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The pulp and paper making industry is looking for new main raw material based on its physical, chemical and morphological characteristics. Currently in this industry, bagasse is the most useful raw material in pulp and paper industry. The objective of this study is to determine its suitability for pulping. Acacia auriculiformis is a fast-growing tree normally found in Indonesia and Australia. Acacia auriculiformis leaf contains of cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin. The range of lignin content in Acacia auriculiformis is 19%-20%. The hemi-cellulose and lignin contents was removed by soda-pulping process using different concentrations as followed; 3%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. In order to determine the optimum pulping conditions for Acacia auriculiformis craft paper, several tests were conducted such as apparent density, tear test, tensile strength test and moisture absorption. It was found that the Acacia auriculiformis fibre treated with 3% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solutions gave good tear test of the paper. For apparent density test, the best concentration of NaOH used for treating Acacia auriculiformis pulping is at 15%. From the study, the optimum concentration of NaOH in treating Acacia auriculiformis fibre is at 5% for best result in tensile strength. Hence, from the overall tests, 5% concentration of NaOH is the optimum value. From the findings, Acacia auriculiformis fibre has a potential to be used in paper making and food packaging industry.

The coating process on food packaging paper is carried out to improve the food safety aspect from dangerous substance migration from food packaging into food. It can facilitate to increase its function and wide the potency of utilization. The coating materials commonly used are plastic and wax coatings. Chitosan as a natural polymer that has the binding properties both water and oil. Chitosan has polar and non-polar groups thus it is potential to be developed as a coating material for food packaging paper. The purpose of this study was to determine the physical-mechanical and antimicrobial properties of food packaging paper from oil palm empty fruit bunches pulp coated with chitosan. The parameters used were chitosan and pulp weight. The oil palm empty fruit bunch pulp was fibrillated with high speed blender then mixed with chitosan solution. The mixed solution was poured in the mold and dried in an oven at 60 °C for 24 hours. The results showed that increasing of chitosan content was coated paper increased physical and mechanical properties values. The more pulp content the higher the physical properties value, however the mechanical properties value tend to decrease. The antimicrobial activity of chitosan coated paper was evaluated by measuring the diameter of the inhibition zones. The results revealed that all tested samples showed growth inhibition zone againts to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus after 24 h incubation compared to commercial food packaging paper.

The paper is focused on investigation of the nature and size of cellulose fibers in the structure of stabilizing additives for stone-mastic asphalt concrete, as well as on determination of fibers retention capacity based on their geometric parameters. To obtain the results a scanning electron microscope JSM-6510LV was used, with the help of which 15 to 20 photomicrographs were obtained. It was found out that in all inspected samples of stabilizing additives over 80% of pulp and paper fibers have a band structure with filaments from 0.56 to 1.4 micrometer in length. The fiber thickness in all cases slightly varies within the range of 0.008 to 0.021 micrometer. For a more detailed analysis of the additives the X-ray microanalysis was carried out. The results showed that in all cases the component distribution of the chemical elements present in the additive is inhomogeneous and has two fundamental differences in the oxygen (O) and carbon (C) content. ARMIDON additives contain more than 79% carbon (C) and just 6-13% oxygen (O). VIATOP 66 and SD-1 additives contain up to 61% carbon (C) and up to 48% oxygen (O). Tests to determine the runoff of the organic binder showed that additives with cellulose fiber filaments up to 0.6 micrometers in length hold bitumen worse than additives with cellulose fiber filaments 1.4 micrometers in length.The paper is focused on investigation of the nature and size of cellulose fibers in the structure of stabilizing additives for stone-mastic asphalt concrete, as well as on determination of fibers retention capacity based on their geometric parameters. To obtain the results a scanning electron microscope JSM-6510LV was used, with the help of which 15 to 20 photomicrographs were obtained. It was found out that in all inspected samples of stabilizing additives over 80% of pulp and paper fibers have a band structure with filaments from 0.56 to 1.4 micrometer in length. The fiber thickness in all cases slightly varies within the range of 0.008 to 0.021 micrometer. For a more detailed analysis of the additives the X-ray microanalysis was carried out. The results showed that in all cases the component distribution of the chemical elements present in the additive is inhomogeneous and has two fundamental differences in the oxygen (O) and carbon (C) content. ARMIDON additives contain more than 79% carbon (C) and ju...

Paper sheets were produced from bleached kraft pulp, and office and newsprint waste paper. Nanoparticles from black alder bark, grey alder bark and pine bark as well as birch sawdust were obtained for using them as reinforcing fillers in paper. Non-extracted bark and that extracted in biorefinery were used. For producing nanoparticles, the materials were destructed using the thermocatalytic destruction method and then dispersed in water medium in a ball mill. At a sufficient concentration, gel-like dispersions were obtained, which contained nanoparticles with the size ~300 nm. The dispersions were introduced in paper furnish in different amounts. It has been established that all the nanoparticle fillers increase the tensile index and burst index in dry and wet states. The nanoparticle fillers from extracted bark increase the mechanical indices to a higher extent. At 20% filler content, tensile index in a dry state increases in the case of non-extracted grey alder bark, black alder bark and pine bark by 28...

ECF technology has been established itself as the most preferred process worldwide. Peroxide addition minimizes the effluent color. The study deals with the bleaching of Bamboo and Jute Cady pulps with chlorine and peroxide treatment and identification of various chlorophenolics compounds. The results show that quantity of the total chlorophenolic compounds formed decreases up to 54% in total chlorophenolic compound in the CEH effluent and the COD and color values are reduced by 35% and 33% respectively as E stage is changed to Ep stage in Bamboo pulp. And there is a reduction of 52% in total chlorophenolic compound in the CEH effluent when E stage is changed to Ep. and the COD and color values are reduced by 30% and 33% respectively as E stage is changed to Ep stage in Jute Cady pulp

During recycling of waste paper from private households different fractions containing plastics and polluted paper fibers are received. Current research at the Institute of Polymer Materials and Plastics Engineering at Clausthal University of Technology showed that the use of waste paper as filler and reinforcement in polypropylene leads to nearly the same mechanical properties as natural fibers like flax, sisal and hemp. The present investigations focus on the chemical cleaning of the paper recyclate to treat the fiber surface and to solve foreign plastics like polystyrene. For this purpose Soxhlet extraction with different solvents is used. The received extracts are examined via infrared spectroscopy, as well as the treated and the untreated fibers. Afterwards, the cleaned paper is incorporated into polypropylene. The received composites are investigated regarding their mechanical properties by tensile testing and Charpy impact testing.During recycling of waste paper from private households different fractions containing plastics and polluted paper fibers are received. Current research at the Institute of Polymer Materials and Plastics Engineering at Clausthal University of Technology showed that the use of waste paper as filler and reinforcement in polypropylene leads to nearly the same mechanical properties as natural fibers like flax, sisal and hemp. The present investigations focus on the chemical cleaning of the paper recyclate to treat the fiber surface and to solve foreign plastics like polystyrene. For this purpose Soxhlet extraction with different solvents is used. The received extracts are examined via infrared spectroscopy, as well as the treated and the untreated fibers. Afterwards, the cleaned paper is incorporated into polypropylene. The received composites are investigated regarding their mechanical properties by tensile testing and Charpy impact testing.

Paper is a widely used material that is affected by environmental stresses and makes paper prone to damage. The paper is characterized by the absorption of water and moisture due to porosity, We have overcome this problem by employing polymer materials as water-resistant coatings acting as a barrier to protecting the paper, Polymer paper coating forms a clear membrane on the fiber forming a bridge of monomers on the surface of the paper. Two polymer coatings were used as a treatment, namely Polystyrene and sealer (alkyd resin). The results showed the possibility of enhancing the durability of the paper and preserving it from damage and deterioration. The treatment gave a decrease in moisture content, response to abrasion and scratching while increased folding tolerability, the burst strength, tear resistance, hardness compared to untreated paper and the paper porosity important indicator to overcome. The degree of brightness, the degree of color and visible light and ultraviolet radiation [UV] effect of the specimens were studied in detail.

Chitosan were selected as cellulose raw material to prepare coating solutions. The morphology, physical characteristics and chemical surface properties of the coatings are discussed in this paper. Different concentrations of chitosan (1–5% w/w) and deposited solution layer (0.5–1.00 μm) were used to obtain coated papers with thicknesses varying between 0.062–0.068 μm. The percentages of coating agent impregnated inside paper were also calculated from the apparent density of coated paper and the density of self-supported films prepared in the same conditions but deposited on an inert and smooth Plexiglass support. These percentages of impregnation ranged from 4.8 to 63.3% and increased as following: chitosan < chitosan nanoparticle. The resulting absorption rates indicated significant differences as a function of the nature of coating agent and confirmed results obtained for the percentage of impregnation. To explain differences in the behaviour of coating solutions, it was finally concluded that not only their viscosity must be taken into account but also their affinity toward paper.

In the present paper, the effects of cake thickness and time on the efficiency of brown stock washer of the paper mill are studied by using mathematical model of pulp washing for the species of sodium and lignin ions. The mechanism of the diffusion‐ dispersion washing of the bed of the pulp fibers is mathematically modeled by the basic material balance and adsorption isotherm is used to describe the equilibrium between the concentration of the solute in the liquor and concentration of the solute on the fibers. To study the parametric effect, numerical solutions of the axial domain of the system governed by partial differential equations (transport and isotherm equations) for different boundary conditions are obtained by the “pdepe” solver in MATLAB source code. The effects of both the parameters are shown by three dimensional graphical representation as well as concentration profiles.

In response to published reports about the decline in funding for space nuclear power, the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) approved a position paper in March 1995 that recommends (1) development and support of an integrated space nuclear power program by DOE, NASA and DoD; (2) Congressional support for the program; (3) advocacy of the program by government and industry leaders; and (4) continuation of cooperation between the U.S. and other countries to advance nuclear power source technology and to promote safety. This position paper has been distributed to various people having oversight of the U.S. space nuclear power program.

This paper presents the laboratory result on compaction characteristic for soft soil subgrade which was stabilized by using waste paper sludge ash (WPSA). The soft soil sample was collected from Banting Selangor, Malaysia named as Banting soft soil and classified as slightly sandy Clay with intermediate plasticity. Additive of WPSA is a finely waste product produced from the incinerated waste paper. In ASTM C618, this WPSA samples are categorized as Type-C fly ash due to the high free lime (CaO) content (>20%) and possesses some cementitious and pozzolanic, resulting in the self-cementing characteristics. Therefore no entire activators such as lime are required. Objectives of this study are to determine the dry density and moisture content of Banting soft soil stabilized by WPSA through the different energy and method of compaction and to determine the Atterberg limit properties of Banting soft soil stabilized using WPSA. Several percentage of WPSA (4%, 8%, 12% and 16%) was used to stabilize the soft soil...

Prior work has established the existence of a color-performance relationship in achievement contexts and has demonstrated its presence in some undergraduate course examinations. This study examines the manifestation of such a relationship in an introductory, 430-student, calculus-based electricity and magnetism course during which the paper color used in examinations was varied. In this report, we analyze three separate exams and differentiate between students’ multiple choice, written response, conceptual, and computational performances. Also considered are factors such as the time students require to complete exams and their confidence levels prior to and immediately following assessment. Performance in all categories appears to be independent of paper color.

In this paper we present an application of two Computational Intelligence Algorithms, namely Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Algorithm and Differential Evolution (DE) for finding and optimal solution to two optimization problems that occur in a paper industry. The first problem deals with the economic optimization of a hypothetical but realistic Kraft pulping process and in the second problem we have considered the optimization of Boiler load allocation problem. Both the problems form an integral part of paper making process. The simulation results show the efficiency and time effectiveness of DE and PSO.

In this paper the utilization of hypo sludge in bricks and its characteristics have been tested. Hypo sludge is a byproduct obtained in huge quantity from paper industry. The reference bricks are manufactured with the ingredients of cement, fly ash, quarry dust and lime. Hypo sludge contains high value of CaO, so that the study on hypo sludge partially replaced on lime in reference to bricks. Hypo sludge is traditional material used on lime in various percentages of 10%, 15% and 20%. The preliminary test conducted was compression and water absorption and the experimental results indicate with sustainability on environmental and also prevent the wastages.

The present study was carried out to beneficiate coal tailings sample using froth flotation technique. The aim of the investigation was to remove the carbonaceous material present and to reduce the environmental pollution generated through large volume of tailings from a coal preparation plant. The characterization studies show that the sample contains D80 passing size as 276 µ and D50 as 182 µ. The proximate analysis indicated that the coal sample contains 45.3% ash and 34.5% fixed carbon. Froth flotation experiments were carried out at varying parameters of collector dosages (0.60, 0.67 & 0.71 kgpt), frother dosages (0.33, 0.44& 0.51 kgpt) and pulp density (8%, 10% & 12% w/w). The experimental results indicated that the optimum amount of clean coal may be recovered from tailings with an ash content of 18.46% in the clean coal with an appreciable yield of 64.13%. The optimum results were obtained at frother dosage of 0.44 kgpt and collector dosage of 0.60 kgpt with pulp density of 10% (w/w).

Nitrogen is the most important substance in fertilizer to produce high quality harvest. Nitrogen, which comes from the air, can formed as ammonia and nitrate in fertilizer. In industry, the most common fertilizer contain ammonia not nitrate because of its production process easiness compared to nitrate. Ammonia has fertilization efficiency 40% and nitrate has fertilization efficiency 60%. Industrial fertilizer production process nowadays, ammonia synthesis which called Haber-Bosch process, still not environmental friendly and also consume high energy. Environmental friendly and lower energy process is needed to produce fertilizer. Some study related to nitrogen fixation to produce fertilizer has been made including plasma electrolysis method. Plasma electrolysis is an effective method to fix nitrogen from the air because of its ability to produce OH radicals and other radicals to break the N2 bound to produce nitrate with lower energy consumption compared to Haber-Bosch process. This method is implemented in batch reactor with variation of anode depth. This study has proven can produce nitrate up to 1,200 ppm in condition power 800 watt, anode depth 1.5-3.5 cm and Na2SO4 electrolyte concentration 0.02 M.

This research aimed to determine the effects of catfish meat addition to the fulfillment of protein and vitamin A (beta-carotene) and to study physicochemical properties (density, iron, beta-carotene, and proximate) in instant baby porridge using the drying method of the freeze dryer. Fish meat is added to fulfill the content of instant baby pulp protein in accordance with SNI. Baby porridge is dried using a freeze dryer tool which then becomes a form of instant baby pulp. The baby porridge sample was compared with baby control porridge (without fish meat addition) which was the result of previous studies. This research used a completely randomized design with one factor, namely variation in the percentage of catfish as 7.5%, 10%, and 12.5%. The results showed the addition of catfish meat with variations in the concentration of fish meat influenced the nature of the content both physically and chemically. The best baby porridge in terms of chemical properties in meeting the needs of protein and vitamin A (beta-carotene) was found in instant baby porridge with 10% concentration of catfish meat for protein and baby porridge and 7.5% concentration of catfish meat for vitamin A. The addition of catfish meat provided good chemical properties than control sample.

Wastewater of the laterite hydrometallurgy process which still contains nickel more than 0.25 % and other metals. One method which able to treat wastewater is the electrocoagulation process. In this work, the electrocoagulation process using batch recycle methods has been successfully coagulated nickel and other metals from the wastewater of the laterite hydrometallurgy process. In this work, a tubular aluminum electrode was used in the electrocoagulation reactor. Sodium hydroxide is used to increase the pH of waste. Taguchi design of experiment has been used to analyze and optimize the electrocoagulation process using batch recycle methods. Taguchi analysis results show that the optimum conditions are at 21 of voltage, 5 of pH, 5 hours of time operation, and 0.53 liters/minute of flow rate.

The adverse environmental degradation created by various plastics produced from petroleum products is a major concern for the world nations. The developed and developing nations have adopted various strategies on the production and usage of highly hazardous conventional plastics. Various research works have been undertaken to formulate a sustainable alternative for the conventional plastics. In this regard, an effort was made to synthesis a biodegradable polymer for large scale commercial usage in packaging applications. Biodegradable polymers can be produced from various resources. The study involves the production of bio-plastic from Banana peel and Prosopis juliflora. Cellulose, a major component required for biopolymer synthesis was extracted from Prosopis juliflora which then combined and processed with dried banana peel. Additives and preservatives that contributes to the polymer characteristics were added in suitable proportions and processed under defined conditions. The mixture was then dried at a temperature of 130 ℃ to yield the final product. The biopolymers thus produced were tested for its water absorption capacity, thermal resistance, tensile strength, biodegradability and microbial attacks. It was observed that water absorption capacity of the biopolymer was lower for lesser starch and higher cellulose concentrations. The tensile strength was found to be 0.67 N/mm2 which was due to the addition of zinc oxide. No microbial attack was observed during storage and it was also found that the biopolymer was able to withstand high temperature up to 130 °C during its usage.

Coal consumption in the Indonesian metallurgical industry in 2015 has reached up to 3.5 million tons. One ton of pig iron required 0.5-0.6 tons of coke, 1.4 tons of iron ore, and 0.25 tons of limestone. Coke added by the charcoal is called bio- coke. Charcoal, as the raw material of coke from the carbonization process of Indonesian redwood residues, can reduce the consumption of coking coal. Biomass has been applied as an alternative renewable fuel to the industrial sector to reduce CO2 emissions. The use of biomass reduces the dependence on traditional fossil fuels whose resources are reduced every day. The purpose of this study was to obtain the best charcoal sizes from redwood and improve the quality of bio-coke through the dry cooling process. The final method of bio-coke can be done coke dry quenching to prevent the occurrence of cracks in the coke, increase coke strength, and less chemical activity during cooling. Redwood charcoal with particle size (10, 25, 50, and 80) mesh is blending with coking coal. The mixing, composition of coal with redwood charcoal is 90:10. Blended briquettes with the addition of molasses and wood tar are processed by re-carbonization at 1100 °C for 4 hours. Bio-coke charcoal 50 mesh has bulk density of 1071.44 kg/m3. The strength of bio-coke increases as bulk density increases. The maximum size of the redwood charcoal particles of the study on 50 mesh generated a compressive strength of 4.87 MPa.

Increasing the demand of fossil fuel energy in up-coming days life is become an important problem everywhere, so alternative fuel resources (bio-oil) for reducing the energy demand is produced and compared with conventional fossil fuel. By pyrolysis method, the biomass (solid waste) was converted into pyrolysis oil, which is used as an alternative fuel in the diesel engine without any engine modification. Sweet lime peel and corn pyrolysis oil are blend at 10% with diesel. The results of the tests showed that the brake thermal efficiency of the blends of corn oil and sweet lime peel oil with diesel was greater than diesel and the amount of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and Nitrogen oxide emissions from corn pyrolysis and sweet lime peel oil was lesser than diesel operation. It was observed that the pyrolysis oil shows better performance and emission characteristics than diesel.

The use of magnetite nanoparticles to produce magnetic paper has a severe effect on the color of the paper, which is worth searching means to alleviate. Multicore-shell Fe3O4-SiO2 magnetic nanocomposites were synthesized. The nanocomposite powder was dispersed in cellulose pulp and paper was produced by dehydration on a Rapid Kothen machine. The nanocomposite retention efficiency was investigated in correlation with nanocomposite shell thickness, the resinous vs. deciduous fiber content of the cellulose pulp, the long and short fibers’ grinding degree, the cationic starch and polymeric retention agent content of the pulp. The whiteness and magnetization was measured for all paper samples. It was proved that the use of multi-core shell magnetic nanocomposites leads to weaker paper coloring. This effect is enhanced by increasing the polymeric retention agent content of the pulp, in spite of higher composite content.

Indonesia has large areas of cacao (Theobroma cacao L) plantation, which mostly plant by smallholders (94%), inconsequences it produces waste. Wastes are in the form of cacao pods and placenta or pulp, leaves, and twigs. One of the methods used to handle cacao waste is by composting. Research is done by adding activators to accelerate the composting. Activators used are Effective Microorganism 4 (EM4), Beyonic Startmix biological organic fertilizer and Suburnik liquid organic fertilizer. Cacao waste used is from smallholder cacao plantation located in Pangadegan village, Rancakalong Sub-district, Sumedang Regency of Indonesia. Composting is done in a composter made of vats with a capacity of 50 liters. Monitored parameters include composting temperature, ambient temperature. The testing of compost products includes chemical and physical quality testing. Chemical quality tests include pH value, moisture content, C-organic, total Nitrogen, C/N ratio, P2O5, K2O, ash content, CaO, MgO, S, Fe, Cu, B, Al. Physical quality tests include color and odor. The test results showed that the chemical and physical quality of the compost in the three activator materials used to produce compost that is not significantly different with the quality that meets the criteria of compost quality according to Indonesian National Standard number 19-7-30-2004. Beyonic Startmix activator is the best activator, followed by EM4 and Suburnik.

Food waste is one of the wastes that is being generated about every day. It would be a waste if the generated waste is ignored, neglected and just being disposed of without using the benefits that are in the food waste. The aim of this study is to find the best way for food waste recovery by using effective microbes (EM). There are three different parameters used in this study. The parameters are the method of drying the food wastes, the presence of Effective Microbes (EM) after the drying of food wastes and the addition of wheat pollard. An effective microbe is a combination of anaerobic microorganisms in a liquid. The effective microbe is activated by mixing the EM 1 with molasses and water with the ratio of 1:1:20 and is left for a week. Molasses is a thick liquid of sugar from the plant such as sugarcane. The food waste went through three processes for it to be recovered which are drip the food waste leaching water at the designated table, grind the food waste and lastly dry it. Before grinding, the coconut pulp was added to the food waste. The food waste is analysed based on four analyses. The four analyses are moisture content, protein analysis, E-coli analysis and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis (FTIR). Moisture content was done to analyse the amount of water in the food waste by using the weight before and after the drying process. Two types of drying process were used in this study; drying by oven and conventional fan. Based on moisture content, the best drying method is by using the oven. The result shows that the moisture content is 28% when the sample dried using an oven compared to a conventional fan (51.4%). Protein analysis and E-Coli analysis are conducted to find an amount of protein and E-coli respectively in the sample. Fourier-transform infrared is an analyzing process to observe the absorption spectra of the food.

Acacia Mangium and Eucalyptus Pellita had been used as raw material of pulp in Indonesia. In this research 5-year old of the wood were pulped under different active alkali charge varied at 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20% and its effect on pulp yield, pulp viscosity and kappa number was investigated. The cooking was done in a rotating digester Haato 6 chambers and 300 gram of dry mass chips were used, with sulfidity 25%, H-factor 800, temperature 165˚C and ratio between chips and liquid was 1: 3,5. The pulp screened yield indicates that decreased from 53,7 to 52,25% for acacia mangium and 53,0 to 50,6% for eucalyptus pellita when active alkali charge increased. Kappa number decreased from 19,0 to 16,8 for acacia mangium and 16,69 to 13,4 for eucalyptus pellita when active alkali charge increased. The viscosity decreased from 818 to 378 ml/g for acacia mangium and 697 to 426,8 ml/g for eucalyptus pellita when active alkali charge increased.

Metal magnetic memory test (MMMT), which is an effective way in evaluating early damages of ferrimagnets, can determine the existence of material stresses concentration and premature defects. As one of offshore oil exploration and development equipment, jack-up platform always generate stress concentration during its life-cycle due to complicated loading condition and the hash marine environment, which will decline the bearing capacity and cause serious consequences. The paper conducts in situ experiments of defects detection on some key structural components of jack-up platform using MMMT. The signals acquired by MMM-System are processed for feature extraction to evaluate the severity of structure stress concentration. The results show that the method presented in this paper based on MMMT can provide an effective and convenient way of defect detection and structural health monitoring for Jack-up Platform.

Due to population rapid growth, fertilizer industries have to increase the production to ensure food security causing faster non-renewable resource depletion. However, organic wastewater (cow urine) commonly contains high amount in NH4+ and PO43- is still underutilized and causing eutrophication and unpleasant odour problem. Struvite precipitation, a common technique using for nitrogen and phosphorus recovery from wastewater,is proposed to recover the organic and renewable nutrients sources. Struvite precipitation process for nutrients recovery/removal from waste sources is beneficial not only providing slow-releasing and high-quality fertilizer but also reducing soil and water pollution from rich-nutrients wastewater. This research aimed to utilize the cow urine wastes as the raw material for the struvite precipitation, to determine the influence of the PO43-: Mg2+ concentration, and input flowrate on a continuous reactor to the struvite formation. Struvite was made using continuous method with variation of the PO43-: Mg2+ concentrations ratio of 1:1; 1:2 and 1:4 and the inlet flowrate of 8.2 mL/s and 15.8 mL/s. The results of this study show that the increase of MgCl2 addition and the higher flow rate could increase the P removal efficiency of struvite in reactors. The optimum phosphate removal efficiency at the flow rate of 8.2 mL/s is obtained at 80 mins with the percentage of 54%, while at the flow rate of 15.8 mL/s, 43% of P removal is obtained at 70 mins. The results from the kinetic study in the input flowrate was found that the higher the concentration ratio of PO43- and Mg2+, the greater the value of the reaction rate constant. However, for molar ratio 1:1 of PO43-: Mg2+, the greater the input flow rate, the smaller value of the reaction rate constant was obtained. From this study, it is revealed that the molar ratio of PO43-: Mg2+ and aeration rate affect significantly the struvite precipitation.

In this study, the sludge of three municipal sewage treatment plants in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China, was dewatered and recycled. The experimental results shown that after deep dewatering with different chemical conditioning reagents, the moisture content of municipal sewage sludge was decreased greatly, from about 97% to about 55%. After dewatering, the organic matter content of sludge was maintained at a high level which is beneficial to the composting treatment of the sludge. The organic matter content of sludge in Foshan No. 1 Sewage Treatment Plant and No. 2 Sewage Treatment Plant was more than 30%, while it was between 15% and 20% in Foshan No. 3 Sewage Treatment Plant. Sludge from all three sewage treatment plants neeed to add a small amount of nutrients to compost. After 14 days of the aerobic composting, the moisture content of the sewage sludge could be reduced to less than 50%, and all the index met the requirements of the agricultural standard.

Seawater ice slurry can be produced with cooling process in evaporator by utilizing salt content in the seawater as freezing point depressing additive. Ice slurry technology can play an important role in the process of storing fish in the open sea because the quality of the fish that cooled with ice slurry is much better than ice cubes. Evaporator with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coating blade and a certain clearance distance, around five milimeters, can reduce electric power and time consumption in ice slurry generation. PTFE, more commonly known as Teflon, is suitable for a wide range of applications in industries as diverse as aerospace, the food and drink industry, pharmaceuticals and telecoms. The present study used variation of magnetic chemical pump RPM, scraper RPM, and salinity of seawater. The results show that the higher salinity results in the lower temperature of ice slurry generation and decreases ice slurry generation. The experimental condition with higher scraper RPM result in slower ice slurry generation. There is an optimum pump RPM to decreasing the temperature faster. Seawater with lower salinity was changed into ice slurry faster, increased the production of ice slurry, and consumed less electric power than that of higher salinity.

Microbiological Influenced Corrosion (MIC) is corrosion exacerbated by the activity of microorganisms. One environment that contains microorganisms is crude oil where there is anaerobic bacterium of Sulphate Reducing Bacteria (SRB) [1]. To study the effect of SRB on corrosion, a study was conducted on JIS G3101 low carbon steel with grade SS400 on crude oil under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. In a mixture of 50 mL crude oil and 10 mL SRB (one solution), and 30 mL of crude oil was added 30 mL SRB (other solution) was immersed specimen with the dimension of 20 x 20 x 4 mm. The bacterium used is SRB of Desulvofibrio desulfuricans genus with conditioning time for 60 days. In every 15 days periodically, there was done an observation of the corrosion phenomena occurring on the specimen, the test of corrosion product compounds on the metal surface layer, and the calculation of bacterial counts. The results of this research indicate that the activity of SRB metabolism in crude oil caused damage to the metal shown by the color change on the specimen surface with the occurrence of pitting corrosion. The more SRB is in crude oil, the more bacteria grow on the specimen surface so that the damage on the specimen surface is getting worse. It caused a more and deeper pitting corrosion. In addition, the anaerobic condition exacerbated the corrosion occurred.

Cellulose is one of the most abundantly available biopolymer in nature. This semi crystalline cellulose cannot be melted directly to form fiber, as it degrades before melting. Hence processing of cellulosic fiber requires dissolution process. There are many solvents available for direct dissolution of cellulose to form polymer, N-Methyl Morpholine Oxide (NMMO) is one of the solvents, which has commercial feasibility to dissolve the cellulose to form spinnable polymer matrix. The process of direct dissolution of cellulose using NMMO is conventionally termed as Lyocell process. It is a multiple step process that involves swelling and dissolution of cellulose in N-Methyl Morpholine Oxide (NMMO) solvent and spinning of solvated cellulose solution to produce fiber by dry jet wet spinning. The conventional process of lyocell manufacturing consists of single stage of slurry (cellulose suspension in NMMO) preparation in which solvent gets penetrated in cellulose fibers (Swelling). It is necessary at slurry stage to have optimum pulp swelling and higher NMMO to cellulose ratio to achieve better uniformity of slurry for fast dissolution and homogeneous solvated cellulose polymer formation. To achieve this, pulp sheets are shredded to an optimum size before addition to aqueous solution of NMMO. The shredding of pulp sheet requires intensive energy and raises safety concerns due to the static charge generation which can lead to dust explosion. This makes conventional processes of dissolved cellulose preparation commercially and operationally unviable. In the present work a new method is developed to overcome the safety concern. In this new method, slurry preparation is carried out in two stages. In first stage dilute solvent is used to prepare slurry with low (4-6%) solid, slurry is later pressed to upto 45-50% solid percentage, the pressed solvent removes metal ion impurities and short chain hemicellulose by 10-20% from pulp. The pressed cake of cellulose is again mixed with high concentration of NMMO to form the slurry mixture for further processing. The dissolution of cellulose starts when monohydrate state of NMMO is reached by removing excess water from cellulose NMMO slurry to get Lyocell dope at 90-100 °C. This polymer solution is then spun through spinnerets by jet-wet spinning to get the Lyocell fiber. This method of cellulose-NMMO slurry preparation for the manufacturing lyocell fiber has shown reduction in undissolved particles of cellulose and metal ions impurities in polymer matrix of cellulose with no change in the fiber properties compared to the conventional process. The advantage of this process over conventional process is that high impurity pulp can be easily blended with good quality pulp in first stage of slurry-making, while the excess impurity is removed before second stage to get better quality of solvated cellulosic polymer network.

Char resulted from the gasification of empty fruit bunch (EFB) is a potential source of some components that can be used as a material in the production of NPK fertilizer. Beside that char also has a porous surface which allows it to hold the nutrients in fertilizer so that the utilization of char can give the positive effects to the availability of nutrient for the plant growth. That characteristics support the utilization of char as a supporting component for fertilizer production. In making the NPK slow release fertilizer, some main components that used in order to fulfill the need of nitrogen (N), phosphor (P), and potassium (K), were urea, diammonium phosphate (DAP), and potassium chloride (KCL). Zeolite was also used as a matrix to increase the character of the fertilizer. In this research, the materials above were formulated to produce the NPK slow release fertilizer for rice plant application by adding char as a source of potassium. The materials were crushed into powder form and then mixed and granulated with molasses as a binder to improve the adhesive strength of the granule fertilizer. In order to study the effect on the utilization of EFB char on the properties of the fertilizer, the NPK non-char fertilizer was also synthesized and characterized. The fertilizer product was then characterized to study about the surface area and pore volume, morphology, and its composition.

The paper discusses the possibility of using the flax boons for thermal insulation materials. The solution for systematization of materials based on flax boon is suggested. It based on the principle of building materials production using the flax waste with different types of binders. The purpose of the research is to obtain heat-insulating materials with different structure based on agricultural production waste - flax boon, mineral and organic binders. The composition and properties of organic filler – flax boons – are defined using infrared spectroscopy and standard techniques. Using the method of multivariate analysis the optimal ratio of flax boons and binders in production of pressed, porous and granular materials are determined. The effect of particles size distribution of flax boons on the strength of samples with the different composition is studied. As a result, the optimized compositions of pressed, porous and granular materials based on flax boons are obtained. Data on the physical and mechani...

Simultaneous Saccharification Fermentation (SSF) of palm oil (Elaeis guineensis) empty fruit bunch (EFB) pulp were investigated as a part of ethanol production process. SSF was investigated by observing the effect of substrate loading variation in range 10-20%w, cellulase loading 5-30 FPU/gr substrate and yeast addition 1-2%v to the ethanol yield. Mathematical model for describing the effects of these three variables to the ethanol yield were developed using Response Surface Methodology-Cheminformatics (RSM-CI). The model gave acceptable accuracy in predicting ethanol yield for Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) with coefficient of determination (R2) 0.8899. Model validation based on data from previous study gave (R2) 0.7942 which was acceptable for using this model for trend prediction analysis. Trend prediction analysis based on model prediction yield showed that SSF gave trend for higher yield when the process was operated in high enzyme concentration and low substrate concentration. On the other hand, even SHF model showed better yield will be obtained if operated in lower substrate concentration, it still possible to operate in higher substrate concentration with slightly lower yield. Opportunity provided by SHF to operate in high loading substrate make it preferable option for application in commercial scale.