Advanced Materials Research Vol. 1113

Abstract: A preliminary study was performed on enzymatic hydrolysis process for treating empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibre. The bioconversion of cellulose hydrolysis was carried out with soluble cellulase from Trichoderma reesei as the biocatalyst. Crucial trends such as substrate and enzyme loading influencing the enzymatic reaction were also studied in order to enhance the cellulose conversion. The results indicate that as the enzyme loading was increased, the EFB conversion also increased until it reached 115.63 FPU/g of enzyme concentration, beyond this values, the reverse occurred. On the other hand, as the substrate loading was increased the conversion decreased. Inhibition of enzyme adsorption by hydrolysis products appear to be the main cause of the decreasing conversion at increasing enzyme loading and substrate loading.

Abstract: The microalgae Chlorella sp. grows well in POME medium sparged with a mixture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas and air under 10,000 lx of lighting. The percentage of CO₂ in the mixture, and the flow rate of the mixture (representing agitation) have important effects on the microalgae biomass yield. However, the percentage recovery of CO₂ as microalgae biomass was very low in all cases, indicating that most of the sparged CO₂ did not dissolve in the POME and was not sequestered by the microalgae but has in fact escaped with the bubbles into the head-space and out into the atmosphere. This result indicates that in order to increase the percentage of CO₂ recovered, the area of improvement is mainly in the mass transfer of CO₂ from the gas phase into the liquid phase. To ensure that dissolved CO₂ does not re-form bubbles, the mass transfer has to be demand-driven, where the rate of uptake of dissolved CO₂ by the microalgae has to be higher than the rate of mass transfer of CO₂ from gas phase into the liquid medium.

Abstract: Platinum is commercially used in the catalytic industry for ages. The use of platinum has been significantly practiced because of its enhancing properties. There are a few advantages of using platinum such as high selectivity, high yield, high stability and able to undergo improvisation. However, when platinum lifetime is out, it is treated mainly as waste. Low recovery of platinum spent catalyst brought to the existence of recovery method using acidic and alkaline method. Proved to be harmful, green subtances were used as substitute for the chemical in recovering platinum. Therefore, a cheaper, safer and more environmentally method of recovery. Thus,this paper review about recovering platinum using palm oil leaf and how it is better than the existed chemical based method.

Abstract: Biodiesel is clear liquid with a light to dark yellow color. Biodiesel is one of the alternative fuels that are attractive because of its favorable characteristics such as being non-toxic, biodegradable, renewable, carbon neutral and low emission. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) is a type of biodiesel. In this study, it was produced by using transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) which was reacted with methanol and heterogeneous catalyst. The two heterogeneous catalysts that were used in this study were sodium (Na) metal hydroxide supported on oil palm frond (OPF) and Na metal supported on oil palm kernel shell (OPKS). The support metal used was sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH). OPF and OPKS were used as they are the major residues obtained from the oil palm plantation that covers approximately 14.72% of Malaysian’s total landmass. The parameters that in this study were the reaction temperatures of the transesterification process from 30°C to 60°C and the catalyst loading from 0.5wt% to 3wt%. The reaction time and ratio methanol to oil were kept constant which were 4 hours and 1:10 respectively. This experiment was conducted in order to investigate the effect of two different heterogeneous catalysts on both temperature and catalyst loading on the yield production of FAME. The results were obtained by using GCMS analysis. From the experiment that was conducted, the results of FAME production by using two different catalysts indicate that the higher the reaction temperature is, the higher the production of FAME which is at 60°C. It also shows that the percentage yield of FAME increases with the increase of catalyst loading until it reaches the best value which is at 1wt%.

Abstract: Fruit-milk powder contain various nutritional and therapeutic values. Constipation in children is associated with the lack of fiber from food intake. Child’s diet during their first years of life depends greatly on milk as their main food supply. The primary objective of drying milk incorporated with fruits is to preserve it in a shelf-stable powdered form of high quality without a need for refrigeration. Milk powder are mainly produced using spray-drying and freeze-drying. The parameters needed to be taken into consideration are identified as the factors affecting the physical properties of dried milk powder. A review of the drying technology is presented. Keywords: Milk powder, spray drying, freeze drying, fruits

Abstract: Recently, there have been global movements toward reducing the use of fossil resources as source of energy due to continuous depletion of petroleum fuel-reserves besides contributing to environmental problems such as greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change. Isobutanol is one of biomass-based fuels that has been recognizes for its potentiality as fuel additive or substitute due to its attractive physical properties. This paper investigates the production of isobutanol and alcohol tolerance by five different types of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Kluyveromyces lactis GG799 and Pichia pastoris KM71H, GS115 and X33) in batch fermentation. Based on the result obtained, P. pastoris X33 produced the highest concentration of isobutanol at 65 mg/l followed by P. pastoris GS115, K.lactis GG799, P. pastoris KM71H and S. cerevisiae with concentration of 57 mg/l, 49 mg/l 49 mg/l and 46 mg/l respectively. This result proves that yeast is able to produce isobutanol naturally. S. cerevisiae has been proven as good yeast in alcohol tolerance as it was capable to grow in more than 2% isobutanol and butanol of up to 2%. Among the different alcohols tested for alcohol tolerance, 3-methyl-1-butanol has the highest toxicity towards yeast growth as compared to isobutanol and butanol.

Abstract: In this study, kinetic parameters of fast and slow pyrolysis is compared. For fast pyrolysis, cylindrical wood pieces of 20 mm diameter and 50 mm length is pyrolysed in a tube furnace at temperatures ranging from 300°C to 500°C. Solid, liquid and gas products are collected and the yields are calculated. For slow pyrolysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is used using sawdust from the same biomass. Using the experimental data from two different methods the kinetic parameters are calculated such as activation energy and pre-exponential factor for the two different pyrolysis methods. For fast pyrolysis the parameters are found to be E = 32.5 kJ/mol and A = 35/min and for slow pyrolysis E_s = 50.48 kJ/mol and A_s = 3179.86/min. The large difference between the values show that kinetic studies and modelling work using thermogravimetric analysis data is not suitable for commercial scale simulation. Also, the pre-exponential value for fast pyrolysis shows that the kinetic equation used from flash pyrolysis is not exactly suitable for this situation. Therefore, it is recommended that more studies on the kinetic parameters of fast pyrolysis of thermally thick biomass need to be done.

Abstract: Essential oils (EOs) widely known to possess various beneficial properties which are vital in numerous fields such as fragrance, flavour and medical. However, its high volatilities cause it ineffective in handling and utilizing for commercial application such as in textile. Although microencapsulation technology can trap oily components stably to fibers, a lots of affecting factor needs to be considered in order to have high performance microcapsules which can serve specific application. This review paper emphasize on microencapsulation of EOs and their promising benefit in textile application. Techniques and material use to produce EOs microcapsule, also process condition, aiding agent and fabric impregnating procedure are also reviewed for further studies.

Abstract: The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of microwave drying on the anti-diabetic potential of the leaves of Aquilaria subintegra and Aquilaria malaccensis with regard to its efficacy by local herbalists in the treatment of diabetes frailties. The drying process was carried out at 50, 100 and 150 W, and the drying curves were developed to analyse the drying characteristics of both species of Aquilaria leaves. Solid-liquid extraction was done by using ethanol as solvent prior to in-vitro analysis of the inhibition activity on α-amylase. Following that, HPLC and FTIR were done to support findings on the antidiabetic compounds of the leaves extract. The results indicated that an increase in power level will reduce the drying time during microwave treatment. Findings showed that both species of Aquilaria leaves extract could remarkably inhibit the activity of α-amylase and provide a rationale for the use of the leaves in the treatment of diabetes mellitus.

Abstract: Carbon dioxide separation has gained immense importance since its detrimental effects towards our environment has been realized. Commercially, CO₂ has been captured by absorption in alkanolamines such as diethanolamine (DEA), since many years. The thermodynamics and kinetics of the process is a key factor towards its efficiency and significantly depends on its qualitative and quantitative speciation. In this work, the analysis of speciation for CO₂ loaded aqueous DEA has been performed by Raman spectroscopy. Experimentally determined CO₂ loading data and modified Kent Eisenberg equation was used to quantify the chemical species present. The speciation results were fitted with the respective characteristic Raman peaks of (CO3^-, HCO3^-, DEACOO-, DEA, DEA⁺, CO₂) by Principal Component Regression (PCR). The fitted results showed good agreement with thermodynamically predicted chemical species.