Abstract: The present invention provides methods and apparatus for controlling catalytic processes, including catalyst regeneration and soot elimination. An alternating current is applied to a catalyst layer and a polarization impedance of the catalyst layer is monitored. The polarization impedance may be controlled by varying the asymmetrical alternating current. At least one of water, oxygen, steam and heat may be provided to the catalyst layer to enhance an oxidation reaction for soot elimination and/or to regenerate the catalyst.

Abstract: The present invention relates to financial planning and retirement planning systems, particularly to systems and methods for deriving and measuring the feasibility of a client's retirement across a diverse set of financial domains. Output is made available in a variety of formats suiting different client needs including views, formatted documents and document exports accessible on demand or schedule by external computing systems. The intention is to help clients take primary ownership with respect to issues related to their retirement readiness and improve strategic decision making under an experimental framework capable of deriving, comparing and optimizing a multitude of cases that simulate future uncertainty. The invention specifies a client-server and producer-consumer distributed architecture, decomposed and integrated into various data and functional layers. Modularity is one result of the architecture, enabling the invention to be deployed in various configurations.

Abstract: Method and equipment for converting hydrocarbon fuel to a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide through catalytic partial oxidation. The catalysts can include a combination of both an oxidation catalyst and a steam reforming catalyst, though no water is used in the process and catalyst contact time is short. Thermal management of the process in the pre-reaction and post reaction zones of the reactor enhance yields and reduce carbon deposition.