Highly Hydrophobic Organosilane-Functionalized Cellulose: A Promising Filler for Thermoplastic Composites

The aim of this work is to design and optimize the process of functionalization of cellulose fibers by organosilane functional groups using low-pressure microwave plasma discharge with hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) precursor in order to prepare a compatible hydrophobic filler for composites with nonpolar thermoplastic matrices. Particular attention was paid to the study of agglomeration of cellulose fibers in the mixture with polypropylene. In our contribution, the dependence of the surface wettability on used process gas and treatment time was investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses were applied to characterize the surface morphology and chemical composition of the cellulose fibers. It was observed that the plasma treatment in oxygen process gas led to the functionalization of cellulose fibers by organosilane functional groups without degradation. In addition, the treated cellulose was highly hydrophobic with water contact angle up to 143°. The use of treated cellulose allowed to obtain a homogeneous mixture with polypropylene powder due to the significantly lower tendency of the functionalized cellulose fibers to agglomerate.

Evaluation of the Antimicrobial and Odor-removing Efficacy of Bio Oxygen Device for Air Decontamination

BackgroundMaintaining a clean air in the contemporary environment laden with pollution from several factors has continued to be a challenge. Modern technological advancement has continued to make several attempts at ameliorating environmental pollutions and make the air humanly safe. One of such technological attempts is the Bio-Oxygen which is a type of air purifier that, as the manufacturer claims, produces oxygen clusters, and as a result, thereby purify air of pathogens, and remove unpleasant odour from the environmental air. 1.Antimicrobial Activity: The manufacturing company claimed that the oxygen clusters could aggregate and destroy viruses, bacteria, fungus, yeast, mould, mildew spores, protozoa and other pathogens. The manufacturer presented some results from in vitro experiments showing significant log reduction in bacterial growth in agar plate, Bio Test strips and air sample. However, there is, so far, no test done on other pathogens like viruses, fungi, yeasts, spores etc.2.Odour Removal: The bio –oxygen process also claims to be capable of removing odours, gases, chemical fumes and vapours including those arising from urine, faeces, vomit, body odour, toilets, garbage, sewage, fertilizers, cooking, fermentation, spoilage and rotting etc. as well as from chemicals such as from paints, varnishes, thinners, adhesives, glues, plastics , waxes, carpets, disinfectants, deodorants and perfumes etc. Some laboratory test findings have shown that Bio-Oxygen could reduce odour by up to 91%. The company showed several testimonials from some of its customers that installed the machine on exhaust ducts to reduce obnoxious smells emanating from their industries, e.g., in poultry, piggeries and waste management settings. There are, also the claim of successful use in smoking rooms, and in clubs to curtail smells coming from the nearby railway station. OBJECTIVE:To assess the safety and effectiveness of BIO-OXYGEN in odor control (odor removal) and air purification (antimicrobial claim).Methods:The Infection Control Department of King Khalid University Hospital Riyadh evaluated the machine for both its antimicrobial claims and odor removing claims. King Khalid University Hospital is a tertiary teaching hospital, and the headquarters of King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh.After obtaining the necessary approval, evaluated the Bio-Oxygen machine in an air supply duct supplied by an isolated air handling unit that supplies the waste collection rooms and part of the laundry department on the ground floor of the West Building.

Evaluating the Concentration of Nitrogen Oxides at the Model Gas Turbine Combustion Chamber Outlet

The study applies a new technique for evaluating the NOx concentration when burning syngas in the gas turbine combustion chamber. The technique allows correlating the complete detailed mechanism of the Grimech 3.0 array of parallel reactions with the computer hydrodynamics equations (motion, heat and mass transfer, turbulence, and molecular diffusion equations for an ideal gas flow). Selectivity diagrams of the NOx formation process including eleven key reactions are built based on the specific reaction rates for lean and rich fuel mixtures. Verification calculations have been performed based on a model gas turbine combustion chamber within a fuel-air equivalence ratio of 0.5–2. The new technique has been applied for determining the NOx emissions and the maximum temperature of the industrial combustion chamber fire tube wall. The GE gas composition showed the best NOx emission result. The most problematic is Polk Power and Texaco syngas (oxygen process). When burning LCV gases in the primary air suction area, a recirculation zone is observed; due to the high heat release in this area, the maximum wall temperature is about 500 °С.

Application of enhanced gravity technique for separation of iron phase from LD slag

The basic oxygen process of steel making produces steel slag at a rate of about 120 kg/t. The steel slag also known as LD slag contains metallic iron and other mineral phases. The metallic iron is recovered through magnetic separation while the non-metallic is rejected because of its poor physical and chemical properties. Qualitative mineralogical analysis and XRD studies indicated that major mineral phases are dicalcium silicate and calcium ferrite. While both these phases are useful for recycling in iron making process the presence of phosphorus is a deterrent for its use in the iron making process. The electron probe micro analysis revealed that phosphorus is mostly associated with dicalcium silicate phase in the form of calcium phosphate. The phosphorus was present in negligible amounts in iron bearing phases i.e. calcium ferrite and wustite. The liberation size of phosphate mineral was in the range of 30–50 microns. The physical separation of phosphorus was attempted by grinding the LD slag to different sizes and then subjecting to centrifugal jigging. The centrifugal jigging was carried out at 0.5 mm, 0.25 mm and 0.1 mm size. The products of centrifugal jigging were characterised and it was observed that maximum recovery with acceptable grade of product was obtained at 0.5 mm grind size. The product obtained at this size analyzed 0.79% P and 34% Fe.

Design and Implementation of Intelligent Control System for Industrial Sewage Treatment Aeration Quantity

Due to the characteristics of dissolved oxygen process, such as non-linear and time delay, the traditional control methods are not very ideal for the aeration quantity assignment in the major domestic wastewater treatment plants. An intelligent system that controls the aeration quantity of the wastewater treatment of biochemistry pools is adopted, which the feedback control and the intelligence model are used to keep the balance of aeration. Meanwhile, according to the concentration of dissolved oxygen, the rotational speed of the air blower is adjusted for the sake of saving energy. This control system has been realized by Schneider Premium TSX P57 PLC system and the results show that the system is stable and reliable.

Design of the Oxygen Lance Lifting Control System Based on S7-400 PLC

With the high demand for steel building steel works, steel quality requirements are also gradually increasing, continuous innovations in technology in steel plant to produce high quality all steel. Now widely used in the metallurgical industry in top blown oxygen steel-making, automatic control system of oxygen Lance in converter steelmaking on oxygen top blown oxygen process plays a key role in lifting control. In order to forge a more quality steel products, need to study the Lance system automation control performance. So with Lance for the study, with Siemens S7-400PLC has designed a new type of control system of oxygen gun. And related programming, introduced the hardware components and PLC control system of oxygen gun. Proof, the system reached the Lance to pinpoint and aim to increase production efficiency. Keywords: Top blown oxygen steelmaking,Lance,S7-400PLC,automatic control system

PERFORMA OKSIDASI METAN PADA REAKTOR KONTINYU DENGAN PENINGKATAN KETEBALAN LAPISAN BIOCOVER LANDFILL

PERFORMANCE OF METHANE OXIDATION IN CONTINUOUS REACTOR BY BIOCOVER LANDFILL FILM THICKNESS IMPROVEMENT. Municipal solid waste (MSW) handling in Indonesia is currently highly dependent on landfilling at the final disposal facility (TPA), which generally operated in layer-by-layer basis, allowing the anaerobic (absent of oxygen) process. This condition will certainly generate biogas in the form of methane (CH4) and CO2. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential greater than CO2, and can absorb infrared radiation 23 times more efficient than CO2 in the period of over 100 years. One way that can be done to reduce methane gas from landfills that escape into nature is to oxidize methane by utilizing landfill cover material (biocover) as methane-oxidizing microorganism media. Application of compost as landfill cover material is a low-cost approach to reduce emissions so are suitable for developing countries. The compost used in this study was compost landfill mining, which is degraded naturally in landfill. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of biocover to oxidize the methane on a certain layer thickness with a continuous flow conditions. Three column reactors were used, which were made of flexy glass measuring 70 cm in high and 15 cm in diameter. The methane flowed from the bottom of the reactor continuously at a flow rate of 5 ml/minute. The columns were filled with biocover compost landfill mining with layer thickness of 5, 25, 35 and 60 cm. The results showed that the thicker layer of biocover, the higher the efficiency of methane oxidation. The oxidation efficiency obtained in each layer thickness of 15, 25, 35 and 60 cm was 56.43%, 63.69%, 74.58% and 80, 03% respectively, with the rate of oxidation of 0.29 mol m-2 d-1 and the fraction of oxidation of 99%. The oxidation result was supported by the identification of bacteria isolated in this experiment, namely metanotrophic bacteria that have the ability to oxidize methane through the form of methanol metabolite. ABSTRAKPenanganan sampah kota di Indonesia pada umumnya dilakukan pada tempat pemrosesan akhir sampah (TPA), yang sebagian besar dilakukan dengan cara pengurugan (landfilling) yang cenderung bersifat anaerob (tidak ada oksigen). Cara pengurugan ini biasanya dioperasikan lapis perlapis sehingga memungkinkan terjadinya proses anaerob. Pada kondisi ini dipastikan biogas, yaitu gas metana (CH4) dan CO2, akan muncul. Metana adalah gas rumah kaca dengan potensi pemanasan global lebih besar dari CO2, dan dapat mengabsorpsi radiasi infra merah 23 kali lebih efisien dari CO2 pada periode lebih dari 100 tahun. Salah satu cara yang dapat dilakukan untuk mengurangi gas metana dari landfill yang lepas ke alam adalah dengan mengoksidasinya dengan memanfaatkan material penutup landfill (biocover) sebagai media mikroorganisma pengoksidasi metana. Aplikasi kompos sebagai material penutup landfill merupakan pendekatan dengan biaya rendah untuk mereduksi emisi gas dari landfill sehingga cocok untuk negara berkembang. Biocover yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah kompos landfill mining, yaitu kompos yang terdegradasi secara alami di landfill. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mengevaluasi kemampuan biocover kompos landfill mining dalam mengoksidasi metana pada ketebalan lapisan tertentu dengan kondisi aliran kontinyu. Tiga buah reaktor kolom yang digunakan terbuat dari flexy glass berukuran tinggi 70 cm dan diameter 15 cm. Gas metana dialirkan dari bawah reaktor secara kontinyu dengan laju alir 5 ml/menit. Kolom diisi dengan biocover kompos landfill mining dengan ketebalan lapisan 5, 25, 35 dan 60 cm. Hasil percobaan menunjukkan bahwa semakin tebal lapisan biocover, semakin tinggi efisiensi oksidasi metana. Efisiensi oksidasi yang diperoleh pada setiap ketebalan lapisan 15, 25, 35 dan 60 cm adalah masing-masing 56,43%, 63,69%, 74,58% dan 80,03%, dengan laju oksidasi 0,287 mol m-2 d-1 dan fraksi oksidasi 97%. Hasil oksidasi yang diperoleh tersebut diperkuat dengan identifikasi bakteri yang berhasil diisolasi, yaitu bakteri metanotrofik yang memiliki kemampuan dalam mengoksidasi metana melalui metabolit antara berupa metanol.