• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.189-202
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• 2016

This work emphasized optimum production of biodiesel using non-edible Prunus armeniaca (Bitter Apricot) oil via transesterification collected from the high altitude areas of Himachal Pradesh, India. In this study the author produced biodiesel through the process of transesterification by using an alkali catalyst with alcohol (methanol and ethanol), under the varying molar ratio (1:6, 1:9, 1:12), variable catalyst percentage (1% and 2%) and temperature ($70^{\circ}C$, $75^{\circ}C$, $80^{\circ}C$, $85^{\circ}C$). Furthermore, a few strong base catalysts were used that includes sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium metal and freshly prepared sodium methoxide. After screening the catalyst, response surface methodology (RSM) in connection with the central composite design (CCD) was used to statistically evaluate and optimize the biodiesel production operation using NaOH as catalyst. It was found that the production of biodiesel achieved an optimum level biodiesel yield with 97.30% FAME conversion under the following reaction conditions: 1) Methanol/oil molar ratio: 1:6, 2) Reaction time: 3h, 3) Catalyst amount: NaOH 2 wt. %, and 4) Reaction temperature: $85^{\circ}C$. The experimental results showed that the optimum production and conversion of biodiesel through the process of transesterification could be achieved under an optimal set of reaction conditions. The biodiesel obtained showed appropriate fuel properties as specified in ASTM, BIS and En- standards.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.1438-1445
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• 2021

A bifunctional glycoside hydrolase GH78 from the ascomycete Xylaria polymorpha (XpoGH78) possesses catalytic versatility towards both glycosides and esters, which may be advantageous for the efficient degradation of the plant cell-wall complex that contains both diverse sugar residues and esterified structures. The contribution of XpoGH78 to the conversion of lignocellulosic materials without any chemical pretreatment to release the water-soluble aromatic fragments, carbohydrates, and methanol was studied. The disintegrating effect of enzymatic lignocellulose treatment can be significantly improved by using different kinds of hydrolases and phenoloxidases. The considerable changes in low (3 kDa), medium (30 kDa), and high (> 200 kDa) aromatic fragments were observed after the treatment with XpoGH78 alone or with this potent cocktail. Synergistic conversion of rape straw also resulted in a release of 17.3 mg of total carbohydrates (e.g., arabinose, galactose, glucose, mannose, xylose) per gram of substrate after incubating for 72 h. Moreover, the treatment of rape straw with XpoGH78 led to a marginal methanol release of approximately 17 ㎍/g and improved to 270 ㎍/g by cooperation with the above accessory enzymes. In the case of beech wood conversion, the combined catalysis by XpoGH78 and laccase caused an effect comparable with that of fungal strain X. polymorpha in woody cultures concerning the liberation of aromatic lignocellulose fragments.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.173-179
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• 2016

This is a numerical study on the curved channel type of hydrogen reformer using the commercial code of fluid dynamics. We numerically compared the numerical model in a previous study model and the modelling of a tube type curved channel. In the result of numerical analysis on 4 types of curved channel reformers, the methanol conversion efficiency of type 1~4 were 45.0%, 45.3%, 45.6%, 45.6% respectively, and there was hardly any difference by ${\pm}0.6%$. In light of flow characteristics, the rectangle type tube and the type 2 with $45^{\circ}$ turn showed most uniform flow characteristics and concentration distribution of methanol, and the circular type tube and the type 3 with $90^{\circ}$ turn had most un-uniform flow characteristics and concentration distribution of methanol. We concluded that the design for curved channel reformer has to have rectangle type tube with curve of almost $45^{\circ}$ as in the type of curved pipe with $45^{\circ}$ turn.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.324-330
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• 2019

To recycle raw fly ash (RFA), a waste from thermal power plants, it was used to prepare solid catalysts which have many advantages compared with homogenous catalysts. When biodiesel was produced from soybean oil using RFA, only 1.2% of biodiesel conversion was obtained. A metal hydroxide, NaOH, KOH or $Ca(OH)_2$, was mixed with the acid-treated fly ash (ATFA), and the mixture was calcined at $700^{\circ}C$ for 3 h to prepare the solid catalyst. The solid catalyst prepared by mixing ATFA with NaOH, designated as SC-Na, showed a better performance than those prepared by mixing ATFA with KOH or $Ca(OH)_2$, respectively. The optimal mass ratio of ATFA with NaOH was 1:3, at which the proportion of $Na_2O$ increased to 60.2% in SC-Na, and 97.8% of biodiesel conversion was achieved under optimal reaction conditions (2 w% SC-Na relative to oil and 5 mL-methanol/g-oil at $50^{\circ}C$ for 4 h). Finally, a batch operation was repeatedly carried out to test the feasibility of reusing the solid catalyst, and more than 96% biodiesel conversion was stably achieved for the third round of operations. This study shows that RFA was successfully recycled to solid catalysts through a simple preparation method, and the solid catalyst was reused for the production of biodiesel with high conversion.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.483-489
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• 2010

Biodiesel has attracted great attention as an alternative renewable energy source for the replacement of petroleumbased diesel fuel, yet its high production cost due to expensive oil feedstock remainsas the major economical obstacle. In this study, we investigated catalysts and reaction conditions for the acid catalyzed pre-conversion of free fatty acid (FFA) to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) in cheap low-grade oils of high acid value. The NaOH base catalyzed reaction of vegetable oil of the initial acid value of 2 mg KOH/g led to a high FAME conversion above 95.4%, but the conversion abruptly decreased at higher initial acid values. This base catalyzed reaction was practically ineffective displaying the FAME conversion below 15% even at the initial acid value of 10 mg KOH/g by the severe saponification side reaction. Among the various catalysts studied for the pre-conversion of FFA to FAME, Amberlyst-15 was the most effective in reducing the acid value, and the optimum reaction condition identified was $65^{\circ}C$ with oil to methanol ratio of 1:3 and catalyst concentration of 15% (w/w). As the results, great enhancements in the overall biodiesel conversion were achievable via a consecutive reaction of the acid catalyzed FFA pre-conversion to FAME under the optimal condition obtained with Amberlyst-15 followed by the NaOH base catalyzed reaction, far above the extent which was obtainable by the single NaOH catalyzed reaction.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.733-742
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• 2022

Hydrogen fuel cell propulsion ships are emerging to respond to the recently strengthened carbon emission regulations in the international shipping sector. Methanol can be stored in a liquid state at normal pressure and temperature, and has the advantage of lower reforming temperature compared to other fuels. In this study, the optimal operating point of the methanol steam reforming system was derived by changing the Steam Carbon Ratio (SCR) from 0.10 to 3.00. Results showed that In terms of methanol conversion rate and hydrogen yield, the larger the SCR is the better, but in terms of system efficiency, it is most advantageous to operate at SCR 0.70 in Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) mode and SCR 0.80 in Pd membrane mode. Through this study, it was found that the optimal SCR in the reformer and the entire system including the reformer may be different, which indicates that the optimum operating point may be different depending on the change of the system configuration.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.251-258
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• 2003

Biodiesel as methyl esters derived from vegetable oils has considerable advantages in terms of environmental protetion. In the present work, methyl esters were produced from soybean oil by lipase-catalyzed transesterification. To reduce inactivation of commercial immobilized lipases emulsified two-step process was developed using the stepwise addition of methanol with 4:1 molar ratio at 4h intervals. Also with immobilized lipase from Candida antarctica(Novozym 435) high conversion of 98.5 percent was possible at $45^{\circ}C$ of reaction temperature with 4:1 of methanol-to-oil molar ratio and 1%(v/v) methyl glucoside oleic polyester as an emulsifier in the presence of cosolvent.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.329-335
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• 2020

Methanol synthesized from renewable hydrogen and captured CO2 has recently attracted great interest as a sustainable energy carrier for large-scale renewable energy storage. In this study, molten carbonate fuel cell's performance was investigated with the direct conversion of methanol into syngas inside the anode chamber of the cell. The internal reforming of methanol may significantly improve system efficiency since the heat generated from the electrochemical reaction can be used directly for the endothermic reforming reaction. The porous Ni-10 wt%Cr anode was sufficient for the methanol steam reforming reaction under the fuel cell operating condition. The direct supply of methanol into the anode chamber resulted in somewhat lower cell performance, especially at high current density. Recycling of the product gas into the anode gas inlet significantly improved the cell performance. The analysis based on material balance revealed that, with increasing current density and gas recycling ratio, the methanol steam reforming reaction rate likewise increased. A methanol conversion more significant than 90% was achieved with gas recycling. The results showed the feasibility of electricity and syngas co-production using the molten carbonate fuel cell. Further research is needed to optimize the fuel cell operating conditions for simultaneous production of electricity and syngas, considering both material and energy balances in the fuel cell.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.177-182
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate the reaction of lipase-catalyst transesterification using animal fat recovered from fleshing scrap generated during leather making process. Transesterification reaction between fat and primary or secondary alcohol was carried out under the condition of immobilized enzyme catalyst. The conversion rate was the highest when 1.5 mole of methanol was injected by 4 times. As for lipase, Candida antarctica showed the highest conversion rate of 82.2% among the 4 different lipases. It was found that water contained in the fat causes lower conversion rate. The condition of 1.2wt. % of water in the fat decreased the conversion rate by 40%. It was considered that the resulted reactant, fatty acid ester could be used as raw material for biodiesel with the characteristics of not generating SOx and diminishing smoke.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.268-268
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• 2010

단일벽 탄소 나노튜브(SWCNT)는 그 뛰어난 전기적, 물리적 특성 때문에 반도체 공정에 있어서 중요한 p-type 채널 물질로 꼽히고 있다. 본 연구에서는 SWCNT를 성장하여 이를 이용한 전계효과 트랜지스터를 제작하고 또한, 부분적인 폴리머의 코팅으로 타입을 변화하는 연구를 보이고자 한다. Ferritin용액을 DI-water에 2000배 희석하여 SiO2 기판 위에 뿌린 뒤 Methanol을 이용하여 기판 표면에 촉매가 붙어있게 한다. 이 기판을 $900^{\circ}C$로 가열하여 유기물질을 제거한 뒤 화학 기상 증착(Chemical Vapor Deposition)방법으로 SWCNT를 성장하게 된다. 이렇게 성장된 SWCNT는 촉매의 농도에 비례하는 밀도를 가지게 되며 이 위에 전극을 증착하고 back-gate를 설치하여 FET를 제작한다. 메탈릭한 SWCNT는 breakdown 공정을 통하여 제거한 뒤, 전자 농도가 높은 NADH를 전체적으로 코팅을 한다. NADH는 기존의 다른 폴리머(polyethyleneimine: PEI)에 비교하여 코팅 후 전자 제공 효과가 크며 그 성질의 재현성이 높고 공기 중에서 안정성을 유지하는 능력이 있다. 이러한 NADH의 코팅으로 n-type으로의 SWCNT FET를 제작하였으며 type conversion 현상을 이용하면 국부적인 NADH의 코팅으로 homojunction-diode의 제작 등 다양한 소자의 제작에 적용될 것으로 예상한다.