Life Cycle Assessment of Heat Recovery Steam Generator

Heat recovery steam generator in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Gas District Cooling (UTP GDC) plant is used to generate steam to support the demand of steam needed by the steam absorption chiller (SAC). In this project, life cycle assessment was used as a method to calculate the energy used and saving of carbon dioxide emission by the heat recovery steam generator at UTP GDC plant. This project was carried out to develop the life cycle model of the heat recovery steam generator and to evaluate the saving of carbon dioxide emission especially during the operational phase. By using Microsoft Excel, a model was developed based on the gas and steam temperature profile of HRSG to quantify the saving of carbon dioxide emission. Based on life cycle energy use in the HRSG table, approximately 99.67% of the energy used comes from the operational phase. This means that the energy used and carbon dioxide emission during the construction phase (0.13%) and disposal and recycle phase (-0.01%) are negligible. Assumed that the pinch point and approach point was 20°F and 15°F respectively, the steam generated by the heat recovery steam generator was calculated for 25 years which is 2475830532.58 kg theoretically if the heat recovery steam generator use the full load of the exhaust heat from gas turbine which is 950°F. As for the saving of the carbon dioxide emission, the steam generated was converted to electricity per hour which is 166,477,296 kW and the theoretical amount of carbon dioxide saved by the HRSG was 68596969.82 kg of CO2e, while the actual amount of carbon dioxide saved by the HRSG was 4104556 kg CO2e. Even though the comparison is big but the amount of carbon dioxide saved by the HRSG with the actual data is still significant in reducing the amount of CO2 emission to the surroundings. This shows that the usage of HRSG in the plant not only increase the overall plant efficiency but it also helps to reduce the CO2 emission by the gas turbine to the surroundings

The Influence of Social Commerce Factors on Customer Intention to Purchase

The rapid development in social commerce creates a new opportunity for businesses. With the use of social technologies they are able to create an environment that is on a socially interactive platform. These social bonds can drive online social support in e-commerce, the result is shown by trusts created and increased intention to use social commerce. This article will examine the factors that triggered consumers’ intention to purchase using social commerce. A total of 184 respondents were chosen for this study to investigate factors that might contribute to customers’ purchasing intention. The findings provide a better understanding on factors that contribute to intention to purchase, which comprise shopping enjoyment, perceived usefulness, trust, security, perceived quality, perceived value, ease of use and transaction convenience. It also suggests that online firms should consider these contextual factors in order to facilitate consumers' adoption behavior

Inactivation of mucose on bread by using plasma jet

This paper presents the application of cold plasma technology on bread. Plasma is a fourth state of matter apart from solid liquid and gas states. It possesses the same amount of negative and positive ions that are produced from the gas molecule that goes through the electrical breakdown process. Plasma can be produced by injecting high voltage through an electrode. This project aims to develop a plasma jet system that will be able to produce cold plasma with the help of argon as the working gas. Due to its multifunction purpose, cold plasma can be used in many different fields such as biomedical, textile manufacturing, surface modification, food packaging, and many more. In this study, plasma generated with higher voltage may reduce the occupation of mucose on the bread as compares to the control

Macronutrient concentration in stem, leaf and petiole of wild grown water spinach (ipomea aquatic forsk.) and its relationship with pond water

Water spinach (Ipomoea aquatic Forsk.) is a food for human beings and animals. It is rich in minerals, protein, dietary fibre, with high moisture content. The work was undertaken to determine contents of K, Ca, Mg, Na & P in the stems, leaves and petioles of water spinach. Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and Inductive Couple Plasma (ICP) were used to determine concentration of nutrients, where one way ANOVA was applied to analyse if there is any significant differences in the macronutrient contents amongst the leaves, petioles and stems of the water spinach. If any of the results showed significant differences, Turkey post-hoc HSD test (p<0.05%) was adopted to separate the means. In addition, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient Test was conducted between the plant macronutrients samples (leaves + stem + petioles combined) and water macronutrients data run to determine their relationships. In addition, purpose of this study is to highlight to the public which parts of the plant should be consumed and also to indicate the relationship of Water Spinach with its growing medium. The K concentration was higher than the other elements and maximum concentration was in petioles (432+27.45 mg∙L-1) and stems (424.60+14.19 mgL-1). The element with the least concentration was Na (3.10+0.40 mgL-1), in the petiole. There was no difference in Mg content in leaves, petioles and stems (avg. 28.55+1.61 mgL- 1). High amounts of Ca (150+0.10 mgL-1) and low amounts of P (41.11+0.01 mgL-1) were in pond water. A positive correlation of each nutrient occurred between water spinach and pond water

Volumetric change calculation for a rock quarry using UAV photogrammetry

Nowadays, the volume calculation of rock quarry is incorrect and a slow process because it is manually conducted. To improve this performance, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Photogrammetry shall be applied to obtain exact area mapping, volume data of rock quarry for active, non-active area and 6 total stockpiles and to verify soil profile of quarry area. The area which conducts rock excavation is known as active area whereas a non-active will be explore in the following 2 years. Meanwhile, the total 6 stockpile is the 6 different quarry rocks. The UAV is a type of photogrammetry that allow for the effective monitoring or mapping of large areas of land and existing infrastructure within a very short time compared to conventional techniques. The best of UAV is it can take the whole image of quarry area. Given that the main idea of the research presented here is to develop new applications to calculate the volume of rock quarry area. In this study, there are three main stages that need to be accomplished to get the data. The first stage is flying the UAV and capturing image at the quarry, followed by image processing and transform it into a 3D map and final stage is to calculate the volume and the determining the soil profile and contour of the quarry. To classify the materials, a DJI Phantom 4 Pro was used to fly over a quarry area in Min Fong Quarry Sdn. Bhd. This image can be transfer to pix4DMapper and Global Mapper software to produce a mapping area of quarry. Then, the calculation of the volume of rock quarry was conducted and obtain the soil profile of that study area. This observation took 2 months periodically to oversee the volumetric change in the rock quarry. The result of analysis showed that, there were differences and decreasing in the volume of rock quarry for each month

Effect of different edge radius of electrode on electric field distribution using finite element method (FEM)

In the last two decade, a significant effort has been made to understand better the internal charge distribution inside dielectric materials. This has resulted in the development of several methods which gives details about charge distribution inside a dielectric material. In this study, effect of electric field with different edge electrode on dielectric material was being observed and analyzed using Finite Element Method (FEM). Base on the results, we can see that electric field is higher at dielectric insulating materials when the radius(r) approaches 0mm due to the sharp edge of the electrode. As the radius of the electrode edge increases, the electric field decreases. It proves that the edge of electrode has an effect to the electric field in a dielectric material. Electric field also decreases as the gap between electrodes increases. In this study, the field computations were carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2 which based on finite element method

Selected trace minerals concentration found in two varieties of sweet potatoes (Ipomea batatas) grown on bris soils in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia

Two varieties of sweet potatoes, one orange and the other purple grown on Rudua soil series and Jambu soil series, respectively, belonging to the BRIS soils were chosen for this study. These two varieties of sweet potatoes were analysed for their trace minerals composition in their respective tuber tissues. In addition, soil pH and soil moisture content were also determined. Rudua soil series had higher trace minerals content than that of Jambu soils series. The trace element concentrations in the tissues of sweet potatoes ranged from 0.037-0.130 mg/kg in Zn for 0.281-0.334 mg/kg for Fe to 0.014-0.032 mg/kg for Cu to 0.298-0.508 mg/kg for Ni and 0.746-2.16 mg/kg for Pb on dry matter basis. The soil pH is less acidic in Rudua series (5.97) compared to Jambu series (5.26), which favors higher concentrations of trace elements in the orange variety compared to Purple variety. There is also a positive correlation between nutrient concentration in the tissues of the sweet potatoes and the amount of trace minerals concentration available in the soils. This study exhibits the fact that uptake of trace minerals by the sweet potatoes is governed by the presence of these minerals in the soils, soil pH and soil moisture content

Relationship between education and cognitive performance among healthy Malay adults

Higher level of education is associated with better cognitive performance and lower risk of developing dementia. However, the effect of education on cognitive performance varies across different cognitive domains and in different populations. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between education and performance of different cognitive domains among healthy Malay adults. A total of 53 individuals aged 29 to 77 years participated in a battery of neurophysiological tests consisting of Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, digit span, visual reproduction and digit symbol speed test (DSST). Blood test was performed for each participant to obtain their biochemical profile. Educational level was divided into level 1 (PMR), level 2 (SPM), level 3 (STPM), level 4 (Diploma) and level 5 (Degree). Simple linear regression indicated that years of education was positively associated with scores of delayed visual reproduction (b=1.348, p=0.002) and DSST (b=3.257, p=0.012). However, scores of all the tests were not significantly different among different levels of education after controlling for age, gender and blood test profile by ANCOVA. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that MMSE score was associated with red cell distribution width (b=-0.628, p=0.005), age (b=-0.119, p<0.001) and there was interaction between high density lipoprotein (HDL) with age (b=0.047, p<001). MoCA score was associated with age (b=-0.121, p<0.001), gender (male compared to female, b=1.870, p=0.020) and HDL (b=1.681, p=0.047). Age was associated with backward digit span (b=-0098, p<0.001) and immediate visual reproduction (b=-0.348, p<0.001), resp. Delayed visual reproduction was associated with age (b=-0.323, p<0.001) and potassium level (b=-4.471, p=0.016). DSST was associated with age (b=-0.911, p<0.001) and alanine aminotransferase (b=-0.754, p=0.002). The lack of association between educational level and cognitive performance after adjusting for confounders in this study maybe due to multiple factors influencing cognitive performance and further studies with a larger sample size are needed to further identify the factors involved

Effect of acoustic excitation toward jet flame: an experimental design

Direct imaging technique is always used to obtain correlation of flame height or any other parameter of the visible portions of the flame. This is one of the important methods used in the combustion community to determine the characteristic of flame. Recently, the imaging technique has been developed and enhanced to provide more accurate data. However the utilization of the technology, such as the used of laserbased technique and acquiring sensor, increased the complexity of the process and also increased the amount of cost practically. This paper presents the results of an acoustic excitation towards a Liquid petroleum gaseous flame by using the direct visualizing technique. The direct visualizing technique is used to acquire the flame image and the images will be analyzed by using image analysis software. Results show the flame length at the flame core decreases when the amount of acoustic gradually increases. The effect of excitation towards the flame core is being investigated due to its significant influence toward the overall flame characteristic

Empagliflozin in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Background The effects of empagliflozin in patients with chronic kidney disease who are at risk for disease progression are not well understood. The EMPA-KIDNEY trial was designed to assess the effects of treatment with empagliflozin in a broad range of such patients. Methods We enrolled patients with chronic kidney disease who had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of at least 20 but less than 45 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2) of body-surface area, or who had an eGFR of at least 45 but less than 90 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2) with a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (with albumin measured in milligrams and creatinine measured in grams) of at least 200. Patients were randomly assigned to receive empagliflozin (10 mg once daily) or matching placebo. The primary outcome was a composite of progression of kidney disease (defined as end-stage kidney disease, a sustained decrease in eGFR to &lt; 10 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2), a sustained decrease in eGFR of &amp; GE;40% from baseline, or death from renal causes) or death from cardiovascular causes. Results A total of 6609 patients underwent randomization. During a median of 2.0 years of follow-up, progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes occurred in 432 of 3304 patients (13.1%) in the empagliflozin group and in 558 of 3305 patients (16.9%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64 to 0.82; P &lt; 0.001). Results were consistent among patients with or without diabetes and across subgroups defined according to eGFR ranges. The rate of hospitalization from any cause was lower in the empagliflozin group than in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.95; P=0.003), but there were no significant between-group differences with respect to the composite outcome of hospitalization for heart failure or death from cardiovascular causes (which occurred in 4.0% in the empagliflozin group and 4.6% in the placebo group) or death from any cause (in 4.5% and 5.1%, respectively). The rates of serious adverse events were similar in the two groups. Conclusions Among a wide range of patients with chronic kidney disease who were at risk for disease progression, empagliflozin therapy led to a lower risk of progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes than placebo