Pharmaceuticals have been widely remaining contaminants in wastewater, and diclofenac is the most common pharmaceutical pollutant. Therefore, the removal of diclofenac from aqueous solutions using activated carbon produced by pyrocarbonic acid and microwaves was investigated in this research. Apricot seed powder and pyrophosphoric acid (45 wt%) were selected as raw material and activator respectively, and microwave irradiation technique was used to prepare the activated carbon. The raw material was impregnated in pyrophosphoric acid at 80◦C with an impregnation ratio of 1: 3 (apricot seeds to phosphoric acid), the impregnation time was 4 h, whereas the power of the microwave was 700 watts with a radiation time of 20 min. A series of experiments were conducted at constant mixing speed (300 revolutions per minute) to evaluate the effect of experimental factors likes, adsorption time, pH of diclofenac solution, diclofenac initial concentration, and dosage of activated carbon on removal efficiency. The design of experiments (version 13 Stat-Ease) was implemented using the central composite method to define the optimum effect of the process factors on the removal efficiency. The analysis of variance showed that the quadratic model for the experiment was significant with a very low probability value (P- value < 0.0001). The adjusted R2 of the model was 0.9826 and the predicted R2 was 0.9574. Whereas the optimum conditions suggested by the model for the process variable were found to be 150 min, 3.25 pH, 30 mg/L, 0.267g, for adsorption time, pH of diclofenac solution, diclofenac initial concentration, a dosage of activated carbon, respectively and the maximum removal efficiency was found to be 94.6%. The data obtained from the experiments were fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich models and the results show that the data was well fitted Langmuir model with R2 = 0.9685 as compared to the Freundlich model which has R2 = 0.93249. Likewise, the data was analyzed by pseudo first and second-order kinetic models and the results show that the adsorption on apricot-activated carbon was well adequate with the pseudo-second-order model.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is an essential polyunsaturated omega fatty acid that occurs naturally in vegetable oils. It also plays an important role in preserving meat for longer periods by preventing oxidation of other fats. Thus, it can be used in the production of functional foods with high biological value and low cholesterol levels by adding poultry diets. Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of adding CLA to broiler diets on production performance and fatty acid content in the meat. Methodology: One-day-old Ross-308 chicks were randomly distributed into four dietary treatment groups: control (0 g CLA kgG1 diet; A1), 0.5 g CLA kgG1 diet (A2), 0.75 g CLA kgG1 diet (A3) and 1 g CLA kgG1 diet (A4). Diets
... Show MoreFar infrared photoconductive detectors based on multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were fabricated and their characteristics were tested. MWCNTs films deposited on porous silicon (PSi) nanosurface by dip and drop coating techniques. Two types of deposited methods were used; dip coating sand drop –by-drop methods. As well as two types of detector were fabricated one with aluminum mask and the other without, and their figures of merits were studied. The detectors were illuminated by 2.2 and 2.5 Watt from CO2 of 10.6 m and tested. The surface morphology for the films is studied using AFM and SEM micrographs. The films show homogeneous distributed for CNTs on the PSi layer. The root mean square (r.m.s.) of the films surface roughness in
... Show MoreAcinetobacter baumannii received attention for its multi-drug resistant associated with many severe infections and outbreaks in clinical environment. The aims of the study are to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility profile of clinically isolated A. baumannii, biofilm production, and the efficiency of Low Frequency Ultrasound (LFU) and honey to attenuate biofilm production. A total of 100 samples were taken from different sources from Baghdad hospitals. The susceptibility patterns revealed the percentage of pan drug resistant (PDR) isolates were 1.5 %, 72.7 % were extended drug resistant (XDR), 16.7 % were multidrug resistant (MDR), and 9.1 % were non MDR and sensitive to most antibiotics used. The ability to form
... Show MoreIn this study, Yogurt was dried and milled, then shaked with distilled water to remove the soluble materials, then again dried and milled. Batch experiments were carried out to remove hexavalent chromium from aqueous solutions. Different parameters were optimized such as amount of adsorbent, treatment time, pH and concentration of adsorbate. The concentrations of Cr6+ in solutions are determined by UV-Visible spectrophotometer. Maximum percentage removal of Cr6+ was 82% at pH 2. Two equilibrium adsorption isotherms mechanisms are tested Langmuir and Freundlich, the results showed that the isotherm obeyed to Freundlich isotherm. Kinetic models were applied to the adsorption of Cr6+ ions on the adsorbents, ps
... Show MoreThe present work reports on the performance of three types of nanofiltration membranes in the removal of highly polluting and toxic lead (Pb2+) and cadmium (Cd2+) from single and binary salt aqueous solutions simulating real wastewaters. The effect of the operating variables (pH (5.5-6.5), types of NF membrane and initial ions concentration (10-250 ppm)) on the separation process and water flux was investigated. It was observed that the rejection efficiency increased with increasing pH of solution and decreasing the initial metal ions concentrations. While the flux decreased with increasing pH of solution and increasing initial metal ions concentrations. The maximum rejection of lead and cadmium ion
... Show MoreThis work was conducted to study the ability of locally prepared Zeolite NaY for the reduction of sulfur compounds from Iraqi natural gas by a continuous mode adsorption unit. Zeolite Y was hydrothermally synthesized using abundant kaolin clay as aluminum precursor. Characterization was made using chemical analysis, XRD and BET surface area. Results of the adsorption experiments showed that zeolite Y is an active adsorbent for removal H2S from natural gas and other gas streams. The effect of temperature was found inversely related to the removal efficiency. Increasing bed height was found to increase the removal efficiency at constant flow rate of natural gas. The adsorption capacity was evaluated and its maximum uptake was 5.345 mg H2S/g z
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