Meisam Tabatabaei

Upstream and downstream strategies to economize biodiesel production

In recent years biodiesel has drawn considerable amount of attention as a clean and renewable fuel. Biodiesel is produced from renewable sources such as vegetable oils and animal fat mainly through catalytic or non-catalytic transesterification method as well as supercritical method. However, as a consequence of disadvantages of these methods, the production cost increases dramatically. This article summarizes different biodiesel production methods with a focus on their advantages and disadvantages. The downstream and upstream strategies such as using waste cooking oils, application of non-edible plant oils, plant genetic engineering, using membrane separation technology for biodiesel production, separation and purification, application of crude glycerin as an energy supplement for ruminants, glycerin ultra-purification and their consequent roles in economizing the production process are fully discussed in this article.

BiodieselAnalyzer: a user-friendly software for predicting the properties of prospective biodiesel

The procedures used to experimentally determine the quality parameters of a biodiesel are lengthy and expensive. Occasionally it may be impossible to obtain a sufficient amount of oil for the relevant analyses. This is often the case for algal biodiesel, for example. Here we report on a new software package, the BiodieselAnalyzer© Version 1.1, for predicting the properties of a prospective biodiesel. BiodieselAnalyzer© can estimate 16 different quality parameters of a biodiesel based on the fatty acid methyl ester profile of the oil feedstock used in making it. The current version of the BiodieselAnalyzer© is intended for the Windows platform and is publically available at http://www.brteam.ir/biodieselanalyzer.

Recent updates on lignocellulosic biomass derived ethanol - A review

Lignocellulosic (or cellulosic) biomass derived ethanol is the most promising near/long term fuel candidate. In addition, cellulosic biomass derived ethanol may serve a precursor to other fuels and ...

Nitrification of ammonium-rich sanitary landfill leachate

The nitrification of ammonium-rich wastewater is considered challenging due to the substrate inhibition particularly in the form of free ammonia (FA) and free nitrous acid (FNA) in ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). The feasibility of the nitrifying activated sludge system to completely nitrify synthetic stabilized landfill leachate with N-NH(4)(+) concentration of 1452mg/L was tested in this study. The process started with 0.4kg N-NH(4)(+)/m(3)/day of nitrogen loading rate (NLR) in a fed-batch mode to avoid any accumulation of the FA and FNA in the system followed by increasing the nitrogen loading rate (NLR) gradually. Complete nitrification was achieved with a very high ammonium removal percentage (approximately 100%). The maximum specific and volumetric nitrification rate obtained were 0.49g N-NH(4)(+)/g VSS/day and 3.0kg N-NH(4)(+)/m(3)/day, respectively which were higher than those reported previously for ammonium-rich removal using activated sludge system. The nitrifying sludge exhibited good settling characteristics of up to 36mL/g VSS and a long SRT of more than 53 days which contributed to the success of the nitrification process. The coexistence and syntrophic association of the AOB and NOB was observed by using Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique which supported the results on complete nitrification obtained in the system. These findings would be of prominent importance for further treatment of actual sanitary landfill leachate.

Characterization of polymeric membranes for membrane distillation using atomic force microscopy

ABSTRACT As membrane distillation (MD) is an under-developed separation process, specific membranes for MD applications are not yet commercially available. Therefore, microporous polymeric membranes made of hydrophobic materials fabricated for microfiltration purposes are usually used for MD applications. Characterization of such kind of membranes is important in order to achieve a better in-depth understanding of their performance and to fabricate specific membranes for MD process. One of the emerging characterization methods is atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. AFM is a newly developed high-resolution method that is useful for studying the surface topography of various types of membranes, and 3D images of the membrane surface can be obtained directly without special sample preparation. Consequently, a truer and clearer surface structure of a polymeric membrane can be observed. In this work, AFM method has been used for characterization of three hydrophobic membranes (polytetrafluoroethylene, polyp...

Recent trends in biodiesel production

This article fully discusses the recent trends in the production of one the most attractive types of biofuels, i.e., biodiesel.with a focus on the existing obstacles for its large scale production. Moreover, recent innovations/improvements under three categories of upstream, mainstream, and downstream processes are also presented. Upstream strategies are mainly focused on seeking more sustainable oil feedstocks and/or enhancing the quality of waste-oriented ones. The mainstream strategies section highlights the numerous attempts made to enhance agitation efficiency including chemical and/or mechanical strategies. Finally, the innovative downstream strategies basically dealing with 1) separation of biodiesel and glycerin, 2) purification of biodiesel and glycerin, and 3) improving the characteristics of the produced fuel, are comprehensively reviewed.

Computational design and synthesis of molecular imprinted polymers for selective extraction of allopurinol from human plasma

The present study was focused on the rational development of polymers for selective extraction of allopurinol (ALP) from human plasma. Therefore, a computational modeling approach was combined with the molecular imprinting technology to obtain the polymers. The computational approach was used in order to screen the functional monomers as well as the polymerization solvents for rational design of molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs). It was based on the comparison of the binding energy (ΔE) of the formed complexes between the template molecule and different functional monomers. In the design, the effect of the polymerization solvent was also included using the polarizable continuum model. The theoretical calculation results showed that among virtual solvents tested, acrylamide (AAM) gave the largest ΔE while acrylonitrile (ACN) gave the smallest ΔE in acetone. Therefore, the MIP prepared using AAM as functional monomer in acetone was desired. To examine the validity of this approach, three MIPs were synthesized with different functional monomers i.e. AAM, acrylic acid (AA), and ACN, and then evaluated using Langmuir-Freundlich (LF) isotherm. The results obtained from this experiment confirmed the computational results that the MIP prepared by AAM was the most appropriate adsorbent. Subsequently, the MIP was used to develop a molecular imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) procedure. Finally, the MISPE procedure followed by HPLC was developed for selective extraction and determination of allopurinol in human plasma. For the proposed MISPE method, the linearity between peak area and concentration was found in the range of 0.100-25.000 μM with a linear regression coefficient (R²) of 0.995. The limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) in plasma were 0.028 and 0.093 μM, respectively. The results of this study indicated the possibility of using computer aided design for rational selection of functional monomers and solvents for preparation of the MIPs capable of extracting allopurinol from human plasma.

Characteristics and Microbial Succession in Co-Composting of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch and Partially Treated Palm Oil Mill Effluent

Microbial communities and cellulolytic enzymes activities were analyzed during the co-composting of empty fruit bunch (EFB) and partially treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) in pilot scale. The physicochemical parameters were also measured during the composting. The diversity of the bacterial community was investigated using polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). The results indicated that the composting process of EFB with partially treated POME was dominated by uncultured bacteria species. The dominant bacterial group changed from the phylum proteobacteria in the thermophilic stage to the phylum chloroflexi in the maturing stage. Scanning elec- tron microscope (SEM) analysis exhibited the significant degradation of EFB structure during the composting process. The maximum cellulase activity for carboxymethylcellulase (CMCase), filter paperase (FPase) and � -glucosidase were 13.6, 4.1 and 20.3 U/g of dry substrate, respectively at day 30 of composting. The results of this study significantly con- tributed to a better understanding of mechanisms involved in co-composting process in pilot scale.

Acceleration of biodiesel-glycerol decantation through NaCl-assisted gravitational settling: a strategy to economize biodiesel production.

When making biodiesel, slow separation of glycerol; the main by-product of the transesterification reaction, could lead to longer operating times, bigger equipment and larger amount of steel and consequently increased production cost. Therefore, acceleration of glycerol/biodiesel decantation could play an important role in the overall biodiesel refinery process. In this work, NaCl-assisted gravitational settling was considered as an economizing strategy. The results obtained indicated that the addition of conventional NaCl salt decreased the glycerol settling time significantly up to more than five times. However, NaCl inclusion rates of more than 3g to the mixture (i.e. 5 and 10 g) resulted in significantly less methyl ester purity due to the occurrence of miniemulsion phenomenon. Overall, addition of 1g NaCl/100 ml glycerol-biodiesel mixture was found as optimal by accelerating the decantation process by 100% while maintaining the methyl ester purity as high as the control (0 g NaCl).

High quality potassium phosphate production through step-by-step glycerol purification: A strategy to economize biodiesel production

The cost of biodiesel production can be reduced by a number of strategies such as utilization of waste cooking oils and non-edible plant oils as well as implementation of improved separation technologies. In addition, processes dealing with the glycerol by-product can have economic benefits. In the present study, acidification of crude glycerol with phosphoric acid to pH 9.67 followed by acidification to 4.67 was implemented to produce high quality potassium phosphate during glycerol purification. KH(2)PO(4), K(2)HPO(4), glycerol and free fatty acids (FFAs) with a purity of 98%, 98.05%, 96.08% and 99.58% were obtained, respectively.