Showing papers by "Universiti Teknologi Malaysia published in 2012"
TL;DR: The major breakthrough in the preparation of thin film composite (TFC) membrane via interfacial polymerization technique has resulted in tremendous achievements in producing a membrane with a right combination of flux and salt rejection, and generating huge interest in industrial sectors as discussed by the authors.
747 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comparison of the performance of different MPPT algorithms on the basis of various speed responses and ability to achieve the maximum energy yield is made, and the optimal torque control (OTC) is found to be the best MPPT method for wind energy systems due to its simplicity.
Abstract: This paper reviews state of the art maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms for wind energy systems. Due to the instantaneous changing nature of the wind, it is desirable to determine the one optimal generator speed that ensures maximum energy yield. Therefore, it is essential to include a controller that can track the maximum peak regardless of wind speed. The available MPPT algorithms can be classified as either with or without sensors, as well as according to the techniques used to locate the maximum peak. A comparison has been made between the performance of different MPPT algorithms on the basis of various speed responses and ability to achieve the maximum energy yield. Based on simulation results available in the literature, the optimal torque control (OTC) has been found to be the best MPPT method for wind energy systems due to its simplicity. On the other hand, the perturbation and observation (P&O) method is flexible and simple in implementation, but is less efficient and has difficulties determining the optimum step-size.
645 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared a Dimensional Analysis (DA) model, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model and an experimental result for a low gap current of an Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) process.
Abstract: This paper aims to compare the material removal rate, ν between a Dimensional Analysis (DA) model, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model and an experimental result for a low gap current of an Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) process. The data analysis is based on a copper electrode and steel workpiece materials. The DA and ANN model that have been developed and reported earlier by authors are used to compare the material removal of EDM process. The result indicated that the ANN model provides better accuracy towards the experimental results.
612 citations
TL;DR: A review of the most recent developments of bamboo fiber based reinforced composites and the summary of main results presented in literature, focusing on the processing methodology and ultimate properties of bamboo fibres with polymeric matrices and applications in well designed economical products is given in this paper.
578 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the state-of-the-art on thermo-chemical and bio-chemical technologies to convert rice husk and rice straw into energy.
Abstract: Volatile oil price and growing emphasis on environmental conservation have stimulated the development and utilisation of biomass as a vital source of renewable energy. In reducing the global dependency on fossil fuels, rice husk and rice straw which are the widely abundant agricultural wastes from the rice industry have a vital role to play. This paper reviews the key aspects of the utilisation of rice husk and rice straw as important sources of renewable energy. The paper provides some essential background information that includes the physical and chemical characteristics that dictates the quality of these rice biomasses. This paper also describes the various chemical and physical pretreatment techniques that can facilitate handling and transportation of rice straw and husk. Finally, the paper presents the state-of-the-art on thermo-chemical and bio-chemical technologies to convert rice husk and rice straw into energy.
520 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of operating parameters on pyrolysis oil production has been reviewed, including inert gas sweeping, residence times, rate of biomass heating, mineral matter, size of biomass particle and moisture contents of biomass.
Abstract: Pyrolysis is one of the potential routes to harness energy and useful chemicals from biomass. The major objective of biomass pyrolysis is to produce liquid fuel, which is easier to transport, store and can be an alternative to energy source. The yield and composition of pyrolysis oil depend upon biomass feedstock and operating parameters. It is often necessary to explore about the effect of variables on response yield and instinct about their optimization. This study reviews operating variables from existing literature on biomass pyrolysis. The major operating variables include final pyrolysis temperature, inert gas sweeping, residence times, rate of biomass heating, mineral matter, size of biomass particle and moisture contents of biomass. The scope of this paper is to review the influence of operating parameters on production of pyrolysis oil.
492 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors summarized research work related to materials with zero, or negative Poisson's ratio, referred to as auxetic materials, and predicted that future research will be in the direction of disordered microstructures utilizing the homogenization method.
483 citations
TL;DR: The experimental results show that PSOGSA outperforms both PSO and GSA for training FNNs in terms of converging speed and avoiding local minima and it is also proven that an FNN trained withPSOGSA has better accuracy than one trained with GSA.
451 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a review of electrochemical and bio-electrochemical technologies for the removal of protein rich wastes from aquaculture ponds and hatcheries is presented, which can remove contaminants at high efficiencies (≈99%) whilst giving least impact upon the environment.
407 citations
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: This paper discusses and review wireless sensor network applications for environmental monitoring and proves that these approaches can improve the system performance, provide a convenient and efficient method and can also fulfill functional requirements.
Abstract: Development in the technology of sensor such as Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), wireless communications, embedded systems, distributed processing and wireless sensor applications have contributed a large transformation in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) recently. It assists and improves work performance both in the field of industry and our daily life. Wireless Sensor Network has been widely used in many areas especially for surveillance and monitoring in agriculture and habitat monitoring. Environment monitoring has become an important field of control and protection, providing real-time system and control communication with the physical world. An intelligent and smart Wireless Sensor Network system can gather and process a large amount of data from the beginning of the monitoring and manage air quality, the conditions of traffic, to weather situations. In this paper, we discuss and review wireless sensor network applications for environmental monitoring. In order to implement a good monitoring system, there are several requirements to be followed. From the studies, it has been proved to be an alternative way to replace the conventional method that uses men force to monitor the environment. It is also proven that these approaches can improve the system performance, provide a convenient and efficient method and can also fulfill functional requirements.
390 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a comprehensive taxonomy of multipath routing protocols for wireless sensor networks and highlight the primary motivation behind the development of each protocol category and explain the operation of different protocols in detail, with emphasis on their advantages and disadvantages.
Abstract: A wireless sensor network is a large collection of sensor nodes with limited power supply and constrained computational capability. Due to the restricted communication range and high density of sensor nodes, packet forwarding in sensor networks is usually performed through multi-hop data transmission. Therefore, routing in wireless sensor networks has been considered an important field of research over the past decade. Nowadays, multipath routing approach is widely used in wireless sensor networks to improve network performance through efficient utilization of available network resources. Accordingly, the main aim of this survey is to present the concept of the multipath routing approach and its fundamental challenges, as well as the basic motivations for utilizing this technique in wireless sensor networks. In addition, we present a comprehensive taxonomy on the existing multipath routing protocols, which are especially designed for wireless sensor networks. We highlight the primary motivation behind the development of each protocol category and explain the operation of different protocols in detail, with emphasis on their advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, this paper compares and summarizes the state-of-the-art multipath routing techniques from the network application point of view. Finally, we identify open issues for further research in the development of multipath routing protocols for wireless sensor networks.
TL;DR: It is concluded that date palm seed and leaf can be characterized as high calorific values and high volatile content biomass materials as compared to the leaf stem and can become useful source of energy, chemicals and bio-char.
TL;DR: In this paper, a penalty based differential evolution (P-DE) method was proposed for extracting the parameters of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules at different environmental conditions.
TL;DR: In this article, the PAN precursor fiber was converted into PAN-based carbon fiber and activated carbon fiber by pyrolysis process and the parameters involved during heat treatment of PAN fiber were consistently discussed.
01 Mar 2012
TL;DR: A new taxonomy of plagiarism is presented that highlights differences between literal plagiarism and intelligent plagiarism, from the plagiarist's behavioral point of view, and supports deep understanding of different linguistic patterns in committing plagiarism.
Abstract: Plagiarism can be of many different natures, ranging from copying texts to adopting ideas, without giving credit to its originator. This paper presents a new taxonomy of plagiarism that highlights differences between literal plagiarism and intelligent plagiarism, from the plagiarist's behavioral point of view. The taxonomy supports deep understanding of different linguistic patterns in committing plagiarism, for example, changing texts into semantically equivalent but with different words and organization, shortening texts with concept generalization and specification, and adopting ideas and important contributions of others. Different textual features that characterize different plagiarism types are discussed. Systematic frameworks and methods of monolingual, extrinsic, intrinsic, and cross-lingual plagiarism detection are surveyed and correlated with plagiarism types, which are listed in the taxonomy. We conduct extensive study of state-of-the-art techniques for plagiarism detection, including character n-gram-based (CNG), vector-based (VEC), syntax-based (SYN), semantic-based (SEM), fuzzy-based (FUZZY), structural-based (STRUC), stylometric-based (STYLE), and cross-lingual techniques (CROSS). Our study corroborates that existing systems for plagiarism detection focus on copying text but fail to detect intelligent plagiarism when ideas are presented in different words.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the recent developments of reverse osmosis (RO) TFC membrane and its challenges in seawater desalination process with respect to fouling problem, boron rejection and chlorine attack.
TL;DR: In this article, the potential implementation of hybrid photovoltaic (PV)/wind turbine/diesel system in southern city of Malaysia, Johor Bahru, was analyzed.
Abstract: This paper analyzed the potential implementation of hybrid photovoltaic (PV)/wind turbine/diesel system in southern city of Malaysia, Johor Bahru. HOMER (hybrid optimization model for electric renewable) simulation software was used to determine the technical feasibility of the system and to perform the economical analysis of the system. There were seven different system configurations, namely stand-alone diesel system, hybrid PV–diesel system with and without battery storage element, hybrid wind–diesel system with and without battery storage element, PV–wind–diesel system with and without storage element, will be studied and analyzed. The simulations will be focused on the net present costs, cost of energy, excess electricity produced and the reduction of CO 2 emission for the given hybrid configurations. At the end of this paper, PV–diesel system with battery storage element, PV–wind–diesel system with battery storage element and the stand-alone diesel system were analyzed based on high price of diesel.
TL;DR: In this paper, an overview of the green potential of the palm biomass industry, which contributes to Malaysia's economic and sustainable development is given based on the authors' experiences in policy making, research and business development.
TL;DR: Results suggest that in order of importance only perceived severity, self-efficacy, perceived vulnerability, and gender are antecedents of information privacy concerns with social networking sites.
TL;DR: In this paper, the estimation of this methane and its economic and environmental benefits for environmental sustainability are the objectives of this study. And the results were also projected for 2015 and 2020 and the outcomes are promising.
Abstract: Discharge of Green House Gases (GHGs) and the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) continue to be a major challenge particularly in growing economies. However, these are resources which can be converted to green energy. Landfill gas which is essentially methane (50–55%) and carbon dioxide (40–45%) (both GHGs) is released from MSW by biodegradation processes. The estimation of this methane and its economic and environmental benefits for environmental sustainability are the objectives of this study. Methane emission from MSW disposed of in landfills was estimated using Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology. From the study, based on 8,196,000 tonnes MSW generated in Peninsular Malaysia in 2010, anthropogenic methane emission of about 310,220 tonnes per year was estimated. This was estimated to generate 1.9 billion kWh of electricity year−1 worth over RM 570 million (US$190 million). In addition, this leads to carbon dioxide reduction of 6,514,620 tonnes year−1 equivalent to carbon credit of over RM 257 million (US$85 million). These results were also projected for 2015 and 2020 and the outcomes are promising. Therefore, the exploration of this resource, besides the economic benefits helps in reducing the dependence on the depleting fossil fuel and hence broadening the fuel base of the country.
TL;DR: In this paper, the performance characteristics of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) remote sensor, the standard data products, and applications of the most recently developed image processing methods applied to ASTER data as a tool for mapping hydrothermal alteration mineral zones associated with porphyry copper and epithermal gold mineralization and related host-rock lithology.
TL;DR: In this article, Zhao et al. investigated the effects of secondary phases on corrosion behavior of the Mg-0.5Ca x Zn alloys by polarization, immersion and hydrogen evolution tests.
TL;DR: An overview and the comparison of the latest five year researches from 2007 to 2011 that used evolutionary optimization techniques to optimize machining process parameter of both traditional and modern machining are given.
Abstract: Highlights? Several evolutionary techniques are reviewed to optimize machining parameter. ? It was found that genetic algorithm was widely applied by researchers. ? The most employed machining operation was multipass-turning. ? The most considered machining performance was surface roughness. In highly competitive manufacturing industries nowadays, the manufactures ultimate goals are to produce high quality product with less cost and time constraints. To achieve these goals, one of the considerations is by optimizing the machining process parameters such as the cutting speed, depth of cut, radial rake angle. Recently, alternative to conventional techniques, evolutionary optimization techniques are the new trend for optimization of the machining process parameters. This paper gives an overview and the comparison of the latest five year researches from 2007 to 2011 that used evolutionary optimization techniques to optimize machining process parameter of both traditional and modern machining. Five techniques are considered, namely genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing (SA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), ant colony optimization (ACO) and artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. Literature found that GA was widely applied by researchers to optimize the machining process parameters. Multi-pass turning was the largest machining operation that deals with GA optimization. In terms of machining performance, surface roughness was mostly studied with GA, SA, PSO, ACO and ABC evolutionary techniques.
TL;DR: In this article, the current status of research on the development and applications of radiation-grafted copolymers for separation and purification purposes is presented without neglecting the seminal work that laid the foundation to today's progress.
TL;DR: In this article, the performance of binary Mg-xCa alloys with various Ca contents from 0.5 to 10.% were examined in vitro by potentiodynamic polarization and immersion test in Kokubo solution at room temperature.
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of microwave-assisted technology for biodiesel production is presented and the energy payback for 1kg biodiesel produced by microwave assisted technology is calculated and it indicated that the system is sustainable.
Abstract: Energy is the most important necessity for human existence on the earth. Limited crude petroleum resources and increasing awareness regarding the environmental impacts of fossil fuels are driving the search for new energy sources and alternative fuels. Biodiesel is a fuel which is renewable, biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and non-toxic in nature and has attracted considerable attention during the past decades. The costs of feedstock and the production process are two major hurdles to large-scale biodiesel production in particular. Various technologies have been developed to reduce the production cost. This paper attempts to extensively review microwave-assisted technology for biodiesel production. Additionally, different types of feedstocks for biodiesel production have been summarized in this paper. It is concluded that the microwave-assisted technique reduces the reaction time significantly in comparison with conventional methods. In addition, a high quality biodiesel can be obtained from microwave-assisted transesterification of different kinds of oils. Finally, the energy payback for 1kg biodiesel produced by microwave-assisted technology is calculated in this paper and it indicated that the system is sustainable. Therefore it can be a suitable method of decreasing the cost of biodiesel and can also help the commercialization of this fuel.
TL;DR: In this paper, the performance of membrane bioreactor (MBR) in treating high strength industrial wastewater is reviewed and the operation, constraints and mitigation of the system in general views.
TL;DR: In this paper, an optimal continuous process to produce fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel) from waste cooking oil in a reactive distillation column catalyzed by a heteropolyacid, H3PW12O40·6H2O, was developed.
TL;DR: In this article, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to track the global maximum point (GP) of photovoltaic (PV) system using partial shading conditions.
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the wicking property of the cotton microfluidic channel can be improved by scouring in soda ash (Na(2)CO(3)) solution which will remove the natural surface wax and expose the underlying texture of the cellulose fiber.
Abstract: This paper describes the fabrication of microfluidic cloth-based analytical devices (μCADs) using a simple wax patterning method on cotton cloth for performing colorimetric bioassays. Commercial cotton cloth fabric is proposed as a new inexpensive, lightweight, and flexible platform for fabricating two- (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic systems. We demonstrated that the wicking property of the cotton microfluidic channel can be improved by scouring in soda ash (Na2CO3) solution which will remove the natural surface wax and expose the underlying texture of the cellulose fiber. After this treatment, we fabricated narrow hydrophilic channels with hydrophobic barriers made from patterned wax to define the 2D microfluidic devices. The designed pattern is carved on wax-impregnated paper, and subsequently transferred to attached cotton cloth by heat treatment. To further obtain 3D microfluidic devices having multiple layers of pattern, a single layer of wax patterned cloth can be folded along a predefined folding line and subsequently pressed using mechanical force. All the fabrication steps are simple and low cost since no special equipment is required. Diagnostic application of cloth-based devices is shown by the development of simple devices that wick and distribute microvolumes of simulated body fluids along the hydrophilic channels into reaction zones to react with analytical reagents. Colorimetric detection of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in artificial urine is carried out by direct visual observation of bromophenol blue (BPB) colour change in the reaction zones. Finally, we show the flexibility of the novel microfluidic platform by conducting a similar reaction in a bent pinned μCAD.