Correlation of Activated Carbonized Avocado Pear Seeds (Persea Americana) and Activated Carbonized Orange Peels (Citrus Sinensis) Adsorptive Potency in Eliminating Cd2+ Ions in contaminated water

Water contamination is a very serious problem due to the role and usefulness of water to life. The carbonized orange peels (COP) and carbonized Avocado Pear seeds (CAPS) were impregnated with Potassium hydroxide (KOH) at 1:1 ratio for 48 hours. The KOH impregnated CAPS and COP were washed, air-dried and separately oven dried at 105℃ for 6 hours in a muffle furnace (Carbolite AAF1100) at 250oC for 1 hour. The activated carbonized avocado pear seeds (ACAPS) and activated carbonized orange peels (ACOP) were physicochemically characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer. Cd2+ ions adsorption technique on ACAPS and ACOP was examined by means of the batch adsorption isotherm experimentations and their adsorption model was appraised by means of isotherm models of Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin–Radushkevich, Tempkin and Flory-Huggin. The SEM imageries, showed that ACAPS posessed a large number of varied size pores whereas the ACOP had fewer smaller size pores. The R2 values which varied from 0.86 to 1.00 point to the fact that all the isotherm models were capable to clarify the correlation in the obtained data. ACAPS had more adsorption site, however, ACOP took up more Cd2+ ion per adsorption site on comparing Flory-huggins isotherm model nFH values vis-a-vis Langmuir isotherm model qm values. Generally, ACAPS was a superior adsorbent likened to ACOP, it was more than twice as effective for deletion of Cd2+ ions in contaminated water owing to a blend of considerable amount of various size openings and surface functional groups with qm values of 12.35 and 5.67mg/g in that order

Characteristics of horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow measurement in a medium-sized pipe using gamma densitometry

Two-phase flows are common occurrences in many industrial applications. The understanding of their characteristics in industrial piping systems is vital for the efficient design, optimization, and operation of industrial processes. Most of the previous experimental studies involving the use of gamma densitometers for holdup measurements in air-water mixtures are limited to smaller diameter pipes (generally regarded as those with < 50 mm in nominal diameter). Further, very few literature report experimental data obtained using gamma desitometers. This paper presents an application of a gamma densitometer in the measurement of two-phase flow characteristics in an intermediate diameter pipe (nominal diameter between 50 mm and 100 mm). Scaled air-water experiments were performed in a 17-m long, 0.0764-m internal diameter horizontal pipe. Liquid superficial velocity ranged between 0.1–0.4 m/s while gas superficial velocity ranged from 0.3 to 10.0 m/s. The measured parameters include liquid holdup, pressure gradient, flow pattern, and slug flow features. The flow patterns observed were stratified, stratified-wavy, plug, slug, and annular flows. Plug and slug flow patterns showed good agreement with established flow pattern maps. Furthermore, the slug translational velocity was observed to increase with increasing mixture velocity, as reported by previous authors, hence establishing the reliability of the instrumentation employed. The slug body length was also measured using the gamma densitometer and was found to be within the range 24–36D with a mean length of 30.6D

Onion Peel Dye-Nanocomposite as Light Harvester in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Silver nano-composites (ROPED-AgNPs) were synthesized by bio-reduction of silver ions usingdye extract from red onion peels (ROPED). Both ROPED and ROPED-AgNPs were characterized by UV-Vis, FTIR, XRD, EDS and TEM. While ROPED was amorphous and in micro-scale, ROPED-AgNPs were crystalline, spherically shaped, non-agglomerating and of sizes within the nano range. Both materials were evaluated as sensitizers for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by assessing their light absorption and photo-electrochemical properties. Results revealed that ROPED and ROPED-AgNPs are potential light harvesters and afford energy conversion efficiency of 0.33 % and 0.78 % respectively.&nbsp