Techno-economic evaluation of energy efficiency measures in high rise residential buildings in Malaysia

In this paper, a survey was conducted on a residential condominium to estimate energy use by different household appliances along the lighting energy estimation in public areas. It has been found that about 2.17 GWh of energy is used in the condominium annually by different types of household appliances and lightings in public areas. As there is significant potential to reduce the energy used, different energy savings measures have been applied and energy savings, bill savings, life cycle cost analysis have been estimated and presented in this paper. It has been found that a cumulative amount of 2.4 GWh of energy can be saved for about 10 years with the implementation of different energy savings strategies proposed for appliances and lighting in public areas. However, good maintenance practices and good energy management practices should be employed continuously to maintain high energy efficiency and high performance of the equipment used and the entire building. It has been found that some of the measures like reducing air conditioning load and reducing heat gain through window tinting are economically very viable as payback period is very short. More advantageously, some of the measures can be implemented without investing significant cost. Ultimately, a key driver in the success of energy efficiency is the education and attitude of the stakeholders in the building industry, and end users who are committed to practice energy saving measures.     

Fully Automated Inductance Measuring System Using New Fabricated Inductance Box

Decade inductance boxes are widely used in electrical laboratories for calibration of instruments that measure inductance. The main aim of this paper is to construct a new inductance box providing a huge number of automated inductance steps, which are used in the laboratories to perform full automatic calibration of inductance meters. Therefore, a new inductance box has been introduced that mainly consists of three decades. The three inductance decades have the same design, but each has its four different internal inductive elements. Each decade can generate 15 different inductance values, so it is more economical and practical compared to the other ordinary decades, which produce only 10 values by using 10 internal inductive elements. 1666 different inductance values can be obtained from this inductance box, while 4096 inductance values can be obtained by the possible combinations of its three decades steps. Practical design, fabrication and specifications of this new inductance box are demonstrated in detail. It is designed to achieve relative accuracy in the range from 5 × 10^?4 to 5 × 10^?3. It could be used to perform full automatic inductance measurements at the National Institute of Standards, Egypt, for the first time. Comparison between an ordinary inductance box and the new introduced one has been made to validate its performance.     

Development of a fluidized bed thermogravimetric analyzer

A new fluidized bed thermogravimetric analyzer (FB‐TGA) was developed that introduces two major particularities: the pseudo variation of the weight of the reactor and the special strategy for gas flow rate adjustment according to temperature. A momentum balance was performed on the reactor and the pseudo variation of the reactor weight was evaluated by measuring the pressure drop through the gas distributor and filter. The real weight loss of the reactor was obtained by subtracting the pseudo variation of the weight from the total weight loss measured by the load cell. In addition, a special program for the gas flow rate as a function of temperature was developed and used; so the minimum fluidization regime is maintained throughout all of the experiments. The validation test of the FB‐TGA was carried out on calcium hydroxide decomposition, and the results were compared with those obtained from the conventional TGA. Diffusion control was suppressed by the application of the FB‐TGA, which was confirmed by the x‐ray diffraction analysis on the treated samples. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 84–89, 2015     

Toward the prediction of porous membrane permeability from morphological data

One of the challenges in membrane technology is predicting permeability in porous membranes for liquid applications in an easy and inexpensive way. This is the aim of this work. To achieve this objective, several techniques can be considered. In this study, a morphological approach from two‐dimensional scanning electron micrographs is proposed. First, numerical membrane morphological parameters have been determined from micrographs by using the QUANTS tool, which applies a texture recognition process. Second, the obtained data have been fit to the Darcy's and Hagen–Poiseuille models to calculate permeations. The QUANTS results have also been compared with the ones obtained through a mercury porosimeter, which is a classic and well‐known methodology. Each parameter of the Hagen–Poiseuille model has been analyzed. A comparison between experimentally measured permeations and calculated ones has been performed. An even easier approach is proposed to predict flow rate with the only knowledge of membrane surface mean pore size. This method is based on cross‐section pore size interpolation by using function fits from surface mean pore sizes. The obtained results show a reasonable agreement between measured and computed results, making this technique a valid approach for predicting membrane permeability. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 56:118–124, 2016. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Experimental evaluation of quinolinium and isoquinolinium derivatives as corrosion inhibitors of mild steel in 0.5 M H<Subscript>2</Subscript>SO<Subscript>4</Subscript> solution

The 1-methylquinolinium iodide (I) Qui⁺, I^– and 2-methylisoquinolinium iodide isoQui⁺, I^– were investigated as a corrosion inhibitors for mild steel in sulfuric acid using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization techniques. The results indicated that the corrosion inhibition efficiency and extent of surface coverage were increased with increase in inhibitors concentrations. Polarization curves revealed that both inhibitors acted as a mixed-type inhibitor. The thermodynamic parameters were evaluated for corrosion inhibition process. The adsorption of both inhibitors on mild steel surface obeyed Langmuir adsorption isotherm.     

Bioactive and Physicochemical Properties of Persimmon as Affected by Drying Methods

In this study, the effects of three different drying methods (freeze drying, oven drying, and vacuum oven drying) on bioactive (total phenolics, total flavonoids, condensed tannin and total hydrolyzable tannin contents, antiradical activity, and antidiabetic activity) and some physicochemical (dry matter, ash, water activity (a _w ), color, protein, hydroxymethylfurfural, glucose and fructose content) properties of persimmon fruit were investigated. Simplex lattice mixture design methodology was applied to determine the best solvent mixture for the extraction of phenolics from the samples. It was found that the mixture of acetone:water at the ratio of 50:50 % (v/v) was the best solvent mixture for the extraction. The persimmon powder sample obtained from freeze drying showed significantly (p <0.05) higher bioactivity values than oven- and vacuum-oven-dried samples. Antiradical activity changed significantly depending on the drying method employed and it was superior in freeze-dried samples than that of the other drying methods.     

Saturation swelling and the seeded emulsion polymerisation of styrene at high ionic strength

The effects of adding inorganic electrolyte (below the critical coagulation concentration) have been investigated in two systems for the emulsion polymerisation of styrene. In one system, potassium chloride, at different concentrations, was added at the end of interval I, using three different ionic emulsifiers: potassium octadecanoate which has a low critical micelle concentration (CMC), potassium dodecanoate and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), which have moderately high CMC. A significant increase in the rate of polymerisation was observed in all cases even at the higher levels of electrolyte at which the rate is reduced if the electrolyte is added from the onset of polymerisation. In the second system, the effects of adding sodium chloride, in concentrations up to 0.2_M, on the seeded emulsion polymerisation of styrene have been followed. A significant increase in the rate was observed as electrolyte level was increased, with no significant change in particle size. Saturation swelling measurements indicated a slight increase in monomer concentration inside the particles as electrolyte concentration was increased. Evaluation of the average number of free radicals per particle, n¯, by a steady state approach indicates an increase in the value of n¯ as electrolyte level is increased. The value of n¯ is below 0.5 but approaches this value at the highest electrolyte concentration. The increased surface area of the particles may account for this effect by increasing the capture efficiency of the radicals by the particles.     

Development of blown film linear low-density polyethylene–clay nanocomposites: Part A: Manufacturing process and morphology

In this study, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)/clay nanocomposites with different clay contents were prepared by melt intercalation using two different compatibilizers: maleic anhydride grafted styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene and maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (PE-g-MA). Melt intercalation was achieved by twin extrusion and nanocomposite films were produced by blown film extrusion. Effects of clay and compatibilizer fractions and type of compatibilizer on the structure, permeability, and the barrier properties of the nanocomposite films were investigated. PE-g-MA was shown to notably improve the dispersion of clay layers in the polyethylene matrix, and this was examined by atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The latter tests have also highlighted the importance of the screw configuration: the presence of mixing elements favors the dispersion and distribution of nanoclay. Moreover, differential scanning calorimetry results have shown no significant effect of the clay on the crystallinity of the composite while thermogravimetric analysis tests have demonstrated a decrease of onset and peak of decomposition temperatures. Finally, barrier properties toward water vapor transmission were measured. It was proven that not also clay, but the compatibilizer participated in decreasing the permeability of the film. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48589.     

Changes in the texture,physicochemical properties and volatile compound profiles of fresh Kashar cheese (<90 days) during ripening

In this study, four different fresh Kashar cheese samples were ripened for 90 days. The physicochemical properties, texture attributes, fatty acid composition and volatile compound profiles of the samples were measured every 30 days of ripening. The texture properties of the cheese samples were significantly affected by the duration of the ripening period. The results of this study highlighted that texture parameters as a function of ripening period should be considered for both fresh and aged Kashar cheeses to determine the ripening period as they are very important for consumer acceptability and consumption of the end product.     

Effect of the drying process on the nutritive value of milk. Part 1. Biochemical composition

Five different brands of instant dry whole milk that are most commonly used, and freeze dried milk were analyzed for nitrogen, fat, ash and 4 inorganic constituents and compared with human milk. The composition of the milks differed considerably. The protein content varied widely, ranging from 11.6 to 24.5%. Fat content did not differ widely, ranging from 24.9 to 29.5%. Freeze dried milk had the highest fat content (42.6%). Three out of the five brands of dry milk studied were spray dried and the remaining two were roller dried. All milks tested contained considerably more sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus solid than human milk, some of them the four fold amount of calcium and phosphorus.