Cultivation of pleurotus ostreatus on oil palm fronds mixed with rubber tree sawdust

Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) is cultivated in Malaysia using rubber tree sawdust (RS). Due to a shortage and the increasing cost of rubber tree sawdust, an alternative substrate is needed. This study was undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of oil palm frond (OPF) as an alternative substrate for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus. The OPF and RS were analysed for their elemental compositions. The mycelium growth rate, the time for first pinhead formation and first fruiting bodies, yield, and biological efficiency (BE%) were studied for 100 % OPF, 90 % OPF - 10 % RS, 70 % OPF - 30 % RS, 50 %OPF - 50 % RS, 30 % OPF - 70 % RS, 10 % OPF - 90 % RS and 0 % OPF - 100 % RS substrates supplemented with rice bran and calcium carbonate. The proximate nutritional value of Pleurotus ostreatus first flush was also analysed for 100 % RS and 100% OPF. For mycelium growth rate, time for first pinhead formation and time to first Pleurotus ostreatus crop, the 0% OPF - 100 % RS substrate recorded the shortest time followed by the 10% OPF -90 % RS substrate. The 0 % OPF - 100 % RS substrate gave the highest yield of 135 g (22.6 % BE) whereas 125 g (20.9 % BE) was obtained from the 30 % OPF - 70 % RS substrate. The first flush of Pleurotus ostreatus harvested from the 100 % OPF substrate was richer in protein but lower in fat and carbohydrate compared to the mushrooms from the 100 % RS substrate making it an excellent food for low caloric diet, but OPF alone is not suitable as an alternative substrate for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus as it took a longer growth performance with a lower yield of fruiting bodies compared to RS substrate

Production of biodiesel from palm oil using egg shell waste as heterogeneous catalyst

Egg shell waste was investigated in a triglyceride transesterification with a view to determine its viability as a solid catalyst for the biodiesel production. The utilization of egg shell as a catalyst not only reduces its environmental effects, but also reduces the price of biodiesel to make it competitive with petroleum diesel. In this study, egg shell waste was ground and the powder produced was calcined at 900˚C for 4 hours in a furnace. The physical properties of the catalyst were characterized by using the Fourier Transform-infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the biodiesel conversion was determined by the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). 4wt% of catalyst dosage was fixed throughout the experiment. The results obtained indicated that CaO derived from egg shell waste was comparable with the commercial CaO. The maximum percentage yield of biodiesel by using derived CaO is 75.85% under optimum conditions of 6:1 methanol to oil ratio after 3 hours at 65˚C, while for commercial CaO, 74.97% yield of biodiesel with 3:1 methanol to oil ratio after 3 hours at 60˚C

Issues and management for used disposable diapers in solid waste in the city of Kuala Lumpur

Disposable diapers are indispensable in modern societies. Disposing of soiled diapers is a major global environmental problem as they constitute a large percentage of the municipal solid waste. Kuala Lumpur has a population of 1.79 million in an area of just 243 km2. Currently, Kuala Lumpur’s municipal solid waste generation is about 3.500 tonnes per day where it is sent 80 km away to Tagar Sanitary Landfill for disposal through Taman Beringin Transfer Station which has a capacity of 1,700 tonnes per day. Waste characteristics study conducted in April 2016 showed baby disposable diapers contributed to 14.35 weight %, the fourth main composition after food and organics waste (32%), plastics (25%) and paper (17%). Comprehensive sampling conducted in 2001/2002 and 2014 showed the average diapers content was about 5.14 and 10.68 % weight, respectively. This paper looks at the issues of used baby diapers in solid waste, the options for its disposal worldwide such as landfilling, composting, recycling and incinerating with energy generation and then selecting the most sustainable, practical, effective and efficient disposal option for Kuala Lumpur

Evaluation of Palm Biodiesel -Diesel Blending Properties, Storage Stability and Corrosion Behavior

Abstract. Palm Biodiesel, which can be produced from transesterification palm oil with methanol, is an alternative fuel for diesel engines. It can be mixed with diesel fuels and used in diesel engines with no or slight modification. Therefore, in this study, commercially available diesel fuel was blended with biodiesel produced from transesterification of palm oil. The stability of the pure palm biodiesel (B100) was investigated over a storage time of 2, 4 and 6 months. The study assessed the corrosion rate of metals exposed to palm biodiesel. The kinematic viscosity, density and flash points of the blends increased with biodiesel amount in the fuel blend. However, pour point of the blends decreased as the amount of biodiesel in the blends is increased. Kinematic viscosity, pour point and flash point slightly increased with storage time. The average corrosion rate for copper is 0.5341 mpy, 0.2438 mpy for aluminium and 0.1802 mpy for mild steel

Facile synthesis of polyethylenimine-modified sugarcane bagasse adsorbent for removal of anionic dye in aqueous solution

Many studies have reported that surface modification of various type of materials by using polyethylenimine (PEI), usually necessitate to be combined with the crosslinkers, namely glutaradehyde, sodium tripolyphosphate, etc. The sugarcane bagasse (SB) is a fibrous agricultural waste derived from sugarcane stalks residue which has rich-cellulose content that makes it amenable to surface functionalization for tailored application. Thus, it is possible for SB material to modify by using solely PEI and eliminate crosslinking step. In this study, SB was used as supporting material for modified PEI to produce polyethylenimine-modified sugarcane bagasse (PmSB) for the adsorption of Reactive Black 5 (RB5) dyes from aqueous solution. The effects of contact time (60 – 300 min), adsorbent dosage (0.05 – 0.15 g); initial dye concentration (0.01 – 0.10 g/L), pH (5 - 9) and temperature (30 – 70 °C) were varied to evaluate the performance of the PSB under different experimental conditions. The kinetics study revealed that the adsorption experimental data fitted the pseudo second order model. The equilibrium adsorption data also fitted the Langmuir model with R2 of 0.99 and maximum monolayer capacity of 25 mg/g. The thermodynamic parameters suggest that the RB5 dye adsorption by PEI modified SB was spontaneous, exothermic and exhibited chemisorption. The adsorbent can be regenerated up to 4 cycles with the percentage dye removal greater than 80%). Therefore, the PmBS adsorbent has proven that the PEI is solely sufficient as modifying agents for SB material, even without an assistance of crosslinker reagents for removal of RB5 dye in aqueous solution

Development of live attenuated Enterovirus 71 vaccine strains that confer protection against lethal challenge in mice

Besides causing mild hand, foot and mouth infections, Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is associated with neurological complications and fatality. With concerns about rising EV-A71 virulence, there is an urgency for more efective vaccines. The live attenuated vaccine (LAV) is a more valuable vaccine as it can elicit both humoral and cellular immune responses. A miRNA-based vaccine strain (pIY) carrying let-7a and miR-124a target genes in the EV-A71 genome which has a partial deletion in the 5′NTR (∆11bp) and G64R mutation (3Dp°l ) was designed. The viral RNA copy number and viral titers of the pIY strain were signifcantly lower in SHSY-5Y cells that expressed both let-7a and miR-124a. Inhibition of the cognate miRNAs expressed in RD and SHSY-5Y cells demonstrated de-repression of viral mRNA translation. A previously constructed multiply mutated strain, MMS and the pIY vaccine strain were assessed in their ability to protect 4-week old mice from hind limb paralysis. The MMS showed higher amounts of IFN-γ ex vivo than the pIY vaccine strain. There was absence of EV-A71 antigen in the skeletal muscles and spinal cord micrographs of mice vaccinated with the MMS and pIY strains. The MMS and pIY strains are promising LAV candidates developed against severe EV-A71 infections

Development of auditing in Malaysia: Legal, political and historical influences

This work investigates the role and contribution of external auditing as practised in the Malaysian society during the forty year period from independence in 1957 to just before the onset of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.It applies the political economic theory introduced by Tinker (1980) and refined by Cooper & Sherer (1984), which focuses on the social relations aspects of professional activity rather than economic forces alone.In a case study format where qualitative data was gathered mainly from primary and secondary source materials, the study found that the function of auditing in the Malaysian society in most cases is devoid of any essence of mission; instead it is created, shaped and transformed by the pressures which give rise to its development over time.The largely insignificant role that it serves is intertwined within the contexts in which it operates

A Comparative Study Of Two Different Approaches In Teaching Thermodynamics

A preliminary study has been carried out to compare the outcome of two different approaches in teaching thermodynamics. The results from the first year undergraduate students taking the subject for the first time in two classes conducted by different lecturers using different approaches indicate that the impact on the top half of the class is not significant whereas to the other half the approaches may have some bearing on the performance of the students. Keywords: Thermodynamics, teaching approach, undergraduate teachin

Bottom-up approach of teaching classical thermodynamics in the Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering, UTM

The Faculty consists of five departments that offer five bachelor of engineering programmes. The curricula of four of the programmes namely chemical, chemical bioprocess, chemical-polymer, chemical-gas, consist of the same core subjects. The petroleum engineering curriculum has the same thermodynamics subject as the other four but the core subjects are different. Loverude, Kautz, and Heron 2002 presented their work on the difficulty of teaching the first law of thermodynamics to physics students. The main problem was that students did not recognise the situation or system for which the first law of thermodynamics could be applied. In a sense, their problem was similar to ours where all the concepts given in the earlier topics were lost to the students when they have reached the application topics in the last part of the subject. The main characteristic of bottom-up approach is to first teach students the basic components of a system or concepts that increase in complexity. The final system is then taught after about 75 percent of the semester is over. Students often complained of how the simple systems or concepts did not help them very much to understand or be able to design the final system. Whale and Cravalho, 1999 dealt with the difficulty in transmitting thermodynamic principles by using two approaches. One approach was to use design projects such as a refrigerator to present the various thermodynamics topics and how those topics were applied. Another approach was more complicated in that the curriculum of the programme was modified to integrate a few subjects. We felt that improving the teaching technique for the bottom up approach or use the top down approach in the form of design projects was easier to implement. The programmes in FCNE do not by design end up producing graduates who work or design power plants, refrigeration units or any of the systems taught in classical thermodynamics. They also do not use the power cycles or cooling cycles in other subjects. While their grasp of the final application may not be good, much of the concepts or basic units taught in thermodynamics will be used by the students in other subjects of their programmes. Our paper examines the curricula of the programmes in the faculty and shows that the bottom-up teaching approach in classical thermodynamics is appropriate for our students

Particle mixing in liquid fluidised beds

Rapid particle mixing in fluidised beds is one of the major advantages in their application. Much work has been done on the measurement and correlation of heat transfer coefficients with the basic physical properties of the system; however, their dependence on the fluid and solids flow patterns is not fully understood. In this investigation, a mathematical model was employed to predict the unsteady thermal behaviour of the liquid fluidised systems. The bed was considered as being divided into a series of cells, each containing a homogenised mixture of liquid and particles. Hence, the level of mixing decreased with increasing number of cells. The predicted thermal responses in the liquid stream emerging from the surface of the bed were compared with those measured in the experiments. Thus the degree of particle mixing inside fluidized beds can be determined