• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.547-554
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• 2018

Torrefaction is the promising process of pretreating biomass materials to increase the quality of their energy, especially to upgrade the materials' grindability so that it is suitable for a commercial pulverizer machine. In this study, torrefaction of oak, bamboo, oil palm trunk, and rice husk was carried out under different torrefaction temperatures ($300^{\circ}C$, $330^{\circ}C$, and $350^{\circ}C$) and different torrefaction residence times (30, 45, and 60 minutes). Complete characterization of the torrefied biomass, including proximate analysis, calorific value, thermogravimetric analysis, mass yield, energy yield, and grindability properties (Hardgrove Grindability Index) was carried out. Increasing the torrefaction temperature and residence time significantly improved the calorific value, energy density (by reducing the product mass), and grindability of the product. Furthermore, for commercial purposes, the torrefaction conditions that produced the desired grindability properties of the torrefied product were $330^{\circ}C-30minutes$ and $300^{\circ}-45minutes$, and the latter condition produced a higher energy yield for bamboo, oil palm trunk, and rice husk; however, torrefaction of oak did not achieve the targeted grindability property values.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.373-383
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• 2018

Fouling by solids and microorganisms is the major obstacle limiting the efficient use of membrane wastewater treatment. In our previous study, two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system was proposed to treat anaerobic digested palm oil mill effluent (AnPOME). This two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system had showed great potential for the treatment of AnPOME with high removal of COD, $NH_3-N$, $PO_4{^{3-}}$, TSS, turbidity, and colour. However, fouling behavior of the membrane in this two stages microalgae/membrane filtration system was still unknown. In this study, empirical models that describe permeate flux decline for dead-end filtration (pore blocking - complete, intermediate, and standard; and cake layer formation) presented by Hermia were used to fit the experimental results in identifying the fouling mechanism under different experimental conditions. Both centrifuged and non-centrifuged samples were taken from the medium with 3 days RT intervals, from day 0 to day 12 to study their influence on fouling mechanisms described by Hermia for ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO) filtration mode. Besides, a more detailed study on the use of resistance-in-series model for deadend filtration was done to investigate the fouling mechanisms involved in membrane filtration of AnPOME collected after microalgae treatment. The results showed that fouling of UF and NF membrane was mainly caused by cake layer formation and it was also supported by the analysis for resistance-in-series model. Whereas, fouling of RO membrane was dominated by concentration polarization.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2013

Present study was conducted to evaluate the performance of Anaerobic Hybrid Reactor (AHR) combined with two types of anaerobic attached growth reactors at mesophilic temperature ($37^{\circ}C$). The reactor was operated at the influent substrate condition of 19,400 mg/L soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD). The organic loading rate (OLR) and flow rate were varied in the range of $9.5{\sim}22.5kg/m^3$. day and 10.6 ~ 26.0 L/day respectively since start-up was done. The COD removal efficiency of 93 % was measured at the OLR of $14kg/m^3$. day in AHR. However a reduction in removal efficiency to as low as 85 % could have been related to a combined effect of high concentration suspended solids (SS) concentration over 3,800 mg/L. On the other hand the total COD removal efficiencies were measured to be 96.3 % and 96.2 % for AHR+APF and AHR+ADF respectively. The pH of the POME was adjusted to neutral range by using sodium bicarbonate at the initial stages of the reactor feed, later stages pH adjustment was not required as the pH was maintained in the desired neutral range due to self-buffering capacity of the reactor. The reactor proved to be economically acceptable and operationally stable. The biogas was measured to have $CH_4$ and $CO_2$ with a ratio of 35:65, and methane gas production rate was estimated to be $0.17{\sim}10.269L\;CH_4/g\;COD_{removed}$.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2015

Currently, abundant wastes from the palm oil refining process have been generated which are hard to handle. Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE) is the solid waste from this process and leads the cost of elimination to the company. This study aims to utilize the SBE as the alternative material in the non-fired wall tiles. The main raw materials used in non-fired wall tiles consist of laterite soil, fluvial sand, and Portland cement. The experimental formulas have been conducted and divided into 3 groups by varying the percentage of the SBE in main raw materials. The specimens of material mixture have been produced by uniaxial pressing at 100 bars, dimensions in $50{\times}100{\times}8mm$. These specimens are sprayed with water and cured in the air for 7 days. After that, bending strength and water absorption test of these specimens has been performed. It can be concluded that the best formula with the percentage of laterite soil, fluvial sand, Portland cement, and SBE are 60.94%, 13.125%, 22.5%, and 3.435%, respectively. Its bending strength and %water absorption are 0.68 MPa and 5.64%. Material costs of specimen are approximately $0.00276 USD/100g. Furthermore, the comparison of curing period between 7 days and 30 days has been performed. The 30 days of curing period can improve the bending strength of the specimen, but there is no effect on water absorption.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.263-270
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• 2019

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the largest pollutant discharged into the rivers of Malaysia. Thus UF membrane study was conducted to investigate the effect of pressure and stirring speed on performance of POME treatment and fouling of membrane. Two types of membrane polyethersulfone (PES) and regenerated cellulose (RC) with molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) 5 and 10 kDa were used in this study. Results showed that, as pressure increased, fouling increased however permeate quality improved, the best pressure was 1.0 bar, where the fouling was not too high and produce good permeate quality. As stirring speed increased, fouling reduced and permeate quality improved, however, when stirring speed increased from 600 rpm to 800 rpm, there was no significant improvement on the permeate quality. Therefore, the best condition was at 1.0 bar and 600 rpm. PES membrane with MWCO 5 kDa showed the best permeate quality, even fouling slightly higher than RC membrane. The permeate quality obtained were analyzed in term of dissolved solid, turbidity, suspended solid, biological oxygen demand ($BOD_5$) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were 538 mg/L, 1.02 NTU, < 25 mg/L, 27.7 mg/L and 62.8 mg/L, respectively with dominant type of fouling is cake resistance. Thus, it can be concluded water reuse standard was successfully achieved in terms of $BOD_5$ and suspended solid.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.269-279
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• 2021

Palm Oil Fuel Ash(POFA) has been widely used to replace Portland cement to enhance the mechanical properties and durability of concrete. However, it reduces the workability of concrete due to the high content of unburnt carbon and its angular shape requiring the usage of superplasticizer to ensure a proper flowability. In this study, effects of different types and dosage of superplasticizer on the early mechanical and hydration properties of cement paste containing micro-POFA were evaluated using mini-slump test, early compressive strength, TGA, XRD, and SEM. The results indicated that the flowability of cement paste containing micro-POFA reduced as the replacement ratio of micro-POFA increased. As the dosage of superplasticizer increased, the flowability was also increased. In addition, the usage of superplasticizer reduced the early compressive strength, and the strength decreased with an increase in the dosage of superplasticizer. It was confirmed that superplasticizer hindered the formation of C-S-H leading to a relative increase in the formation of Ca(OH)₂.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.38-43
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• 2012

Biodiesel is non-petroleum based fuel produced from vegetable oils or animal fats through transesterification. The compositions of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in the feedstocks are important factors for biodiesel quality in terms of low-temperature fluidity and oxidative stability. The goal of this study is to improve the cold flow property of biodiesel from vegetable and animal origin containing highly saturated methyl esters (approx. 50%). In this purpose poly-saturated methyl esters in palm and tallow biodiesel were removed via urea-based fractionation and then the recovered fractions (enriched unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters) were supplemented with cold flow improvers. The highest concentration of unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (93.8%) was obtained using a urea/fatty acid ratio of 3:1 at the crystallization temperature of $0^{\circ}C$ for 17 hours in incubation, with recovery of 71% and the addition of cold flow improver (Flozol$^{(R)}$ 515, 3,000 ppm) to the enriched poly-unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters reduced the CFPP(cold filter plugging point) of palm biodiesel from $12^{\circ}C$ to $-42^{\circ}C$. In tallow biodiesel both the enrichment of unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (93.71%) and the addition of cold flow improver (Infineum R408, 3,000ppm) reduced the CFPP from $10^{\circ}C$ to $-32^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.1454-1461
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• 2022

Palm kernel expeller (PKE), a by-product of palm oil extraction, contains higher amounts of fiber than corn and soybean meal, but offers low energy density, protein value, and amino acid (AA) composition, limiting its use for swine. Recently however, it was reported that dietary fiber has a positive effect on the gut microbiota of the host, and therefore it is necessary to study the effect of PKE feeding on the intestinal microbiota of swine. In this study, we investigated the effects of supplementation with PKE in lactation diets on the gut microbiota composition of lactating sows and their litters. A total of 12 sows were randomly assigned to two dietary treatment groups in a completely randomized design. The treatments were a diet based on corn-soybean meal (CON) and CON supplemented with 20% of PKE. Sow and piglet fecal samples were collected before farrowing, on days 7 and 28 (weaning) after farrowing, and on days 7 and 28 (weaning) after farrowing, respectively, to verify gut microbiota composition by pyrosequencing analysis. The beta-diversity result showed a significant difference only in weaning-stage piglets, but dietary PKE altered the gut microbiota in sows by increasing the abundance of Lactobacillus compared with CON. In piglets, dietary PKE decreased the abundance of opportunistic pathogen Proteus and increased the abundance of potentially beneficial bacteria, such as Prevotellaceae and Prevotella. Our results can be helpful in developing feeding strategies and support the beneficial effects of dietary PKE to improve the gut health of animals.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.209-219
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• 1986

This study was designed to investigate the effects of various sources of dietary fats on the blood and liver cholesterol(CHOL) levels in young Single Comb White Leghorn male chicks, In experiment 1, corn oil, palm gil, tallow and fish oil were added individually at a level of 4% to semipurified type diets composed of isolated soyprotein and glucose as major components. The diets were fed ad libitum for a period of 15 days. In experiment 2, various fats such as corn oil, soybean oil, repeseed oil, palm oil, tallow, fish oil and hydrogenated fish oil(HFO) were added individually at a level of 11.4% to practical type diets primarily based on corn and soybean meal. Control diet contained 3% of corn oil. All these diets were formulated to contain equivalent amount of nutrients such as protein, vitamins and minerals on a basis of unit kcal of metabolizable energy. The third Experiment was to compare the effects of different levels of calorie/protein(C/P ratio) of diets on the performances and various biological parameters in the chicks. Control diet was the same as in experiment 2. Another diet was added with 11.14% corn oil(C/P ratio=146) and the other diet with 10% corn oil(C/P ratio=164), The diets in experiment 2 and 3 were fed ad libitum for 26 days. In the first experiment, the chicks fed the diet containing vegetable oils tended to grow faster and show better feed efficiency without significance than those fed diets added with animal fats. However, this tendency was not observed in the experiment 2. Birds consumed the diets added with fish oil appeared to have heavier liver weight and higher liver CHOL than the others(p〈0.05), No significant differences in the levels of blood CHOL and triacylglycerol(TG) were observed among the chicks of various dietary groups(Exp. 1). Weights of liver or heart were significantly heavier in the chicks consumed the diets added with HFO or fish oil, respectively(Exp. 2). However, chicks ingested diet containing fish oil appeared to have significantly lower plasma CHOL. No significant differences were observed in the levels of liver CHOL and plasma TG among the dietary groups. Birds consumed the diet with a wider C/P ratio resulted in higher liver TG levels in experiment 3(p〈0.05). Although no statistical differences were observed among the various dietary groups, chicks fed the diet with a wider C/P ratio tended to show higher levels of plasma CHOL, TG, liver CHOL and total liver lipids compared to those of the control group.