In this research, hydrogel biocomposites were prepared from whey protein isolate (WPI), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and synthetic polymers in varied ratios. Their physicochemical properties were evaluated by FTIR, SEM, TGA, AFM, and TEM. FTIR spectra revealed significant peaks at 1167 cm −1 for C-O-C peak and at 1449 cm −1 for O-H bending for WPI and rGO, respectively. The hydrogels were loaded with proguanil hydrochloride and chloroquine diphosphate and in vitro release kinetics of individual drugs from the biocomposites were studied. The SEM images of the biocomposites after drug release confirmed that they are biodegradable. The drug release was controlled, pH-dependent which further confirmed that the hydrogels are pH-sensitive. The release of proguanil from the hydrogels was slow when compared to chloroquine, suggesting that the solubility of the drug influenced their rate of release. The drug release from the biocomposites fitted the Korsmeyer-Peppas model with n values for chloroquine between 0.46 and 0.49 at pH of 1.2 and between 0.72 and 1.41 at pH of 7.4. The n values for proguanil were between 0.66 and 0.83 at pH 1.2 and 0.85-0.92 at pH 7.4. The results obtained suggested that the biocomposites are potential systems that can be tailored for controlled delivery of bioactive agents.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of various traditional systems of crude oil distillation column design, modeling, simulation, optimization and control methods. Artificial neural network (ANN), fuzzy logic (FL) and genetic algorithm (GA) framework were chosen as the best methodologies for design, optimization and control of crude oil distillation column. It was discovered that many past researchers used rigorous simulations which led to convergence problems that were time consuming. The use of dynamic mathematical models was also challenging as these models were also time dependent. The proposed methodologies use back-propagation algorithm to replace the convergence problem using error minimal method.

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The combination of Irish potato waste (IPW) and poultry waste (PW) can form a synergy resulting into an effective substrate for a better biogas production due to some materials they contain. In this work, optimization and kinetic study of biogas production from anaerobic digestion of IPW and PW was investigated. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize conditions such as initial pH, solids concentrations and waste ratios. The anaerobic digestion of the two wastes was carried out in the mesophilic condition and Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to develop and analyze a predictive model which describes the biogas yield. The results revealed that there is a good fit between the experimental and the predicted biogas yield as revealed by the coefficient of determination (R2) value of 97.93%. Optimization using quadratic RSM predicts biogas yield of 19.75% at the optimal conditions of initial pH value 7.28, solids concentration (w/v) 9.85% and waste ratio (IPW:PW) 45:55%. The reaction was observed to have followed a first order kinetics having R2 and relative squared error (RSE) values of 90.61 and 9.63% respectively. Kinetic parameters, such as rate constant and half-life of the biogas yield were evaluated at optimum conditions to be 0.0392 day-1 and 17.68 days respectively. The optimum conditions and kinetic parameters generated from this research can be used to design real bio-digesters, monitor substrate concentrations, simulate biochemical processes and predict performance of bio-digesters using IPW and PW as substrate.

Biosorption of the lead ions from aqueous solutions using dum palm kernel was studied, the lead ion removal depends on the contact time, pH and adsorbent dosage. The optimum contact time, pH and adsorbent mass with in the experimental limit of this work were 100 minutes, 6-7, and 2.5g/L respectively. The maximum percentage of lead ions removed was 87%. The data fitted well with Temkin and Langmuir models, the regression correlation were obtained to be 0.9660 and 0.8667, respectively. The biosorbent may be economical if developed further for industrial wastewater and natural contaminated water treatment.

This study aimed at the co-current removal of chromium and lead ions from synthetic waste water using dum palm kernel activated carbon. The adsorption experiment was conducted by varying time, pH and concentrations of the simulated solution. The data obtained were analyzed, and the best conditions for the uptake were at pH of 6, equilibrium time of 40 minutes. The two best isotherms models for the adsorption system were Sip, and Dubinin–Radushkevich, models respectively. Based on the Temkin adsorption energy calculated as 9.5793 and 0.4997 J/mol, the uptake of lead and chromium were chemisorption and physico-sorption, respectively. The maximum uptake calculated from Dubinin–Radushkevich plots were 14.1696 and 7.7191 mg/g, for lead and chromium, respectively.International Journal of Environment Vol.5(3) 2016, pp.104-118

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