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) facilitated the characterization of (CAC). The results showed the CAC has non-uniform morphological features with different shapes of its active sites. The prepared CAC was utilized in adsorption of sulfur in its highly complex form of dibenzothiophene (DBT). Particular adsorption parameters of contacting time, temperature, and adsorbent dose were optimized to select the best conditions. These certain conditions are then applied in the adsorption of different DBT concentrations. The maximum removal of DBT reached around 83% at optimal conditions of contacting time (30 min), temperature (60 °C), and adsorbent dose (3 g L-1). The removal efficiency was significantly increased by decreasing the initial concentration of DBT. The experimental data fitted well with the Freundlich isotherm model compared with the Langmuir one. The maximum capacity of CAC for adsorption of DBT at equilibrium was 833.3 mg g-1 at 60 °C. The findings of this research introduce the CAC as a feasible adsorbent for removal DBT from simulated liquid petroleum fuels.
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of aromatic compounds that contain at least two rings. These compounds are found naturally in petroleum products and are considered the most prevalent pollutants in the environment. The lack of microorganism capable of degrading some PAHs led to their accumulation in the environment which usually causes major health problems as many of these compounds are known carcinogens. Xanthene is one of the small PAHs which has three rings. Many xanthene derivatives are useful dyes that are used for dyeing wood and cosmetic articles. However, several studies have illustrated that these compounds have toxic and carcinogenic effects. The first step of the bacterial degradation of xanthene is conducted by d
... Show MoreAn investigation was conducted to suggest relations for estimating yield and properties of the improved light lubricating oil fraction produced from furfural extraction process by using specified regression.
Mass transfer in mixer-settler has been studied. Mass transfer coefficient of continuous phase, mass transfer coefficient of dispersed phase and the overall mass transfer coefficient extraction of light lubes oil distillate fraction by furfural are calculated in addition to all physical properties of individual components and the extraction mixtures.
The effect of extraction variables were studied such as extraction temperature which ranges from 70 to 110°C and solvent to oil ratio which ranges from 1:1 to 4:1 (wt/wt
... Show MoreThe antimicrobial activity of ginger extracts ( cold-water, hot-water, ethanolic and essential oil ) against some of pathogenic bacteria ( Escherichia coli , Salmonella sp , Klebsiella sp , Serratia marcescens, Vibrio cholerae , Staphylococcus aureus , Streptococcus sp) was investigated using Disc diffusion method , and the results were compared with the antimicrobial activity of 12 antibiotics on the same bacteria . The results showed that the ginger extracts were more effective on gram-positive bacteria than gram-negative . V. cholerae and S. marcescens,were the most resistant bacteria to the extracts used , while highest inhibition was noticed against Streptococcus sp (28 mm) . The ethanolic extract showed the broadest antibacterial ac
... Show MoreNanofluid treatment of oil reservoirs is being developed to enhance oil recovery and increase residual trapping capacities of CO2 at the reservoir scale. Recent studies have demonstrated good potential for silica nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) at ambient conditions. Nanofluid composition and exposure time have shown significant effects on the efficiency of EOR. However, there is a serious lack of information regarding the influence of temperature on nanofluid performance; thus the effects of temperature, exposure time and particle size on wettability alteration of oil-wet calcite surface were comprehensively investigated; moreover, the stability of the nanofluids was examined. We found that nanofluid treatment is more efficie
... Show MoreNano materials have a great potential for enhanced oil recovery applications. The present research investigated the effect of nanoparticles on interfacial tension and wettability alteration. The silica oxide nanoparticles with different size 52, 65 and 5nm were used. The wettability alteration was evaluated by dipping the limestone rock in different concentrations of Nano silica (0.01-1wt. %) for a certain silica size suspended in salinity water. Measurements performed in three phase system (oil/water/solid) using pandel droplet and sessile drop method respectively by opitical-tensiometer. Results showed that Nano fluid can significantly reduce contact angle and alterated rock wettabi
This research is considered one of the important researches in Maysan Governorate, as it focuses on the construction of helicopter airport project in the oil fields of the Maysan Oil Company, where the oil general companies in Maysan Governorate suffer from the cost of transporting the foreign engineering experts and the governing equipment of sustaining oil industry from Iraq's international airports to oil fields and vice versa. Private international transport companies transport foreign engineering from the oil fields to Iraqi airports and vice versa, and other international security companies take action to provide protection for foreign engineering experts during transportation. Hence, this process is very costly.
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... Show MoreFerric oxide nanoparticles Fe3O4NPs have been prepared by the coprecipitation method, which were used to functionalize the surface of electrospun nanofibers of polyacrylonitrile to increase their effectiveness in adsorption of Congo red (CR) dye from their aqueous solutions. The effect factors of adsorption were systematically investigated such as adsorbent mass, initial concentration, contact time, temperature, ionic strength and pH. The maximum adsorbed amount of the dye was at 0.003g of adsorbent. The adsorption of dye increased with increasing initial dye concentration and the system reaches to the equilibrium state at 150 min. The adsorbed dye capacity decreases with increasing temperature which indicates to the exothermic nature of ad
... Show MoreThe research aims to apply the novel forward osmosis (FO) process to recover pure water
from contaminated water. Phenol was used as organic substance in the feed solution, while sodium
chloride salt was used as draw solution. Membranes used in the FO process is the cellulose
triacetate (CTA) and polyamide (thin film composite (TFC)) membrane. Reverse osmosis process
was used to treatment the draw solution, the exterior from the forward osmosis process. In the FO
process the active layer of the membrane faces the feed solution and the porous support layer faces
the draw solution and this will show the effect of dilutive internal concentration polarization and
concentrative external concentration polarization.
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