Iraqi kaolin was used for the preparation and characterization of NaY zeolite for biodiesel production via esterification reaction. Oleic acid was used usually as a typical simulated feedstock of high acid number for the esterification reaction.

   The chemical composition for the prepared Nay zeolite is as following:  (Ca₂.6Na₁.K_0.1)(Al₆.3Si₁₇.₇)O₄₈.16H₂O, the silica to alumina ratio in the prepared catalyst was found equal to 2.6 and Na₂O content was 12.26 wt. %, with relative crystallinity equal to 147.4 % obtained by the X-ray diffraction. The surface area result shows that the prepared catalyst has 330 m²

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the most common process for dealing with primary and secondary wastewater sludge. In the present work, four pre-treatment methods (ultrasonic, chemical, thermal, and thermo-chemical) are investigated in Al-Rustumya Wastewater Treatment plant in order to find their effect on biogas production and volatile solid removal efficiency during anaerobic digestion.
Two frequencies of ultrasonic wave were used 30 KHz and 50 KHz during the pre-treatment. Sodium hydroxide was added in different amounts to give three pH values of 9, 10 and 11 in chemical pre-treating processes. The sludge was heated at 60oC and 80oC through thermal pre-treatment experiment. Also, the sludge was treated thermo-chemically at 80 oC and pH

This study investigated a novel application of forward osmosis (FO) for oilfield produced water treatment from the East Baghdad oilfield affiliated to the Midland Oil Company (Iraq). FO is a part of a zero liquid discharge system that consists of oil skimming, coagulation/flocculation, forward osmosis, and crystallization. Treatment of oilfield produced water requires systems that use a sustainable driving force to treat high-ionic-strength wastewater and have the ability to separate a wide range of contaminants. The laboratory-scale system was used to evaluate the performance of a cellulose triacetate hollow fiber CTA-HF membrane for the FO process. In this work, sodium chloride solution was used as a feed solution (FS) with a concentratio

Production of fatty acid esters (biodiesel) from oleic acid and 2-ethylhexanol using sulfated zirconia as solid catalyst for the production of biodiesel was investigated in this work.

       The parameters studied were temperature of reaction (100 to 130°C), molar ratio of alcohol to free fatty acid (1:1 to 3:1), concentration of catalyst (0.5 to 3%wt), mixing speed (500 to 900 rpm) and types of sulfated zirconia (i.e modified, commercial, prepared  catalyst according to literature and reused catalyst). The results show the best conversion to biodiesel was 97.74% at conditions of 130°C, 3:1, 2wt% and 650 rpm using modified catalyst respectively. Also, modified c

One of the most effective ways of managing solid waste is microwave-assisted pyrolysis. This research used MW-assisted catalytic co-pyrolysis to extract essential oils from algae powder (AP) and date seed (DS). Graphite and a CaO nanocatalyst were utilized. As for the feedstock, it was a 1:1 mixture of AP and DS. The char content, oil production, and gas generation of co-pyrolysis yields varied between 18.8 wt% and 24.31 wt%, 43.08 wt%, and 55.295 wt%, and 25.905% to 32.60 wt%, respectively. The effect of the CaO nanocatalyst on product yields, feedstock conversion, and heating rates was analyzed. Product yields, average heating rates, and conversion factors were among the metrics studied to determine the synergistic effects and pyr

Worldwide, enormous amounts of waste cause major environmental issues, including scrap tires and plastic, and large waste, a consequence of the demolition of buildings, including crushed concrete, crushed clay bricks, and crushed thermo-stone. From that point, it’s possible to consider that the recycling processes for these materials and using them in the manufacturing field will reduce the adverse effects on the environment of these wastes and the consumption of natural resources. Sustainable concrete blocks can be considered as one of the products produced by using these materials as partial volume replacement of the coarse, fine aggregate, or cement content, considering their dry density, workability, absorption, co

Animal fats are a good, promising and ethical alternative source for biodiesel production, but they need more complex treatments than vegetable oils. Iraqi butchery plants waste fats (sheep fat) which are suggested as feedstock to produce biodiesel. This type of fat contains a large quantity of free fatty acids (FFAs) (acid number 49.13 mg KOH/g of fat). The direct transesterification of such fats produce high amount of soap instead of desired biodiesel, so a pre-treatment step (to reduce FFAs) is necessary before transesterification. This step was done by esterification of the free fatty acids in the fat by adding ethanol and using 1% acid catalyst (H2SO4) for 30 minutes. The results showed that the acid number of sheep fat after pre-tr

The present work concerns with simulating unsteady state equilibrium model for production of methyl oleate (biodiesel) from reaction of oleic acid with methanol using sulfuric acid as a catalyst in batch reactive distillation. MESHR equations of equilibrium model were solved using MATLAB (R2010a). The validity of simulation model was tested by comparing the simulation results with a data available in literature. UNIQUAC liquid phase activity coefficient model is the most appropriate model to describe the non-ideality of OLAC-MEOH-MEOL-H2O system. The chemical reactions rates results from EQ model indicating the rates are controlled by chemical kinetics. Several variables was studied such as molar ratio of methanol to oleic acid 4:1, 6:1