Optimization of biodiesel production from waste cooking oil using a green catalyst prepared from glass waste and animal bones.

Biodiesel as a fuel has been shown to positively impact the environment; replacing or reducing the dependence on fossil fuels while providing a viable alternative. The use of waste oils, such as non-edible or used oils, can reduce competition with food, loss of resources, and the resulting higher prices. In this study, biodiesel was obtained by a transesterification reaction using used cooking oil from fast-food restaurants as the feedstock and catalysts from waste glass and animal bones as the silica and calcium oxide sources, respectively. Utilizing waste or non-edible oils for the production of biodiesel can lessen the competition with food sources while achieving environmental and ethical biofuel standards. Additionally, employing readily available waste oils and catalysts prepared from waste material is an economical and low-cost process compared to the use of conventional expensive feedstock and catalyst. The catalyst characterization for the prepared CaO–SiO2 catalyst was performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The reaction was optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) by varying three parameters: methanol-to-oil ratio, catalyst weight fraction (wt%), and reaction time. The highest biodiesel yield obtained using Design Expert software was 92.3419% at the optimum conditions of a 14.83:1 methanol-to-oil molar ratio, 3.11 wt% catalyst, and 143 min reaction time. This proved that waste cooking oil with CaO–SiO2 catalyst could be used in the transesterification process to produce a high yield of biodiesel, which was shown in the results obtained from the experimental runs

Analysis of solar-powered adsorption desalination systems: Current research trends, developments, and future perspectives

Growing population increases freshwater demand for all vital activities: industrial, agricultural, and drinking; thereby, desalination capacity has grown significantly. The development of new adsorption desalination technologies has been getting much attention recently. These systems can be driven by low-grade heat sources such as solar energy, using environmentally friendly working fluids to generate potable water. The present study conducted a bibliometric analysis to identify current trends, developments, and future perspectives in adsorption desalination systems based on the publications between 2011 and 2022. The analysis covers seven major research indicators: annual publication trends, major contributing countries, scientific mapping of research sources, analysis of keywords, highly cited papers, most contributing institutions and authors, and research gaps. The paper additionally characterized the yearly publication trends, emphasized significant phrases such as water filtration, evaporation, and environmental impact. Also identified major contributing countries such as China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and United Kingdom. Among the notable institutions mentioned are Sohag University, Ministry of Education in China, King Abdullah University. Finally, the analysis provided an outlook on future research directions, including investigating novel membranes and adsorbents, investigating hybrid desalination systems integrated with nanomaterials, and using energy and cost analysis modeling and optimization techniques

Prospective of Response Surface Methodology as an Optimization Tool for Biomass Gasification Process

The worldwide population growth and the technological advancements reported in the past few years have led to an increase in the production and consumption of energy. This has increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the primary driver of climate change. As a result, great attention has been paid to sustainable and green energy sources that can replace or reduce reliance on non-sustainable energy sources. Among the different types of renewable energy sources currently available, bioenergy has been reported as an attractive resource mainly due to its low cost and great availability. Bioenergy can be produced from different biomass sources and converted into biofuels or value-added products through thermochemical, biochemical, and chemical processes. Gasification is a thermochemical process commonly used for bioenergy production, and it is particularly attractive mainly due to its high efficiency. However, its performance is influenced by parameters such as type of feedstock, size of biomass particle, feed rate, type of reactor, temperature, pressure, equivalence ratio, steam to biomass ratio, gasification agent, catalyst, and residence time. In this paper, the influence of different performance parameters in the gasification process is analyzed, and optimization and modelling techniques are proposed as a strategy for product yield enhancement