Rafiziana Md. Kasmani

Starch Based Biofilms for Green Packaging

The aim of this study is to develop degradable starch-based packaging film with enhanced mechanical properties. A series of low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/tapioca starch compounds with various tapioca starch contents were prepared by twin-screw extrusion with the addition of maleic anhydride-grafted polyethylene as compatibilizer. Palm cooking oil was used as processing aid to ease the blown film process; thus, degradable film can be processed via conventional blown film machine. Studies on their mechanical properties and biodegradation were carried out by tensile test and exposure to fungi environment, respectively. The presence of high starch contents had an adverse effect on the tensile properties of LDPE/tapioca starch blends. However, the addition of compatibilizer to the blends improved the interfacial adhesion between the two materials and hence improved the tensile properties of the films. High content of starch was also found to increase the rate of biodegradability of LDPE/tapioca starch films. It can be proved by exposure of the film to fungi environment. A growth of microbes colony can be seen on the surface of LDPE/tapioca starch film indicates that the granular starch present on the surface of the polymer film is attacked by microorganisms, until most of it is assimilated as a carbon source.

Tapioca starch biocomposite for disposable packaging ware

Tapioca Starch Biocomposite for Disposable Packaging Ware Roshafima R. Ali*, Wan A. W. A. Rahman, Rafiziana M. Kasmani, Norazana Ibrahim, Siti N. H. Mustapha, Hasrinah Hasbullah Department of Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. Gas Engineering Department, FPREE, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. roshafima@cheme.utm.my

The Effect of Catalyst Loading (ni-ce/al2o3) on Coconut Copra Pyrolysis via Thermogravimetric Analyzer

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of catalyst weight loading on pyrolysis of coconut copra via thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). The pyrolysis process is conducted up to 700 °C at a heating rate of 10 °C/min in nitrogen (N2) atmosphere flowing at 150 mL/min. The catalyst was successfully prepared via wet impregnation method, with alumina (Al2O3) used as support, while cerium (Ce) and nickel (Ni) act as promoter. The feedstock samples for TGA were prepared accordingly with biomass to catalyst weight loading ratio as follows: CC-1 (1 : 0.05), CC-2 (1 : 0.10), CC-3 (1 : 0.15), CC-4 (1 : 0.20), CC-5 (1 : 0.50), and CC-6 (1 : 1). For comparison, the pyrolysis of coconut copra without catalyst is also determined at the same operating condition and labelled as CC-7 (1 : 0). The TGA-DTG curves shows that, the presences of catalyst significantly affect the degradation rate of volatile matter than lignin degradation. In this study, the CC-3 sample has achieved high mass loss at 83.27 % and also high degradation rate at 0.0107 mg/s. For lignin decomposition, it shows that, CC-1 to CC-6 samples has achieved lignin mass loss percentage below 12.7 %. The non-catalytic sample (CC-7) has exhibited 80.33 % of volatile matter of mass loss and 13.92 % of lignin mass loss. The optimum catalyst loading was observed at 1 : 0.15 (CC-3) that work best to degrade volatile matter at highest mass loss, in which attributes to higher yield of pyrolysis oil.

The Influence of 90 Degree Bends in Closed Pipe System on the Explosion Properties Using Hydrogen-Enriched Methane

This work sought to evaluate the explosion severity on hydrogen enrichment in methane-air mixture explosion. For this purpose, different hydrogen mixture compositions ranges between 4 to 8% v/v were considered. This work was performed using CFD tool FLACS that has been well validated for safety studies on both natural gas/methane and hydrogen system. FLACS is used to validate the maximum pressure and flame speed predicted by the CFD tool for combustion of premixed mixtures of methane and hydrogen against the experimental data. Experimental work was carried out in a closed pipe containing 90- degree bends with a volume of 0.41 m3, operating at ambient conditions. From the experiment observation, it shown that the coupling effect of bending and thermal diffusivity gave the dramatic influent on explosion severity in hydrogen-methane/air at very lean concentration. However, simulation results showed that FLACs is under-predicting the overpressure at very lean concentration of hydrogen in methane/air mixtures. It can be said that lower hydrogen content in methane/air mixture limits the hydrogen diffusivity, leading to the decrease of the burning rate and flame speeds. It is also demonstrated that the presence of 90-degree bend in closed pipe system increases the simulated flame speeds to the factor of 2-3, as compared to the experimental data. There are significant discrepancies between experimental and simulation, however, the results seem conservative in general.

Consequence Assessment of Vapour Cloud Explosion Involving Large Commercial Airliner Crash Upon Nuclear Reactor Containment

This work concerns with the consequences analysis of vapour cloud explosion (VCE) on the nuclear reactor plant due to accidental aircraft crash. The International Atomic Energy (IAEA) requires the operator of each licensed nuclear power plant to demonstrate that the site is acceptably safe from the perspective of the internal and external risk of exposure to workers, visitors and third parties who are working within the site vicinity. One of the potential external hazards is the unintentional aircraft accident with the potential on consequential damage to the site through impact, fuel fire and other effects. The fire and explosion overpressure resulting from the accident have the potential to damage the nuclear structural components and gave a challenge to a safe reactor shut down. The equivalent TNT, TNO multi energy and Baker-Strehlow models were used to estimate the overpressure from the explosion within the distances of 50 - 410 m from the first impact location of nuclear reactor. The structural damage at varying distances from the fire and explosion hazards was estimated using Probit equation. Analysis of the results shows that the control room at a distance of 210 m would be highly damage with a probability of 99 %. The probability for major structural damage at a radial distance of 410 m is 93 %. The findings of this analysis may be used to evaluate the safety improvements required on the nuclear power plant on the risk associated with aviation-related hazards and provide an insight on the safe design and the sitting of the existing facilities and/or new nuclear installations.

Fast Turbulent Flames in Duct -vented Gas Explosion

The influence of vent ducts on gas explosions was investigated with the aim of determining whether the use of larger area of the vent duct than the vent, would reduce the overpressure in vented duct explosion. A 0.2 m 3 cylindrical vessel was used with L/D (length to diameter) of 2, at the limit of applicability of current explosion venting design guidance. Only end ignition was considered in this study with a vent coefficient, K of 16.4. Methane/air mixtures over a range of equivalence ratio, Ф (0.68, 0.84 and 1.05) have been used. Results showed that while there is no significant difference in maximum pressure for larger vent duct as compared to a free discharge vent at lean mixtures, however, a significant increase of overpressure ∼ 1.4 bar was obtained in reactive mixtures i.e. Ф = 1.05. This was due to the high unburnt gas velocities induced in the vent duct by the most reactive explosion, creating very high turbulence levels at the vent duct inlet which gave rise to very fast flames and very high back pressures. Flame speeds in the vent duct of up to 500 m/s were measured for the most reactive mixture in the larger vent duct. The results were not predicted by the current US and European vent design guidance.

Mindel S-1000 Based Asymmetric Membranes for O2/N2 Separation: Effect of Polymer Concentration

Mindel S-1000 Based Asymmetric Membranes for O2/N2 Separation: Effect of Polymer Concentration Hasrinah Hasbullah, Ng Be Cheer, Norazana Ibrahim, Rafiziana Md. Kasmani, Roshafima Rasit Ali and Ahmad Fauzi Ismail Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. hasrinah@petroleum.utm.my

Experimental Investigation of Flash Pyrolysis Oil Droplet Combustion

Experimental Investigation of Flash Pyrolysis Oil Droplet Combustion Norazana Ibrahim *, Peter A. Jensen , Kim Dam-Johansen,Mohd. K. A. Hamid , Rafiziana M. Kasmani, Roshafima R. Ali, Hasrinah Hasbullah Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. Combustion and Harmful Emission Control (CHEC), Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. Polymer Engineering Department, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. *norazana@petroleum.utm.my

The Influence of Vessel Volume and Equivalence Ratio in Vented Gas Explosions

Experiments of vented gas explosions involving two different cylinder vessel volumes (0.2 and 0.0065 m) were reported. It was found that self-acceleration and larger bulk flame trapped inside the vessel are the main factor enhancing the overpressure attained in 0.2 m vessel. There was about 2 to 7 times increase in ratio of pressure and flame speeds on both vessels at the same equivalence ratio and K which can be considered as turbulent enhancement factor, β. Hot spot or auto ignition is responsible to the deflagration to detonation.

Catalytic Pyrolysis of Coconut Copra and Rice Husk for Possible Maximum Production of Bio-oil

The main objective of the present work is to study the effect of the nickel catalyst on pyrolysis of coconut copra and rice husk via thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). The optimisation of catalyst weight ratio on biomass is also determined. The sample is pyrolysed from 30 °C up to 700 °C at 10 °C/min of heating rate in nitrogen (N2) environment flowing at 150 mL/min. The catalyst (Ni-Ce/Al2O3) was prepared via wet impregnation method, with alumina (Al2O3) as support, while cerium (Ce) and nickel (Ni) act as promoter. The samples were prepared accordingly with biomass to catalyst weight loading ratio and labelled as follows; rice husk as RH-2 (1 : 0.15) and RH-3 (1 : 0.50) including coconut copra as CC-2 (1 : 0.15) and CC-3 (1 : 0.50). For comparison, the pyrolysis of coconut copra and rice husk without catalyst also are conducted at the same operating condition and named as CC-1 (1 : 0) and RH-1 (1 : 0). The TGA-DTG curves show that, the presences of catalyst significantly affect the devolatilisation rate of biomass. The highest volatile matter was achieved by CC-2 at 83.27 % compared to RH-2 at only 46.66 %. Although at similar biomass to catalyst weight ratio of 1 : 0.15, the coconut copra is more favourable to yield a high volatile matter than the rice husk. At the same time, both biomass samples specifically CC-3 and RH-3 have achieved the highest in solid residual yield. Overall, the mass loss of volatile matter decreases in the order of CC-2 > CC-1 > CC-3 > RH-1 > RH-2 > RH-3. In summary, the optimum catalyst loading was at CC-2 and RH-2 that work best to degrade at the highest mass loss of volatile, in which attributes to higher yield of pyrolysis oil.