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.
Finding the shortest route in wireless mesh networks is an important aspect. Many techniques are used to solve this problem like dynamic programming, evolutionary algorithms, weighted-sum techniques, and others. In this paper, we use dynamic programming techniques to find the shortest path in wireless mesh networks due to their generality, reduction of complexity and facilitation of numerical computation, simplicity in incorporating constraints, and their onformity to the stochastic nature of some problems. The routing problem is a multi-objective optimization problem with some constraints such as path capacity and end-to-end delay. Single-constraint routing problems and solutions using Dijkstra, Bellman-Ford, and Floyd-Warshall algorith
... Show MoreThe aim of this research is to prove the idea of maximum mX-N-open set, m-N-extremally disconnected with respect to t and provide some definitions by utilizing the idea of mX-N-open sets. Some properties of these sets are studied.
The temperature control process of electric heating furnace (EHF) systems is a quite difficult and changeable task owing to non-linearity, time delay, time-varying parameters, and the harsh environment of the furnace. In this paper, a robust temperature control scheme for an EHF system is developed using an adaptive active disturbance rejection control (AADRC) technique with a continuous sliding-mode based component. First, a comprehensive dynamic model is established by using convection laws, in which the EHF systems can be characterized as an uncertain second order system. Second, an adaptive extended state observer (AESO) is utilized to estimate the states of the EHF system and total disturbances, in which the observer gains are updated
... Show MoreThis work describes the enhancement of phenol red decolorization through immobilizing of laccase in chitosan and enzyme recycling. Commercial laccase from white rot fungus, Trametesversicolor (Tvlac), was immobilizedin to freshly prepared chitosan beads by using glutaraldehyde as a cross linker. Characterization of prepared chitosan was confirmed by FTIR and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Tvlac (46.2 U/mL) immobilized into chitosan beads at 0.8 % glutaraldehyde (v/v) within 24 hrs. Synthetic (HBT) and natural (vanillin) mediators were used to enhance dye decolorizoation. It was found that 89 % of phenol red was decolorized by chitosan beads within 180 min. in the absence of enzyme and mediator, while decolorization percenta
... Show MoreNewcastle disease virus (NDV) is a wide-spectrum anti-tumor agent. The oncolytic selectivity of NDV, a family of Paramyxoviridae, depends on the differential type of inducing different death pathways. This work was conducted to further understand the oncolytic effect of LaSota strain. A mouse breast cancer model (Murine mammary adenocarcinoma cell line AMN3) was used in this study. Methyl Thiazolyl Tetrazolium (MTT) viability assay tested different NDV multiplicity of infection (MOI) values on mouse mammary adenocarcinoma cells incubated for 72 hours post-infection. The IC50 values and anti-tumor activity of LaSota strain against AMN3 cell line were determined. Following Hematoxylin and Eosin Stain, we examined t
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The study is designed to identify intestinal parasitic infections examined at Al-Aziziyah Hospital in Wasit Governorate in Iraq. In this study, a total of (460) internal and external patients were monitored for intestinal parasitic infections. All stool samples were analyzed by the direct method (microscopic exam.) to discover the trophozoite stages and cyst stages for intestinal protozoan parasites. The most incidence parasites in different sex, area residence and different age groups. Out of (460) patient sample were infected with 217 at a percentage of (47.17%), 101(46.5%) were for males and 116 (53.5%) were for females. It was found that the numbers and percentages of a single (one
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