In-Situ Synthesis of Silver Nitrate incorporated with Polysulfone Membrane Characterization: Effect of Ag Precursor

Water treatment using membrane filtration is one of the common methods that can generate higher amount of quality water in future. However, polymer blending method via ex-situ synthesis method shows some weaknesses on membrane modification such as membrane prone to fouling and hydrophobic. In this present work, the characterization of in-situ synthesis of silver nitrate (AgNO3)/polysulfone (PSf) membrane was carried out for water separation purposes. The characterization of in-situ synthesis of AgNO3 in PSf membrane has been investigated with the present of silver (Ag) precursor. The Ag/precursor dope solution thermodynamic stability was evaluated via ternary phase diagram. The membrane was characterized in term of morphology, existence of element and membrane surface roughness. The performance of AgNO3 was highly influences by PSf/alkali characterization. The interaction of PSf/AgNO3/precursor reduced thermodynamic stability of the dope solution and increased the phase inversion rate between polymer and solvent and led to more porous sub layer with larger irregular finger like pores.  In addition, high molecular weight of alkali reacts with AgNO3 effectively and resulted on higher membrane surface roughness where it is increased up to 58 % causing higher surface area of the membrane. The amorphous peak is due to the presence of alkali in the membrane during the XRD analysis. The intensity of these peaks tended to decrease upon addition of silver in PSf membrane, as compared to regular polymer blending method of Ag on PSf membrane. Thus, in-situ synthesis of silver has potential to be used as a method in membrane fabrication as it enhances membrane performance for water separation

Design proposal of the energy installation system for vehicle’s wind turbine

New inventions is relating to the idea of mounting a wind turbine for power generating system in vehicles. This study will investigate on the existing energy conversion and storage systems used in standard vehicle’s power system.This study involves with a proposed design of a vehicle’s wind turbine system. The energy that has been generated by wind turbine will be stored in the 12 volt battery and will then, be distributed to the entire vehicle for the use of the vehicle components. The optimal design for energy conversion system is created based on the review of the existing energy conversion and storage systems which are used in vehicle’s power system. A simulation study using NI Multisim (National Instrument Software) is conducted on the energy conversion and storage system that. The objectives of this study are to convert a mechanical energy from the blade to electrical energy to generate 12V voltage and to store it in a 12 volt battery. The 12V battery voltage will then be supplied to a high voltage system, up to 200V voltage capacity. From the analysis that has been done, the energy from a turbine has the potential to generate power to car system. The wind energy is possible to integrate with other existing and renewable energy. At this stage, the energy gained does not replace the existing one but it can be considered as a new energy source in the future energy developmen

Development of coated peanut separator and frying skillet machine

Coated peanut which known as Kacang Bersalut Istimewa Deqyoung is a product made from groundnut mix with flour and special spices. Currently, there are some issues with the product that slow down the production process. The groundnut is sticking and become like a ping pong size ball and the time consuming to fry is longer. Coated peanut separator and frying skillet machine can overcome the problems and able to increase the production. Furthermore, the machine aim to facilitate workers to carry out their duties and to assist small and medium industries (SMEs) in Malaysia. The design convenient, determination of the material selection and the main components that help to operate the machine are the main aspects have been considered. Design analysis helps to identify the capability of the machine when the forces act at some main parts of the machine. The comparison between manual method and semi-automatic method shows that the production increase. By using semi-automatic method of production, the increment shows almost 84 percent of production compares to manual method

Novel superhydrophobic and superoleophilic sugarcane green ceramic hollow fibre membrane as hybrid oil sorbent-separator of real oil and water mixture

The frequent oil spill accidents in nowadays has aroused great attention all over the world. Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic grafted on various substrates have attracted much attention to treat oil and water mixture because of their unique performance that can effectively separate oil and water mixture. At the same time, ceramic membrane also shows potential substrates to be used in treating oil and water mixture. However, conventional ceramic membrane that made from alumina show drawbacks in term of its high cost production. Herein, we report a new ceramic membrane that derived from agricultural-sugarcane bagasse waste and modified into superhydrophobic and superoleophilic to act as hybrid oil sorbent and separator. In this study, we successfully treat three types of real oil and water mixture from palm oil mill effluent (POME), restaurant and car wash with oil rejection and flux up to 99% and 134 L/m2h, respectively. In summary, this work demonstrates a facile, economic and effective method to fabricate superhydrophobic and superoleophilic substrates for oil and water separation

Novel superhydrophobic and superoleophilic sugarcane green ceramic hollow fibre membrane as hybrid oil sorbent-separator of real oil and water mixture

The frequent oil spill accidents in nowadays has aroused great attention all over the world. Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic grafted on various substrates have attracted much attention to treat oil and water mixture because of their unique performance that can effectively separate oil and water mixture. At the same time, ceramic membrane also shows potential substrates to be used in treating oil and water mixture. However, conventional ceramic membrane that made from alumina show drawbacks in term of its high cost production. Herein, we report a new ceramic membrane that derived from agriculturalsugarcane bagasse waste and modified into superhydrophobic and superoleophilic to act as hybrid oil sorbent and separator. In this study, we successfully treat three types of real oil and water mixture from palm oil mill effluent (POME), restaurant and car wash with oil rejection and flux up to 99% and 134 L/m2 h, respectively. In summary, this work demonstrates a facile, economic and effective method to fabricate superhydrophobic and superoleophilic substartes for oil and water separation

The Optimization of RHS-polysulfone Membrane towards Operating Condition for Humic Acid Removal

This study investigates the effects of rice husk silica (RHS) as additive in the polysulfone membrane to enhance antifouling properties in membrane separation process. The performance (of what?) was evaluated in term of pure water flux (PWF), rejection and antifouling properties. The optimized of normalized flux (Jf /Jo) at different parameter in filtration (pH, ionic strength and tranmembrane-pressure) was carried out by using the response surface methodology (RSM). The results showed that the addition of 4 wt. % RHS give the highest flux at 300.50 L/m².hour (LMH). The highest rejection was found at 3 wt. % of RHS membrane with value 98% for UV254 and 96% for TOC. The optimal value of Jf/Jo was found at 0.62 with the condition of pH: 6.10, ionic strength: 0.05 mol/L and transmembrane-pressure: 2.67 bars. Optimize of RSM analysis from ANOVA also proved that the error of model is less than 0.05% which indicates that the model is significant

Synthesis and Characterization of Visible Light Active Fe-TiO2 using Hydrothermal Method

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is well known due to it usage and has potential in purification methods of water and air pollution. In this study, TiO2 nanoparticle doped with iron (Fe) was synthesized by hydrothermal method. Effect of aging time during hydrothermal treatment on the formation of TiO2 and the performance of photocatalytic activity under visible and ultraviolet light irradiation were investigated. The structure and properties of the sample were evaluated - by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM) and UV-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis). XRD analysis showed the studied samples consisted of anatase phase. FE-SEM images showed an agglomeration of grains with various sizes ranged 30-35 nm.  Increasing aging time resulted in a narrower band gap energy and higher photocatalytic activity as compared to pure TiO2. The result showed Fe-TiO2 aged for 4 h provided the highest percentage (66%) of Methyl Orange (MO) degradation under visible light irradiation. The current finding suggested that, Fe-TiO2 has high potential to degrade organic compound in water pollution &nbsp

Facile fabrication of superhydrophobic and superoleophilic green ceramic hollow fiber membrane derived from waste sugarcane bagasse ash for oil/water separation

Green ceramic hollow fiber membranes with superhydrophobic and superoleophilic surfaces (ss-CHFM/WSBA) were successfully fabricated via facile sol–gel process using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) as precursors. In this work, silica solution was prepared using the modified Sto¨ber method. This process was followed by dipping the pristine membranes into the sol–gel solution at various grafting times (0–90 min), grafting cycles (0–4 cycles), and calcination temperatures (400–600⁰ͦC). The wettability, surface morphology, and chemical composition of the pristine and ss-CHFM/WSBA membranes were investigated. The results showed that increasing the grafting time has increased the wettability of ss-CHFM/WSBA with high contact angle of up to 163.9⁰. Similarly, increasing grafting cycle has enhanced the hydrophobicity of ss-CHFM/WSBA due to the formation of hierarchical structure of grafting cycle which were more than one. The optimum calcination temperature for ss-CHFM/WSBA was identified. It was found that increasing the calcination temperature has degraded the sol template on the surface of ss-CHFM/WSBA, hence decreasing the wettability. The preliminary performance tests showed that ss-CHFM/WSBA grafted at 60 min, 3 cycles, and calcined at 400 ⁰C showed excellent oil/water separation efficiency of 99.9% and oil flux of 137.2 L/m2 h

Self-cleaning antifouling performance based on the surface area of flower-like tio2 as additive for PSf mixed matrix membrane

The photocatalytic polymer mixed matrix membrane (MMM) has been widely used for the separation and purification process. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of structural TiO2 (synthetic TiO2 (ST), flower-like TiO2-100 (FLT-100), and flower-like TiO2-600 (FLT-600)) based on the total surface area for the efficient self-cleaning antifouling property. The asymmetric MMMs were fabricated using the phase inversion process with a different type of structural TiO2 as additive. As a result, the addition of synthesized FLT, especially FLT-100, has influenced the hydrophilicity and surface roughness of the MMM. From the powder analysis, FLT-100 exhibits the highest total surface area with 37.25 m2/g and strongly affects the self-cleaning antifouling performance of the MMM. This membrane produced the highest self-cleaning efficiency (68.8%) compared to FLT-600 (58%) and ST (39.8%) after UV exposure, thus, indicates in a better self-cleaning antifouling property that offers the potential to be considered for commercialization in reducing the maintenance cost by using both physical and chemical cleaning method that becomes a problem in membrane technologies

Significant effect of concentration ratio in synthesizing titania nanoflowers (TNF) powder via facile hydrothermal method

The significant effect of titanium butoxide and hydrochloric acid (TBut/HCl) concentration ratio in synthesizing titania nanoflowers (TNF) towards powder morphologies, crystallographic phases, surface area and band gap were investigated. Various synthesized titania nanostructure were prepared via facile hydrothermal method using titanium butoxide and hydrochloric acid as a mixing composition. The morphologies of synthesizing titania powder were analyzed by using FE-SEM to observe the shape and geometry of the synthesized powder. XRD was used to determine the crystallographic phases of synthesized powder at 2θ angles of 25° to 75°. Each sample was then investigated under BET analyzer to observe the particle surface area and UV-Vis analyzer to determine the band gap. The results demonstrated that the concentration of TBut/HCl ratio gave a very significant effect in transforming the mixing solution into geometrical shape of microspheres, nanoflowers and nanorods of titania as increasing the ratio. At TN0.5, the synthesized powder was clearly showing a circle geometrical shape of particles. The shape was suddenly changed into a round nanoflowers form consist of tiny nanorods at TN1. At TN1.5, the powder morphology shows the nanoflowers started to form in an irregular pattern. As the concentration ratio increased, the nanoflowers form disappeared and nanorods begin to clump. In addition, all synthesized powder was in rutile phases guided by XRD peaks and the band gap value reported from previous works. The particle surface area was also different for each sample since the geometrical shape of powder was changed by increasing the concentration (TBut/HCl) ratio. Thus, concentration ratio of the mixing composition plays a major role in transforming the overall morphologies and structures of hydrothermal synthesis titania particles