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India has one of the world's fastest expanding pulp and paper markets. With a growth rate of more than 10% per year in terms of per-capita growth, The pulp and paper industry requires a lot of capital investment, energy, and water. A paper mill produces 40 to 50 kg of dry sludge (70 percent primary sludge and 30 percent secondary sludge) when 1 tonne of paper is produced. Most of this sludge is now disposed of by land spreading and filling, both of which involve high disposal costs. Pulp and paper industry is one of the most polluted industries in the world in general and India in particular. India produces 10.11 million tons paper per annum which is 2.6% of world’s overall production quantity of paper. This study present using paper mill waste as a component in the manufacture of burnt bricks as a possible route to environmentally friendly construction. This research report details the findings of an experimental investigation into the production of eco-friendly, bricks using soil and paper mills. This research exhibits some increased compressive strength in mix of papermill waste.

For the investigation of porous media with applications in the field of civil engineering on concrete and mortar, NMR technology is used, with emphasis on the sensitivity of 1H hydrogen protons to pore filling fluids. NMR technology was used to highlight the changes that replacing cement with recycled paper ash powder in mortar recipes brings at a molecular level. The samples are analyzed during 56 days, at predetermined deadlines depending on the evolution of cement compounds hydration. Ability of recycled paper ash to replace cement in its role as binder is analyzed and the results obtained from mechanical tests are correlated with the structure and volume of pores in the control samples. Mixture compositions and C–S–H characteristics are calculated based on NMR signal intensities and relaxation analysis.

This study addresses the need to improve life on earth by finding a way to reintroduce ubiquitous waste back into the system. On a hand, there is the amount of cellulosic waste that can no longer be reintroduced into the paper recycling process. On the other hand, the amount of cement used globally, is growing alarmingly. My study seeks the balance of a mix of these two materials, which would generate desirable effects both from an engineering and ecological point of view. Paper ash, is a material made of particles of various sizes and can play various roles in the composition of mortars. The efficacy of particles up to 0.025 mm in size (powder ash) as a cement substitute and the efficiency of particles in size between 0.025 and 8 mm (flakes) as a pozzolanic additive are demonstrated. The results of the mechanical tests to which the samples were subjected show the possibility of reducing the amount of cement used in standard recipes by adding ash from recycled paper, without compromising the physical and mechanical properties of the mortars. The cement economy can rise up to 20 percent while the mechanical strength increases by 5-10 percent compared to the basic recipe.

Generally, development in the pulp and paper industry requires extensive cutting of trees, which in effect contributes to deforestation. The dramatic growth in demand for wood supply, combined with the increasingly increasing cost of timber, has created a surge of interest in the use of non-wood plant fibres for paper production in widely developed countries. The use of waste material in pulping and paper-based industries could be beneficial as it helps prevent the need for disposal, which currently increases agricultural costs and causes environmental deterioration due to pollution and fires. In this research, the sugarcane bagasse was dry and chopped into 5 cm in lengths. The fibre and pulp were separated and put in a pulp disintegrator then it was weighed and mixed with water. The paper that fabricates will be irradiated with gamma-ray and then followed by characterizing with Scanning Electron Microscope- Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (SEM-EDX) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The SEM-EDX result shows that the weight and atomic percentage of the ferrite (Fe) increase after the irradiation. While for the FTIR, the entire sample exhibit the absorption range of 3400 to 2400 cm−1 region. The paper will be compared with the properties of multipurpose paper.

Plastic pollution has become a global concern due to poor plastic waste disposal management. As an alternative, independent recycling efforts are necessary. A Plastic shredder machine is a preliminary machine used to cut plastic waste into small pieces before turning it into useful products. The concept design of the shredder machine that is currently available is fairly similar. The shaft and blades are the critical components in the shredder machine that determines its performance. The geometry and orientation of the blades that were fitted into the single or double-shafts were found to directly affect the shredding performance. Therefore, this article aims to review the various geometry and orientations of the blades that give direct effect on the shredding performance, as well as identifying the research gaps related to the shredder machine for plastic waste materials

In this review paper we have done a detailed study on the different types of material that we can use for the manufacturing of alloy wheels in order to meet the need of the market. During this project we studied the fatigue analysis of aluminium, magnesium, and titanium alloy wheels on the basis of their deformation under load, maximum shear stress of materials, and equivalent stress of the materials. Also we studied the different methods of production of alloy wheels.

Keywords are used to facilitate searches, inaccurate keyword determination, which can result in searches for journals that do not match the intended title. To overcome this, it is necessary to implement a keyword search in the abstract using deep learning methods from a journal to produce the right keywords that will distinguish journals from one another. The purpose of this study is to implement a keyword search system in abstracts using the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) method as an abstract word search system that produces keyword answers that have context according to the desired keyword results. The results of this study get optimal results in the epoch 500, and from these results using a dataset with of 444 training data and 10 test data for testing.

Heavy metal ions is a major key of pollutions and it is one of the big environment issue today. To overcome with this problem the handling of metal ions is necessary. In recent research, there are various techniques that has been used to examin the metals ions and overview the methods also. The technologies involves are- ion-exchang, chemical precipitation, flotation, adsorption, membrane filtration, electro-chemical, coagulation-flocculation methods. It is find from experimental and literature survey article that membrane filtration, ion-exchange and adsorption are most common techniques used for the discourse of removal of metal ions from waste water effluent.

Blanking is one of the main processes in producing sheet metal components. The impact of adhesive wear of the blanking tools on the cost efficiency is high, especially when processing aluminum. As an influencing factor on adhesive wear in blanking, thermoelectric currents have been considered to a very small extent. Recent investigations have shown that thermoelectric currents occur in every blanking tool due to the rise of temperature in the shear zone in interaction with a difference of the material-specific Seebeck coefficients of tool and sheet metal. A reduction in the amount of wear was observed in case of a smaller difference of Seebeck coefficients and therefore lower levels of flowing thermoelectric currents. This paper follows the approach of adjusting the Seebeck coefficient of the tool material CF-H40S+ to the one of the sheet material by means of coating with CrAlN, in order to reduce the flowing thermoelectric currents and consequently adhesive wear. For this purpose, the effect of coating on the Seebeck coefficients, the thermoelectric currents during blanking as well as resulting wear quantities were investigated. Basic correlations could be revealed.

This paper is focused on the production plastic parts. It is describing two technologies-injection moulding and additive technology. The production process of the metal mould for the new parts takes about ten weeks. It is necessary to make some reductions after the mould is produced. It is increasing the time which is necessary for the prototype of products. This time (from the initial design of mould to the prototype of product) can take about six months. Additive technologies can be used for decreasing this time and for cost reduction. Moulds produced by the additive technology are mostly special inserts which can be implemented in the universal design of mould. It is also possible to produce whole moulds from plastic material. These moulds can have integrated cooling channels. There are high demands on the material of the mould with respect to the thermal resistivity, toughness and surface quality. There are really often used SLA technologies, which are considering the High Temp Resin and Material Jetting Digital ABS. Other options used in the factories are Somos PerFORM and Digital ABS Plus. This paper deals with the possibility of usage of the HP Jet Fusion technology with the material PA12 GB for the production of mould inserts and it is evaluating this process and repeatability of process.

5-Hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF) is one of the intermediate chemicals produced from biomass through the process of dehydration of glucose and fructose in acidic conditions. Biomass resources are one of the sources that attract the attention of many users of unlimited biomass resources, in addition to being able to produce environmentally friendly products such as bio fuels and bio chemicals. Old coconut water and oil palm tree trunk sap was chosen in this study because of its abundance in Malaysia. It is an essential organic compound for the production of bioplastics, chemicals, building materials, fuels, textiles, cosmetics and food. Although the production of 5-HMF is relatively simple, in fact, the synthesis of 5-HMF is complicated by the occurrence of multiple reactions at one time, especially when using biomass as a raw material. In this report, process control of production of 5-HMF from biomass is presented using fuzzy logic controller for controlling temperature of a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The objective of this paper is to develop a control system for a non-isothermal temperature control of a CSTR with the most stable response curve. Through simulation results, fuzzy logic control performs better because there was no overshoot and successfully reaches the set point at faster settling time.

This paper presents the results of research on the process of grinding dried corn stalks to use them as polylactide filler. Shredding was carried out on a laboratory shredder with the use of a design variant based on discs with cylindrical holes. By selecting the design variant, the appropriate grinding speed and the material pressure on the shredder discs, the most favourable parameters in terms of the quality of the shredded product and low energy consumption were selected. The research was conducted to reduce the energy demand during the shredding process and to obtain the shredded material suitable for further processing steps.

The edible oil industry involving extraction and processing of oils and fats from vegetable sources has witnessed a tremendous growth over the decade accounting for rapid expansion of urbanization and industrialization. Consequently, concerted efforts have been undertaken to increase the palm oil extraction rate (OER) at processing mills. This paper explores the commercial application of enzymatic treatment of sterilised palm fruitlets and diluted crude oil (DCO) stream in a 60 t/hr oil palm mill. Incubation of sterilised palm fruitlets mixed with enzymes in a pre-digester vessel at 70 °C and retention time of 30 minutes resulted in an increment of 1.15 % OER. Parallelly, dosing of enzyme into DCO with simpler system yielded in OER increment up to 1.19 %. This study offers insight into the potential oil left in pressed fibre using different methods, such as prolonged Soxhlet extraction, ultrasonic treatment, and supercritical fluid extraction. Additionally, confocal microscopy images of treated samples showed disintegration and thinning of cell walls resulting in higher free oil droplets.

This paper explore the mechanism of lipid extraction efficiency on Moringa oleifera seeds using Soxhlet extraction method. This present study essential to determine the effect of particle size of the sample, extraction time and type of solvent applied towards the efficiency in extracting the lipids from the material. Soxhlet extraction method utilizing Buchi B118 was use in this study and response surface method was applied to analysed the data and determine the optimum parameter condition to obtain the highest yield of Moringa oil extraction. Moringa oil derived from Moringa oleifera seeds was converted into biodiesel (FAME) via Transesterification process. Conversion of Moringa FAME was observed using three different alcohol oil to molar ratio by based-catalysed. This study shows significant strong correlations between particle size of the sample, extraction time and type of solvent use towards extraction yield. The Response surface analysis shows that 1.3611 mm particle size of sample, 3 hours of extraction time and hexane as extraction solvent was the optimum condition in order to get the highest yield of lipids extract from both Moringa oleifera samples. Authentication extraction based on RSM recommendation showed an average Moringa oil yield of 39.75 % by weight.

Tool makers have a limited selection of tools and are afforded limited flexibility during progressive die try-outs when attempting to identify suitable process control parameters and optimize throughput. The performance of a given tooling design hinges on selecting a suitable stroke rate for the press. Cost efficiencies are realized when operating a press at higher stroke rates, but risk subjecting the sheet metal strip to larger, uncontrolled oscillations, which can lead to collisions and strip-misalignment during strip progression. Introducing active control to the strip feeder and lifters can offer increased flexibility to tool makers by allowing the strip progression to be fine-tuned to reduce strip oscillations at higher stroke rates. To alleviate uncertainties and assist in fine-tuning the process control parameters, machine learning models, such as an artificial neural network, are constructed to predict whether a given set of process parameters will lead to a collision or strip-misalignment during the strip progression. The machine learning models are trained using a dataset of FEA simulations which model the same progressive die operation using different process control inputs for the feeder, lifter and press. The machine learning models are shown to be capable of predicting the outcome of a given process permutation with a classification accuracy of about 87 % and assist in identifying the dynamic process limits in the progressive die operation.

Slug pulling, adhesion formation and edge fracture are major challenges in the sheet metal processing industry. They lead to a strong reduction in part quality, process stability as well as profitability. In this study, investigations are carried out on stainless steel X5CrNi18-10 to address the previous mentioned challenges. While slug pulling and edge fracture strongly depend on the geometric characteristics of active elements as well as the selection of process parameters, adhesion formation is mainly determined by temperature and thermoelectric currents. In this publication, the influence of the die channel geometry on the slug pulling effect and the part quality is investigated. Furthermore, the temperature profile over the shear cutting process as well as the resulting thermoelectric currents are determined for the test material. The relationship between edge crack sensitivity, shear cutting parameters and strategies is examined. These investigations thus form the basis for an improved understanding of the shear cutting of stainless steel.

In this paper, the palm oil fuel ash (POFA) concrete is produced using POFA as partial replacement to ordinary Portland cement (OPC 53 grade) (0%-P0, 20%-P20, 40%-P40 and 60%-P60) by weight. The POFA concrete specimens are subjected to elevated temperatures of 200°C, 400°C and 800°C for duration of 2 hours. The compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and mass loss (%) of POFA concrete are evaluated. The results indicate that the compressive strength is enhanced by the use of POFA in concrete. At elevated temperatures, POFA concrete showed higher resistance than P0 concrete (control concrete) and P20 concrete showed best performance in POFA concrete, when subjected to elevated temperatures. From the experimental results, it can be observed that 20% POFA can be used as partial replacement to cement in producing sustainable concrete.

This paper presents a study on the development of a herbal cream mixer with a homogenizer-stirrer and circulating water cooling system. The machine is designed to address problems in the production of herbal creams and lotions by the entrepreneurs of the Thangrak Company Limited, Chiang Yuen Sub district, Muang District, Udon Thani, Thailand. It has a capacity of around 100 liters and employs a circulating water-cooling system. The homogenizer uses a 3-horsepower electric motor to control the rotation speed of the stirring head, which in turn controls the mixer speed. The level of the machine is adjusted using an electric hoist. Cream was produced in 80 liter batches. Mixer speed was tested at four levels: 30 Hz (1,800 rpm), 35 Hz (2,100 rpm), 40 Hz (2,400 rpm) and 45 Hz (2,700 rpm). The total time of each run was approximately 30 minutes. The results showed that a temperature reduction of the ingredients from an initial temperature of around 70°C down to approximately 33°C. The process took around 1 hour and 30 minutes. From the experimental results, it was found that the product made at 1,800 rpm had a lower viscosity of around 78.4 Pa.s. The cream of this batch was not as homogenized as it should have been. However, tests at 2,100, 2,400, and 2,700 rpm produced a creamy material with increased viscosities of 94.3, 94.8 and 96.7 Pa.s, respectively. The herbal cream products made in the developed mixer with homogenizer-stirrer and a circulating water-cooling system were homogenous. They compared favorably with herbal cream products sold in the market. The designed mixer produced a cream product that is more homogenous, while the products now available on the market have separated cream and are not as well homogenized.

Recently, many researches all over the world are focusing on ways of utilizing either industrial or agricultural wastes as a source of raw materials for the construction industry. The aim of this study is to determine the optimum proportion of durian saw dust as partial replacement for fine aggregate. These wastes utilization would not only be economical but may also help to create a sustainable and pollution free environment. Durian sawdust is one such fibrous waste-product from durian skin. In this paper, untreated durian sawdust has been partially replaced in the ratio of 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% by volume of fine aggregate in concrete. Fresh concrete tests like compacting factor test and slump test were undertaken along with hardened concrete tests like compressive strength test and UPV test. The result shows that durian sawdust of 5% partially replacement of fine aggregate can be used for structural and non-structural purposes.

Currently there are several wastewater treatments processes, and several adsorbent materials consist of separating and purifying the various industrial effluents. In this work an artificial neural network (ANN) was developed to describe the dynamic adsorption of sodium decanesulfonate using actived carbon obtained by the calcination of mineral biomass under different conditions. Three inputs (time, mass of adsorbent and fixed bed height) were used in the input layer, three neurons in the hidden layer and one in the output layer for the reduced concentration. The Levenberg Marquardt back-propagation algorithm was applied. The tangent sigmoid and linear transfer functions are used for the hidden layer and the output layer respectively. The results showed a correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9965 with root mean squared error RMSE = 0.0276. An interpolation and an extrapolation stage are made to test the accuracy of the network. The results showed a high correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9969 and 0.984 respectively for the interpolation and the extrapolation. These results show the robustness and the high capacity of ANN to describe the dynamic adsorption of sodium decanesulfonate onto actived carbon.

High turbidity and suspended solids (SS) are among the significant issues that affect rivers due to the wastewater discharge, terrain condition, land cover, rainfall, agriculture, and other development activities. Chemical flocculants such as polyacrylamide and aluminum sulfate are widely employed for agro-industrial wastewater treatment. However, excessive use of chemical coagulants is harmful to human beings and the environment. Therefore, efficient and economically viable bio-coagulants from renewable biological sources is highly sought after. Myco-coagulant (My-coag) is an organic coagulant produced by fungi that are biodegradable and environmentally friendly. This research aimed to evaluate My-coag solid-state production from locally isolated fungal strains using various lignocellulosic media. The fungus was grown on different lignocellulosic substrates such as cocopeat, sawdust, rice bran, and palm kernel cake for 7 days with a pH of 7.0 at 30 °C. My-coag was extracted from the fungal culture using an aqueous buffer solution of pH 7. The fungal growth rate and dry mass were the highest on cocopeat supplement which was about 1.4 g of dry weight. My-coag extracted from the cocopeat showed good flocculating properties in kaolin suspension with the removal of 96.7% turbidity compared to other substrates such as sawdust, palm kernel cake, and rice bran with the removal of 53.7, 19.6, and 11%, respectively. It is expected that further optimization of this process parameters will lead to the efficient removal of turbidity and solids from water and wastewater to move forward in green technology for sustainable growth in the “Clean Water and Sanitation Sector” and protection of the environment too.

The present study aims primarily to investigate the flocculation capacity of a novel potato peel-based bioflocculant in wastewater treatment. The analysis of wastewater revealed high COD and BOD5 contents that could respectively reach the values 529.08 mg O2/l and 317.03 mg O2/l. In addition, the effect of experimental parameters such as the pH, coagulant/flocculant dosage, and contact time, was studied using the coagulation-flocculation treatment technique. The experiments were carried out with a lab-scale jar-test apparatus where aluminum chloride (AlCl3) was used as a coagulant agent. It should be noted that the optimal dose of AlCl3 was equal to 0.6 g at 10 mn, with turbidity reduction of 99.01%. Moreover, the flocculation tests showed higher turbidity removal (98%), for a flocculant dosage of 0.2g. The results obtained in this study indicated that using the natural potato peel-based flocculant, in the presence of a coagulant, provides an effective and environmentally friendly coagulation option for wastewater treatment.

The study investigates the effect of sludge waste from mining and washing of limestone on the properties of geopolymer binders based on metakaolin and blast furnace slag. The effect of adding two types of limestone sludge on workability, setting time, compressive strengths, durability and pore distribution was investigated. Limestone sludge was dosed in an amount of 0–30 %. Sodium water glass was used as an alkaline activator in the ratio of 5:4. A linear correlation between the flowability and limestone sludge content was observed, and very satisfactory results of compressive strength after 90 days were obtained for samples with sodium water glass (about 55 MPa). The positive effect of CaCO3 on strength was confirmed. The increased content of clay components resulted in a reduction of compressive strength.

Concept of sustainable construction has gradually become one of the concern issues in our construction industry in recent years. Concrete which acts as an important construction material has contributed to excessive consumption of natural resources. Simultaneously, tonnes of waste materials were produced from agricultural activity in form of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) while mussel shell from marine hatchery. Utilization of agricultural waste as cement replacement is an option to reduce the environmental impact from the construction industry. In this study, these waste materials were used as partial cement replacement to produce foamed concrete in wet density of 1800 kg/m3. The main purpose of this research is to study the workability and mechanical properties of foamed concrete which contain uniform 20% of POFA combined with 5% to 10% of mussel shell powder (MSP) and mussel shell ash (MSA) respectively. The cube specimens were cast in dimension 100 mm x 100 mm x100 mm to test the compressive strength at 7th and 28th. The cylinder specimens were cast in 100 mm diameter x 200 mm diameter for split tensile test to determine the tensile strength and compression test to determine modulus of elasticity at 28th day. The result showed workability of foamed concrete decreased as more cement was replaced by POFA combined with MSP and MSA. Foamed concrete mixture with 20% POFA and 5% MSP was selected as optimum percentage of cement replacement due to reduction less than 5% compromised performance in compressive strength at 16.52MPa while tensile strength at 1.83MPa.

Oil palm (Elaeis Guineensis) is considered to be one of the most valuable crops in Malaysia, helping to revolutionize its economic and agricultural scenario. Unfortunately, the developing oil palm industries in Malaysia have led to significant waste disposal concerns because of the accumulation of large quantities of oil palm waste. During the process of converting fresh fruit bunches (FFB) into crude palm oils (CPO), various types of oil palm waste are generated including oil palm trunks (OPT), oil palm fronds (OPF), empty fruit bunches (EFB), palm pressed fibers (PPF), palm kernel shells (PKS), and palm oil mill effluents (POME). Waste produced by the oil palm industry is still economically viable because it can be used in various ways since it is a promising material for the generation of renewable energy, as well as a source of chemical compounds, fertilizers, and biomaterials. The study concentrates on Boustead Plantation Berhad, one of Malaysia's most experienced and developed upstream oil palm plantation businesses. The production of oil palm waste is abundant since oil palm plantations and oil palm mills are scattered throughout Malaysia, with the company controlling 48 oil palm plantations and 10 palm oil mills. The goal of this study was to recognize the potential for oil palm waste to provide information on its potential for further use. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out innovative studies to increase the added value of oil palm, reduce waste, and make the oil palm industry more competitive.

Electrocoagulation (EC) is a sustainable wastewater treatment alternative that is widely studied because of its environmentally friendly nature, versatility, and simplicity in setup and operation. However, EC alone cannot treat wastewater up to reusable standards and requires integration with other processes, mostly by adding highly hazardous oxidants. This work aims to investigate the combination of powdered activated carbon (AC) with biotreated palm oil mill effluent (BPOME) as wastewater sample, in the EC reactor, and to optimize its concentration for maximum pollutant removal efficiency. Ranging from 0.5-1.5 wt. % concentration of AC mixed with EC reactor, EC was carried out with its critical parameters set to a current of 1.75 A (i.e., 160 mA/cm2 current density) and initial pH 6 and 10 mm interelectrode distance with aluminum electrodes. The EC treated wastewater was sampled from 5 minutes to 60 minutes and the parameters monitored were total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity, color and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Turbidity, TSS and color were removed nearly to completion within 5 to 15 minutes of EC, whereas maximum COD removal was determined to be 84.6 % with 1 wt. % powdered AC combined with EC, which is an increase of about 14.6% compared to EC with no AC addition. The optimum concentration of AC for maximum removal efficiency on BPOME was 1 wt. % (2 g per 200 ml). Addition of AC in EC resulted in a faster pollutant removal rate, with enhanced process efficiency.

The work deals with the simulation of biomass and municipal solid waste pellet gasification using Aspen Plus software. The effects of key parameters on the composition of the emitted gas are discussed, including gasification temperature, moisture content, and equivalence ratio. The sensitivity analysis was studied with the Aspen Plus Software, which includes FORTRAN modules. The simulation is validated using experimental results, which revealed that it was roughly correct. Using air as the gasification agent, the sensitivity analysis findings confirm higher temperatures promote syngas production with increased hydrogen and energy content. The simulation results demonstrated that CO2 concentration (3.95%) increases from 450°C to 600°C and then decreased drastically near 0.225kmol/hr. at 900°C. As the gasification temperature rises from 450°C to 900°C, the CO concentration rises and the H2: CO ratio falls. At 900°C, increasing the gasification temperature results in a product gas with more H2 (65%) and CO (12.43%), resulting in a higher calorific value, whereas the contents of CH4, CO2, and H2O followed an inverse correlation. CH4 decreased with temperature because of the formation of exothermic methane reactions. When the gasification process reaches 800°C, all components except CO2 become steady, and gasification reactions were achieved. The equivalence ratio (ER) ranged from 0.2 to 0.3. The gas produced by a gasifier is highly dependent on the ER value. The ER determines the gas quality, and it must be less than 1 to ensure that it gasifies the fuel rather than burnt. Moisture content was 10wt. %, this is an essential parameter for the optimum conditions during the gasification process. Moisture content determines the gas characteristics at the exit phase. The model predictions and calculated values are in good agreement.

Polylactic acid (PLA) has been used as an additive material in 3D printing due to its toxic-free and environmentally friendly property. Lignin with complex and branched chemical structures had been used as a filler to improve the mechanical strength of PLA. The availability of oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) in Malaysia had made this material a good source for lignin extraction. Thus, in this research, we aim to study the mechanical strength of PLA bio-composite material with reinforcement of lignin from OPEFB. The lignin was extracted by 1,4-dioxane with hydrochloric acid as a catalyst. The recovery of lignin from extraction solvent was done by precipitation. The lignin was successfully extracted from OPEFB with 9.04% of lignin extraction yield. The PLA/lignin bio-composite filament with 0.1% (w/w) lignin was performed by filament extruder and then used for 3D printing. The prepared sample in the form of filament and 3D printed material was characterized for mechanical strength and surface morphology. The Young’s modulus, ultimate strength and elongation at break of the PLA/lignin bio-composite sample had increased 11%, 7% and 10% respectively. After the filament was used for 3D printing, the reduction of mechanical strength had been observed. The morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the presence of lignin on the fracture surface of PLA bio-composite material. Apart from that, the interlayer adhesion had been observed in the 3D printed PLA/lignin bio-composite that caused the drop in mechanical strength of the material.

The research work aimed to investigate the compatibility of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane embedded with various inorganic adsorbents for producing a mixed matrix membrane (MMM) and to examine the capability of mixed matrix PVDF membrane (PVDF-MMM) for simultaneous degumming and deacidification of crude palm oil (CPO). Four different adsorbent were tested which includes calcium silicate (CaS), magnesium silicate (MagS), ZSM-zeolite (ZSM) and activated carbon (AC). The in-house made PVDF-MMM was fabricated according to the dry-jet wet spinning method. The performances of these PVDF-MMMs were assessed with respect to the removals of phosphorus, FFA and colour. Based on finding showed that the combination of 18PVDF embedded with 3 wt% MagS showed the most compatible polymer-inorganic hybrid MMM to perform pre-treatment of CPO. Increasing the MagS concentration from 3 to 8 wt% in the polymer matrix recorded the highest removals of FFA at 16.51 %, phospholipid at 93.31 % and colour at 18.8 %, respectively. Nevertheless, high amount of MagS added to the polymer matrix affected the spinnability and reproducibility performance of MMM. Future work, surface modifications of inorganic adsorbent can be evaluated to facilitate good dispersion of filler in polymer matrix during membrane fabrication to maintain good membrane reproducibility.

In the present study, fenugreek and aloe vera were investigated for the removal of turbidity (TUR), total suspended solids (TSS) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from POME by using a central composite design (CCD) in the Design Expert software. The effects of three factors such as pH, coagulant dosage and flocculant dosage were analysed using jar test experiment and optimised using response surface methodology (RSM). The optimum results obtained from process optimisation analysis were pH 4, 24.13 g of coagulant dosage and 20 ml of flocculant dosage that are sufficient to remove 82.78 % of TUR, 83.40 % of TSS and 32.95 % of COD. The maximum error between the optimised values and the experimental values (82.78 % for TUR, 83.08 % for TSS and 33.76 % for COD) were below 4 %, indicating that satisfactory agreement was achieved. This showed that modelling and optimisation of the coagulation-flocculation process can be achieved by RSM approach. From analytical studies, it was found that the interactions between coagulant-flocculant and colloidal particles involve the mechanisms of charge neutralisation, adsorption and bridging, due to the active components such as amine (N-H) and hydroxyl (O-H) groups contained in the fenugreek and aloe vera.

Aquaculture is identified as one of the critical food supplies in Malaysia. Due to the increasing demand for aquaculture products, the demand for protein sources for fish feed is also increased accordingly. Black soldier fly larvae is identified as one of the main protein sources that can be used in fish feed. Such larvae can be grown using different types of organic materials, such as food waste, agriculture waste, etc. As Malaysia is the second-largest palm oil producer in the world, therefore, a large number of agricultural wastes, also known as palm-based biomass (e.g., empty fruit bunches, mesocarp fibre, decanter cake, etc.) are generated annually. Based on the current industry practise, palm-based biomass can be converted into value-added products. However, using palm-based biomass as feedback to grow black soldier fly larvae is a relatively recent discovery. Thus, a viable supply chain model has yet to be established. In this work, a mathematical optimisation model is developed via commercial optimisation software (Lingo v. 16) to synthesise an optimum black soldier fly-based aquaculture feed supply chain that utilised palm–based biomass as the feedstock. Based on the optimised result, the annual operating cost of the aquaculture feed supply chain is estimated as RM 5.2 million.

Desalting process concept was tested using methyltrimethylammonium methylcarbonate [N4441][MeCO3] treated Pyrenees crude oil (initial Total Acid Number (TAN) of 1.6 mg KOH/g oil) with the aim to gain empirical evidences on the effectiveness of in-line water washing and electrostatic aided phase separation as mean to recover the naphthenic acid derivatives for recycling. The treated crude oil (final TAN value of less than 0.3 mg KOH/g oil) was subjected to typical operating scheme such as single stage desalting and effects of water wash volumes. The novelty of the work comes from the utilisation of ionic liquids to neutralise acid components of the crude oil. Furthermore, the work is also able to test the hypothesis of whether naphthenate salts behave as is its inorganic counterpart and quantify the solubility behaviour in water as extraction medium. The effectiveness of such scheme will be measured against naphthenic acids derivative percent recovery in the wash water. The results indicate the electrostatic conditions can facilitate the recovery of the naphthenate salts post neutralization with high recovery rate of average of 70.6 % with 30 % water wash volume in a single-stage contact, observed over 12 hours steady-state operation. The water wash weight was observed to increase post separation which indicate hydrocarbon carry-over in the heavy phase due to formation of tight water – oil emulsion. The technique is viable should the amount of water required is available and the process water can be recycled safely into the desalter again without causing tripping to the desalter. Ionic liquid can be used in conjunction with desalter and the presence of electrostatic field did hasten the separation of the phases, however the amount of water used may hinder the viability of the solution.

Sewage sludge containing a large number of lipids that can be recovered and utilised as a promising raw material in the production of biodiesel. Studies have been conducted to extract lipids from sludge using conventional solvent methods. However, all these conventional methods have some limitations such as extensive product separation and long extraction time (between 4 to 8 hours), which lead to high energy consumption. Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (SFE) which utilises carbon dioxide (CO2) gas at its critical condition as solvent has been studied extensively in various fields for oil extraction especially for plant and vegetative. This is due to the shorter extraction time and the lipids can be easily separated from the extraction system. The present research has undertaken a comparison study of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) utilisation in the extraction of lipids from sewage sludge against conventional soxhlet extraction of methanol and ethanol as solvent. The extraction of lipids from sewage sludge utilising SC-CO2 extraction was successfully being conducted with lipids yield of 0.69 % within 0.5 hours at the operating temperature of 50 °C and pressure of 20 MPa. The lipids were easily separated subsequently from the SFE system when CO2 is being released in gas form through the outlet valve during lipids collection. Whilst soxhlet extraction using methanol and ethanol as solvent (sludge: solvent ratio of 1:10) managed to extract 1.95 % and 2.81 % within 4 hours of extraction time at 60 °C, with the additional time needed to separate the lipids from solvent by evaporation.

Oil palm trunks (OPT) are attractive bio-fuel sources given their abundant availability. Nonetheless, the inherent properties of these biomass can lead to their inefficient use as bio-fuel directly. This work utilizes four organic acids (i.e., acetic, formic, levulinic, and citric acid) as catalyst in wet torrefaction to enhance the fuel properties of OPT hydrochar. In this study, the effects of different catalysts, catalyst concentrations, and residence times on the fuel properties of OPT hydrochar are analyzed. To study the effect of residence time, 0.2M of acid concentration was used for all four acids at 220 °C for 3 hr and 24 hr. Meanwhile, study on the effect of catalyst concentration was performed at 220 °C for 24 hr at 0.2M and 1.0M for all four acids. Increasing the residence time decreased the solid yield of OPT hydrochar treated in deionized water, acetic, formic, and levulinic acid, while wet torrefaction in citric acid results in close solid yield value in both residence time. The energy yield was observed to decrease in all liquid medium with increasing residence time except for formic acid and citric acid. On the other hand, increasing the acid concentration increased the OPT hydrochar solid yield in all acids except formic acid and the highest energy yield of 77.08% was obtained from wet torrefaction in 1.0M of citric acid at 220 °C for 24 hr. In summary, citric acid is an environmentally friendly acid to be used as catalyst to enhance the fuel properties of OPT hydrochar. Further study on the reaction mechanisms that governs such fuel properties enhancement with citric acid is warranted.

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) has become a serious problem for the oil palm industries because of its high organic contents and other contaminant formation that results in dark colour, turbid and unpleasant odour. In the conventional treatment of POME used in Malaysia, treated POME can still pollute receiving water bodies as colour is one of the major contaminants that is not completely removed. Adsorption is a promising technique for addressing this problem, with a large range of adsorbents to choose from. It works by adhering the pollutants on to the high porous surface area of adsorbent. However, the high cost of coal-based AC that is commonly used can be the limiting factor for its wider application in palm oil industry. Therefore, this work looks into resource recovery (i.e., use of waste stream) from plantation as precursor of AC synthesis to treat its own waste from the palm oil mill. Hence, the suitability of oil palm trunk (OPT) as feedstock for AC application in POME colour removal in the mill is investigated. Experimental run at the as-synthesis OPT-derived AC was performed for validation via POME adsorption test. The result shows that the OPT-derived AC produced can remove the organic pollutants and colour of POME at the dosage of 15% w v−1 within 48 hours.

Pervaporation process is an excellent and potential way applied for desalting acid mine drainage water. Nevertheless, the water flux was reduced gradually due to the issue of membrane fouling. To resolve this problem, cleaning process was chosen to maintain the water flux of silica-pectin membranes. This study aims to recover the water flux and salt rejection of the silica-pectin membranes via chemical cleaning process applied for acid mine drainage water desalination with various temperature of feed water (25-60 °C). Silica-pectin membrane was formulated by employing TEOS functioning as silica precursor and pectin as carbon template from banana peels. Chemical cleaning of the membrane carried out by employing TiO2 solution + UV light radiation for an hour. Performance of the silica-pectin membrane was evaluated via pervaporation process under dead-end system. The performance of silica-pectin banana peels membrane found flux recovery from 10.6 kg.m− 2.h−1 and flux recovery of 17.54 kg.m− 2.h−1. It shows that flux recovery higher than before backwashing process. Also, silica-pectin membrane results in all of the salt rejection

This research aims to observe the usability of waste eggshells as a heterogeneous CaO-based catalyst to produce biodiesel via the transesterification process. The waste eggshell contains CaO and serves as a heterogeneous catalyst that can be extracted using a simple heat treatment technique. The catalyst loading used in this study were 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 wt.%. The biodiesel yield affects the variables of the reaction, including the amount of catalyst used. According to the findings in this work, the low-weight catalyst produced more biodiesel (64% of yield) than other catalysts in the studies. Using the same CaO catalyst with a 1 wt.% catalyst, previous studies showed a biodiesel yield of 56.64%. Outcomes revealed that waste eggshells could be used as an effective catalyst to transform waste cooking oil into biodiesel, thereby significantly lowering biodiesel costs and improving product yield and fuel properties.

Composting of fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) was investigated in a forced aeration system to determine the effects of aeration rate (AR) and aeration method (AM) on compost quality. Rice husk was mixed with FVW as bulking agent to compost for seven days and aerated in continuous and intermittent at rates of 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 L min−1. Intermittent aeration at rate of 0.3 L min−1 was observed to have higher initial temperature increasing rate and peak temperature compared to continuous aeration. Moisture loss at rate of 0.3 L min−1 was found smaller than other two rates regardless of AM. With comparison made for similar AR, intermittent aeration had experienced less moisture loss with an average of 17.15 %. The pH of compost was found to vary in aeration method where higher peak pH was found in intermittent aeration at low rate, corresponding to their temperature profile. Largest carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio reduction was attained by compost treated in intermittent aeration at rate of 0.3 L min−1. Further optimization was performed at a rate of 0.1 L min−1, 0.2 L min−1, and 0.4 L min−1. The result showed an improvement at rate of 0.2 L min−1 in intermittent aeration.

Oil palm fronds (OPF) is one of the largest biomass sources in Malaysia that has been underutilized. In this work, OPF has been used as a precursor to synthesize carbon dots (CDs) via microwave irradiation method. The impacts of irradiation power and duration and the reacting solution have been investigated. It was discovered that CDs with the highest photoluminescence intensity was obtained at microwave irradiation power of 385 W for 30 s. Irradiation at lower or higher power resulted in incomplete or over carbonization that reduced the fluorescence property. In addition, CDs synthesized with diethylene glycol (DEG) as reacting solution possessed higher photoluminescence intensity as compared to ultrapure water solution. This could be attributed to more complete CDs formation that happened at higher temperature, which could only be achieved by DEG solution (higher boiling point). The CDs were then tested as a sensor for lead (II) ions. The UV-vis absorbance was found to be reduced with the presence of lead (II) ions. This indicated that the lead (II) ions might interact with CDs and disrupted with the absorbance of UV light. Overall, OPF could be a potential precursor for the synthesis of low-cost and easily available CDs for environmental applications.

In recent days, the waste productions from industries are increased and direct discharge of wastes causes various pollution to the environment. Wastewater treatment in textile and dye industry mainly involves treatment of highly colored wastewater containing variety of dyes in different concentrations. The dyeing industries using different types of pigments and dyes of various concentration during their several production steps. These industries discharge a wastewater which contains organic substance, high colour with high COD and low concentration of BOD. This dye waste water are directly discharge in to the streams and thus contaminate the groundwater. To treat the wastewater, which is discharge from the dyeing industries a simple physio-chemical treatment is not sufficient for the removal of pollutants. So that a biological treatment followed with a physio-chemical treatment have been required. In this study, the experiment was carried out to reduce the organic substance, high colour, COD, BOD, and Heavy metals from dye wastewater using the laboratory scale Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor followed with Granular activated Carbon bed (GAC with NLP-MBBR) with Neem leaf powder. A various thick granular activated carbon bed was used for adsorption technique and for biological treatment of wastewater. The GAC with 8cm thick is layered followed by Ennore sand with 3 grades with 4cm thick equally. Then the MBBR was operated continuously with various retention times. The polypropylene type bio balls were used for microorganism attachment in MBBR. The outlet water from the MBBR are treated using membrane process. Membrane process using moving membranes reduces the pH, organic contents, heavy metals, COD, BOD, turbidity etc., The final effluent water is suitable for Irrigation.

This study highlighted the utilization of agricultural byproducts as an alternative fiber resource to be used as one of the materials for reinforcement biocomposite. Cellulose was extracted from oil palm frond using the alkaline treatment and successfully isolated into microfibril via the combination of carboxymethylation pre-treatment ultrasonication to get highly crystalline and good thermal stable microfibers. 4% NaOH was used during alkaline treatment and followed by oxidative bleaching with 30% H2O2. Once the extracted cellulose is chemically pre-treated with monochloroacetic acid, it was subjected to 30 minutes ultrasonication treatment to reduce its size. The detailed comparative analysis using SEM, FTIR and TGA was conducted in this work revealed some breakages of intramolecular hydrogen bonds and glycosidic bonds that occurred during the alkaline and bleaching treatment of oil palm biomass. The SEM images showed significant morphology of rigid, organized and highly ordered cellulose fibrils changed into aggregated fibril bundles of microfibrils after ultrasonication. The results from the infrared spectrums revealed that the mild alkaline treatments and oxidative bleaching were able to remove a large fraction of lignin and hemicelluloses to leave a clean cellulose sample. The isolated microfibrils cellulose exhibit good thermal stability as almost 50% of its initial mass remains at a temperature of 300 °C. These findings demonstrate that oil palm fronds can be utilized for biocomposite reinforcement applications.

This present research is focused on emission characteristic of biodiesel fuels produced from rapeseed oil. Biodiesel fuels are produced through an optimization of transesterification conditions based on the variation of the molar ratio of alcohol /oil using methanol and ethanol. Best samples are obtained after a transesterification reaction involving an alcohol/oil molar ratio of 18:1, 1% of potassium hydroxide as catalyst, 60 minutes of reaction time, a reaction temperature at 60°C and a stirring speed of 650rpm. The biodiesel fuels show a higher fuel consumption rate and exhaust gas temperature when the engine speed is increased. They also exhibit lower NOx emission with a slight rise in CO and CO2 emission compared to mineral diesel fuel tested in same conditions.

This research is aimed at determining the reduction of chloride in the raw water of a water supply plant using nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. Raw water was prepared by adding NaCl at the concentrations of 300 and 600 mg/L. This work used a PACl at 15 mg/L as the pre-treatment for removing turbidity and DOC. Coagulated water was filtered with GF/C filter as the filtration process for minimizing membrane blockage. At chloride concentrations of 300 and 600 mg/L, the flux values were in the range of 66.7-70.0 and 62.8–65.0 L/m 2-h for NF-270 and 17.2–20.6 and 18.3-20.8 L/m 2-h for TW-30, respectively. The performance capabilities of NF-270 and TW-30 for reducing chloride were significantly different. NF-270 and TW-30 membranes were able to reduce chloride by 67 % and 92 % at the added dose of 300 mg/L, respectively. At the added amount of 600 mg/L, NF-270 and TW-30 membranes could reduce chloride by 63 % and 85 %, respectively. In the case of chloride in raw water at a concentration lower than 600 mg/L, the nanofiltration is suitable for removing chloride in regards to the low operation costs compared with the reverse osmosis. Nanofiltration could reduce chloride to lower concentration levels than the water supply standards of the Provincial Waterworks Authority.