Thanh H. Trinh

Torrefaction of empty fruit bunches under biomass combustion gas atmosphere

Torrefaction of oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) under combustion gas atmosphere was conducted in a batch reactor at 473, 523 and 573K in order to investigate the effect of real combustion gas on torrefaction behavior. The solid mass yield of torrefaction in combustion gas was smaller than that of torrefaction in nitrogen. This may be attributed to the decomposition enhancement effect by oxygen and carbon dioxide in combustion gas. Under combustion gas atmosphere, the solid yield for torrefaction of EFB became smaller as the temperature increased. The representative products of combustion gas torrefaction were carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (gas phase) and water, phenol and acetic acid (liquid phase). By comparing torrefaction in combustion gas with torrefaction in nitrogen gas, it was found that combustion gas can be utilized as torrefaction gas to save energy and inert gas.

Study the Release of Urea from Agrium® Coated Urea Using UV-Vis Spectrometer

Elucidating the release pattern of controlled release fertilizer (CRF) is important not just for manufactures but also for farmers because it assists them in making judgments of fertilizer effectiveness and nutrient planning. Investigation on the release pattern of different types of CRF both in the laboratory and in the crop-field is crucial in order to determine the effectiveness of fertilizer on plant growth. Consequently, the fertilizer application could be planned to meet the crop requirement. This paper presents a practical approach to analyze the release pattern using Agrium® coated urea. UV-Vis spectrometer is employed to analyze the amount of nitrogen released. The approach reduced analytical error by preventing sample dilution before measuring. According to laboratory results, UV-Vis spectrometer has shown a good potential to be used in studying the nutrient release behavior from CRF. A sigmoidal shape has been obtained from the release profile, and is corresponded with findings in other studies. The results satisfy the criteria for CRF specified by European Committee for Standardization. Collectively, this study demonstrated that the UV-Vis spectrometer is a promising equipment, which can be utilized in studying controlled release behavior.

Inverse Modelling for Prediction of Coating Material Diffusivity and Lag Time of Controlled-Release Coated Urea Granule

Controlled release fertilizer (CRF) has attracted a lot of interest because of its advantages for ecosystem in terms of enhancement of nutrient utilization and reducing nutrient loss from leaching and volatilization, etc. While a number of research studies on novel coating material to control the release of nutrients, modelling has a significant role in predicting release behaviour and determining good CRF design that matches the nutrient requirement from the plants. The present study proposes a solution to predict coating material parameters based on multi-diffusion model and preliminary experimental results using inverse simulation technique. In addition, the solution showed an advantage in prediction the release of nutrient, i.e., the reduction in experimental time which plays an important role in investigation novel coating material and designing of CRFs which are matched the nutrient uptake from plants. Hence, this solution reduces experimental cost and time to researchers, who investigated novel CRFs.