Hot gas desulphurisation using liquid tin.

Present integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) systems demonstrate high /stem efficiency and impressive environmental performance, giving them an edge over conventional pulverised fuel power stations. A key area in the development of IGCC is hot fuel gas clean-up (HGCU). Fuel gas cleaning at elevated temperatures reduces thermal efficiency losses associated with gas quenching in conventional coal gas cleaning methods. The current hot gas clean-up method centres on the use of metal oxide sorbents for sulphur removal and the utilisation of a ceramic barrier filter for particulate cleaning. A fresh and radical approach may provide the key to overcoming the inherent limitations associated with metal oxide sorbents

Air pollution modelling to predict maximum ground level concentration for dust from a palm oil mill stack

The study is to model emission from a stack to estimate ground level concentration from a palm oil mill. The case study is a mill located in Kuala Langat, Selangor. Emission source is from boilers stacks. The exercise determines the estimate the ground level concentrations for dust to the surrounding areas through the utilization of modelling software. The surround area is relatively flat, an industrial area surrounded by factories and with palm oil plantations in the outskirts. The model utilized in the study was to gauge the worst-case scenario. Ambient air concentrations were garnered calculate the increase to localized conditions

Removal of boron and arsenic from petrochemical wastewater using zeolite as adsorbent

Petrochemical wastewater is one of the major industrial concerns due to the toxicity of heavy metals such as boron and arsenic. These metals must be progressively treated before discharged into receiving water. In this research, adsorption of boron and arsenic was conducted using natural zeolite (clinoptilolite). The arsenic and boron removal efficiencies using natural zeolite as adsorbents are 66 and 52 %, respectively, at its optimum conditions (pH 8, contact time 240 min and adsorbent dosage 480 g/L). Compared to various adsorbents, the adsorption using natural zeolite showed excellent boron and arsenic removal, thus has a great potential to be applied in industrial wastewater treatment plant

The significance of point source emission (NO2) by petrochemical plants at North East of Peninsular Malaysia.

Petrochemical industry is one of the major pollutant generators around the world. The same scenario is observed occurring at North East of Peninsular Malaysia. The ISCT3 air dispersion of Gaussain Transport Model was used to simulate the average predicted on ground concentration of NO(2) emitted by point source from the petrochemicals plants. The simulation covers major input of geographical domain was set up, including NO(2) generators specification and meteorological parameters. The geographical domain set up is at 20 km x 20 km covering area centre of the petrochemicals plants with 0.5 km receptors grid spacing. The NO(2) emission rate was estimated through the use of ultimate fuel analysis method. The NO(2) generated combined with 5 yearly meteorological data obtained were applied to perform the simulation at the optimum correlation of wind direction. The simulation performed discovered that the predicted monthly and yearly average of on ground NO(2) concentration range from 13.97 to 20.43 ug/m(3) and 691 to 8.49 ug/m(3) respectively. The yearly predicted average concentration shows that the value is below the WHO guideline which is at 40 ug/m(3). No benchmark could be performed at the monthly average since there is no standard guideline available

A Study on Zeolite Performance in Waste Treating Ponds for Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent.

Oil palm currently occupies the largest acreage of farm land in Malaysia. In 2011, the production of palm oil in Malaysia was recorded as 19.8 million tons which has led to a huge amount of wastewater known as palm oil mill effluent (POME). This work focuses on the ponding system which acts as wastewater treatment plant in order to treat POME. The conventional ponding system applied in mills consists of a series of seven ponds. The maintenance costs of the pond are expensive thus study of alternative methods is needed. POME treatment using zeolite shows a potential to overcome the problem. Samples collected from selected ponds are tested and analyzed using water analyzer method. Result from adsorption by zeolite shows a significant reduction of COD, BOD, Fe, Zn, Mn and turbidity. This shows that zeolite is highly potential to be applied as adsorbent in the POME treatment plants. The results here may lead to lower maintenance cost, lower quantity of treatment ponds and lesser land occupied for the treatment of POME in Malaysia

A systems approach to mathematical modeling of sterilisation process in palm oil mill

A model of sterilisation process of palm fruitlet was developed by applying finite-difference explicit method for two dimensions. Several relationships with parameters have been studied such as pressure, specific heat capacity (CP), stability criterion (r) and thickness (L). In performing calculations for heat transfer by conduction model of palm fruitlet, a few assumptions have been made to simplify the calculations. In this model, the palm fruitlets have been assumed as a rectangular. The program is capable of predicting the optimum condition for sterilisation process. The important findings in this study suggest the process can be operated at pressure approaching atmospheric pressure, i.e. (1.5 - 2.0 bar)

A comparative investigation on the effect of thermal treatments on the mechanical properties of oil palm fruitlet components

An assessment of the mechanical properties was employed as the principal yardstick to quantify the physical attributes of oil palm fruitlet components before and after being subjected to thermal treatment process. Two industrial-scale thermal treatment methods were considered; horizontal sterilisation (being the most common) and vertical sterilisation (recently implemented). The exocarp and mesocarp layers of thermally-treated fruitlets, as attested by texture profile analysis, compression test, and tensile test, have a significantly low value of fracturability, hardness, firmness, and strength as opposed to untreated fruitlets. Micrographs of the mesocarp slices have provided plausible explanation for the observed decline in the mechanical properties of the sterilised fruitlets. The oil which was initially contained within the fruitlets tends to leach out during the sterilisation process due to the resulting structural disintegration within the layers of the fruitlets. On another related enquiry, the required cracking force to break palm nuts in order to extract the kernel was found to be influenced by the moisture content

Antara kubu dan lubuk: transisi politik Johor dalam pilihan raya umum ke-15

Politik Johor sejak sekian lama sering diberikan perhatian khusus dalam menilai kecondongan politik Malaysia. Kepentingan Johor dalam latar politik negara turut didasari oleh kerencaman etnik campuran negeri ini yang hampir menyerupai latar demografi nasional. Kemenangan Barisan National (BN) dalam Pilihan Raya Negeri Johor 2022 (PRN) menjadi faktor pemangkin dalam memunculkan Pilihan Raya Umum ke-15 (PRU-15) yang diyakini bakal berpihak kepada UMNO-BN. Bagaimanapun, PRU-15 yang diadakan lapan bulan kemudian, UMNO-BN gagal meneruskan momentum kemenangan di Johor. Perkembangan ini merupakan fenomena yang menarik untuk diteliti khusus dalam melihat kedinamikan trend politik Johor. Kajian yang dilaksanakan secara kualitatif ini mendapati PRU-15 di Johor menampilkan kedinamikan melalui sulaman antara faktor teknikal dengan faktor sentimen yang memacu trajektorinya. Secara keseluruhan, PRU-15 di Johor lebih dibayangi oleh sentimen nasional berbanding sentimen lokaliti yang memainkan peranan kurang signifikan. Dengan disokong oleh faktor sentimen, faktor teknikal seperti perpecahan undi Melayu di beberapa kawasan parlimen bandar dan semi-bandar memberi kelebihan kepada Pakatan Harapan (PH) melalui undi orang Cina. BN dan Perikatan Nasional (PN) gagal menguasai kawasan bandar dan semi-bandar disebabkan perpecahan undi Melayu kepada tiga bahagian. Di kawasan luar bandar pula, trend peralihan undi BN kepada PN semakin melebar. Biarpun UMNO menang dalam persaingan politik luar bandar, trend pengundian menunjukkan undi UMNO semakin berkurangan. Pada akhirnya, dapatan ini menggambarkan kedinamikan politik Melayu luar bandar yang mula kritikal terhadap UMNO. Berdasarkan keputusan PRU-15 di Johor, artikel ini berhujah bahawa Johor tidak lagi berperanan sebagai kubu kuat UMNO; sebaliknya status ini mula merapati PH yang menjadi pilihan di kebanyakan kawasan bandar dan separa bandar akibat perpecahan undi Melayu

Adsorption process of heavy metals by low-cost adsorbent: a review

In this article, the potential of various low-cost adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals from contaminated water has been reviewed. Various conventional methods for heavy metal removal such as precipitation, evaporation, electroplating and also ion exchange have been applied since previous years. However, these methods have several disadvantages such as only limited to certain concentrations of metals ions, generation large amount of toxic sludge and the capital costs are much too high to be economical. Hence, adsorption using low-cost adsorbents is found to be more environmentally friendly. Adsorption is the alternative process, for heavy metal removal due to the wide number of natural materials or agricultural wastes gathering in abundance from our environment. High adsorption capacities, cost effectiveness and their abundance in nature are the important parameters which explain why the adsorbent is economical for heavy metal removal. In this review, a list of adsorbent literature has been compiled to provide a summary of available information on a wide range of low cost adsorbents for removing heavy metals from contaminated water. The application of available adsorption models such as the isotherm, kinetics and thermodynamics as well as the influence of parameters on metal adsorption by low cost adsorbent shall be reviewed to understand the adsorption mechanism of low-cost adsorbents

Recovery of palm oil and valuable material from oil palm empty fruit bunch by sub-critical water

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) is one of the solid wastes produced in huge volume by palm oil mill. Whilst it still contains valuable oil, approximately 22.6 million tons is generated annually and treated as solid waste. In this work, sub-critical water (sub-cw) was used to extract oil, sugar and tar from spikelet of EFB. The spikelet was treated with sub-cw between 180-280°C and a reaction time of 2 and 5 minutes. The highest yield of oil was 0.075 g-oil/g-dry EFB, obtained at 240°C and reaction time of 5 minutes. Astonishingly, oil that was extracted through this method was 84.5% of that obtained through Soxhlet method using hexane. Yield of oil extracted was strongly affected by the reaction temperature and time. Higher reaction temperature induces the dielectric constant of water towards the non-polar properties of solvent; thus increases the oil extraction capability. Meanwhile, the highest yield of sugar was 0.20 g-sugar/g-dry EFB obtained at 220°C. At this temperature, the ion product of water is high enough to enable maximum sub-critical water hydrolysis reaction. This study showed that oil and other valuable material can be recovered using water at sub-critical condition, and most attractive without the use of harmful organic solvent