Biodiesel Production Via Heterogeneous Transesterification Of Palm Olein And Waste Oils

In the present work, attempts have been made to use calcium oxide (CaO) as a heterogeneous catalyst in the transesterification of triglycerides with methanol to produce methyl esters (biodiesel) as the main product. Laboratory CaO as well as waste CaO from the shells of crabs (Scylla serrata) and cockles (Anadara granosa) have been successfully utilized as catalysts to transesterify palm olein as well as waste adsorbed oil from SBC and chicken oil. In order to enhance the catalytic activity, the catalysts have to be calcined at 900 °C for 2 h. Upon calcination the catalysts transformed to CaO from the initial CaCO3 structure

Transesterification of Waste Cooking Oil using Calcium Loaded on Deoiled Spent Bleaching Clay as A Solid Base Catalyst

Waste cooking oil has a high potential as a raw material in biodiesel production due to its abundant availability and cheapest among other feedstock. Hence transesterification reaction is carried out using waste cooking oil in this research. The objective of this study is to synthesize and characterize the catalyst. On the other hand, deoiled spent bleaching clay impregnated with 40% CaO utilized as a catalyst. Optimization was carried out on methanol to oil molar ratio (6:1-24:1), catalyst loading (3-10 wt.%) and reaction duration (2-10 h). The catalyst of deoiled spent bleaching clay doped with 40% CaO was prepared by wet impregnation method and calcined at 500 °C for 4 hours. The catalyst shows high activity under optimum condition of 5 hours of reaction time, 12:1 of methanol to oil molar ratio with 7 wt.% of catalyst. The transesterification yields 84.7% methyl ester. Therefore, this catalyst has potential to be used in the transesterification of waste cooking oil in producing biodiesel due to its high activity

A case study - Regulation and Functional Mechanisms of Cancer Cells and Control its Activity Using Plants and their Derivatives

Novel exploiting to the understanding of conventional medicine was followed by the findings of many unique secondary metabolites and its biological property and is highly required for treating of many endemic diseases. The plants have been a long background in ethno pharmacological knowledge for treatment of endemic and non-endemic diseases. Such plants are traditionally used in different form of paste, extraction and powder to treat seasonal diseases. Nowadays main uses of some medicinal plants have been a great deal with cure and control various chronic diseases such as cancer, AIDS, hepatitis, neurogenic disorders and acute kidney diseases. Cancer is molecular dysfunction and disarrangement in DNA base pairs it leads to change the human physiological and biochemical behavior of the system. Apoptotic mechanisms are regulating by two distinct pathways in which basic creeds perform in common to all eukaryotes. The key components in apoptosis especially mitochondrial intracellular organelles are identified (DNA, protein and ATP, Ca2+). These components control the next cellular binder step and participate in effecting cell suicide mechanisms. The diverse aspects of mitochondria involved in apoptosis include dealing with other proceedings such as release of protein or enzymes to effective for cell death. In these mechanism plants and related natural products using alternative therapeutic management, very less toxicity and cost benefits. Plant extracts and its biomass has revealed the existing of various pharmacologically active compounds like steroids, polyphenols, polysaccharides, saponins, alkaloids, tannins and terpenoids. The reliable natural products are acting as high sources for anticancer drugs. The natural derived compounds are the prolongation of life span of the zeolites and decrease of malignancy cell formation in the cellular system

Biosynthesis of metallic nanoparticles using plant derivatives and their new avenues in pharmacological applications – An updated report

AbstractThe field of nanotechnology mainly encompasses with biology, physics, chemistry and material sciences and it develops novel therapeutic nanosized materials for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. The biological syntheses of nanoparticles are being carried out by different macro–microscopic organisms such as plant, bacteria, fungi, seaweeds and microalgae. The biosynthesized nanomaterials have been effectively controlling the various endemic diseases with less adverse effect. Plant contains abundant natural compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, tannins and other nutritional compounds. These natural products are derived from various parts of plant such as leaves, stems, roots shoots, flowers, barks, and seeds. Recently, many studies have proved that the plant extracts act as a potential precursor for the synthesis of nanomaterial in non-hazardous ways. Since the plant extract contains various secondary metabolites, it acts as reducing and stabilizing agents for the bioreduction reaction to synthesized novel metallic nanoparticles. The non-biological methods (chemical and physical) are used in the synthesis of nanoparticles, which has a serious hazardous and high toxicity for living organisms. In addition, the biological synthesis of metallic nanoparticles is inexpensive, single step and eco-friendly methods. The plants are used successfully in the synthesis of various greener nanoparticles such as cobalt, copper, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, zinc oxide and magnetite. Also, the plant mediated nanoparticles are potential remedy for various diseases such as malaria, cancer, HIV, hepatitis and other acute diseases

Sustainability and economic evaluation of Microalgae

The enhancement of the atmospheric greenhouse effect due to the increase in the atmospheric greenhouse gases is often considered as responsible for global warming. Several analyses have been made on the key issues of scientific understanding of contemporary global climate change. Air pollution are directly related with climate changes and it has been increasing the potential of ecosystems and human health risks. The policy and scientific assessments to climate change included the consideration of the risks and expressed climatic events. Microalgae has been identified as one of the potential feedstock for various bio product production since its cultivation requires less cropland compared to conventional oil crops and the high growth rate. The potential of microalgae to produce multiple bio based products in a biorefinery framework. The integration of emerging biorefineries is potential solution to mitigate the threat of climate change, global warming and food insecurity

Crab and cockle shells as heterogeneous catalysts in the production of biodiesel

In the present study, the waste crab and cockle shells were utilized as source of calcium oxide to transesterify palm olein into methyl esters (biodiesel). Characterization results revealed that the main component of the shells are calcium carbonate which transformed into calcium oxide upon activated above 700 °C for 2 h. Parametric studies have been investigated and optimal conditions were found to be catalyst amount, 5 wt.% and methanol/oil mass ratio, 0.5:1. The waste catalysts perform equally well as laboratory CaO, thus creating another low-cost catalyst source for producing biodiesel. Reusability results confirmed that the prepared catalyst is able to be reemployed up to five times. Statistical analysis has been performed using a Central Composite Design to evaluate the contribution and performance of the parameters on biodiesel purity

Prediction on mechanism design of molecularly imprinted polymer synthesis using oleic acid as a template

Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD) consists of more than 80% of free fatty acids, primarily palmitic acid and oleic acid, which can be esterified and added to the biofuel and oleo-chemical industries as feedstock. Oleic Acid is also known as cis-9-octadecenoic acid has the chemical formula C18H34O2 or (CH3(CH2)7CHCH(CH2)7COOH). There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the nutritional value of oleic acid. The objectives of this research were to simulate the mechanism reaction design for Molecularly Imprinted Polymer (MIP) synthesis and to predict the bonding formed after synthesis by comparing the monomers and template. The mechanism and complexes formed were drawn according to the theoretical mechanism of MIP. The chemicals involved were allylthiourea as the monomer, oleic acid as the template, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the cross-linker, 2,2-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as the initiator, and acetonitrile as porogenic solvent. The monomer, allylthiourea was compared with the other two monomers which are vinylpyridine and acrylamide in MIP synthesis prediction. On average, when the allylthiourea was used as the monomer, the bond length was quite similar for each connection of atoms (1.316 Angstrom). However, when the vinylpyridine and acrylamide were used as the monomers, the length of the bonds was not similar to each other. On top of that, the bond angles prediction for allylthiourea-oleic acid complex agreed with the molecular geometry shape was tetrahedral due to the average angle was 109.5o. Next, two different templates; oleic acid and palmitic acid; were compared in MIP synthesis prediction. The bond length for oleic acid was on average quite similar to each other (1.316 Angstrom) whereas for palmitic acid as the template the bond length was not similar. The palmitic acid-allylthiourea complex showed the angles reading was not synchronized to each other and quite unstable, unlike the oleic acid-allylthiourea complex. The results agree that oleic acid as the template was the best in this setting parameter for MIP synthesis

The Effect of Iron (II) Chloride in Microalgae Cultivation for Bio-Oil Extraction

The world is facing a problem regarding the use of petroleum fuels that has led to a search for a suitable alternative fuel source. Researchers have come up with the idea of producing biofuel to overcome this problem. In this study, microalgae were explored as a high potential feedstock to produce biofuel. In order to produce a large quantity of biofuel with low cost at a short time, the manipulation of nutrients is a factor in microalgae cultivation. In this study, Iron (II) Chloride (FeCl2) was added to the nutrients to initiate a stressful condition during growth which contributes to the produce of lipid. Isolated microalgae species were identified as Scenedesmus sp. During mass cultivation, the microalgae cultures were scaled up to 2 L of culture. Three flasks of microalgae culture were labelled with S1, S2, and S3. Flask S1 acts as a control without the addition of FeCl2, while another two flasks acted as experimental flasks. Flask S2 was supplemented with 0.5 mg FeCl2 while Flask S3 was supplemented with 1.0 mg of FeCl2. With the addition of Iron (II) Chloride, microalgae entered a stationary phase at day 9 and day 10 as compared to the control flask which enters the stationary phase at day 7. This also affects the dry weight. Flask 3 produces 0.8658 g of microalgae powder compared to Flask 1 and 2 which produced 0.4649 g and 0.5357 g respectively. Lipid analysis was done by using GCMS and GC-FID. Flask 3 produced various types of fatty acids which can be used for biodiesel production compared to other cultivates. In Flask 1, docosanoic acid which is a saturated fatty acid was detected. While in Flask 2 (S2), with the addition of 0.5 mg of FeCl2, docosapentaenoic acid was produced. In the last flask which involved the addition of 1.0 mg of FeCl2, more fatty acid was detected. In GC-FID data, 6 types of fatty acids were detected. Linolein acid, linolenic acid, stearidonic acid, docosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and docosanoic acid were produced at different retention times. Most of the fatty acids produced are polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA). In transesterification, the fatty acid reacts with methanol and acid catalyst. The reaction produces fatty acid methyl ester. In Flask 1, the control flask, without the addition of FeCl2, no fatty acid methylesters (FAME) was produced. However, in Flask 2 and 3 which were added 0.5mg FeCl2 and 1.0 mg FeCl2, n-hexadecanoic acid methyl ester which is also known as palmitic acid was produced. Palmitic fatty acid can be used for biodiesel production

Isolation and characterization of bioactive compounds in medicinal plant centella asiatica and study the effects on fungal activities

Medicinal plants are sources of important therapeutic aids for alleviating human ailments. The present research investigation was carried out to study anti-fungal activity of C. asiatica were tested against C. albicans, Aspergillus niger, and Penicillium sp. using two methods, disc diffusion method and broth dilution method. C. asiatica crude methanol extract was found to be the most effective against fungal activity. Compared to disc diffusion, broth dilution was a more appropriate method to quantitatively determine the anti-Candida activity of plant extract, whereby the MIC values of the crude extracts was determined. The result from disc diffusion assay demonstrates that plant extracts have an inhibitory effect. However, the broth dilution method result reveal that C. asiatica crude methanol extract has lower MIC values, meaning it has more prove that C. asiatica has an anti-fungal effect. Bioactive analysis results reveled that bioactive compounds present in the leaf, stems, roots, and the whole plant extract from Centella asiatica are the major chemical constituents are n-Hexadecanoic acid (99%), cis-Vaccenic acid (91%), 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (88%), Tetradecanoic acid (86%). Further study is required to find out the specific phytochemical which is responsible for its medicinal value

Plant extracts: Nanoparticle sources

Nanoparticles (NPs) (usually in dimensions of 1–100 nm) have been proven, throughnumerous research findings, to have excellent properties in term of physiochemical, anti-fungal, chemical, catalytic, thermal conduction, mechanical, electrical, optical, and manymore. NPs have vital roles in agro-production and protecting crops from diseases,both directly and indirectly, and they go even further to influence the soil microbialpopulation. At the nanoscale, the elementary understanding of chemical and physicalproperties is very distinctive. As such, research outputs at different scales will have dif-ferent interpretations that in turn radiate different properties, even for the same element.Owing to the superior qualities of NPs, research on them is intense, as many researchersare intensively working in the area. Nanoparticle utilization is glaring in many areas,including healthcare and cosmetics, food and feed, drug delivery systems, the space indus-try, electronics, optoelectronics, biomedical science, and ma