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Preliminary survey showed that organic waste from the market is about 18.77%, or second largest in the total waste generation. Its management becomes a challenge, because it is not comprised only of organics but also mixed with small amount of plastics; therefore, conventional biological process will not achieve their maximum efficiency. Wet torrefaction is a thermal process in hot water medium, which will dissolve organic materials into water, effectively converting most solids into liquid product. Banana fruit stem and cabbage were chosen as the mixed organic waste representative, and treated in a 2.5 L reactor using saturated steam in the temperature range of 175 to 225 °C before being analyzed for their heating value in solid products as fuel precursors, and their nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) contents in liquid products as liquid fertilizer precursors. It was found that for cabbage, the wet torrefaction process at 200 °C and 90 min resulted in 15.59 MJ/kg product heating value with NPK content of 3.43%. For banana fruit bunch stem, the wet torrefaction process at 225 °C and 30 min resulted in 17.64 MJ/kg product heating value with NPK content of 5.13%. It can be concluded that wet torrefaction process can simultaneously produce solid and liquid product as solid fuel and liquid fertilizer, respectively.

Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) seed extract is generally used as naturopathic medications, supplements, antiseptic and disinfecting agents and also as preservatives in food and cosmetics products. In vitro studies have demonstrated that grapefruit seed extract has anti bacterial properties against a range of gram-positive and gram-negative organisms. Indonesian grapefruit, known as pomelo (C. maxima), has similar characteristics, contents and is under the same genus (Citrus) as grapefruit; however it has not been completely utilized as a preservative. In this work we analyze the antimicrobial activities of ethanolic extract of Indonesian pomelo (C. maxima) seeds and pulp compared to the grapefruit (C. paradisi) seeds and pulp ethanolic extract. Ethanolic extracts of pomelo and grapefruit seeds and pulp are investigated for activities against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. The level of antimicrobial effects is established using agar diffusion method. Both of the ethanolic do not show any antimicrobial activities against C. albicans. The ethanolic extract of pomelo seeds and pulp used in this research give positive results with growth inhibition effect on B. subtilis, S. aureus and E. coli. The zones of inhibition ranges from 22 – 30 mm in diameter, which is higher to grapefruit seeds and pulp ethanolic extract (17 – 25 mm). Ethanolic extract of pomelo seeds and pulp has an antimicrobial effect, which makes it a natural preparation for use as an alternative preservative for food and cosmetic.

Food wastes disposed at landfills can be recovered and transformed into value-added product, which helps to solve the environmental issues of solid waste. In this study, a composting method whereby food wastes are converted into compost through decomposition by inoculants. The decomposition rate of the food wastes and dried leaves was enhanced by the compost functions as fertilisers for soil and plants. The proposed modified compost bin is an effective solution to decompose the food wastes which are placed evenly alternating between the dead leaves. The inoculant was poured onto the food waste and then layered by the dead leaves. The ratio of food wastes to dead leaves is 2:1. The inoculants used were Effective Microorganisms (EM), vermitea (VCT), obsolete pasteurised milk (OPM) and the control bin without any inoculant, respectively. The temperature and pH of each compost were monitored every three to four days for 10 weeks. It was found that the EM assisted compost stabilised faster compared to the other three of the VCT, OPM and control composts. By week 7, the EM compost has achieved all the criterion to be considered as stable and matured compost whereas the VCT compost achieved all the criterion only by week 9 but the OPM assisted compost did not meet all the criterion even by week 10. In week 7, the EM assisted compost showed the temperature of 22.4±0.55°C with pH 7.7±0.01. The moisture content, in the beginning, was 56% and at the end was 32% with a decreased of 24%. The C/N ratio is 12.48 and the germination test using mung beans showed that the compost has achieved 75% and is suitable to be used as fertilizer.

Papers produced from oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) via Alkaline Peroxide Pulping (APP) was preceded by three main steps; dewaxing of EFB, alkaline peroxide (AP) impregnation into EFB and refining of biomass to generate pulp. The experiment was carried by varying chemical level and number of impregnation stages. For 2:2.5% AP level, two-stage impregnation improved hand sheets tear index by 45%, 164% boost in tensile index, 26% enhancement in zero span index and more than 5% in burst index. By applying 8:10% AP level, significant improvements were gained at the third and fourth stages of AP impregnation. Although there was no significant change in hand sheet strength with multiple impregnation for 4:5% AP level, improvement in brightness of hand sheets was apparent, analogous to the effect of increasing AP level. The found paper properties development show that alkaline peroxide pulping of EFB could be adapted to various targeted properties by adjustment of AP level and impregnation stages.

The pulp extracted from the alkaline peroxide pulping (APP) of EFB was beaten from 500 revolutions to 10000 revolutions using PFI mill to investigate the morphological changes undergone by the pulp and the resultant effect on paper sheet properties. As a result of beating, pulp elements were observed as intensely fibrillated, reducing the amounts of fibre bundles and thus, reducing interruption in the inter-fiber bonding. To a defined extent, beating was also seen as unwinding the structure of vessel element to a single strand of loose spiral body. These fibrillated vessel elements of APP pulp from EFB, plus the fines element germinating from further segmentation of the vessels, were the factors contributing to the overall strength improvement of the produced EFB pulp network. The applied increment in beating revolution had apparently widened the known broad spectrum quality of APP pulp from EFB. This demonstrates EFB potential for application in specialty paper production.

Flotation deinking has industrially applied but several problems keep unsolved because limitations have to compete with several variables present. Flotation deinking is multi variables process, so studying flotation deinking is still interesting. In this research, the amount of variables was reduced and focused to the performance comparison between flotation deinking of old newspaper (ONP) using biodegradable fatty acid of morinda citrifolia as the raw bio surfactant (RBS) and biodegradable fatty acid of palm oil that had been converted to be commercial surfactant (CS). The flotation was done at laboratory flotation cell equipped with orifice at different diameter (orifice number 20, 40 and 60) with adjustable airflow rate. Brightness and Effective Residual Ink Concentration (ERIC) of the deinked pulp were measured. The best results were achieved on orifice number 40 with the highest brightness of 41.96 °ISO and 40.96 °ISO when using CS and RBS respectively, and lowest ERIC of 896.82 ppm and 1001.72 ppm when using CS and RBS respectively. The percentage delta of deinking power characteristic between CS and RBS was 2.36% and 11.70% for brightness and ERIC, respectively.

Bioethanol G2 production using oil palm empty fruit bunch as raw material consists of four steps, namely pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, and purification process. Pretreatment process generates black liquor that causes serious environmental pollution if it is released to the environment. The objective of this research is studying the ability of iron oxide coating sands to adsorb the color of black liquor. The iron oxide coating sands were synthesized from FeCl3.6H2O with quartz sands as support material. This research was conducted on batch mode using black liquor in various pH values. Result obtained that kind of iron oxide on quartz sands’s surface was goethite. The result also indicated decreasing of color intensity of black liquor after adsorption process. This research supports local material utilization in environmental technology development to solve some environmental problems.

The extraction of recycled newspapers (RNP) cellulose pulp began by a series of chemical alkali extraction, 5 wt% NaOH at 125°C for 2 h. Subsequently, the bleaching of alkalized pulp was carried out by using 2 wt% NaClO2 solutions in the presence of 60 wt% of nitric acid, for 4 h at 100°C. The graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile onto the bleached cellulose pulp was initiated by using ceric ammonium nitrate. The grafting conditions were optimized by varying the ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) initiator concentration, acrylonitrile (ACN) concentration and reaction time. The successfully of the grafting process were determined by calculating the grafting yield (%GY) and grafting efficiency (%GE). The morphological and chemical structure of resulting grafted and ungrafted recycled newspaper cellulose pulp were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.The extraction of recycled newspapers (RNP) cellulose pulp began by a series of chemical alkali extraction, 5 wt% NaOH at 125°C for 2 h. Subsequently, the bleaching of alkalized pulp was carried out by using 2 wt% NaClO2 solutions in the presence of 60 wt% of nitric acid, for 4 h at 100°C. The graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile onto the bleached cellulose pulp was initiated by using ceric ammonium nitrate. The grafting conditions were optimized by varying the ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) initiator concentration, acrylonitrile (ACN) concentration and reaction time. The successfully of the grafting process were determined by calculating the grafting yield (%GY) and grafting efficiency (%GE). The morphological and chemical structure of resulting grafted and ungrafted recycled newspaper cellulose pulp were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.

This study focus on Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of paddy straw pulp treated using deep eutectic solvent (DES). DES was synthesized using potassium carbonate and glycerol at different molar ratio under normal atmospheric pressure. Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass was carried out at temperature of 120°C for 60 minutes under mass ratio of paddy straw to DES 1:9. The chemical structures of the untreated paddy straw and paddy straw pulp treated with different molar ratio of DES were analyzed using FTIR. The characterization result from FT-IR spectra indicated that the potassium carbonate-glycerol DES deconstructed the structures of paddy straw by removing lignin and hemicellulose during the pulping process. The peak intensity that occurs at region between 900 cm−1 and 1500 cm−1 shows that the presence of elevated level of cellulose after lignocellulosic pulping. From FT-IR analysis, DES could not remove the functional group of lignin and hemicellulose completely but yet expos...

Providing affordable housing is the most critical problem in many of the developing countries. Using earth materials in building construction is one of the feasible methods to address this issue and it can be a way towards sustainable construction as well. However, the published information on the stabilized soil blocks is limited. Therefore, the present study is conducted to examine the characterization of the soils and engineering properties of the stabilized soil blocks. Four types of stabilizer were used in the study, namely; cement, slaked lime, bitumen emulsion and calcium silicate. Cement and slaked lime were added at different percentages in the range of 5% to 15%, with interval of 2.5%. The percentage was determined based on weight of soil. Meanwhile, bitumen emulsion and calcium silicate were incorporated at various percentages together with 10% of cement. Dosage of bitumen emulsion is in the range of 2% to 10% at interval of 2% while calcium silicate was incorporated at 0.50%, 0.75%, 1.00%, 1.2...

The utilization of thermophilic microbe has attracted many parties, particularly in producing an alternative fuel like ethanol. Bioethanol is one of the alternative energy sources substituting for earth oil in the future. The advantage of using bioethanol is that it can reduce pollution levels and global warming because the result of bioethanol burning doesn’t bring in a net addition of CO2 into environment. Moreover, decrease in the reserves of earth oil globally has also contributed to the notion on searching renewable energy resources such as bioethanol. Indonesia has a high biomass potential and can be used as raw material for bioethanol. The utilization of these raw materials will reduce fears of competition foodstuffs for energy production. The enzymes that play a role in degrading lignocelluloses are cellulolytic, hemicellulolytic, and lignolytic in nature. The main enzyme with an important role in bioethanol production is a complex enzyme capable of degrading lignocelluloses. The enzyme can be pro...

Gold amalgamation process was widely used to treat gold ore. This process produces the tailing or amalgamation solid waste, which still contains gold at 8-9 ppm. Froth flotation is one of the promising methods to beneficiate gold from this tailing. However, this process requires optimal conditions which depends on the type of raw material. In this study, Taguchi method was used to optimize the optimum conditions of the froth flotation process. The Taguchi optimization shows that the gold recovery was strongly influenced by the particle size which is the best particle size at 150 mesh followed by the Potassium amyl xanthate concentration, pH and pine oil concentration at 1133.98, 4535.92 and 68.04 gr/ton amalgamation tailing, respectively.Gold amalgamation process was widely used to treat gold ore. This process produces the tailing or amalgamation solid waste, which still contains gold at 8-9 ppm. Froth flotation is one of the promising methods to beneficiate gold from this tailing. However, this process requires optimal conditions which depends on the type of raw material. In this study, Taguchi method was used to optimize the optimum conditions of the froth flotation process. The Taguchi optimization shows that the gold recovery was strongly influenced by the particle size which is the best particle size at 150 mesh followed by the Potassium amyl xanthate concentration, pH and pine oil concentration at 1133.98, 4535.92 and 68.04 gr/ton amalgamation tailing, respectively.

Pilot scale experiments were conducted to prepare magnesium hydroxide by magnesia hydration under gas-liquid-solid (three-phase) reaction system. The effect of reaction pressure, reactivity and particle size of magnesia and the concentration of the pulp on the degree of hydration was investigated. The results indicated that the hydration reaction occurred at the first 30min mainly. During the set reaction condition, degree of hydration of 68% could be obtained at the reaction pressure of 0.2MPa, concentration of pulp of 5%w/w with high reactivity and fine powder. The promotion effect on the degree of hydration caused by the three-phase reaction system was mostly attributed to the exfoliation of steam.

Coffee is an excellent commodity in Indonesia that has big problem in utilizing its wastes. As the solution, the abundant coffee pulp waste from processing of coffee bean industry has been used as a substrate of biogas production. Coffee pulp waste (CPW) was approximately 48% of total weight, consisting 42% of the coffee pulp and 6% of the seed coat. CPW holds good composition as biogas substrate that is consist of cellulose (63%), hemicellulose (2.3%) and protein (11.5%). Methane production from coffee pulp waste still has much problems because of toxic chemicals content such as caffeine, tannin, and total phenol which can inhibit the biogas production. In this case, CPW was pretreated by ethanol/water (50/50, v/v) at room temperature to remove those inhibitors. This study was to compare the methane production by microbial consortium of cow dung and rumen fluid mixture coffee pulp waste as a substrate with and without pretreatment. The pretreated CPW was fermented with mixture of Cow Dung (CD) and Rumen Fluid (RF) in anaerobic co-digestion for 30 days at mesophilic temperature (30-40°C) and the pH was maintained from 6.8 to 7.2 on a reactor with working volume of 3.6 liters. There were two reactors with each containing the mixture of CPW without pretreatment, cow dung and rumen fluid (CD+RF+CPW) and then compared with the CPW with pretreatment (CD+RF+PCPW) reactor. The measured parameters included the decreasing of inhibitor compound concentration, Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Solid (TS), Volatile Solid (VS), Methane and the Calorific value of gas (heating value) were studied as well. The result showed a decrease in inhibitor component concentration due to methanol pretreatment was 90% of caffeine; 78% of polyphenols (total phenol) and 66% of tannins. The highest methane content in biogas was produced in CD+RF+PCPW digester with concentration amounted of 44.56% with heating value of 27,770 BTU/gal.

The morphology and structural characteristics of celluloses obtained by different methods were studied. The objects of the investigation are cellulose from pulp source, commercial celluloses produced by sodium and acid hydrolysis, laboratory produced cellulose from bleached birch kraft pulp, and cellulose obtained by thermooxidative catalytic treatment of maple leaves by peroxide. According to a complex analysis of cellulose characteristics, several types of celluloses were offered as modifying additives for polymers.

The development of technology causes most of textile industries in Indonesia prefer to use synthetic dyes in the fabric dyeing process. In fact, synthetic dyes is able to have negative effect since it is is toxic to the health of workers and environment. To resolve this issues, one way to do is to use natural dyes. One of untapped potential in Indonesia is wood waste of jackfruit from furniture industry. Jackfruit wood itself containing dyestuffs which gives yellow color pigment so that it can be used as an alternative source of natural dyes. The purpose of this research is to study the effect of extraction time, mass to solvent volume ratio, and microwave power to yield of dyes. The extract of dye analyzed by UV-Visible Spectrophotometer and GC-MS, along the coloring and endurance tests of natural dyes on fabric and compare it with synthetic dyes. In this research, material is going to be extracted is the wood of jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus lamk) with material size between 35 mesh - 60 mesh. The ...

In this short paper, we present a general method to embed flexible structures into rigid multibody systems. The flexible structure is seen as a force element contained in the multibody system formalism. This allows to use well established integrators for the multibody dynamics simulation, while suitable integrators are used for the co-simulation of the flexible part. To find the coupling forces an algebraic constraint is used and the necessary Lagrange multiplier is computed efficiently by solving a reduced monolithic index-1-system. This keeps the method very general for different flexible structures, interfaces and coupling joints.In order to be applicable in interactive multibody dynamics simulation, efficient models of flexible structures with cheap evaluations should be used. High dimensional 3D finite elements are computationally too expensive, therefore the special geometry of flexible structures should be exploited. E.g., a geometrically exact Cosserat rod, a cable model that was developed at the ...

Biomass seems to have a great potential as a source of renewable energy compared with other sources. The use of biomass as a source of energy could help to reduce the wastes and also to minimize the dependency on non-renewable energy, hence minimize environmental degradation. Among other types of biomass, oil palm wastes are the major contribution for energy production in Malaysia since Malaysia is one of the primary palm oil producers in the world. Currently, Malaysia’s plantation area covers around 5 million hectares. In the oil palm mill, only 10% palm oil is produced and the other 90% is in the form of wastes such as empty fruit bunches (EFB), oil palm shells (OPS), oil palm fibre (OPFb) and palm oil mill effluent (POME). If these wastes are being used as a source of renewable energy, it is believed that it will help to increase the country’s economy. Recently, the most potential and efficient thermal energy conversion technology is pyrolysis process. The objective of this paper is to review the current research on pyrolysis of oil palm wastes in Malaysia. The scope of this paper is to discuss on the types of pyrolysis process and its production. At present, most of the research conducted in this country is on EFB and OPS by fast, slow and microwave-assisted pyrolysis processes for fuel applications.

Development of the desired pulp-based products eco-properties are governed by factors like choice and suitability of raw material, the design and operation of pulping process and choice of additives. Fines recovered during refining discharge of an alkaline peroxide pulping system were collected based on their retention on varying mesh-sizes screens. Analysis shows that 12% of the 400-mesh fines added to the web enhances paper tensile strength by 100%. This defines the usefulness of fibrillar particles whose cell wall collapsibility increases the web density by increasing bonding ability and thus, strength of pulp-based products such as paper. The study acknowledges fines functioning as natural filler in pulp network and collection of fines from the refining discharge was found to reduce 70% turbidity and this improvement will help reduce the costs pertinent to generation of whitewater from the pulping system.

EFB (empty fruit bunch) was subjected to alkaline peroxide pulping for generation of fibrous mass as raw material for the making of pulp-based products. During refining, co-produced fines were collected by fractionation on square-mesh screens of 200-, 250-, 300- and 400- mesh sizes, placed at the refining discharge by order of increasing mesh. Each set of the produced paper was incorporated with 12% fines for microscopic analysis. It appears that sheared vessel elements and fibrils were predominant and they make up the mass rendering collapsibility of cell wall for good product formation. The study acknowledged the form of fines functioning as natural filler in pulp network and worthy of utilization for reduction of total suspended solid.

Aquaculture activity on coastal area produces organic and inorganic waste that cause a high concentration of dissolved nutrient in waters. Therefore, the organic and inorganic waste should be reduced to prevent a negative impact to coastal water. One way to reduce the aquaculture waste loading to coastal water is to use it as a fertilizer on microalgae cultivation. The objective of this study was to investigate the change of dissolved nitrogen concentration in aquaculture waste during 14 days treatment in aerated and unaerated conditions. Two liters of wastewater was collected every 2 days from the reactor for culture media of microalgae Nannochloropsis oculata in 2 liters Erlenmeyer flask. The concentration of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate were determined spectrophotometrically as well as chlorophyll-a content when waste were treated in aerated and unaerated reactor. Water temperature, dissolved oxygen, hydrogen ion and salinity were monitored throughout the treatment. Concentration of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite in aeration treatment were changed faster in aerated condition compared to unaerated condition. The phosphate concentration in both aerated and unaerated had a same pattern and these could reach the highest concentration to 0,9 mg L−1. Six days cultivation of N. oculata showed that N. oculata was able to assimilate nutrient from wastewater to construct its cell structure with the highest density of 19,75 × 106 cell mL−1 and its process caused extremely low nutrient concentration. This result showed that nutrient from aquaculture waste can be almost totally assimilated by N. oculata and create an extremely low concentration of nutrient from wastewater.

Cellulose was extracted from kenaf core pulp by a series of bleaching processes and subsequently dissolved using an alkaline NaOH/urea solvent at low temperature. The produced cellulose solution was coagulated with H2SO4 at concentration from 5 to 12 wt% to produce a series of regenerated cellulose (RC) membranes. The surface morphology, structure and physical properties of the membranes were measured with variable pressure scanning electron microscope (VPSEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis spectrophotometer and tensile testing. The results from VPSEM revealed that the pore size of the membranes changed as a function of the concentration of H2SO4 coagulant. RC membranes coagulated with relatively dilute H2SO4 solution exhibited better mechanical properties. Thus, this work provided a promising way to prepare cellulose membranes with different pore sizes and good physical properties.

A conventional composting process required long duration of 2-3 months to degrade organic waste. Composting duration reduction could be done using earthworms as decomposers. This study was to determine the compost production of garden waste using vermicomposting process and to determine the influence of earthworm number and the composition of organic waste in vermicomposting process. Sixteen rectangular reactors were used with a volume of 8 L using Eisenia fetida earthworm. The reactors used in duplicate reactors and operated in 60 days. Twelve reactors were set up in which six reactors used only garden waste and the other six reactors used garden waste mixed with cow manure by a composition ratio of 2:1, whereas, four reactors acted as controls without earthworm. Earthworm to organic waste ratio was varied in 15, 35 and 60 g/kg based on dried mass. Several parameters were analyzed i.e. ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N), Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN), C/N, pH and moisture. The results sho...

The fabrication and characterization on reduced graphene oxide field effect transistor (RGO-FET) were demonstrated using a spray deposition method for biological sensing device purpose. A spray method is a fast, low-cost and simple technique to deposit graphene and the most promising technology due to ideal coating on variety of substrates and high production speed. The fabrication method was demonstrated for developing a label free aptamer reduced graphene oxide field effect transistor biosensor. Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was obtained by heating on hot plate fixed at various temperatures of 100, 200 and 300°C, respectively. The surface morphology of RGO were examined via atomic force microscopy to observed the temperature effect of produced RGO. The electrical measurement verify the performance of electrical conducting RGO-FET at temperature 300°C is better as compared to other temperature due to the removal of oxygen groups in GO. Thus, reduced graphene oxide was a promising material for biosensor application.

CPO prices are unstable, therefore affecting the supply of feedstock to produce biodiesel [2]. To overcome the shortage of feedstock, it is necessary to use multiple feedstock, in this case is CPO and Jatropha [1]. This objective of this work to optimizate biodiesel production using multifeedstock (CPO and Jatropha) with assistance of ultrasound. The optimization was to find the highest yield and the least production time. Experiments was carried out using an ultrasonic bath at a frequency of 40 kHz. The ratio of CPO and Jatropha was 1: 1, 3: 1, 4: 1 while the ratio of methanol and oil was 5: 1, 6: 1, 7: 1 and the reaction time was 50, 60, and 70 minutes. KOH was used as a catalyst. The experiment data was optimized using a Response Surface Methodology [3,4]. The optimum point was at a frequency of 40 kHz obtained at a 2.8: 1 mixture of CPO - Jatropha, 6.4: 1 molar ratio of methanol-oil and 61.5 minutes of reaction time. The results of quality testing shows that the biodiesel produced meets the ASTM stand...

This work focuses on the study of the compaction effect on the stabilization of a highly expansive clay soil by adding lime. To this end, we used two types of swelling clay soils, the first one is intact and the other derivative (reconstituted, prepared from a natural soil and bentonite mixture with the following proportions: 70 and 30%. The results of the recorded œdometric tests show that the incorporation of the lime reduces the soil swelling pressures at each dosing lime in agreement with many reported previous studies. The contents of lime greatly affect swelling; indeed for a dosage of 6% lime the swelling pressures are reduced by 27% for the sample of disturbed soil. The compaction test performed on the reconstituted incorporated lime soil shows that for a dosage of 2% lime, we have a reduction of the swelling pressure of 96%.

Studies on leachate taken from scheduled waste landfill are limited. This might be due to the complex characteristics of the leachate from scheduled waste landfill compared to other types of landfills. Leachate is known as a strong wastewater in terms of its organic matter and ammonia content. In this study, a pre-treatment on the removal of ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) by coagulation on a leachate sample taken from a Scheduled Waste Landfill (SWL) is reported. The coagulation was performed using lime (Ca (OH)2), and caustic soda (NaOH) with varying pH and amount of coagulant. A different dosage of Ca (OH)2, and NaOH was applied and the removal efficiency using both coagulants were investigated to find the most optimum dosage for NH3-N removal. Results showed that the percentage of NH3-N removal was relatively the same for both Ca (OH)2 and NaOH which was up to 45% and 48%, respectively. The optimum pH and dosage of coagulant for the removal process using Ca (OH)2 was pH=12.40±0.02 and 6gL−1, respectively while with NaOH was pH=12.83±0.02 and 8 gL−1, respectively. A small difference in the removal of NH3-N with a less dosage of coagulant used in the study suggests that lime (Ca(OH)2), is a better choice for the pre-treatment process.

Cellulose was extracted from kenaf core pulp (KCP) by series of bleaching steps in the sequence (DEED) where D and E are referred as acid and alkali treatment. The bleached kenaf pulp (BKCP) is then pretreated with acid hydrolysis at room temperature for 1 and 3 h respectively. The pretreated cellulose is dissolved in lithium hydroxide/urea (LiOH/urea) and cellulose solution produced was immersed in distilled water bath. BKCP without treatment was also conducted for comparison purpose. The effects of acid hydrolysis pretreatment on solubility and crystallinity are investigated. Higher solubility of cellulose solution is achieved for treated samples. Cellulose II formation and crystallinity index of the cellulose membrane were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD).

Soilless cultivation was carried out using anaerobic digestion effluent of sewage sludge as liquid fertilizer, with a preparation which cultures microorganisms in nutrient solution. As a result, ammonium ions contained in the effluent were nitrified into nitrate ions by the microorganisms. And then, Japanese mustard spinach (Brassica rapa var. perviridis) was cultivated by soilless cultivation system. The plants were grown well using microbial nutrient solution, which similar to the plants using conventional inorganic nutrient solution. In contrast, the plants were grown poorly using the effluent as liquid fertilizer without microorganisms.

The trend of using renewable sources such as palm oil as raw material in radiation curing is growing due to the demand from the market to produce a more environmental friendly product. In this study, the radiation curable process was done using epoxy acrylate and urethane acrylate resins which are known as epoxidised palm olein acrylate (EPOLA) and palm oil based urethane acrylate (POBUA), respectively. The purpose of the study was to investigate curing properties and the application of this UV-curable palm oil resins for wood coating. Furthermore, the properties of palm oil based coatings are compared with the petrochemical-based compound such as ebecryl (EB) i.e. EB264 and EB830. From the experiment done, the resins from petrochemical-based compounds resulted higher degree of crosslinking (up to 80%) than the palm oil based compounds (up to 70%), where the different is around 10-15%. The hardness property from this two type coatings can reached until 50% at the lower percentage of the oligomer. However, the coatings from petrochemical-based have a high scratch resistance as it can withstand at least up to 3.0 Newtons (N) compared to the palm oil-based compounds which are difficult to withstand the load up to 1.0 N. Finally, the test on the rubber wood substrate showed that the coatings containing benzophenone photoinitiator give higher adhesion property and their also showed a higher glosiness property on the glass substrate compared to the coatings containing irgacure-819 photoinitiator. This study showed that the palm oil coatings can be a suitable for the replacement of petrochemicals compound for wood coating. The palm oil coatings can be more competitive in the market if the problems of using high percentage palm oil oligomer can be overcome as the palm oil price is cheap enough.

The oil palm industry heavily relies on the world market. It is essential to ensure that the oil palm industry is ready to meet the demands and expectation of these overseas customers on the environmental performance of the oil palm industry. Malaysia produces 13.9 million tons of oil palm biomass including oil palm trunk (OPT), frond and empty fruits bunches (EFB) annually. OPT felled in some oil palm plantations during replanting is transported to various industries and one such industry is the plywood factories. In order to gauge the environmental performance of the use of OPT as plywood a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study was conducted for palm based plywood. LCA is an important tool to assess the environmental performance of a product or process. Life cycle inventory (LCI) is the heart of a LCA study. This LCI study has a gate-to-gate system boundary and the functional unit is 1 m3 palm plywood produced and covers three types of plywood; Moisture Resistance Plywood (MR), Weather Boiling Proof Plywood...

In our present work, we describe a simple method for uniform coating of Graphite oxide (GO) onto flexible polyurethane (PU) foams. These PU foams loaded with GO were made electrically conducting by converting insulating GO to conducting graphene by chemical reduction process without damaging the foam properties. These PU foams loaded with graphene were characterized by SEM and TGA. The morphology, thermal properties and pressure dependent electrical conductivity of these foams was studied. The electric current increased by five orders of magnitude due to applied pressure.

Composite materials were modified in order to increase their wear resistance when in contact with raw-cotton. It is found that the friction pairs increases their efficiency and durability to 2.0-2.2 times.