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China’s foreign trade has gradually lost its advantage due to continuous rise of RMB exchange rate and the labor costs in recent years. China urgently needs to explore new international trade markets to reinvigorate its foreign trade. With the recent development strategy of “One Belt One Road”, China should seize this opportunity to develop Islamic finance since most countries along the routes are Islamic countries. Islamic finance differs from traditional finance in its principles, development, products, operations, and regulation. The purpose of this article is to examine Chinese views on Islamic finance. The study conducted a survey through questionnaire. The findings show that the most ideal area to develop Islamic finance is in China’s northwest region due to its cultural advantages. The survey records that respondents’ reluctance towards Islamic finance mainly due to the absence of legal system and financial regulations for Islamic finance in China. Moreover, lack of talents in Islamic finance is also a major concern based on the survey. The study believes that the development of Islamic finance is conducive to the sound development of China’s financial system. It strengthens economic and trade cooperation with the Islamic world, enhances the ability to attract investment, and promotes harmonious economic development of ethnic minority areas.

Purpose: Little empirical evidence has shown that financial systems with dual-banking systems are relatively more resilient against many financial crises, especially to changes in interest rate levels. In the same vein, this study investigates the impact of interest rates on Malaysian Islamic banks by analysing the relationship between changes in interest rates on Islamic banks’ deposits and financing. Design: The objective is investigated using the ARDL bounds test with 144 observations of monthly data from 2007 to 2018. The unit root tests of Augmented Dickey and Fuller (ADF) and the Phillips-Peron (PP) were conducted, followed by the diagnostic tests of serial correlation and heteroscedasticity, and Cumulative Sum of Recursive Residuals or CUSUM and CUSUM Square stability test to ensure robustness of the results. The robustness of the findings is confirmed with diagnostic tests. Findings: The study finds that interest rates have a relationship with both deposits and financing of Malaysian Islamic banks in the long run. This means that in the long run, when interest rates increases, both deposits and financing of an Islamic bank are still increasing. Furthermore, the religious factor is found to play a role in Malaysian’s banking decisions. Practical Implication: Firstly, the study highlights that the dual banking system is more resilient than the single banking system as the Islamic banking system is not affected by the conventional interbank rates. However, it also provides evidence that Islamic banks are not entirely independent from the effect of conventional interest rates. Therefore, the Islamic banks need to be attentive to interest rates risk in their risk management, as it could influence the value of their assets and obligations. It also highlights the necessary timing for market to revert back for both institutions’ and investors’ discretion. Secondly, due to all reasons above, the Bank Negara Malaysia needs to be cautious in designing monetary policies as such both government and public sectors can strategize the financing of the country. Originality and Value: Providing the most recent sets of data, this study is invaluable to the government, public sector, financial institutions, investors, and fellow academicians. It also adds value to Islamic Bank literature. Keywords: Interest Rates; Islamic Banks; Dual-Banking System; ARDL Bound Test, Monetary Policy, Malaysia

CO2 pressurization represents a significant portion of energy penalty resulting from CO2 capture in carbon capture and storage process (CCS). Effective measures to improve the pressurization scheme directly translates into an improvement of plant economics. In this paper we aim to reduce the energy expenditure of CO2 pressurization step in the CCS process by assisting the CO2 multi-stage compressors with a heat-pump system. The CO2 compressors raised CO2 pressure to an intermediate liquefaction pressure. Afterwards, the CO2 is liquefied in the heat-pump and subsequently pumped to the high pressure instead of being compressed. In addition to the conventional energetic analysis, the advance exergy analysis of the heat-pump assisted pressurization scheme is also presented. The advance exergy analysis of the proposed strategy reveals the optimum operating parameters and design of the heat pump system. Through the implementation of results obtained by the advance exergetic analysis, it was found out the proposed system can achieve 6.21% saving in electric power.

Condensate retention has been found an important parameter for heat transfer on horizontal enhanced condensing tubes. In this research, five pin-fin (varying in circumferential pin spacing) and three integral-fin horizontal tubes are investigated for condensate retention angle (which is measured from the top of tooth to the fully flooded flank) using water-ethanol mixture. An attempt was made to find the optimum concentration of ethanol in water for maximum retention angle. Concentration of ethanol was varied in between 0.5% to 1.5% by weight. Data revealed the importance of integral-fin tube over pin-fin tube as significant increase in retention angle was observed for integral-fin tube ((having same longitudinal spacing, tooth thickness, tooth height, inner and outer diameter) while retention angle for pin-fin tubes remain unchanged. Optimum ethanol concentration was observed to be 0.75%.

The heat losses that occur from the surface of the rotary kilns during calcination process are a major source of waste heat in cement production industry. In order to recover this heat, a multi-shell heat exchanger that forms an annular duct over the high temperature zone of the kiln is used. The phase change material (PCM) paraffin wax with a melting point of 68?C is filled in between the gap of the two concentric annular steel shells which are thermally insulated from the outside. In order to draw a comparison and to establish that phase change material improves the waste heat recovery, the heat exchanger model made up of mild steel, which extracts waste heat from a kiln, is experimentally investigated with and without the tertiary shell that contains the phase change material. The outer surface of the heat exchanger is insulated by glass wool, and to facilitate the passage of air between the shells for heat transfer, a variable speed centrifugal fan (for variable flow rate) is installed. The results show that the waste heat recovery rate is increased by 3% to 8% (depending on different air-flow rate) with the use of phase change material. This implies that phase change materials such as paraffin wax can be used in heat exchangers to obtain an improved waste heat recovery rate.