Characterization of an Ancient Bimetallic Alloy from Moche Civilization (Peru).

The Moche civilization in Peru developed marvelous metallurgy, primarily using alloys of gold, copper and silver, with the most famous of them called Tumbaga, which resembles pure gold after a depletion process on its surface. However, they also created objects with more standard single-layer alloys or gilding. To distinguish between these techniques in a non-destructive manner is essential.

Combining X-ray Fluorescence and Monte Carlo Simulation Methods to Differentiate between Tumbaga and Gold-Alloy or Gildings.

Depleted metals have been produced since many centuries ago. Probably the most famous examples from ancient times are the so-called Tumbaga gold artifacts, whose production was introduced by the pre-Colombian civilizations. Tumbaga-like structures have been identified also in modern nanotechnological materials.

UTEP-EPW university-utility partnership: Concentrate enhanced-recovery reverse osmosis process for high water recovery from silica-saturated desalination concentrates.

Since the 1970s, The University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Water have had a synergistic university-utility partnership, and in 2002, we began a sequence of investigations of enhanced recovery of water from silica-saturated reverse osmosis concentrate: (a) two-pass nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) treatment, (b) lime softening for silica removal, (c) vibratory shear enhanced processing (VSEP), (d) continuous-flow seawater RO treatment of brackish RO concentrate, and finally (e) high-recovery concentrate enhanced-recovery reverse osmosis (CERRO) process. Studies funded by El Paso Water, Texas Water Development Board, U.S.