Abstract:The main objective of this work is to develop film and study the thermal characteristics of polysaccharides films at various concentration of carrageenan in the mixture by calculating activation energy of polysaccharides films. There were four (4) film samples of two polysaccharides combination; arabic gum (AG) and carrageenan (C) with different formulations; sample A, sample B, sample C and sample D prepared. Sample A film is the control sample that contained only arabic gum and distilled water (DI) with 40% weight arabic gum per volume DI water (w/v%). Meanwhile for sample B and C were prepared with concentration 40 w/v% of Arabic gum and two differents of carrageenan concentrations; 1 w/v% and 10 w/v% respectively. Polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400) as a plasticiser was added into sample D film. The sample films were thermally characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under nitrogen atmosphere. The major thermal transitions as well as, activation energies of the major decomposition stages were determined. Sample A and B films exhibited the highest (112.43 kJ/mol) and the lowest (102.89 kJ/mol) activation energy of thermal decomposition, respectively. The activation energies were lower at larger amounts of sulfate groups from carrageenan on the degradation reactions. The DSC trend for all samples shows two (2) major intense peaks recorded in the DSC thermograms; an endothermic transition at temperature around 100 °C and followed by an exothermic transition at temperature around 300 °C. The endothermic transition is due to the heat absorption for dehydration of water, H 2 O and the decomposition of samples process. Meanwhile, the exothermic transition is caused by the formation of H 2 O, CO and CH 4 in polysaccharide film from dehydration, depolymerisation and decomposition at the high-temperature stages.
At present, plant-based hard capsule such as hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) has a high demand in drug delivery application but the production process is expensive with limited reactant supply. κ-carrageenan has been used as a gelling agent in HPMC hard capsule production. This study aims to develop gum Arabic (GA)-κ-carrageenan biocomposite, a potential material to produce hard capsule. The GA-κ-carrageenan biocomposite films were prepared at different κcarrageenan weight ratios of 33% (GC33), 50% (GC50) and 67% (GC67) at constant concentration of polyethylene glycol and alginate. The control films of GA film and κ-carrageenan film were compared. The film and hard capsule formed from GC67 shows the highest tensile strength and capsule loop of 36.21 MPa and 34.11 N, respectively at 1058 mPa.s solution viscosity at 300 rpm shear rate. The hard capsule disintegrated at 7.30 min. The addition of GA is compatible to make the hard capsule surface smoother. Thus, this biocomposite has the potential to be developed for future hard capsule.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) in Malaysia mainly consists of food waste. As food waste is of organic compounds, its improper management may cause serious environmental issues, as it may produce greenhouse gases and polluting leachate. Alternative management of the food waste is through its utilization. However, the main issue in the utilization of food waste is its heterogeneity, whereby the diversified cooking methods, as well as food origin, emanates different characteristics. Hence, food waste needs to be pre-treated through the torrefaction process, which is a thermochemical method that converts it to biochar at a temperature between 200–300 °C in an inert environment. The main aim of this work is to evaluate the feasibility of food waste as a potential source of energy through the torrefaction process. The torrefaction of food waste was conducted in a vertical tubular reactor under an inert atmosphere. The results obtained from this study showed that as torrefaction temperature became more severe, the produced torrefied solid is more energy-dense, with apparent higher fixed carbon content and improved heating values. These findings imply that food waste may be able to be utilized as a solid biofuel, with fuel properties comparable to conventional fuels.
Oil palm fronds (OPF) and trunks contribute the highest biomass availability compared with other oil palm wastes. At the moment, they are usually left on the ground around the plantation area to decompose naturally and fertilize the soil. Previous researchers have focused on torrefaction of wood residues and other agricultural biomass with less attention has been paid to the utilization of Malaysia’s biomass such as OPF. Therefore, in this study, torrefaction of OPF was conducted in a tubular reactor at temperatures between 200 and 300 °C and residence time of 30 min. The results reveal an improved heating value as the temperature was increased, from 16.81 to 20.32 MJ/kg after the torrefaction process. The van Krevelen diagram also proved that torrefaction OPF could be classified as an intermediate, between raw OPF and coal. This proves the potential of OPF as one of the alternative feedstocks for energy production process through torrefaction.
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