A review on co-pyrolysis of agriculture biomass and disposable medical face mask waste for green fuel production: recent advances and thermo-kinetic models.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is blessed with agricultural resources, and with the growing population, it will continue to prosper, which follows the abundance of agricultural biomass. Lignocellulosic biomass attracted researchers' interest in extracting bio-oil from these wastes. However, the resulting bio-oil has low heating values and undesirable physical properties.

Recent progress on production technologies of food waste-based biochar and its fabrication method as electrode materials in energy storage application.

The abundance of food waste across the globe has called for the mitigation and reduction of these discarded wastes. Herein, the potential of biochar derived from food waste is unquestionable as it provides a sustainable way of utilizing the abundance of available biomass, as well as an effective way of preserving the ecosystem through the reduction of concerning environmental issues. This review focuses on the food waste-based biochar as advanced electrode materials in the energy storage devices.

Dry/wet cycling reduces spore germination and viability in six peatland bryophytes.

Dry/wet cycling driven by water level fluctuation in wetlands may strongly influence the destiny of seeds. However, how dry/wet cycling affects spore survival and germinability in peatland bryophytes is poorly understood. Six peatland bryophytes, three hummock- and three hollow-dwelling Sphagnum species, were chosen as study species.

Smoke promotes germination of peatland bryophyte spores.

Northern peatlands are globally important carbon stores. With increasing fire frequency, the re-establishment of bryophytes becomes crucial for their carbon sequestration. Smoke-responsive germination is a common trait of seeds in fire-prone ecosystems but has not been demonstrated in bryophytes.

A review on potential of green solvents in hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of lignin.

One of the greatest challenges in biorefinery is to reduce biomass' recalcitrance and enable valorization of lignin into higher value compounds. Likewise, green solvents and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) with feasible economic viability, functionality, and environmental sustainability have been widely introduced in extraction and conversion of lignin. This review starts with the underscore of disadvantages and limitations of conventional pretreatment approaches and role of green solvents in lignin extraction.

Ultrasonic Extraction of 2-Acetyl-1-Pyrroline (2AP) from Using Ethanol as Solvent.

2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2AP) is the compound that gives out the typical aroma and flavour of pandan leaves (.). This research incorporates ultrasonic extraction to extract the aromatic compound in pandan leaves.

Biomass Energy in Malaysia: Current Scenario, Policies, and Implementation Challenges.

The energy demand in Malaysia has shown a dramatic increase over the last few years: with natural gas and coal being the primary contributors. Nevertheless, due to declining in fossil fuel reserves coupled with negative environmental impacts, shifting to sustainable renewable energy for meeting the future energy demand is recommended. Since Malaysia is rich with natural resources, utilization of biomass energy (bioenergy/biofuel) as the alternative energy is promising to be further explored.

Life-cycle assessment of hydrogen production via catalytic gasification of wheat straw in the presence of straw derived biochar catalyst.

The environmental footprints of Hproductionviacatalytic gasification of wheat straw using straw-derived biochar catalysts were examined. The functional unit of 1 kg of Hwas adopted in the system boundaries, which includes 5 processes namely biomass collection and pre-treatment units (P1), biochar catalyst preparation using fast pyrolysis unit (P2), two-stage pyrolysis-gasification unit (P3), products separation unit (P4), and Hdistribution to downstream plants (P5). Based on the life-cycle assessment, the hot spots in this process were identified, the sequence was as follows: P4 > P2 > P1 > P3 > P5.

Production and characterization of bamboo-based activated carbon through single-step HPO activation for CO capture.

Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant and is abundant in Malaysia. It is employed as a starting material for activated carbon production and evaluated for its potential in CO capture. A single-stage phosphoric acid (HPO) activation is adopted by varying the concentrations of HPO between 50 and 70 wt.

Ionic liquid-biosurfactant blends as effective dispersants for oil spills: Effect of carbon chain length and degree of saturation.

The well-known toxicity of conventional chemical oil spill dispersants demands the development of alternative and environmentally friendly dispersant formulations. Therefore, in the present study we have developed a pair of less toxic and green dispersants by combining lactonic sophorolipid (LS) biosurfactant individually with choline myristate and choline oleate ionic liquid surfactants. The aggregation behavior of resulted surfactant blends and their dispersion effectiveness was investigated using the baffled flask test.

Particle swarm optimization and global sensitivity analysis for catalytic co-pyrolysis of Chlorella vulgaris and plastic waste mixtures.

This study investigated on the co-pyrolysis of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) waste mixtures which was performed with three types of catalysts, namely limestone (LS), HZSM-5 zeolite, and novel bi-functional LS/HZSM-5/LS. Kissinger-Kai (K-K) model-free method was coupled with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) model-fitting method using the thermogravimetric experimental data. A global sensitivity analysis was carried out using Latin Hypercube Sampling and rank transformation to assess the extent of impact of the input kinetic parameters on the output results.

Holistic process evaluation of non-conventional palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment technologies: A conceptual and comparative review.

Thriving oil palm agroindustry comes at a price of voluminous waste generation, with palm oil mill effluent (POME) as the most cumbersome waste due to its liquid state, high strength, and great discharge volume. In view of incompetent conventional ponding treatment, a voluminous number of publications on non-conventional POME treatments is filed in the Scopus database, mainly working on alternative or polishing POME treatments. In dearth of such comprehensive review, all the non-conventional POME treatments are rigorously reviewed in a conceptual and comparative manner.

Co-valorization of delayed petroleum coke - palm kernel shell for activated carbon production.

In this study, a binary mixture of petroleum coke and palm kernel shell had been investigated as potential starting materials for activated carbon production. Single-stage potassium carbonate (KCO) activation under nitrogen (N) atmosphere was adopted in this research study. Effect of several operating parameters that included the impregnation ratio (1-3 wt.

Sulfonated SnO nanocatalysts a self-propagating combustion method for esterification of palm fatty acid distillate.

Biodiesel derived from palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) was produced catalytic esterification using sulfonated tin oxide (HSO /SnO) as the superacid solid catalyst. In this work, the SnO catalyst was synthesised by the self-propagating combustion (SPC) method, and activated using chlorosulfonic acid. The SPC method was able to produce nano-sized particles with homogenous size and shape that were anchored with many HSO ions, resulting in more exceptional acid properties that effectively esterified the PFAD feedstock into FAMEs (fatty acid methyl esters).

Biogasoline production from linoleic acid via catalytic cracking over nickel and copper-doped ZSM-5 catalysts.

Catalytic cracking of vegetable oil mainly processed over zeolites, and among all the zeolites particularly HZMS-5 has been investigated on wide range for renewable and clean gasoline production from various plant oils. Despite the fact that HZSM-5 offers a higher conversion degree and boost aromatics yield, the isomerate yield reduces due to high cracking activity and shape selectivity of HZSM-5. Hence, to overcome these problems, in this study the transition metals, such as nickel and copper doped over HZSM-5 were tested for its efficiencies to improve the isoparaffin compounds.

Evaluation of kinetics and mechanism properties of CO adsorption onto the palm kernel shell activated carbon.

The volumetric adsorption kinetics of carbon dioxide (CO) onto the synthesized palm kernel shell activated carbon via single-stage CO activation and commercial Norit® activated carbon were carried out at an initial pressure of approximately 1 bar at three different temperatures of 25, 50, and 100 °C. The experimental kinetics data were modelled by using the Lagergren's pseudo-first-order model and pseudo-second-order model. Comparing these two, the non-linear pseudo-second-order kinetics model presented a better fit towards CO adsorption for both adsorbents, owing to its closer coefficient of determination (R) to unity, irrespective of the adsorption temperature.

Biochar as potential precursors for activated carbon production: parametric analysis and multi-response optimization.

Accelerating greenhouse gas emission particularly carbon dioxide (CO) in the atmosphere has become a major concern. Adsorption process has been proposed as a promising technology for CO adsorption from flue gas, and the carbonaceous adsorbent is a potential candidate for CO adsorption at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature. Biochar derived from palm kernel shell waste was applied as a potential precursor for activated carbon production.

Uncertainty estimation approach in catalytic fast pyrolysis of rice husk: Thermal degradation, kinetic and thermodynamic parameters study.

The aim of this study was to understand the influence of catalyst in thermal degradation behavior of rice husk (RH) in catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) process. An iso-conversional Kissinger kinetic model was introduced into this study to understand the activation energy (E), pre-exponential value (A), Enthalpy (ΔH), Entropy (ΔS) and Gibb's energy (ΔG) of non-catalytic fast pyrolysis (NCFP) and CFP of RH. The study revealed that the addition of natural zeolite catalyst enhanced the rate of devolatilization and decomposition of RH associated with lowest E value (153.

Recovery of cellulose fibers from oil palm empty fruit bunch for pulp and paper using green delignification approach.

The aim of this work was to recover the cellulose fibers from EFB using low-transition-temperature-mixtures (LTTMs) as a green delignification approach. The hydrogen bonding of LTTMs observed in H NMR tends to disrupt the three-dimensional structure of lignin and further remove the lignin from EFB. Delignification process of EFB strands and EFB powder were performed using standard l-malic acid and cactus malic acid-LTTMs.

Catalytic pyrolysis of Chlorella vulgaris: Kinetic and thermodynamic analysis.

In the present study, catalytic pyrolysis of Chlorella vulgaris biomass was conducted to analyse the kinetic and thermodynamic performances through thermogravimetric approach. HZSM-5 zeolite, limestone (LS), bifunctional HZSM-5/LS were used as catalysts and the experiments were heated from 50 to 900 °C at heating rates of 10-100 °C/min. Iso-conversional model-free methods such as Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO), Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS), Starink's, and Vyazovkin (V) were employed to evaluate the kinetic parameters meanwhile the thermodynamic parameters were determined by using FWO and KAS methods.

Life cycle evaluation of microalgae biofuels production: Effect of cultivation system on energy, carbon emission and cost balance analysis.

The rapid depletion of fossil fuels and ever-increasing environmental pollution have forced humankind to look for a renewable energy source. Microalgae, a renewable biomass source, has been proposed as a promising feedstock to generate biofuels due to their fast growth rate with high lipid content. However, literatures have indicated that sustainable production of microalgae biofuels are only viable with a highly optimized production system.

An overview of biomass thermochemical conversion technologies in Malaysia.

The rising pressure on both cleaner production and sustainable development have been the main driving force that pushes mankind to seek for alternative greener and sustainable feedstocks for chemical and energy production. The biomass 'waste-to-wealth' concept which convert low value biomass into value-added products which contain high economic potential, have attracted the attentions from both academicians and industry players. With a tropical climate, Malaysia has a rich agricultural sector and dense tropical rainforest, giving rise to abundance of biomass which most of them are underutilized.

Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of rubber seed oil over sonochemically synthesized Ni-Mo/γ-AlO catalyst for green diesel production.

Hydrodeoxygenation is one of the promising technologies for the transformation of triglycerides into long-chain hydrocarbon fuel commonly known as green diesel. The hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of rubber seed oil into diesel range (C-C) hydrocarbon over non-sulphided bimetallic (Ni-Mo/γ-AlO solid catalysts were studied. The catalysts were synthesized via wet impregnation method as well as sonochemical method.