Synthesis and characterization of renewable carbon cryogel beads from empty fruit bunch for adsorption of ethyl orange

Liquefaction of empty palm fruit bunch (EFB) to lignin was carried out by using ionic liquid [BMIM]Cl. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to identify the optimum condition for lignin yield. The liquefied product (i.e. lignin EFB) was reacted with furfural to synthesize resin. The resin was washed, freeze-dried and carbonized to obtain carbon cryogel beads (CCBs). The CCBs were then chemically activated with potassium hydroxide (KOH) to produce activated CCBs (A-CCBs). Both CCBs and A-CCBs were characterized for their morphology and physical properties using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Scan Electron Microscope, X-Ray Diffraction, Breuner, Emmer and Teller (BET) and Thermogravimetric Analysis. The performance of A-CCBs towards the removal of ethyl orange dye via adsorption process was performed. The adsorption mechanism was revealed through adsorption kinetic, isotherm and thermodynamic properties. The results indicate that the optimum lignin yield of 26.6% was produced at temperature of 150.5oC, time of 151 minutes, ionic liquid to EFB weight ratio of 3:1, and sulfuric acid concentration of 4.73 %. The results obtained reveal that chemical activation with KOH increased the BET surface area to 58 m2g-1 and 1068 m2g-1 for CCBs and A-CCBs, respectively. The experimental data were appropriately described by the Langmuir model with correlation coefficient of 0.997. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second order. The negative values of the free energy change indicated the adsorption is spontaneous. The positive value of enthalpy change (414.36 J/mol) and entropy change (191.97 J/K.mol) confirmed the endothermic nature and showed the increment of structural changes at solid-solution interface during adsorption process, respectively. It can be concluded that the prepared A-CCBs derived from lignin EFB provide reasonable ethyl orange dye removal capability by up to 83% removal capacity

The Photocatalytic Activity of Green Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles in The Treatment of Aerobically Palm Oil Mill Effluent

Traditional treatment of aerobically palm oil mill effluent (A-POME) is incapable of removing the colour and organic load that does not exceed the discharge standard limit to the stream channel. Green synthesis nanoparticles (NPs) provide a significant potential for substantial performance in the photocatalytic degradation of high-strength wastewater. Therefore, the current project's goal is to investigate the photocatalytic degradation performance of A-POME in the addition of green Zinc Oxide Cymbopogon Citratus (ZnO–CC) NPs in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity, and colour removal. The outcomes showed that pH 8 and a ZnO-CC NPs loading of 0.3g/L was ideal for the photocatalytic degradation of A-POME with a significant percentage reduction of turbidity (68.03%), colour (48.11%), and COD (75.4%). The equilibrium data revealed a better fit Langmuir-Hinshelwood models with higher R2 and K values of 0.9906 and 0.0225, respectively. Increased ZnO–CC NPs loading in alkaline medium aided in the breakdown of A-POME pollutants by increasing the surface area accessible for UV light adsorption during the photocatalytic process. Thus, the finding from this study can assist the palm oil mill sector in improving A-POME treatment to provide high-quality treated effluent

Photocatalytic degradation of dye wastewater

Dye wastewater is the major environmental issue of the textile and printing industries besides other minor issues like solid waste, health and safety. The use of synthetic chemical dyes in various manufacturing industrial process has increased considerably over the past decades, resulting in the release of dye-containing industrial effluents into aquatic ecosystem and soil [1]. Wastewater from printing and dyeing industries is frequently rich in color, containing residues of toxic chemicals, reactive dyes and requires proper treatment before all the effluent release into environment [2]. There are more than 8000 chemical products associated with all the dyeing, printing and finishing process listed in the color index, including some of the structural diverse of dyes, such as basic, acidic, reactive, disperse, azo, diazo, anthraquinone based and metal-complex dyes [1]. Therefore, these wastes must be genuine treated before it discharge to environment in order to comply with the environmental protection for the receiving water

Paper making from bagasse

Though the revolution of technology has reduced paper production everywhere around the world, the amount of paper consumed each day is still tremendously large. The paper industry remains a growth industry globally, with volumes forecast to increase 50% by 2035 with most of the growth occurring in the packaging and tissues sector. The main material used in paper production is wood fibre. In order to satisfy the large demand for paper, thousands of trees must be cut down every year. Deforestation caused by worldwide consumption of wood-based paper has been a huge environmental issue. As the awareness of sustainability continues to rise, the demand for sustainable paper increases. The investigation of looking for alternatives has been a critical issue. The new alternative on the market is sugarcane fibre paper [1]

Rice husk : carbon dioxide reducer

Carbon dioxide can bring a major effect to the environment and lead us to the global warming and Green House effect. Besides that, it been listed as the major waste in the world that cannot easily be disposed. Due to these problems, many scientists recently investigate about how to overcome this issue. One of the uncostly and easy ways is using rice husk. It has been known that rice husk has the same characteristic with activated carbon which can adsorb carbon dioxide. This rice husk adsorbs carbon dioxide by trapping it into their pores. The main objective of this experiment is to study the tendency of rice husk as activated carbon to adsorb carbon dioxide. To generate the activated carbon behaviour, rice husk must be reacted with potassium hydroxide solution (KOH). The mixture of rice husk with Potassium hydroxide solution is dry by using oven. The dried rice husk is put into the Fourier-transformer Infrared (FTIR) to obtain the exact result to determine the compound that has the activated carbon behaviour. The range of the test is between 4000 to 650. The Fourier-transformer Infrared (FTIR) shows that activated carbon compound that has the least amount of peak is the best because it represents least amount of organic compound in that rice husk. So that the tendency to adsorb carbon dioxide is high

Comparison of microwave-assisted hydrodistillation with the conventional hydrodistillation method in extraction of essential oil

The Basil (Ocimum basilicum) essential oil was a significant interest as a new high-value essential oil especially in pharmaceutical,aromatherapy aid and cosmetics industries which give large opportunities for global marketing. Traditional extraction method Hydodistillation (HD) used to obtain essential oil have several drawbacks which are longer time consuming,have low extraction yields,and higher operational costing.At present the most appropriate technique to improve the quality of essential oil was by using Microwave assisted Hydrodistillation (MAHD) which able to overcome the drawbacks like mentioned above is introduced.This study obtained to identify the effect of the extraction time, yield and composition of Basil essential oil for HD and MAHD.Ratio of Basil and water used was 1:8 were placed in the HD and MAHD setup.The essential oil components were identified by using GCMS.The result shows MAHD can obtained higher yield at lowest extraction time due to more efficient heat transfer involved with microwave. The dominated compound was Methyl cinnamate (34.38% and 66.26%) an oxygenated compound for both HD and MAHD.As a conclusion MAHD obtained greater yield with shorter time and high percentage of oxygenated compounds compared with HD. Furthermore MAHD shows a good alternative method to produce essential oil of Basil

Optimization of lignin production from empty fruit bunch via liquefaction with ionic liquid

The production of lignin from empty fruit bunch (EFB) has been carried out using liquefaction method with 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl) ionic liquid (IL), in presence of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) as a catalyst. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a factorial Central Composite Design (CCD) was employed to identify the optimum condition for lignin yield. The result indicated that the second order model was adequate for all the independent variables on the response with R2=0.8609. The optimum temperature, time, ionic liquid to EFB ratio, and catalyst concentration were 150.5°C, 151min, 3:1wt/wt and 4.73wt%, respectively for lignin yield=26.6%. The presence of lignin liquefied product was confirmed by UV-Vis and FTIR analysis. It was also demonstrated lignin extraction from lignocellulosic using recycled IL gave sufficient performance

Role of spheroids fibrous silica in ZnO nanoparticles via precipitation method

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles in the presence of fibrous silica (KCC-1) were produced via simple and green precipitation method. The nanoparticles properties were characterised with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Field Emission Scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). It is believed that the preparation method influences on the characterization result. Based on nanoparticles characterisation, the properties of the chemical bond and nature of ZnO/KCC-1 and KCC-1 photocatalyst were analyzed by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) that produced an infrared absorption spectrum. While, the morphology, dimension and particle surface area were observed by using Field Emission Scanning electron microscopy (FESEM)