Process Control of Pink Guava Puree Pasteurization Process: Simulation and Validation by Experiment

Recently, process control has been applied extensively in many food processes include pasteurization process. The purpose is to control and maintain the product temperature at desired value. In order to be able to control the process properly, the model of the process needs to be obtained. This research aims to obtain the empirical model and to determine the best control strategy in pasteurization process of pink guava puree. The PID controller tuned by different tuning methods was simulated using Simulink and closed loop responses were observed. Simulation results revealed that PID controller tuned by minimizing of integral absolute error (IAE) method were satisfactory adaptable in this process in term of faster settling time, less overshoot, smallest values of IAE and ISE that less than 1. Then, experiment was performed using this method in order to validate simulation results. In general, a good agreement was achieved between experimental data and dynamic simulation result in control of pasteurization temperature process with  R2=0.83. As the conclusion, the results obtained can be used as the recommendation for a suitable control strategy for the pasteurization process of pink guava puree in the industry

Organic materials as polymer electrolytes for supercapacitor application

Supercapacitors inevitably attract much attention among the scientific community and the general public since they combine the desirable characteristics of batteries and capacitors. The successful development of environmentally friendly supercapacitors is possible thanks to the organic materials obtained from renewable sources that are considered viable alternative materials for a safer and higher energy polymer electrolytes (PE) system. These organic polymer electrolytes (OPEs) are generally materials consisting of carbon and other atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and halogen. This system is supramolecular in nature and produces high ionic conductivity when doped with ions. There is a myriad of future supercapacitor applications, including their use as supplementary energy sources in the electric grid, electric and microhybrid vehicles, and cell phone base stations. This chapter specifically discusses the recent progress made in the application of OPEs, their performance, challenges, and future directions in the context of supercapacitors

Refractive index sensor based on lateral-offset of coreless silica interferometer

A compact, cost-effective and high sensitivity fiber interferometer refractive index (RI) sensor based on symmetrical offset coreless silica fiber (CSF) configuration is proposed, optimized and demonstrated. The sensor is formed by splicing a section of CSF between two CSF sections in an offset manner. Thus, two distinct optical paths are created with large index difference, the first path through the connecting CSF sections and the second path is outside the CSF through the surrounding media. RI sensing is established from direct interaction of light with surrounding media, hence high sensitivity can be achieved with a relatively compact sensor length. In the experimental work, a 1.5 mm sensor demonstrates RI sensitivity of 750 nm/RIU for RI range between 1.33 and 1.345. With the main attributes of high sensitivity and compact size, the proposed sensor can be further developed for related applications including blood diagnosis, water quality control and food industries

Effect of calcination temperature on structure of mesoporous borosilicate bioglass

Recently, most researchers have been focusing on the development of the mesoporous bioactive glasses for medical application. These materials are capable for bone tissue (soft and hard) regeneration and the delivery of bio-responsive active therapeutic molecules such as drug, proteins, nucleic acids, and peptides. However, the structure properties of the mesoporous bioactive glass are easily been controlled with a small change of calcination temperature during the sample preparation. In this perception, a series of mesoporous borosilicate bioactive glasses (MBBGs) with the composition of 10B2O -70SiO2 -15CaO- 5P2O5 were prepared using the combination of sol-gel and evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) and characterised. The calcination temperature of the bioactive glass preparation was controlled with varied temperature of 400 C, 500 C, 600 C and 700 C. The amorphous nature of the prepared samples were confirmed using XRD pattern. The EDX and FTIR spectra shows a small amount of carbon trapping inside the sample is increases with the increased of calcination temperature. All MBBGs samples show a ratio of Si-O-NBO and Si-O-Si (sym) bigger than 1. It is established that the structure of the mesoporous borosilicate bioactive glass can be tailored by controlling the calcination temperature

The effect of changing disk parameters on whirling frequency of high speed rotor system

The requirement for efficiency improvement of machines has caused machine rotor to be designed to rotate at high speeds. It is known that whirling natural frequency of a shaft changes with the change of shaft speed and the design needs to avoid points of resonance where the whirling frequency equals the shaft speed. At high speeds, a shaft may have to carry a huge torque along and this torsional effect has been neglected in past shaft analyses. Whirling behaviour of high speed rotating shaft is investigated in this study with consideration of the torsional effect of the shaft. The shaft system under study consists of a shaft, discs and two bearings, and the focus is on the effect of the disc parameters. A finite element formulation is developed based on Nelson's 5 degrees of freedom (DOF) per node element that includes the torsional degree of freedom. Bolotin's method is applied to the derived Mathieu-Hill type of equation to get quadratic eigenvalues problem that gives the forward and backward frequencies of the shaft. Campbell's diagrams are drawn in studying the effect of discs on the whirling behaviour of the shaft. It is found that the addition of disks on the shaft decreases the whirling frequency of the shaft and the frequency is lower for mass located at the centre of the shaft compared to the one located near to the end. The effect of torsional motion is found to be significant where the difference between critical speed of 4DOF and 5DOF models can be as high as 15%

Draft genome sequence of the prazosin-degrading bacillus sp. Strain pr5, isolated from a river receiving hospital and urban wastewater in Malaysia

We report the complete genome sequence of Bacillus sp. strain PR5, isolated from a river receiving hospital and urban wastewater in Malaysia, which demonstrated a high capability for degrading prazosin. This genome sequence of 4,525,264 bp exhibited 41.5% GC content, 4,402 coding sequences, and 32 RNAs

Mechanical and thermal properties of binary blends poly lactic acid (PLA) and recycled high-density polyethylene (rHDPE)

In this work, plastic bottles made of high-density polyethene (HDPE) have been recycled and blended with poly(lactic acid) (PLA). The aim of the work is to prepare a binary blend of PLA and Recycled HDPE (rHDPE) at 90:10 blend ratio by using a twin-screw extruder. The blends were compression moulded and characterized in terms of mechanical and thermal properties. It was found that the rHDPE increased the tensile modulus of the binary blend. Fracture morphology demonstrated that the blend of rHDPE and PLA is immiscible. In terms of thermal property, as measured by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), the glass transition temperature of the binary blend showed a lower value, whereas the crystallization process was significantly improved

Application of sayong ball clay membrane filtration for Ni (II) removal from industrial wastewater

Wastewater containing heavy metals, such as nickel ions (Ni2+), discharged from industry to water streams poses a serious threat because even at low concentrations, it does not naturally degrade and is toxic to human and aquatic life. This article reviews a novel technique for wastewater treatment using a Sayong ball clay (SBC) membrane to remove nickel from industrial waste water. SBC powder was achieved through milling using a planetary ball mill (milling time; 10, 20 and 30 h), further labelled as SBC 10, SBC 20 and SBC 30, with a ball-to-powder of ratio 7: 1 and rotation speed of 300 rpm. The physical characteristics of the apparent porosities, bulk density and shrinkage were investigated. XRD was used to study the phase, while FESEM was used to analysethe microstructure of the fired membrane. The FESEM microstructure indicates a decreased particle size (SB30). Filtration was conducted using a dead-end filtration system. The fabricated SBC 10, 20 and 30 membranes showed significant removal of nickelfrom industrial wastewater-88.87%, 82.96% and 85.13%, respectively. This study revealed that the SBC membrane is a promising membrane to remove nickel from industrial wastewater. The results also indicate the possibility of highlighting the introduced technique as a new technique for the treatment of industrial wastewater. As a new trend for waste management, pollution prevention could be applied in Malaysia as one of the advanced biotechnologies to solve various environmental problems

Gold-nanoparticles microfiber saturable absorber for mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser

We demonstrate the generation of 743 fs soliton pulses in erbium-doped fiber laser employing gold-nanoparticles saturable absorber. The mode-locking operation is achieved with gold-nanoparticles/polydimethyl-siloxane composite coated on a microfiber with 10\\mu m}. waist diameter, indicating the availability of fabricated saturable absorber for pulsed operation in 1.55\\mu m} spectral range

Stability studies of nano-cream containing piroxicam

The aim of this study is to study the stability of the nano-cream formula containing the newly synthesized palm oil esters when stored for reasonable storage duration. The prepared 0.5% piroxicam nano-cream formula contained phosphate buffer as external phase, palm oil esters as the oil phase and a combination of (80:20) of Tween 80 and Span 20 as emulsifier at a ratio of 37:25:38, respectively. Piroxicam is a hydro-lipophobic drug. Stability on storage is an important aspect which ensures the dosage form can exert the effects it is supposed to exert for the duration of storage. Droplets size, electrical conductivity, drug content, pH and rheological parameters are the parameters that have been assessed under different temperature to evaluate the stability of nano-cream preparation. Thus, experiments which measure the above parameters were conducted at storage temperatures of 4, 25 and 40οC.The data obtained from the stability study conducted on nano-cream formula showed that this formulation was stable for the whole 3 months period of the study when stored at tested several temperatures.Keywords: Palm oil esters; Nonionic surfactant; Piroxicam; Nano-crea