Adsorption of Free Fatty Acid from Crude Palm Oil on Magnesium Silicate Derived from Rice Husk

Magnesium silicate with various silica and magnesium oxide ratios (SiO2/MgO ratios) was used as the adsorbent for a study of adsorption of free fatty acid (FFA) in crude palm oil (CPO). Magnesium silicate was prepared from magnesium nitrate or magnesium sulfate solution precipitated with a solution of sodium silicate derived from rice husk. SiO2/MgO ratios of the magnesium silicate synthesized from magnesium nitrate and magnesium sulfate were 3.93, 3.75, 2.74, 2.40, 1.99 and 3.96, 3.61, 3.51, 2.91, 2.69, respectively. FFA adsorption on the magnesium silicate was carried out by adding 1 gram of the adsorbent to 50 grams of CPO and shaking for 1 hour at 50oC. It was found that SiO2/MgO ratio of 1.99 had the highest adsorption capacities of 185 mg of FFA per gram of adsorbent. In addition, increasing of SiO2/MgO ratios of magnesium silicate was found to reduce the adsorption capacities due to decreasing of FFA chemisorption. The effect of dosage amount to equilibrium adsorption capacities were carried out by adding different amount of magnesium silicate (SiO2/MgO ratio of 1.99) to 50 grams of CPO. The result showed that efficiency decreased when dosage increased. The Fruendlich and Langmuir isotherm were applied to describe this absorption system. The values of maximum sorption capacity (Q0) and Langmuir's sorption affinity (b) in the Langmuir equation obtained by linear-regression were minus values which were physically meanigless. Thus, FFA adsorption on magnesium silicate was both physisorption and chemisorption and well represented by the Fruenlich isotherm

Office Supplies Cost Optimization Using Six Sigma

Six Sigma is quality management philosophy used by many successful companies. The DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) Methodology is a commonly used the Six Sigma tool designed to improve an existing process. V&P has chosen to use Six Sigma to reduce the cost of office supplies. The office supply procedure is inconsistent as divisions purchase different products from different vendors resulting in unnecessarily high supply expenditures. These purchases fall into two categories: On-Contract and Off-Contract purchasing. Off-Contract purchasing has the greatest impact on high supply cost. Within Off-Contract purchasing, five trends was identified. Special requests and personal preference had the most significant impact. Benefit calculations based on detailed breakdown of causes of variations combined with expert estimates provides expectations for improvements future purchasing transactions. Purchasing data was statistically analyzed to determine the process capability. For the new process the process capability improved from 44 percent to 24 percent. Cost will be lowered by expanding the list of On-contract supplies, negotiating additional on contract pricing, minimizing off-contract ordering, and reducing a other vendor ordering. The project is expected save approximately $120,000 in 2006