Production of fuel by co‐pyrolysis of Makarwal coal and waste polypropylene through a hybrid heating system of convection and microwaves

The bituminous coal of the Makarwal range of Pakistan and waste polypropylene were converted into gaseous and liquid fuel using a hybrid heating process based on microwave metal interactions. The mixture of coal and polypropylene was heated by the volumetric heating generated by absorption of the microwaves and the conventional heating produced by the sparking of copper under microwave power in a domestic microwave oven. The heat generation capacity and range of sparking of copper were increased by the use of tightly coiled copper antenna. The heat generation efficiency of copper antenna was found to vary with variation in the shape of the copper antenna. Four types of antenna were used in the pyrolysis process, i.e. the antenna made of tightly coiled copper, copper mesh antenna, copper strips antenna and copper cylinder antenna. It was observed that copper coil and copper mesh antenna were more efficient and responsible for higher percent conversions while the multi‐strip antenna was next and the least percent conversion was observed for single strip cylinder of copper. The amount of products and the relative concentrations of the oil, wax and gases were observed to vary with variations in the relative amount of coal and polymers. Both the gaseous product and aqueous fraction were analysed for sulphides using lead acetate reagent. The gases were also analysed for the presence of alkynes and alkenes using aqueous solutions of copper‐I chloride and potassium permanganate respectively. The oily product which was composed of oil and wax was analysed by GC‐FID and GC‐MS analyses. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

3D-QSPR method of computational technique applied on red reactive dyes by using CoMFA strategy

Cellulose fiber is a tremendous natural resource that has broad application in various productions including the textile industry. The dyes, which are commonly used for cellulose printing, are "reactive dyes" because of their high wet fastness and brilliant colors. The interaction of various dyes with the cellulose fiber depends upon the physiochemical properties that are governed by specific features of the dye molecule. The binding pattern of the reactive dye with cellulose fiber is called the ligand-receptor concept. In the current study, the three dimensional quantitative structure property relationship (3D-QSPR) technique was applied to understand the red reactive dyes interactions with the cellulose by the Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA) method. This method was successfully utilized to predict a reliable model. The predicted model gives satisfactory statistical results and in the light of these, it was further analyzed. Additionally, the graphical outcomes (contour maps) help us to understand the modification pattern and to correlate the structural changes with respect to the absorptivity. Furthermore, the final selected model has potential to assist in understanding the characteristics of the external test set. The study could be helpful to design new reactive dyes with better affinity and selectivity for the cellulose fiber.     

Determination of benzimidazoles in pharmaceuticals and human serum by high-performance liquid chromatography

A liquid chromatographic method is described for the quantification of prednisolone, benzimidazoles, and preservatives using a C₁₈ analytical column as stationary phase. The mobile phase was 30:70 methanol:pH 2.5 phosphate buffer at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min^?1 with absorbance detection at 235 nm. The method was linear for concentrations ranged from 40–10,000 ng mL^?1. Low values of coefficient of variance were obtained when samples were analyzed as replicates. Excellent recovery values were recorded in commercial products and fortified samples. International Conference of Harmonization protocols were employed to perform comprehensive method validation. The reported method has applications for pharmaceutical and serum samples.     

Effect of shear stress extrusion intensity on plasticized corn flour structure: Proteins role and distribution

Plasticized corn flour‐based materials were prepared by extrusion and injection molding. Extrusion of corn flour blends (75% wet basis (wb)—glycerol (5 or 10% wb)—water) was performed in a twin‐screw extruder with either one or three shearing zones. Native corn flour is mainly composed of corn starch granules surrounded by proteins layers. Therefore, the destructuration of corn flour by thermomechanical treatments was analyzed (i) by techniques essentially allowing to monitor corn starch amorphization (differential scanning calorimetry, X‐ray diffractometry, determination of water sorption isotherms, susceptibility to hydrolysis by amylolytic enzymes) (ii) and via proteins layers role and distribution observed by confocal scanning laser microscopy and comparing the susceptibility of corn starch to hydrolysis by amylolytic enzymes in the presence or not of a protease. Both corn starch granules amorphization and proteins dispersion and aggregation were more pronounced for materials extruded in a screw profile with three shearing zones. For materials extruded in a screw profile with one shearing zone, the amorphization of starch was higher in materials made with 5% wb glycerol, whereas the proteins dispersion and aggregation was more pronounced in materials made with 10% wb glycerol. A barrier role of proteins to hydrolysis of corn starch by amylolytic enzymes was demonstrated and discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Creep and shrinkage behaviour of CFRP-reinforced mortar

This paper deals with the reinforcement of mortar with external composite materials. The mortar specimens were strengthened with CFRP (Carbon Fibres Reinforced Polymer) plates on two or four faces. Creep tests were run for 7 or 28 days with applied stress level at 30% of ultimate stress. Experimental results show a clear improvement of short-term creep behaviour for the reinforced mortar. There is no evidence of shrinkage reduction due to the reinforcement. Drying is modelled using a non linear diffusion equation and shrinkage is numerically calculated. In both cases, accurate predictions of experimental results were obtained.     

Water vapor properties of two hemp wools manufactured with different treatments

Hemp wools are environmentally friendly materials that are used for thermal insulation of building. These fibrous materials are the places of moisture transfer and storage that impact on thermal performances of the material. In this work, two kinds of hemp wool are studied: hemp wool with an organic binder (called HW1) and hemp-cotton wool with a polyester binder (called HW2). The investigations are based on water vapor sorption and on water vapor permeability measurements. The two kinds of hemp wool show similar sorption isotherm with quite high values of water content. The water vapor permeability is quite high too.     

Derivative FTIR spectroscopy for cluster analysis and classification of morocco olive oils

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were employed for differentiation and classification of olive oils from several producing regions of Morocco. A preliminary treatment of the FTIR data was done by a derivative elaboration based on the Savitzky–Golay algorithm to reduce the noise and extract a largest number of analytical information from the spectra. A multivariate statistical procedure based on cluster analysis (CA) coupled to partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), was elaborated, providing an effective classification method. On the basis of a hierarchical agglomerative CA and principal component analysis (PCA), four distinctive clusters were recognised. The PLS-DA procedure was then applied to classify samples from the same regions, picked in different times, or unknown olive oil samples. The model was optimised by applying the Martens’ Uncertainty Test that provided to select the wavelength zones giving the most useful analytical information. The proposed method furnished results reliable in classifying olive oils from different lands with the advantages of being rapid, inexpensive and requiring no prior separation procedure.     

Catalytic Saloplastics: Alkaline Phosphatase Immobilized and Stabilized in Compacted Polyelectrolyte Complexes

Novel biochemically active compact polyelectrolyte complexes (CoPECs) are obtained through a simple coprecipitation and compaction procedure. As shown for the system composed of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(allylamine) (PAH) as polyelectrolytes and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) as enzyme, the enzyme can be firmly immobilized into these materials. The ALP not only remains active in these materials, but the matrix also enhances the specific activity of the enzyme while protecting it from deactivation at higher temperature. The presence of the matrix allows fine control and substantial enhancement of reaction rates by varying the salt concentration of the contacting solution or temperature. The excellent reusability, together with the ease of co‐immobilizing other useful components, such as magnetic particles, allowing facile handling of the CoPECs, makes these materials interesting candidates for variable scaffolds for the immobilization of enzymes for small‐ and large‐scale enzyme‐catalyzed processes.