Enabling chlorophyll photo-response for in-line real-time noninvasive direct probing of the quality of palm-oil during mill process.

During the milling process of palm oil, the degree of palm fruit ripeness is a critical factor that affects the quality and quantity of the oil. As the palm fruit matures, its chlorophyll level decreases, and since chlorophyll in oil has undesirable effects on hydrogenation, bleachability, and oxidative degradation, it's important to monitor the chlorophyll content in palm oil during the milling process. This study investigated the use of light-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (LICF) for non-invasive and real-time monitoring of chlorophyll content in diluted crude palm oil (DCO) located at the dilution and oil classification point in palm oil mill. An LICF probe was installed at the secondary pipe connected to main DCO pipeline, and the system communicates with a computer located in a separate control room via a Wi-Fi connection. Continuous measurements were recorded with an integration time of 500 ms, averaging of 10, and a time interval of 1 min between each recording during the oil mill's operation. All data were stored on the computer and in the cloud. We collected 60 DCO samples and sent them to the laboratory for American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS) measurement to compare with the LICF signal. The LICF method achieved a correlation coefficient of 0.88 with the AOCS measurements, and it also provided a direct, quantitative, and unbiased assessment of the fruit ripeness in the mill. By incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and cloud storage, this LICF system enables remote and real-time access to data for chemometrics analysis.

Removal of hydrogen sulfide from a biogas mimic by using impregnated activated carbon adsorbent.

Adsorption technology has led to the development of promising techniques to purify biogas, i.e., biomethane or biohydrogen. Such techniques mainly depend on the adsorbent ability and operating parameters. This research focused on adsorption technology for upgrading biogas technique by developing a novel adsorbent. The commercial coconut shell activated carbon (CAC) and two types of gases (H2S/N2 and H2S/N2/CO2) were used. CAC was modified by copper sulfate (CuSO4), zinc acetate (ZnAc2), potassium hydroxide (KOH), potassium iodide (KI), and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) on their surface to increase the selectivity of H2S removal. Commercial H2S adsorbents were soaked in 7 wt.% of impregnated solution for 30 min before drying at 120°C for 24 h. The synthesized adsorbent's physical and chemical properties, including surface morphology, porosity, and structures, were characterized by SEM-EDX, FTIR, XRD, TGA, and BET analyses. For real applications, the modified adsorbents were used in a real-time 0.85 L single-column adsorber unit. The operating parameters for the H2S adsorption in the adsorber unit varied in L/D ratio (0.5-2.5) and feed flow rate (1.5-5.5 L/min) where, also equivalent with a gas hourly space velocity, GHSV (212.4-780.0 hour-1) used. The performances of H2S adsorption were then compared with those of the best adsorbent that can be used for further investigation. Characterization results revealed that the impregnated solution homogeneously covered the adsorbent surface, morphology, and properties (i.e., crystallinity and surface area). BET analysis further shows that the modified adsorbents surface area decreased by up to 96%. Hence, ZnAc2-CAC clarify as the best adsorption capacity ranging within 1.3-1.7 mg H2S/g, whereby the studied extended to adsorption-desorption cycle.