Comparative study on inhibitors comprising aromatic and non-aromatic solvents towards flow assurance of crude oil

The petroleum industry is facing a critical issue in transporting crude oil through the pipelines from the seashore where crude oil is being drilled off. The problem arises when crude oil exhibits higher sensitivity to the changes of temperature. This actually causes some alterations occurring in the composition, pour point of the oil and flow of the crude oil itself. Thickening of some components such as wax and asphaltenes causes the deposition to occur in the pipelines due to changes in temperature. Eventually, these depositions cause blockage of the pipelines due to reduction in the diameter of the pipelines and causing disruption in the flow of crude oil. The experiments were carried by mixing different ratio of polymer and solvent such as ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA40) with 40% vinyl acetate, methylcyclohexane (MCH), toluene and butanol together to form an inhibitor. The response surface methodology (RSM) had been used to identify the best formulation of solvents that could act as inhibitors. The final results show that the most optimum ratio of inhibitor that gives the highest reduction in viscosity of the crude oil is 30% EVA, 30% MCH and finally 40% ratio of solvent which is either toluene or butanol

Removal of oil and reduction of bod from palm oil mill effluent (POME) using polyurethane nanofibers

The effluent of the palm oil mill is known as palm oil mill effluent (POME) constituting water, oil and solid. Upon discharge from the mill, POME goes into an anaerobic pond system which is not environmentally friendly. The threats, mainly come from the accumulated oil inside the pond. Therefore, this study attempt to find a solution for this problem by using polyurethane nanofiber to sorb the oil from the POME due to its oleophilic and hydrophobic properties. The nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), oil sorption capacity, amount of extracted oil of POME and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) content after sorption. The result shows the nanofibers average diameter is 3.0 103 nm, about 31.40 g /g oil sorption capacity, 48 % oil extracted from the POME and the BOD content was reduced to 10 mg/l. This result shows that nanofiber sorbent is a viable method to not only protect the environment, but also has the potential for recovery the oil

Comparative study of cellulose extraction processes from palm kernel cake

Palm kernel cake (PKC) is one of palm oil industry by-products which are rich in edible cellulose, which can be used as potential source in food and pharmaceutical industry. The extraction of cellulose from PKC involved essentially delignification and hemicellulose removal processes. In this study, three delignification and two hemicellulose removal techniques were comparatively investigated. Response surface methodology (RSM) with D-optimal design was used for the analysis. In this analysis, delignification techniques, hemicellulose removal techniques, and hemicellulose removal time (HRT) were chosen as process factors, whereas quantity of hemicellulose removal, cellulose yield, and cellulose purity were chosen as process responses. The comparative result obtained in this study shows that the combination of liquid phase oxidation (LPO) of delignification technique and alkali treatment of hemicellulose removal was the best method of cellulose extraction from palm kernel. The result of FTIR spectrum analysis of the cellulose produced in this study was similar to those produced commercially validating the cellulose structure. The optimum cellulose extraction method in this study shows that hemicellulose can be removed up to 24 % with cellulose yield 70 % and purity 77%

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.

Sulfur and nitrogen removal of model fuel using activated carbon derived from oil palm shell

This research was done to understand the suitability and effectiveness of oil palm shells (OPS) as low cost adsorbents via physically activation with carbon dioxide (CO2) as an adsorbent for desulphurization and denitrogenation of a model fuel under different concentration. Batch mode experiments were conducted to study the effects concentration of Benzothiophine, Quinoline and Indole. Activated carbon (AC) was prepared at three different activation temperatures (500°C, 600°C, and 700°C), which was characterized with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (mR), and a mercury intrusion porosimeter. After adsorption, the solution was analysed with a Gas Chromatography (GC). Equilibrium adsorption isotherms and kinetics were investigated. The experimental data were analysed by the Langmuir and Freundlich models of adsorption. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted well to Langmuir isotherm and the most adsorption capacity on the best suited AC for Benzothiophene, Quinoline, and Indole were 3.64 mg/g, 4.19 mg/g and 2.98 mg/g respectively. The rates of adsorption were 0.19409 h-1, 0.08411 h-1, and 0.02883 h-1 for the adsorption of Benzothiophene, Quinoline, and Indole respectively. The kinetic data obtained at different concentrations have been analysed using a pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order equation and intraparticle diffusion equation. The pseudo-first­order model best described the sorption process and was employed in predicting the rate constant, equilibrium sorption capacity as well