Showing papers by "B.H. Hameed published in 2005"

Removal of Ni, Cd, Pb, Zn and colour from aqueous solution using potential low cost adsorbent

Abstract: A study was conducted to determine the removal efficiency of heavy metals (Ni, Cd, Pb and Zn) and colour from wastewater using cheap available materials in Malaysia such as charcoal, coconut shell carbon and a mixture of these carbons with limestone. As activated carbon is quite expensive, this study attempts to investigate the possibility of mixing activated carbon with these materials for cost saving. The suitability of using coconut shell after heating at 500°C in treating wastewater also formed the basis of the study. Batch studies were carried out in the laboratory with an initial concentration of heavy metals generally found in final effluents at 2 mg/L and colour at 400-ptCo. The results indicated that a mixture of activated carbon and limestone had removed 92% of heavy metals and 85% of colour from synthetic wastewater at a wide range of pH. When activated carbon was only used, 85% of heavy metals and 99% of colour were removed. For a mixture of charcoal with limestone, the removal efficiencies for heavy metals and colour were at 65% and 35%, respectively. The removal efficiency for heavy metals was further improved to 80% when charcoal was used, but for colour removal it was only 30%. The results of the study suggested that a mixture of activated carbon with limestone had significantly removed the amount of heavy metals and colour. Thus, the cost of the overall process can be reduced. This study also indicated that there is possibility of using coconut carbon and charcoal as an alternative absorbents for removing heavy metals and colour from wastewater. However, improvement on activation process is required.

Thermal and catalytic cracking of petroleum residue oil

Abstract: Thermal and catalytic cracking over synthesized nickel-molybdenum supported on aluminum borate (NiMo/AB) catalysts were studied. A series of aluminum borate supports with various aluminum borate (AlB) weight ratios were prepared by precipitation method. NiMo/AB catalysts were prepared by impregnation of nickel nitrate hexahydrate (Ni(N03)z.6H20) and ammonium heptamolybdate tetrahydrate ((NH4)~o7024.4H20) solution. These samples have been characterized with respect to surface areas, average pore diameters, pore size distribution, and acidity strengths. Thermal and catalytic cracking of atmospheric petroleum residue oil were carried out in a high pressure batch reactor at 340"C, 3 h reaction time and 0.5 g catalyst loading. The results revealed that catalytic cracking gave better product conversion and yield compared to thermal reaction. The conversion was 51.43 wt% from thermal reaction compared to 60-65 wt% from catalytic cracking. The yield of gasoline was 6.25 wt% and 11.5-13.37 wt% from thermal and catalytic cracking, respectively.

Pyrolysis kinetics of oil-palm solid waste

Abstract: Pyrolysis of oil-palm shells, a cheap and abundantly available solid waste from palm oil producing process, was carried out using thermogravimetric analysis. The effect of heating rates (10, 15, 20 and 25°C/min) on the kinetic parameters (activation energy, frequency factor and reaction order) was investigated. The oil-palm shells were pyrolyzed in an inert atmosphere using nitrogen as a medium gas. It is observed that the kinetic behavior of the samples can be divided into three zones. The first zone was in the temperature around 3003800C, the second zone was 380-450°C while the third zone was from 450-850°C. The analysis have shown that the reaction orders for the regions I, II and III were second, first and zero orders, respectively. While the activation energy for the zones I, II and III were found to be in the range of 54-65, 34-41and 5-8 kJ/mol, respectively. Results also showed that the activation energy was relatively constant at different heating rate.