Sharif Digital Repository

Using whole cell as a catalyst of enzymatic transesterification is a method to produce biodiesel with fewer drawbacks and at a lower cost. In the present study, biodiesel was produced by the reaction of waste frying oil with methanol in the presence of Rhizopus oryzae PTCC 5174 in both immobilized and free forms. Effect of four influencing factors including temperature, methanol to oil molar ratio, amount of biomass, and shaking speed was investigated. Response surface methodology was used to find the optimum conditions of the transesterification reaction. Each factor was set at three levels and the yield of the biodiesel was considered as the response. A quadratic equation was well-fitted... 

In this article, the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) to biodiesel fuel (BDF) has been studied using KOH loaded on millimetric γ-Al2O3 particles in a novel type of two-impinging-jets reactor (TIJR). The effects of various parameters such as KOH loading (wt %), catalyst loading, and methanol-to-oil molar ratio on the BDF yield were studied. The catalyst particles with a KOH loading of 25 wt % at appropriate reaction conditions (i.e., catalyst loading = 4 wt % and methanol-to-oil molar ratio = 15:1) and at 65 °C were used in the TIJR. The influences of various operating and design parameters such as jet Reynolds number value, feed flow rate, jet diameter, and the internozzle... 

In this paper, a two-dimensional, two-phase, non-isothermal model is presented to predict the electrochemical, mass transfer and heat transfer behaviors in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). Governing equations including the momentum, continuity, heat transfer, proton and electron transport, species transport for water, methanol, and all the gas species (carbon dioxide, methanol vapor, water vapor, oxygen, and nitrogen) and the auxiliary equations are coupled to studying the various phenomena in DMFC. The modeling results agree well with the four different experimental data in an extensive range of operation conditions. A parametric study is also performed to examine the effects of the cell... 

Methanol conversion was investigated on dealuminated mordenite (DM) as well as a series of promoted DM (i.e., metal/DM) catalysts prepared by impregnation. Prepared catalysts characterized by the powder XRD, BET, and NH3-TPD techniques. Chemical analysis was performed using induced coupled plasma (ICP) method. The conversion of methanol over different metal/mordenite catalysts was compared at 460C and WHSV of 1 h-1. Several metals including Fe, La, and Ca had been used to prepare metal/DM catalysts, which displayed high selectivity toward propylene production. Ultimately, La/DM catalyst was determined to be the best material amongst those investigated for methanol conversion based upon its... 

The aim of the present work is to propose an eco-design method for sustainable development of methanol production by implementing a multi-objective optimization model based on CO2-efficiency. Two different approaches for the methanol production, i.e. a conventional reference methanol case (RMC) and proposed green integrated methanol case (GIMC) were compared from the view point of eco-design. Using life cycle assessment and process simulation, the environmental features as well as operational decision variables of the RMC and GIMC were assessed. Based on the inventory analysis of LCA, it was found that carbon dioxide is the major emitted pollutant from methanol production. Thus the... 

CdS nanocrystals were thermochemically (thermally activated) synthesized thorough the reaction between CdSO4 and Na2S 2O3 in an aqueous solution. Thioglycolic Acid (TGA) was used as the capping agent and catalyst of the reaction. The method was based on heat activated dissociation of Na2S2O3 and controllable release of S and free electrons in the solution. CdS NCs were formed by heating the sample solution at 96 C for 1 h. The results of optical spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy demonstrated round shape NCs with sizes about 3.0 nm. The nanocrystals were also luminescent and represented a broad emission with a peak located at 515 nm and FWHM of 160 nm. Several samples were... 

Biodiesel as an alternative fuel for fossil diesel has many benefits such as reducing regulated air pollutants emissions, reducing greenhouse gases emissions, being renewable, biodegradable and non-toxic. In this study, used frying oil was applied as a low cost feedstock for biodiesel production by alkali-catalyzed transesterification. The design of experiments was performed using a double 5-level-4-factor central composite design coupled with response surface methodology in order to study the effect of factors on the yield of biodiesel and optimizing the reaction conditions. The factors studied were: reaction temperature, molar ratio of methanol to oil, catalyst concentration, reaction time... 

In this study, a novel experimental approach was used to overcome the lack of phase equilibrium information to obtain data that is more applicable to industrial situations. Liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data, tie-lines, and phase boundaries were carried out for two systems of canola oil methyl esters (containing 1 wt % KOH) + glycerol + methanol and sunflower oil methyl esters (containing 1 wt % KOH) + glycerol + methanol at three different temperatures (303.15, 313.15, and 323.15 K). The quality of data was also ascertained using Othmer-Tobias correlations. The experimental LLE data was also correlated by the nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL) and the Wilson-NRF Gibbs free energy models. The... 

In this paper, a two-dimensional, two-phase, isothermal model is presented to investigate the water transport characteristic and water distribution in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) with emphasis on exploring the water distribution in different layers of DMFC. The liquid-gas two-phase mass transport in the porous anode and cathode is formulated based on multi-fluid model in porous media and water and methanol crossover through the membrane are considered with the effect of diffusion, electro-osmotic drag, and convection. The modeling results agree well with the three different experimental data in an extensive range of operation conditions. A parametric study is also performed to examine... 

A rapid, convenient and reliable method for microextraction in packed syringe (MEPS) of the loop diuretic furosemide (FUR) in urine along with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed. A nanocomposite based on silver nanoparticles/polyaniline (Ag-NPs/PANI) was synthesized and used as the MEPS packing material. This nanocomposite was prepared conveniently using interfacial polymerization without the need for any templates or functional dopants. The feasibility of the synthesized nanocomposites was examined by isolation of FUR from diluted urine samples. After extraction, the analyte was desorbed by 200 μL of methanol. It was then dried and the residue was dissolved in 30 μL... 

Pichia pastoris is used extensively as a production platform for many recombinant proteins. The dissolved oxygen (DO) is one of the most important factors influencing protein production. The influence of the DO on productivity has not been studied independent from the feed rate. In this work, various DO levels were investigated independent from the feed rate. The model system was recombinant P. pastoris under the control of methanol-induced alcohol oxidase promoter, which expressed HRP as the target protein. No significant effect was observed in terms of titer and specific productivity, which is a confirmation of the fact that the DO in a one-compartment system cannot boost productivity for... 

Metabonomics and other "omic" fields are essential science in analytical chemistry. Modern analytical instruments such as proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) can provide the great quantity of analytical information. In order to assign unknown samples, chemometric methods recognition build classification model based on experimental data. Firstly, some current strategies regarding disease diagnosis are exhibited in metabonomic studies. Some diseases such as crohn's disease can be difficult to diagnose since its signs and symptoms may be similar to other medical problems or often mimic other symptoms. Applications of NMR and supervised pattern recognition in the field of metabonomics are... 

Nonporous and mesoporous silica-coated magnetite cluster nanocomposites particles were fabricated with various silica structures in order to develop a desired carrier for the lipase immobilization and subsequent biodiesel production. Lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia was covalently bound to the amino-functionalized particles using glutaraldehyde as a coupling agent. The hybrid systems that were obtained exhibited high stability and easy recovery regardless of the silica structure, following the application of an external magnetic field. The immobilized lipases were then used as the recoverable biocatalyst in a transesterification reaction to convert the soybean oil to biodiesel with methanol.... 

Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the process of biodiesel production from Iranian bitter almond oil. Design of experiments was performed by application of a 5-level-3-factor central composite design in order to study the effect of different factors on the product yield, biodiesel yield and biodiesel purity. These factors were reaction temperature (30-70°C), catalyst concentration (0.3-1.7% w/w) and methanol to oil molar ratio (4.4-13.6 mol/mol). A quadratic model was suggested for the prediction of the biodiesel yield. Analysis of variance revealed that the factors were significant on the production process of biodiesel. For each factor, the optimum value was... 

The effects of i-butane addition to methanol in MTP reaction were investigated over an in-house prepared HZSM-5 catalyst. It was observed that, propylene yield would be enhanced when i-butane fed to the reactor along with methanol. The rising growth of the propylene yield continued to peak on till the balance in thermal condition established. Similar trends have been observed when water was added to the mixture. The effect of WHSV with fixed water composition on product distribution was also studied. The optimum point where the highest amount of propylene yielded was shown to be high depended upon the temperature and residence time  

Polyaniline fiber (PANI) was synthesized by chemical interfacial method and doped with para toluene sulfonic acid (PTSA) through a sequential doping-dedoping-redoping process resulting in PANI-PTSA. The doped material was utilized to fabricate Vulcan-polyaniline composite of C-PANI-PTSA. Next, through reduction, Pt particles were deposited on to this composite to produce a Pt/C-PANI-PTSA electrocatalyst. To investigate the PANI-PTSA interaction with the carbon support as well as, to consider its effect upon the catalytic activity of Pt/C-PANI-PTSA, electrocatalysts with different ratios of 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 wt% were synthesized and their activity was compared with the Pt/C (Electrochem).... 

Highly porous nanocrystalline alumina was synthesized using two different precipitation processes and precipitating agents, which were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and porosimetry analyses. Different precipitating agents yielded nanocrystalline alumina catalysts with different morphologies and textural properties. Batch precipitation using sodium bicarbonate at constant pH resulted in a highly porous nanocrystalline γ-alumina catalyst, having surface area of 351.47 m2 g-1, total pore volume of 1.68 cm3 g -1 and mean pore diameter of 19.17 nm. The mean crystallite size was also determined to be 3.8 nm, based on the XRD results. Catalytic... 

In this study, the prospects of energy efficiency potential, clean development mechanism (CDM) and carbon income up to and beyond 2012 are investigated in the petrochemical industries of Iran as a major oil-producing country. This paper is to address four questions of: (1) the GHGs emission in Iranian petrochemical complexes, (2) the most energy-consuming processes, (3) units with the highest energy efficiency potentials and (4) potentials of CDM or similar carbon projects based on post-2012 scenarios. The petrochemical processes are investigated in two categories of non-polymeric and polymeric productions. Based on capital expenditure, economic saving, simple payback period, CO2 equivalent... 

Acetic acid is one of the most important petrochemical products. Carbonylation of methanol in homogenous phase is one of the major routes for production of acetic acid. Amongst group VIII metal catalysts used in this process iridium has displayed the best capabilities. To investigate effect of operating parameters like: temperature, pressure, methyl iodide, methyl acetate, iridium, ruthenium, and water concentrations on the carbon dioxide formation, experimental design for this system based upon central composite design (CCD) was utilized. Statistical carbon dioxide formation equation developed by this method contained individual, interactions and curvature effects of parameters on the... 

In this research nano γ-Al 2O 3 catalyst was synthesized through precipitation process then characterized and utilized for methanol dehydration reaction in a slurry batch reactor in route to the indirect synthesis of the dimethyl ether (DME). In this venue, effects of the key parameters on methanol conversion and catalyst stability were investigated. Moreover, the internal and external mass transfer resistances were eliminated; hence the intrinsic kinetics controlled the reaction. Therefore, the optimum conditions for temperature, methanol concentration, catalyst mass and stirrer speed were determined to be 300°C, 1.18mol/l, 1.5g and 1100rpm, respectively. Next, different reaction rate...