Experimental and mathematical analysis of fuel penetration through unconsolidated porous media

Flame spread over porous media due to accidental fuel spillage is a major fire safety concern. The behaviour of flame under such conditions greatly depends on the availability of fuel at combustion zone. A combined experimental and mathematical study was carried out to investigate the rate of fuel penetration through porous beds at different fuel ratios. Propanol at three different fuel ratios of 0.1, 0.125 and 0.15 and sand particles ranging in diameters from 0.5 to 5 mm were employed as liquid fuel and porous bed, respectively. Results showed that fuel penetration rate was a function of permeability of porous bed and mass of the liquid fuel. The permeability of porous bed and consequently the rate of fuel penetration decreased as either the tortuosity or the specific surface area was increased. Fuel penetration measurement and mathematical results indicated that the rate of fuel penetration is directly proportional to the fuel ratio. The fuel penetration rate was found to be higher for larger fuel ratios compared with that for small ratios. The difference between the fuel penetration rate for two consecutive fuel ratios for a given particle size was 25%. The predicted results were in good agreement with those acquired experimentally. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preparation and characterization of nanofiltration membranes fabricated from poly(amidesulfonamide), and their application in water–oil separation

Nanofiltration membranes prepared from selected types of poly(amidesulfonamide) (PASA) targeted to retain either sucrose, raffinose, or β‐cyclodextrin were fabricated in conditions deduced from a chemometric method. Membrane performance was characterized by the permeation of solutions containing 1000 ppm carbohydrates and metal ions. To demonstrate the dependence of the membrane properties on the polymer structure, the separation characteristics of a series of four PASA homopolymers and four PASA copolymers were established. The results allowed us to screen out several promising PASA materials for the NF separation process. In addition, the superiority of the PASA materials, characterized by excellent retention and high flux rate, was evident from the results of a study comparing it with polysulfonamide, poly(ether amide), and commercially available regenerated cellulose. As a means of pollution control, the PASA NF membranes have been proven to be effective in removing oil from oily wastewater. Under an operating pressure of 2–3 psi, a constant flux of 5 L m^?2 h^?1 and 99.6% retention of a solution of 5000 ppm olive oil could be achieved with the PASA membranes over a period of 430 h. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 1803–1810, 2003     

Gamma‐radiation initiated synthesis of Psyllium and acrylic acid‐based polymeric networks for selective absorption of water from different oil–water emulsions

Removal of water from the crude petroleum during its extraction and refining process is one of the major problems faced by petroleum industries, so in this study a superabsorbent has been synthesized from Psyllium and acrylic acid based polymers under the influence of gamma radiations using hexamine as a crosslinker. After optimizing various reaction parameters, the optimized superabsorbent has been tested for its selective water absorption capacity from different oil–water emulsions as a function of time, temperature, pH, and NaCl concentration. The synthesized superabsorbent has been found to be highly selective toward water absorption with maximum percent swelling of 8560% in petrol–water emulsion. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Amidoximated poly(acrylonitrile) particles for environmental applications: Removal of heavy metal ions,dyes, and herbicides from water with different sources

Monodispersed poly(acrylonitrile) [p(AN)] particles were prepared by surfactant free emulsion polymerization and the hydrophobic nitrile groups were converted to hydrophilic amidoxime groups by treatment with hydroxylamine hydrochloride (NH₂OH.HCl) in water. The p(AN) and amidoximated p(AN) [amid‐p(AN)] particles were characterized by Fourier transformation infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The prepared particles were used as adsorbents in the removal from aqueous media of three different types of pollutants; organic dyes methylene blue (MB), and rhodamine 6 G (R6G), a heavy metal ion Cd (II), and a herbicide paraquat (PQ). The effects of various parameters such as amidoximation, pH of solution, amount of particles, and the initial concentration of solution were investigated. Upon amidoximation, a great increase in the adsorption capacity of the prepared particles was observed as the adsorbed amounts were increased to 87, 91, 74, and 91 mg/g from 5, 1.54, 1.06, and 1.22 mg/g for Cd (II), MB, R6G, and PQ, respectively. The amid‐p(AN) particles were also able to remove considerable amounts of these pollutants from tap, river, and sea water. Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin adsorption isotherms were applied and it was found that the adsorption of Cd (II) and PQ followed the Langmuir adsorption model, whereas the adsorption of MB was found to obey the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. Pseudo first‐order and pseudo second‐order kinetics were also applied and the results showed that the adsorption processes of Cd (II), PQ, MB, and R6G follow pseudo second‐order kinetics. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43032.