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.

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

Increasing material prices coupled with the emission of hazardous gases through the production and construction of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) has driven a strong movement toward the adoption of sustainable construction technology. Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is considered relatively a new technology, which enables the production and compaction of asphalt concrete mixtures at temperatures 15-40 °C lower than that of traditional hot mix asphalt. The Resilient modulus (Mr) which can be defined as the ratio of axial pulsating stress to the corresponding recoverable strain, is used to evaluate the relative quality of materials as well as to generate input for pavement design or pavement evaluation and analysis. Based on the aforementioned preface, it is

The current research aims to find out the effect of strategic sensitivity in enhancing organizational immunity at the leadership levels in the Iraqi Ministry of Education, as the strategic sensitivity variable includes two dimensions (strategic foresight and strategic Insight), and the organizational immunity variable addresses three dimensions (organizational learning, organizational memory and organizational DNA). The main purpose of this research was related to the extent to which the Ministry’s immunity was achieved through the role played by strategic sensitivity. A sample of (349) individuals was selected . The questionnaire was relied upon to collect data, and the number of questionnaires suitable for analysis was (330). Re

The current study aims to demonstrate the role of strategic renewal in enhancing organizational immunity through strategic renewal mechanisms represented by (Reanimating, Rejuvenation, Venturing, and restructuring). The main idea of this study relates to the extent to which organizations’ immunity is achieved through strategic Renewal mechanisms, by measuring these dimensions with Organizational immunity represented by organizational learning, organizational memory, and organizational DNA. The study population was the headquarters of the Iraqi Ministry of Education, and the sample included (330) individuals from the upper, middle, and lower leadership levels. Several statistical methods were used to deal with the results of the questionna

In recent years, various methods have been developed to enhance the characteristics of asphalt pavement in order to face the continuous challenges of increasing traffic loads and changing climate conditions. One of the most popular and successful methods is modifying the asphalt mixtures or asphalt binder with the addition of polymers. Therefore, two types of Polyethylene (PE) polymer, High-Density PE (HDPE) and Low-Density PE (LDPE), are used in this research. Two methods were applied to prepare PE-modified asphalt mixtures: Semi-Wet Method (S-WM) and Dry Method (DM). The findings of the investigation indicated that the addition of PE polymer can reduce the wear loss of aggregate. In general, the experimental results revealed that asphalt

The enhancement of the thermal and thermo-hydraulic performance of a semi-circular solar air collector (SCSAC) is numerically investigated using porous semi-circular obstacles made of metal foam with and without longitudinal porous Y-shaped fins. Two 10 and 40 PPI porous material samples are examined. Three-dimensional models are built to simulate the performance of SCSAC: model (I) with clear air passage; model (II) with only metal foam obstacles, and model (III) with metal foam obstacles as well as porous Y-fins. COMSOL Multiphysics software version 6.2 based on finite element methodology is employed. A conjugate heat transfer with a (k-ε) turbulence model is selected to simulate both heat transfer and fluid flow across the entir

The adsorption process of 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) drugs on Aluminum nitride nanotubes surface (AlNNTs) have been evaluated through density functional theory (DFT). The DFT results show that the interaction of AlNNTs with the F atoms of 5FU drugs is strong due to the fact that the amount of adsorption energy was about − 29.65 kcal.mol−1. Conversely, the interaction of the 5FU through O atoms with the AlNNTs was weaker due to the lower value of adsorption energy. Also, based on the values of Gibbs free energy, the 5FU adsorption on the surfaces of AlNNTs was spontaneous. In addition, based on natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, the direction of charge transfer was from fluorine’s σ orbitals of the drug to nitrogen’s and aluminum’s n*