Biodiesel can be prepared from various types of vegetable oils or animal fats with the aid of a catalyst.
Calcium oxide (CaO) is one of the prospective heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel synthesis. Modification
of CaO by impregnation on silica (SiO2) can improve the performance of CaO as catalyst. Egg shells and rice
husks as biomass waste can be used as raw materials for the preparation of the silica modified CaO catalyst.
The present study was directed to synthesize and characterize CaO impregnated SiO2 catalyst from biomass
waste and apply it as catalyst in biodiesel synthesis. The catalyst was synthesized by wet impregnation
method and characterized by x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and
basicity density. The activity of the catalyst in biodiesel synthesis was assayed at different molar ratios of
palm oil to methanol ranging from 1:6, 1:9, 1:12 and 1:15. The biodiesel composition was determined by gas
chromatography-mass spectroscopy and the properties of the biodiesel were also characterized. The results
showed that the CaO impregnated SiO2 catalyst was successfully synthesized based on confirmation by XRD
and XRF. The catalyst has a surface area, average pore diameter, total pore volume, and basicity density of
19.38 m2
/g, 3.22 nm, 0.0122 cm3
/g, and 3.4 mmol/g, respectively. The catalyst activity assay indicates that
the molar ratio of palm oil to methanol of 1:12 is the optimum condition for biodiesel synthesis. At this
molar ratio, 81.4% biodiesel yield was achieved, and it met the quality standards according to ASTM D
6751.
The Ligand 6,6--(1,2-benzenediazo) bis (3-aminobenzoicacid) derived from o-phenylenediamine and 3-aminobenzoicacid was synthesized. The prepared ligand was identified by Microelemental Analysis, 1HNMR, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. Treatment of the ligand with the following metal ions (CoII, NiII, CuII and ZnII ) in aqueous ethanol with a 1:1 M:L ratio and at optimum pH. Characterization of these compounds has been done on the basis of elemental analysis, electronic data, FT-IR and UV-Vis, as well as magnetic susceptibility and conductivity measurements. The nature of the complexes formed were studied following the mole ratio and continuous variation methods, Beer's law obeyed over a concentration range (1×10-4 - 3×10-4 M). H
... Show MoreThe objective of present study was to investigate the effect of using mixture volaticle oil of rosmarinus and nigella sativa to improve some of the meat quality characteristics, physical and limited storage time of minced cold poultry meat. Duplex volaticle oil was added at 0.025, 0.050 and 0.075 g/kg to minced poultry meat, these treatments were stored individually for 0 , 4 and 7 days at 4-7C0. After making several chemical, physical and oxidation indicators, the following results were obtained:
The process of adding volaticle oil to minced poultry meat led to significant increase (P<0.01)in moisture, prot
... Show MoreThe acrylic polymer composites in this study are made up of various weight ratios of cement or silica nanoparticles (1, 3, 5, and 10 wt%) using the casting method. The effects of doping ratio/type on mechanical, dielectric, thermal, and hydrophobic properties were investigated. Acrylic polymer composites containing 5 wt% cement or silica nanoparticles had the lowest abrasion wear rates and the highest shore-D hardness and impact strength. The increase in the inclusion of cement or silica nanoparticles enhanced surface roughness, water contact angle (WCA), and thermal insulation. Acrylic/cement composites demonstrated higher mechanical, electrical, and thermal insulation properties than acrylic/silica composites because of their lowe
... Show MoreImitation learning is an effective method for training an autonomous agent to accomplish a task by imitating expert behaviors in their demonstrations. However, traditional imitation learning methods require a large number of expert demonstrations in order to learn a complex behavior. Such a disadvantage has limited the potential of imitation learning in complex tasks where the expert demonstrations are not sufficient. In order to address the problem, we propose a Generative Adversarial Network-based model which is designed to learn optimal policies using only a single demonstration. The proposed model is evaluated on two simulated tasks in comparison with other methods. The results show that our proposed model is capable of completing co
... Show MoreThe presence of residual antibiotics in water results in the development of antibiotics resistant genes. The available wastewater treatment systems are not capable of removing such antibiotics from sewage. Thus, antibiotics need to be removed before the discharge of wastewater. Adsorption is among the promising techniques for the wastewater treatment to aid the removal of a wide range of organic and inorganic pollutants. The present work is a contribution to the search for an economical method for the removal of low concentrations of amoxicillin (AMX) from water by adsorption on water treatment residue, WTR, taken from a local drinking water facility. The chemical composition and the adsorptive characteristics of the material were first
... Show MoreThe removal of commercial orange G dye from its aqueous solution by adsorption on tobacco leaves (TL) was studied in respect to different factor that affected the adsorption process. These factors including the tobacco leaves does, period of orange G adsorption, pH, and initial orange G dye concentration .Different types of isotherm models were used to describe the orange G dye adsorption onto the tobacco leaves. The experimental results were compared using Langmuir, and frundlich adsorption isotherm, the constants for these two isotherm models was determined. The results fitted frundlich model with value of correlation coefficient equal to (0.981). The capacity of adsorption for the orange G dye was carried out using various kinetic models
... Show MoreA field-pilot scale slow sand filter (SSF) was constructed at Al-Rustamiya Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Baghdad city to investigate the removal efficiency in terms of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical oxygen demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Chloride concentrations for achieving better secondary effluent quality from this treatment plant. The SSF was designed at a 0.2 m/h filtration rate with filter area 1 m2 and total filter depth of 2.3 m. A filter sand media 0.35 mm in size and 1 m depth was supported by 0.2 m layer of gravel of size 5 mm. The secondary effluent from Al-Rustamiya STP was used as the influent to the slow sand filter. The results showed that the removal of BOD5, COD, TSS, and Chloride were
... Show MoreA laboratory experiment has been carried out in the College of Science-University of Salahaddin to study the effect of different levels (0,5,10 and 15%) and sizes(250 and 1000µm) of walnut seeds residues and (160mg.kg-1) phosphorus fertilization on the concentration of phosphorus availability and alkaline phosphatase activity in calcareous soil during 15 and 30 days period of incubation, the experimental design in factorial complet randomize design (C.R.D) with three replications. The results indicated that the application of different levels of walnut seed residues decreases the concentration of phosphorus availability and alkaline phosphatase activity, however the results revealed that combination between levels and sizes o
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