Removal of pharmaceutical compounds and toxicology study in wastewater using Malaysian fungal Ganoderma lucidum.

Elevated usage of pharmaceutical products leads to the accumulation of emerging contaminants in sewage. In the current work, Ganoderma lucidum (GL) was used to remove pharmaceutical compounds (PCs), proposed as a tertiary method in sewage treatment plants (STPs). The PCs consisted of a group of painkillers (ketoprofen, diclofenac, and dexamethasone), psychiatrists (carbamazepine, venlafaxine, and citalopram), beta-blockers (atenolol, metoprolol, and propranolol), and anti-hypertensives (losartan and valsartan).

Synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using methanol propolis extract (Pro-ZnO NPs) as antidiabetic and antioxidant.

In recent times, the overall health of individuals has been declining due to unhealthy lifestyles, leading to various diseases, including diabetes. To address this issue, antidiabetic and antioxidant agents are required to back-up human well-being. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is one such substance known for its antidiabetic and antioxidant effects.

Sequential Esterification-Diels-Alder Reactions for Improving Pine Rosin Durability within Road Marking Paint.

Pine rosin, which is derived from resin, a natural product, has demonstrated potential as a road marking binder. Although pine rosin has an excellent shinning property, it has some limitations, such as instability and color change. To tackle these issues, modified rosin has been developed through sequential esterification and Diels-Alder reactions, and it has shown better properties than untreated rosin.

Enhanced adsorption capacity of activated carbon over thermal oxidation treatment for methylene blue removal: kinetics, equilibrium, thermodynamic, and reusability studies.

Activated carbon (AC) is an effective and inexpensive adsorbent material for dye removal, but it cannot always be used repeatedly. Furthermore, the adsorbed dyes with toxicity usually remain on its surface. In this study, a thermal air oxidation process was used to modify the surface of AC and decompose adsorbed methylene blue (MB).

Thermal stabilization of polyvinyl chloride by calcium and zinc carboxylates derived from byproduct of palm oil refining.

Calcium and zinc carboxylates were prepared from palm fatty acid distillate, a byproduct of palm oil refining, via metathesis in aqueous ethanol. The formations of both metal carboxylates have been confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction analysis. Thermogravimetric analysis has shown that the prepared calcium and zinc carboxylates are practically stable while their weight losses are 14% at 393 °C and 19% at 311 °C, respectively.

Sustainable Diesel from Pyrolysis of Unsaturated Fatty Acid Basic Soaps: The Effect of Temperature on Yield and Product Composition.

The production of sustainable diesel without hydrogen addition remains a challenge for low-cost fuel production. In this work, the pyrolysis of unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) basic soaps was studied for the production sustainable diesel (bio-hydrocarbons). UFAs were obtained from palm fatty acids distillate (PFAD), which was purified by the fractional crystallization method.

HS-CO gas separation with ionic liquids on low ratio of HS/CO.

Acid gas removal, especially HS and CO, is an essential process in natural gas processing. In this research, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide [bmim][Br] ionic liquid was analyzed as a hydrophobic solvent with has high selectivity to HS as an environmentally friendly solvent to absorb acid gas from natural gas with low HS/CO concentration in ambient temperature and pressure. The absorption performance of pure [bmim][Br] ionic liquid was compared with various amine solutions, such as monoethanolamine (MEA), triethanolamine (TEA), and methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), as well as the mixture of [bmim][Br]-MDEA with various concentration.

The promising performance of manganese gluconate as a liquid redox sulfur recovery agent against oxidative degradation.

This work studied the oxidative degradation performance of manganese gluconate as a liquid redox sulfur recovery (LRSR) agent. The degradation of gluconate in an aerated sulfide containing 0.1 M manganese/0.

A method to control terpineol production from turpentine by acid catalysts mixing.

Terpineol, a promising valorisation product of pine industry, is widely used as an active ingredient for disinfectant soap, cleansers, perfumes, and pharmaceutical purposes. Synthesis of terpineol is generally carried out by separation of α-pinene compounds from crude turpentine through fractionation and then hydrated (addition of water) with the help of acid catalysts. However, direct turpentine hydration without pre-fractionation process can be more beneficial from economic and process point of views.

Manganese gluconate, A greener and more degradation resistant agent for HS oxidation using liquid redox sulfur recovery process.

Iron chelate liquid redox sulfur recovery (LRSR) has been one of the most frequently recommended technologies for the oxidation of HS in natural gas into elemental sulfur, particularly when the acid gas has a high CO/HS molar ratio. The process is however known to suffer from extensive oxidative ligand degradation that results in high operational costs. Moreover, poor biodegradability or toxicity of the existing ligand has become a concern.

Cocoa bean skin waste as potential raw material for liquid smoke production.

Cocoa bean skin is a waste of chocolate industries that mostly contains hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin. This material shows to be a promising feedstock for the production of liquid smoke and charcoal. The study was aimed to analyse the influence of temperature and heating rate of cocoa bean skin pyrolysis to the production of liquid smoke.

Density functional theory study of the interaction of vinyl radical, ethyne, and ethene with benzene, aimed to define an affordable computational level to investigate stability trends in large van der Waals complexes.

Our purpose is to identify a computational level sufficiently dependable and affordable to assess trends in the interaction of a variety of radical or closed shell unsaturated hydro-carbons A adsorbed on soot platelet models B. These systems, of environmental interest, would unavoidably have rather large sizes, thus prompting to explore in this paper the performances of relatively low-level computational methods and compare them with higher-level reference results. To this end, the interaction of three complexes between non-polar species, vinyl radical, ethyne, or ethene (A) with benzene (B) is studied, since these species, involved themselves in growth processes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and soot particles, are small enough to allow high-level reference calculations of the interaction energy ΔEAB.

Decomposition of dichlorobenzene in a dielectric barrier discharge.

This paper presents a decomposition study of 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB) using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The discussion is focused on the effects of variations of carrier gases, DCB concentrations and input voltages on the decomposition performance. The DCB conversion was conducted inside a cylindrical reactor consists of silver film as the outside electrode and a spring coil as the inside electrode.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon formation mechanism in the "particle phase". A theoretical study.

The synthesis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the formation of soot platelets occur both during combustion at relatively low [O(2)], or under pyrolysis conditions. When the PAH size grows beyond the number of three-four condensed cycles, the partitioning of PAHs between the gas and particle phases favours the latter (i.e.

A density functional theory study of phenyl formation initiated by ethynyl radical (C2H*) and ethyne (C2H2).

An ab initio computational density functional theory (DFT) was used to study the formation of the first cyclic molecule (phenyl) initiated by the ethynyl radical (C(2)H*). The study covers a competition reaction between the addition reactions of C(2)H* with ethyne (C(2)H(2)) and some molecular re-arrangement schemes. The minimum energy paths of the preferred cyclic formation route were characterized.

Gliding arc plasma processing of CO2 conversion.

Conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) using gliding arc plasma was performed. The research was done to investigate the effect of variation of total gas flow rates and addition of auxiliary gases--N2, O2, air, water--to the CO2 conversion process. This system shows higher power efficiency than other nonthermal plasma methods.

Decomposition of CCl4 and CHCl3 on gliding are plasma.

Decomposition of chlorinated hydrocarbons, CCl4 and CHCl3, in gliding plasma was examined. The effects of initial concentrations, total gas flow rates, and power consumption have been investigated. The conversion result was relatively high.