Polymeric membranes offer straightforward modification methods that make industry scaling affordable and easy; however, these materials are hydrophobic, prone to fouling, and vulnerable to extreme operating conditions. Various attempts were made in this study to fix the challenges in using polymeric membranes and create mixed-matrix membrane (MMMs) with improved properties and hydrophilicity by adding titanium dioxide (TiO2) and pore-forming agents to hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). The PVDF mixed-matrix ultrafiltration membranes in this study were made using the non-solvent phase inversion approach which is a simple and effective method for increasing the hydrophilic nature of membranes. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as pore-forming chemicals were created. Pure water flux, BSA flux, and BSA rejection were calculated to evaluate the mixed-matrix membrane’s efficiency. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution was employed in this study to examine the protein rejection ability. Increases in hydrophilicity, viscosity, and flux in pure water and BSA solution were achieved using PVP and PEG additives. The PVDF membrane’s hydrophilicity was raised with the addition of TiO2, showing an increased contact angle to 71°. The results show that the PVDF–PVP–TiO2 membrane achieved its optimum water flux of 97 L/(m2h) while the PVDF–PEG–TiO2 membrane rejected BSA at a rate greater than 97%. The findings demonstrate that use of a support or additive improved filtration performance compared to a pristine polymeric membrane by increasing its hydrophilicity.
Sewage sludge containing a large number of lipids that can be recovered and utilised as a promising raw material in the production of biodiesel. Studies have been conducted to extract lipids from sludge using conventional solvent methods. However, all these conventional methods have some limitations such as extensive product separation and long extraction time (between 4 to 8 hours), which lead to high energy consumption. Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (SFE) which utilises carbon dioxide (CO2) gas at its critical condition as solvent has been studied extensively in various fields for oil extraction especially for plant and vegetative. This is due to the shorter extraction time and the lipids can be easily separated from the extraction system. The present research has undertaken a comparison study of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) utilisation in the extraction of lipids from sewage sludge against conventional soxhlet extraction of methanol and ethanol as solvent. The extraction of lipids from sewage sludge utilising SC-CO2 extraction was successfully being conducted with lipids yield of 0.69 % within 0.5 hours at the operating temperature of 50 °C and pressure of 20 MPa. The lipids were easily separated subsequently from the SFE system when CO2 is being released in gas form through the outlet valve during lipids collection. Whilst soxhlet extraction using methanol and ethanol as solvent (sludge: solvent ratio of 1:10) managed to extract 1.95 % and 2.81 % within 4 hours of extraction time at 60 °C, with the additional time needed to separate the lipids from solvent by evaporation.
Understanding the tanker driver hazard awareness on chemical exposure is important to ensure that they are fortified with the appropriate information regarding the risk of their occupation. This present study was conducted to determine the awareness of the petrol tanker driver on the chemical exposure during transportation petroleum product. The assessment on hazardous awareness of the petrol tank driver was conducted through questionnaire survey. Wherein, the questionnaire was designed with considering the variables of age of the driver, working experience, working hours in a day and knowledge on chemical hazard presence in the petroleum oil. A reliability test of Cronbach's Alpha was performed to validate the questionnaire and the Chi-Square test was conducted to determine the correlation among the studied variables. The findings of the present study revealed that the drivers who are frequently come into direct contact with petrol cannot identify the spillage had occurred during working. The study identified that there is an urgency to conduct training on safe handling of petroleum oil in order to eliminate the risk of chemical hazards exposure to the tanker driver.
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