Noraini Hamzah

Dehydration studies of biomass resources for activated carbon production using bet and XRD techniques

Activated carbon is produced from high cellulose containing biomass such as filter paper (FP), bamboo waste and palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) by dehydrating agent, concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4). At room temperature, treatment of H2SO4 is removed all the water molecules in the biomass and leaving only porous carbon without emitting any gaseous by-products. After activation by carbon dioxide (CO2), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and X-ray Diffractometer (XRD) analysis showed the bamboo activated carbon (BAC) has good properties with higher surface area (862.76 m2/g), micropore area (463.62 m2/g) and some crystalline (graphite) phase formation. Acid treatment of biomass has shown high carbon content for FP (85.30%), bamboo (77.72%) and EFB (76.55%), and yield obtained was 47.85 wt.% (FP), 62.4 wt.% (bamboo) and 55.4 wt.% (EFB) by using dehydration method.

Synthesis and characterization of silicotungstic acid nanoparticles via sol gel technique as a catalyst in esterification reaction

Glycerol monooleate (GMO) as an esterification product of oleic acid and glycerol is highly potential as an anti-friction substance in the engine lubricant. The purpose of this work is to study the synthesis, characterization and catalytic performance of solid heteropoly acid catalysts, namely silicotungstic acid bulk (STAB) and STA-silica sol gel (STA-SG). The activity and selectivity of STAB and STA-SG in the esterification reaction have been investigated and compared to the homogeneous catalyst i.e. sulphuric acid (H2SO4). The synthesized catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, TEM, XPS and TPD-NH3. BET analyses shown that the STA-SG catalyst is very high in surface area compared to STAB of 460.11 m2/g and 0.98 m2/g, respectively. From the XPS analyses, there was a significant formation of W-O-Si, W-O-W and Si-O-Si bonding in STA-SG compared to that in STAB. The main species of O1s (90.74 %, 531.5 eV) followed by other O1s peak (9.26 %, 532.8 eV) were due to the presence of W-O-W and W-O-Si bonds, respectively. In addition, the ease of separation for STA-SG catalyst was attributed to its insoluble state in the product phase. The esterification products were then analysed by FTIR and HPLC. Both the H2SO4 and the STAB gave high conversion of 100% and 98%, while lower selectivity of GME with 81.6% and 89.9%, respectively. On the contrary, the STA-SG enabled a conversion of 94%, while significantly higher GME selectivity of 95% rendering it the more efficient solid acid catalyst.

Comparison of Different Heterogeneous Catalysts for the Estolides Synthesis from Oleic Acid

Different catalysts, namely various loading of perchloric acid on various supports; HClO4/silica (SiO2), HClO4/silica gel (SG) and HClO4/alumina (Al2O3) were tested for the direct addition reaction of oleic acid (OA) to form estolide compounds. The reactions were carried out under vacuum (2 mBar) for 10 hours at 70 °C under solvent-less conditions. LC-MS ToF of reaction products results showed chromatographic peaks for the presence of two new estolide compounds, oleic-oleic monoestolide acid (m/z 563.51, as [M-H]-), and oleic-oleic diestolide acid (m/z 845.77 [M-H]-). The optimum loading of HClO4 for every support are 15 wt.% HClO4/SiO2 (SiO215), 10 wt.% HClO4/SG (SG10) and 35 wt.% HClO4/Al2O3 (Al2O335). The SG10 turned out to be the best catalyst, achieving a final conversion of 97.5 % with 79.8 % selectivity to oleic-oleic monoestolide acid and 17.7 % selectivity to oleic-oleic diestolide acid. The activity and selectivity of the SG10 have been investigated and compared with homogeneous HClO4. The optimum catalysts for every support were characterized by XPS analysis, BET, TEM and TPD-NH3.

Condition Survey Protocol: A System for Building Condition Assessment

Building inspection is an important tool in determining building condition by detecting defects and their symptoms. A quick and practical approach is needed to perform periodic building inspection, as a screening process before conducting a more detailed inspection for severe defects. Based on previous research, it is important to establish a screening tool based on building rating. Hence, we developed Condition Survey Protocol (CSP) matrix as a standard for visual building inspection which based on two assessment; Condition Assessment and Priority Assessment. Later, an online system developed for analysis and reporting purposes. The system proved to be able to facilitate and accelerate the process of data analysis as well as to avoid any errors. Besides, the features of the systems are easy to access, flexible, user-friendly and systematic. However, some amendment should be made to improve the existing system in terms of matrix scale. The amendment should be helpful to identify the actual building condition in more details.

Study on Effect Recyclability of Ru/Bentonite-TiO2 Catalysts in Glycerol Hydrogenolysis Reaction Using X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)

Recyclability effect on catalytic performance of Ru supported on the mixture of bentonite-TiO2 for the hydrogenolysis of glycerol was investigated under reaction condition of 150°C, 2.0 MPa hydrogen pressure and 7 h reaction time. Interestingly, the recovered Ru/bentonite-TiO2 catalyst was found to be active in the repeated runs. The conversion of glycerol increased in the four successive reactions as follows: 61.3%, 65.6%, 68.1% and 75.3%. This suggested that a sort of metal activation affect such as in situ reduction occurred during the repeated reaction. In order to confirm in situ reduction had occurred during the repeated reaction, XPS analysis of used catalyst after each reaction were carried out to study the chemical state of Ru 3d species. Narrow scan of peak Ru 3d revealed that intensity of Ru 3d5/2 peak at BE 280.0 eV which is corresponding to Ru0 species increased until three cycle reaction. This result confirmed that in situ reduction had occurred during the repeated reaction and this made the activities of the catalyst increased upon recycling due to the availability of more metallic Ru on the surface of the catalyst. This study also shows that conversion of glycerol increased linearly with the percentage atomic ratio of Ru metal active site available on the surface of catalyst.

Physical Damages Effect on Residential Houses Caused by the Earthquake at Ranau, Sabah Malaysia

Earthquake, the destructive natural disaster had recently stormed East Malaysia. This study aims to identify the physical effects of the earthquake to the building that occurred in Sabah, Malaysia. A survey method had been conducted among 221 citizens in the affected area to meet the requirements of this research objective. The result shows that 68% responded that building cracks had formed on the wall, 48% cracked floor, 23% cracked columns, 10% damages on roof and 8% responded no damages at all while only 2% stated the total collapse of the houses’ structures. Researchers have also identified that the impact of the earthquake towards their house yards shows that 55% and 12% responded experienced cracks on ground and landslide respectively, 25% with flood occurrence and 1% are caught with fire. Finally, almost 90% of the respondents are ready to upgrade their house structures. Thus, this research will be continued by developing the retrofitting and strengthening methods for the low rise buildings.

Effect of metals compatibility on fluorine-doped tin oxide catalyst for glycerol conversion to 1,2-propanediol

The effect of metals on support material fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), were studied. A series of metals such as ruthenium (Ru), osmium (Os), palladium (Pd), and copper (Cu) on FTO support were prepared by a simple wet mixture method, and attempted as a heterogeneous catalyst to enhance the hydrogenolysis of glycerol converted to 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO). The physicochemical properties of the catalysts were characterized by XRD, XPS, BET, FESEM, TEM, TPR, and TPD techniques. In particular, the catalyst of Ru-FTO was recorded as a good catalyst with an optimum glycerol conversion of 100% and 1,2-PDO selectivity of 94% respectively. It was suggesting that the acid an basic properties of the catalyst could achieved the C-O and C-H bond dissociation by formation of different intermediates of acetol and acetaldehyde to become 1,2-PDO. Despite that, some reaction parameters were evaluated and optimized reaction condition were established

Influence of the calcination temperature on the catalytic properties of Os/bentonite for glycerol hydrogenolysis

Selective catalytic hydrogenolysis of glycerol on Os/bentonite catalyst represents a low cost and green route for 1,2-propanediol which is major commonity chemical used in the production of antifreeze functional fluids, paints and humectants. The experimental results combined with the characterization studies using TPR, FESEM-EDX and XPS techiniques revealed that the optimum calcination temperature was 300 °C with glycerol conversion obtained was 80.7%. This might be due to the presense of Os metal species as a active site with binding energy (BE) of Os 4f at 51.2 eV in XPS analysis. TPR profile also shows two obvious peak at reduction temperature of 95 °C and 140 °C represent for Os3+ and Os4+ species respectively. The presence of Os3+ and Os4+ species were also confirmed by XPS analysis.

Synthesis characterisation and catalytic activity of sol-gel derived silica-mineral acids

Sol-gel silica-supported mineral acids (namely sol-gel perchloric acid (slg HClO4), sulfuric acid (slg H2SO4) and phosphoric acid (slg H3PO4), prepared by incorporating mineral acids molecules into silica via sol-gel technique, were used as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the direct addition reaction of oleic acid (OA) to form estolides compound. The reactions were carried out under vacuum (2 mBar) for 10 hours at 70°C under solvent-less conditions. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry time of flight (LC-MS ToF) of reaction products results showed chromatographic peaks for the presence of two new estolide compounds, oleic-oleic monoestolide acid (m/z 563.51, as [M--), and oleic-oleic diestolide acid (m/z 845.77 [M--). The HClO sol-gel catalyst turned out to be the best catalyst, achieving a final conversion of 76.4% with 83.4% selectivity to oleic-oleic monoestolide acid (OOM) and 16.6% selectivity to oleic-oleic diestolide acid (OOD). The activity and selectivity of the mineral acid sol-gel catalysts have been investigated and compared with homogeneous HClO4. The samples were characterised by XRD, TPD-NH3 and XPS.