TiO2/Al2O3 membrane reactor equipped with a methanol recovery unit to produce palm oil biodiesel

In this study, the central composite design of the response surface methodology was employed to investigate the effects of reaction temperature, catalyst concentration and cross flow circulation velocity on the production of biodiesel in a TiO₂/Al₂O₃ membrane reactor. High‐quality palm oil biodiesel was produced by combination of alkali transesterification and separation processes in the ceramic membrane reactor. The optimum conditions for the conversion of palm oil to biodiesel in the ceramic membrane reactor were as follows: 70°C reaction temperature, 1.12 wt% catalyst concentration and 0.211 cm s^{? 1} cross flow circulation velocity. The physical and chemical properties of the produced biodiesel were determined and compared with the standard specifications. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A robust learning based evolutionary approach for thermal-economic optimization of compact heat exchangers

This paper presents a robust, efficient and parameter-setting-free evolutionary approach for the optimal design of compact heat exchangers. A learning automata based particle swarm optimization (LAPSO) is developed for optimization task. Seven design parameters, including discreet and continuous ones, are considered as optimization variables. To make the constraint handling straightforward, a self-adaptive penalty function method is employed. The efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed method are demonstrated through two illustrative examples that include three objectives, namely minimum total annual cost, minimum weight and minimum number of entropy generation units. Numerical results indicate that the presented approach generates the optimum configuration with higher accuracy and a higher success rate when compared with genetic algorithms (GAs) and particle swarm optimization (PSO).     

Synthesis of Vanadium Pentoxide Nanoparticles as Catalysts for the Ozonation of Palm Oil

Vanadium pentoxide nanoparticles were synthesized using a solvo-thermal method and were characterized via X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The ozonation of palm oil was performed by using vanadium pentoxide nanoparticles as catalysts to synthesize ethyl malonate. This procedure presented several advantages, such as simple operation for a precise ozonation, excellent yield, short reaction times and reusability because of the recyclability of palm oil. Ethyl malonate was synthesized via the one-step ozonolysis of palm oil and was spectroscopically characterized using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).     

Comparative characterization and cytotoxicity study of TAT-peptide as potential vectors for siRNA and Dicer-substrate siRNA

Recently, a newly discovered Dicer-substrate siRNA (DsiRNA) demonstrates higher potency in gene silencing than siRNA but both suffer from rapid degradation, poor cellular uptake and chemical instability. Therefore, Tat-peptide was exploited to protect and facilitate their delivery into cells. In this study, Tat-peptide was complexed with siRNA or DsiRNA through simple complexation. The physicochemical properties (particle size, surface charge and morphology) of the complexes formed were then characterized. The ability of Tat-peptide to carry and protect siRNA or DsiRNA was determined by UV-Vis spectrophotometry and serum protection assay, respectively. Cytotoxicity effect of these complexes was assessed in V79 cell line. siRNA-Tat complexes had particle size ranged from 186?±?17.8 to 375?±?8.3?nm with surface charge ranged from ?9.3?±?1.0 to +13.5?±?1.0?mV, depending on the Tat-to-siRNA concentration ratio. As for DsiRNA-Tat complexes, the particle size was smaller than the ones complexed with siRNA, ranging from 176?±?8.6 to 458?±?14.7?nm. Their surface charge was in the range of +27.1?±?3.6 to +38.1?±?0.9?mV. Both oligonucleotide (ON) species bound strongly to Tat-peptide, forming stable complexes with loading efficiency of more than 86%. These complexes were relatively non cytotoxic as the cell viability of ～90% was achieved. In conclusion, Tat-peptide has a great potential as siRNA and DsiRNA vector due to the formation of stable complexes with desirable physical characteristics, low toxicity and able to carry high amount of siRNA or DsiRNA.     

Optimization of biohydrogen production by Clostridium butyricum EB6 from palm oil mill effluent using response surface methodology

Clostridium butyricum EB6 successfully produced hydrogen gas from palm oil mill effluent (POME). In this study, central composite design and response surface methodology were applied to determine the optimum conditions for hydrogen production (P_c) and maximum hydrogen production rate (R_max) from POME. Experimental results showed that the pH, temperature and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of POME affected both the hydrogen production and production rate, both individually and interactively. The optimum conditions for hydrogen production (P_c) were pH 5.69, 36 °C, and 92 g COD/l; with an estimated P_c value of 306 ml H₂/g carbohydrate. The optimum conditions for maximum hydrogen production rate (R_max) were pH 6.52, 41 °C and 60 g COD/l; with an estimated R_max value of 914 ml H₂/h. An overlay study was performed to obtain an overall model optimization. The optimized conditions for the overall model were pH 6.05, 36 °C and 94 g COD/l. The hydrogen content in the biogas produced ranged from 60% to 75%.     

Propylsulfonic acid-functionalized partially crystalline silicalite-1 materials: synthesis and characterization

Propylsulfonic acid-functionalized partially crystalline silicalite-1 materials were synthesized via one step co-condensation technique by varying the molar ratio of organosilane source, 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (3MP) to tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in the range of 0.05–0.30, and subsequent oxidation of thiol group to propylsulfonic acid using hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). These materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nitrogen adsorption–desorption method. The structure of these materials was determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and ²⁹Si and ¹³C solid state NMR. XRD results show that % crystallinity of the materials decreased with the increase in 3MP concentration in the synthesis mixture. Selected area electron diffraction (SAED) showed the presence of crystalline and amorphous phases in the samples. An amorphous phase was formed when 3MP concentration was 30 mol% of the total silica source. After elimination of the structure directing agent (SDA) by calcination at 420 °C, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) shows that the structure was thermally stable up to 550 °C. Ammonia temperature-programmed desorption (NH₃-TPD) shows that the acid capacity of these materials was in the range of 1.19–1.83 mmol H⁺/g, which shows that these materials could be used as potential heterogeneous acid catalyst.     

New Synthetic Control Charts for Monitoring Process Mean and Process Dispersion

A statistical quality control chart is widely recognized as a potentially powerful tool that is frequently used in many manufacturing and service industries to monitor the quality of the product or manufacturing processes. In this paper, we propose new synthetic control charts for monitoring the process mean and the process dispersion. The proposed synthetic charts are based on ranked set sampling (RSS), median RSS (MRSS), and ordered RSS (ORSS) schemes, named synthetic‐RSS, synthetic‐MRSS, and synthetic‐ORSS charts, respectively. Average run lengths are used to evaluate the performances of the control charts. It is found that the synthetic‐RSS and synthetic‐MRSS mean charts perform uniformly better than the Shewhart mean chart based on simple random sampling (Shewhart‐SRS), synthetic‐SRS, double sampling‐SRS, Shewhart‐RSS, and Shewhart‐MRSS mean charts. The proposed synthetic charts generally outperform the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) chart based on SRS in the detection of large mean shifts. We also compare the performance of the synthetic‐ORSS dispersion chart with the existing powerful dispersion charts. It turns out that the synthetic‐ORSS chart also performs uniformly better than the Shewhart‐R, Shewhart‐S, synthetic‐R, synthetic‐S, synthetic‐D, cumulative sum (CUSUM) ln S², CUSUM‐R, CUSUM‐S, EWMA‐ln S², and change point CUSUM charts for detecting increases in the process dispersion. A similar trend is observed when the proposed synthetic charts are constructed under imperfect RSS schemes. Illustrative examples are used to demonstrate the implementation of the proposed synthetic charts. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Improved Maximum Exponentially Weighted Moving Average Control Chart for Monitoring Process Mean and Variability

Maximum exponentially weighted moving average (MaxEWMA) control charts have gained considerable attention for detecting changes in both process mean and process variability. In this paper, we propose an improved MaxEWMA control charts based on ordered ranked set sampling (ORSS) and ordered imperfect ranked set sampling (OIRSS) schemes for simultaneous detection of both increases and decreases in the process mean and/or variability, named MaxEWMA‐ORSS and MaxEWMA‐OIRSS control charts. These MaxEWMA control charts are based on the best linear unbiased estimators of location and scale parameters obtained under ORSS and OIRSS methods. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations have been used to estimate the average run length and standard deviation of run length of the proposed MaxEWMA control charts. These control charts are compared with their counterparts based on simple random sampling (SRS), that is, MaxEWMA‐SRS and MaxGWMA‐SRS control charts. The proposed MaxEWMA‐ORSS and MaxEWMA‐OIRSS control charts are able to perform better than the MaxEWMA‐SRS and MaxGWMA‐SRS control charts for detecting shifts in the process mean and dispersion. An application to real data is provided to illustrate the implementation of the proposed MaxEWMA control charts. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.