Modeling of free fatty acid content in the deodorization process of palm oil refinery using six sigma with response surface methodology

The present study aims to minimize the free fatty acid (FFA) content in Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Oil of FELDA Vegetable Oils Sdn. Bhd. and KUNAK Refinery Sdn. Bhd. (Sawit Kinabalu) by using Six Sigma with Response Surface Methodology. Process flow of the deodorizing section of the palm oil refinery have been studied. Unit operations from the process flow were identified and the parameters readings from 2011 till 2013 were tabulated. Only parameters' readings from year 2011 and 2012 were used. This data went through multiple regressions and the process parameters were narrowed down from 32 parameters to only six parameters. Then, few tests were conducted such Normality Test and so on. The R-Square value 94.65% correlated the actual and predicted value for validation data set. In the verify phase, it can be 95% confidence interval that the difference between the mean numbers is between -0.00514 and 0.00920 higher in actual value than the predicted value. To achieve 0.050% FFA, the optimal process variables were 340.1°C for boiler temperature (G760T), 64 BAR for boiler pressure (G760P), 270.1°C for heat exchanger (TE704), 68.6°C for pre-distillate fatty acid recycler (TE705), 43.1°C for hot well (TE750) and 12 BAR for steam header B (STEAMB). In this study, the equation model was developed to estimate the actual FFA content and predict the FFA content. Hence, this model can be directly used in the palm oil refinery to predict the FFA content and to optimize

Comparative study on inhibitors comprising aromatic and non-aromatic solvents towards flow assurance of crude oil

The petroleum industry is facing a critical issue in transporting crude oil through the pipelines from the seashore where crude oil is being drilled off. The problem arises when crude oil exhibits higher sensitivity to the changes of temperature. This actually causes some alterations occurring in the composition, pour point of the oil and flow of the crude oil itself. Thickening of some components such as wax and asphaltenes causes the deposition to occur in the pipelines due to changes in temperature. Eventually, these depositions cause blockage of the pipelines due to reduction in the diameter of the pipelines and causing disruption in the flow of crude oil. The experiments were carried by mixing different ratio of polymer and solvent such as ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA40) with 40% vinyl acetate, methylcyclohexane (MCH), toluene and butanol together to form an inhibitor. The response surface methodology (RSM) had been used to identify the best formulation of solvents that could act as inhibitors. The final results show that the most optimum ratio of inhibitor that gives the highest reduction in viscosity of the crude oil is 30% EVA, 30% MCH and finally 40% ratio of solvent which is either toluene or butanol

Performance of particleboard with palm kernel cake as filler

Particleboard is a common product of wood industry. Usually, the particleboard is used as a component of furniture manufacturing or part of building construction. In the production of particleboard, wood glue or binder is applied to form hard bonded particles. The usage of melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resin as a binder in particleboard production is widely practised. Due to low solid content and the cost of MUF resin, some particleboard manufacturers are adding filler to increase the solid content and to reduce the cost of binder. For example, industrial-grade wheat flour and palm shell powder are commonly used as filler. The performance of wood products is significantly affected by the type of filler used due to the compound composition. Therefore, a study conducted in this work is to investigate the performance of MUF resin-based particleboard produced with palm kernel cake powder as filler. Palm kernel cake (PKC) was chosen due to the protein content that might help in the binding strength and the reduction in free formaldehyde in the wood product. The investigation was conducted by the preparation of particleboard in laboratory with various curing time and quantity of MUF resin and filler used. The performance properties of particleboard such as water absorption (WA), thickness swelling (TS), modulus of rupture (MOR), and modulus of elasticity (MOE) were investigated. Response surface methodology (RSM) of design expert software was used for the experimental design and optimization. The results shown that there is some effect of filler on the performance properties particleboard produced. The optimized or targeted performance also can be identified via design expert software

Comparative study of cellulose extraction processes from palm kernel cake

Palm kernel cake (PKC) is one of palm oil industry by-products which are rich in edible cellulose, which can be used as potential source in food and pharmaceutical industry. The extraction of cellulose from PKC involved essentially delignification and hemicellulose removal processes. In this study, three delignification and two hemicellulose removal techniques were comparatively investigated. Response surface methodology (RSM) with D-optimal design was used for the analysis. In this analysis, delignification techniques, hemicellulose removal techniques, and hemicellulose removal time (HRT) were chosen as process factors, whereas quantity of hemicellulose removal, cellulose yield, and cellulose purity were chosen as process responses. The comparative result obtained in this study shows that the combination of liquid phase oxidation (LPO) of delignification technique and alkali treatment of hemicellulose removal was the best method of cellulose extraction from palm kernel. The result of FTIR spectrum analysis of the cellulose produced in this study was similar to those produced commercially validating the cellulose structure. The optimum cellulose extraction method in this study shows that hemicellulose can be removed up to 24 % with cellulose yield 70 % and purity 77%

A Review on Various Techniques and Recent Advances in Polymeric Additives to Mitigate Wax Problems in Crude Oil

Oil and gas industry has long recognized and is continuing to face wax deposition problems, particularly, as more unconventional crudes are being produced. As time goes by, many techniques have been developed to reduce the cost to solve this challenging issue. Polymeric additives, which falls on chemical treatment categories have been extensively used and studied to improve the flow of the crude oil along the pipeline. Nevertheless, the majority of the polymeric additives have dual functions including the use as pour point depressant. This article reviews the various techniques used to improve the flow of crude oil such as mechanical, chemical and thermal treatment, and the recent advances of using polymeric additives to mitigate the wax problems

Adsorption isotherm of non-azeotropic solution onto porous adsorbents

Adsorption isotherm is essential component in the understanding of the adsorption process. Several methods of the measurements, analysis and interpretation of adsorption from solution have been reported in the literature. Most of the measurements of adsorption isotherm from solution were involved the measurement of excess isotherm conducted at low region of sorbates concentration. Direct interpretation of excess adsorption isotherm as adsorption isotherm is always been practice. Therefore, in this work a study on the measurement of the adsorption isotherm from solution of non-azeotropic organic solvent mixture onto porous adsorbents for whole range of liquid concentration was conducted. The study included the measurement of excess adsorption isotherm using conventional technique. Theoretical analysis and interpretation of adsorption isotherm from the excess isotherm were conducted using Pseudo Ideal Adsorption, Gibbs Dividing Plane Model and Langmuir-Fruendlich binary isotherm model. For organic solvents, acetone and propanol were chosen as the adsorbates due to the non-azeotropic properties in the mixture. Activated carbon and silicalite were chosen as adsorbents due to the different in their porosity such as macro porous and micro porous structure. The result of the study has revealed that the adsorption isotherm of non-azeotropic mixture onto activated carbon and silicalite can be interpreted as monolayer type of adsorption

Adsorptive desulfurization of model fuel by activated oil palm shell

The suitability and effectiveness of oil palm shells (OPS) as low cost adsorbents via physical activation for desulphurization of a model fuel under different concentrations have been studied. Batch mode experiments have been conducted to remove benzothiophine (BT) concentrations from the model fuel prepared from n-octane and p-xylene. The activated carbon (AC) has been characterized with fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The specific surface area and the pore-size distribution are determined using the Brunauer, Emmet and Teller (BET) and Barret, Joyner and Halenda (BJH) methods, respectively. The surface area is found to be 15.41 m2/g while total pore volume is 0.028cm3/g. The activated OPS is categorized as mesophorous adsorbent since the average pore size is 4.2 nm. The equilibrium data is best described by the Langmuir isotherm model and maximum adsorption capacity of this adsorbent is 2.75 mg/g. In addition, the rate of adsorption of BT is found to follow the pseudo-second-order kinetic model

Adsorptive denitrogenation of fuel by oil palm shells as low cost adsorbents

This study reviews the suitability and effectiveness of oil palm shells as low cost adsorbents via physically activation with carbon dioxide as an adsorbent for denitrogenation of fuel under different concentrations. With hydrogen, high temperature and pressure, hydro-denitrogenation (HDN) is used to remove Nitrogen Containing Compounds (NCCs). However, the cost of HDN is increasing rapidly due to the increasing concentration of NCCs in fossil fuels. NCCs compete with sulfur compounds on the active sites of catalysts in the conventional process. Therefore, NCCs should be removed as much as possible. Thus, searching for an alternative process to remove NCCs in a cost efficient manner is very important