Search results for: Ammonia nitrogen removal
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 832

Search results for: Ammonia nitrogen removal

712 The Coupling of Photocatalytic Oxidation Processes with Activated Carbon Technologies and the Comparison of the Treatment Methods for Organic Removal from Surface Water

Authors: N. Areerachakul

Abstract:

The surface water used in this study was collected from the Chao Praya River at the lower part at the Nonthaburi bridge. It was collected and used throughout the experiment. TOC (also known as DOC) in the range between 2.5 to 5.6 mg/l were investigated in this experiment. The use of conventional treatment methods such as FeCl3 and PAC showed that TOC removal was 65% using FeCl3 and 78% using PAC (powder activated carbon). The advanced oxidation process alone showed only 35% removal of TOC. Coupling advanced oxidation with a small amount of PAC (0.05g/L) increased efficiency by upto 55%. The combined BAC with advanced oxidation process and small amount of PAC demonstrated the highest efficiency of up to 95% of TOC removal and lower sludge production compared with other methods.

Keywords: Advanced oxidation process, TOC, PAC

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711 The Effect of Pyridoxine and Different Levels of Nitrogen on Physiological Indices of Corn(Zea Mays L.var.sc704)

Authors: Gholamreza Farrokhi, Babak Paykarestan

Abstract:

One field experiment was conducted on corn (Zea mays L.Var. SC 704) to study the effect of three different basic levels of nitrogen (90, 140and 190 Kg/ha as urea) with 0.01% and 0.02% pyridoxine pre-sowing seed soaking for 8 hours. Water-soaked seeds were treated as controled. biomass production was recorded on 45, 70 and 95 days after sowing. Total dry material (TDM), leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR) was calculated form 45until 95 days after sowing. Yield and its components such as kernel yield, grain weight, biologic yield, harvest index and protein percentage was measured at harvest. In general, 0.02% pyridoxine and 190 Kg pure nitrogen/ha was shown gave maximum value for growth and yield parameters. N190 + 0.02 % pyridoxine enhanced seed yield and biologic yield by 57.15% and 62.98% compared to 90kg N and water – soaked treatment.

Keywords: Corn, Growth Indices, Nitrogen Levels, Physiological Indices, Pyridoxine.

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710 Hexavalent Chromium Removal from Aqueous Solutions by Adsorption onto Synthetic Nano Size ZeroValent Iron (nZVI)

Authors: A.R. Rahmani, M.T. Samadi, R. Noroozi

Abstract:

The present work was conducted for the synthesis of nano size zerovalent iron (nZVI) and hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) removal as a highly toxic pollutant by using this nanoparticles. Batch experiments were performed to investigate the effects of Cr(VI), nZVI concentration, pH of solution and contact time variation on the removal efficiency of Cr(VI). nZVI was synthesized by reduction of ferric chloride using sodium borohydrid. SEM and XRD examinations applied for determination of particle size and characterization of produced nanoparticles. The results showed that the removal efficiency decreased with Cr(VI) concentration and pH of solution and increased with adsorbent dosage and contact time. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used for the adsorption equilibrium data and the Langmuir isotherm model was well fitted. Nanoparticle ZVI presented an outstanding ability to remove Cr(VI) due to high surface area, low particle size and high inherent activity.

Keywords: Adsorption, aqueous solution, Chromium, nZVI, removal.

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709 Nitrogen Effects on Ignition Delay Time in Supersonic Premixed and Diffusion Flames

Authors: A. M. Tahsini

Abstract:

Computational study of two dimensional supersonic reacting hydrogen-air flows is performed to investigate the nitrogen effects on ignition delay time for premixed and diffusion flames. Chemical reaction is treated using detail kinetics and the advection upstream splitting method is used to calculate the numerical inviscid fluxes. The results show that just in stoichiometric condition for both premixed and diffusion flames, there is monotone dependency of the ignition delay time to the nitrogen addition. In other situations, the optimal condition from ignition viewpoint should be found using numerical investigations.

Keywords: Diffusion flame, Ignition delay time, Mixing layer, Numerical simulation, Premixed flame, Supersonic flow.

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708 Matching Pursuit based Removal of Cardiac Pulse-Related Artifacts in EEG/fMRI

Authors: Rainer Schneider, Stephan Lau, Levin Kuhlmann, Simon Vogrin, Maciej Gratkowski, Mark Cook, Jens Haueisen

Abstract:

Cardiac pulse-related artifacts in the EEG recorded simultaneously with fMRI are complex and highly variable. Their effective removal is an unsolved problem. Our aim is to develop an adaptive removal algorithm based on the matching pursuit (MP) technique and to compare it to established methods using a visual evoked potential (VEP). We recorded the VEP inside the static magnetic field of an MR scanner (with artifacts) as well as in an electrically shielded room (artifact free). The MP-based artifact removal outperformed average artifact subtraction (AAS) and optimal basis set removal (OBS) in terms of restoring the EEG field map topography of the VEP. Subsequently, a dipole model was fitted to the VEP under each condition using a realistic boundary element head model. The source location of the VEP recorded inside the MR scanner was closest to that of the artifact free VEP after cleaning with the MP-based algorithm as well as with AAS. While none of the tested algorithms offered complete removal, MP showed promising results due to its ability to adapt to variations of latency, frequency and amplitude of individual artifact occurrences while still utilizing a common template.

Keywords: matching pursuit, ballistocardiogram, artifactremoval, EEG/fMRI.

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707 Removal of Methylene Blue Dye Using Roselle Petals from Aqueous Solutions

Authors: Abdulali Ben Saleh, Mohamed Abudabbus

Abstract:

The present study based on removal of natural dyes of Roselle petals, then used Roselle petals powder (RPP) as an adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue dye (as a typical cationic or basic dye) from aqueous solutions. The present study shows that used Roselle petals powder exhibit adsorption trend for the dye. The adsorption processes were carried out at various conditions of temperatures ranging from 278 to 338 K ± 2 K , concentrations, processing time and a wide range of pH between 2.5-11. Adsorption isotherm equations such as Freundlich, and Langmuir were applied to calculate the values of respective constants. Adsorption study was found that the currently introduced adsorbent can be used to remove cationic dyes such as methylene blue from aqueous solutions.

Keywords: Adsorption, methylene blue, removal of dyes, Roselle petals powder.

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706 Study on Liquid Nitrogen Gravity Circulation Loop for Cryopumps in Large Space Simulator

Authors: Weiwei Shan, Wenjing Ding, Juan Ning, Chao He, Zijuan Wang

Abstract:

Gravity circulation loop for the cryopumps of the space simulator is introduced, and two phase mathematic model of flow heat transfer is analyzed as well. Based on this model, the liquid nitrogen (LN2) gravity circulation loop including its equipment and layout is designed and has served as LN2 feeding system for cryopumps in one large space simulator. With the help of control software and human machine interface, this system can be operated flexibly, simply, and automatically under four conditions. When running this system, the results show that the cryopumps can be cooled down and maintained under the required temperature, 120 K.

Keywords: Cryopumps, gravity circulation loop, liquid nitrogen, two-phase.

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705 Phenols and Manganese Removal from Landfill Leachate and Municipal Wastewater Using the Constructed Wetland

Authors: Amin Mojiri, Lou Ziyang

Abstract:

Constructed Wetland (CW) is a reasonable method to treat wastewater. Current study was carried out to co-treat landfill leachate and domestic wastewater using a CW system. Typha domingensis was transplanted to CW, which encloses two substrate layers of adsorbents named ZELIAC and zeolite. Response surface methodology and central composite design were employed to evaluate experimental data. Contact time (h) and leachate-towastewater mixing ratio (%; v/v) were selected as independent factors. Phenols and manganese removal were selected as dependent responses. At optimum contact time (48.7 h) and leachate-towastewater mixing ratio (20.0%), removal efficiencies of phenols and manganese removal efficiencies were 90.5%, and 89.4%, respectively.

Keywords: Constructed wetland, manganese, phenols, Thypha domingensis.

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704 Leaching of Mineral Nitrogen and Phosphate from Rhizosphere Soil Stressed by Drought and Intensive Rainfall

Authors: J. Elbl, J. K. Friedel, J. Záhora, L. Plošek, A. Kintl, J. Přichystalová, J. Hynšt, L. Dostálová, K. Zákoutská

Abstract:

This work presents the first results from the long-term experiment, which is focused on the impact of intensive rainfall and long period of drought on microbial activities in soil. Fifteen lysimeters were prepared in the area of our interest. This area is a protection zone of underground source of drinking water. These lysimeters were filed with topsoil and subsoil collected in this area and divided into two groups. These groups differ in fertilization and amount of water received during the growing season. Amount of microbial biomass and leaching of mineral nitrogen and phosphates were chosen as main indicators of microbial activities in soil. Content of mineral nitrogen and phosphates was measured in soil solution, which was collected from each lysimeters. Amount of microbial biomass was determined in soil samples that were taken from the lysimeters before and after the long period of drought and intensive rainfall.

Keywords: Mineral nitrogen, Phosphates, Microbial activities, Drought, Precipitation.

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703 Porous Carbon Nanoparticles Co-Doped with Nitrogen and Iron as an Efficient Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Authors: Bita Bayatsarmadi, Shi-Zhang Qiao

Abstract:

Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) performance of iron and nitrogen co-doped porous carbon nanoparticles (Fe-NPC) with various physical and (electro) chemical properties have been investigated. Fe-NPC nanoparticles are synthesized via a facile soft-templating procedure by using Iron (III) chloride hexa-hydrate as iron precursor and aminophenol-formaldehyde resin as both carbon and nitrogen precursor. Fe-NPC nanoparticles shows high surface area (443.83 m2g-1), high pore volume (0.52 m3g-1), narrow mesopore size distribution (ca. 3.8 nm), high conductivity (IG/ID=1.04), high kinetic limiting current (11.71 mAcm-2) and more positive onset potential (-0.106 V) compared to metal-free NPC nanoparticles (-0.295V) which make it high efficient ORR metal-free catalysts in alkaline solution. This study may pave the way of feasibly designing iron and nitrogen containing carbon materials (Fe-N-C) for highly efficient oxygen reduction electro-catalysis.

Keywords: Electro-catalyst, mesopore structure, oxygen reduction reaction, soft-template.

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702 Study on the Particle Removal Efficiency of Multi Inner Stage Cyclone by CFD Simulation

Authors: Sang Won Han, Won Joo Lee, Sang Jun Lee

Abstract:

A new multi inner stage (MIS) cyclone was designed to remove the acidic gas and fine particles produced from electronic industry. To characterize gas flow in MIS cyclone, pressure and velocity distribution were calculated by means of CFD program. Also, the flow locus of fine particles and particle removal efficiency were analyzed by Lagrangian method. When outlet pressure condition was –100mmAq, the efficiency was the best in this study.

Keywords: Cyclone, SiO2 particle, Particle removal efficiency, CFD simulation

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701 Thiosulfate Leaching of the Auriferous Ore from Castromil Deposit: A Case Study

Authors: Rui Sousa, Aurora Futuro, António Fiúza

Abstract:

The exploitation of gold ore deposits is highly dependent on efficient mineral processing methods, although actual perspectives based on life-cycle assessment introduce difficulties that were unforeseen in a very recent past. Cyanidation is the most applied gold processing method, but the potential environmental problems derived from the usage of cyanide as leaching reagent led to a demand for alternative methods. Ammoniacal thiosulfate leaching is one of the most important alternatives to cyanidation. In this article, some experimental studies carried out in order to assess the feasibility of thiosulfate as a leaching agent for the ore from the unexploited Portuguese gold mine of Castromil. It became clear that the process depends on the concentrations of ammonia, thiosulfate and copper. Based on this fact, a few leaching tests were performed in order to assess the best reagent prescription, and also the effects of different combination of these concentrations. Higher thiosulfate concentrations cause the decrease of gold dissolution. Lower concentrations of ammonia require higher thiosulfate concentrations, and higher ammonia concentrations require lower thiosulfate concentrations. The addition of copper increases the gold dissolution ratio. Subsequently, some alternative operatory conditions were tested such as variations in temperature and in the solid/liquid ratio as well as the application of a pre-treatment before the leaching stage. Finally, thiosulfate leaching was compared to cyanidation. Thiosulfate leaching showed to be an important alternative, although a pre-treatment is required to increase the yield of the gold dissolution.

Keywords: Gold, leaching, pre-treatment, thiosulfate.

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700 Simulations of Cryogenic Cavitation of Low Temperature Fluids with Thermodynamics Effects

Authors: A. Alhelfi, B. Sunden

Abstract:

Cavitation in cryogenic liquids is widely present in contemporary science. In the current study, we re-examine a previously validated acoustic cavitation model which was developed for a gas bubble in liquid water. Furthermore, simulations of cryogenic fluids including the thermal effect, the effect of acoustic pressure amplitude and the frequency of sound field on the bubble dynamics are presented. A gas bubble (Helium) in liquids Nitrogen, Oxygen and Hydrogen in an acoustic field at ambient pressure and low temperature is investigated numerically. The results reveal that the oscillation of the bubble in liquid Hydrogen fluctuates more than in liquids Oxygen and Nitrogen. The oscillation of the bubble in liquids Oxygen and Nitrogen is approximately similar.

Keywords: Cryogenic liquids, cavitation, rocket engineering, ultrasound.

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699 GPU-Accelerated Triangle Mesh Simplification Using Parallel Vertex Removal

Authors: Thomas Odaker, Dieter Kranzlmueller, Jens Volkert

Abstract:

We present an approach to triangle mesh simplification designed to be executed on the GPU. We use a quadric error metric to calculate an error value for each vertex of the mesh and order all vertices based on this value. This step is followed by the parallel removal of a number of vertices with the lowest calculated error values. To allow for the parallel removal of multiple vertices we use a set of per-vertex boundaries that prevent mesh foldovers even when simplification operations are performed on neighbouring vertices. We execute multiple iterations of the calculation of the vertex errors, ordering of the error values and removal of vertices until either a desired number of vertices remains in the mesh or a minimum error value is reached. This parallel approach is used to speed up the simplification process while maintaining mesh topology and avoiding foldovers at every step of the simplification.

Keywords: Computer graphics, half edge collapse, mesh simplification, precomputed simplification, topology preserving.

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698 Treatment of Tannery Effluents by the Process of Coagulation

Authors: G. Shegani

Abstract:

Coagulation is a process that sanitizes leather effluents. It aims to reduce pollutants such as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), chloride, sulfate, chromium, suspended solids, and other dissolved solids. The current study aimed to evaluate coagulation efficiency of tannery wastewater by analyzing the change in organic matter, odor, color, ammonium ions, nutrients, chloride, H2S, sulfate, suspended solids, total dissolved solids, fecal pollution, and chromium hexavalent before and after treatment. Effluent samples were treated with coagulants Ca(OH)2 and FeSO4 .7H2O. The best advantages of this treatment included the removal of: COD (81.60%); ammonia ions (98.34%); nitrate ions (92%); chromium hexavalent (75.00%); phosphate (70.00%); chloride (69.20%); and H₂S (50%). Results also indicated a high level of efficiency in the reduction of fecal pollution indicators. Unfortunately, only a modest reduction of sulfate (19.00%) and TSS (13.00%) and an increase in TDS (15.60%) was observed. 

Keywords: Coagulation, Effluent, Tannery, Treatment.

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697 Detergent Removal from Rinsing Water by Peroxi Electrocoagulation Process

Authors: A. Benhadji, M. Taleb Ahmed

Abstract:

Among the various methods of treatment, advanced oxidation processes (AOP) are the most promising ones. In this study, Peroxi Electrocoagulation Process (PEP) was investigated for the treatment of detergent wastewater. The process was compared with electrooxidation treatment. The results showed that chemical oxygen demand (COD) was high 7584 mgO2.L-1, while the biochemical oxygen demand was low (250 mgO2.L-1). This wastewater was hardly biodegradable. Electrochemical process was carried out for the removal of detergent using a glass reactor with a volume of 1 L and fitted with three electrodes. A direct current (DC) supply was used. Samples were taken at various current density (0.0227 A/cm2 to 0.0378 A/cm2) and reaction time (1-2-3-4 and 5 hour). Finally, the COD was determined. The results indicated that COD removal efficiency of PEP was observed to increase with current intensity and reached to 77% after 5 h. The highest removal efficiency was observed after 5 h of treatment.

Keywords: Advanced oxidation processes, chemical oxygen demand, COD, detergent, peroxi electrocoagulation process, PEP, wastewater

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696 Anaerobic Treatment of Petroleum Refinery Wastewater

Authors: H. A. Gasim, S. R. M. Kutty, M. Hasnain Isa

Abstract:

Anaerobic treatment has many advantages over other biological method particularly when used to treat complex wastewater such as petroleum refinery wastewater. In this study two Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactors were operated in parallel to treat six volumetric organic loads (0.58, 1.21, 0.89, 2.34, 1.47 and 4.14 kg COD/m3·d) to evaluate the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency. The reactors were continuously adapting to the changing of operation condition with increase in the removal efficiency or slight decrease until the last load which was more than two times the load, at which the reactor stressed and the removal efficiency decreased to 75% with effluent concentration of 1746 mg COD/L. Other parameters were also monitored such as pH, alkalinity, volatile fatty acid and gas production rate. The UASB reactor was suitable to treat petroleum refinery wastewater and the highest COD removal rate was 83% at 1215 kg/m3·d with COD concentration about 356 mg/L in the effluent.

Keywords: Petroleum refinery wastewater, anaerobic digestion, UASB, organic volumetric loading rate

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695 Removal of Vanadium from Industrial Effluents by Natural Ion Exchanger

Authors: Shashikant R. Kuchekar, Haribhau R. Aher, Priti M. Dhage

Abstract:

The removal vanadium from aqueous solution using natural exchanger was investigated. The effects of pH, contact time and exchanger dose were studied at ambient temperature (25 0C ± 2 0C). The equilibrium process was described by the Langmuir isotherm model with adsorption capacity for vanadium. The natural exchanger i.e. tamarindus seeds powder was treated with formaldehyde and sulpuric acid to increase the adsorptivity of metals. The maximum exchange level was attained as 80.1% at pH 3 with exchanger dose 5 g and contact time 60 min. Method is applied for removal of vanadium from industrial effluents.

Keywords: Industrial effluent, natural ion exchange, Tamarindus indica, vanadium.

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694 Performance of an Absorption Refrigerator Using a Solar Thermal Collector

Authors: Abir Hmida, Nihel Chekir, Ammar Ben Brahim

Abstract:

In the present paper, we investigate the feasibility of a thermal solar driven cold room in Gabes, southern region of Tunisia. The cold room of 109 m3 is refrigerated using an ammonia absorption machine. It is destined to preserve dates during the hot months of the year. A detailed study of the cold room leads previously to the estimation of the cooling load of the proposed storage room in the operating conditions of the region. The next step consists of the estimation of the required heat in the generator of the absorption machine to ensure the desired cold temperature. A thermodynamic analysis was accomplished and complete description of the system is determined. We propose, here, to provide the needed heat thermally from the sun by using vacuum tube collectors. We found that at least 21m² of solar collectors are necessary to accomplish the work of the solar cold room.

Keywords: Absorption, ammonia, cold room, solar collector, vacuum tube.

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693 Determination of Water Pollution and Water Quality with Decision Trees

Authors: Çiğdem Bakır, Mecit Yüzkat

Abstract:

With the increasing emphasis on water quality worldwide, the search for and expanding the market for new and intelligent monitoring systems has increased. The current method is the laboratory process, where samples are taken from bodies of water, and tests are carried out in laboratories. This method is time-consuming, a waste of manpower and uneconomical. To solve this problem, we used machine learning methods to detect water pollution in our study. We created decision trees with the Orange3 software used in the study and tried to determine all the factors that cause water pollution. An automatic prediction model based on water quality was developed by taking many model inputs such as water temperature, pH, transparency, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and ammonia nitrogen with machine learning methods. The proposed approach consists of three stages: Preprocessing of the data used, feature detection and classification. We tried to determine the success of our study with different accuracy metrics and the results were presented comparatively. In addition, we achieved approximately 98% success with the decision tree.

Keywords: Decision tree, water quality, water pollution, machine learning.

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692 Enhanced Nutrients Removal in Conventional Anaerobic Digestion Processes

Authors: M. Z. Othman, S. Uludag-Demirer, G. N. Demirer

Abstract:

One of the main challenges for one phase anaerobic digestion processes is the high concentration of NH4+ and PO4 3- ions  in the digested sludge supernatant. This project focuses on enhancing the removal of nutrients during the anaerobic digestion process through fixing both NH4+ and PO4 3- ions in the form of struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate, MAP, MgNH4PO4.6H2O) within the anaerobic sludge. Batch anaerobic digestion tests showed that Mg2+ concentration in the range 279 – 812 mg/L had insignificant effect on CGP but incurred a slight increase in COD removal. The reactor that had soluble Mg2+:NH4+:PO43- at a molar ratio of 1.28:1:00:1:00 achieved the best performance enhancement of 8% increase in COD removal and 32% reduction in NH4+ in the reactor supernatant. Overall, the results show that there is a potential to optimise conventional anaerobic digestion such that supernatant lean in P and N, and sludge rich in nutrients are obtained. 

Keywords: Anaerobic Digestion, Nutrients, Struvite, Waste Activated Sludge (WAS)

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691 Study of Encapsulation of Quantum Dots in Polystyrene and Poly (E-Caprolactone)Microreactors Prepared by Microvolcanic Eruption of Freeze Dried Microspheres

Authors: Deepak Kukkar, Inderpreet Kaur, Jagtar Singh, Lalit M Bharadwaj

Abstract:

Polymeric microreactors have emerged as a new generation of carriers that hold tremendous promise in the areas of cancer therapy, controlled delivery of drugs, for removal of pollutants etc. Present work reports a simple and convenient methodology for synthesis of polystyrene and poly caprolactone microreactors. An aqueous suspension of carboxylated (1μm) polystyrene latex particles was mixed with toluene solution followed by freezing with liquid nitrogen. Freezed particles were incubated at -20°C and characterized for formation of voids on the surface of polymer microspheres by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope. The hollow particles were then overnight incubated at 40ºC with unfunctionalized quantum dots (QDs) in 5:1 ratio. QDs Encapsulated polystyrene microcapsules were characterized by fluorescence microscopy. Likewise Poly ε-caprolactone microreactors were prepared by micro-volcanic rupture of freeze dried microspheres synthesized using emulsification of polymer with aqueous Poly vinyl alcohol and freezed with liquid nitrogen. Microreactors were examined with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope for size and morphology. Current study is an attempt to create hollow polymer particles which can be employed for microencapsulation of nanoparticles and drug molecules.

Keywords: FE-SEM, Microreactors, Microvolcanic rupture, Poly (ε-caprolactone), Polystyrene

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690 Fermentable Sugars from Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Biomass for Bioethanol Production

Authors: U. A. Asli, H. Hamid, Z.A. Zakaria, A. N. Sadikin, R. Rasit

Abstract:

This study investigated the effect of a dilute acid, lime and ammonia aqueous pretreatment on the fermentable sugars conversion from empty fruit bunch (EFB) biomass. The dilute acid treatment was carried out in an autoclave, at 121ºC with 4% of sulfuric acid. In the lime pretreatment, 3 wt % of calcium hydroxide was used, whereas the third method was done by soaking EFB with 28% ammonia solution. The EFB biomass was then subjected to a two-stage-acid hydrolysis process. Subsequently, the hydrolysate was fermented by using instant baker’s yeast to produce bioethanol. The highest glucose yield was 890 mg/g of biomass, obtained from the sample which underwent lime pretreatment. The highest bioethanol yield of 6.1mg/g of glucose was achieved from acid pretreatment. This showed that the acid pretreatment gave the most fermentable sugars compared to the other two pretreatments.

Keywords: Bioethanol, biomass, empty fruit bunch (EFB), fermentable sugars.

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689 Synthesis of Silk Fibroin Fiber for Indoor air Particulate Removal

Authors: Janjira Triped, Wipada Sanongraj, Bovornlak Oonkhanond, Sompop Sanongraj

Abstract:

The main objective of this research is to synthesize silk fibroin fiber for indoor air particulate removal. Silk cocoons were de-gummed using 0.5 wt % Na2CO3 alkaline solutions at 90 Ó╣ìC for 60 mins, washed with distilled water, and dried at 80 Ó╣ìC for 3 hrs in a vacuum oven. Two sets of experiment were conducted to investigate the impacts of initial particulate matter (PM) concentration and that of air flow rate on the removal efficiency. Rice bran collected from a local rice mill in Ubonratchathani province was used as indoor air contaminant in this work. The morphology and physical properties of silk fibroin (SF) fiber were measured. The SEM revealed the deposition of PM on the used fiber. The PM removal efficiencies of 72.29 ± 3.03 % and 39.33 ± 1.99 % were obtained of PM10 and PM2.5, respectively, when using the initial PM concentration at 0.040 mg/m3 and 0.020 mg/m3 of PM10 and PM2.5, respectively, with the air flow rate of 5 L/min.

Keywords: Indoor air, Particulate matter, Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Silk fibroin fiber.

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688 Development of a RAM Simulation Model for Acid Gas Removal System

Authors: Ainul Akmar Mokhtar, Masdi Muhammad, Hilmi Hussin, Mohd Amin Abdul Majid

Abstract:

A reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) model has been built for acid gas removal plant for system analysis that will play an important role in any process modifications, if required, for achieving its optimum performance. Due to the complexity of the plant, the model was based on a Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) with a Monte Carlo simulation engine. The model has been validated against actual plant data as well as local expert opinions, resulting in an acceptable simulation model. The results from the model showed that the operation and maintenance can be further improved, resulting in reduction of the annual production loss.

Keywords: Acid gas removal plant, RAM model, Reliabilityblock diagram

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687 First-Principles Density Functional Study of Nitrogen-Doped P-Type ZnO

Authors: Abdusalam Gsiea, Ramadan Al-habashi, Mohamed Atumi, Khaled Atmimi

Abstract:

We present a theoretical investigation on the structural, electronic properties and vibrational mode of nitrogen impurities in ZnO. The atomic structures, formation and transition energies and vibrational modes of (NO3)i interstitial or NO4 substituting on an oxygen site ZnO were computed using ab initio total energy methods. Based on Local density functional theory, our calculations are in agreement with one interpretation of bound-excition photoluminescence for N-doped ZnO. First-principles calculations show that (NO3)i defects interstitial or NO4 substituting on an Oxygen site in ZnO are important suitable impurity for p-type doping in ZnO. However, many experimental efforts have not resulted in reproducible p-type material with N2 and N2O doping. by means of first-principle pseudo-potential calculation we find that the use of NO or NO2 with O gas might help the experimental research to resolve the challenge of achieving p-type ZnO.

Keywords: Density functional theory, nitrogen, p-type, ZnO.

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686 Adsorption Kinetics of Alcohols over MCM-41 Materials

Authors: Farouq Twaiq, Mustafa Nasser, Siham Al-Hajri, Mansoor Al-Hasani

Abstract:

Adsorption of methanol and ethanol over mesoporous siliceous material are studied in the current paper. The pure mesoporous silica is prepared using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as silica source and dodecylamine as template at low pH. The prepared material was characterized using nitrogen adsorption,nX-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The adsorption kinetics of methanol and ethanol from aqueous solution were studied over the prepared mesoporous silica material. The percent removal of alcohol was calculated per unit mass of adsorbent used. The 1st order model is found to be in agreement with both adsorbates while the 2nd order model fit the adsorption of methanol only.

Keywords: Adsorption, Kinetics, Mesoprous silica, Methanol

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685 Thermodynamic Analysis of a Novel Thermal Driven Refrigeration System

Authors: Linghui Zhu, Junjie Gu

Abstract:

Thermal-driven refrigeration systems have attracted increasing research and development interest in recent years. These systems do not cause ozone depletion and can reduce demand on electricity. The main objective of this work is to perform theoretical analyses of a thermal-driven refrigeration system using a new sorbent-sorptive pair as the working pair. The active component of sorbent is sodium thiocyanate (NaSCN). Ammonia (NH3) is chosen as sorptive. Based on the thermodynamic properties of the working solution, a mathematical model is introduced to analyze the system characteristics and performance. The results are used to compare with other thermal-driven refrigeration systems. It is shown that the advantages provided by this system over other absorption units include lower generator and evaporator temperatures, a higher coefficient of performance (COP). The COP is about 10 percent higher than the ones for the NH3-H2O system working at the same conditions.

Keywords: Absorption; Ammonia-Sodium thiocyanate, Exergy, coefficient of performance (COP)

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684 Equilibrium, Kinetics and Thermodynamic Studies for Adsorption of Hg (II) on Palm Shell Powder

Authors: Shilpi Kushwaha, Suparna Sodaye, P. Padmaja

Abstract:

Palm shell obtained from coastal part of southern India was studied for the removal for the adsorption of Hg (II) ions. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out as a function of pH, concentration of Hg (II) ions, time, temperature and adsorbent dose. Maximum removal was seen in the range pH 4.0- pH 7.0. The palm shell powder used as adsorbent was characterized for its surface area, SEM, PXRD, FTIR, ion exchange capacity, moisture content, and bulk density, soluble content in water and acid and pH. The experimental results were analyzed using Langmuir I, II, III, IV and Freundlich adsorption isotherms. The batch sorption kinetics was studied for the first order reversible reaction, pseudo first order; pseudo second order reaction and the intra-particle diffusion reaction. The biomass was successfully used for removal Hg (II) from synthetic and industrial effluents and the technique appears industrially applicable and viable.

Keywords: Biosorbent, mercury removal, borassus flabellifer, isotherms, kinetics, palm shell.

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683 Reducing Humic Acid and Disinfection By-products in Raw Water using a Bio-activated Carbon Filter

Authors: Wei-Pin Tseng, Jie-Chung Lou, Ming-Ching Wu, Huang-Ming Fang

Abstract:

For stricter drinking water regulations in the future, reducing the humic acid and disinfection byproducts in raw water, namely, trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) is worthy for research. To investigate the removal of waterborne organic material using a lab-scale of bio-activated carbon filter under different EBCT, the concentrations of humic acid prepared were 0.01, 0.03, 0.06, 0.12, 0.17, 0.23, and 0.29 mg/L. Then we conducted experiments using a pilot plant with in-field of the serially connected bio-activated carbon filters and hollow fiber membrane processes employed in traditional water purification plants. Results showed under low TOC conditions of humic acid in influent (0.69 to 1.03 mg TOC/L) with an EBCT of 30 min, 40 min, and 50 min, TOC removal rates increases with greater EBCT, attaining about 39 % removal rate. The removal rate of THMs and HAAs by BACF was 54.8 % and 89.0 %, respectively.

Keywords: Bio-activated carbon filter, hollow fiber membrane, humic acid, THMs, HAAs, Water Treatment

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