Industrial dyes are major pollutants in wastewater and river water with an initial visible concentration of 1 mg/L. Recent studies have shown the possibility of using polyphenol oxidase in catalytic biological treatment due to its ability to oxidize a large number of dyes and pollutants in wastewater and the flexibility to work in wide ranges of temperature, pH and salinity. It is easy availability as well as the low economic cost resulting from its use in biological treatments, this enzyme polyphenol oxidase was used. The findings in this study showed that the extraction of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) from potato peel was homogenized with potassium phosphate buffer (0.1 M, pH 7) at a ratio of 1:10 (weight: volume) for two min. The res

A novel demountable shear connector for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents bolts from slipping within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes the typical construction tolerance issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly. Therefore, it can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow including the following: (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (

In this work, the effect of aluminum (Al) dust particles on the DC discharge plasma properties in argon was investigated. A magnetron is placed behind the cathode at different pressures and with varying amounts of Al. The plasma temperature (Te) and density (ne) were calculated using the Boltzmann equation and Stark broadening phenomena, which are considered the most important plasma variables through which the other plasma parameters were calculated. The measurements showed that the emission intensity decreases with increasing pressure from 0.06 to 0.4 Torr, and it slightly decreases with the addition of the NPs. The calculations showed that the ne increased and Te decreased with pressure. Both Te and ne were reduced by increasing

A crucial area of research in nanotechnology is the formation of environmentally benign nanoparticles. Both unicellular and multicellular play an important role in synthesis nanoparticles through the production of inorganic materials either intracellularly or extracellularly. The agents (pigments, siderophores, cell extracted metabolites and reducing compounds) were used to prepare silver nanparticles with different sizes and shapes. The color variations (dark yellow, slightly dark yellow and golden yellow) arising from changes in the composition, size, and shape of nanoparticles, surrounding medium can be monitored using UV-visible spectrophotometer. These effects are due to the phenomena called surface plasmon resonance. The silver nanopa

The esterification of oleic acid with 2-ethylhexanol in presence of sulfuric acid  as homogeneous catalyst was investigated in this work to produce 2-ethylhexyl oleate (biodiesel) by using semi batch reactive distillation. The effect of reaction temperature (100 to 130°C), 2-ethylhexanol:oleic acid molar ratio (1:1 to 1:3) and catalysts concentration (0.2 to 1wt%) were studied. Higher conversion of 97% was achieved with operating conditions of reaction temperature of 130°C, molar ratio of free fatty acid to alcohol of 1:2 and catalyst concentration of 1wt%. A simulation was adopted from basic principles of the reactive distillation using MATLAB to describe the process. Good agreement was achieved.