Bio-diesel production by alkali catalyzed transesterification of dairy waste scum

The potential of using dairy waste scum as a feed stock for bio-diesel production was investigated. Present study optimized the parameters involved in transesterification process of Dairy Waste Scum Oil. Gas chromatography was used to determine the fatty acid composition of Dairy Waste Scum Oil. Results revealed that the low free fatty acid content was a notorious parameter to determine the viability of alkaline transesterification. The yield of bio-diesel reached 96.7% when 1.2 wt.% of Potassium Hydroxide, reaction temperature of 75 °C, 30 min of time and 6:1 Methanol oil ratio at 350 rpm. Thermo gravimetric analysis followed the evaluation of transesterification process. The present analysis confirms that bio-diesel from dairy waste scum is quit suitable as an alternative to petroleum diesel with recommended fuel properties as per ASTM standards. This new way for using dairy waste scum reduces the cost of production of bio-diesel and the problem related to the disposal of Dairy scum.     

Lipid extraction from natural plant source of Adenanthera pavonina using mixed solvent by superheated extractor

The lipid content was extracted from the saga seed by superheated condition and soxhlet apparatus. The mixture of hexane, chloroform and methanol was utilized as a mixed solvent for these extraction operations. Different parameters such as different solvent, temperature, mean particle size and solvent flow have been examined. The optimized lipid extraction was achieved as 26.2 wt% by using superheated condition from the saga seed powder at 90 °C for 120min. Then the fatty acids profile of the optimized Adenanthera pavonina oil were analyzed by gas chromatography. Unsaturated fatty acid was high as 83.7% compared with saturated fatty acid barely 15.4% by relative.     

Electrical Properties of Silica-Based Nanocomposites with Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes

Fully dense multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)/SiO₂ nanocomposites with MWCNTs contents of 5 and 10 vol% have been processed by spark plasma sintering, and the electrical conductivities of the nanocomposites were evaluated at temperatures ranging from 5 to 300 K. It has been found that the incorporation of MWCNTs converted an insulating silica nanoceramic into metallically conductive composites. The room-temperature conductivities of the nanocomposites, with over 14 orders of magnitude compared with pure silica, are in the range of 8 and 65 S/m. Also, it was interestingly found that the conductivity increased linearly with temperature from 5 to 300 K.     

Coordinated tuning of power system stabilizers in multimachine power systems

In this paper a new approach to simultaneously tuning the power system stabilizer (PSS) settings in a multimachine electric utility system is presented. The approach is based on eigenvalue assignment, which is treated as a problem of solving a set of non-linear equations. The possibility of meeting additional specified performance criteria is discussed. The flexibility of the proposed method is demonstrated using an operating utility system.     

MATLAB modelling and examination of the effect of heat capacity of basin and glass cover on performance of solar still by thermal models

There are numerous researcher-developed mathematical models for single slope passive solar stills which considered the effect of heat capacities of basin and glass cover as negligible. The negligence parameter also plays a vital role in the prediction of the thermal performance of the system. In this paper, an effort has been made to evaluate the cumulative yield, energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of a single slope passive solar still with and without considering the heat capacities of basin and glass cover by using various thermal models such as Dunkle’s model, Zheng Hongfei et al.’s model and Tsilingiris model. These models were studied and compared with and without considering the heat capacity of solar components such as basin and glass cover. The thermodynamic model of this system is developed, and executed in a MATLAB code. By comparing the theoretical values of the cumulative yield, energy efficiency and exergy efficiency, it was found that consideration of the heat capacities of glass cover and basin gives a higher output in all the thermal models.     

Synthesis of Nanoscale Tips Using Femtosecond Laser Radiation under Ambient Condition

We report a unique growth of platelet-shaped nanoscale tips of transparent dielectric using femtosecond laser radiation at MHz pulse repetition rate with nitrogen background gas flow under ambient condition. The tips grew with sharp nanoscale apex while their base and lengths are of the order of few hundred nanometers. In the absence of nitrogen, the irradiation leads to nanofibrous structure formation. The collision between the nitrogen gas atoms and the vapor species slows down plume expansion and lead to an increase of nanoparticles size. This prevents the fibrous structure formation and provides appropriate condition for nanoscale tips growth.     

Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Decorated on Arundo donax L. Plant Leaves Derived Silica Nanosheets for Enriched Catalytic Degradation of Organic Dye Under UV-Visible Light Irradiation

Silicon - In this study, heterojunction photocatalysts made up of Arundo donax L. plant leaves are used to synthesized SiO2 nanosheets and ZnO nanoparticles were prepared by wet impregnation...