THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS. By Oscar Kempthorne. New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1952. 631 pp. $8.50. This book by a teacher of statistics (as well as a consultant for \"experimenters\") is a comprehensive study of the philosophical background for the statistical design of experiment. It is necessary to have some facility with algebraic notation and manipulation to be able to use the volume intelligently. The problems are presented from the theoretical point of view, without such practical examples as would be helpful for those not acquainted with mathematics. The mathematical justification for the techniques is given. As a somewhat advanced treatment of the design and analysis of experiments, this volume will be interesting and helpful for many who approach statistics theoretically as well as practically. With emphasis on the \"why,\" and with description given broadly, the author relates the subject matter to the general theory of statistics and to the general problem of experimental inference. MARGARET J. ROBERTSON

The Design and Analysis of Experiments

Lubricant oils are known to decrease the friction coefficient between two contacting surfaces. It is essential for the correct function of almost the totality of mechanical machinery working in the entire world. Lubricant oils consist of about 80% of oily base stocks which attributes to their properties of viscosity, stability, and pour point to the lubricant plus additives supplemented to improve these properties. Petroleum lubricants are usually environmentally unacceptable due to their low biodegradability and toxicity. These oils contaminate the air, soil, and drinking water and affect human and plant life to a great extent. Thus, the demand for environmentally acceptable lubricants is increasing along with the public concerns for a pollution-free environment. Plant oils are promising as base fluid for biolubricants because of their excellent lubricity, biodegradability, viscosity–temperature characteristics, and low volatility. The purpose of this paper is to present a survey of the current status of...

Lubricants from renewable energy sources – a review

Selective hydrogenation of alternative oils: a useful tool for the production of biofuels

Catalytic hydrogenation of vegetable oils was studied over Pd nanocomposite carbon catalysts. The mesoporous structure of the carbon support was beneficial to achieve fast hydrogenation rates and the desired cis/trans ratio of monoenic products of edible oil hydrogenation. The preparation procedure developed for a slurry catalyst was successfully utilized for fixed bed applications. Industrial experience of Pd/nanocomposite carbon utilization in selective hydrogenation of edible and total hydrogenation of nonedible oils is described.

Hydrogenation of Vegetable Oils over Pd on Nanocomposite Carbon Catalysts

Biomass has in recent years been considered as a raw material for the production of fuels and chemicals. This work discusses the reasons for the increased interest in mainly lignocellulosic biomass. Gasification, pyrolysis, and depolymerization by hydrolysis are analyzed as key biomass technology. We also discuss which of the sugars obtained via depolymerization by hydrolysis can be processed into fuel or key intermediates of the chemical industry. Lignocellulosic biomass contains such extractants as fatty acids and terpenes, and we therefore describe the catalytic reactions of these substances for the synthesis of fuels and chemicals. Some typical reactions of biomass processing (oxidation, hydrogenation, cracking, etc.) are conceptually close to the process widely known in the refining and chemical industries. There are, however, other considerations due to, e.g., the large number of functional (hydroxyl and other) groups, and the processing of biomass components therefore requires dehydration, aldol condensation, ketonization, decarboxylation, etc. We cover the fundamentals of the approaches to selecting catalysts for these reactions.

Catalysis in biomass processing

Hydrogenation of sunflower and canola oils over a novel Pd-supported catalyst (pore size of 6.8 nm and BET specific surface area of 837 m2/g) was investigated and compared to commercial nickel catalyst. The formulated catalyst with Pd-loading of 1 wt%, supported on structured silica material was active and selective for the hydrogenation of sunflower and canola oils under mild process conditions. For both oils, the novel Pd supported catalyst exhibited a better selectivity than commercial Ni catalyst at a similar activity with a lower metal loading. For the same iodine value (IV) reduction, the Pd-catalyst produced less saturated fatty acids (SFA) and about the same level of trans fatty acids (TFA), but was more selective towards cis monoenes formation than Ni-catalyst. More importantly, this catalyst produced a reduced level of stearic acid, which at increased levels causes waxy mouth feel of the hydrogenated fat.

Hydrogenation of Vegetable Oils with Minimum trans and Saturated Fatty Acid Formation Over a New Generation of Pd-catalyst

Hydrogenation of sunﬂower oil over novel structured catalysts with pore sizeranging from 3 to 20 nm, BET-speciﬁc surface area of 710-1200 m 2 /g, and catalystmetal loadings ranging from 0.7 to 5.0 % w/w, was investigated and compared to acommercial Ni-catalyst. The activity and selectivity of the catalysts as well as pro-ﬁles of the reaction products such as trans fatty acids (TFA) of the hydrogenatedoils were investigated. Surface characteristics of the support and the metal loadingsigniﬁcantly affected the activity and selectivity of the Pd-catalysts. Catalyst sup-ports with the pore diameter between 7-8 nm were more active than supports withlower pore diameters. The activity and selectivity of hydrogenation depended onPd content, with maxima in the concentration range of 0.8 to 1.2 % w/w.The catalyst with Pd-loading of 1% w/w, supported on structured silica materialwas active and selective for the hydrogenation of sunﬂower and canola oils undermild process conditions. For same iodine value (IV) reduction, this catalyst pro-duced about the same level of TFA, but produced less stearic acid and was moreselective towards cis monoenes formation than Ni-catalyst. More importantly, thiscatalyst produced a reduced level of stearic acid which causes waxy mouth feel ofthe hydrogenated fat at increased levels.The lumped kinetic model of the hydrogenation of vegetable oils over Pd as wellas Ni catalysts was found useful in the prediction of the fate of reaction and prod-uct lumps and was statistically robust. The uncertainty and conﬁdence joint re-gions were estimated using the Bootstrap “Monte Carlo” technique.KEYWORDS: Hydrogenation, Canola and sunﬂower oils, Trans fatty acids, Nanos-tructured support, Pd-catalyst, Activity, Selectivity, Lumped kinetics, Uncertainty,Bootstrap..

Amira Boulmerka

Papers

Hydrogenation of Vegetable Oils with Minimum trans and Saturated Fatty Acid Formation Over a New Generation of Pd-catalyst

Activity and Selectivity of Novel Structured Pd-Catalysts: Kinetics Modeling of Vegetable Oils Hydrogenation