COVID-19 Prevention: Role of Activated Carbon

Recently, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought the whole world into a pandemic condition, where the number of infected cases and deaths is exponentially high. A number of vaccines are available for this novel virus, but these are in the preliminary stage and are also not available to everyone. As the virus is very contagious, protection and prevention are the best way to survive and get rid of this disease. The virus affects the human body by entering through the nose, mouth, and eyes, so face protection with an appropriate mask is highly advisable. Combined masks made with activated carbon (AC) can effectively adsorb the virus because of its high surface area and broad functional groups. Such combined masks can also control coronavirus transmission by capturing harmful gases and smoke as they help in decreasing the spread of the viru

Catalytic fast Co-Pyrolysis of sewage sludge−sawdust using mixed metal oxides modified with ZSM-5 catalysts on dual-catalysts for product upgrading

Catalytic fast co-pyrolysis of sewage sludge and sawdust was performed using Py/GC-MS for pyrolytic product upgrades. Metal oxides (NiO and MoO3) and ZSM-5 catalysts had been introduced into single catalytic pyrolysis. The combination of NiO + MoO3 in mixed metal oxides (MMOs) was modified with ZSM-5 under a dual-catalyst with different catalytic layouts. In the pyrolysis process, the metal oxides specifically promoted the formation of phenols, ketones, and furans. ZSM-5 was proven to be more effective in producing aromatic hydrocarbons and phenols and in reducing the oxygenated compounds. The combination of MMOs with ZSM-5 effectively improved product distribution by increasing the production of aromatics and phenols. MMOs promoted the aromatics selectivity of undesirable PAHs (70.5%), however, the addition of ZSM-5 to MMOs appeared to reduce and inhibit the formation of PAHs by 0.85%. The highest yield of aromatics was obtained by the layout of the ZSM-5/MMO dual catalysts layout which was 21.6%. Dual catalysts of MMOs and ZSM-5 in separated layout created promising effects in further increasing the production of aromatic hydrocarbons and phenols compared to the mixture of MMOs modified ZSM-5

A Cloud Enabled Crop Recommendation Platform for Machine Learning-Driven Precision Farming

Modern agriculture incorporated a portfolio of technologies to meet the current demand for agricultural food production, in terms of both quality and quantity. In this technology-driven farming era, this portfolio of technologies has aided farmers to overcome many of the challenges associated with their farming activities by enabling precise and timely decision making on the basis of data that are observed and subsequently converged. In this regard, Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds a key place, whereby it can assist key stakeholders in making precise decisions regarding the conditions on their farms. Machine Learning (ML), which is a branch of AI, enables systems to learn and improve from their experience without explicitly being programmed, by imitating intelligent behavior in solving tasks in a manner that requires low computational power. For the time being, ML is involved in a variety of aspects of farming, assisting ranchers in making smarter decisions on the basis of the observed data. In this study, we provide an overview of AI-driven precision farming/agriculture with related work and then propose a novel cloud-based ML-powered crop recommendation platform to assist farmers in deciding which crops need to be harvested based on a variety of known parameters. Moreover, in this paper, we compare five predictive ML algorithms—K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and Support Vector Machine (SVM)—to identify the best-performing ML algorithm on which to build our recommendation platform as a cloud-based service with the intention of offering precision farming solutions that are free and open source, as will lead to the growth and adoption of precision farming solutions in the long run

Malaysian menu planning model using Self-Adaptive Hybrid Genetic Algorithm (SHGA)

The aim of this research is to propose a self-adaptive hybrid genetic algorithm (SHGA) approach to solve Malaysian menu planning problem for adolescents aged 13 to 18 years old. We developed Malaysian menu planning model with the objectives to optimize the budget allocation for each student, maximize the variety of daily meals, maximize the caterer’s ability, accomplish meals course structures and fulfill the standard recommended nutrient intake (RNI). Two new novel local searches are introduced in this study that combined the insertion search (IS) and insertion search with deleteand-create (ISDC) methods. Application of IS itself could not guarantee the production of feasible solutions as it only searches in a small neighborhood area. Thus, ISDC is proposed to enhance the search towards a large neighborhood area and the results indicated that the proposed algorithm is able to produce 100% feasible solutions with the best fitness value. Besides that, the application of self-adaptive probability for mutation is significantly minimizing computational time taken to generate the good solutions in just few minutes. Hybridization technique of two local search methods and self-adaptive strategy has successfully improved the performance of traditional genetic algorithm through balanced exploitation and exploration schem

Evaluation of the Bioenergy Potential of Temer Musa: An Invasive Tree from the African Desert

Temer musa (Prosopis chilensis) is an invasive wild tree found in the desert of many countries, e.g., Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, India, South Africa, and the USA. The thermochemical properties of this invasive tree were analyzed as a potential biomass feedstock for energy generation. The calorific value measurement of the temer musa wood was found to be 19.83 MJ/kg. Thermogravimetric analysis and derivative weight profiles displayed that the decomposition happened in four stages representing moisture content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, and ash formation. The proximate parameters are in good range with other known biomasses and are found suitable for the thermochemical energy conversion. The gasification process confirmed the existence of several gases that are usually observed in invasive biomasses. All gasification gases were in the acceptable range, and no hydrogen sulfide gas was observed, which makes the conversion as environment friendly. The obtained results show that the energy conversion of temer musa is suitable for real-time implementation

Stretchable and Flexible Thin Films Based on Expanded Graphite Particles

Stretchable and flexible graphite films can be effectively applied as functional layers in the progressively increasing field of stretchable and flexible electronics. In this paper, we focus on the feasibility of making stretchable and flexible films based on expanded graphite particles on a polymeric substrate material, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The expanded graphite particles used in this work are prepared by utilizing bath sonication processes at the ultrasonic frequency of either the commercially available graphite flakes or graphite particles obtained through electrolysis under the interstitial substitution of silver and sulfate, respectively. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirm that, due to the action of the bath sonication intercalation of graphite taking place, the resistances of the as-fabricated thin films is ultimately lowered. Mechanical characterizations, such as stretchability, flexibility and reliability tests were performed using home-made tools. The films were found to remain stretchable up to 40% tensile strain and 20% bending strain. These films were also found to remain functional when repeatedly flexed up to 1000 times

Ex Situ Catalytic Pyrolysis of Invasive <i>Pennisetum purpureum</i> Grass with Activated Carbon for Upgrading Bio-Oil

Energy demands keep increasing in this modern world as the world population increases, which leads to a reduction in fossil fuels. To resolve these challenges, Pennisetum purpureum, an invasive grass in Brunei Darussalam, was examined as the feedstock for renewable energy through a catalytic pyrolysis process. The activated carbon was applied as the catalyst for a simple and economical solution. The catalytic pyrolysis was executed at 500 °C (the temperature for the highest biofuel yield) for both reactors to produce the highest amount of upgraded biofuels. The biochar produced from the non-catalytic and catalytic pyrolysis processes showed a consistent yield due to stable operating conditions, from which the activated carbon was generated and used as the catalyst in this work. A significant amount of improvement was found in the production of biofuels, especially bio-oil. It was found that for catalysts, the number of phenolic, alcohol, furans, and ketones was increased by reducing the amount of acidic, aldehyde, miscellaneous oxygenated, and nitrogenous composites in bio-oils. The highest amount of phenolic compounds was produced due to a number of functional groups (-C=O and -OH) in activated carbon. The regenerated activated carbons also showed promising outcomes as catalysts for upgrading the bio-oils. The overall performance of synthesized and regenerated activated carbon as a catalyst in catalytic pyrolysis was highly promising for improving the quality and stability of bio-oil

A human capital development model in higher engineering professions

This paper describes a novel model of education program and curricula in higher engineering to be employed in ASEANs and its related countries. Our investigation and research program consists of 10 universities including University of Brunei Darussalam, Institute of Technology at Cambodia, Institute of Technology at Bandung, National University of Laos, University of Technology in Malaysia, Yangon Technological University, De La Salle University at Philippines, Nanyang Technological University, Vietnam National university, and Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Japan. Our team made an MOU to conduct investigation to create a standard model of higher education program for engineering professions between 2015 to 2017. In this paper, we propose and introduce our invented education program and curricula, example of course in information technology and mechanical engineering, evaluation through questionnaires in external organizations. The proposed program consists 9 years program through high school to graduate school, but students can join in each school based on their needs. The contribution of this paper includes these three points; the proposed model is related with a human capitals development model to complement the existing engineering professional education; schools provide professional education program to execute effective learning; and the proposed model enables to be employed in current various schools easily. © 2017 IEEE