FTKKP Champions Coastal Conservation, Empowering Ecosystems Through BASF Petronas Chemicals Mangrove Planting Project 2023

KUANTAN, 24 June 2023 - A remarkable collaboration took place as the passionate staff and enthusiastic students from the Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology (FTKKP) at Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) united for an extraordinary cause

CeO2-TiO2 for Photoreduction Of CO2 To Methanol Under Visible Light: Effect Of Ceria Loading

A visible light-driven photocatalyst, CeO2-TiO2 catalyst with different ceria loading was synthesized by impregnation method between TiO2 powder and cerium oxide nanoparticles slurry. The prepared catalyst samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area analysis, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). The band gap of CeO2-TiO2 catalyst was found to be 2.15–2.4 eV. The band gap reduction clearly indicated the successful loading of CeO2 on TiO2. The photocatalytic activity was determined by measuring the photoreduction of CO2 to methanol in aqueous solution under visible light. The effect of cerium loading in the range of 1 to 5 wt% on the photocatalytic activity was studied and 2 wt% CeO2-TiO2 was found to exhibit the maximum photoactivity of 18.6 μmo l/g.catalyst after 6 hours irradiation. Results showed that the prepared photocatalyst is visible light active and may be used as effective catalyst in photoreduction of CO2 to methanol

FTKKP shines at CITREX 2023 with outstanding innovations and research achievements

Huge congratulations to all outstanding researchers and innovators from FTKKP for their exceptional performance at CITREX 2023! The event, which took place on 12-14 March 2023 at UMP Kampus Gambang, showcased the latest creations and technological advancements from the Malaysian academic and research community

Microscale evaluation of natural anti-agglomeration behavior of oils via gas hydrate interparticle cohesive force measurements

Gas hydrate formation in flowlines presents one of the major threats to flow assurance. Exploitation of a non-plugging oil, which contains hydrate anti-agglomerant (AA) properties is an attractive hydrate management strategy. Hence, it is important to evaluate an oil for its potential as a non-plugging oil, considering its significant economic savings, since the properties to prevent hydrate plugging already exist in the oil without additional cost. In this work, a High-Pressure Micromechanical Force (HP-MMF) apparatus was used to quantify the cohesive forces between hydrate particles to provide insight into the natural anti-agglomeration tendencies of oils. Investigation was conducted using seven oils (A – G). Based on the significant reductions ranging from 81 to 99.8% to the cohesive force observed for oils A – E, these oils were categorized as potential non-plugging oils. The cohesive force reductions are attributed to the presence of natural surfactants in these oils that take the role as AAs. Increase in water content in the presence of non-plugging oils led to higher cohesive force, which weakened the non-plugging oil’s performance in preventing hydrate agglomeration, but can be overcome by salt. Oils F and G showed no significant reductions to the hydrate cohesive force, therefore are classified as plugging oils. These results show that the microscale evaluation in the HP-MMF can be applied to identify natural anti-agglomeration behavior of different oils, providing important insights to optimize hydrate flow assurance strategy in the field

High pressure micromechanical force method to assess the non-plugging potential of crude oils and the detection of asphaltene-hydrate mixed agglomerates

A hydrate prevention strategy taking advantage of crude oil that exhibit hydrate non-plugging tendency is a viable option in oilfield production conditions, or during transient operations. For that reason, it is important to accurately evaluate crude oils for their potential as non-plugging oils in a small-scale apparatus, such as a High- Pressure Micromechanical Force (HP-MMF) system, before continuing to large-scale testing. HP-MMF is an interfacial method that has been applied to measure gas hydrate interparticle cohesive force to gain insight into the hydrate agglomeration tendencies of crude oils. Herein, methane/ethane hydrate cohesive force measurements in the presence of small concentrations of crude oil were performed in the HP-MMF. Direct observations from the HP-MMF revealed, for the first time, the appearance of asphaltene precipitates that interact with the gas hydrate particles to produce an asphaltene-hydrate mixed agglomerate. A new HP-MMF method has been developed that enables representative sampling and evaluation of the effect of crude oil samples on the cohesive force between two gas hydrate particles in the HP-MMF. The method has been tested with two crude oils, where lower cohesive force results are demonstrated by the presence of small concentrations (<5 vol% in model oil) of Crude A and C compared to the baseline system of pure model oil. Hence, indicating the presence of natural anti- agglomerants (AAs) that contribute to the non-plugging behavior of these crude oils. These studies show that the HP-MMF is a convenient tool to assess the non-plugging potential of crude oils at realistic (high pressure, low temperature) conditions, requiring only small oil sample volumes. The HP-MMF method developed in this work is demonstrated to be a unique tool that can be utilized for the detection of asphaltene-hydrate mixed agglomerates. These new findings provide important insights for asphaltene precipitation in the presence of gas hydrates, that can create catastrophic agglomeration in the flowlines

A kinetic model for the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol pathways

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. CO2 could be converted to valuable products such as hydrocarbons through the photocatalytic process. The aim of this research was to develop the kinetic model for the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol (CH3OH) in liquid phase reaction using cerium oxide-titanium dioxide (CeO2-TiO2) catalyst. The Langmuir-Hinshelwood approach was used in developing rate laws for the catalytic reaction using the catalytic reaction mechanism proposed. The catalytic reaction mechanism is about the adsorption of reactant (CO2 dissolved in the liquid phase), the reaction on catalyst surface and desorption of product. The experimental kinetic data were evaluated in the Polymath 6.1 software. In this study, two types of mechanism are proposed whereas one is considered the carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation while the other is not. Based on the model fitting, it was found that the model considers the CO oxidation is fitted well with the experimental data represents that the oxidation reaction of intermediate product, CO is the rate-determining step in the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CH3OH in liquid phase reaction

Extraction of Essential Oil from Murraya Koenigii Leaves'

Murraya Koenigii leaves contain many useful chemical constituents. The leaves which known as Daun Kari in Malaysia is belong to family Rutaceae and was abundantly planted in Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Burma. The study is to characterize the components of essential oil of the leaves and finding its potential to be applied as natural insect repellent. The essential oil was extracted using steam distillation and hydro-distillation. The time of extraction for both methods was between 3 to 9 hours. For every hour of extraction time, the yield between these two methods was compared. The results shows that the percentage yield for steam distillation in method is higher compared to conventional method which is hydro-distillation method. The highest yield obtained from 9 hours steam distillation is 0.25% (w/w) whereby 9 hours hydro distillation method could only collected 0.09% (w/w) of yield. Components identification of the essential oil performed by GC-MS detected the presence of different components, majorly hydrocarbons. The analysis was also reported the existence of α-pinene which is the active ingredient for insect repellent. Based on this study, the present of these two repellent activity compounds in the extracted essential oil proves its potential to be used as active ingredients in natural-based insect repellent

Preparation and Characterization of Impregnated Commercial Rice Husks Activated Carbon with Piperazine for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Capture

Development of effective materials for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology is a fundamental importance to reduce CO2 emissions. This work establishes the addition of amine functional group on the surface of activated carbon to further improve the adsorption capacity of CO2. Rice husks activated carbon were modified using wet impregnation method by introducing piperazine onto the activated carbon surfaces at different concentrations and mixture ratios. These modified activated carbons were characterized by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). The results from XRD analysis show the presence of polyethylene butane at diffraction angles of 21.8° and 36.2° for modified activated carbon with increasing intensity corresponding to increase in piperazine concentration. BET results found the surface area and pore volume of non-impregnated activated carbon to be 126.69 m2/g and 0.081 cm3/g respectively, while the modified activated carbons with 4M of piperazine have lower surface area and pore volume which is 6.77 m2 /g and 0.015 cm3/g respectively. At 10M concentration, the surface area and pore volume are the lowest which is 4.48 m2/g and 0.0065 cm3/g respectively. These results indicate the piperazine being filled inside the activated carbon pores thus, lowering the surface area and pore volume of the activated carbon. From the FTIR analysis, the presence of peaks at 3312 cm-1 and 1636 cm-1 proved the existence of reaction between carboxyl groups on the activated carbon surfaces with piperazine. The surface morphology of activated carbon can be clearly seen through FESEM analysis. The modified activated carbon contains fewer pores than non-modified activated carbon as the pores have been covered with piperazin

CeO2-TiO2 as a Visible Light Active Catalyst for the Photoreduction of CO2 to Methanol

The performance of CeO2-TiO2 photocatalyst for the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into methanol was studied under visible light irradiation. The as-prepared catalysts were characterized for their structural, textural and optical properties using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), nitrogen physisorption analysis, UV-vis spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The characterization results indicated that the presence of CeO2 stabilized the anatase phase of TiO2, decreased its crystallite size, increased the surface area, reduced the band gap energy and lowered the rate of electron-hole pair recombination. The CeO2-TiO2 photocatalyst showed an increased methanol yield of 18.6 µmol/g under visible light irradiation, compared to the bare TiO2 (6.0 µmol/g)

Study of Essential Oil from Malaysian Curry Leaves

Essential oils of Murraya koengii or commonly known as curry leaves’ obtained from curry trees grown in the local area of Malaysia was studied. Conventional hydro distillation process was used to extract the oil from the leaves. The highest yield from the extraction is to be at 0.22% for 9 hours of extraction time. The analysis was performed using GC-MS which detects the presence of 30 different components, majorly hydrocarbons. The result shows the existing of alpha-pinene and beta-myrcene that provides insight to the potential of using the oil as active ingredients for natural based insect repellent