Recycling of glass in synthesis of MCM-48 mesoporous silica as catalyst support for Ni<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> photocatalyst for Congo red dye removal

Glass was successfully recycled in the synthesis of mesoporous silica MCM-48 which was used as catalyst support for nickel oxide photocatalyst. The resulted products were evaluated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and UV–Vis spectrophotometer. The precipitated nickel oxide is of Ni₂O₃ form and loading of it onto MCM-48 resulted in a reduction in the band gap energy from about 3.66 eV to about 2.4 eV. The role of MCM-48 as catalyst support for Ni₂O₃ in enhancing the adsorption capacity and photocatalytic properties of nickel oxide was evaluated through series of equilibrium studies and photocatalytic degradation of Congo red dye under visible light. Using of glass-based MCM-48 as catalyst support for Ni₂O₃ showed enhancing the adsorption capacity by 31.3 and 14.8% higher than the adsorption capacity of Ni₂O₃ and MCM-48, respectively. Also, the photocatalytic degradation percentage increased by about 67.3% relative to the Ni₂O₃ degradation percentage. The nature of MCM-48/Ni₂O₃ adsorption mechanism is chemisorption and occurs in multilayer form throughout the heterogeneous surface of the composite. The using of MCM-48 as support for Ni₂O₃ photocatalyst enhanced the adsorption capacity through increasing the total surface area. The loading process resulted in fixing of the Ni₂O₃ particles throughout the porous structure which producing more exposed active photocatalyst sites and active adsorption sites for the incident photons as well as preventing the nickel oxide particles from agglomeration. Based on the obtained results, supporting of Ni₂O₃ particles onto MCM-48 is promising active centers for the degradation of Congo red dye molecules.     

Audio watermarking based on synergy between Lucas regular sequence and Fast Fourier Transform

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The growth of digital technology over the recent years has led to increased sending and saving of electronic media. Taking advantage of digital works without...     

Vibrational investigation of the spinning bi-dimensional functionally graded (2-FGM) micro plate subjected to thermal load in thermal environment

Microsystem Technologies - This article presented a numerical method for discovering the free vibration of a spinning bi-dimensional functionally graded materials (FGM) micro circular plate exposed...     

Performance enhancement of a direct absorption solar collector using copper oxide porous foam and nanofluid

The current research proposes the idea of using water-saturated metal oxide foams and water-based nanofluids as solar absorber in the direct absorption solar collectors (DASCs). Specifically, the novel solar collector design utilizes copper oxide (CuO) porous foam and nanoparticle with high optical properties and is expected to have enhanced thermal performance than the conventional collectors utilizing pure water. The finite volume technique is used to solve the governing equations of flow and heat transfer in the radiative participating media. Also, to establish the reliability and accuracy of numerical solutions, the obtained results are compared with the corresponding numerical and experimental data. The computations are carried out for different nanoparticle volume fractions, foam pore sizes, working fluid mass flow rates, and both porous layer thicknesses and positions (inserted at the lower or upper wall of the collector). It is found that the efficiency of DASC partially/fully filled with metal oxide foam is maximized when the collector is completely filled with it. Compared with the water flow, the numerical results show that the collector efficiency using CuO nanofluid and metal oxide foam is improved by up to 26.8% and 23.8%, respectively. Moreover, considering the second law of thermodynamics, the use of CuO nanofluids in the DASC seems to be more effective than the use of CuO porous foam.     

Technoeconomic study for the optimization of turbine size and wind farm layouts

A technoeconomic analysis and optimization of wind turbine size and layout are performed using WAsP software. A case study of a 100‐MW wind farm located in Egypt is considered. Wind atlas for Egypt was used as the input data of the WAsP software. Two turbine models of powers 52 and 80 MW are considered for this project. The wind turbine size and distributions are selected based on the technoeconomic optimization, namely minimum wake effect, maximum annual energy production (AEP) rate, optimum cash flow, and payback period. The future worth method is adopted in economic comparison between the two alternatives, and the cash flow diagram provided the payback period and future worth after the lifetime of the plant. The results showed that (1) the AEP dramatically decreases for a wind farm area less than 15 km²; (2) the turbine spacing, spacing‐to‐diameter ratio, and the setback distances decrease and the wind turbine density and wake losses increase with decreasing the wind turbines size; (3) the total net AEP using G52 is lower than that of using G80 by about 16%; (4) the technoeconomic analysis recommended using G80 as it has higher profit than those of G52 by about $20 million.     

On the prediction of solubility of alkane in carbon dioxide using the LSSVM algorithm

The increasing global energy demand and declination of oil reservoir in recent years cause the researchers attention focus on the enhancement of oil recovery approaches. One of the extensive applicable methods for enhancement of oil recovery, which has great efficiency and environmental benefits, is carbon dioxide injection. The CO₂ injection has various effects on the reservoir fluid, which causes enhancement of recovery. One of these effects is extraction of lighter components of crude oil, which straightly depends on solubility of hydrocarbons in carbon dioxide. In order to better understand of this parameter, in this study, Least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) algorithm was developed as a novel predictive tool to estimate solubility of alkane in CO₂ as function of carbon number of alkane, carbon dioxide density, pressure, and temperature. The predicting model outputs were compared with the extracted experimental solubility from literature statistically and graphically. The comparison showed the great ability and high accuracy of developed model in prediction of solubility.     

Effect of pretreatments and drying methods on physico‐chemical,sensory characteristics and nutritional value of oyster mushroom

This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of pretreatments and drying methods on the chemical, physico‐chemical, sensory characteristics and nutritional value of oyster mushroom. Chemical analysis of oyster mushroom (OM) showed that the values content were increased by many times when calculated on dry weight basis. Nine treatments of dried mushroom powders (DMP) were prepared using three drying methods (hot air drying, vacuum drying, and sun drying). Also, three pretreatments of each method of drying were used (untreated, blanching by steaming without or with steeped in 0.5% citric acid solution for 30 min).The results and statistical analysis revealed that, sun dried oyster mushroom samples (without pretreatments) were found to be the best. The DMP samples resulting of the sun drying had a highest physico‐chemical properties, sensory evaluation scores, and contents of the mineral elements and amino acids as compared to other pretreatments and drying methods.

Practical applications

Fresh mushrooms have high water content, high enzymatic activity and hence are highly perishable. Thus, in this study nine treatments of dried mushroom powders (DMP) were prepared using three drying methods (hot air drying, vacuum drying and sun drying).Also, three pretreatments of each method of drying were used (untreated, blanching by steaming without or with steeped in citric acid).The DMP samples (untreated) resulting of the sun drying were better than other pretreatments and drying methods regarding quality attributes.     

Study on single and binary catalytic systems of pyridine-imine catalysts based on nickel and iron in synthesis of reactor blends and low-density polyethylene nanocomposites

In the presence of modified methylaluminoxane as cocatalyst, the behavior of a binary catalytic system based on pyridine-imine nickel ( N ) and iron ( F ) catalysts was evaluated in order to reach a proper mixture of polyethylene (PE). A computational study along with kinetic profile suggested that the catalyst F with higher electron affinity (A) and electrophilicity (ω) in the methyl cationic active center and stronger interaction with the monomer led to high integrated monomer consumption and higher activity. In addition, the samples produced by the mixture of catalysts showed a higher value of [19.4 × 10⁴ g (PE) mol (Fe+Ni)⁻¹ h⁻¹)], melting point (127.8 °C), and crystallinity extent (41.29%) than the samples produced by the single catalysts. The addition of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) into the polymerization media reduced the activity of catalysts [from 7.50 × 10⁴ to 0.66 × 10⁴ g (PE) mol (Fe+Ni)⁻¹ h⁻¹] and the thermal properties of the low-density polyethylene nanocomposite samples. However, the sample containing 2.33% MWCNT_20-30 improved the total thermal stability of the neat polyethylene blend up to 400 °C. Scanning electron microscope images of the samples demonstrated irregular to virtually uniform morphologies were obtained through the in situ and solution-mixing techniques. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47376.