Chemical Engineering

Air quality index (AQI) is the single value numerical expression to evaluate the quality of a given air at a particular location. The present study classifies the locations with different air pollution characteristics in respect of AQI and to evaluate the parameters of the locations of the monitoring program. A selected cluster analysis is applied to the pollution monitoring dataset which including SPM, RPM, SO2, NO2. A computer-simulated artificial neural network (ANN) model is developed using Matlab to get a good interaction between the different components of air of different location in Kolkata responsible for Air Quality measurement and their relationship with AQI.

This paper focus on the investigation of kinetic and thermodynamic characteristic of adsorption of Pb2+ ions unto functionalized Nigerian Ahoko Kaolin. The adsorption rate of Pb2+ onto the TPP-functionalized and the un-functionalized kaolin was found to increase from 0.479 to 1.915 and 0.340 to 1.894 (mgg-1min-1) in the first 10 min while increasing the initial Pb2+ concentration from 250-1000 mg/L. There was decrease in adsorption thereafter attaining equilibrium after 70 min. Increase in temperature from 298 to 323 k increase both the pseudo-second order reaction rate constant K2 and the initial sorption rate h on both the functionalized and un-functionalized kaolin. The values of K2 increase from 0.365 to 0.426 (mgg-1min-1) and 0.217 to 0.296 (mgg-1 min-1). The values of enthalpy obtained suggest that the adsorption process is endothermic in both material used with the functionalized kaolin showing higher endothermic behavior. The values for entropy and enthalpy are 106.40 and 33318.82 (kJmol-1) for functionalized kaolin and 109.78 and 34624.73 (kJmol-1) for the un-functionalized kaolin. The adsorption process follows a pseudo-second order reaction path.

The transesterification reaction is actually replacement of alcohol group from an ester by another alcohol. The reaction was carried out by varying different parameters, like amount of catalyst in reaction, ratio of methyl alcohol to oil, temperature and stirring on the reaction; to find the best conversion of oil to biodiesel. Alkali catalysed transesterification is considered to be the best amongst all methods available for the production of biodiesel from fresh oil. Our aim is to establish the parametric dependency of the reaction from the experiments.

In this study, activated carbon was prepared from moringa seed husk by chemical activation method using of potassium hydroxide (KOH) impregnation. The activated carbon produced was characterized and tested for the removal of two different dyes from wastewater. The Activity tests were carried out for five different masses of activated carbon and three contact times in order to investigate the effect of mass of activated carbon and contact time respectively. The experimental results showed that an increase in the mass of the activated carbon produced leads to a higher percentage removal of dye from wastewater.

The possibility of using a three phase pipe separator to separate a mixture of air-water oil was investigated. A 30 ID laboratory based pipe separator was designed, fabricated and installed to study the separation efficiency of air-water-oil mixture. A mixture of air-water-oil flow run through the pipe separator and the separation efficiency calculated in term of the percentage of clean water by volume at the water-rich outlet calculated. The results obtained showed that a clean water stream at the water-rich outlet of the pipe separator is achievable at high water volume fractions and low oil content. This confirmed the possibility that the three phase pipe separator can function as a free water knock-out device.

The demand for petroleum is increasing with each passing day. This may be attributed to the limited resources of petroleum crude. In that case, it becomes utmost necessity to search for alternative fuels, which are renewable, and in that biodiesel emerges as a real solution. Because of diminishing petroleum reserves and the deleterious environmental consequences of exhaust gases from petroleum diesel, biodiesel has attracted attention during the past few years as a renewable and environmentally friendly fuel. Since it is made entirely from oils, it is renewable and biodegradable. Biodiesel is a cleaner burning fuel than diesel and a suitable replacement. It is made from non-toxic, biodegradable, renewable resources. It can be produced in many ways.

This study presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for modelling gas evolution and current distribution in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The improved two-phase model includes a new sub-model for estimating the interface mass transfer without empirical correlations. Simulation results in a horizontal channel of the DMFC agree with typical trends reported in the literature for bubbly flows. The increase in inlet flow rate is found to lead to a decrease in the gas content in the outlet of the anode channels. A case study illustrates applications of the CFD model for modelling gas evolution and current distribution in a DMFC with a parallel flow-field design. Simulation results with a improved two-phase model provide an explanation of experimental observations of a transparent DMFC with parallel channels. An improved three-dimensional CFD model includes all relevant phenomena and is valuable for gas management in a DMFC design.

Increased environmental awareness and strictness in emissions regulations have led to development of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA). The potential of WMA in reducing the energy consumption as compared to Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) is becoming more and more attractive nowadays. The goals for the WMA are to lower the mixing and compacting temperatures by reducing the viscosity of the binder, and using the same HMA plants to produce mixes that still meet specifications. The benefits of WMA include reduced emissions, decreased energy (fuel) consumption, reduced asphalt oxidation and early traffic opening. Several technologies of WMA are available today such as Aspha-min, Sasobit, Evotherm, WMA-Foam and Asphaltan B. Viscosity of the binder is used to determine its mixing, laying and compaction temperatures.In the present study Brookfield Viscometer is used for determination of the viscosity of bituminous binders with different combinations of additives at different temperatures ranging from 90ºC to 160ºC. Two binders VG 30 and CRMB 55, and two additives Sasobit and Evotherm are used. The results shows that the viscosity of the bituminous binders varies exponentially with the temperature and linearly with respect to the dose of Warm Mix additives and the mixing temperature can be reduced by 20ºC to 25ºC while laying and compaction temperature can be reduced by 10ºC to 15ºC by using these additives.

In this article, we studied the effects of variable viscosity and thermal conductivity on an unsteady two-dimensional laminar flow of a viscous incompressible electrically conducting fluid past a semi-infinite vertical plate taking into account the mass transfer. The fluid viscosity is assumed to vary as a linear function of temperature. The governing equations for the flow are transformed into a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations are solved by a closed analytical form. The effects of the various parameters on the velocity, temperature, concentration and skin-friction profiles are presented graphically.

The transesterification reaction is actually replacement of alcohol group from an ester by another alcohol. The reaction was carried out by varying different parameters, like amount of catalyst in reaction, ratio of methyl alcohol to oil, temperature and stirring on the reaction; to find the best conversion of oil to biodiesel. In this paper fuzzy logic is applied to the transesterification reaction studies and the result is compared with the experimental results.