Norazah Abd Rahman

Investigation on thermochemical behaviour of low rank Malaysian coal, oil palm biomass and their blends during pyrolysis via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)

This study aims to investigate the behaviour of Malaysian sub-bituminous coal (Mukah Balingian), oil palm biomass (empty fruit bunches (EFB), kernel shell (PKS) and mesocarp fibre (PMF)) and their respective blends during pyrolysis using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The coal/palm biomass blends were prepared at six different weight ratios and experiments were carried out under dynamic conditions using nitrogen as inert gas at various heating rates to ramp the temperature from 25 degrees C to 900 degrees C. The derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) results show that thermal decomposition of EFB, PMF and PKS exhibit one, two and three distinct evolution profiles, respectively. Apparently, the thermal profiles of the coal/oil palm biomass blends appear to correlate with the percentage of biomass added in the blends, thus, suggesting lack of interaction between the coal and palm biomass. First-order reaction model were used to determine the kinetics parameters for the pyrolysis of coal, palm biomass and their respective blends.

Combustion characteristics of Malaysian oil palm biomass, sub-bituminous coal and their respective blends via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)

The combustion characteristics of Malaysia oil palm biomass (palm kernel shell (PKS), palm mesocarp fibre (PMF) and empty fruit bunches (EFB)), sub-bituminous coal (Mukah Balingian) and coal/biomass blends via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were investigated. Six weight ratios of coal/biomass blends were prepared and oxidised under dynamic conditions from temperature 25 to 1100°C at four heating rates. The thermogravimetric analysis demonstrated that the EFB and PKS evolved additional peak besides drying, devolatilisation and char oxidation steps during combustion. Ignition and burn out temperatures of blends were improved in comparison to coal. No interactions were observed between the coal and biomass during combustion. The apparent activation energy during this process was evaluated using iso-conversional model free kinetics which resulted in highest activation energy during combustion of PKS followed by PMF, EFB and MB coal. Blending oil palm biomass with coal reduces the apparent activation energy value.

Rheological flow models of banana peel pectin jellies as affected by sugar concentration

ABSTRACT In the present study, peel pectin jellies (PPJ) were isolated from banana peel Musa acuminata Colla (AAA, cv ‘Berangan’) varieties using water bath extraction; five jellies were produced, namely, PPJ_68%, PPJ_70%, PPJ_71%, PPJ_72%, and PPJ_76%. The effect of sugar content on the rheology of the PPJ and commercial fruit jelly was conducted at 25°C within 0.05–100 s−1 shear rate. Flow behaviour was evaluated on the test dispersions while frequency sweeps (Ea) to obtain the viscoelastic (G’ and G”) were performed on the jellies. PPJ dispersion showed shear thinning flow behaviour, a good fit to the Casson model. Sugar concentration does not affect Casson parameters (Kc, Koc, ɳca, and σoc). Frequency sweep decreased as viscosity increased which revealed high dependence for both G’ and G”. Tan δ for PPJ was more than unity which showed that jelly has less elastic properties. PPJ with the lowest sugar concentration, PPJ_68%, conducted at a high shear rate showed it was compatible with validation of the Cox–Merz rule.

Kesan beban jisim dan aplikasi kaedah penyerap gelombang mikro kepada produk terhasil daripada sisa buangan kilang kelapa sawit melalui proses pirolisis bantuan gelombang mikro

Approximately, about 50 million tons of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is produced every year, however, discharge of POME to open water source will cause negative impact to environment. High production of POME makes it impossible to dispose at the disposal company, therefore, in-situ treatment has been developed. Current disposal method implemented by palm oil industries is through biodegradable pond. This method is applied due to high water content in POME about 90% of water. Microwave assisted pyrolysis would be an alternative method to deal with the POME since not only can disposed but also can convert to valuable material such as solid char and pyrolytic oil. In this paper, effect of mass loading of POME at a range of 100 to 500 grams with additional activated carbon (AC) was studied. Microwave power level, radiation time and mixing ratio of AC were set constant at 1000 W, 30 minutes and 5%, respectively. Product yields of solid and liquid were analyzed for the best process performance. Solid char obtained has a potential to be utilized as solid fuel since its energy content was >20 MJ/kg and has high carbon content at >80%. Meanwhile, about 20% of chemical content in the pyrolytic oil has the carbon number in the range of C1 to C10.

Electrophoretic deposition of adsorbed arsenic on fine iron oxide particles in tap water

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique has been demonstrated to remove arsenic with natural adsorbent (fine iron oxide particles) in tap water samples. Characterizations of metal element particularly arsenic and fine iron oxide particles in tap water from two different locations, i.e. commercial and residential areas, were conducted. Results showed that the concentration of arsenic in tap water from residential area was higher than commercial area samples i.e. 0.022 ± 0.004 and 0.016 ± 0.008 ppm, respectively. The same finding was observed in zeta potential value where it was higher in the residential area than commercial area, i.e. −42.27 ± 0.12 and −34.83 ± 0.23 mV, respectively. During the removal of arsenic using the EPD technique, direct current (DC) voltage was varied from 5 to 25V at a constant electrode distance of 30 mm. Effect of zeta potential, voltage and electrode type were intensively investigated. High percentage removal of arsenic was obtained from carbon plate than carbon fibre electr...

Optimizing Network Architecture of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in Rainfall-Runoff Modeling

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are general-purpose techniques that can be used for nonlinear data-driven rainfall-runoff modeling. The fundamental issue to build a worthwhile model by means of ANNs is to recognize their structural features and the difficulties related to their construction. Without a doubt, the magnitude and quality of data, the type of noise, and the mathematical properties of the algorithm for estimating the usual large number of parameters are critical for the simplification performances of ANNs. There are many avoiding overfitting techniques in improving the generalization of ANNs. This paper was reported the optimization of the hidden neurons of nonlinear autoregressive with external inputs (NARX) neural network of the tropical river basin. For the Langat River Basin, eight or ten hidden neurons were found to be the most optimal for the ANN model. The next steps should be conducting the optimum numbers of inputs delay to be used for the model since the precise combination of the network architectures features will improve the accuracy level of ANN model.

Particles Mixing in a Fluidized Bed by Using Digital Image Processing and Thief Probe

Particle size plays a major role in segregation phenomena in mixing process. In pharmaceutical industry, it is essential to have a proper analysis to make sure that the good product is well mixed and to prevent segregation. In this study, Digital Image processing has been used as an alternative method to thief probe, to study the effect of particle size on mixing and segregation process. The experiment started with execution of image acquisition process of mixing process. The images taken were further analyzed using Image Processing Tool in MATLAB software. The experiments were done with two different arrangement of particle in the bed using air velocity of 0.94 ms−1. The mixture was considered to be well mixed when the intensity of red of colour histogram is approximately constant. For the layered position, the good mixing time for set 1, 2, 3 and 4 were achieved at 62, 84, 86 and 74 s respectively. Then, for random position, homogeneous mixture were achieved at 62, 76, 82 and 72 s for set 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. This finding has been quantified by using Lacey Mixing Index where the value obtained was nearly to 1.0 which showed uniform mixing.

Performance of thin film composite in the purification of crude glycerol

The use of membranes have been found to solve the issue of high operating cost in crude glycerol purification process due to its operation at ambient temperature and do not incorporate any chemicals. The use of a hybrid membrane in crude glycerol purification would benefit from its higher mechanical and thermal stability with enhancement in hydrophilicity for permeation of water soluble material. This paper reported on the use of thin film composites (TFCs) with a hybrid membrane as the barrier layer for the purification of crude glycerol. The TFCs were characterized by Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR), Thermal Gravitational Analysis (TGA), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and water contact angle. The effects of incorporating glycerol in the hybrid membrane formulation had been investigated through flux rate measurement, percentage glycerol permeated and NaCl rejection from the purification of crude glycerol. The aim of the purification process is higher NaCI rejection and higher recovery of glycerol with sufficient volume of flux. Results showed that the incorporation of glycerol in the hybrid membrane formulation had resulted in the increase of porosity and thermal stability of the barrier layer, which had subsequently increased the glycerol recovery with comparable values of flux rate and NaCI rejection as compared to that without glycerol.

Thin film composite membrane with hybrid membrane as the barrier layer: Preparation and characterization

The use of hybrid membrane is becoming popular due to the improvement in the mechanical and thermal properties as compared to the membrane produced from pure organic or inorganic materials. The production of thin film composite by coating the surface of hydrophobic support membrane with hydrophilic membrane is one method to produce fouling free membrane and increasing the permeation flux particularly water. This paper describes the preparation and characterization of thin film composite membranes, which were prepared from polysulfone as the porous support and hybrid membrane as the barrier layer. The membranes were characterized by Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle analysis. The hybrid membrane was prepared from blended polymer of polyvinyl alcohol and polyethylene glycol with addition of glycerol as organic additive and with various concentration of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS). The effects of different concentration of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) during hybrid membrane preparation as well as the incorporation of glycerol on the characteristics of the thin film composite membranes (TFC) were studied. Results showed that the enhancement of rigidity structure as a result of higher cross linking reaction from the incorporation of TEOS could be compensated with the plasticizing effect by glycerol. The finding obtained from this research will be applied for future work with regard to investigate the performance of the thin film composite membranes.