Ravindra Pogaku

Production of bio-oil from oil palm empty fruit bunch by catalytic fast pyrolysis: a review

ABSTRACT The promising development of catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) across a wide range of lignocellulosic biomass for bio-oil production is economically viable. Unreformed bio-oils are not directly compatible with the petrochemical infrastructure due to various physio-chemical properties of the oil. High oxygenation of bio-oil is one of its major problems and in situ catalytic upgrading is providing a potential way to overcome this obstacle. Empty fruit bunch (EFB) is a lignocellulosic by-product of the oil palm industry, which have been researched in the context of various fast pyrolysis studies without the usage of catalysts. Malaysia, being the second largest oil palm producer in the world, has a huge incentive to maximise the efficacy of this industry and the utilization of its EFB and other related wastes. This aim of this paper is to review the recent advances in CFP of EFB and compare it to other similar lignocellulosic materials particularly for the production of deoxygenated bio-oil.

Polymer flooding and its combinations with other chemical injection methods in enhanced oil recovery

In this paper, the current advances in chemical injection method of polymer flooding are reviewed. The ultimate goal of polymer flooding for EOR process is to improve tertiary oil recovery by increasing the overall oil driving efficiency as a result of the improvements in injected fluid’s viscosity and mobility ratio. However, it was found that there were some limitations of polymer flooding. Hence, this paper will be reviewing studies on combinations of polymer flooding with other chemical methods by various researchers. Polymer flooding and its combinations with other flooding methods discussed in this paper are: polymer, alkaline polymer (AP), micellar polymer (MP), nanoparticles injection with polymers (NP) and alkaline surfactant polymer (ASP). The working principle, resistance, effectiveness and field application of each flooding method are also reviewed and compared.

Recent trends for the removal of colored particles in industrial wastewaters

The global textile and apparel industry is among major sector in the world, with China, India European Union, and United States being the major textile exporters. According to 2015 statistics, the current value of world textiles-apparel exports totaled US

Modeling of Free Fatty Acid Content in the Deodorization Process of Palm Oil Refinery Using Six Sigma with Response Surface Methodology

736 billion (World Trade Organization 2016). On the other hand, oil palm, commercially named as Elaeis quineensis Jacq., is one of the main agricultural crops in tropical countries, especially Malaysia and Indonesia being leaders. The main traded commodities are crude palm oil (CPO), crude palm kernel oil (CPKO), and palm kernel cake (PKC). The major CPO producing countries are Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand; other countries such as Colombia, Nigeria, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, etc. are also contributing for crude palm oil. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that the global palm oil production in 2016 was 58.8 million metric tons (United States Department of Agriculture 2016). The similarity between textile and apparel and crude palm oil industries is colored effluents. The color of textile industry effluent is due to synthetic dye while the latter is due to lignin, tannin, and other plant based colorants. Both industries produce colored effluents in large quantities. The presence of residual colored particles in surface water is esthetically undesirable and causes annoyance to the aquatic biosphere due to reduction of sunlight penetration and depletion of the dissolved oxygen. Due to their toxic and recalcitrance properties, colored particles can also contribute to the failure of biological processes in wastewater treatment plants. Further, the regulations imposed for the discharged colored effluents have become more stringent and thus motivated the industries to improve their effluent de-colorization technology. In this regard, it is the right time for the release of this special issue to highlight some of the advanced techniques for effluents decolorization. Generally, there are two de-colorization methods: by destruction of colored particles (e.g., chemical oxidation and bio-oxidation) and the other is by separation of colored particles from water (e.g., coagulation-flocculation, sand filtration and membrane separation). This special issue on Recent Trends for the Removal of Colored Particles in Industrial Wastewaters includes, a selection of papers presented at the 6th International Conference on Pollution and Treatment Technology (PTT 2016) held from July 25 to 27, 2016 in Suzhou, China. All the selected papers were subjected to rigorous peer-review process as followed for regular submission process to Environmental Science and Pollution Research journal. Ultimately, five papers were accepted for publication in the Environmental Science and Pollution Research Special Issue entitled BRecent Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Production of Biogas from Palm Oil Mill Effluent

The present study aims to minimize the free fatty acid (FFA) content in Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Oil of FELDA Vegetable Oils Sdn. Bhd. and KUNAK Refinery Sdn. Bhd. (Sawit Kinabalu) by using Six Sigma with Response Surface Methodology. Process flow of the deodorizing section of the palm oil refinery have been studied. Unit operations from the process flow were identified and the parameters readings from 2011 till 2013 were tabulated. Only parameters’ readings from year 2011 and 2012 were used. This data went through multiple regressions and the process parameters were narrowed down from 32 parameters to only six parameters. Then, few tests were conducted such Normality Test and so on. The R-Square value 94.65 % correlated the actual and predicted value for validation data set. In the verify phase, it can be 95 % confidence interval that the difference between the mean numbers is between −0.00514 and 0.00920 higher in actual value than the predicted value. To achieve 0.050 % FFA, the optimal process variables were 340.1 °C for boiler temperature (G760T), 64 BAR for boiler pressure (G760P), 270.1 °C for heat exchanger (TE704), 68.6 °C for pre-distillate fatty acid recycler (TE705), 43.1 °C for hot well (TE750) and 12 BAR for steam header B (STEAMB). In this study, the equation model was developed to estimate the actual FFA content and predict the FFA content. Hence, this model can be directly used in the palm oil refinery to predict the FFA content and to optimize.

Low-Cost Alternative Renewable Energy Bioethanol Production from Palm Oil in Malaysian Context

Malaysia with an average crude palm oil production of more than 13 million tons per year is estimated produce total of palm oil mill effluent (POME) of 53 million tons/year. Batch anaerobic digestion of 8 l palm oil mill effluent was studied in a 25 l bioreactor at 30 °C (thermophilic condition) and pH controlled at 7. POME activated sludge and cow manure at ratio of 1:2.5 POME was used. The biogas produced is 7.825 l at hydraulic retention time of 44 days. The peak biogas production occurs at day 24 until day 34 and the production starts to decrease after day 35 due to the availability of nutrient that has decreased tremendously. Modeling studies showed that the linear plots of biogas production rates with the R2 of rising and failing limb ranged from 0.926 to 0.954 while the exponential plot shows the R2 range from 0.775 to 0.940.

Effect of formulation of alginate beads on their mechanical behavior and stiffness

Biofuels can be broadly defined as solids, liquids, or gas fuels consisting of, or derived from, plant biomass. Its use here is primarily with respect to a liquid transportation fuel (bioethanol or biodiesel). A major environmental issue being addressed by the global community is the sustainable supply of energy in parallel with a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. This will be a significant technological and socioeconomic challenge because of our dependence on fossil fuel combustion for energy and the fact that it is this combustion that is the primary cause of greenhouse gas emissions.