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Most regions of the world, including the Algerian desert (southeast of Algeria, the El-Oued region in particular) suffer from pure water scarcity, although there is a huge stockpile of groundwater, it is salty water. Solar stills are one of the best solutions to the problem of freshwater shortages because it depend on solar energy, which is abundant throughout the year in southeastern Algeria. Due to the low productivity of solar stills, the current experimental study aims to create simple and inexpensive solutions to improve the productivity of solar stills. This was done by manufacturing the absorption basin from a concrete layer, with the addition of cement cylindrical fins and which were used as energy storage materials in addition to the use of cylindrical fins helped to increase the heat transfer area between the absorption surface (thermal storage materials) and basin water. To achieve this goal, two single-slope solar distillers were built and tested in this article, the first is Single Slope Solar Distiller with a Cement Layer (2 cm) placed as absorbent at the bottom base of the basin (SSSD-CL) and the second is a Single Slope Solar Distiller with Cement Layer (2 cm) and Cement Cylindrical Fins (SSSD-CL&CCF). Cylindrical fins are made of cement with a diameter of 1.5 cm and a length of 3 cm. The results showed that SSSD-CL&CCF produced drinking water at a rate of 4.52 kg/m²/day while SSSD-CL produced only 3.46 kg/m²/day, which is 30.64% more compared to SSSD-CL&CCF. These results demonstrated that the drinking water produced by SSSD-CL improved by incorporating the cement cylindrical fins with the cement layer as low-cost and available sensible thermal energy storage materials. Also, Cement cylindrical fins were used, which increased the thermal and exergy efficiency by 31% and 56.7%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic (EM) heating is an advanced technology that can improve the oil recovery rate. Previous studies usually focus on the coupling of EM and thermal reservoir models, with little attention to multi-phase flow in EM heating. In order to accurately analyze the heat and mass transfer in the reservoir under EM heating, this work developed an advanced model coupling the EM-temperature-seepage fields, in which the variation of the physical properties of heavy oil reservoirs has been considered. In addition, the influence of the EM heating factors is also analyzed. The results show a significant saturation partitioning in the heat and mass transfer in heavy oil reservoirs under EM heating, and heavy oil flows more rapidly in areas of high oil saturation. Increasing the EM frequency and power can extend the heating range of the reservoir, but it can cause a dramatic rise in the temperature of the antenna. When the temperature of the production well induces heavy oil flow, increasing the production pressure can significantly improve output. The average flow rate of heavy oil at the producing well increased by 17.61% when the bottom flow pressure decreased from 19 MPa to 17 MPa. The study of the distance between the production well and the antenna finds that the average temperature of the production well is only 463.06 K when the antenna spacing is 15 m. Compared with other situations, 10 m is the most suitable for efficient and continuous exploitation of heavy oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fossil fuels have remained a major global energy source for many decades, and their use has lingered on with downbeat attendants, considering their high demands and environmental issues caused by overexploitation and exploration. The increase in global energy consumption, emerging issues of climate change, and perceived decline in fossil reserves due to the world's increasing population has raised serious concerns and clamor for the replacement of fossil fuel with biological substitutes. Biodiesels have received much attention in all countries due to their renewability, non-toxicity, biodegradability, and low pollution emissions, and are projected as a promising alternative to fossil fuels. Although biodiesel is mainly a derivative of edible/non-edible plant oil extractions, in this review, biodiesel derived from non-vegetable oils e.g. animal fats/waste, leather industry waste, lipids from microalgae, insects, and waste rubber tires were explored as potential biodiesel feedstocks. In addition, waste materials as heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production, environmental and economic impacts were also highlighted. Noteworthily, the transesterification of these non-vegetable oil feedstock to biodiesel in the presence of waste materials as heterogeneous catalysts could afford up to 98% biodiesel production, and the catalyst can be recycled. The inherent ability to compensate for the quantity supply of biodiesel is the aim of every energy-producing nation in order to maximize economic development and minimize pollution in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the potential of using palm-castor oil blends as lubricating oil in industrial applications. Laboratory experiments to measure kinematic viscosity, flash point, copper corrosion, demulsibility, pour point and total acid number were conducted and compared with commercial lubricating oils. Change in kinematic viscosity with temperature of different palm-castor blends were best fitted to the Arrhenius model with R2 value higher than 0.95 and AARD% is less than 1.5%. Addition of 40 and 50% of castor oil to 60 and 40% of palm oil resulted solutions with similar properties of Hydraulic68 and SAE30, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The boron occupies an important place on contributions and its usage is getting widespread. Although the use of boron-added mineral oils serves to reduce friction, environmental risks can not be totally removed. It is necessary to improve the properties of biological oils used for additives so that they can compete with mineral oils technically. In the study, the use of liquid boron as an additive for engine lubrication oil together with vegetable oil was investigated experimentally in two diesel engines. Experiments were first carried out using mineral lubrication oil in the engine, and then the experiments were repeated using mineral base oil with additives in the second engine with the same technical characteristics as the first engine. Basically, the study was performed in the fields of engine performance (torque, power, consumption per hour, specific fuel consumption) and exhaust emissions (CO, CO2, HC, O2, SO2, NOx). As a result, it was concluded that the engine, in which boron and mineral oil with wild mustard oil were used, provided more significant fuel saving than in the engine with additive-free mineral oil, and no significant change was seen in the engine performance, also they showed similarities in terms of exhaust emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the hydrolysis of rapeseed oil using pyrrolidonium ionic liquids as catalysts under atmospheric pressure. The process parameters were optimized using a sequence of experimental protocols to evaluate the effects of ionic liquid loading, dosage of emulsifier, weight ratios of substrates, temperature and time. The results demonstrated that the ranking of catalytic activity of ionic liquids is N-methyl-2-pyrrolidonium hydrogen sulfate salt ([HNMP]HSO4)>1-(3-sulfonic acid) propyl-2-pyrrolidonium hydrogen sulfate salt ([C3SO3Hnhp]HSO4)>2-pyrrolidonium hydrogen sulfate salt ([Hnhp]HSO4). In a batch reactor, the hydrolysis reaction conditions in the presence of [HNMP]HSO4 were investigated and optimized as follows: catalyst loading of 20% (based on the weight of oil), oil/water weight ratio of 1:2, emulsifier loading dosage of 4 wt % (based on the weight of oil), hydrolysis temperature of 100°C, and hydrolysis time of 30 h. The catalytic performance of this ionic liquid remained excellent even after reuse five times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]