locate two distinct genres: a “historie” (1608), and then a “tragedie” in 1623. The bulk of the play in either text conforms to genre signals Renaissance audiences would readily understand, and which Shakespeare deploys frequently in plays tragical or historical that draw on Chronicle sources of Roman, British or Danish history. There’s a battle for succession, and rulership, at the end of the final scene, is passed to a new regime. The moral scale of the action is indicated by the frequent use of “high, astounding”, ethico-philosophical terms. When Lear triggers the division of the kingdoms in the first scene of the play, he initiates this kind of tragical history. For the duration of the play, the rest of the characters play lethally inside these genre boundaries. But what makes King Lear so compelling, so baffling and so difficult is that, when he goes into the storm, on the heath, Lear is, in effect, trying to leave that convention-bound play and enter a new realm of discourse altogether. This requires a new kind of dramaturgy, a third kind of genre for which, even now, we don’t really have a name. In the end, Lear enters back into the historical/tragical terrain where the play begins. It’s the friction between these kinds of playmaking, I will suggest, that are at the heart of the text’s “power to claw”.

year: 2023-12-07

title: Pyrolysis of Sawdust

authors: Sichone, Kavwa

abstract: Lakeland Steel Limited developed a pilot plant for biomass pyrolysis based on sawdust. The pilot plant was based on an auger screw design which was indirectly heated using a double pipe heat exchange configuration to prevent oxidation (combustion) of the feedstock. This thesis covers the preliminary assessment of sawdust pyrolysis for R.H Tregoweth sawmills on behalf of Lakeland Steel Limited. 
Proximate and ultimate analyses were deployed on the sawdust to determine its composition. Proximate analysis results gave a moisture content of 60%. The dry solids had an organic matter content of 99.22% with ash making the balance. Ultimate analysis was used to determine content levels of elemental carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen sulphur and oxygen. The results on a dry basis were 47.2%, 6.5%, 0.3%, 0.3%, and 44.9 % respectively. 
Drying models were also used to analyse the sawdust drying characteristics. Drying curves were obtained experimentally and four models: Newton; Page; Henderson and Pabis; and Simpson and Tschernitz, were fitted to the data and their accuracy of fit was determined using residual squared sum of errors.  Page’s model was used to describe the sawdust behaviour in the dryer design as it had the highest accuracy.
The sawdust reaction kinetics were determined using data from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and analysed using distributed action energy model. The kinetics were observed at three heating rates of 10, 20 and 30 °C/min with a maximum temperature of 900°C under an argon atmosphere. Sawdust was modelled as a mixture of water, hemicellulose, cellulose  and lignin. Good agreement between Gaussian distribution functions for each component and experimental data were observed. 
Pilot plant trials were performed using a three factor-three level design of experiment. The factors under investigation were; feedstock moisture content with levels at 15, 30 and 60; reaction temperature with levels at 400, 450 and 500°C; and reactor auger speed with levels at 15, 20 and 25 rpm. Experiments at 60% moisture could not be performed to completion as the auger blocked repeatedly. The other two moisture contents showed that moisture content enhanced heat exchange properties of the feedstock and this generally increased the amount of volatile organic matter released. It was observed that for 15% moisture sawdust increase of temperature did not consistently exhibit an increase in degree of devolatilisation of organic matter. However, the 30% moisture sawdust showed an increase in devolatilisation with increase in temperature.  The effects of increasing reactor auger speed had the most consistent trend with which an increase in speed showed a decrease in degree of devolatilisation thus increasing char yield.
The empirical data collected from lab scale and pilot plant experiments were used to create mass and energy balances. These were the basis of the large scale mobile pyrolysis plant which was designed to process 3.45 tonnes per hour. Due to size restrictions the large scale dryer was not fitted in the container. It was then determined that the feedstock would either be dried using an onsite kiln or the reactor would process green sawdust.

A preliminary economic feasibility assessment was performed for the base case scenario which processed pre-dried sawdust of 15% moisture content at 400°C and a retention time of 45 minutes. A sensitivity analysis based on predicted optimistic and pessimistic conditions showed that automation of the plant had the potential to increase the economic viability of the large scale process.

text: Pyrolysis of Sawdust Lakeland Steel Limited developed a pilot plant for biomass pyrolysis based on sawdust. The pilot plant was based on an auger screw design which was indirectly heated using a double pipe heat exchange configuration to prevent oxidation (combustion) of the feedstock. This thesis covers the preliminary assessment of sawdust pyrolysis for R.H Tregoweth sawmills on behalf of Lakeland Steel Limited. 
Proximate and ultimate analyses were deployed on the sawdust to determine its composition. Proximate analysis results gave a moisture content of 60%. The dry solids had an organic matter content of 99.22% with ash making the balance. Ultimate analysis was used to determine content levels of elemental carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen sulphur and oxygen. The results on a dry basis were 47.2%, 6.5%, 0.3%, 0.3%, and 44.9 % respectively. 
Drying models were also used to analyse the sawdust drying characteristics. Drying curves were obtained experimentally and four models: Newton; Page; Henderson and Pabis; and Simpson and Tschernitz, were fitted to the data and their accuracy of fit was determined using residual squared sum of errors.  Page’s model was used to describe the sawdust behaviour in the dryer design as it had the highest accuracy.
The sawdust reaction kinetics were determined using data from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and analysed using distributed action energy model. The kinetics were observed at three heating rates of 10, 20 and 30 °C/min with a maximum temperature of 900°C under an argon atmosphere. Sawdust was modelled as a mixture of water, hemicellulose, cellulose  and lignin. Good agreement between Gaussian distribution functions for each component and experimental data were observed. 
Pilot plant trials were performed using a three factor-three level design of experiment. The factors under investigation were; feedstock moisture content with levels at 15, 30 and 60; reaction temperature with levels at 400, 450 and 500°C; and reactor auger speed with levels at 15, 20 and 25 rpm. Experiments at 60% moisture could not be performed to completion as the auger blocked repeatedly. The other two moisture contents showed that moisture content enhanced heat exchange properties of the feedstock and this generally increased the amount of volatile organic matter released. It was observed that for 15% moisture sawdust increase of temperature did not consistently exhibit an increase in degree of devolatilisation of organic matter. However, the 30% moisture sawdust showed an increase in devolatilisation with increase in temperature.  The effects of increasing reactor auger speed had the most consistent trend with which an increase in speed showed a decrease in degree of devolatilisation thus increasing char yield.
The empirical data collected from lab scale and pilot plant experiments were used to create mass and energy balances. These were the basis of the large scale mobile pyrolysis plant which was designed to process 3.45 tonnes per hour. Due to size restrictions the large scale dryer was not fitted in the container. It was then determined that the feedstock would either be dried using an onsite kiln or the reactor would process green sawdust.

A preliminary economic feasibility assessment was performed for the base case scenario which processed pre-dried sawdust of 15% moisture content at 400°C and a retention time of 45 minutes. A sensitivity analysis based on predicted optimistic and pessimistic conditions showed that automation of the plant had the potential to increase the economic viability of the large scale process.

year: 2013

title: Boat electrofishing salvage of fish in the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir

authors: Hicks, Brendan J.

abstract: The aim of the survey was to salvage fish from the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir before dewatering and dam removal. We used the University of Waikato’s 4.5 m-long, aluminium-hulled electrofishing boat to catch a total of 140 fish weighing an estimated 37.0 kg along 8 fishing tracks sites on 24 February 2022. These tracks comprised 2,807 lineal m and 11,228 m2 in area. Shortfin eels (Anguilla australis) and common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the only fish species present. Mean density of eels caught was 2.9 fish 100 m–2 and mean biomass was 7.84 g m–2. The eels and bullies were transferred to sites downstream in the Waiwhakaiho River by iwi members of the two hapū - Ngāti Te Whiti and Ngāti Tawhirikura. Water clarity, expressed as black disc distance (BDD, 1.05 m), was good for a shallow lake, and water temperature and water conductivity were close to optimum for electrofishing. Poor water clarity can reduce the efficiency of electrofishing, so we left time after fishing each track for the sediment suspended by the propellor wash to sink before refishing a track.

text: Boat electrofishing salvage of fish in the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir The aim of the survey was to salvage fish from the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir before dewatering and dam removal. We used the University of Waikato’s 4.5 m-long, aluminium-hulled electrofishing boat to catch a total of 140 fish weighing an estimated 37.0 kg along 8 fishing tracks sites on 24 February 2022. These tracks comprised 2,807 lineal m and 11,228 m2 in area. Shortfin eels (Anguilla australis) and common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the only fish species present. Mean density of eels caught was 2.9 fish 100 m–2 and mean biomass was 7.84 g m–2. The eels and bullies were transferred to sites downstream in the Waiwhakaiho River by iwi members of the two hapū - Ngāti Te Whiti and Ngāti Tawhirikura. Water clarity, expressed as black disc distance (BDD, 1.05 m), was good for a shallow lake, and water temperature and water conductivity were close to optimum for electrofishing. Poor water clarity can reduce the efficiency of electrofishing, so we left time after fishing each track for the sediment suspended by the propellor wash to sink before refishing a track.

year: 2022