The study involved the removal of acidity from free fatty acid via the esterification reaction of oleic acid with ethanol. The reaction was done in a batch reactor using commercial 13X zeolite as a catalyst. The effects of temperatures (40 to 70 °C) and reaction time (up to 120 minutes) were studied using 6:1 mole ratio of pure ethanol to oleic acid and 5 wt. % of the catalyst. The results showed that acid removed increased with increasing temperature and reaction time. Also, the acidity removal rises sharply during the first reaction period and then changes slightly afterward. The highest acidity removal value was 67 % recorded at 110 minutes and 70 °C. An apparent homogeneous reversible reaction kinetic model has been proposed and solved with the experimentally obtained kinetics data to evaluate reaction rate constants versus temperature, pre-exponential factors, and activation energy values for the forward and the backward esterification reactions. The activation energies were 34.863 kJ/mol for the forward reaction and 29.731 kJ/mol for the backward reaction. The thermodynamics of the activation step of the forward and reverse reactions was studied based on the hypothesis of forming a complex material that decomposes into a product. The activation steps were studied using Eyring bimolecular collision theory approach, and both ΔH* and ΔS* were determined for forward and backward esterification reactions. The enthalpies of activation were 32.141 kJ/mol and 27.080 kJ/mol for the forward reaction and the backward reaction, and the entropies of activation were - 193.7 and -212.7 J/mol. K for the forward reaction and the backward reaction, respectively.
The Pulse Coupled Oscillator (PCO) has attracted substantial attention and widely used in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), where it utilizes firefly synchronization to attract mating partners, similar to artificial occurrences that mimic natural phenomena. However, the PCO model might not be applicable for simultaneous transmission and data reception because of energy constraints. Thus, an energy-efficient pulse coupled oscillator (EEPCO) has been proposed, which employs the self-organizing method by combining biologically and non-biologically inspired network systems and has proven to reduce the transmission delay and energy consumption of sensor nodes. However, the EEPCO method has only been experimented in attack-free networks without
... Show MoreThe dielectric constant of most polymers is very low; the addition of TiO2 particles into the polymers provides an attractive and promising way to reach a high dielectric constant. Polymer-based materials with a high dielectric constant show great potential for energy storage applications. Four samples were prepared, one of them was polyurethane (PU) and the other were PU with different weight percent (wt %) of TiO2 (0.1, 0.2, 0.3) powder AFM test was used to distinguish the nanoparticles. The result shows that the most shape of these nanoparticles are spherical and the roughness average is 0.798 nm. The dielectric properties were measured for all samples before and after the exposure to the UV radiation. The result illustrates that the
... Show MoreAt the heart of every robust economy is a vital banking system. The functional banking system can effectively perform several functions such as mobilizing savings, allocating credit, monitoring managers, transforming risks, and facilitating the financial transactions. This paper aims to measure the impact of banking system development on economic growth in Iraq. Credit to private sector divided by GDP used as a proxy of banking development. Real per capita GDP used as a proxy of economic growth. By using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, the paper finds that the undeveloped Iraqi banking system could not promote economic growth in the country. Therefore, a variety of policies need to be taken to spur the role of bankin
... Show MoreExpansive soils are recognized by their swelling potential upon wetting due to the existence of some clay minerals such as montmorillonite. An effective solution was found to avoid the danger of such soils by using piles. A single pile embedded in an elasto-plastic expansive soil has been analyzed by using one of the available software which is ABAQUS to investigate the effect of applied loads on pile’s top and investigate the effect of swelling soils on load carrying capacity of the pile. The result shows that as the pile is axially loaded at its top, the axial force along the pile gradually changes from (tension) to (compression) and the pile tends to move downward. The applied load needed to initiate pile’s settlement depend
... Show MoreThis work was conducted to study the oxidation of phenol in aqueous solution using copper based catalyst with zinc as promoter and different carrier, i.e. γ-Alumina and silica. These catalysts were prepared by impregnation method.
The effect of catalyst composition, pH (5.6-9), phenol to catalyst concentration ratio (2-0.5), air feed rate (30-50) ml/s, stirring speed (400-800) rpm, and temperature (80-100) °C were examined in order to find the best conditions for phenol conversion.
The best operating conditions which lead to maximum phenol conversion (73.1%) are : 7.5 pH, 4/6 phenol to catalyst concentration, 40 ml/s air feed rate, 600 rpm stirring speed, and 100 °C reaction temperature. The reaction involved an induction period
The performance of flexible pavements is significantly impacted by the permanent deformation (rutting) of asphalt pavements. Rutting shortens the pavement's useful service life and poses significant risks to those using the highway since it alters vehicle handling characteristics.. The aim of this research is to evaluate the permanent deformation of asphalt mixtures under different conditions,to achieve this aim 108 cylindrical specimens has been prepared and tested under repeated loading in uniaxial compression mode. Five factors were considered in this research, these factors represent the effect of environmental condition and traffic loading as well as mixture properties, they include testing temperature, loading condition (stress level
... Show MoreOne of the most important problems that faces the concrete industry in Iraq is the deterioration due to internal sulfate attack , since it reduces the compressive strength and increases the expansion of concrete. Consequently, the concrete structure may be damage .The effects of total and total effective sulfate contents on high strength concrete (HSC) have been studied in the present study. The research studied the effect of sulfate content in cement , sand and gravel , as well as comparing the total sulfate content with the total effective SO3 content. Materials used were divided into two groups of SO3 in cement ,three groups of SO3 in sand ,and two groups of SO3 in gravel. The results show that considering the total effective sulfate con
... Show MoreThe present work shows a theoretical results that have been used the functional Hybrid of three parameters Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) of the quantum mechanical approach for density functional theory with (Spanish Initiative for Electronic Simulations with Thousands of Atoms) SIESTA code. All calculations were carried out employing the used method at the Gaussian 09 package of programs. It was reported the main point for research on dominance of the bandgap of elongated pi-conjugated molecules by using different chemical groups replacing hydrogen atom in the most molecules that used in this work. The side groups creates another factor that controls the value of the band gap. The dihedral angle between the two pheny
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