Biodiesel is an environmentally friendly fuel and a good substitution for the fossil fuel. However, the purity of this fuel is a major concern that challenges researchers. In this study, a calcium oxide based catalyst has been prepared from local waste eggshells by the calcination method and tested in production biodiesel. The eggshells were powdered and calcined at different temperatures (700, 750, 800, 850 and 900 °C) and periods of time (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 hr.). The effect of calcination temperature and calcination time on the structure and activity of the solid catalyst were examined by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Brunaure-Emmett-Teller (BET). The optimum catalyst performance was obtained at 900 °C and 3 hr. The characterization tests revealed a crystalline phase of CaO, a specific surface area 12.5m2/gm and good distribution of the active component. The effects of different transesterification reaction variables on the catalyst performance were also investigated. The highest conversion, 96.11% was obtained at 30:1 methanol-to-waste cooking oil molar ratio, 65°C, 3 wt. % catalyst loading and 3 hr reaction time. Additionally, durability of CaO was examined. It was found that high activity and durability were obtained by washing with n-hexan. It found that the use of eggshell as a heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production provides a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way of green fuel production.
An analytical expression for the charge density distributions is derived based on the use of occupation numbers of the states and the single particle wave functions of the harmonic oscillator potential with size parameters chosen to reproduce the observed root mean square charge radii for all considered nuclei. The derived expression, which is applicable throughout the whole region of shell nuclei, has been employed in the calculations concerning the charge density distributions for odd- of shell nuclei, such as and nuclei. It is found that introducing an additional parameters, namely and which reflect the difference of the occupation numbers of the states from the prediction of the simple shell model leads to obtain a remarkabl
... Show MoreBackground: Pumpkin seeds are a valuable source of high-quality protein and can be utilized as functional food ingredients due to their properties, such as solubility, foam formation, and stability. This study aims to produce protein isolate and its enzymatic hydrolysates from local pumpkin seeds to study their properties. Methodology: Preparing defatted pumpkin seeds for protein extraction, followed by the enzymes’ hydrolysis using Trypsin and Pepsin enzymes separately and together in two methods. The determination of amino acids and the degree of hydrolysis was conducted; moreover, protein properties were studied, including solubility, emulsifying activity, stability index, foaming capacity, and stability. Results: A protein sample was
... Show MoreProduction and characterization of methionine γ- lyase from Pseudomonas putida and its effect on cancer cell lines
Several toxigenic cyanobacteria produce the cyanotoxin (microcystin). Being a health and environmental hazard, screening of water sources for the presence of microcystin is increasingly becoming a recommended environmental procedure in many countries of the world. This study was conducted to assess the ability of freshwater cyanobacterial species Westiellopsis prolifica to produce microcystins in Iraqi freshwaters via using molecular and immunological tools. The toxigenicity of W. prolifica was compared via laboratory experiments with other dominant bloom-forming cyanobacteria isolated from the Tigris River: Microcystis aeruginosa, Chroococcus turigidus, Nostoc carneum, and Lyngbya sp. signifi
... Show MoreOily wastewater is one of the most challenging streams to deal with especially if the oil exists in emulsified form. In this study, electrospinning method was used to prepare nanofiberous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes and study their performance in oil removal. Graphene particles were embedded in the electrospun PVDF membrane to enhance the efficiency of the membranes. The prepared membranes were characterized using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to verify the graphene stabilization on the surface of the membrane homogeneously; while FTIR was used to detect the functional groups on the membrane surface. The membrane wettability was assessed by measuring the contact angle. The PVDF and PVDF / Graphene membranes efficiency
... Show MoreEnhanced oil recovery is used in many mature oil reservoirs to increase the oil recovery factor. Surfactant flooding has recently gained interest again. To create micro emulsions at the interface between crude oil and water, surfactant flooding is the injection of surfactants (and co-surfactants) into the reservoir, thus achieving very low interfacial tension, which consequently assists mobilize the trapped oil.
In this study a flooding system, which has been manufactured and described at high pressure. The flooding processes included oil, water and surfactants. 15 core holders has been prepared at first stage of the experiment and filled with washed sand grains 80-500 mm and then packing the sand to obtain sand packs
... Show MoreThis research dealt with desalting of East Baghdad crude oil using pellets of either anionic, PVC, quartz, PE, PP or
nonionic at different temperature ranging from 30 to 80 °C, pH from 6 to 8, time from 2 to 20 minutes, volume percent
washing water from 5 to 25% and fluid velocity from 0.5 to 0.8 m/s under voltage from 2 to 6 kV and / or using additives
such as alkyl benzene sulphonate or sodium stearate. The optimum conditions and materials were reported to remove
most of water from East Baghdad wet crude oil.
The calculation of the oil density is more complex due to a wide range of pressuresand temperatures, which are always determined by specific conditions, pressure andtemperature. Therefore, the calculations that depend on oil components are moreaccurate and easier in finding such kind of requirements. The analyses of twenty liveoil samples are utilized. The three parameters Peng Robinson equation of state istuned to get match between measured and calculated oil viscosity. The Lohrenz-Bray-Clark (LBC) viscosity calculation technique is adopted to calculate the viscosity of oilfrom the given composition, pressure and temperature for 20 samples. The tunedequation of state is used to generate oil viscosity values for a range of temperatu
... Show MoreAirlift reactors are widely used in the chemical and biochemical applications as effective contactors for mass and heat transfer. The main advantages of airlift contactor compared with simple bubble column are ease of construction, low shear rate, high capacity, good mixing and liquid circulation without mechanical agitators and circulating pumps.
In this work, growth characteristics of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae were studied in an internal loop airlift photobioreactor for biomass production. The bioreactor operated under batch and semi-continuous culture mode using commercially available 20:20:20+TE NPK fertilizer as nutrients. The experiments were conducted to evaluate the growth rate and biomass productivity of
... Show MoreThis study was aimed to investigate the effect of essential oil extracted from the yellow peels of Citrus aurantium on the growth of four species of fungi: Penicillium expansum, Penicillium oxalicum, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium proliferatum and effect of one fungicide: Aliette (fosetyl-aluminum) against these fungi. The results showed that the essential oil of C. aurantium inhibited the radial growth of P. oxalicum at concentration 4.5% while P. expansum and F. oxysporum at concentrations 5% and F. proliferatum at concentrations 5.5% additionally the one fungicide tested showed inhibitory effect on radial growth of these fungi. So that there is a negative relationship between the increasing of concentration and radial growth of fungi.
 
        