The soap content in biodiesel is an important challenge during the production and purification processing of biodiesel. Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) have recently attracted considerable interest as an environmentally suitable substitute for traditional solvents in the biodiesel industry. This work investigates the soap removal from the contaminated biodiesel using NADES. Eight choline chloride‐based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were screened using the conductor‐like screening model for real solvents (COSMO‐RS) to identify the most suitable solvent for soap removal and were validated experimentally. The effect of NADES molar ratio, NADES:biodiesel ratio, mixing speed and extraction time on the extraction efficiency were investigated. COSMO‐RS screening revealed that the malonic acid‐based NADES possess higher soap elimination, and this is compatible with the experimental screening. The higher extraction efficiency of 99.18% was achieved under the optimum conditions of 1:3 of NADES molar ratio, 1:1 DES:biodiesel, 150 rpm and 15 min of extraction time. The soap removal followed the first‐order kinetic equation with a rate constant of 0.183 min−1. This technique offers innovative and environmentally friendly routes for downstream processing of contaminated biodiesel.
Numerical simulations have been investigated to study the external free convective heat transfer from a vertically rectangular interrupted fin arrays. The continuity, Naver-Stockes and energy equations have been solved for steady-state, incompressible, two dimensional, laminar with Boussiuesq approximation by Fluent 15 software. The performance of interrupted fins was evaluated to gain the optimum ratio of interrupted length to fin length (
Flexible pavements are considered an essential element of transportation infrastructure. So, evaluations of flexible pavement performance are necessary for the proper management of transportation infrastructure. Pavement condition index (PCI) and international roughness index (IRI) are common indices applied to evaluate pavement surface conditions. However, the pavement condition surveys to calculate PCI are costly and time-consuming as compared to IRI. This article focuses on developing regression models that predict PCI from IRI. Eighty-three flexible pavement sections, with section length equal to 250 m, were selected in Al-Diwaniyah, Iraq, to develop PCI-IRI relationships. In terms of the quantity and severity of eac
... Show MoreGeneral Background: Deep image matting is a fundamental task in computer vision, enabling precise foreground extraction from complex backgrounds, with applications in augmented reality, computer graphics, and video processing. Specific Background: Despite advancements in deep learning-based methods, preserving fine details such as hair and transparency remains a challenge. Knowledge Gap: Existing approaches struggle with accuracy and efficiency, necessitating novel techniques to enhance matting precision. Aims: This study integrates deep learning with fusion techniques to improve alpha matte estimation, proposing a lightweight U-Net model incorporating color-space fusion and preprocessing. Results: Experiments using the AdobeComposition-1k
... Show MoreRefrigerant R134a has been widely utilized in automotive air conditioning systems (AACSs); R134a has a high global warming potential (GWP) of 1430 despite having zero ozone depletion potential (ODP). Coming refrigeration systems must include refrigerants with low GWP and zero ODP. The aim of this experimental study is to evaluate the thermal performance of an (AAC) with different values of compressor speeds, i.e., (1000, 1700, and 2400 rpm) and two thermal loads, i.e., (500 and 1000 Watt) with the absence and presence of liquid suction heat exchanger (LSHX) using R134a. The results showed that adding LSHX enhanced the COP cycle by 7.18%, 10.7%, and 3.09% for the first, second, and third speed, respectively, at 500 Watt, while the en
... Show MoreAdsorption and ion exchange are examples of fixed-bed sorption processes that show transient behavior. This means that differential equations are needed to design them. As a result, numerical methods are commonly utilized to solve these equations. The solution frequently used in analytical methods is called the Thomas solution. Thomas gave a complete solution that adds a nonlinear equilibrium relationship that depends on second-order reaction kinetics. A computational approach was devised to solve the Thomas model. The Thomas model's validity was established by conducting three distinct sets of experiments. The first entails the adsorption of acetic acid from the air through the utilization of activated carbon. Following
... Show MoreIn this study, the kinetics for the reaction of tert-butanol esterification with acetic acid in the presence of Dowex 50Wx8 catalyst was investigated. The reaction kinetic experiments were conducted in 1000 milliliter vessel at temperatures ranged from 50 - 80 oC, catalyst loading 25-50 g/L, and the molar ratios of acetic acid to tert-butanol from 1/3 – 3/1. The reaction rate was found to increase with increasing temperature and catalyst loading. It was also found the conversion of the tert-butanol increases as the molar ratio of acid to alcohol increases from 1/3 – 3/1. The Non-ideality of the liquid phase was taken into account by using activities instead of molar fractions. The activity coefficients were calculated according to th
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