In this work, heterostructure SnO2/ZnO nanocomposite photocatalyst was prepared by a straightforward one step polyol method.

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Current approaches to dewatering aviation fuel such as kerosene are adsorption by activated charcoal, gravity separation, etc. The objective of this work is to develop and demonstrate the filtration and dewatering of kerosene using a carbon nanotube immobilised membrane (CNIM). Highly hydrophobic membranes were prepared by immobilising carbon nanotube (CNTs) over polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) microfiltration membrane for the dewatering of ppm level water from kerosene. The effects of different CNT concentrations on membrane morphology, hydrophobicity, porosity, and permeability were characterised. After immobilising CNT into membranes, the contact angle increased by 9%, 16%, and 43% compared to unmodified 0.1 μm PTFE, 0.22 μm PTFE and 0.22 μm PVDF membranes, respectively. The CNIM showed remarkable separation efficiency for the fuel-water system. The micro/nano water droplets coalesced on the CNT surface to form larger diameters of water droplets detached from the membrane surface, leading to enhanced water rejection. In general, the water rejection increased with the amount of CNT immobilised while the effective surface porosity over pore length and flux decreased. PTFE base membrane showed better performance compared to the PVDF substrate. The CNIMs were fabricated with 0.1 and 0.22 μm PTFE at an optimised CNT loading of 3 and 6 wt.%, and the water rejection was 99.97% and 97.27%, respectively, while the kerosene fluxes were 43.22 kg/m2·h and 55.44 kg/m2·h respectively.

In this paper, we present the treatment of humic acid solution via carbon nanotube immobilized membrane (CNIM) distillation assisted by air sparging (AS). Carbon nanotubes offer excellent hydrophobicity to the modified membrane surface and actively transport water vapor molecules through the membrane to generate higher vapor flux and better rejection of humic acid. The introduction of air sparging in the membrane distillation (MD) system has changed the humic substance fouling by changing the colloidal behavior of the deposits. This modified MD system can sustain a higher run time of separation and has enhanced the evaporation efficiency by 20% more than the regular membrane distillation. The air sparging has reduced the deposition by 30% in weight and offered lesser fouling of membrane surface even after a longer operating cycle. The water vapor flux increased with temperature and decreased as the volumetric concentrating factor (VCF) increased. The mass transfer coefficient was found to be the highest for the air sparged—carbon nanotube immobilized membrane (AS-CNIM) integrated membrane distillation. While the highest change in mass transfer coefficient (MTC) was found for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane with air sparging at 70 °C.

Every year millions of tons of agricultural wastes are generated in the country. The percentage of Plastic waste is also increasing in the Municipal Solid Waste management system. These Biomasses or Agricultural wastes can be used as energy source directly. The problem is the energy efficiency and environmental pollution. Meanwhile waste plastics are recycled and a major portion of it goes to land filling. As plastics possess high fuel value, these can be combined with biomasses to prepare solid briquette. This current study looks to develop a good composition of Briquette which comprises of conventional Biomasses and Plastic waste. The total work is carried out in three segments; (i) Preparing a Lab grade Thermal Piston Press for Plastic-Biomass Briquette Manufacturing, (ii) Sample preparation with various proportion of Biomass and Waste Plastic, and (iii) Characterization of the prepared sample. From the study it is seen that the fuel value of Biomass Briquette increases with mixing of plastics, which minimizes water absorption and friability, increases storage capacity and strength. The characterization of Plastic-Biomass Briquette shows that with the addition of 10% waste plastic the calorific increases 40% by margin and doubles the compressive strength.