AbstractResearchers have shown that techniques such as microwave-assisted extraction, ultrasound-assisted extraction, pressurized liquid extraction, and supercritical fluid extraction developed for extraction of valuable components from plants and seed materials have been successfully used to effectively reduce the major shortcomings of the traditional method such as Soxhlet extraction. These include shorter extraction time, increase in yield of extracted components, decrease in solvent consumption, and improvement of the quality of extracts. This review presents a detailed description of the principles and mechanisms of the various extraction techniques for better understanding and summarizes the potential of these techniques in the extraction of oil from plants and seed materials. Discussions on some of the parameters affecting the extraction efficiency are also highlighted, with special emphasis on supercritical fluid extraction. A comparison of the performance of traditional Soxhlet extraction with that of other extraction techniques is also presented.

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Many construction and development activities today consume large amounts of concrete. The amount of construction waste is also increasing because of the demolition process. Much of this waste can be recycled to produce new products and increase the sustainability of construction projects. As recyclable construction wastes, concrete and ceramic can replace the natural aggregate in concrete because of their hard and strong physical properties. This research used 25%, 35%, and 45% recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and ceramic waste as coarse aggregate in producing concrete. Several tests, such as concrete cube compression and splitting tensile tests, were also performed to determine and compare the mechanical properties of the recycled concrete with those of the normal concrete that contains 100% natural aggregate. The concrete containing 35% RCA and 35% ceramic waste showed the best properties compared with the normal concrete.

Wastepaper sludge ash (WSA) is generated during the recycling of paper, which is an industrial by-product can induce pollution to the environment. Due to its effect related to pollution, a generic review on its application is required. Despite many researchers conducted in the world to resolve the application of WSA as a sustainable material, the effects of WSA as a cementitious material in its application is still limited assess. Hence, this paper presents a generic review on the effect of WSA as a cementitious material. The generic review on WSA in term of its physical properties, chemical properties, reactive properties and application of WSA in the industry was carried out. From the review on WSA properties, it is found that the WSA has good potential as one of the important materials in the construction industry especially in the production of concrete, brick, mortar, soil stabilizing additive, rigid pavement and controlled low-strength materials (CLSM).

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Over the years, concern on the compatibility issue of the blended biodiesel fuel with non-metal material components in diesel engine vehicles had received many attentions. Assessing the compatibility of non-metal material components like elastomer and plastics usually rely on the measurement of mechanical and physical properties such as tensile strength, elongation, hardness, surface morphology, weight and volume changes. These properties are typically measured after the static immersion test is done accordingly to the ASTM D471. However, data and results given from the static immersion test is only applicable when the samples are in a static condition and not in a dynamic situation. Thus, this paper attempts to review some common issues related to the biodiesel fuel and non-metal components and introducing the dynamic testing approach that can be applied when assessing the compatibility study of biodiesel fuel with some potential problems that might be encountered.

Biodiesel fuel can be used in diesel engine in accordance to the standard provided. However, a significant issue with biodiesel fuel was noted. Some of the fuel quality were outside the accepted range of the specification stated in the standard. Thus, this can be lead to the problem of utilization them in diesel engine. Moreover, material compatibility is the main concern whenever the fuel composition is altered in the fuel system. A large variety of metals and nonmetals are worn as the material of construction for the various components of the fuel system. Introduction of biodiesel fuel often generate many problems in the components of the fuel system. This paper attempts to present the compatibility issue related to the use of biodiesel with automotive materials.