The augmentation of biogas production can be achieved by incorporating metallic nanoparticles as additives within anaerobic digestion. The objective of this current study is to examine the synthesis of Fe-Ni-Zn and Fe-Co-Zn trimetallic nanoparticles using the co-precipitation technique and assess its impact on anaerobic digestion using palm oil mill effluent (POME) as carbon source. The structural morphology and size of the synthesised trimetallic nanoparticles were analysed using a range of characterization techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) . The average size of Fe-Ni-Zn and Fe-Co-Zn were 19-25.5 nm and 19.1-30.5 nm respectively. Further, investigation focused on examining the diverse concentrations of trimetallic nanoparticles, ranging from 0 to 50 mgL-1. The biogas production increased by 55.55% and 60.11% with Fe-Ni-Zn and Fe-Co-Zn trimetallic nanoparticles at 40 mgL-1 and 20 mgL-1, respectively. Moreover, the lowest biogas of 11.11% and 38.11% were found with 10 mgL-1 of Fe-Ni-Zn and Fe-Co-Zn trimetallic nanoparticles. The findings of this study indicated that the trimetallic nanoparticles exhibited interactions with anaerobes, thereby enhancing the degradation process of palm oil mill effluent (POME) and biogas production. The study underscores the potential efficacy of trimetallic nanoparticles as a viable supplement for the promotion of sustainable biogas generation.
Waste-to-energy conversion presents a pivotal strategy for mitigating the energy crisis and curbing environmental pollution. Pyrolysis is a widely embraced thermochemical approach for transforming waste into valuable energy resources. This study delves into the co-pyrolysis of terrestrial biomass (potato peel) and marine biomass (Sargassum angastifolium) to optimize the quantity and quality of the resultant bio-oil and biochar. Initially, thermogravimetric analysis was conducted at varying heating rates (5, 20, and 50 °C/min) to elucidate the thermal degradation behavior of individual samples. Subsequently, comprehensive analyses employing FTIR, XRD, XRF, BET, FE-SEM, and GC-MS were employed to assess the composition and morphology of pyrolysis products. Results demonstrated an augmented bio-oil yield in mixed samples, with the highest yield of 27.1 wt% attained in a composition comprising 75% potato peel and 25% Sargassum angastifolium. As confirmed by GC-MS analysis, mixed samples exhibited reduced acidity, particularly evident in the bio-oil produced from a 75% Sargassum angastifolium blend, which exhibited approximately half the original acidity. FTIR analysis revealed key functional groups on the biochar surface, including O-H, CO, and C-O moieties. XRD and XRF analyses indicated the presence of alkali and alkaline earth metals in the biochar, while BET analysis showed a surface area ranging from 0.64 to 1.60 m2/g. The favorable characteristics of the products highlight the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of co-pyrolyzing terrestrial and marine biomass for the generation of biofuels and value-added commodities.
The application of the spray drying technique in the food industry for the production of a broad range of ingredients has become highly desirable compared to other drying techniques. Recently, the spray drying technique has been applied extensively for the production of functional foods, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. Encapsulation using spray drying is highly preferred due to economic advantages compared to other encapsulation methods. Encapsulation of oils using the spray drying technique is carried out in order to enhance the handling properties of the products and to improve oxidation stability by protecting the bioactive compounds. Encapsulation of oils involves several parameters-including inlet and outlet temperatures, total solids, and the type of wall materials-that significantly affect the quality of final product. Therefore, this review highlights the application and optimization of the spray drying process for the encapsulation of oils used as food ingredients.
The by-product of the previous transesterification, glycerol was utilised as an acid catalyst precursor for biodiesel production. The crude glycerol was treated through the sulfonation method with sulfuric acid and chlorosulfonic acid in a reflux batch reactor giving solid glycerol-SO3H and glycerol-ClSO3H, respectively. The synthesised acidic glycerol catalysts were characterised by various analytical techniques such as thermalgravimetric analyser (TGA), infrared spectroscopy, surface properties adsorption-desorption by nitrogen gas, ammonia-temperature programmed desorption (NH3-TPD), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), elemental composition analysis by energy dispersive spectrometer (EDX) and surface micrographic morphologies by field emission electron microscope (FESEM). Both glycerol-SO3H and glycerol-ClSO3H samples exhibited mesoporous structures with a low surface area of 8.85 mm2/g and 4.71 mm2/g, respectively, supported by the microscopic image of blockage pores. However, the acidity strength for both catalysts was recorded at 3.43 mmol/g and 3.96 mmol/g, which is sufficient for catalysing PFAD biodiesel at the highest yield. The catalytic esterification was optimised at 96.7% and 98.2% with 3 wt.% of catalyst loading, 18:1 of methanol-PFAD molar ratio, 120 °C, and 4 h of reaction. Catalyst reusability was sustained up to 3 reaction cycles due to catalyst deactivation, and the insight investigation of spent catalysts was also performed.
In recent years, essential oils have received a growing interest because of the positive health effects of their novel characteristics such as antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant activities. For the extraction of plant-derived essential oils, there is the need of advanced analytical techniques and innovative methodologies. An exhaustive study of hydrodistillation, supercritical fluid extraction, ultrasound- and microwave-assisted extraction, solid-phase microextraction, pressurized liquid extraction, pressurized hot water extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, liquid-phase microextraction, matrix solid-phase dispersion, and gas chromatography (one- and two-dimensional) hyphenated with mass spectrometry for the extraction through various plant species and analysis of essential oils has been provided in this review. Essential oils are composed of mainly terpenes and terpenoids with low-molecular-weight aromatic and aliphatic constituents that are particularly important for public health.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It may result from the interactions between multiple genetic and environmental factors including sedentary lifestyle and dietary habits. The quality of dietary oils and fats has been widely recognised to be inextricably linked to the pathogenesis of CVD. Vegetable oil is one of the essential dietary components in daily food consumption. However, the benefits of vegetable oil can be deteriorated by repeated heating that leads to lipid oxidation. The practice of using repeatedly heated cooking oil is not uncommon as it will reduce the cost of food preparation. Thermal oxidation yields new functional groups which may be potentially hazardous to cardiovascular health. Prolonged consumption of the repeatedly heated oil has been shown to increase blood pressure and total cholesterol, cause vascular inflammation as well as vascular changes which predispose to atherosclerosis. The harmful effect of heated oils is attributed to products generated from lipid oxidation during heating process. In view of the potential hazard of oxidation products, therefore this review article will provide an insight and awareness to the general public on the consumption of repeatedly heated oils which is detrimental to health.
Petroleum is a finite source as well as causing several environmental problems. Therefore petroleum needs to be replaced by alternative and sustainable sources. Plant oils and oleochemicals derived from them represent such alternative sources; the use of oleochemicals as biobased lubricants is of significant interest. This article presents a series of chemical modification on oleic acid to yield synthetic biolubricant basestocks. Measuring of density, volatility, cloud point (CP), pour point (PP), flash point (FP), viscosity index (VI), onset temperature (OT) and signal maximum temperature (SMT) was carried out for each compound. Furthermore, the friction and wear properties were measured using high-frequency reciprocating rig (HFRR). The results showed that octadecyl 9-octadecyloxy-10-hydroxyoctadecanoate exhibited the most favorable low-temperature performance (CP %ndash;26°C, PP %ndash;28°C) and the lowest ball wear scan diameter (42 µm) while propyl 9-propyloxy-10-hydroxyoctadecanoate exhibited the higher oxidation stability (OT 156°C).
High oleic acid Moringa oleifera seed oil (MoO) has been rarely applied in food products due to the low melting point and lack of plasticity. Enzymatic interesterification (EIE) of MoO with palm stearin (PS) and palm kernel oil (PKO) could yield harder fat stocks that may impart desirable nutritional and physical properties.
This study assessed the environmental impacts of the formulation of graphene oxide (GO)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) conductive membranes and of the process operating parameters of electrically-enhanced palm oil mill effluent (POME) filtration. Two different analyses approaches were employed, cradle-to-gate approach for conductive membrane production and gate-to-gate approach for the POME filtration process. The parameters in conductive-membrane formulation (e.g. the weight ratio of carbon nanomaterials, and concentration of GO/MWCNT nanohybrids) and process operating parameters (e.g. electric field strength and electricity operating mode) were investigated. The findings herein are twofold. Firstly, for the fabrication of GO/MWCNT conductive membranes, the best weight ratio of GO:MWCNTs was found to be 1:9, given its superior membrane electrical conductivity with lower environmental impacts by 8.51% compared to pristine MWCNTs. The most suitable concentration of carbon nanomaterials was found to be 5 wt%, given its lowest impacts on resource depletion, human health, and ecosystems. Secondly, for the electrically-enhanced POME filtration, the optimum process operating parameters were found to be the application of an electric field of 300 V/cm in the continuous mode, given its lower environmental impacts (22.99%-89.30%) secondary to its requirement of the least electricity to produce permeate. The present study has established not only the optimized conditions in membrane formulation but also the operating parameters of electrically-enhanced filtration; such findings enable the use of cleaner production and sustainable approach to minimize fouling for industrial applications, whilst maintaining excellent efficiency.
In predicting palm oil mill effluent (POME) degradation efficiency, previous developed quadratic model quantitatively evaluated the effects of O2 flowrate, TiO2 loadings and initial concentration of POME in labscale photocatalytic system, which however suffered from low generalization due to the overfitting behaviour. Evidently, high RMSE (131.61) and low R2 (-630.49) obtained indicates its insufficiency in describing POME degradation at unseen factor ranges, hence verified the fact of poor generalization. To overcome this issue, several models were developed via machine learning-assisted techniques, namely Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), Linear Regression (LR), Decision Tree (DT), Supported Vector Machine (SVM) and Regression Tree Ensemble (RTE), subsequently being assessed systematically. To achieve high generalization, all models were subjected to 'train-all-test-all' strategy, 5-fold and 10-fold cross validation. Specifically, GPR model was furnished with high accuracy in 'train-all-test-all' strategy, judging from its low RMSE (1.0394) and high R2 (0.9962), which however menaced by the risk of overfitting. In contrast, despite relatively poorer RMSE and R2 (1.7964 and 0.9886) obtained in 5-fold cross validation, GPR model was rendered with highest generalization, while sufficiently preserving its accuracy in development process. Besides, SVM and RTE models were also demonstrated promising R2 (0.9372 and 0.9208), which however shadowed by their high RMSEs (4.2174 and 4.7366). Furthermore, the extraordinary generalization of GPR model was coincidentally verified in 10-fold cross validation. The lowest RMSE (2.1624) and highest R2 (0.9835) obtained with feature number of 36 asserted its sufficiency in both generalization and accuracy prospect. Other models were all rendered with slight lower R2 (> 0.9), plausibly due to the higher RMSE (> 4.0). According to GPR model, optimized POME degradation (52.52%) can be obtained at 70 mL/min of O2, 70.0 g/L of TiO2 and 250 ppm of POME concentration, with only ∼3% error as compared to the actual data.
The technical feasibility of TiO2-photocatalysis towards palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment is well-proven in previous studies. As a continuity, current study evaluated the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) in a concise manner, subsequently discussed its practicality in palm oil industry of Malaysia. Indeed, TiO2-photocatalysis displays a promising technical feasibility in treating POME, but its wide application is economically-suppressed. It is positing that biological-based treatments (including the existing open-ponding system) are more likely to be employed as the major treating approach for POME over TiO2-photocatalysis. This is particularly true as biological-based treatments offer better performance index for concentrated POME with comparatively lower treatment cost and technicality needed. Furthermore, it is also prevailed with high biogas generability, therefore being irreplaceably benchmarked for POME treatment in Malaysia. Instead of replacing biological treatment entirely, the adoption of TiO2-photocatalysis as complementing tertiary treatment for biological-treated-POME is more practical, bestowed to its robust organic-mineralizing feature for low concentration POME. Such integrated system is expected to augment the POME degradation efficiency, hence effectively preserve the environment from POME pollution.
Malaysia is one of the countries that is well known for its palm oil based products and exports all over the world. Over the years, palm oil mill has been rising at alarming rate in Malaysia, causing palm oil-based wastes to increase especially palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME in Malaysia are channelled into water bodies such as rivers after treated mostly with conventional biological method. However, with current technologies and knowledge, conventional POME treatments are seen to be outdated and require major improvements as greenhouse gaseous are emitted to the environment as well as being less cost effective. Integrated systems that combine two or more conventional methods are introduced and reviewed to provide insights on the advantages and disadvantages of the system if it is to be implemented in real life plant. Integrated systems that focus on combining conventional methods are compiled and reviewed specifically for POME treatment. Among the integrated methods that are reviewed includes biological with membrane, adsorption with magnetic field exposure, adsorption with membrane and electrocoagulation with membrane. The systems are seen to give excellent color, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids (TSS) removal with average of higher than 90%. Reduction in space utilization, improved treatment time as well as simplified operating system were reported when integrated systems are applied as compared to conventional treatment of POME.
This study focused on producing high quality and yield of biodiesel from novel non-edible seed oil of abundantly available wild Raphnus raphanistrum L. using an efficient, recyclable and eco-friendly copper modified montmorillonite (MMT) clay catalyst. The maximum biodiesel yield of 83% was obtained by base catalyzed transesterification process under optimum operating conditions of methanol to oil ratio of 15:1, reaction temperature of 150 °C, reaction time of 5 h and catalyst loading of 3.5%. The synthesized catalyst and biodiesel were characterized for their structural features and chemical compositions using various state-of-the-art techniques, including x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (1H, 13C) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. The fuel properties of the biodiesel were estimated including kinematic viscosity (4.36 cSt), density (0.8312 kg/L), flash point (72 °C), acid value (0.172 mgKOH/g) and sulphur content (0.0002 wt.%). These properties were compared and found in good agreement with the International Biodiesel Standards of American (ASTM-951, 6751), European Committee (EN-14214) and China GB/T 20828 (2007). The catalyst was re-used in five consecutive transesterification reactions without losing much catalytic efficiency. Overall, non-edible Raphnus raphanistrum L.. seed oil and Cu doped MMT clay catalyst appeared to be highly active, stable, and cheap contenders for future biofuel industry. However, detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of Raphnus raphanistrum L. seed oil biodiesel are highly recommended to assess the technical, ecological, social and economic challenges.
Oil palm is one of the key industries highly observed in Malaysia, due to its high demand both whether locally or internationally. The oil extraction rate (OER) in palm oil production is used as an element to identify the performance of the mills, estates and producers. In view of this, there are specific instrument or sensor needs to be implemented at the mills especially during the reception of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) transported from the field for oil content processing. This paper aims to study and propose the use of a fruit battery-based oil palm maturity sensor to analyse the effect of the sensor to various parameters. The study utilizes a charging method with different parameters, including a moisture content test on the palm oil samples. Three types of parameters are tested along with the different grades of oil palm fruit from different bunches, such as the load resistance, charging voltage and charging time. The repeatability data of the samples are obtained with the used list of values in each parameter. The results show that the parameters tested for the unripe, under ripe and ripe samples can affect the sensor sensitivity.
Fermented Virgin Coconut Oil (FVCO) is widely used in the Southeast Asia as food and traditional medicine. The objective of the present study is the evaluation of chronic safety of the commercialized FVCO of Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. A single dose of 5000 mg/kg of FVCO was administered orally in rats (each group, n = 5) for the acute toxicity study and 175, 550 and 2000 mg/kg for sub-chronic and chronic studies (each group, n = 10), respectively. The behavior, mortality, and body weight of the rats were assessed to determine the toxic effects of FVCO. The haematology, biochemistry and histopathology of the treated rats were evaluated. The treated rats were safe with the dose of 5000 mg/kg in acute, sub-chronic and chronic indication. Abnormal clinical signs and morphology (gross necroscopy), changes of organ weight, anomalous haematology and biochemistry indexes were not found in comparison with the control (p > 0.05). In general, food and water intake were higher in the treated rats related to control. It was concluded that the presence of the antioxidant active compounds of FVCO might be the reason of safety. The structure activity relationship (SAR) provides a comprehensive mechanism to determine the safety that is the presence of the electron donating phenolic groups, carbonyl groups, and carboxylic acid in the ortho and meta position of the aromatic rings. The SAR showed the antioxidant properties of myristic acid and lauric acid determined by GC-MS analysis. This result suggests the safety of FVCO for chronic use, nutritional activity that FVCO formulation complies the requirements of regulatory agencies.
In this study, carbon-silica based acid catalysts derived from rice husks (RH) were successfully synthesised using microwave (MW) technology. The results showed that MW sulphonation produced Sulphur (S) content of 17.2-18.5 times higher than in raw RH. Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) showed peak at 1035 cm-1 which corresponded to O˭S˭O stretching of sulphonic (-SO3H) group. XRD showed sulfonated RH catalysts (SRHCs) have amorphous structure, and through SEM, broadening of the RH voids and also formation of pores is observed. RH600 had the highest surface area of 14.52 m2/g. SRHCs showed high catalytic activity for esterification of oleic acid with methanol with RH600 had the highest initial formation rate (6.33 mmolL-1min-1) and yield (97%). The reusability of the catalyst showed gradually dropped yield of product for every recycle, which might be due to leaching of -SO3H. Finally, esterification of oil recovered from palm oil mill effluent (POME) with methanol achieved a conversion of 87.3% free fatty acids (FFA) into fatty acid methyl esters (FAME).
Residual palm oil that goes into the river untreated can become detrimental to the environment. Residual oil discharge during milling process into palm oil mill effluent (POME) is unavoidable. About 1 wt% of residual oil in POME causes major problems to the mills, in terms of environment, wastewater treatment and economy losses. This paper reports the recovery of residual oil from POME by adsorption on polypropylene micro/nanofiber (PP-MNF) and desorption of oil by hands pressing, and oil extraction from the PP-MNF using solvent and supercritical-CO2 extraction techniques. The characterization of the PP-MNF and the quality of oil extracted were analyzed using analytical instruments. The reusability of the PP-MNF was also investigated. The experimental results showed the adsorption capacity of the PP-MNF was 28.65 g of oil/g of PP-MNF on average using refined palm oil, whilst recovery of oil from POME was 10.93 g of oil/g of PP-MNF. The extraction yield of oil from PP-MNF using hand pressing was 89.62%. The extraction of residual oil from the pressed PP-MNF showed comparable yield between solvent and supercritical CO2 techniques. The quality of recovered oil was similar with the quality of the crude oil, and no trace of polypropylene contamination was detected in the oil recovered. The PP-MNF showed no significant physical change after the extraction process. In conclusion, the PP-MNF has great potential to be used commercially in residual oil recovery from POME.
The paper describes the uses of microfocus XRF to identify infected Basal Stem Rot (BSR) disease in Malaysian palm oil plants. Among symptoms of BSR are wilting of the leaves and plant malnutrition. The study involves determining the inorganic element content of normal and infected leaves. Si, Mo, Cl, K, Ca and Mn had been identified as the major elements. Their distribution was determined by constructing an elemental map of each of this element on the leaves. Line scan was also performed to look into changes on the element composition on a defined region. Quantitative analysis of Cl, Ca and K on the normal and infected leaves show that the infected leaves have lower Cl content and a higher Ca/K ratio than the normal leaves.
Increasing demands in palm oil industry hence resulting the production of palm oil to increase. It is then creating a major problem in disposing the waste to be treat in appropriate ways. The governments are forced to look for alternative technology for the palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment because the demand of oil increases with the awareness on increasing environmental issue. Therefore, a new technology must be found in order to reduce energy consumption, to meet legal requirements on emission and for cost reduction and also increased quality of water treatment. Membrane Anaerobic System (MAS) is a promising alternative way to overcome these issues. In this study, the efficiency of the MAS performance increases to 99.03% in ten days operation. The application of Monod, Contois and Chen & Hashimoto models were used to analyze the performance of MAS for treating POME. The results from the experiment show the substrate removal model is well fits for estimation of kinetics membrane anaerobic system. Amongst them, the Contois and Monod models predicted the bio-kinetic reactions of the MAS very well with coefficient of determination (R2>97%) values. The MAS bioreactor was creating to be an improvement method as well as successful biological treatment since the graph shows linearized which is good agreement with reported in literature.
The application of computer and machines for agricultural production has been one of the outstanding
developments in Malaysian agriculture, especially in overcoming labour shortages in Oil Palm plantations. The on-line automated weedicide sprayer system was developed at Universiti Putra
Malaysia to locate the existence and intensity of weeds in real-time environment and to spray the
weedicides automatically and precisely. During the start of the spraying operation, the web camera
will initially capture the image of weeds. The computer programme will compute the red, green, blue (RGB) values in the form of computer pixel. These values will be used as reference RGB values to be compared with the RGB values of the weeds captured real-time during the spraying operation. The sprayer nozzle will be turned ‘on’ or ‘off’, depending on the percentage or intensity of the green colour pixel value of weeds. The sprayer valve will open the nozzle/s when the camera detected the presence of weeds. The purpose is to reduce wastage, reduce labour, reduce cost, and control environment hazard.