Utilization of Glycerol from Biodiesel Industry By-Product into Several Higher Value Product

Since the 1980s the energy demand has been increasing steadily, including diesel fuel. On the other hand the oil reserve in the world was increasingly limited because of being the product that could not be renewed. Therefore, effort was carried out to look for the alternative fuel that could be renewed and environment friendly. The alternative energy from new renewable energy is a solution to reduce the dependence of fossil energy. The renewable energy consists of the energy of water, wind, biomass or biofuels, solar energy, ocean energy, and geothermal energy. One of the biofuels is biodiesel. Biodiesel is diesel fuel which is made from vegetable oil by transesterification. The abundance of glycerol will result in declining sales value of glycerol as a by-product of the biodiesel plant. It should be anticipated to improve the usefulness of glycerol both in terms of quantity and its variants. The increasing usefulness of glycerol will result in the higher price of glycerol that will increase the profitability of biodiesel plants. Among the usefulness of glycerol investigated is as an ingredient in pharmaceutical products, polyether, emulsifiers, fabric softener, stabilizers, preservatives in bread, ice cream, cosmetic ingredients, a propellant binder, and others. This chapter explains the utilization of glycerol to produce triacetin as bioadditive and polyglycidyl nitrate (PGN) as a propellant binder. Triacetin is used to increase octane number of fuel and improve the biodiesel’s performance. Propellant binder consists of two kinds of non-energetic polymers and polymer energetic. The most energetic polymer is PGN. The focus of this chapter is to determine each step of reactions, operating conditions of process and the results of products

Effect of ageing and FAS modification on the wettability of anodized Al alloy

Micro-nano porous oxide layer was developed on AA2024 by phosphoric acid anodization process (PAAO). A low surface energy material (Fluoroalkylsilane-13) was applied on the developed oxide layer in order to reduce the wettability of the surface. The FAS modified surface exhibited hydrophobic with water contact angle of about 1300 and sliding angle of greater than 900. The structural changes of PAAO during natural ageing improved the hydrophobic property of the surface. The surface morphology analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) showed that the FAS coating was uniform and intact to the developed oxide layer. The AFM results revealed that there was about 30% decrease in Ra value after 30 days of natural ageing compared to freshly modified surface. This variation in the nanometer scale roughness due to the natural aging of PAAO caused the surface to superhydrophobic (SH) (WCA-1600 and sliding angle <50). Similar SH property had also been achieved by artificial ageing (vacuum heat treatment at 80°C for 1 h). Composition analysis by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) revealed that the amounts of F and Si were higher in the case of vacuum heat treated specimen compared to the naturally aged. The potentiodynamic polarization experiments were conducted in 3.5% NaCl solution and the results were discussed

Hybrid scheme for fault tolerant survivable WDM optical networks: An analytical approach with wavelength conversion

Dynamic lightpath protection in survivable WDM networks requires finding a pair of diverse routes (i.e., a primary route and a backup route that are link-disjoint) that form a cycle upon the arrival of a new connection request. This paper presents a hybrid adaptive survivability algorithm that combines the positive effects of restoration and protection. The overall goal of the proposed approach is to improve the restoration efficiency by providing tradeoffs between proactive protection and dynamic restoration. Experimental results simulated by ns-2 network simulator and analytical results for wavelength conversion case using MATLAB 7.3 are compared. In both the case hybrid scheme achieves significantly lower blocking probability, higher throughput, higher utilization and lower restoration than the conventional dynamic survivable techniques. The results obtained by approximate analytical model are almost identical with that of ns-2 simulated results. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH

Structure and phase transformation behaviour of electroless Ni–P composite coatings

This paper addresses the structural characteristics and phase transformation behaviour of plain electroless Ni–P coating and electroless Ni–P–Si3N4, Ni–P–CeO2 and Ni–P–TiO2 composite coatings. The X-ray diffraction patterns of electroless Ni–P–Si3N4, Ni–P–CeO2 and Ni–P–TiO2 composite coatings are very similar to that of plain electroless Ni–P coating, both in as plated and heattreated conditions. Selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns obtained on the Ni–P matrix of Ni–P–Si3N4, Ni–P–CeO2 and Ni–P–TiO2 composite coatings exhibit diffuse ring patterns resembling the one obtained for plain electroless Ni–P coating. Phase transformation behaviour studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicates that the variation in crystallization temperature and the energy evolved during crystallization of plain electroless Ni–P coating and electroless Ni–P–Si3N4, Ni–P–CeO2 and Ni–P–TiO2 composite coatings is not significant. The study concludes that incorporation of Si3N4, CeO2 and TiO2 particles in the Ni–P matrix does not have any influence on the structure and phase transformation behaviour of electroless Ni–P coatings

Effect of Anodized Oxide Layer Aging on Wettability of Alkyl Silane Coating Developed on Aerospace Aluminum Alloy

Incipient nanoporous texture was developed by phosphoric acid anodization (PAAO) process on AA2024 specimen. The developed oxide layer was modified with low surface energy material fluoroalkyl-silane (FAS-13) by simple immersion technique to improve the hydrophobic property of the surface. Atomic force microscopy results showed that there was a significant reduction (30 pct) in surface roughness due to the aging of PAAO. The water contact angle measurement revealed that there was a gradual increase in WCA from 130 to 160 deg due to the aging of PAAO. A systematic composition analysis was carried out to understand the interfacial chemical reaction and also to differentiate the coating formation mechanism between the natural and artificial aging processes. The potentiodynamic polarization results revealed that the superhydrophobic (SH) surface exhibited about 15 and 4 times improved corrosion resistance compared to bare specimen and PAAO, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results also showed the improved corrosion inhibition behavior of vacuum heat-treated and FAS-modified SH surface among the developed coatings

Direct multiple shoots proliferation of black night shade (Solanum nigrum l.) from shoot tip explants induced by thidiazuron

The present investigation was undertaken in Black Night Shade (Solanum nigrum L.) which is an important medicinal plant. Direct multiple shoots proliferation was achieved from shoot tip. The shoot tips were cultured on MS medium fortified with Thidiazuron (TDZ) (1.0-7.0 mg/L) for multiple shoot induction. Multiple shoots proliferation was best observed at 3.0 mg/L TDZ from the shoot tip explants within three weeks of culture. Shoot number per explant ranged between 2 and 10. Individual shoots were aseptically excised and sub cultured in the same media for shoot elongation. The elongated shoots were transferred to Indole Acetic Acid/Indole Butyric Acid (IAA/IBA) (0.5mg/L–2.0mg/L) for root induction. Rooting was observed within two weeks of culture. Rooted plantlets were successfully hardened under culture conditions and subsequently established in the field conditions. The recorded survival rate of the plants was 86%. Plants looked healthy with no visually detectable phenotypic variations