Thermal properties of high density polyethylene-kenaf cellulose composites.

Biocomposites of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and kenaf cellulose (KC) with polyethylene glycol (PEG) have been prepared by melt blending and compression moulding. The optimum temperature and reaction period for blending KC with HDPE were 145 C and 12 minutes with rotation speed of 30 rpm, respectively. The effects of composition on the thermal properties of HDPE-KC biocomposites were investigated using TGA and DSC. Each sample of HDPE-KC biocomposites was subjected to heating programs between 35-600 C for TGA, and the DSC analysis was determined under heating cycles of 25-600 C. The results from TGA and DSC indicated that by increasing the KC content, the thermal stability was slightly improved. The melting temperature for all the composites was less than the melting point of KC (148.70 C), and almost the same as that of HDPE (130.38 C). Therefore no significant change in the melting temperature resulted from adding KC to the HDPE matrix. However, HDPE's presence surrounding the KC fibres, prevented water from reaching the cellulose fibre particles, thus reducing the water content in the composite; hence a significant advantage of forming KC composites with hydrophobic HDPE is that it helps to make the cellulose hydrophobic instead of hydrophilic

Case study: comparison of air dispersion from solid waste incinerator emission using AERMOD and ISCST3

Combustion of municipal solid waste in a solid waste incinerator will generates flue gas emission consist of pollutants that may detrimental to human health. It was intended to observe the dispersion of the pollutants from the chimney of solid waste incinerator of Cameron Highlands using two air dispersion models, AERMOD and ISCST3. This study involves usage of 1 year hourly meteorological data, terrain data, chimney specification and pollutant emission rate as input in both models to predict the pollutants incremental concentration to the surrounding environment. It was found that AERMOD model simulates in a way similar to the real meteorological condition as compared to ISCST3. Higher concentration was predicted nearer to the pollutant source and at sensitive receptors in AERMOD as compared to ISCST3 prediction

Zakah on shares: Theory and reality in Malaysia / Muhammad Ikhlas Rosele and Luqman Haji Abdullah

Zakah (Islamic almsgiving) on shares are generally mentioned indirectly in classical fiqh books. This is due to the fact that the practice of shares is relatively new in classical Islamic jurisprudence literature. However, the basis of the debate on shares can be traced to its establishment and development in the classical fiqh discourse. Muslim individual and Muslim-operated companies have been involved in investment and share-trading, thus creating the debate of zakah on shares in Malaysia. Therefore, the objective of this study is to highlight the discussion of zakah on shares based on the reality in Malaysia. The focus of the debate will touch the aspects of legal shares, fiqh of zakah and its method of calculation

Rigid ceramic filters: numerical simulation of the pressure & velocity distributions

Tightened environmental legislation enacted as a result of government policy has compelled the industry to pay serious attention to air pollution issues. Gas cleaning with ceramic filters has proven to be a major technology for removal of particulate emissions at high temperatures. Filters, after a certain period of filtration time, must be cleaned for maximum efficiency. This can be done by applying a pulsed reverse cleaning flow into the filters. The cleaning mechanisms by which the deposited cake is removed from the filter surface are still not fully understood. Varied mathematical models were thus developed to investigate the flow dynamics of the filtration and reverse pulse flow cleaning in a ceramic filter. These include a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model, a Simple Excel Reverse Pulse Flow Model and a time-dependent filter cake model. The simulation results were validated using the results of previously reported experiments carried out for filtration and reverse flow cleaning using the filter elements

Physical and antimicrobial characterization of self assembled silver nanoparticle/chitosan onto low density polyethylene film as active packaging polymer

Colloidal Silver nanoparticles with a size of 5 nm produced by chemical reduction using poly ethylene glycol (PEG 200). Layers of silver nanoparticles and chitosan were deposited onto low density polyethylene (LDPE) substrate by layer by layer (LBL) self-assembly technique. Silver nanocomposite films were built by sequential dipping of LDPE film in either anionic silver nanoparticles or cationic chitosan. Silver nanoparticles and chitosan led to the formation of nanocomposite films possessing antimicrobial properties with the thickness of 2, 4, 8, 12 and 20 layers. Silver nanocomposite films were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Thermal, mechanical and barrier properties of LBL deposited nanocomposite films were investigated. Results showed that the LBL deposition of silver nanoparticles and chitosan increased the crystallinity of the composites and also improved mechanical and barrier properties of LDPE film significantly (p<0.05). Antimicrobial activity of silver nanocomposites against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was evaluated. Growth kinetic parameters of E.coli and S.aureus affected by silver nanocomposites were calculated by modeling of absorbance data according to Gomperz equation. LDPE-silver nanocomposite affected bacterial growth parameters significantly (p<0.05). The specific growth rate reduced from 0.30 to 0.11 h-1 for E. coli and decreased 0.27 to 0.06 h-1 for S. aureus

Dawru Al-Waqf al-Mu’aqqat fî al-Tamwîl al-Ijtimâ’i fî al-Mashrîfiyah al-Islâmiyah Bî Malayziyâ

This research paper aims to study the "temporary endowment" (Waqf Muaqqat) and its role in activating social financing in Islamic banking in Malaysia, such as the oriental study in the light of the purposes of Islamic law. This article has adopted the qualitative method in its research which correlates to the theorization and regulation of the concepts of the issues in hand in their different dimensions which is jurisprudence, Maqasid, and banking. For the case study “Maybank Islamic” has been selected for viewing and assessing the various aspects related to the said topic. The study also included interviews with some experts of Islamic banking in Malaysia. The study has stemmed the following conclusions and recommendations, which are as follows: 1) Islamic banks have a significant role in intermediating between both the sources of voluntary social financing and the deprived classes of the society, 2) Bank endowments (Waqf) through May Islamic Bank has shown substantial contributions in the social financing. The study further has found many possibilities of making it more effective and expand its reach using the tool of temporary endowment, 3) Temporary bank endowment contributes to achieving the objectives of social cooperation (Takaful), financial growth, and social justices through the medium of Islamic banks. The article concludes by stating that social financing of banks needs various other tools of temporary endowment (Waqf Muaqqat) to help the deprived classes and to extend its reach to meet the requirements for a comprehensive and inclusive development of the overall society.&nbsp;&nbsp; تهدف هذه الورقة البحثة إلى دراسة "الوقف المؤقت" ودوره في تفعيل التمويل الاجتماعي في المصرفة الإسلامية بمليزيا كالدراسة الاستشراقية في ضوء مقاصد الشريعة الإسلامية. ولقد استخدمت هذه الورقة البحثية المنهج الكيفي في مباحثها المتعلقة بالـتأصيل والضبط لمفهوم الوقف المؤقت وما يتعلق به من القضايا في أبعادها الشرعية والمصرفية في ضوء مقاصد الشريعة؛ واعتمدت الدراسة في الجانب الميداني على اختيار "ماي بنك الإسلامي "كعينة تطبيقية لدراسة الموضوع في جوانبه المتعددة. وخلصت الدراسة إلى جملة من النتائج والتوصيات، من أهمّها:1) فإن الوقف المؤقت في التجربة الماليزية أنه لايزال الاهتمام به في مرحلة التشريعات النظرية في التقنين له ويحتاج إلى إيجاد آليات جديدة لتفعيله في واقع الممارسة.2) "الوقف المؤقت" النقدي آلية استشرافية يقترحها البحث في سدّ عجز التمويل الاجتماعي في منتجات الوقف المصرفي لمصرف" ماي بنك الإسلامي" كعينة مختارة في هذه الدراسة والتي تسعى إلى تحقيق خطة تنموية اجتماعية إلى تفعيله وتوسيعه. 3) النظر المقاصدي في التمويل الاجتماعي المصرفي يدعم اقتراح آلية الوقف المؤقت النقدي كوسيلة فعالة نظرا لما يحققه من مقاصد تنموية اجتماعية؛ ومنها التكافل الاجتماعي، النماء المالي، والعدالة الاجتماعية من خلال وساطة المصارف الإسلامية للمصارف الإسلامية كفاءة في أن يكون لها دور مهم في الوساطة بين مصادر التمويل الاجتماعي التطوعي والطبقات الاجتماعية المحرومة وما يؤهلها لذلك كونها مؤسسات لها إمكانيات في نظم الإدارة والحوكمة

Effect of temperature and concentration on rheological properties pomelo juice concentrates

Rheology is the science of deformation and flow behavior of fluid. Knowledge of rheological properties of fluid foods and their variation with temperature and concentration have been globally important for industrialization of food technology for quality, understanding the texture, process engineering application, correlation with sensory evaluation, designing of transport system, equipment design (heat exchanger and evaporator), deciding pump capacity and power requirement for mixing. The aim of this study was to determine the rheological behavior of pomelo juice at different concentrations (20-60.4%) and temperatures (23-60°C) by using a rotational rotational Haake Rheostress 600 rheometer. Pomelo juice was found to exhibit both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian behavior. For lower concentration the Newtonian behavior is observed while at higher concentration Non-Newtonian behavior was observed. Standard error (SE) method was selected on the basis to carry out the error analysis due to the best fit model. For the four models the values of SE show that the Herschel-Bulkley and Power Law models perform better than the Bingham and Casson models but Herschel-Bulkley model is true at higher concentration. The rheological model of pomelo juice, incorporating the effects of concentration and temperature was developed. The master-curve was investigated for comparing data from different products at a reference temperature of 40°C. Multiple regression analysis indicated Master-Curve presents good agreement for pomelo juice at all concentrations studied with R 2>0.8

Equilibrium, kinetics and thermodynamic studies: adsorption of Remazol Black 5 on the palm kernel shell activated carbon (PKS-AC)

The removal of Remazol Black 5 from the synthetic wastewater using palm kernel shell activated carbon was investigated in terms of initial pH, initial concentration, contact time and temperature. The optimum pH was found at acidic range, pH 2. For equilibrium studies, two isotherm models were used in this study, which is Freundlich and Langmuir, for different temperatures and it is found that Freundlich fitted experimental data very well. In the kinetics study, pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order were tested; the latter equation showed the best represent the experimental data. The change in entropy and enthalpy for an adsorption of the dye were estimated -24.26j/mol K and -9.246kJ/mol respectively

Transesterification reaction optimization and evaluation of biodiesel produced from seed oil of Colocynthis citrullus L.

This work presents Colocynthis citrullus L. (egusi) seed oil as a potential feedstock for biodiesel production. The transesterification process was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) with three-level-three-factors face-centered central composite design employed. Catalyst (NaOH) amount (0.25-1.8％ (w/w), reaction temperature (45-65 °C) and oil-methanol molar ratio (4-10) were studied as important factors influencing the reaction. The optimum values (1:6.54 oil/methanol molar ratio, 1.22％ (w/w) catalyst amount, and 65 ºC reaction temperature) predicted by the mathematical model generated using RSM gave ester yield of 84.46％, under experimental conditions. The fuel properties of egusi oil methyl ester (EOME) measured satisfied both ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 biodiesel standards with a kinematic viscosity of 3.87 mm2/s. Fatty acid profile and fuel properties of EOME were found similar to those of soybean, safflower and sunflower biodiesel