Search

Global warming issue, which increasingly aggravates over time, necessitates the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology for its efficient mitigation. Among the major CCS technologies, post-combustion capture is the most established and commonly employed. However, it poses several energy and environment-related problems. As such, research and development of the pre-combustion carbon capture has been conducted to overcome the drawbacks of this conventional approach, and incorporation of ionic liquid (IL) has been increasingly given attention. This paper intends to review the carbon dioxide separation technologies and those related to IL in pre-combustion capture, pre-combustion capture research progress, pilot plant and commercial facilities, as well as modelling approach with special focus on the computer-aided molecular design (CAMD). In the last aspect, emphasis is given to the IL-based UNIFAC model, and key research gaps are identified from the review as general guidelines for the future research work and development in this particular field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently development of computer-aided herbal plant extraction process design has received attention for highly positive future outlook of global herbal industries. Solid-liquid equilibrium (SLE) prediction models comprise a core part of the chemical engineering knowledge base required for the computer-aided process design. In this study, solubility model was developed to predict the solubility of several Orthosiphon stamineus ( Misai Kucing ) phytochemicals (i.e. Sinensetin (SEN), Eupatorin (EUP) and Tetramethylscutellarein (TMF)) in seven solvents, in addition to creating physicochemical property database comprising of melting point temperature, fusion enthalpy, and SLE solubility data. Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (QSPR) model was developed for fusion enthalpy prediction with absolute average relative deviation (AARD) of 9.33%. For improvement of KT-NIST-UNIFAC model, new subgroups (i.e. aC – CO (fused), aC – O (fused) and C C cyclic – OH) were introduced to better represent the molecular structure of studied flavonoid compounds, and binary interaction parameters were regressed using compiled SLE solubility data. Regressed KT-NIST-UNIFAC model exhibited better performance with AARD of 5.27%. Subsequent simulation study using improved model indicated that acetone was compatible for SEN, EUP, and TMF extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biogas decentralised energy system is an important technology in developed countries nowadays as one of the energy efficient and eco-friendly techniques for production of bioenergy besides giving significant impact towards reduction of disposed waste volume and greenhouse gas (GHG). The aim of this article is to present a new numerical method, i.e., Gas System Cascading Analysis (GASCA), based on Time Based Pinch Analysis (TBPA) principle. GASCA is capable of targeting the biogas supply-demand chain, as well as optimal capacities of anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas storage systems for a known total demand profile, with the consideration of energy conversion efficiency for different biogas qualities, charging and discharging efficiencies and losses. In the illustrative case study, the optimal capacity of AD was 4629.52 MJ/h, with initial energy content and maximum energy capacity at biogas storage of 8737.19 MJ/h and 16,988.61 MJ/h. The simulation study also revealed that application of GASCA-optimised biogas energy system could potentially reduce carbon emission by up to 138 t CO 2 eq /d. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the impacts of demand variations on biogas system design and regional feedstock selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]