Kamarul Asri Ibrahim

Optimal Retrofit of Natural Gas Liquids Separation Direct Sequence and Feed Condition Sensitivity Analysis

The objective of this paper is to present the retrofitting analysis for the direct sequence natural gas liquids (NGLs) separation process and to analyse the process sensitivity with respect to feed conditions. To perform the study and analysis, the energy efficient NGLs separation process methodology is developed. Hence, the methodology consists of four hierarchical steps. In Step 1, a simple and reliable short-cut method for distillation column design of process simulator (Aspen HYSYS) is used to simulate a base (direct) NGLs sequence. The energy used to perform the separation is obtained that will be used for comparison purpose. In the Step 2, an optimal NGLs sequence is determined using driving force method. All individual driving force curves for all adjacent components are plotted and the optimal sequence is determined based on the plotted driving force curves. The optimal sequence is then simulated in Step 3 using a simple and reliable short-cut method (using Aspen HYSYS), where the energy used in the optimal NGLs sequence is analysed. Finally, the energy and sensitivity used in the optimal NGLs sequence is compared with the base sequence in Step 4. Several case studies involving several sequences have been used to test the performance of the developed methodology. A maximum energy saving of 11.7 MW was achieved when compared with the optimal (driving force) sequence with the direct sequence. For sensitivity analysis, the results show that the driving force sequence has the best sensitivity compared to other sequences. These findings show that the developed methodology is not only able to design energy efficient distillation columns sequence but also better process sensitivity with respect to the feed conditions for NGLs separation process in an easy, practical and systematic manner.

Hydrocarbon Mixture Fractionation Direct Sequence Retrofitting and Feed Condition Sensitivity Analysis

The objective of this paper is to present the retrofit analysis for the hydrocarbon mixture (HM) direct sequence fractionation process and to analyse the process sensitivity with respect to feed conditions. To perform the study and analysis, the energy efficient HM separation process methodology has been developed. The methodology consists of four hierarchical steps. In the Step 1, a simple and reliable short-cut method of process simulator (Aspen HYSYS) is used to simulate a direct HM sequence. The energy used to recover individual fractions in the base sequence is analysed and taken as a reference. In the Step 2, an optimal HM sequence is determined using driving force method. All individual driving force curves for all adjacent components are plotted and the optimal sequence is determined based on the plotted driving force curves. Once the optimal HM sequence has been determined, the new optimal sequence is then simulated in Step 3 using a simple and reliable short-cut method (using Aspen HYSYS), where the process sensitivity and energy used in the optimal HM sequence are analysed, the process sensitivity of optimal HM sequence is compared with the other three different sequences by changing their feed conditions. Better sensitivity sequence was achieved when compared optimal sequence with the other three sequences in Step 4, the sequence determined by the driving force method has better sensitivity compared to the three other sequences as well as less energy requirement. All of these findings show that the methodology is able to design better sensitivity and minimum energy distillation column sequence for HM fractionation process in an easy, practical and systematic manner.

Product sampling time and process residence time prediction of palm oil refining process

The quality of product produced in palm oil industries is important due to customer need and world demand. It is crucial to monitor and predict the quality of Refine Bleached Deodorised Palm Oil (RBDPO) produced. One of the most significant driving forces behind the demand for quality prediction of RBDPO is the reducing production cost of RBDPO. Palm oil had the highest manufacturing cost in that scenario, mainly because of the higher demand for ethanol in the pre-treatment step. The development of rapid and non-destructive measuring technique is needed to enhance the efficiency of palm oil quality monitoring. Today in the Lahad Datu Edible Oil Sdn. Bhd. (LDEO) company, the cost production of RBDPO is much higher and can be double or triple than the usual cost production due to the need of recycle process for getting the desired quality of RBDPO. The current production of RBDPO takes a lot of time. This show how important the quality predict of RBDPO in meeting the needs of the LDEO Company to reduce the need of recycle process due to the cost production and time consuming. This study aims to develop a statistical analysis that can predict the sampling time and residence time for the whole refinery process using autocorrelation and cross-correlation in MATLAB. The data analysis of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and RBDPO is based on five parameters, percentage of the free fatty acids (% FFA), the percentage of the moisture, the deterioration of bleachability index (DOBI), iodine value (IV) and peroxide value (PV), which are used to monitor the RBDPO quality provided by the LDEO Company. For the 65 sample size data, the sampling time and residence of the whole refinery process are 2 h and 2.4 h. Both data are required in developing a tool to predict the RBDPO quality.

Energy efficiency improvement in the natural gas liquids fractionation unit

The objective of this paper is to present the study and analysis of the energy efficiency for the natural gas liquids (NGLs) fractionation sequence by using driving force method. To perform the studies and analysis, the energy efficient NGLs fractionation plant methodology is developed. Hence, the methodology consists of four hierarchical steps; Step 1: Existing Sequence Energy Analysis, Step 2: Optimal Sequence Determination, Step 3: Optimal Sequence Energy Analysis and Step 4: Energy Comparison. The capability of this methodology is tested in designing an optimal energy efficient distillation columns sequence of NGLs fractionation unit. By using the driving force method, maximum of 21 % energy reduction is able to be achieved by changing the sequence of NGLs fractionation unit. It can be concluded that, the sequence determined by the driving force method is able to reduce energy used for NGLs fractionation. These findings show that the methodology is able to design energy efficient distillation columns for NGLs fractionation sequence in an easy, practical and systematic manner.

Methodology Development of a Flexible and Operable Energy Integrated Distillation Columns

This paper presents the development of a new methodology that will enable to design flexible and operable energy integrated distillation columns (EIDCs). Distillation is the primary separation process used in the industrial chemical processing. Although it has many advantages, however the main drawback concerns with the large energy requirement, which significantly influence overall plant profitability. The large energy requirement of these processes can be reduced by using energy integration. Therefore, a new methodology that will enable to design flexible and operable of EIDCs has been proposed in this study. This can be successfully obtained by implementing the integration of process design and control (IPDC) methodology. The design of EIDCs can be further improved to ensure that the design is more cost efficient, flexible, controllable, and operable. This can be achieved by developing a new model-based IPDC method, which includes cost optimality and controllability at the early design stage, which is also the main objective of this study. It is expected that this new methodology will help engineers to solve EIDCs design problem in a systematic and efficient manner. Methodology Development

Kajian awal penghasilan elektrik oleh Basilli El menggunakan sel bahan api mikroorganisma dwi-kebuk

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a developed technology to utilize microbial degradation ability and turned the degradation products to electricity. One of the limiting factor that contributes to the performance level of MFC is the microorganism used in the MFC. In the present research, Bacilli E1 has been tested for its ability to utilize glucose and converted it to electricity in dual chamber MFC. The MFC operated using E1 produced a maximum average of open circuit voltage (OCV) of 0.8 V. Meanwhile, by inserting a 1000 Ω resistance in the MFC circuit, produced a stable voltage of 0.1 V and calculated current and power were 0.2 ± 0.017 mA and 0.1 Wm-2 Comparison of glucose based voltage production between individual and mixed culture shows similar pattern of voltage profile and since individual CC did not show any significant increase of OCV, it was concluded that Bacilli E1 plays major role in the present MFC for power production.

Electricity generation from palm oil tree empty fruit bunch (EFB) using dual chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC)

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been discovered and utilized in laboratory scale for electricity production based on microbial degradation of organic compound. However, various source of fuel has been tested and recently complex biomass such as lignocellulose biomass has been focused on. In the present research, oil palm tree empty fruit bunch (EFB) has been tested for power production using dual chamber MFC and power generation analysis has been conducted to address the performance of MFC. In addition, two microorganisms (electric harvesting microbe and cellulose degrading microbe) were used in the MFC operation. The analysis include voltage produced, calculated current and power. The first section in your paper

Anodic Ph Evaluation on Performance of Power Generation from Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunch (efb) in Dual Chambered Microbial Fuel Cell (mfc)

Anodic pH Evaluation on Performance of Power Generation from Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) in Dual Chambered Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Nik Azmi Nik Mahmood, Nazlee Faisal Ghazali*, Kamarul’ Asri Ibrahim, Md Abbas Ali Department of Bioprocess and Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi-6204, Bangladesh. nazlee@utm.my

Power Generation from Pre-treated Empty Fruit Bunch Using Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell

The utilization of lignocellulosic biomass (LB) as the substrate in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) have been receive growing interest due to the vast amount of abundant LB side-product that are generated yearly from agriculture field. In this paper the author will be discussing the utilization of Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB), which is one of the LB waste generated from palm oil industry in single chamber MFC (SCMFC) to generate bioelectricity. The microbes used in this study were equivalent volume mixtures of Gram-positive Bacillus E1 and Clostridium cellulolyticum (CC). To enhance the efficiency of the microbes to utilize the EFB for bioelectricity generation, the EFB used were pre-treated first with several pre-treatment method which include physical pre-treatment, hot water pre-treatment and alkaline pre-treatment. Different amount of EFB were tested which include 1.5 g, 3.5 g and 5.5 g of EFB under similar condition with total working volume of 250 mL for anode chamber. Resistor of range 100-100,000 O was connected to the MFC to calculate the current and power generated from the system. Results indicate maximum power was achieved at the value of up to 0.7 W/m2 at above 1.0 A/m2.for all pre-treated EFB tested. The highest power was achieved at 100 O using lower concentration of EFB with a value of 0.678 W/m2. In conclusion, EFB is a feasible substrate for MFC and more studies on improvement of the power generation in progress for larger scale application.

Sustainable energy efficient distillation columns sequence design of hydrocarbon mixtures separation unit

Distillation operations became a major concern within sustainability challenge, which it becomes a primary target of energy saving efforts in industrially developed countries. However, there is still one problem, which is how do we improve the energy efficiency of the existing distillation columns systems by considering the sustainability criteria without having major modifications. Recently, a new energy efficient distillation columns methodology that will able to improve energy efficiency of the existing separation systems without having major modifications has been developed. However, this developed methodology was only considered the energy savings without taking into consideration the sustainability criteria. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to present new improvement of existing methodology by including a sustainability analysis to design an optimal sequence of energy efficient distillation columns. Accordingly, the methodology is divided into four hierarchical sequential stages: i) existing sequence sustainability analysis, ii) optimal sequence determination, iii) optimal sequence sustainability analysis, and iv) sustainability comparison. In the first stage, a simple and reliable short-cut method is used to simulate a base (existing) sequence. The sustainability index of the base sequence is calculated and taken as a reference for the next stage. In the second stage, an optimal sequence is determined by using driving force method. All individual driving force curves is plotted and the optimal sequence is determined based on the plotted driving force curves. Then, by using a short-cut method, the new optimal sequence is simulated and the new sustainability index is calculated in the third stage. Lastly, in the fourth stage, the sustainability index for both sequences (base and optimal) is compared. The capability of this methodology is tested in designing an optimal sustainable energy efficient distillation columns sequence of hydrocarbon mixtures separation unit. The existing hydrocarbon mixtures separation unit consists of eleven compounds (propane, i-butane, n-butane, i-pentane, n-pentane, n-hexane, benzene, cyclohexane, n-heptane, toluene, and n-decane) with ten indirect sequence distillation columns is simulated using a simple and reliable short-cut method and rigorous within Aspen HYSYS® simulation environment. The energy and sustainability analysis is performed and shows that the optimal sequence determined by the driving force method has better energy reduction with total of 4.64 % energy savings and sustainability reduction of 4.78 % based on existing sequence. It can be concluded that, the sequence determined by the driving force method is not only capable in reducing energy consumption, but also has better sustainability index for hydrocarbon mixtures separation unit.