Thermogravimetric and thermo-kinetic analysis of sugarcane bagasse pith: a comparative evaluation with other sugarcane residues.

In this study, thermogravimetric and thermo-kinetic analysis of sugarcane bagasse pith (S.B.P.) were performed using a robust suite of experiments and kinetic analyses, along with a comparative evaluation on the thermo-kinetic characteristics of two other major sugarcane residues, namely sugarcane straw (S.C.S.) and sugarcane bagasse (S.C.B.). The thermogravimetric analysis evaluated the pyrolysis behavior of these residues at different heating rates in a nitrogen atmosphere. The Kissinger, advanced non-linear isoconversional (ANIC), and Friedman methods were employed to obtain effective activation energies. Moreover, the compensation effect theory (CE) and combined kinetic analysis (CKA) were used to determine the pre-exponential factor and pyrolysis kinetic model. Friedman's method findings indicated that the average activation energies of S.C.S., S.C.B., and S.B.P. are 188, 170, and 151 kJ/mol, respectively. The results of the ANIC method under the integral step Δα = 0.01 were closely aligned with those of the Friedman method. The CKA and CE techniques estimated ln(f(α)Aα) with an average relative error below 0.7%. The pre-exponential factors of S.C.S., S.C.B., and S.B.P. were in the order of 1014, 1012, and 1011 (s-1), respectively. From a thermodynamic viewpoint, positive ∆G* and ∆H* results provide evidence for the non-spontaneous and endothermic nature of the pyrolysis process, indicating the occurrence of endergonic reactions.

Biodiesel production from Mastic oil via electrolytic transesterification: optimization using response surface methodology and engine test.

This study aimed to synthesize the biodiesel from Mastic oil by electrolysis method. Mastic gum is a potential and inexpensive feedstock for the biodiesel production. The oil content of Mastic gum was ~ 20% of the total gum weight. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was exploited to measure the oil's fatty acid profile. The response surface methodology (RSM) via Box-Behnken design (BBD) was utilized to specify the best processing condition of the electrolytic transesterification process. According to the RSM-BBD results, the highest predicted biodiesel yield was 95% at the reaction time of 1 h, methanol to oil ratio of 4:1, and catalyst weight of 1.2 wt%. Under these conditions, the produced Mastic oil biodiesel was blended with the neat diesel at different volume ratios of 5:95 (B5), 10:90 (B10), and 15:85 (B15). These fuel mixtures were tested in a single-cylinder engine to assess engine performance and exhaust emissions. The experiments exhibited that blending biodiesel with diesel can slightly improve the engine performance. Moreover, the application of blends with high volumes of biodiesel decreased the exhaust emissions, such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and unburned hydrocarbons (UHC) by 54.54%, 41%, and 39.3%, respectively. However, the nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission increased because of the higher oxygen content of the biodiesel. It was also found that the physical and chemical characteristics of the Mastic oil biodiesel are the same as diesel, consistent with the ASTM standard. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis also confirmed the biodiesel production.

Physical properties, engine performance, and exhaust emissions of waste fish oil biodiesel/bioethanol/diesel fuel blends.

In the current study, the physicochemical, engine performance, and exhaust emission of different ternary fuel blends containing waste fish oil (WFO) biodiesel, bioethanol, and petro-diesel have been investigated. WFO Biodiesel was prepared from waste fish oil via transesterification method. Different physiochemical properties including the kinematic viscosity, density, flash point, pour point, cloud point, and heat value have been measured for different fuel blends and compared with the neat petro-diesel. The performance and exhaust emission of engine have been also studied using different fuel blends using a single-cylinder diesel engine in full load condition at 1800 rpm. It was found that the engine torque, engine power, and thermal efficiency of the ternary fuel blends was reduced by 2.45%, 9.25%, 2.35% averagely in comparison with the neat petro-diesel, respectively. The average break specific fuel consumption was also increased by 10.44% compared to the neat petro-diesel. The emission of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) was also measured. It was also found that the utilization of ternary fuel blends results in a considerable reduction in CO and UHC emission by 50.55% and 43.87% on average compared to the neat petro-diesel, respectively. The emission of NOx was also increased by 28.25% on average compared to the neat petro-diesel. It was also found that the NOx emission can be adjusted by tuning the WFO biodiesel and bioethanol contents of the ternary fuel blends.

New molecular structure based models for estimation of the CO2 solubility in different choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs).

In this study, CO2 solubility in different choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) has been investigated using the Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (QSPR). In this regard, the effect of different structures of the hydrogen bond donor (HBD) in choline chloride (ChCl) based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) has been studied in different temperatures and different molar ratios of ChCl as hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) to HBD. 12 different datasets with 390 data on the CO2 solubility were chosen from the literature for the model development. Eight predictive models, which contain the pressure and one structural descriptor, have been developed at the fixed temperature (i.e. 293, 303, 313, or 323 K), and the constant molar ratio of ChCl to HBD equal to 1:3 or 1:4. Moreover, two models were also introduced, which considered the effects of pressure, temperature, and HBD structures, simultaneously in the molar ratios equal to 1:3 or 1:4. Two additional datasets were used only for the further external validation of these two models at new temperatures, pressures, and HBD structures. It was identified that CO2 solubility depends on the "EEig02d" descriptor of HBD. "EEig02d" is a molecular descriptor derived from the edge adjacency matrix of a molecule that is weighted by dipole moments. This descriptor is also related to the molar volume of the structure. The statistical evaluation of the proposed models for the unfixed and fixed temperature datasets confirmed the validity of the developed models.

An experimental investigation on the oxidative desulfurization of a mineral lubricant base oil.

In the present study, the oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of Sn 650 base oil with total sulfur content of 10,000 ppmw has been investigated experimentally. The response surface methodology (RSM) considering Box-Behnken design (BBD) was applied to examine the impacts of the oxidation temperature (30-70˚C), hydrogen peroxide to sulfur molar ratio (2-8), and formic acid to sulfur molar ratio (20-60) on the sulfur removal. In the next step, the appropriate values of the independent variables such as stirrer speed (750-1250 rpm), reaction time (60-180 min), and the number of extraction stages (1-4) were determined based on the optimal result obtained from the BBD. The best performance of the ODS process was found at a reaction temperature of 58˚C, an oxidant to sulfur molar ratio of 7.35, a formic acid to sulfur molar ratio of 58.5, a reaction time of 150 min, and a stirrer speed of 1250 rpm for the oxidation reaction. The achieved sulfur removal after oxidation followed by liquid-liquid extraction was 32 %, and 60 % for one extraction and three extraction stages, respectively. The changes in the base oil specifications after the ODS treatment were also investigated.

Prediction of critical properties of sulfur-containing compounds: New QSPR models.

In this study, new models have been proposed for the prediction of different critical properties (critical temperature (TC), critical pressure (PC), critical volume (VC), and acentric factor (ω)) of the sulfur-containing compounds based on quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR). An extensive data set containing experimental data of over 130 different sulfur-containing compounds was employed. Enhanced Replacement Method (ERM) was applied for subset variable selection. Based on ERM selected descriptors, two different models, including linear model and genetic programming (GP) based non-linear model have been proposed for each critical property. The predicted values of each target were in good agreement with the experimental data. For GP-based models, the values of the coefficient of determination (R2) were 0.936, 0.976, 0.990, and 0.917 for TC, PC, VC, and ω, respectively. After revisiting the available QSPR models, it was found that the domain of applicability of new models has been expanded.

A novel multi-probe continuous flow ultrasound assisted oxidative desulfurization reactor; experimental investigation and simulation.

In this work, a cylindrical multi-probe continuous flow system with different injection strategies was exploited to study ultrasound assisted oxidative desulfurization process. The effects of nozzle number, nozzle diameter, ultrasonic power and volumetric flow rate (residence time) on the desulfurization efficiency of the diesel fuel were investigated. It was found that the sulfur removal increases by increasing the nozzle diameter when the flow rate is fixed. Sulfur removal was increased by increasing the residence time, for all types of the nozzles. Injection of the aqueous phase below the horn tip in the active zone provides the conditions by which the higher interfacial area between the phases and thus greater conversion rate can be obtained. The results indicated that over 97% sulfur removal was achieved using the double-nozzle injection with nozzle diameter of 1.5 mm, residence time of 15 min, electrical power of 277.2 W and volumetric flow rates of the aqueous and oil phases 48.89 and 244.44 mL/min, respectively. The simulation results showed that choosing a proper injection strategy has an impact on the hydrodynamic and flow pattern induced by ultrasonic field and in turn could effectively influence the mixing of the two-immiscible phases. A more uniform distribution of the aqueous-phase volume fraction was observed in the system with double-nozzle injection in comparison with the single nozzle injection.