Chemical Reaction Engineering Group (CREG)

Congratulation to all CREG members.

Your high commitment in developing the proposals has been compensated by the grant funded by ExxonMobil.

Yeah..go..go!!

Malaysia BOLEH! CREG BOLEH!

A newspaper cut from Utusan Malaysia date 14th november 2008 showing “UTM terima geran RM30,000 geran ExxonMobil”.

ABSTRACT

An innovative process offers an environmental friendly technology for the production of alternative energy from a sustainable renewable resource. In the new process, EFB-Diesel is innovatively produced from biomass via a two-step reaction of pretreatment and pyrolysis. The reaction produced highly valuable oil (EFB-Diesel), gaseous and char. The conversion and the yield of EFB-Diesel were 58 wt% and 22 wt%, respectively. The innovative process is feasible for commercialization in the gas, fuel, and petrochemical industries.

Keywords: Renewable, wastes, fuel, energy

PROBLEM

Environmental concerns and petroleum depletion lure the search for a new alternative fuel. One such solution is to convert renewable agricultural biomass to energy source. Being the world’s largest producer of palm oil, Malaysia generates about 40 million tons of empty fruit bunches (EFB) annually.

Although EFB is utilized for power generation, the heating value of EFB is still small. Even pyrolysis of EFB produces bio-oil that contains mixtures of chemical components that do not meet the fuel specifications.

OUR SOLUTION

An innovative process was developed for the conversion of empty palm fruit bunch to fuel (EFB-Diesel). The invention offers promising solution for the recent controversial issue of biodiesel production from food sources. The quality of EFB-Diesel is comparable to the conventional bio-diesel.

ADVANTAGES OF INVENTION

ü New technology for conversion of Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EPFB) into Biodiesel

ü Environmental friendly alternative energy

ü Economically viable and sustainable method

ü Utilization of renewable resources

ü EFB-Diesel for heating oil or blended with diesel

PRODUCT FEATURES

· Converts solid biomass waste into renewable fuel

· Non-food source for biodiesel

· Waste to Wealth (W2W)

· High quality products

POTENTIAL MARKET

§ Solid Waste Management Industries

§ Agriculture Industries

§ Industrial Power Plants (eg. Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Malakoff, YTL)

§ Automotive Industries

PRODUCT PROPERTIES

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION KINDLY CONTACT:
Prof. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin
Chemical Reaction Engineering Group (CREG),
Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Enginering,                                                                           Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor.                                                                                     Tel: +607- 553 5502; +607- 553 6044                                                                                                        Fax: +607- 558 1463;  Email: noraishah@fkkksa.utm.my                                                      www.fkkksa.utm.my/creg, www.cregutm.com

Name: Maryam Khoshtinat Nikoo
Origin: Tehran- Iran
Status: Married
Secondary education: year: Mathematics, Tehran, 1992

First Degree, year: Chemical engineering- food industries, Tehran, 1996
Masters degree, year: Chemical engineering- process design of petroleum industries, Tehran, 2003
Ph.D degree, year: ongoing
Current project: Syngas and oxygenates generation via OCM reaction by a catalytic plasma reactor

E-mail: m_k_nikoo@yahoo.com

Papers and Conferences

1- Reactor type selection and catalyst used for hydrogen production via Methanol steam reforming (SRM) for fuel cells was presented in 14^th national congress of chemistry and chemical engineering (2003- Teacher Training University)

2- Deactivation kinetic modeling of commercial Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ catalyst in methanol steam reforming process was presented in 9^th national congress of chemical engineering (Iran university of Science and Technology- 2004)

3- Deactivation kinetics of steam methanol reforming for hydrogen production was accepted in congress of Fuel Cells Science and Technology (October 2004)-Munich- Germany.

4- Derivation of kinetic deactivation model for SRM on Cu/Zn/Al2O3 was presented in 10^th national congress of chemical engineering ( University of Zahedan-2005)

5- Environmental Effects Production Resources, Reduction and Removal Approaches of CO₂ was presented in 11^th national congress of chemical engineering (Tarbiat Modaress University- 2007)

6- Reduction and Removal Methods of Mercury in cell-Mercury chlorine-Alkali plants, Accepted in (second national conference on safety engineering and HSE management, University of Sharif-2008)

7- Waste of mercury, reduction methods, monitoring job environment and biological evaluation of CA plants in BIPC and in the world(1^st national petrochemical conference- Tehran 2008).

BOOKS

1- Oil well testing, Navid Naderpour., Maryam Khoshtinat Nikoo, 2008 PUBLISHED BY: SBS PUBLISHERS & DISTRIBUTORS PVT. LTD. ISBN: 978-81-89741-64-8. 2/9, GROUND FL., ANSARI ROAD, DARYA GANJ, NEW DELHI 110002, INDIA

NAME: Wan Nor Nadyaini Wan Omar

ORIGIN: Gua Musang, Kelantan

STATUS: Single

SECONDARY EDUCATION: Sek. Keb. Tg. Indra Petra, Gua Musang (2002)

FIRST DEGREE: Engineering (Chemical), UTM (2008)

MASTER DEGREE: On going

PROJECT: Development of Revolving Packed Bed Reactor for Biodiesel Production from Waste Edible Oil.

EMAIL: dd_puyau@yahoo.com / ddpuyau@gmail.com

Dear friends,

As mentioned previously, the EPFB project has contributed to 8 papers publication for national and international journal & proceedings. Below are the details about the publication.

1.       Pyrolysis of Lignin Degraded Empty Palm Fruit Bunch to Important Chemicals. Has submitted to Bioresource Technology on Oct 2008. (Status: under review)

2.       Pre-treatment of Empty Palm Fruit Bunch for Degradation of Lignin. Submitted to our local publisher, Jurnal Teknologi in the middle of year. (Status: under review

3.     Delignification of Empty Palm Fruit Bunches by Lignin Peroxidase for Biofuel Production. Presented by Prof. Dr. Nor Aishah at the 2nd South East Asian Technical University Consortium (SEATUC) Symposium, Bandung Indonesia on Feb 2008.

4.       Bio-Oil from Pyrolysis of Pre-Treated Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EPFB). Will be presented at Regional Symposium Chemical Engineering (RSCE) Kuala Lumpur on Dec 2008.

5.       Conversion of Chemically Treated Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EPFB) to Important Chemicals. Will be presented at Regional Symposium Chemical Engineering (RSCE) Kuala Lumpur on Dec 2008.

6.      Production Of Biofuel From Palm Oil And Oil Palm Biomass. Will be published as a review paper during the JSPS conference in Japan this end of year.

7.       Product Distribution Of Pyrolyzed Concentrated EPFB. Will be presented by Prof. Dr Nor Aishah Saidina Amin in the conference of JSPS, Japan.

8.       One paper that related on biodiesel production from EPFB is in the developing process. Our targeted international journal is FUEL.

We are currently looking for the direction of biomass research in our group. For those who have the idea on this topic, kindly contact our person in-charges, Ms Mailin and Mr Zaki Yamani.

Thank you very much for your support guys!!.

One of the CREG’s research project will be completed this end of year after 2 years being carried out. The project entitled “Production of Biofuel from Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) via Integrated Catalytic System” funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation (MOSTI) was started at Dec 2006.

This project, leaded by Prof. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin is purposely to produce biofuel from the abundant wastes generated by palm oil industries known as empty palm fruit bunch (EPFB). Through our innovative method technologies, three valuable products would be obtained namely bio-oil, gaseous and char.

The bio-oil can be used as an alternative energy source, raw material for energy related or as building blocks for the polymer and chemical industries. The gas product on the other hand can be used in fuel cells application, while the solid by-product of char is vital for the production of activated carbon or carbon black.

As information, the project was conducted by CREG Research Officers from various specialties and expertise. The main researcher is Mailin Misson from Biology and Bioprocess Eng. background, and assisted by Roslindawati Haron (Biology, Enzymology) and Mohd Fadhzir Ahmad Kamaroddin (Chemical Eng). 5 excellent undergraduate students had been selected to be involved in the project to make the project become more successful.

Besides, our hardworking and creative leader, Prof. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin together with our lecturers, Assoc. Prof. Dr Ramli Mat, Mr Zaki Yamani and Mr Mahadhir have developed CREG to a very strong and highly competitive research group.

With this innovative and established team, high impact research to the nation being was successfully completed. 8 papers were developed for national & international journals and proceedings, as well as 2 on-progress patents drafting were received.

More interestingly, our product namely EFB-Diesel (The Biodiesel from non-food Source) has been awarded as Silver Receiver on the Research Competition organized by UTM on last Aug. Through this innovative method to produce high quality Biodiesel, we are looking forward to have good research collaboration or even production contract with other organization outside.

CREG had been invited by the IEM, Malaysia Student Chapter UTM to join IEM UTM Engineering Week 2009 Exhibition. Following from that, CREG has submitted three (3) research output titles to be presented during the exhibition. The research titles are (1) New Biopolymer Materials from EPFB Pyrolysis Liquefaction (2) Two Step Process of Biodiesel Production from Waste Cooking Oil: Optimization of Pre-treatment step and (3) Enzymatic Pre-treatment of Empty Fruit Bunch (EPFB) for Biofuel Production. Here are the details:

Date: 17-18th January 2008

Time: 9am - 3pm

Venue: Dewan Sultan Iskandar, UTM

Thanks

CREG has submitted 3 technical papers to the 15th Regional Symposium on Chemical Engineering (RSCE) in conjunction with the 22nd Symposium of Malaysian Chemical Engineers (SOMCHE). The symposium will be held in Impiana KLCC, Kuala Lumpur from 2-3 December 2008.
Following are the titles of the technical papers submitted by CREG:

1. Influence of process variables on a dual bed catalytic system for methane conversion to liquid hydrocarbons
2. conversion of chemically treated empty palm fruit bunch (EPFB) to important chemicals (poster)
3. bio-oil from pyrolysis of pre-treated empty palm fruit bunch (EPFB) (poster)

A GOOD NEWS FOR ALL CREG MEMBERS!!!

WE HAVE DESIGNED A BEAUTIFUL AND SMART T-SHIRT WHICH PROMOTING OUR CREG GROUP, BESIDES ENCOURAGE  AND ENHANCE THE TEAMWORK SPIRIT AMONG CREG’S MEMBER. HOPE EVERYBODY CAN ENJOY WEARING THIS T-SHIRT AND DON’T FORGET, BE CREATIVE, RESOURCEFUL, EXCELLENT AND GLORY. BELOW ARE THE DESIGN FOR OUR TEES ( WILL BE CHANGE DUE TO REQUEST )…..