Mechanical characterisation of lignocellulosic fibres using toy bricks tensile tester.

This paper demonstrates the potential use of toy-bricks as the building block of a mechanical tensile testing instrument for the mechanical characterisation of natural fibres. A table-top tensile testing instrument was developed using LEGO parts (Mindstorms EV3 and Technics) and a 2 kg capacity load cell, whereas deformation modes were programmed in an open source programming language. Experimental work was conducted on oil palm fibres under different tensile modes (i.

Over production of fermentable sugar for bioethanol production from carbohydrate-rich Malaysian food waste via sequential acid-enzymatic hydrolysis pretreatment.

In Malaysia, the amount of food waste produced is estimated at approximately 70% of total municipal solid waste generated and characterised by high amount of carbohydrate polymers such as starch, cellulose, and sugars. Considering the beneficial organic fraction contained, its utilization as an alternative substrate specifically for bioethanol production has receiving more attention. However, the sustainable production of bioethanol from food waste is linked to the efficient pretreatment needed for higher production of fermentable sugar prior to fermentation.

Effects of aeration rate on degradation process of oil palm empty fruit bunch with kinetic-dynamic modeling.

The effect of different aeration rates on the organic matter (OM) degradation during the active phase of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB)-rabbit manure co-composting process under constant forced-aeration system has been studied. Four different aeration rates, 0.13 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1),0.