Evaluation of the energy saving opportunities for palm oil refining process: Sahabat Oil Products (SOP) in Lahad Datu,Malaysia

Palm Oil industry is one of the major contributors to Malaysia’s economic activity. Accounting for 39 % of the world palm oil production and 44 % of world exports, Malaysia holds an important niche in fulfiling the growing global needs for oils and fats sustainably. This industry has high potential for further improvements especially in terms of energy saving as a major contributor to cost and emission reduction. An analysis of the refining process of palm oil in Sahabat Oil Products, Lahad Datu has been performed and presented in this paper for scoping potential energy and cost savings using heat integration. A first stage optimisation of the minimum temperature difference, ?T _min, of a heat exchanger network (HEN) has been performed. The goal has been to evaluate the maximal possible heat recovery as well as the appropriate placement of utilities. The HEN design is presented in both grid diagram and shifted retrofit thermodynamic grid diagram (SRTGD). SRTGD representation has been illustrated in this paper as a useful tool for guiding eventual future retrofit. The capital-energy trade-off of the heat recovery targets indicates optimum ?T _min of 12.3 °C. The hot and cold utility targets at ?T _min = 12.3 °C are 1419 and 1649 kW, indicating potential saving of 3.5 and 3.1 % as compared to the existing utility consumption and emissions. Future work could proceed further to seek potentially viable retrofit of the existing heat recovery network.     

Mobilising the potential towards low-carbon emissions society in Asia

Emission of CO₂, CH₄, and NO _x is among the main sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted through human activities such as fossil fuels combustion for power, heat and transportation, industrial processes, and land-use change. Low-carbon emission has become synonymous with GHG emission, which is often expressed in t CO₂ eq. as derived from the major GHG. However, CO₂ emission from fossil fuel constitutes just about 2/3 of GHGs. Low-carbon emission has received high publicity in recent years as a major reason for the potential mitigation of climate change. Achieving low GHG emission targets while decoupling the economic growth from high emissions, pollution, and resource use is desirable. This paper reviews the low-carbon emissions initiatives to develop resilient growth strategies to reduce GHG emissions in Asia and beyond. Four major initiatives, including the modelling of GHG emission and mitigation initiative; sustainable energy systems; sustainable waste management; and education and community outreach, are reviewed for mobilising the potential towards low-carbon emissions societies in Asia. Cooperation from major stakeholders, e.g. government, policy makers, financial institutions, private investors, industrial, commercial sector, residential, has been needed towards realising the goal.     

Preparation of TiAl15Si15 intermetallic alloy by mechanical alloying and the spark plasma sintering method

This work is devoted to the preparation of alloys based on intermetallic compounds in the Ti–Al–Si system by powder metallurgy using mechanical alloying and the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method. The aim was to describe the formation of intermetallic phases during mechanical alloying of TiAl15Si15 (wt-%) alloy and to consolidate the powder prepared by optimised conditions. Phase composition, microstructure and hardness of compacted alloy were determined. Four hours of mechanical alloying is sufficient time for preparation of pure elements free material composed only of intermetallic phases. After consolidation, the TiAl15Si15 alloy has a homogeneous structure composed of silicide (Ti₅Si₃) in aluminide (TiAl) matrix. The hardness of the material reaches 865?±?42 HV 5.     

Quasielastic light scattering from semidilute solutions in θ-solvent: Distribution functions of decay times

Summary Measurements of composite autocorrelation functions extending over a broad time range on semidilute theta solutions of polystyrene in cyclohexane are reported. Three mathematical methods were used to obtain the corresponding distribution functions of decay times, F(). Results of the different methods are in mutual agreement. It is found that F() consists of several separated bands. The shortest and longest decay times have been extracted from F() and, on the basis of their concentration and angular dependences, attributed to the gel mode and reptation process, respectively.     

Collaboration networks,geography and innovation: Local and national embeddedness

The relationship between collaboration, geography and innovation has been analysed in economic geography. However, little is known from a social-network perspective about whether different geographical levels of embeddedness may determine the way networks affect innovation. To address this issue, we compare the effects of regional vs. country-level Spanish networks on future patenting. If we consider the country-wide network, our statistical analysis reproduces the findings of the previous literature. However, negative effects prevail at the regional level, while the influence seems to be rather positive at the country level. We thus conclude that the embeddedness at different geographical scales exerts differing influence on innovation.     

Macrocyclic diamide based poly(vinyl chloride) membranes with a high lithium selectivity

Summary Macrocyclic diamides 2, 3 and 4 of 4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-3,6-dioxaoctanedioic acid were prepared. These compounds incorporated in poly (vinyl chloride) membranes show a remarkable selectivity for lithium ions.     

Total Sites Integrating Renewables With Extended Heat Transfer and Recovery

The majority of industrial, residential, service, and business customers, as well as agriculture farms, are still dominated by fossil fuels as primary energy sources. They are mostly equipped with steam and/or gas turbines, steam boilers, and water heaters (running on electricity or gas) for conversion units. The challenge to increase the share of renewables in the primary energy mix could be met by integrating solar, wind, and biomass as well as some types of waste with the fossil fuels. This work analyzes some of the most common heat transfer applications at total sites comprising users of the types just mentioned. The energy demands, the local generation capacities, and the efficient integration of renewables into the corresponding total site CHP (combined heat and power) energy systems, based on efficient heat transfer, are optimized, minimizing heat waste and carbon footprint, and maximizing economic viability.