Synthesis and characterization of carbon-based catalyst derived from seaweed

This study reports the synthesis and characterization of carbon-based catalyst derived from local seaweed species, Sargassum Polycystum. The synthesis involved pyrolysis at 400°C for 4h followed by sulfonation. The characterization study showed that the material had a total acidity of 2.01 mmol/g, and thermally stability up to 240°C. FT-IR analysis detected the presence of -COOH, -OH and -SO3H functional groups. From the EDS analysis, the concentration of SO3H was calculated as 0.28 mmol/g. Metal were also detected in the sample with the order of concentration as Pb>Mg>Fe>Cd>Cu with a range of 0.055-0.110 ppm. The SEM analysis showed the sample as porous material. In conclusion, the functionalized carbon material had a great potential as a catalyst for many reactions such as biodiesel production

Synthesis and characterization of supported sugar catalyst by dip coating method

Sugar catalyst is a novel solid acid catalyst with reactivity comparable to that of sulphuric acid in biodiesel production. However, the fine powder form of sugar catalyst with the non-porous structure might cause large pressure drop in a packed bed reactor due to low bed porosity, affecting the reaction conversion especially in gas phase reaction. Furthermore, higher pressure drop requires higher electrical energy to drive the fluid through. Increasing the particle size is anticipated to be able to overcome the pressure drop matter. Hence, a deposition of sugar catalyst on larger particle materials was studied. Three types of materials were used for this investigation namely aluminum, silica and clay. The deposition was done via dip-coating method. The materials were characterized for their total acidity, thermal stability, functional groups, surface area, and element composition. The total acidity for SCDCAl, SCDCSi, and SCDCCl were 0.9 mmol/g, 0.2 mmol/g, and 0.4 mmol/g, respectively. The ratio of char deposited on SCDCAl, SCDCSi and SCDCCl were 0.9 g of support/g of carbon, 0.040 g of support/g of carbon, and 0.014 g of support/g of carbon respectively. FTIR and EDX analyses were carried out to determine the presence of active sites of the catalysis by identifying the functional groups such as –COOH, -OH, -SO3H. The results showed that –SO3H was detected on the surface of synthesized catalysts, except for SCDCC1.The pore size of SCDCAl, SCDCSi and SCDCCl were classified as macropores because the average diameter were greater than 50nm.. The catalysts were stable up to 400 °C. The results showed that the dip- coating method could deposit sugar catalyst on aluminum, silica, and clay at low total acidity concentration

Gas flow through vertical pipe and perforated vertical pipe

In this study major and minor energy loss in vertical pipe and vertical perforated pipe were investigated. Bernoulli's principle can be derived from the principle of conservation of energy. This states that, in a steady flow, the sum of all forms of energy in a fluid along a streamline is the same at all points on that streamline. This requires the sum of kinetic energy, potential energy and internal energy remains constant. Thus an increase in the speed of the fluid – implying an increase in both its dynamic pressure and kinetic energy – occurs with a simultaneous decrease in the sum of its static pressure, potential energy and internal energy.We have developed and classified all equations of energy loss that effect on gas flow through pipe and perforated pipe. Constant uniform flow out of perforated pipe was investigate.it showed that uniform fluid distribution along the perforated pipes can be achieved by proper selection of pipe diameter, size of perforations, and spacing between perforations

Preparation and Characterization of Sugar Based Catalyst on Various Supports

A novel structured carbon-based acid catalyst was prepared by depositing the carbon precursor onto glass, ceramic and aluminum supports via dip-coating method, followed by carbonization process for converting the d-glucose layer into black carbon char in an inert nitrogen environment at 400 °C. Then, the –SO3H group was introduced into the framework of the carbon char by multiple vapor phase sulfonation. Four different carbonization methods were carried out (dry pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization with or without pressurized) in the catalyst preparation while among the carbonization methods, the samples which prepared from dry pyrolysis without pressurized process showed the strong acidity due to highest adsorption of acid group in the catalyst surface although the catalyst attached onto the support was the least compared to other preparation methods. Among the catalysts, the sulfonated carbon-base catalyst that is attached on the ceramic support exhibited the highest aci-dity (1.327 mmol/g) followed by the catalyst deposited on the glass (0.917 mmol/g) and aluminum (0.321 mmol/g) supports. The porous structure of ceramic surface, allowed a better interaction between reactants and –SO3H site in the carbon. Through the FT-IR analysis, it was observed that the functional groups –COOH, –OH, and –SO3H were present in the active sites of the catalysts. The surface areas of  glass (Si–SC), ceramic (Ce–SC) and aluminum (Al–SC) catalysts were larger than 1 m2/g, whereas the pore size belongs to macroporous as the average pore size is more than 50 nm. It is also stable within the temperature of 400 °C as there was less than 10% weight loss revealed from the TGA analysis.

Effect of superficial air velocity on solidstate fermentation of palm kernel cake in a lab scale fermenter using locally isolated fungal strain

Solid state fermentation (SSF) is emerging as an attractive alternative to submerged fermentation despite the engineering problems such as removal of metabolic heat, transport of oxygen and moisture into the particles and the heterogeneity of the substrate. In the present work, a lab scale fermenter which can be operated as fluidized bed and packed bed was fabricated. Solid state fermentation of palm kernel cake (PKC) using fungal strain TW1 was carried out at three superficial air velocities. PKC particles of mean diameter 855 μm were used and the fluidizing medium was air. Reducing sugar concentration, biomass growth, bed moisture content, substrate pH, and hemicellulose content were measured. The maximum increase in reducing sugar concentration was at 0.17 m/s since an increase in mannose from 14.55 to 18.63 mg mannose/g dry PKC was observed. The hemicellulose content of this fermented PKC was estimated and the result was around 10% in reduction of hemicellulose content in fermented PKC. Further improvement of PKC bioconversion can likely be achieved by selection of a more robust microbe that can withstand the conditions in the fluidized bed during SSF and by creating a system which can maintain the moisture content of PKC during SSF of PKC throughout the packed bed

Effect of moisture content and drying method on the amylose content of rice

Rice is a primary source to all human beings. It gives energy and supply carbohydrate in human daily life. It is also one of the main sources of employment for people living in the rural area to generate incomes. In this study, determinations of quality of rice dried in an oven and in a Laterally Aerated Moving Bed (LAMB) dryer were performed., tTe drying in an oven was performed with initial moisture content (MC) of 18% reduced to 14% w.b. at temperatures of 35, 45, 55, 65 and 75 0C. The amylose contents of the rice were 20.78, 21.81, 21.53, 21.63 and 22.50%, respectively. Furthermore, drying of paddy with temperature of 45 0C and initial moisture content of 15% w.b was performed with different final moisture content of 14, 12, 10 and 8% w.b using oven drying. The amylose content were 21.79, 20.17, 20.85, 26.35%, respectively. As for paddy dried in LAMB dryer, it was found that the amylose content were in the intermediate range (20 - 25.50%). The drying temperature of the LAMB dryer was at 25 0C with 100 to 200 L/min of air flowrate resulted in the intermediate amylose content of the rice despite the final moisture content reduced to 8% w.b