Safarudin Gazali Herawan

Characterization of activated carbons from oil-palm shell by CO2 activation with no holding carbonization temperature.

Activated carbons can be produced from different precursors, including coals of different ranks, and lignocellulosic materials, by physical or chemical activation processes. The objective of this paper is to characterize oil-palm shells, as a biomass byproduct from palm-oil mills which were converted into activated carbons by nitrogen pyrolysis followed by CO2 activation. The effects of no holding peak pyrolysis temperature on the physical characteristics of the activated carbons are studied. The BET surface area of the activated carbon is investigated using N2 adsorption at 77 K with selected temperatures of 500, 600, and 700°C. These pyrolysis conditions for preparing the activated carbons are found to yield higher BET surface area at a pyrolysis temperature of 700°C compared to selected commercial activated carbon. The activated carbons thus result in well-developed porosities and predominantly microporosities. By using this activation method, significant improvement can be obtained in the surface characteristics of the activated carbons. Thus this study shows that the preparation time can be shortened while better results of activated carbon can be produced.

Equilibrium, Kinetics, and Thermodynamics of Remazol Brilliant Blue R Dye Adsorption onto Activated Carbon Prepared from Pinang Frond

The adsorption of remazol brilliant blue R (RBBR) dye on pinang frond based activated carbon (PF-AC) was investigated in a batch process. The effects of initial dye concentration, contact time, solution temperature, and solution pH were evaluated. The adsorption equilibrium and kinetic were found to follow Freundlich isotherm models and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, respectively. The mechanism of the adsorption process was found from the intraparticle diffusion model. Result from adsorption thermodynamic show that interaction for RBBR dye was found to be feasible, nonspontaneous, and endothermic. The results indicated that the PF-AC is very effective for the RBBR adsorption from aqueous solution.

Effect of CO₂ flow rate on the Pinang frond-based activated carbon for methylene blue removal.

Activated carbons are regularly used the treatment of dye wastewater. They can be produced from various organics materials having high level of carbon content. In this study, a novel Pinang frond activated carbon (PFAC) was produced at various CO2 flow rates in the range of 150–600 mL/min at activation temperature of 800°C for 3 hours. The optimum PFAC sample is found on CO2 flow rate of 300 mL/min which gives the highest BET surface area and pore volume of 958 m2/g and 0.5469 mL/g, respectively. This sample shows well-developed pore structure with high fixed carbon content of 79.74%. The removal of methylene blue (MB) by 95.8% for initial MB concentration of 50 mg/L and 72.6% for 500 mg/L is achieved via this sample. The PFAC is thus identified to be a suitable adsorbent for removing MB from aqueous solution.

Prediction of waste heat energy recovery performance in a naturally aspirated engine using artificial neural network

The waste heat from exhaust gases represents a significant amount of thermal energy, which has conventionally been used for combined heating and power applications. This paper explores the performance of a naturally aspirated spark ignition engine equipped with waste heat recovery mechanism (WHRM). The experimental and simulation test results suggest that the concept is thermodynamically feasible and could significantly enhance the system performance depending on the load applied to the engine. The simulation method is created using an artificial neural network (ANN) which predicts the power produced from the WHRM.

Prediction on Power Produced from Power Turbine as a Waste Heat Recovery Mechanism on Naturally Aspirated Spark Ignition Engine Using Artificial Neural Network

The waste heat from exhaust gases represents a significant amount of thermal energy, which has conventionally been used for combined heating and power applications. This paper explores the performance of a naturally aspirated spark ignition engine equipped with waste heat recovery mechanism WHRM in a sedan car. The amount of heat energy from exhaust is presented and the experimental test results suggest that the concept is thermodynamically feasible and could significantly enhance the system performance depending on the load applied to the engine. However, the existence of WHRM affects the performance of engine by slightly reducing the power. The simulation method is created using an artificial neural network ANN which predicts the power produced from the WHRM.

Development of model system for cost-effective pico-hydro turbine

One of the main obstacles of rural electrification programme is to find an alternative energy to replace power generated by generator. The ever increasing fuel price and its cost of transportation to the remote location limited the availability of electricity to certain time of the day. Since the rural settlement usually located near water source, renewable energy based on hydro is suggested. This paper will discuss about the development of model system for cost-effective pico-hydro turbine. The size of the turbine will be based on low flow and low head application. Two types of turbine, propeller or also known as axial-flow and cross-flow, are evaluated under these conditions. Both of the turbines were installed in one model system equipped with storage tanks and piping system. Centrifugal pump is used to ensure the circulation of the water between main storage tank into the flowing tank simulating the run-of river application for pico hydro system. The head of the model system is fixed with variable parameter of water flow rate is controlled by using controller valve and flow meter for power data collection for each turbine. The performance of both turbines were also simulated and evaluated by using CFDs software. Techno-economics evaluations are done so that the model of the system will be able to select the optimum size of the turbine based on the flow rate for a cheap efficient and cost-effective hydro turbine.

Prediction of generated power from steam turbine waste heat recovery mechanism system on naturally aspirated spark ignition engine using artificial neural network

The waste heat from exhaust gases represents a significant amount of thermal energy, which has conventionally been used for combined heating and power applications. This paper proposes a prediction model on the performance of a naturally aspirated spark ignition engine equipped with a waste heat recovery mechanism (WHRM) using steam turbine mechanism. The simulation method is created using an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the power produced from this WHRM. The automated neural network was employed to run the simulation, where the ANN analysis used multilayer perceptrons as the network architecture, which is a feed-forward neural network architecture with uni-directional full connections between successive layers and applied Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno algorithm iterative techniques to train the data. By using ANN, power generated from this WHRM could be predicted with good accuracy of 0.007, 0.011, and 0.016% error on training, test and validation data, respectively.

The Effects of Alkaline Catalysts in Used Frying Oil Biodiesel on the Diesel Engine Performances

The biodiesel, defined as monoalkyl esters from waste vegetable oils are being produced widely as a viable alternative diesel fuels due to its lower cost, largest producer and reduces the disposal problem. In this study, the effects of catalyst formulation on biodiesel yield are evaluated by using three different alkaline catalyst; sodium hydroxide (NaOH), potassium hydroxide (KOH) and sodium methoxide (NaOCH3) with methanol via transesterification process and are tested in a four cylinder Mitsubishi Pajero 2.5cc Intercooler Turbo Diesel Engine. The engine emissions and performance were recorded under partial load within the range of 1000 to 3500 rpm of the biodiesel (B100) fuels compared with the diesel fuel. The best yield percentage was obtained using NaOCH3 as catalyst whilst KOH is the most convenient and simpler in process. NaOH was found to be more superior than the other two catalysts in terms of lower cost production and low engine emission.

MICROPOROUS CARBON ADSORBENTS FROM OIL PALM SHELLS FOR GAS SEPARATION

Processes have been designed and developed for producing microporous carbon adsorbents which are suitable for separating various gases. A carbonaceous starting material. oil palm shell, which can be found easily and abundantly in the country of Malaysia, has been used in the process to obtain various type of adsorbents for gas adsorption and separation applications. Pyrolysis. activation and chemicals impregnation have been applied for the production of the products. The adsorbents produced were verified for its physical characteristics using scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermogravimetry (TG)analysis and molecular probe technique. A gas chromotography unit is used as gas analyzer and a single column adsorber has been used for the adsorption kinetics experiments on several mixed gas system. in this study. mixed gas like CO2/CH4, was used For the separation performance tests. Adsorption uptake curves of the products were recorded and discussed for the adsorption behavior on mixed gas system. The results have shown n great feasibility of using carbon products from oil palm shell as an adsorbent For gas separation, which are applicable and useful in chemical processing industries. In addition, the development of this material is useful and economical and can he further introduced as adsorbent for pressure swing adsorption application.