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.
Corncob is an agricultural biomass waste that was widely investigated as an adsorbent of contaminants after transforming it into activated carbon. In this research carbonization and chemical activation processes were achieved to synthesize corncob-activated carbon (CAC). Many pretreatment steps including crushing, grinding, and drying to obtain corncob powder were performed before the carbonization step. The carbonization of corncob powder has occurred in the absence of air at a temperature of 500 °C. The chemical activation was accomplished by using HCl as an acidic activation agent. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) facilitate
... Show MoreNowadays, the use of medicinal plants is being practiced at a wide range as a result of antibiotics resistant for the vast majority of microorganisms. Eucalyptus camaldulensis essential oil and hydrosol were used in this study against planktonic forms and biofilms of some species of Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria. The antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of this plant were detected using the microtiter plate and MIC approaches. The results proposed that the oil and hydrosol preparations have antibacterial activities against planktonic cells in different concentrations depending on the type of isolate. For antibiofilm activity, the results showed that E. camaldulensis oil was highly effective against bacter
... Show MoreThe petroleum sector has a significant influence on the development of multiphase detection sensor techniques; to separate the crude oil from water, the crude oil tank is used. In this paper, a measuring system using a simple and low cost two parallel plate capacitance sensor is designed and implemented based on a Micro controlled embedded system plus PC to automatically identify the (gas/oil) and (oil/water) dynamic multi-interface in the crude oil tank. The Permittivity differences of two-phase liquids are used to determine the interface of them by measuring the relative changes of the sensor’s capacitance when passes through the liquid’s interface. The experiment results to determine the liquid’s interface is sa
... Show MoreThe Mishrif Formation (Cenomanian – Early Turonian) is an important geologic formation in southern Iraq due to its petrophysical properties and geographic extensions, making it a good reservoir of hydrocarbons. Petrophysical properties of the Mishrif Formation in the current study at the Nasiriya oil field were determined from the interpretation of three open-hole logs data of (NS-1, NS-2, and NS-3) wells.
The results of the Mishrif petrophysical evaluation showed that the formation consists of five variable units (CRI, MA, CRII, MB1 and MB2), each one characterized by distinct petrophysical characteristics.
The upper (MA) and lower (MB) units were determined using electrical, porosity and gamma-ray logs. A sha
... Show MoreMultilateral wells require a sophisticated type of well model to be applied in reservoir simulators to represent them. The model must be able to determine the flow rate of each fluid and the pressure throughout the well. The production rate calculations are very important because they give an indication about some main issues associated with multi-lateral wells such as one branch may produce water or gas before others, no production rate from one branch, and selecting the best location of a new branch for development process easily.  
... Show MoreHydrogen sulfide removal catalyst was prepared chemically by precipitation of zinc bicarbonate at a controlled pH. The physical and chemical catalyst characterization properties were investigated. The catalyst was tested for its activity in adsorption of H2S using a plant that generates the H2S from naphtha hydrodesulphurization and a unit for the adsorption of H2S. The results comparison between the prepared and commercial catalysts revealed that the chemical method can be used to prepare the catalyst with a very good activity.
It has observed that the hydrogen sulfide removal over zinc oxide catalyst follows first order reaction kinetics with activation energy of 19.26 kJ/mole and enthalpy and e
... Show MoreDifferent compositions of hydrogels composed of mathacrylamide homopolymer (60 and 90% of PMAM) were prepared using the free radical polymerization technique, with and without methylene bisacrylamide as crosslinker (0 and 3%). Several parameters and properties were studied to evaluate their performance as oil/water separators. Many parameters are used, such as residual oil in water, water recovery, separation time, hydrogels coated percentages, swelling parameters, mechanical properties, microscopic and photographic images, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that water recovery (87-97), Separation efficiency (96.2-99.6 %), separation time (6-9.5 min.), hydrogels coated percentages (18-23 %), water content (70-97 %), and
... Show MoreAromatic Schiff-bases are known to have antibacterial activity, but most of these compounds are sparingly soluble in water. The present work describes the synthesis of new Schiff-bases derived from branched aminosugars. Treatment of 3-Amino-3-Cyano-3-Deoxy-1,2:5,6-Di-O-Isopropylene-α-D-Allofuranose (1) with the aldehydes (2) under reflux in methanol afforded the Schiff-bases (3) in good yields. The new Schiff-bases were in accord with their NMR, IR spectral data and elemental analysis.