Low grade crude palm oil (LGCPO) presents as an attractive option as feedstock for biodiesel production due to its low cost and non-competition with food resources. Typically, LGCPO contains high contents of free fatty acids (FFA), rendering it impossible in direct trans-esterification processes due to the saponification reaction. Esterification is the typical pre-treatment process to reduce the FFA content and to produce fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The pre-treatment of LGCPO using two different acid catalysts, such as titanium oxysulphate sulphuric acid complex hydrate (TiOSH) and 5-sulfosalicylic acid dihydrate (5-SOCAH) was investigated for the first time in this study. The optimum conditions for the homogenous catalyst (5-SOCAH) were determined as: 1.5 wt% of acid catalyst dosage, 60 °C reaction temperature, 8:1 methanol molar ratio at 60 min. For the heterogeneous TiOSH, higher catalyst dosages such as 7 wt% is required with a methanol loading of 10:1 (molar ratio) at 120 min to reduce the initial FFA to less than 3%. Under these optimum conditions for both types of catalysts; the FFA levels were reduced from 11.3 % to less than 3 %, individually. This study introduces for the first time two types of acidic catalysts with high catalytic activity for the esterification of FFA content in low grade oils for biodiesel production which could be used for the treatment of wide range of low quality oils.
This study depicts the removal of Manganese ions (Mn2+) from simulated wastewater by combined electrocoagulation/ electroflotation technologies. The effects of initial Mn concentration, current density (C.D.), electrolysis time, and different mesh numbers of stainless steel screen electrodes were investigated in a batch cell by adopting Taguchi experimental design to explore the optimum conditions for maximum removal efficiency of Mn. The results of multiple regression and signal to noise ratio (S/N) showed that the optimum conditions were Mn initial concentration of 100 ppm, C.D. of 4 mA/cm2, time of 120 min, and mesh no. of 30 (wire/inch). Also, the relative significance of each factor was attained by the analysis of variance (ANO
... Show MoreIndustrial effluents loaded with heavy metals are a cause of hazards to the humans and other forms of life. Conventional approaches, such as electroplating, ion exchange, and membrane processes, are used for removal of copper, cadmium, and lead and are often cost prohibitive with low efficiency at low metal ion concentration. Biosorption can be considered as an option which has been proven as more efficient and economical for removing the mentioned metal ions. Biosorbents used are fungi, yeasts, oil palm shells, coir pith carbon, peanut husks, and olive pulp. Recently, low cost and natural products have also been researched as biosorbent. This paper presents an attempt of the potential use of Iraqi date pits and Al-Khriet (i.e. substances l
... Show MoreThe Braille Recognition System is the process of capturing a Braille document image and turning its content into its equivalent natural language characters. The Braille Recognition System's cell transcription and Braille cell recognition are the two basic phases that follow one another. The Braille Recognition System is a technique for locating and recognizing a Braille document stored as an image, such as a jpeg, jpg, tiff, or gif image, and converting the text into a machine-readable format, such as a text file. BCR translates an image's pixel representation into its character representation. As workers at visually impaired schools and institutes, we profit from Braille recognition in a variety of ways. The Braille Recognition S
... Show MoreBackground: One of the recommended methods for reducing aerosol contamination during the daily regular usage of high-speed turbine and ultrasonic scaling is the use of preprocedural mouth rinse. Several agents have been investigated as a preprocedural mouth rinse. Chlorhexidine significantly reduce the viable microbial content of aerosol when used as a preprocedural rinse. Studies have shown that cetylpridinum chloride (CPC) mouthwash is equally effective as chlorhexidine in reducing plaque and gingivitis. This study compared the effect of 0.07% CPC to 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX) as preprocedural mouth rinses in reducing the aerosol contamination by high-speed turbine. Materials and Methods: 36 patients were divided into three gro
... Show MoreIntroduction: Although soap industry is known from hundreds of years, the development accompanied with this industry was little. The development implied the mechanical equipment and the additive materials necessary to produce soap with the best specifications of shape, physical and chemical properties. Objectives: This research studies the use of vacuum reactive distillation VRD technique for soap production. Methods: Olein and Palmitin in the ratio of 3 to 1 were mixed in a flask with NaOH solution in stoichiometric amount under different vacuum pressures from -0.35 to -0.5 bar. Total conversion was reached by using the VRD technique. The soap produced by the VRD method was compared with soap prepared by the reaction - only method which
... Show MoreThe gas sensing properties of Co3O4and Co3O4:Y nano structures were investigated. The films were synthesized using the hydrothermal method on a seeded layer. The XRD, SEM analysis and gas sensing properties were investigated for Co3O4and Co3O4:Y thin films. XRD analysis shows that all films are polycrystalline in nature, having a cubic structure, and the crystallite size is (11.7)nm for cobalt oxide and (9.3)nm for the Co3O4:10%Y. The SEM analysis of thin films obviously indicates that Co3O4possesses a nanosphere-like structure and a flower-like structure for Co3O4:Y.The sensitivity, response time and recovery time to a H2S reducing gas were tested at different operating
... Show MoreObjectives: To determine the effectiveness of the instructional program on patients’ knowledge about home safety while receiving anti-cancer treatment at Al- Karama Teaching Hospital in Al-Kut City.
Methodology: A quasi-experimental design is conducted through the application of a pre-test and post-test approach for the study and control groups from February 5th, 2020 to April 25th, 2020. A non–probability (purposive) sample of (50) patients treated at the Blood Disease and Oncology Center is selected and divided into two groups. Each group contains (25) patients as control and study groups. An instrument is constructed that is comprised of two parts; t
... Show MoreThis work presents a completely new develop an analyzer, named NAG-5SX1-1D-SSP, that is simple, accurate, reproducible, and affordable for the determination of cefotaxime sodium (CFS) in both pure and pharmaceutical drugs. The analyzer was designed according to flow injection analysis, and conducted to turbidimetric measurements. Ammonium cerium nitrate was utilized as a precipitating agent. After optimizing the conditions, the analysis system exhibited a linear range of 0.008-27 mmol. L-1 (n=29), with a limit of detection of 439.3 ng/sample, a limit of quantification of 0.4805 mg/sample, and a correlation coefficient of 0.9988. The repeatability of the responses was assessed by performing six successive injections of CFS at concentra
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