The electrospun nanofibers membranes have gained considerable interest in water filtration applications. In this work, the fabrication and characterization of the electrospun polyacrylonitrile-based nonwoven nanofibers membrane are reported. Then, the membrane's performance and antifouling properties were evaluated in removing emulsified oil using a cross flow filtration system. The membranes were fabricated with different polyacrylonitrile (PAN) concentrations (8, 11, and 14 wt. %) in N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent resulted in various average fiber sizes, porosity, contact angle, permeability, oil rejection, and antifouling properties. Analyses of surface morphology of the fabricated membranes before and after oil removal revealed increasing the fiber size, decreasing the fouling amount, and increasing the permeate flux. On the other hand, decreasing the fiber size resulting in increases the oil rejection. It was observed that 11 wt. % PAN based nonwoven nanofiber membrane was the optimum membrane for emulsified oil removal due to its good porosity, permeability with good oil rejection. In addition, fouled nonwoven nanofiber membrane cleaning was done by backwashing technique using warm distilled water which was effective in retaining the membrane permeability and oil rejection for 7 times. The obtained results confirmed an efficient performance of the fabricated nanofibers membrane for oil-water separation with oil rejection percentage of 92.5% and a permeate flux of 120 LMH.
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 MoreThe study aims to build a water quality index that fits the Iraqi aquatic systems and reflects the environmental reality of Iraqi water. The developed Iraqi Water Quality Index (IQWQI) includes physical and chemical components. To build the IQWQI, Delphi method was used to communicate with local and global experts in water quality indices for their opinion regarding the best and most important parameter we can use in building the index and the established weight of each parameter. From the data obtained in this study, 70% were used for building the model and 30% for evaluating the model. Multiple scenarios were applied to the model inputs to study the effects of increasing parameters. The model was built 4 by 4 until it reached 17 parame
... Show MoreDyes are extensively water-soluble and toxic chemicals. The disposing of wastewater rich with such chemicals has severely impacted surface water quality (rivers and lakes). In the current study, an anionic dye, methyl orange, were extracted from wastewater fluids using bulk liquid membranes supplemented with an anionic carrier (Aliquat 336 (QCI)). Parameters including solvent type (carbon tetrachloride and chloroform), membrane stirring speed (100-250 rpm), mixing speed of both phases (50-100 rpm), The feed pH (2-12) and implemented temperature (35-60 °C) were thoroughly analyzed to determine the effect of such variables on extraction effectiveness. Furthermore, the effect of methyl orange (10-50 ppm) in the feed stage and NaOH (0
... Show MoreSince the beginning of 21st century, the prices of Agricultural crops have increased. This Increases is accompanied with that increases of crude oil prices and fluctuation of a dollar exchange rate as a dominant currency used in the global trade. The paper aimed to analysis the short run and long run cointegration relationships between prices of some of Agricultural crops imported by Iraq such as wheat and rice crops and both the crude oil prices and the Iraq dinar exchange rate a gained America dollar using ARDL model. The results show the long run equilibrium between they three variable throng the error correction mechanizem. The results also show the significant and economically sound effects of cru
... Show MoreIn the present research, the chemical washing method has been selected using three chelating agents: citric acid, acetic acid and Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid (EDTA) to remove 137Cs from two different contaminated soil samples were classified as fine and coarse grained. The factors that affecting removal efficiency such as type of soil, mixing ratio and molarity have been investigated. The results revealed that no correlation relation was found between removal efficiency and the studied factors. The results also showed that conventional chemical washing method was not effective in removing 137Cs and that there are further studies still need to achieve this objective.