Biological and Natural Resources Engineering Journal

INTERESTERIFICATION OF CRUDE PALM OIL BY THERMOMYCES LANUGINOSA: A MINI REVIEW

2022-12-27T10:53:40+08:00

This paper reviews the interesterification of crude palm oil by Thermomyces lanuginosa. Interesterification also has several advantages such as producing the highest biodiesel production yield and the reaction for the synthesis of biodiesel is based on the use of methyl acetate instead of the more commonly used alcohol. However, this method also has its disadvantages such as operations at very high pressures (20–40 MPa), high temperatures (350–400 °C) and higher production costs. The performance of Lipozyme TL-IM for transesterification reaction was greatly improved by the ultrasound-assisted approach with a higher yield of biodiesel and a significant reduction of time of reaction from 24 to 4 h.

HETEROPOLYSACCHARIDE OF KGM-XANTHAN HYDROGELS FOR THE REMOVAL OF BACTERIA IN A WOUND MODEL

2022-08-16T14:42:09+08:00

This project focused on the development of polysaccharides hydrogels from Konjac Glucomannan (KGM) and Xanthan gum in removing the bacterial load on wound. This new therapy design is due to the traditional wound care methods using antibiotic and normal hydrogel cannot adequately treat biofilm infected wounds to healing process. For the treatment of bacterial infected wound, bacterial removal need to be done physically and manually by debridement, which is very painful and require the use of general anesthesia. Therefore, to reduce the formation of slough and necrotic tissue by the formation of bacterial biofilm, there is a need of specific hydrogels that will able to remove bacterial from the wounded site so it will prevent further infection and enhance the healing process. This study focused on the design and optimization of polysaccharide based hydrogels for the wound treatment. Polysaccharide based hydrogels from Konjac Glucomannan (KGM) and Xanthan gum were developed at different ratio to optimize the physical and chemical properties of the hydrogel that relate to the effectiveness of bacterial removal. Film casting technique was used in the development of the hydrogel film. Konjac Glucomannan (KGM) and Xanthan gum were selected because of their natural polymers properties which are non – toxic, biocompatible and safe to be used. The hydrogels were tested in vitro for bacterial removal efficacy, using E.coli species colonies cultured on a gel inside a petri dish to represent the condition of bacteria infested wound bed. Hydrogel with 50 : 50 % composition blend of KGM-XG was found to be the most effective in the removal of E.coli colonies with 13x10³ CFU/mL at 95% water content. Morphological studies of hydrogels showed flat interfacial morphologies, except the sample with 100% of Xanthan without KGM. The results present in this study suggested that the biological activities and adhesion of the hydrogels were not controlled only by the chemical structure but also the composition of compound and the amount of water present in the hydrogels.

EFFECT OF FIXED FILAMENTOUS MEDIA ON BIOLOGICAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT

2022-07-08T14:16:50+08:00

Adequate treatment of wastewater is important for the protection of the environment. In many countries, the existing conventional biological wastewater treatment systems are unable to meet the required standards. Therefore, the present research focused on the improvement of aerobic wastewater treatment plants by adding readily available cheap media. Plastic filamentous media was used due to its non-biodegradable property. The media length was 5 meters, but it was rolled into a spiral shape. The average removal of TDS and COD, without the media, was about 35% and 70%. After the media has been added, the removal efficiency improved to 55% and 95%. The experimental results demonstrated that the use of media is capable of improving the quality of effluents in wastewater treatment towards a better quality of effluent to be discharged to nature.

EFFECT OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZERS ON AZOLLA PRODUCTION AT GEZIRA

2022-12-26T13:26:03+08:00

This study was undertaken at the Alnashishiba complex, an experimental farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Gezira University which lies between latitudes of 14° 22? to 14° 25? N and longitudes of 33° 29? to 33° 30? E, 405 m above sea level. In addition to the standard control, the treatments included organic and inorganic fertilizers. The organic fertilizers were cow manure and compost at the rate of one kg/m2 for each, while the inorganic fertilizer (combination of phosphorus and potassium) at the rate of 5 g/m2 for each which is equivalent to 32 and 18 g of mono phosphate and potassium sulfate, respectively. The four treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design in four replications. After 24 hours, the Azolla primer was spread (100 g/m2) and continued to harvest (in 12 days). Productivity of Azolla was measured for all treatments by weight in g, and then the protein percentage was recorded as the nitrogen content using Kjeldhal method. The highest production of Azolla fodder was obtained when supplemented with the cow manure and the production reached 1167 g/m2 followed by compost (1131 g/m2) while the chemical fertilizers gave the lowest production (811 g/m2) making the increase rate over the control as 141%, 133% and 67%, respectively. On the other hand, the addition of compost fertilizer resulted in the highest percentage of protein (41.1%) with an increment of 105% over control whereas the combination of P and K and cow manure approximately gave the same protein content (38% and 37%, respectively). The results of this study revealed that the addition of organic fertilizers i.e. cow manure or compost is more beneficial for Azolla production than the chemical fertilizers (P and K).

SIMULATION STUDY OF GASIFICATION OF EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH (EFB) FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION USING SUPERPRO DESIGNER

2022-08-10T14:14:21+08:00

Energy generation using non- renewable sources has always been an issue to the environment. To sustain the environment, gasification process using biomass as carbonaceous fuel is urged to reduce the dependency on coal or fossil fuel as the feed to generate energy. This project focused on identifying the best condition for running a gasification process using SuperPro Designer v9.5 software. The software was used to design the power plant by having the required unit operations such as gasification, cyclone separator, cooling, absorption, gas compression and gas expansion in their library. The unit operations were then arranged to build the plant and optimized by using Minitab v14 software to find out the best condition among the selected factors which are the fuel, steam, and oxidant streams into the gasifier for producing high yield of electrical energy. The result demonstrated that the biomass feed stream of two metric tons per hour of empty fruit bunch (EFB), one metric ton per hour of steam feed and zero-point five metric ton of air were enough to generate about 8246 kWh of electricity. Overall, all runs showed a good and approximately equal performance which indicate that the SuperPro designer simulation is reliable for analyzing gasification performance.