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Residual palm oil that goes into the river untreated can become detrimental to the environment. Residual oil discharge during milling process into palm oil mill effluent (POME) is unavoidable. About 1 wt% of residual oil in POME causes major problems to the mills, in terms of environment, wastewater treatment and economy losses. This paper reports the recovery of residual oil from POME by adsorption on polypropylene micro/nanofiber (PP-MNF) and desorption of oil by hands pressing, and oil extraction from the PP-MNF using solvent and supercritical-CO2 extraction techniques. The characterization of the PP-MNF and the quality of oil extracted were analyzed using analytical instruments. The reusability of the PP-MNF was also investigated. The experimental results showed the adsorption capacity of the PP-MNF was 28.65 g of oil/g of PP-MNF on average using refined palm oil, whilst recovery of oil from POME was 10.93 g of oil/g of PP-MNF. The extraction yield of oil from PP-MNF using hand pressing was 89.62%. The extraction of residual oil from the pressed PP-MNF showed comparable yield between solvent and supercritical CO2 techniques. The quality of recovered oil was similar with the quality of the crude oil, and no trace of polypropylene contamination was detected in the oil recovered. The PP-MNF showed no significant physical change after the extraction process. In conclusion, the PP-MNF has great potential to be used commercially in residual oil recovery from POME. more...

In the present study, the effectiveness of the micro/nanofiber to adsorb oil was evaluated by varying the process parameters such as oil concentration, time, weight of micro/nanofiber and temperature. The reusability of the micro/nanofiber was also studied. The results showed that the oil adsorption capacity of the micro/nanofiber using refined palm oil was 29.4. The oil adsorption process found that increasing on oil concentration, weight of micro/nanofiber and contact time showed increasing in oil removal (%), but increasing in temperature showed reduction in oil removal (%). The performance of micro/nanofiber in oil removal after pressing technique were decreased. However, solvent washing helps to regenerate the micro/nanofiber and increased the oil removal performance. Therefore, it was concluded that the polypropylene micro/nanofiber had been demonstrated to be effective in removing oil from POME. Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/mijst.2018.32.212226 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. more...

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is an inevitable by-product of palm oil industry that challenges the engineering solutions for its complexity and recalcitrance in nature. This paper reports a new approach to solve the POME pollution, through the recovery of residual oil as opposed to the elimination approach. A field trial of this approach was successfully carried out in a local palm oil mill in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. The recovery of oil was done using novel polypropylene nanofiber (NF) placed in a sludge pit before the treatment pond. NF was packed in flat sheets of wire mesh and bulk bundles, submerged in the POME stream with 5, 6, 7, 15 hours contact times. Saturated NF was removed from pit and oil was desorbed by manual roller press. It recovered 12.19 g of oil/ g NF in 33.75 hours cycle. The recovered oil contained 77% oil content and FFA of 25.05. GC-FID study of the recovered oil indicated no trace of polypropylene contamination. The NF exhibited oil recovery efficiency of 0.06% using 6.7kg of NF. The efficiency is expected to be significantly enhanced if the POME-NF contact is improved as well as the pressing technique. It can fundamentally change the landscape of POME treatment into sustainable, profitable and economical one. Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/mijst.2017.32.276294 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. more...

Malaysia produces approximately 60 million tons of palm oil mill effluent (POME) annually. Raw POME contains 0.6-0.7% oil and it has high free fatty acids (FFAs). The residual oil in POME however, is a potential feedstock in biodiesel production. Oil in the POME was recovered and converted into biodiesel through catalysis esterification reaction. A new carbon based catalyst had been developed in this study. Carbon deposited from electrolysis process was used as carbon precursor to synthesis electrolysis carbon catalyst (CEC). The carbon was sulfonated using concentrated sulfuric acid at temperature 150 °C for 12 h followed by washing and drying of the sulfonated carbon (CEC). CEC was characterized for its physiochemical properties using Elemental analyzer, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, TGA-DTA and back titration methods. Elemental analysis results showed that S content in CEC was ~4 times higher than the electrolysis carbon. The FT-IR detected the presence of weak sulfonic acid groups. The total acidity of CEC was 0.75 mmol g -1 suggesting poor acid functionalization of the electrolysis carbon. This could be associated with the stability of the carbon and also the presence of other elements that weaken the sulfonation reaction. The structure of CEC was observed through the SEM images. CEC possessed a randomly ordered structure and discrete microporous pores.Catalytic activity of CEC was tested on esterification of oil recovered from POME with methanol. The yield was very low, which was 6.19%, this was attributable to the low active sites of the CEC. Further improvement on the electrolyze carbon need to be done in order to increase the total acidity. Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/mijst.2017.32.262275 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. more...

The recovery of waste as feedstock away from organizational limitations corresponds to a prospective supplementary revenue stream for the organization. A novel waste eggshell of Gallus domesticus derived superbasic nanocatalyst was synthesized through betaine amphoteric surfactant-assisted decomposition, adsorption and precipitation processes. By varied the duration synthesis of gel mixture, the morphology transformation from liquid-solid interconnected macro-size particles to regular spheroidal nanoassemblies particles is detected. The surfactant at the liquid-solid interface facilitates the mono dispersion of nanoparticles by hindering growth of crystals. The average particle diameter of the produced superbasic nanocatalyst was in the range of 27–16 nm. The synthesized nanoparticle formation mechanism in the presence surfactant has also been addressed in this study. The catalytic activity of superbasic nanocatalyst was investigated for biodiesel production from crude Jatropha curcas oil (JCO) via glycerolysis and transesterification with methanol at atmospheric pressure. Artificial neural network (ANN) based on the genetic algorithm (GA) was applied for optimization of varied reaction parameters. It was observed that the reduction of acidity varied with varying reaction conditions. The highest fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield (97%) was obtained when the reaction was allowed to run at 60 °C for 300 min, while at 90 °C the maximal FAME yield of 98% was achieved after 120 min. The kinetic parameters of nanocatalyst were determined, and the reaction system followed pseudo first order kinetics. The results suggest that this two steps process using superbasic nanocatalyst affords a promising method to convert oils with high FFA level to biodiesel. more...

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. Carbon-based sulphonated catalysts (CBSCs) were made from rice husk for biodiesel production. The CBSCs were prepared by microwave (MW) and conventional heating processes from the same feedstock. In both heating systems, the preparation was a two-step process: carbonisation and sulphonation. The aim of this study was to use MW heating to reduce the conventional CBSC preparation time and enhance the -SO 3 H group attachment to the solid catalyst. The biomass based solid acid catalysts from the two systems were characterised and compared in terms of physicochemical properties including: sulphonation, morphology, surface area and structure. The reaction times for MW assisted carbonisation and for sulphonation were significantly reduced compared to the conventional heating system; these were 30 min vs 4 h and 20 min vs 12 h, respectively. The MW prepared catalyst showed higher sulphur content (4.91%) as compared to the conventional catalyst (2.10%). The FTIR analysis showed well distinguished peaks for -SO 3 H for the MW prepared catalyst suggesting the solid catalyst was successfully sulphonated, while these peaks were very weak for the conventional catalyst. SEM analysis revealed a highly porous structure in the MW prepared catalyst, whilst a denser solid resulted for its conventionally prepared analogue, owing to the higher temperatures applied and longer sulphonation time. The surface area for the MW was higher than the conventionally prepared catalysts (43.63 m 2 /g and 37.01 m 2 /g, respectively). The structure of the samples was identified as amorphous for both catalysts as confirmed by XRD. The prepared CBSC is expected to catalyse biodiesel production reaction as evidenced by its total acidity and surface area. more...

A heterogeneous CaO/Ag nano catalyst was developed and applied for biodiesel production from transesterification of soybean oil. The silver performed synergistic effects with CaO on promoting biodiesel production. The CaO/Ag nano catalysts exhibited abundant strong basic sites with larger BET surface area (7.02 vs 2.05 m2/g), pore diameter (58.84 vs 37.08 nm) and pore volume (0.070 vs 0.016 cm3/g), which significantly reduced mass transfer resistance of triglycerides during transesterification and improved the mass transfer constants. Response surface methodology was applied to investigate the influence reaction parameters and optimize biodiesel yield. A maximized biodiesel yield of 90.95 ± 2.56 % was achieved using methanol:oil molar ratio of 13, CaO/Ag loading of 5%, reaction time of 90 min and reaction temperature of 72℃. The optimized biodiesel yield for CaO catalyzed transesterification was 88.40 ± 3.34 %, using similar reaction conditions but with 180 min of reaction time. Both nano catalysts were consecutively reused for five times. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies of CaO and CaO/Ag catalyzed transesterification were performed and compared. Economic evaluation of biodiesel production using CaO and CaO/Ag was performed and compared to provide insights for heterogeneous catalyst application for biodiesel production on industrial scale. more...

A facile route to fabricate carbon nanorods and their enhanced hydrogen storage performance were reported. The nanorods exhibit packing structure with different orientations having diameter of about 33 nm. The synthesized nanorods show excellent hydrogen storage properties (7169 µmol g −1 ) compared with that of commercial carbon (2564 µmol g −1 ). Thus, the simple synthesis process and the enhanced hydrogen storage capacity of carbon nanorods shed light on the utilization of structured carbon as an efficient hydrogen storage material. more...

This paper deals with the comparative study on glycerolysis of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) in a solvent free system at different reaction conditions in an attempt to get maximum degree of FFA% reduction for biodiesel feedstock. Initially, optimization of varied reaction parameters was performed under all the different reaction conditions using artificial neural network (ANN) based on the genetic algorithm (GA). It has been found that the reduction of acidity varies with varying reaction conditions with maximum reaction rate observed in case of reaction carried-out in open reactor system with inert gas flow, followed by the reaction in open reactor system without inert gas flow and then in case of reaction under the close reactor system. In the most favorable case, 1.5 mgKOH/gPFAD of FFA (free fatty acid) was achieved after 90 min of reaction time with an excess glycerol of 4% at 220 °C. The results from the ANN model show good agreement with experimental results. Thus, the glycerolysis in open reactor system with inert gas flow (N2) option is much-preferred option compared to acid esterification for the same biodiesel plant capacity, particularly for high-FFA feedstocks. more...

In this study, carbon-silica based acid catalysts derived from rice husks (RH) were successfully synthesised using microwave (MW) technology. The results showed that MW sulphonation produced Sulphur (S) content of 17.2–18.5 times higher than in raw RH. Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) showed peak at 1035 cm−1 which corresponded to O˭S˭O stretching of sulphonic (-SO3H) group. XRD showed sulfonated RH catalysts (SRHCs) have amorphous structure, and through SEM, broadening of the RH voids and also formation of pores is observed. RH600 had the highest surface area of 14.52 m2/g. SRHCs showed high catalytic activity for esterification of oleic acid with methanol with RH600 had the highest initial formation rate (6.33 mmol L−1 min−1) and yield (97%). The reusability of the catalyst showed gradually dropped yield of product for every recycle, which might be due to leaching of –SO3H. Finally, esterification of oil recovered from palm oil mill effluent (POME) with methanol achieved a conversion of 87.3% free fatty acids (FFA) into fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). more...

In this work, untreated empty fruit bunch (EFB) or microwave-assisted NaOHpretreated EFB with palm oil mill effluent (POME) were composted under mesophilicconditions either in the presence or absence of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens D203 for sixtydays. During pretreatment conditions, the EFB was mixed with 1% (w/w) sodiumhydroxide and then exposed to microwave irradiation. The composting process wasevaluated based on the evolution of pH, electrical conductivity, moisture content, organicmatter loss, zeta potential and phytotoxicity. The strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens D203 is not suitable for EFB-POME composting due to lower organic matter loss. The microwave-assisted NaOH pretreatment contributed to ~15% more organic matter loss than was found in the untreated sample while its germination index was >50%. more...

Carbon coated monolith was prepared by sucrose solution 65 wt.% via dip-coating method. Sulfonation of incomplete carbonized carbon coated monolith was carried out in order to synthesize solid acid catalyst. The textural structure characteristics of the solid acid catalyst demonstrated a low surface area and pore volume. Palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), a by-product of palm oil refineries, was utilized as oil source in biodiesel production. The esterification reaction subjected to different reaction conditions was performed by using the sulfonated carbon coated monolith as heterogeneous catalyst. The sulfonation process had been performed by using vapour of concentrated H2SO4 that was much easier and efficient than liquid phase sulfonation. Total acidity value of carbon coated monolith was measured for unsulfonated sample (0.5 mmol/g) and sulfonated sample (4.2 mmol/g). The effect of methanol/oil ratio, catalyst amount and reaction time were examined. The maximum methyl ester content was 89% at the optimum condition, i.e. methanol/oil molar ratio (15:1), catalyst amount (2.5 wt.% with respect to PFAD), reaction time (240 min) and temperature 80 °C. The sugar catalyst supported on the honeycomb monolith showed comparable reactivity compared with the sugar catalyst powder. However, the catalyst reusability studies showed decrease in FFA% conversion from 95.3% to 68.8% after four cycles as well as the total acidity of catalyst dropped from the value 4.2 to 3.1 mmol/g during these cycles. This might be likely due to the leaching out of SO3H group from the sulfonated carbon coated monolith surface. The leaching of active species reached a plateau state after fourth cycle. more...

Carbon was successfully deposited on AISI 304 stainless steel rod cathode through electrolysis process in three molten salt mixtures, namely K2CO3-Li2CO3 (mole ratio: 1:1), CaCO3-Li2CO3-LiCl (mole ratio 0.09:0.28:0.63) and CaCO3-CaCl2-KCl-LiCl (mole ratio: 0.13:0.31:0.10:0.45), under CO2 atmospheres as continuous source of carbon. The process were carried out for 1 hour at temperature range 545–585°C and electrolysis voltage of 4.0V to drive the deposition of carbon through electrochemical conversion. EDX analysis on deposited products shown carbon as dominant element (89-98%). SEM revealed carbon with Flakes and grapes aggregation shapes for different salt mixtures. The achieved current efficiency of 83.8%, 80.46% and 92.41% were found in the respective salt mixtures, and energy consumption promotes several ways for efficiency improvement on the electrochemical conversion of CO2. more...

Dynamic water vapour adsorption isotherms by palm kernel cake in a packed bed column were determined at different relative humidity of air (20–95 ± 2%), superficial air velocity (0.05–0.15 m/s), constant ambient temperature (30 ± 1°C), and bed height, and with dried palm kernel cake of different particle sizes (0.86–5.15 mm). The isotherms were affected by the relative humidity, superficial velocity, and particle size, followed Brunauer-Emmett-Teller Type III classification, and fitted satisfactorily with the Freundlich equation. The maximum water adsorbed was less than 20%. This indicated that in the solid-state fermentation of palm kernel cake, where forced aeration was employed, the use of humidified air was inadequate in maintaining bed moisture level. more...

A systematic sieving method (1 kg sample; 50 Hz; 0° inclination; 20 min) was used to obtain particle size distribution of palm kernel cake containing seven different particle sizes (4.83, 2.68, 1.50, 0.80, 0.51, 0.32, and 0.11 mm). Regardless of particle size, palm kernel cake was found to be of different shapes qualitatively with optical microscopy and quantitatively (variation in mean length, mean volume, and volume-surface mean diameters), non-porous (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area more...

Mesoporous carbon catalysts have received considerable interest in the scientific community because of their tunable porosity, hydrophobic surface, and ease of functionalization with active groups such as –SO 3 H. The formation of silica templates is a typical method to prepare a mesoporous carbon, but little is understood on its role for effective sulfonation. In this study, silica templates were used to prepare mesoporous sugar char using the confined activation process. The char was functionalized with –SO 3 H groups before or after removing the silica templates. The roles of the silica templates were evaluated based on the physicochemical properties of the catalysts. The results showed that silica templates provided support to the internal porosity, but prevented the –SO 3 H groups from effectively reaching the internal surface. The esterification of oleic acid showed that the reactivity of the carbon-based catalysts is dependent on the total acidity, but independent of the surface area. These findings show that carbon-based catalysts are suitable for esterification which is useful for biodiesel production. more...

The present study investigated the preparation of solid carbon through the electrolysis of a newly formulated molten salt electrolyte containing CaCO3-Li2CO3-LiCl with a continuous cell voltage of 4 - 6V, and temperatures of 550 and 650°C. The process was carried out in a two-electrode cell using AISI 304 stainless steel electrodes in CO2 gas environment. CO2 gas was captured and electro-converted to solid carbon, and deposited on the cathode surface. SEM images revealed five dominant microstructures: grape-like, tubes, thread-like, spheres, and flakes. These materials consist of 69 - 80% carbon content based on EA analysis. Single wall nanotube structures of 13 - 90nm outer diameter was also detected under TEM analysis. The result revealed that electrolysis voltage and temperature changes affected the microstructures, quantity of the deposited carbon, and the efficiency of electro-conversion process. The size of the carbon microstructures declined, and carbon deposition rate increased as both voltage and temperature were increased. However, it reduced the efficiency of the process, thus using more energy per g of carbon produced. more...

The present global economy downturn affects every corner of the world including the vehicular fuel industry. This paper highlights some of the perspectives for the biodiesel industry to thrive as an alternative fuel, while discussing benefits and limitations of biodiesel. This includes the improvement of the conversion technology to achieve a sustainable process at cheaper cost, environmentally benign and cleaner emissions, diversification of products derived from glycerol, and policy and government incentives. More specifically, an overview is given on making the production process more economical by developing high conversion and low cost catalysts from renewable sources, and utilizing waste oil as feedstock. Further emphasis is given on the need for public education and awareness for the use and benefits of biodiesel, while promoting policies that will not only endorse the industry, but also promote effective land management. more...

Solid state fermentation (SSF) which involves the growth of microorganism on moist solid substrates in the absence of free flowing water, has gained renewed attention over submerged fermentation for specific applications. During the SSF process in fermenter, there are three main engineering problems encountered such as the removal of metabolic heat from the substrate, diffusion of O2 and moisture through the substrate, and heterogeneity of the substrate and inoculum. A fluidized bed fermenter in which the particles move independently like a fluid was proposed to conduct the study. Throughout the study, rapid heat transfer from PKC to air was experimentally observed within the first 150 s with a temperature drop of 30 °C. This indicated that the excellent heat transfer between palm kernel cake and air allows solid state fermentation of PKC without accumulation of metabolic heat in the fermenter. Apart from heat removal, water adsorption study on PKC from air to bed was carried out. It showed that the increase of adsorbed water in PKC was proportional to air relative humidity and inversely proportional to superficial air velocity. The maximum moisture content adsorbed by PKC under fluidization conditions was around 10% (on dry basis). Finally, mathematical models for heat and mass transfer were proposed which can predict the experimental data quite satisfactorily. more...

Solid state fermentation (SSF) is emerging as an attractive alternative to submerged fermentation despite the engineering problems such as removal of metabolic heat, transport of oxygen and moisture into the particles and the heterogeneity of the substrate. In the present work, a lab scale fermenter which can be operated as fluidized bed and packed bed was fabricated. Solid state fermentation of palm kernel cake (PKC) using fungal strain TW1 was carried out at three superficial air velocities. PKC particles of mean diameter 855 μm were used and the fluidizing medium was air. Reducing sugar concentration, biomass growth, bed moisture content, substrate pH, and hemicellulose content were measured. The maximum increase in reducing sugar concentration was at 0.17 m/s since an increase in mannose from 14.55 to 18.63 mg mannose/g dry PKC was observed. The hemicellulose content of this fermented PKC was estimated and the result was around 10% in reduction of hemicellulose content in fermented PKC. Further improvement of PKC bioconversion can likely be achieved by selection of a more robust microbe that can withstand the conditions in the fluidized bed during SSF and by creating a system which can maintain the moisture content of PKC during SSF of PKC throughout the packed bed. more...

The hydration properties of palm kernel cake (PKC) were investigated for the bioconversion of PKC to poultry feed via solid state fermentation. At room temperature, the swelling capacity of PKC was found to be constant and unaffected by different particle sizes, while the water retention capacity was affected by different particle sizes. PKC swelling was affected by moisture content and particle size. Swelling was linearly proportional to moisture content (MC). Maximum swelling at room temperature was achieved by 2.675 mm PKC for 50% MC and above, with the final volume to initial volume (Vf/Vi) ratio up to 1.71 at 210% MC. For 50% MC and below, maximum swelling was achieved by 1.500 mm PKC, with the Vf/Vi ratio up to 1.29 at 50% MC. At a constant particle size of 1.500 mm, increasing temperature increased the rate of PKC swelling, but the effect of temperature on the Vf/Vi ratio was significantly minimal at different moisture content and temperature. Mathematical expressions for the swelling of PKC at room temperature with different particle sizes, and 1.500 mm PKC at different temperatures, were developed in relations to initial volume, final volume, and moisture content. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. more...

The hybrid-carbon catalyst has been studied because of its promising potential to have high porosity and surface area to be used in biodiesel production. Silica has been used as the support to produce hybrid carbon catalyst due to its mesoporous structure and high surface area properties. The chemical synthesis of silica-carbon hybrid is expensive and involves more complicated preparation steps. The presence of natural silica in rice plants especially rice husk has received much attention in research because of the potential as a source for solid acid catalyst synthesis. But study on rice straw, which is available abundantly as agricultural waste is limited. In this study, rice straw undergone pyrolysis and functionalized using fuming sulphuric acid to anchor –SO3H groups. The presence of silica and the physiochemical properties of the catalyst produced were studied before and after sulphonation. The catalytic activity of hybrid carbon silica acid catalyst, (H-CSAC) in esterification of oleic acid with methanol was also studied. The results showed the presence of silica-carbon which had amorphous structure and highly porous. The carbon surface consisted of higher silica composition, had lower S element detected as compared to the surface that had high carbon content but lower silica composition. This was likely due to the fact that Si element which was bonded to oxygen was highly stable and unlikely to break the bond and react with –SO3H ions. H-CSAC conversions were 23.04 %, 35.52 % and 34.2 7% at 333.15 K, 343.15 K and 353.15 K, respectively. From this research, rice straw can be used as carbon precursor to produce hybrid carbon-silica catalyst and has shown catalytic activity in biodiesel production. Rate equation obtained is also presented. more...

Wastewater from pulp and paper mill is one of the most important sources of pollutants mainly due to the pulping and bleaching processes. This study evaluates the effectiveness of photo-Fenton's process in reducing organic and suspended solid in pulp and paper mill wastewater. The photo-Fenton's process produces the strongest oxidation and consumes lower Fe2+ compared to the conventional Fenton's process. The conditions of the photo-Fenton's process were optimized such as the initial pH, the H2O2 concentration and the FeSO4+7H2O concentration. It was found that the optimal pH for Fenton's process was pH 5. The optimal initial concentration of H2O2 and FeSO4+7H2O were 500 and 400 mg L-1, respectively. The overall efficiency of BOD, and TSS reduced by the Fenton's process under optimal conditions attained up to 87.5 and 87.0%, respectively. Thus, the photo-Fenton's process has the potential to be used in the treatment of pulp and paper effluent. © 2007 Asian Network for Scientific Information. more...

This study measured the minimum fluidization velocity of Palm Kernel Cake (PKC) particles. PKC was used as it is a potential substrate in solid state fermentation. A laboratory scale fluidized bed reactor has been fabricated for this investigation. Minimum fluidization velocity (Umf) for sand particles was initially tested to ensure the workability of the set up. Subsequently, Umf for 855, 655 and 363 I¼m particle size of PKC were measured and found to be 0.340, 0.205 and 0.080 m sec-1. This study showed that Umf increased with the increased of PKC particle size. This indicated that PKC particle can be fluidized and investigation of its fermentation in fluidized bed fermenter is feasible. © 2007 Asian Network for Scientific Information. more...

Various reactors such as tray, packed bed, rotating drum can be used for solid-state fermentation. In this paper the possibility of fluidized bed reactor as solid-state fermenter is considered. The design parameters, which affect the performances are identified and discussed. This information, in general can be used in the design and the development of an efficient fluidized bed solid-state fermenter. However, the objective here is to develop fluidized bed solid-state fermenter for palm kernel cake conversion into enriched animal and poultry feed. more...

A novel structured carbon-based acid catalyst was prepared by depositing the carbon precursor onto glass, ceramic and aluminum supports via dip-coating method, followed by carbonization process for converting the d-glucose layer into black carbon char in an inert nitrogen environment at 400 °C. Then, the –SO3H group was introduced into the framework of the carbon char by multiple vapor phase sulfonation. Four different carbonization methods were carried out (dry pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization with or without pressurized) in the catalyst preparation while among the carbonization methods, the samples which prepared from dry pyrolysis without pressurized process showed the strong acidity due to highest adsorption of acid group in the catalyst surface although the catalyst attached onto the support was the least compared to other preparation methods. Among the catalysts, the sulfonated carbon-base catalyst that is attached on the ceramic support exhibited the highest aci-dity (1.327 mmol/g) followed by the catalyst deposited on the glass (0.917 mmol/g) and aluminum (0.321 mmol/g) supports. The porous structure of ceramic surface, allowed a better interaction between reactants and –SO3H site in the carbon. Through the FT-IR analysis, it was observed that the functional groups –COOH, –OH, and –SO3H were present in the active sites of the catalysts. The surface areas of glass (Si–SC), ceramic (Ce–SC) and aluminum (Al–SC) catalysts were larger than 1 m2/g, whereas the pore size belongs to macroporous as the average pore size is more than 50 nm. It is also stable within the temperature of 400 °C as there was less than 10% weight loss revealed from the TGA analysis. Copyright © 2017 BCREC GROUP. All rights reservedReceived: 20th April 2016; Revised: 14th October 2016; Accepted: 17th October 2016How to Cite: Janaun, J.A., Mey, T.J., Bono, A., Krishnaiah, D. (2017). Preparation and Characterization of Sugar Based Catalyst on Various Supports. Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis, 12 (1): 41-48 (doi:10.9767/bcrec.12.1.478.41-48)Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.12.1.478.41-48 more...

This study reports the synthesis and characterization of carbon-based catalyst derived from local seaweed species, Sargassum Polycystum. The synthesis involved pyrolysis at 400°C for 4h followed by sulfonation. The characterization study showed that the material had a total acidity of 2.01 mmol/g, and thermally stability up to 240°C. FT-IR analysis detected the presence of -COOH, -OH and -SO3H functional groups. From the EDS analysis, the concentration of SO3H was calculated as 0.28 mmol/g. Metal were also detected in the sample with the order of concentration as Pb>Mg>Fe>Cd>Cu with a range of 0.055-0.110 ppm. The SEM analysis showed the sample as porous material. In conclusion, the functionalized carbon material had a great potential as a catalyst for many reactions such as biodiesel production. more...

Rice is a primary source to all human beings. It gives energy and supply carbohydrate in human daily life. It is also one of the main sources of employment for people living in the rural area to generate incomes. In this study, determinations of quality of rice dried in an oven and in a Laterally Aerated Moving Bed (LAMB) dryer were performed., tTe drying in an oven was performed with initial moisture content (MC) of 18% reduced to 14% w.b. at temperatures of 35, 45, 55, 65 and 75 0C. The amylose contents of the rice were 20.78, 21.81, 21.53, 21.63 and 22.50%, respectively. Furthermore, drying of paddy with temperature of 45 0C and initial moisture content of 15% w.b was performed with different final moisture content of 14, 12, 10 and 8% w.b using oven drying. The amylose content were 21.79, 20.17, 20.85, 26.35%, respectively. As for paddy dried in LAMB dryer, it was found that the amylose content were in the intermediate range (20 - 25.50%). The drying temperature of the LAMB dryer was at 25 0C with 100 to 200 L/min of air flowrate resulted in the intermediate amylose content of the rice despite the final moisture content reduced to 8% w.b. more...

Sugar catalyst is a novel solid acid catalyst with reactivity comparable to that of sulphuric acid in biodiesel production. However, the fine powder form of sugar catalyst with the non-porous structure might cause large pressure drop in a packed bed reactor due to low bed porosity, affecting the reaction conversion especially in gas phase reaction. Furthermore, higher pressure drop requires higher electrical energy to drive the fluid through. Increasing the particle size is anticipated to be able to overcome the pressure drop matter. Hence, a deposition of sugar catalyst on larger particle materials was studied. Three types of materials were used for this investigation namely aluminum, silica and clay. The deposition was done via dip-coating method. The materials were characterized for their total acidity, thermal stability, functional groups, surface area, and element composition. The total acidity for SCDCAl, SCDCSi, and SCDCCl were 0.9 mmol/g, 0.2 mmol/g, and 0.4 mmol/g, respectively. The ratio of char deposited on SCDCAl, SCDCSi and SCDCCl were 0.9 g of support/g of carbon, 0.040 g of support/g of carbon, and 0.014 g of support/g of carbon respectively. FTIR and EDX analyses were carried out to determine the presence of active sites of the catalysis by identifying the functional groups such as -COOH, -OH, -SO3H. The results showed that -SO3H was detected on the surface of synthesized catalysts, except for SCDCC1.The pore size of SCDCAl, SCDCSi and SCDCCl were classified as macropores because the average diameter were greater than 50nm.. The catalysts were stable up to 400°C. The results showed that the dipcoating method could deposit sugar catalyst on aluminum, silica, and clay at low total acidity concentration. more...

Perforated pipes are utilized to divide a fluid flow into several smaller streams. Uniform flow distribution requirement is of great concern in engineering applications because it has significant influence on the performance of fluidic devices. For industrial applications, it is crucial to provide a uniform velocity distribution through orifices. In this research, flow distribution patterns of a closed-end multiple outlet pipe standing vertically for air delivery in the horizontal direction was simulated. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), a tool of research for enhancing and understanding design was used as the simulator and the drawing software SolidWorks was used for geometry setup. The main purpose of this work is to establish the influence of size of orifices, intervals between outlets, and the length of tube in order to attain uniformity of exit flows through a multi outlet perforated tube. However, due to the gravitational effect, the compactness of paddy increases gradually from top to bottom of dryer, uniform flow pattern was aimed for top orifices and larger flow for bottom orifices. more...

This study was mainly concerned about the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorbent from rice husk (RH). Several chemical treatments were used to produce activated rice husk char (RHAC) from RH. Initially the RH was refluxed with 3M of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, activation followed by using 0.5M of zinc chloride (ZnCl2) solution and finally acidic treatment by using 0.1M of hydrochloric acid (HCl). Then, the RHAC was functionalized by using 3-chloropropylamine hydrochloride (3-CPA) and noted as RHN. RHN samples were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Based on the SEM, the RHN sample had a large pore diameter compared to RH sample after being treated. Based on MIP data, the average pore diameter between RH and RHAC samples were increased significantly from 0.928 microns to 1.017 microns. The RHN sample also had higher total porosity (%) compared to RHAC and RH (58.45%, 47.82% and 45.57% respectively). The total specific surface area of the sample was much increasing from RHO to RHAC (29.17 m2/g and 62.94 m2/g respectively) and slightly being decreasing from RHAC to RHN (58.88 m2/g). FTIR result showed the present of weak band at 1587 cm-1 which demonstrating of the amine group present on the sample. The CO2 capture result showed that the decreasing of operating temperature can increase the breakthrough time of CO2 capture. On the contrary decreasing of CO2 gas flow rate can increase the breakthrough time of CO2 capture. The highest total amount of CO2 adsorbed was 25338.57 mg of CO2/g of RHN sample by using 100 mL/min of gas flow rate at 30oC. Based on adsorption isotherm analysis, the Freundlich isotherm was the best isotherm to describe the CO2 adsorption on the sample. more...

Air heating unit is one of the most important parts in paddy drying to ensure the efficiency of a drying process. In addition, an optimized air heating unit does not only promise a good paddy quality, but also save more for the operating cost. This study determined the suitable and best specifications heating unit to heat air for paddy drying in the LAMB dryer. In this study, Aspen HYSYS v7.3 was used to obtain the minimum flow rate of hot water needed. The resulting data obtained from Aspen HYSYS v7.3 were used in Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating (EDR) to generate heat exchanger design and costs. The designs include shell and tubes and plate heat exchanger. The heat exchanger was designed in order to produce various drying temperatures of 40, 50, 60 and 70°C of air with different flow rate, 300, 2500 and 5000 LPM. The optimum condition for the heat exchanger were found to be plate heat exchanger with 0.6 mm plate thickness, 198.75 mm plate width, 554.8 mm plate length and 11 numbers of plates operating at 5000 LPM air flow rate. more...

Sulfonated carbon-based catalysts derived from rubber tree leaves, and pulp and paper mill waste were synthesized and characterized. Three types of catalyst synthesized were sulfonated rubber tree leaves (S-RTL), pyrolysed sludge char (P-SC) and sulfonated sludge char (S-SC). Sulfonated rubber tree leaves (S-RTL) and sulfonated sludge char (S-SC) were prepared through pyrolysis followed by functionalization via sulfonation process whereas, P- SC was only pyrolyzed without sulfonation. The characterization results indicated sulfonic acids, hydroxyl, and carboxyl moieties were detected in S-RTL and S-SC, but no sulfonic acid was detected in P-SC. Total acidity test showed S-RTL had the highest value followed by S-SC and P-SC. The thermal stability of S-RTL and S-SC were up to 230oC as the loss was associated with the decomposition of sulfonic acid group, whereas, P-SC showed higher stability than the S-RTL and S-SC. Morphology analysis showed that S-RTL consisted of an amorphous carbon structure, and a crystalline structure for P-SC and S-SC. Furthermore, traces of metal components were also detected on all of the catalysts. The catalyst catalytic activity was tested through esterification of oleic acid with methanol. The results showed that the reaction using S-RTL catalyst produced the highest conversion (99.9%) followed by P-SC (88.4%) and lastly S-SC (82.7%). The synthesized catalysts showed high potential to be used in biodiesel production. more...

Solid-state fermentation (SSF) was employed to enhance the nutritive values of palm kernel cake (PKC) for poultry feeding. Aspergillus flavus was isolated from local PKC and utilized to increase the mannose content of PKC via the degradation of β-mannan in PKC; evaluation was done for batch SSF in Erlenmeyer flasks and in a novel laterally aerated moving bed (LAMB) bioreactor. The optimum condition for batch SSF in flasks was 110% initial moisture content, initial pH 6.0, 30 °C, 855 μm particle size, and 120 h of fermentation, yielding 90.91 mg mannose g−1 dry PKC (5.9-fold increase). Batch SSF in the LAMB at the optimum condition yielded 79.61 mg mannose g−1 dry PKC (5.5-fold increase) within just 96 h due to better heat and mass transfer when humidified air flowed radially across the PKC bed. In spite of a compromise of 12% reduction in mannose content when compared with the flasks, the LAMB facilitated good heat and mass transfer, and improved the mannose content of PKC in a shorter fermentation period. These attributes are useful for batch production of fermented PKC feed in an industrial scale. more...

Solid substrate cultivation (SSC) or solid state fermentation (SSF) is envisioned as a prominent bio conversion technique to transform natural raw materials into a wide variety of chemical as well as bio-chemical products. This process involves the fermentation of solid substrate medium with microorganism in the absence of free flowing water. Recent developments and concerted focus on SSF enabled it to evolve as a potential bio- technology as an alternative to thetraditional chemical synthesis. SSF is being successfully exploited for food production, fuels, enzymes, antibiotics, animal feeds and also for dye degradation. This paper discusses the various micro and macro level engineering problems associated with SSF and some possible solutions for its full commercial realization. more...