Optimal Design of Biodiesel Production Process from Waste Cooking Palm Oil

AbstractA design methodology for biodiesel production from waste cooking palm oil is proposed. The proposed method is flexible to the biodiesel process using various catalyst types: alkali and acid catalyst in homogenous and heterogeneous forms, and different process: enzyme process and supercritical process. A two-step approach of hydrolysis and esterification processes is also considered. Waste cooking palm oil consists of a mixture of triglyceride (e.g., trilaurin, tripalmitin, triolein, tristearin, trilinolein and trilinolenin) and free fatty acids (e.g., lauric acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic and linolenic acid). A driving force approach and thermodynamic insight are employed to design separation units (e.g., flash separator and distillation) minimizing the energy consumption. Steady-state simulations of the developed biodiesel processes are performed and economic analysis is used to find a suitable biodiesel process. The results show that based on a net present value, the heterogeneous acid catalyzed process is the best process for biodiesel production. With the design methodology, the proposed biodiesel process can save the energy requirement of 41.5%, compared with a conventional process

Systematic sustainable process design and analysis of biodiesel processes

Biodiesel is a promising fuel alternative compared to traditional diesel obtained from conventional sources such as fossil fuel. Many flowsheet alternatives exist for the production of biodiesel and therefore it is necessary to evaluate these alternatives using defined criteria and also from process intensification opportunities. This work focuses on three main aspects that have been incorporated into a systematic computer-aided framework for sustainable process design. First, the creation of a generic superstructure, which consists of all possible process alternatives based on available technology. Second, the evaluation of this superstructure for systematic screening to obtain an appropriate base case design. This is done by first reducing the search space using a sustainability analysis, which provides key indicators for process bottlenecks of different flowsheet configurations and then by further reducing the search space by using economic evaluation and life cycle assessment. Third, the determination of sustainable design with/without process intensification using a phenomena-based synthesis/design method. A detailed step by step application of the framework is highlighted through a biodiesel production case study

Performance Analysis of Integral Process of Bio-Oil Production, Bio-Oil Upgrading, and Hydrogen Production from Sewage Sludge

This research investigated the production of bio-oil through the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process using sewage sludge from wastewater, along with the hydrotreating of the bio-oil. The simulation process began with a wastewater flow rate of 460 tonnes/day, where the feedstock was divided into two streams. The first stream underwent the HTL process, while the other was directed towards hydrogen production. The resulting products included gaseous products, crude bio-oil, and heavy liquid. The crude bio-oil was further upgraded by introducing hydrogen, which was obtained through gasification and purified by gas separation using a palladium membrane. The primary product mainly comprised alkane, with a carbon content of 85.89% and hydrogen content of 14.11%. For the purification of gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and fuel oil, a fractionation distillation tower arrangement was designed. In addition, Additionally, the gaseous products underwent fractionation distillation to obtain 98% nitrogen and 99.9% liquid carbon dioxide. Considering the carbon footprint, it was observed that the bio-oil production process resulted in the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

Ketonuria in Holstein Friesian Milking Cows in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Abstract Ketonuria tests on Holstein Friesian milking cows were performed at a farm in Chiangmai, Thailand. Test 1: 20 cows were tested for ketonuria at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 weeks postpartum. 45% of the cows showed negative results and 78% of these were low milkers (cumulative 14-week milk production, < 2000 kg). Cows testing positive for ketonuria were more at week 2 and 4 than at week 6, 8, 10 and 12 postpartum (30, 30, 5, 10, 10 and 15% respectively). There was no ketonuria detected at 14 weeks postpartum. Fifty percent of ketonuria cows at weeks 2 and 4 postpartum were high milkers (cumulative 14-week milk production, 3001-4000 kg). Variations in the number of ketonuria cows from week 2 to 14 postpartum among low, moderate (cumulative 14-week milk production, 2001-3000 kg) and high milkers were not significant (χ 2 = 7.57, p>0.05). There was no correlation between ketonuria cows and milk production (contingency coefficient: C = 0.78, p>0.05). Test 2: 24 cows were tested monthly for ketonuria at 3 periods postpartum: 0-4, 5-8 and 9-12 weeks. 62.5% of the cows were negative at all testing periods. There were more cows with ketonuria at 0-4 weeks than at 5-8 and 9-12 weeks postpartum (21, 17 and 17% respectively). The correlation between ketonuria occurrence and milk production at 0-4 and 9-12 weeks sampling period were significant (p<0.05, ρ = 0.41 and 0.44 respectively) but not at 5-8 weeks postpartum (ρ = 0.39, p>0.05)

Coupling life cycle assessment with process simulation for ecodesign of chemical processes

Because of the central position of the chemical industries along the value chain, process design has a pivotal role, involving many decision makers and multiple levels of decisions. To tackle the environmental concern at source, this article presents a methodological framework for process ecodesign, coupling flowsheeting simulators both for production and energy processes with a Life Cycle Assessment module that generalizes and automates the evaluation of environmental impacts. The life cycle inventory is carried out through the combined use of mass and energy balances resulting both from the global simulation of the process and its associated energy production requirement and from the use of inventory database (i.e., Ecoinvent v3) embedded in the Life Cycle Assessment software tool used (SimaPro). Different process alternatives can thus be evaluated in a systematic way and the energy‐related emissions for any given process that match exactly the real situation can be computed without introducing a bias in the estimation. Through comparisons between a case base and process alternatives, a systematic decision can be made in terms of whether a solution is moving the process towards a more sustainable operation. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is first illustrated through the case study of benzene production and second, by a biodiesel production process from waste vegetable oils which is one of the foremost alternative fuels to those refined from petroleum product

檢查LINE在泰國用戶的行為， 動機，態度和影響

In 2014, Thailand reached the second most LINE users globally. For improving of firms to use LINE Official Accounts (OAs) as mobile marketing communication efficiently, users' behavior, motivation, attitudes and factors influencing OAs use and adoption should be comprehended. This research investigated 306 LINE users particularly in Thailand using the online questionnaire. The results found that the users' behavior in Thailand using LINE due to it is user-friendly and prevalent. Users have a habit using LINE daily, especially during free time and the alert notifications. Most of them use LINE to keep in touch with friends and family including business purposes. Chi-square test revealed significant difference between users' behavior and demographic factors. The majority of the users' motivation is entertainment while the users have a positive attitude toward LINE. Regarding the influence factors, free emoticon/animation sticker is the main factor which attract users to add OAs as friends. The 'Block' function enable to prevent LINE users from the invasion of privacy and result in users' positive attitude towards the firms. Moreover, the users prefer promotions and tips in short/picture messages once a day from OAs. This study could be suggested to the firms for achieving brand awareness and customer increase with loyalty on mobile marketing.2014年，泰國成為LINE在全球中的第二大用户群。目前利用LINE的官方帳號来行销是新颖企業有效的移動營銷方式，而本研究以泰國之LINE行動通訊軟體用戶為樣本，調查LINE在泰國用戶的行為，動機，態度與影響以了解其使用行為原因，據此改進企業透過LINE官方帳號來有效地進行移動營銷。本研究是利用線上問卷訪談306位泰國的LINE之用戶所得知。研究發現大部分LINE用戶會使用LINE通訊軟體的因素包含了普及化及易用性等兩個原因。泰國LINE用户已習慣性每日使用，尤其空閒時與通知顯示時，而大部分用戶會使用LINE來跟朋友及家人傳達情感、交流，以及工作上的沟通使用。透過卡方檢驗之結果顯示，用戶之行為及人口特性調查間有顯著的差異。LINE用戶使用之主因為娛樂以及大部分用戶對於LINE是有良好正面觀感的使用態度。而LINE官方帳號所提供於用戶免費的表情貼圖與動態貼圖是吸引用戶加入該官方帳號的主要因素。而「封鎖」功能對於LINE用戶可以保護個人之隱私外，也讓用戶對其抱持了正向態度。除此之外，LINE用戶也喜歡接收到企業的官方帳號以短信與圖像通知有關促銷活動與技巧提示之訊息，以每日一封為限。此研究能提供建議於企業以提高品牌形象與增加客戶對移動營銷的忠誠度。List of Contents 摘要 I Abstract II List of Contents III List of Figures V List of Tables VI 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Research Background and Motivation 1 1.2 Research Objectives 4 2. Literature review 5 2.1 Behavior 5 2.2 Motivation and attitude 5 2.3 Factor of uses and adoption LINE official account 7 3. Research framework and methodology 8 3.1 Research framework 8 3.2 Data collection 8 3.3 Measures 9 4. Results and Discussion 10 4.1. Demographic data 10 4.2 LINE user behavior 10 4.2.1 The reason of using LINE 13 4.2.2 Duration of LINE using 13 4.2.3 The objective of using LINE 14 4.3 Motivation and Attitude toward the use of LINE 14 4.4 Factors influencing use and adoption of LINE Official Accounts 15 4.4.1 Free stickers 16 4.4.2 Block function 17 4.4.3 LINE Official Account message 19 4.5 Operation development of LINE Official Accounts 22 4.5.1 Free stickers 24 4.5.2 Kind of messages' contents of LINE Official Account 24 4.5.3 The number of LINE Official Account messages 25 5. Conclusion 26 5.1 Key findings 26 5.2 Contribution 27 5.3 Limitation and direction of future research 28 References 30 Appendix 3

Performance analysis of two-stage pressure retarded osmosis

The performance of a two-stage pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) for power generation with a total membrane length of 1 meter was investigated and analyzed in this work. Two feed configurations of freshwater and seawater were studied: one with the freshwater entering at the first stage only and the other with freshwater entering at both stages. The effect of membrane length and flow ratio between freshwater and seawater on the PRO performance were also examined. The results revealed that the performances of both feed configurations were quite similar. The membrane with a shorter length offered a higher average power density than that of a longer length. It was also revealed that the flow ratio had a strong influence on the average power density produced. The maximum average power density of 10.15 W/m2 was obtained at the applied hydraulic pressure of 12 bar, the flow ratio of 5, and the membrane length of both stages of 0.5 meter. The best water utilization was achieved at 65%

Process intensification approach for design and optimization of biodiesel production from palm fatty acid distillate

Design of the biodiesel production from palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) using process intensification approach is studied in technical, economic and environmental view points. Firstly, the transport phenomena analysis is performed to select the suitable intensified unit. The reactive distillation is selected and used in esterification – transesterification process and hydrolysis – esterification process. The optimum condition of reactive distillation in esterification – transesterification is achieved when the methanol is fed at the 3rd stage of the 4-stage column and the liquid holdup is maintained at 6 m3. The intensified esterification – transesterification process offers higher biodiesel yield and consumes less energy compared with the intensified hydrolysis – esterification process. The economic analysis shows that the intensified esterification-transesterification process is found to be economically feasible. Finally, environment assessment based on life cycle analysis (LCA) indicates that the environmental impact of both processes are similar

Comparison between pressure retarded osmosis model using batch and continuous water supply sources

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a novel renewable energy technology that generates electricity from two water sources. Due to the osmotic pressure difference, freshwater permeates across a membrane to the other side, where the high-pressure seawater flows and drives a turbine to generate power. Many mathematic models have been proposed to evaluate the performance of a PRO. However, it was found that most performance of the PRO that have been reported were performance by using freshwater with limited supply (batch) in the model. It is not accurate as, in practice, the supply of freshwater occurs in a continuous manner. In this work, the influence of batch and continuous supply of fresh water on the performance of PRO was demonstrated. The effect of flow direction, i.e., concurrent and counter-current flows, was also examined. The model simulation was performed by using MATLLAB program, and the performance of PRO is expressed in terms of average power density. The results revealed that the batch and continuous supplies of freshwater had a strong impact on the performance of the PRO. However, the performance of concurrent and counter-current flow were not significantly different

Preliminary Analysis of Hydrogen Production Integrated with Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an interesting option for electricity generation. However, the usage of pure hydrogen feeding to PEMFC faces many problems such as high price and gas storage capacity. On-board fuel processor integrated with PEMFC is therefore a more preferable option. Two hydrogen production processes from crude ethanol feed, a by-product of fermentation of corn stover, integrated with PEMFC were developed and proposed. They are steam reforming (SR) process integrated with PEMFC and steam reforming process coupled with a CO preferential oxidation (COPROX) reactor with PEMFC. The results showed that the optimal operating conditions for both processes were similar i.e. S/F ratio of 9, WGS reactor temperature of 250oC and membrane area of 0.6 m2. However, the optimal SR temperature of both processes were different i.e. 500oC and 460oC. Both processes produced pure hydrogen gas at 0.53 mol/s. The energy requirement of the SR process alone was higher than SR process coupled with a COPROX about 0.19 MW. The produced hydrogen gas entered PEMFC at current density of 1.1 A cm-2, generating the power at of 0.44 W cm-2