Final Project Ideas

One dimensional model of absorption of CO2 in falling film

2013-01-31T13:44:00.001-08:00

Abstract

This paper describes a model of the absorption process in a falling film POE oil/CO2 absorber. Absorption of CO2 into a laminar falling film on the surface of a vertical plate is considered. Necessary boundary conditions and simultaneous mass and heat transfer model equation are solved. The coolant side is assumed water at specified inlet and outlet temperature. To solve this, finite element software has been used. The concentration, temperature and velocity profiles are obtained. The mass and heat fluxes along plate length are also depicted.

Low cost 100% Plant Oil Stove

2012-10-06T04:30:00.002-07:00

A 100% plant oil (non-edible oil) stove to replace Kerosene as a cooking fuel. The fuel to be pursued is ’straight vegetable oil’ instead of bio-diesel because the ’straight’ vegetable oil will not undergo any processing or refining.

The ultimate mission of the endeavor is to promote rural energy independence by encouraging the use of a renewable energy source (plant oil) instead of non-renewable sources like kerosene. If successful, this product will be a boon to several BOP (Bottom of Pyramid) people by reducing their dependence on Kerosene and encouraging the use of a more sustainable, renewable energy source.

Previous models can only burn for 2 hours before clogging up with carbon deposits. The goal is to adapt/modify/improve this stove design so that it can burn for 10 hours or more before requiring cleaning.

New toilet turns human waste into electricity and fertilizer

2012-06-29T17:31:00.001-07:00

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have invented a new toilet system that will turn human waste into electricity and fertilisers and also reduce the amount of water needed for flushing by up to 90 per cent compared to current toilet systems in Singapore.

New toilet turns human waste into electricity and fertilizer

Investigatory project: Alkyd Resin production from crude oil

2012-01-18T05:21:00.000-08:00

Polymerization is one of the most important industrial processes. Resins and emulsion are two main classes of polymer. Alkyd resins are by far the most important class of coating resins. It is estimated that alkyd resins contribute about 70% to the conventional binders used in surface coating today. The popularity of alky resins as vehicle for coatings is largely due to their unique properties such as film hardness, durability gloss and gloss retention, resistance to abrasion, etc. impacted on them through modification with drying oil.

The experimental detail and setup of this investigatory project is discussed below

Experimental steps

1. Neutralization of Crude Castor Oil

2. Bleaching of Neutralized Oil

3. Dehydration of Castor Oil

Experimental setup of dehydration of castor oil

4. Preparation of Alkyd Resin

4.1 alcoholysis

4.2 esterification

Alkyd resin preparation equipment setup

Related posts

Alkyd resin manufacturing flow sheet

Formaldehyde production process flow sheet

PVC production process flow sheet

Recycled plastics making process

Alkyd resin from crude oil details

Investigatory project ideas : Land Fill gas to energy

2011-12-31T07:04:00.000-08:00

Landfills are continuously producing and recovering landfill gas (LFG). Energy recovered from methane generated at a landfill displaces energy that is produced from fossil fuels, among other conventional sources of electricity.

Simplified diagram of Methane mass balance

Here is the detail study document prepared by University of Columbia,

Waste plastics into petroleum

Five important breakthrough Solar technologies -2011

2011-12-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

This was supposed to be a big year for energy-related technology. Here are the five most important breakthrough in solar energy research in a year 2011.

1. A new discovery from a chemist at the University of Texas at Austin may allow photovoltaic solar cells to double their efficiency, thus providing loads more electrical power from regular sunlight.

2. A new prototype solar cell has been designed by researchers at the University of Florida. They claim that it sees new levels of efficiency and could be made using a roll-to-roll process, a spokesman said, "Imagine making solar panels by a process that looks like printing newspaper roll to roll," said Franky So, a UF professor in the department of materials science and engineering.

3. Optical Furnace Could Cut in Half the Energy Required to Make Solar Cells
The new furnace reduce the energy required to make a solar cell and to make the solar cell itself more efficient is to use an optical furnace to heat up the silicon substrate with which the panel is made.

4. The UF team has crossed the critical threshold of 8 percent efficiency in laboratory prototype solar cells, a milestone with implications for future marketability, by using a specially treated zinc oxide polymer blend as the electron charge transporting material.

5. Researchers have reduced the preparation time of quantum dot solar cells to less than an hour by changing the form to a one-coat quantum dot solar paint.

Related posts

The Year in Energy - Technology Review

Investigatory Project Ideas on renewable energy

Solar Kitchen for Urban Amhara

Sample thesis/ research proposal on renewable energy engineering

Mechanical engineering final project ideas

The Year in Energy - Technology Review

2011-12-27T06:51:00.000-08:00

The Year in Energy - Technology Review

Waste plastics into petroleum fuel made in Ethiopia

2011-12-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

I recently watched a video showing how one Ethiopian is using ordinay equipments to make petroleum feul out of waste plastics.(in this video. ) Just a month ago the government was planning on banning the import plastic bags for environmental issues. I would like to point out five things that must be done to make it better!

Possible ideas for further study as final project could be;

As you might have noticed he is using very basic equipments to make it in a way that wastes heat for temperature ranges of 140-350 degree C.
There is also a possibility of blending it with the conventional diesel even though direct use of it in cars ( as seen on the video) might not be so good environmentally and car safety.
Efficient cleaning and per-processing of the plastics should be studied to improve the process
The biodiesel from waste cooking oil model should be used to upgrade the process so that small scale business opportunities are created
Waste heat in process recovery should be considered. He might use it to heat up water that will be used in cleaning or per-processing the raw plastics

The industrial standard production facility is developed in USA that also turns plastic into fuel. In a similar but alternative application an American student, using pyrolysis, converted the waste plastic into gas that is burned in combustion chamber producing steam that ultimately drives a generator to produces electricity. Click here

Optimizing water use efficiency in water treatment plant

2011-12-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

Water-use systems impact nearly all plant operations either directly or indirectly. The need for optimization emanates from high water use demands, water utility cost or strict environmental regulations.

Industrial water demand may increase for reasons such as strict product specification requiring more washing , new or improved units requiring more water or most commonly failing equipments such as leaking heat exchangers and clogged tubes can lead to more water needs( cooling for eg.).As the demand for water increases the cost of water use increases proportionally.

Here are some solutions that could be applied;

Reduce need

Blowdown streams. Recirculating-cooling-tower and boiler-feed streams build up dissolved solids, especially calcium and magnesium compounds, silica and other contaminants that are relatively insoluble in water.

Water-treatment regeneration streams. Ion exchange media (salt brine for softeners, acid and bases for deionizers) used to remove both suspended and dissolved solids generally require regeneration.

Condensate. By returning condensate to the boiler for use as feed water, facilities reduce the makeup source demands and lower regeneration flows because condensate does not typically require water treatment.

Separate clean streams

Many non-process streams are eligible for direct discharge depending on the governing discharge permit requirements. These are steam blow down; Non-contact cooling water and condensate; Cooling tower blow down; Condensate and cooling water from heating/ventilating/ air-conditioning units

Recycle

The reuse of treated effluent does not reduce the total flow rate of wastewater requiring treatment and thus, is generally less desirable than the direct reuse of clean wastewater. One of the more-common unit operations for wastewater treatment at process plants is biotreatment, which is effective for decreasing soluble organic concentrations.

Related resources

www.chemicalprocessing.com

Environmentally responsible dye application in textile

How to use banana peel to purify water

How ChE Prepared Me for Business (and How It Didn’t): Final Thoughts

2011-11-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

How ChE Prepared Me for Business (and How It Didn’t): Final Thoughts

Save Energy in Water Systems, Part II | Chemical Processing

2011-11-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

Save Energy in Water Systems, Part II | Chemical Processing

Energy saving opportunities in pumping systems

2011-11-16T03:46:00.000-08:00

Don´t miss pump and fun energy saving FREE calculator from Rockwell automation

Pumps account for an incredible 10% of the world’s total electricity consumption. However, a large proportion of that is wasted. Energy saving opportunities are always there in pumping systems of industries and saving techniques are also abundantly found in websites, including text book techniques we know.

In this blog, I would like to provide a concept map for all the saving opportunities out there. You may go on and plan a pump energy saving consulting business (specially those developing country students) that after doing a study that applies some of the selected tips on one particular industry. This is because the field is wide; you can do from simple text book saving tips to complex CFD analysis of the flow field and optimizations. Just give it a thought! But doing your final project on it will give you a very good initial test of this hypothesis.

Energy saving in pumping systems can be thought of as two wide approaches;

1) Improve the efficiency of the existing system

2) Design a new system

Lets see a typical pumping system and list out many opportunities

PUMP

1) Is it Over sized?

2)Best efficiency point?

3) Impeller trimming?

4) Change impeller?

5) Multiple pumping arrangement?

6) Multiple speed pumping?

FLOW RATE CONTROLS

1) Throttle and bypass versus adjustable speed drive

2) Multiple speed motor

PIPING

1) Pipe diameter

2) Piping layout

3) valves and fitting and loss

MOTORS

1) Oversized?

2) High efficiency motors

NEW system design

System

• Minimize pumping demand:

• Reduce pumping needs through good plant design

• Reduce leaks

• Lower pumping system flow rate

• Lower the operating pressure

• Choose efficient pumping components

• Use the latest energy prices in calculation of operating costs

Controls and operating

• Consider variable-speed drives for flow management philosophy rather than throttling valves

• Put pressure or flow sensors in the location that will help ensure process requirements are met without excess pumping energy

• Record system trend data

• Provide metering of components (such as flows, kWh)

Pump stations

• Consider multiple size pumps for varying flows

• Pay attention to pipework design with multiple pumps

Piping system

• Maximize pipe diameter configuration

• Optimize pipe layout to minimize pressure loss

• Minimize pressure losses through valves and fittings

• Minimize bypass flow rates

Throttling controls

• Avoid bypass lines

• Avoid throttle valves

• Optimize use of throttling and adjustable/variable speed drives

Pumps and motors

• Ensure high motor efficiency

• Ensure high pump efficiency

• Ensure pump operates close to its BEP

• Don’t oversize pump

• Ensure the right impeller size

• Ensure the right pump type (axial, centrifugal and so on)

• Ensure compatibility with variable-speed drives

• Check sealing method (gland packing, mechanical seal and so on)

BIO-ETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM CASHEW APPLE JUICE

2011-11-10T07:33:00.000-08:00

Specific objectives are

to establish variation of apple juice sugar concentration with location and maturity
to find out nutrient composition of cashew apple juice(vitamins&minerals)
to determine the effect of initial sugar concentration on ethanol yield
to determine the effect of operating conditions(temp,ph,agitation,time)on ethanol yield
to find out the effect of nutrient supplements....

Contamination Removal from Plastics Recycling Processes to Deliver High Grade Recyclate

2011-11-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

Plastics recycling processes continue to struggle with contaminates in materials, which degrade performance and lower value of the materials. As more companies establish sustainability goals, the need for cleaner recycled material streams will increase.

The Challenge is to find a way to remove contaminates (specifically colorant and fillers) from recycled plastics during the recycling processing. This Challenge refers
specifically to Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and how to remove the colorants and fillers to obtain a very high quality recycled polymer.

Typical fillers are materials like silica, CaCO3 and other mineral additives. Colorants are usually concentrates (dyes) in a solid polymer or liquid matrix that is compatible with Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

Optical, infrared, float tank sorting and the like are known technologies and should not be the sole content of a submitted solution. They may be components of a solution, but not the entire submission. There should be something unique or novel in your solution.

Successful solutions will enable recyclers to capture more high quality material and prevent it from going to landfill. This in turn drives down costs for brand owners, and therefore consumers, and enables a significant step towards establishing closed-loop systems for materials. This solution could revolutionize the recycling industry.

Any proposed solution should address the following Technical Requirements:

1. developed method must be able to remove colorant from recycled PET material to return the PET to its natural color/haze as measured by transmission (ASTM D-1003-B or equivalent). The developed method must be able to remove fillers (silica, CaCo3, mineral additives) from recycled PET material as measured by the values in #3 below.

2. process should be able to be scaled to be cost competitive to virgin PET – no more than +1% increase compared to the current virgin PET market price.

3.The final PET should have the following material characteristics:

SIV(intrinsic viscosity): 0.71 +/- .03 (ASTM D4603 or equivalent)
Melting Point: 246 +/- 3C
Bulk Density(pellets): 52-60 lbs. /cubic ft. (ASTM D1895-B or equivalent)

4. Any method or materials used must not impart any increased toxicity to the recycled product and or environment.

5. The proposed method should offer the Seeker client “freedom to practice”. There should be no patent art preventing the use of specific equipment and materials for their commercial application.

Circulating fluidized bed design,Part Six, fuel feeding system

2011-11-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

Attached as Biomass circulating fluidized bed design.docx

4. Design a fuel feeding and air inlet system

Input value

Parameter	Value
The power output
The fuel elementary analysis (C,H,N,S etc..)
The amount of fuel mass kg/s

Calculate amount of air that should be put into the gasifier:

Use the value of Φ= 0.4 for the amount of air for gasification

Output values

Parameter	Value
Area of opening (fuel )
Area of opening (air)
Area opening of gas

FULL DOCUMENT HERE

Circulating fluidized bed design, Part Five, Cyclone parameters

2011-11-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Cyclone dimensions

The Lapple model for N_ecalculation is as follows:

Cyclone diameter (mm)
Cyclone gas exit diameter (mm)
Cyclone body cylindrical height (mm)
Cyclone total height (mm)
Cyclone solids exit diameter (mm)
Pressure dropm (kPa)
The Number of Effective Turns (N_e)

NEXT
Circulating fluidized bed design,Part Six, fuel feeding system

Circulating fluidized bed design Part Four, Design Procedures

2011-11-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

2. Air Distribution Plate

Based on parameters calculated above,

Parameter	Value
Fluidization velocity (m/s)
Minimum fluidization velocity (m/s)
Minimum fluidization height (m)
Particle density (sand)
Mean particle size (micro meter)
Bed porosity	----
Bed zone diameter
Number of tuyer lateral orifices:

Using the program calculate the following

Parameter	Value
Pressure drop in the bed (kPa)
Tuyer orifice diameter (mm)
Pressure drop in the distributer (kPa)
Tuyer internal diameter (mm)
Air velocity for the orifice
Total Number of tuyers
Tuyer height (mm)

3. Designing of high efficiency cyclone

The input data required are,

Parameter	Value
Gas inlet velocity to the cyclone	15-27 (m/s)
Pressure drop (kPa)	< 2.5
Cyclone efficiency (%)	>85

Next
Circulating fluidized bed design, Part Five, Cyclone parameters

Researchers Discover New Process for Biofuel

2011-11-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

The TDO process starts with the conversion of cellulose to organic acids. The acids are combined with calcium hydroxide to form a calcium salt. That salt is heated to 450 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit) in a reactor, which constantly stirs the salt. This produces a reaction resulting in a dark amber-colored oil.

The process by which the oil is created, known as thermal deoxygenation or TDO, is relatively simple, Wheeler says, and will work on the cellulose found in wood or other substances that contain cellulose or carbohydrates.

The reaction removes nearly all of the oxygen from the oil, which is a key step that distinguishes TDO from other biofuel processes. Oxygen is removed from as both carbon dioxide and water, and without
the need for any outside source of hydrogen to remove the oxygen. Therefore, most of the energy in the original cellulose source is contained in the new oil.

“Biomass has a lot of oxygen in it. All of that oxygen is dead weight and doesn’t provide any energy when you go to use that as a fuel,” Professor Wheeler says. “If you’re going to make a hydrocarbon fuel, one of the things you have to do is remove oxygen from biomass. You can do it by using hydrogen, which is expensive and also decreases the energy efficiency of your process. So if there’s a way to remove the oxygen from the biomass chemically, then you’ve densified it significantly. Our oil has less than 1 per cent oxygenates. No one else has done anything like this.”

Source
http://www.thebioenergysite.com/news/9844/researchers-discover-new-process-for-biofuel

Brewing bioethanol in a single pot.

2011-11-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

Brewing bioethanol in a single pot.

A more efficient way to produce biofuels from plants is possible by pretreating the woody material with a liquid salt before fermentation, report researchers in Japan who perfected the process in the lab. Yet, coming up with the usable, purified cellulose remains a big hurdle to the industry.

This experimental method is unique because it pairs an enzyme-yeast unit with ionic liquids to convert the plants into the liquid fuel known as bioethanol. The successful trial yielded 90 percent ethanol and 82 percent of the ionic liquid was recovered.

The one-step, one-container procedure is outlined in the journal Green Chemistry.

Cellulose is the most abundant renewable material available. Plants, algae and some bacteria produce in excess of 100 billion metric tons per year. The non-food material is an agricultural waste material.

The ability to turn the unwanted cellulose into liquid fuel would be an important step toward reducing dependence on crude oil without using food crops.

It takes three steps to convert cellulose into the liquid fuel bioethanol. Step one treats cellulose and turns its rigid and ordered structure into more chemically accessible pieces. In step two, enzymes further break down cellulose into glucose, a sugar. Then, in step three, microorganisms such as yeast ferment the glucose to ethanol.

The new process takes a different approach. The cellulose is broken down with ionic liquids (step 1) then converted into ethanol (steps 2 and 3) with a yeast-enzyme pairing – all in a single pot.

This is a remarkable step forward because the enzyme, yeast and ionic liquid are together but don’t interfere with one another.

Ionic liquids are salts – a designation for chemicals made up of both a positively and a negatively charged component – that are liquid at low temperatures, unlike common salts such as kitchen salt. Bulky positive and negative groups that make up the ionic salts hinder their packing into a solid crystal. Thus, they stay liquid to much lower temperatures – even room temperature. Some ionic liquids have been shown to be good solvents for cellulose, which is otherwise very difficult to dissolve.

In this study, the authors attached cellulase – an enzyme that breaks down cellulose – to the outside of the yeast. By itself, this yeast-cellulase combination is not very effective at tearing apart the rigid and inaccessible cellulose structure. But, a winning recipe was found by combining a small amount of specific ionic liquids with the cellulase-yeast. The ionic liquid disrupts cellulose enough so that ethanol can be produced directly and efficiently from the pieces of cellulose.

This work shows some real promise, but as the authors point out, most cellulose is not pure. To turn biomass directly into bioethanol, this new one-pot process will need to either extract cellulose efficiently or convert the other natural materials that coexist with cellulose in the plants.

Moringa Oleifera Seeds for Water Treatment in Water-Stressed Areas

2011-11-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

It has the promise of being a nutritious food source, a supplier of energy and medicinal, and a route to a clean water supply. A truly amazing plant.

A particular protein found in the meal of dried and ground M. oleifera seeds, when adsorbed onto sand, has show some excellent preliminary results in removing total suspended solids (TSS) and in killing coliform bacteria.

It produces an extremely nutritious leaf that contain the following on a per-pound basis:

7x the vitamin C as oranges
4x the vitamin A as carrots
4x the calcium of milk
3x the potassium of bananas
2x the protein of yogurt

It has the promise of being a nutritious food source, a supplier of energy and medicinal, and a route to a clean water supply. A truly amazing plant.

More Moringa Oleifera Seeds for Water Treatment in Water-Stressed Areas

10 potential uses of rapeseed meal: Experimental project ideas

2011-11-01T02:02:00.001-07:00

Rapeseed is the worlds number two oil seed crop ranking behind soybeans and a head of cotton seed, peanuts and sunflower seeds. The oil from it has the best fatty acid composition of all vegetable oils.

Canola is genetically improved rapeseed, has low composition of erucic acid and glucosinolates and hence called 'double-low'. In global production rapeseed and canola now rank second with 45 million metric tons produced or 15%of world oil seed production of 286.2 million tons.

The figure below shows routes of rapeseed meal applications.

1. Rapeseed meal for protein production; The protein from the meal can be solubilized and precipitated out by using different mechanism of protein precipitation .Table salt and cold water can be used in this process The protein isolate has an excellent balance of amino acids and useful functional properties for applications in both food and non-food sectors. More on this

2. Paper: Rapeseed meal proteins isolates showed good interaction with paper fibers .The effect of rapeseed protein was investigated on the mechanical properties, stiffness and strength of recycled paper .Therefore they could be used to improve mechanical properties of recycled paper.

3. As personal care ingredients .As a plant ingredient in cosmetic or other body care applications in which animal based ingredients might be undesirable’s 20 % and 40% ethanol-water mixture was used to test the raw material solubility which makes their way in cosmetics products possible."...It whips and foams like an egg white and that means it functions as binding ingredient ''.This is big benefit when one look at the package food industry.

4. Rapeseed meal as fertilizer; the concern is competitive market with very low price .The meal has to have slightly higher value than traditional fertilizer .Therefore, there is no used for specific properties of the meal.

Field experiments under controlled conditions show fast mineralization nitrogen contained in the meal .The results caused be too fast growth before winter in the case of early seeding and an important risk of leaching during winter.

5. Rapeseed meal as combustion martial; the calorific value of or power of the meal is roughly equal to the ones of anthracite and charcoal; 17,500kJ/kgas compared to 20,000kJ/kgof coal and anthracite. The auto inflammation point of rapeseed meal is relatively of high value (nearly 700 degree centigrade) The main thermal characteristics of the meal allows its utilization as material for combustion .As content is relatively low and its calorific value is approximately equivalent to the ones of charcoal.

6. Rapeseed meal for bio gas production; Rapeseed meal can be fermented in a biogas plant to produce biogas. Co-fermentation with liquid manure is used yielding a gas converted to heat and power by small combined heat and power plant .Certain studies show a gas yield of 350lit/kg meal.

The above figure shows the rest of the applications. These applications could be studied separately as investigatory project ideas on rapeseed meal.

Case Study | Ethanol Plant Boosts Operating Margin | Chemical Processing

2011-10-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

Case Study | Ethanol Plant Boosts Operating Margin | Chemical Processing

THE BENEFITS
Since its installation was completed in February 2011, the Pavilion8-based MPC solution has greatly improved overall plant stability and reduced variability of all crucial process parameters — especially in the batch fermentation operations. Key gains include:

• 2.2% increase in ethanol yield per bushel of corn;
• 7.2% boost in overall ethanol production;
• 7.7% decrease in energy consumption per gallon;
• better stability of all key process variables;
• 40–70% reduction in the standard deviation for each variable, and
• payback of less than 12 months.

Bio-crude Turns Cheap Waste Into Valuable Fuel

2011-10-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

Bio-crude Turns Cheap Waste Into Valuable Fuel

How to use banana peel to purify water

2011-10-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

Recent study be a team of scientists from Brazil demonstrated the possibility of using banana peels to treat water contaminated by copper, lead and other heavy metal ions.Other natural waste materials such as sugar cane bagasse (the fibrous material left over after sugar cane has been crushed), peanut shells and apple waste could also be used as alternative materials in the treatment process. The principle is based on the affinity of the banana contents towards retaining heavy metal ions.

Banana Peel Applied to the Solid Phase Extraction of Copper and Lead from River Water

Inefficient developing world stoves contribute to 2 million deaths a year

2011-10-16T03:38:00.000-07:00

Inefficient developing world stoves contribute to 2 million deaths a year