Oily compounds removal in wastewater treatment system of pars oil refinery to improve its efficiency in a lab scale pilot

The aim of this research is inspecting the efficiency of physical-chemical and biological processes with the active sludge method in the wastewater of the Pars Oil Refinery Company. This research was done from 26th, January 2007 and continued up to 27th, May 2007. The main operation in Pars oil refinery is to produce lubricants. This research tries to examine and evaluate the performance of treatment system at the refinery to decrease microorganism in the industrial wastewater in a laboratory scale pilot. The pilot has two sections; physical-chemical section, including Dissolved Air Flotation system, and biological section, including active sludge reactor and clarifier. This investigation carried on a 10 liter Dissolved Air Flotation reactor and an active sludge reactor in a laboratory scale. The volume of the aerireactor (aeration reactor) was 10 liters, and the volume of the secondary sediment was 3.5 liters. The waste water of the refinery was used as inlet flow of the pilot and necessary sludge was obtained at first from the Shahrak Ekbatan waste water treatment system. After analyzing the test results, it was concluded that the average percentage of excluding oil, Chemical Oxygen Demand and Biological Oxygen Demand was 29.7, 49 and 27.8 respectively. This indicates the effective role of physical treatment in decreasing oily emulsion material that would result in decreasing organic density in untreated wastewater. In biological system, the efficiency of excluding Chemical Oxygen Demand and Biological Oxygen Demand is 73.4 and 84.7, respectively. This confirms high efficiency of this unit. The samples taken from entering (influent) and exiting (effluent) wastewater of both units were tested. Standard Methods were applied to determine the considered physical and chemical parameters.     

Effects of chitosan and zirconia on setting time,mechanical strength,and bioactivity of calcium silicate‐based cement

In this research, we aimed at improving the setting properties and biocompatibility of the mineral trioxide aggregate‐like cements while maintaining the main chemical formula. Consequently, chitosan and zirconium oxide were added to the cement instead of bismuth oxide to improve the mechanical behavior, limit the possible toxicity, and enhance the bioactivity of the cements. Adding zirconia resulted in a shorter setting time and adding chitosan contributed to the setting time, mechanical strength, and biocompatibility at the same time. Thus, cements containing both chitosan and zirconia had the shortest setting time, highest compressive strength, and apatite‐forming ability.     

Robust superhydrophilic coatings by electropolymerization of sulfonated pyrrole

Superhydrophilic coatings were prepared by electropolymerization of sufonated pyrrole from aqueous solutions. The monomer was prepared in one step from commercially available reagents. Electropolymerized polymer films exhibited significant surface roughness and porosity as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy analysis. Advancing water contact angles of the pristine coatings were as low as 12°, while receding angles were 0° for almost all samples. Soaking the films in hot water resulted in decrease in the advanced contact angles to as low as 0°. The produced coatings retained their extreme wetting characteristics even when treated in harsh environments, such as dry heat for a week. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2012     

On the Correlation of Rheology and Morphology of Bimodal Polypropylene Reactor Blends Synthesized by Homogeneous Binary Metallocene/Metallocene Catalysts

In this study, morphological and rheological characteristics of bimodal polypropylene reactor blends synthesized by binary catalysts based on I: rac-Me₂Si(2-Me-4-PhInd)₂ZrCl₂ and II: (2-PhInd)₂ZrCl₂ at different molar ratios were investigated. Gel permeation chromatography, scanning electron microscopy, and rheometry analysis were performed to evaluate the effect of molar ratio of catalyst II, responsible for the formation of elastomeric stereoblock polypropylene with low molecular weight, to catalyst I, responsible for production of high molecular weight isotactic (i) polypropylene, on the molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, morphological characteristics and rheological behavior of the synthesized products. The gel permeation chromatography results indicated that once a hybrid of the two catalysts is used, a broad and bimodal molecular weight distribution would be obtained, and the molar ratio of the catalysts governs the values of molecular weight and molecular weight distribution. ¹³C NMR results suggest that the different polypropylene tacticity resulting from the two catalysts (stereoblock vs. isotactic) is hardly influenced using a binary system. The effect of molecular weight enhancement and molecular weight distribution broadening was confirmed through the linear rheological data (G′ at lower frequencies, crossover modulus and crossover frequency) due to the impeded molecular motions of chains with high molecular weights which play an important role in the elasticity of chains. The zero shear rate viscosity and relaxation time, determined by fitting the Carreau–Yasuda model, are in great conformity with the experimental data at low-frequency region. Likewise, the miscibility and increased level of heterogeneity of microstructure, which is a result of changing the molar ratios of catalysts II/I, are confirmed through the Cole–Cole and Han plots and were further corroborated through the obtained scanning electron microscopy results.     

Applications of FT-NIRS combined with PLS multivariate methods for the detection & quantification of saccharin adulteration in commercial fruit juices

Detection of adulteration in carbohydrate-rich foods like fruit juices is particularly difficult because of the variety of the commercial sweeteners available that match the concentration profiles of the major carbohydrates in the foods. In present study, a new sensitive and robust assay using Fourier Transform Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-NIRS) combined with partial least square (PLS) multivariate methods has been developed for detection and quantification of saccharin adulteration in different commercial fruit juice samples. For this investigation, six different commercially available fruit juice samples were intentionally adulterated with saccharin at the following percentage levels: 0%, 0.10%, 0.30%, 0.50%, 0.70%, 0.90%, 1.10%, 1.30%, 1.50%, 1.70% and 2.00% (weight/volume). Altogether, 198 samples were used including 18 pure juice samples (unadulterated) and 180 juice samples adulterated with saccharin. PLS multivariate methods including partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and partial least-squares regressions (PLSR) were applied to the obtained spectral data to build models. The PLS-DA model was employed to differentiate between pure fruit juice samples and those adulterated with saccharin. The R² value obtained for the PLS-DA model was 97.90% with an RMSE error of 0.67%. Similarly, a PLS regression model was also developed to quantify the amount of saccharin adulterant in juice samples. The R² value obtained for the PLSR model was 97.04% with RMSECV error of 0.88%. The employed model was then cross-validated by using a test set which included 30% of the total adulterated juice samples. The excellent performance of the model was proved by the low root mean squared error of prediction value of 0.92% and the high correlation factor of 0.97. This newly developed method is robust, nondestructive, highly sensitive and economical.