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For the CREG News category

Visiting Professor from UTP

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Professor Uemura from Universiti Teknologi Petronas will pay a visit to CREG lab on this Thursday (11 Nov 2010). The following CREG members are required to give a short presentation (about 10 min per person) on their research:

1. Mr Zaki Yamani Zakaria

2. Ms Nazlina Ya’ani

3. Mr Javaid Akhtar

4. Ms Nurul Huda Zamzuri

5. Ms Wan Nor Nadyaini Wan Omar

Zaki Yamani Zakaria

Visit by Former CREG student, Dr. Istadi from Universiti Diponogoro (UNDIP), Indonesia

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Dr. Istadi paid a short but fruitful visit on the 4th of November 2010. Dr. Istadi was a Ph.D student with CREG from 2002 to 2006 and has produced a total of 9 refereed journal within that time. It was really good to have Dr. Istadi around, even for a short time. We hope CREG can collaborate with Dr. Istadi soon in future.

Photos will be uploaded soon.

GC-TCD Training

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A GC calibration/training by Agilent engineer was conducted on the 1st of November 2010. The training was conducted on GC #1 and #2. The training was attended by Mahadhir, Huda, Fadhzir and Zaki. The training strengthened our comprehension on how to handle and run the GC-TCD.

Photos will be uploaded soon.

New Pyrolysis Experimental Rig

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We are currently constructing a new pyrolysis experimental rig. The framework structure of the rig has been completed. Basically the rig is about 75% completed and is expected to be ready in mid November, complete with all relevant equipments and devices.

CREG’s New Research Officer

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The Chemical Reaction Engineering Group (CREG) has just received a new research officer, Mr. Haw Kok Giap.

He is actually a chemist who graduated from Chemistry Department, Faculty Science in 2008. He then pursued his study at Masters Degree level in chemistry field (full time by research) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and specialized in inorganic heterogeneous chemistry.

Presently, all CREG members are from chemical engineering background. With Mr. Haw around, providing chemistry input into the analytical research work, it will surely provide us with better discussion and analysis. Well, that is what we are aiming for.

Mr. Haw Masters degree titled is “Catalytic oxidative desulfurization of diesel utilizing peroxides, activated carbon and supported transition metals doped Molybdena“. He managed to published his research work in Fuel Processing Technology recently. Details of the publication is as shown below:

Kok-Giap Haw, Wan Azelee Wan Abu Bakar, Rusmidah Ali, Jiunn-Fat Chong, Abdul Aziz Abdul Kadir. 2010. Catalytic oxidative desulfurization of diesel utilizing hydrogen peroxide and functionalized-activated carbon in a biphasic diesel-acetonitrile system. Fuel Processing Technology. 91 (9), 1105-1112. Elsevier. Impact Factor: 2.321.

Mr. Haw first degree research title was: Oxidative desulfurization of diesel fuel with hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by activated carbon and organic acid.

If you are interested to contact Mr. Haw, you can email him at: hawkokgiap[alias]yahoo.com.

Price list of American olefins

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If you want to know about olefin price, you can refer to this site: http://www.lookchem.com/news/price/2010-6-22/394.html.

Propylene (CAS.NO.115-07-1)(refined level) : 40.12 – 40.38 cents (usd)/pound

Ethylene (CAS.NO.74-85-1) : 31.255 – 31.495 cents (usd)/pound

China moving on with their coal to olefins projects

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I’m interested in the glycerol to olefin project which supports the green technology efforts. However, China in the other hand, perhaps because they have substantial coal reserves have long planned to commission their Coal-to-Olefin (CTO) project. This is confirmed from the news which I just read from Steelguru.com, below:

It is reported that three Chinese factories making olefins from coal are slated to start up this year, part of a serious look that Beijing is taking at using its large coal reserves to reduce its heavy dependence on imported polyolefins. But before the government lifts some restrictions it imposed in May 2009 and allows more projects making polyethylene and polypropylene from coal, analysts say that government officials will want to see more details on the economic and environmental performance of the factories.

Mr Sun Weishan vice general secretary of the Beijing-based China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association Speaking at a recent industry conference in Beijing, several Chinese petrochemical industry officials urged the government to give coal-to-olefins work high priority, considering that the country imports about half of its PE and one-third of its PP. The three projects starting this year will provide a boost to China’s polyolefin supplies. The factories, in the coal belt of northern and western China, will have He said that capacity for 1.56 million tonnes of polyolefins, or about 6.9% of the country’s current PO capacity.

1st Annual World Congress of Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis-2010 (WCCAS-2010)

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The 1st Annual World Congress of Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis-2010
(WCCAS-2010) will be held from May 19 to May 21, 2010 in Beijing, China,
with a theme of ‘Create Bioactive Molecules Green and Economically’. This
is a focused event on Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis, it aims to stimulate
interactions among academia, industry and researchers in this field to
exchange up-to-the-minutes information and promote their novel
technologies. On behalf of the organizing committee of WCCAS-2010, we
cordially invite you as a speaker at Track 4-2: Asymmetric Synthesis of
Biocides or Pesticides to present and contribute your invaluable
experience.

Scope
WCCAS-2010 is expected to greatly contribute to the promotion of new
concepts for the development of efficient methodologies for catalytic
asymmetric synthesis and its practical applications. The topics will
reflect this general theme, placing emphasis on aspects that are common to
all areas of catalytic asymmetric synthesis and the type of reaction
involved:

Track 1: Novel Technologies for Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis

Track 1-1: Rational Ligand Designs and Novel Catalyst Screening
Technologies
Track 1-2: Microwave/Ultrasonic/Photo Assisted Asymmetric Catalysis  Track
1-3: Practical Chiral Catalyst Immobilization
Track 1-4: Nanotechnologies in Asymmetric Catalysis
Track 1-5: Non Air Sensitive or On-water Catalysis and Solid Phase Catalysis

Track 2: Organometallic Chiral Catalysts in Asymmetric Transformations

Track 2-1: Catalytic Asymmetric Alkylation
Track 2-2: Catalytic Asymmetric Additions
Track 2-3: Catalytic Asymmetric Hydrogenation and Reductions
Track 2-4: Catalytic Asymmetric Oxygenation
Track 2-5: Catalytic Asymmetric Carbon-Carbon Bond Formation
Track 2-6: Catalytic Asymmetric Epoxidation
Track 2-7: Catalytic Asymmetric Aziridination, Cyclopropanation and
Diels-Alder Reaction
Track 2-8: Catalytic Asymmetric Carbonylation
Track 2-9: Catalytic Asymmetric Amination and Introduction of Other Hetero
Atoms
Track 2-10: Catalytic Asymmetric Polymerization Reactions

Track 3: Enantioselective/ Diastereoselective Organocatalysis

Track 3-1: Chiral Lewis Base Organocatalysts
Track 3-2: Chiral Bronsted Acid Organocatalysts
Track 3-3: Peptide Based Chiral Organocatalysts
Track 3-4: Phase Transfer Chiral Organocatalysis
Track 3-5: Other Organocatalysis in C-N, C-O and C-C Bond formations

Track 4: Applications of Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis

Track 4-1: Asymmetric Synthesis in Drug Discovery and Processing
Track 4-2: Asymmetric Synthesis of Biocides or Pesticides
Track 4-3: Synthesis of Chiral Unnatural Amino Acids and other Natural
Products
Track 4-4: Enantioselective Synthesis of Analytical Chiral Compounds and
Intermediates
Track 4-5: Asymmetric Synthesis of Optical and other Special Functional
Materials

Track 5: Biocatalysis for Asymmetric Transformations

Track 5-1: Mild to Extremophilic Enzymatic Catalyzed Transformations
Track 5-2: Enzymatic Catalytic Degradations of Biopolymers and Chemical
Polymers
Track 5-3: Microbial and Antibody Catalyzed Asymmetric Reactions

Track 6: Business Development for High Value Chiral Molecules

Track 6-1: Enabled Enantioselective Catalysts on Market
Track 6-2: Purification and Analytic Instrumentation of Enantio-pure
Compounds

Scientific Program
The scientific program will consist of plenary and keynote lectures,
approximately 30 sessions, exhibition and a poster session.
More program information can be found at:
www.bitlifesciences.com/wccas2010
Abstracts of the lectures and posters will be printed in the Conference
Proceedings, which participants will receive at the registration desk and
is included in the registration fee.

Location
The capital city of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing is a
fast-growing, dynamic metropolis that, while courting foreign businesses
and visitors, maintains a firm grip on its rich cultural heritage. Beijing
made history in 2008 with the first Olympic Games ever to be held in
China. The conference will be held in Beijing International Convention
Center (BICC) which is located within the magnificent Asian Games Village.
It is one of the Chinese biggest facilities specifically designed for
conferences and exhibitions, comprising 50 conference halls and meeting
rooms equipped to serve a wide variety of purposes with the capacity from
10 up to 2500 people.

Looking forward to seeing you in Beijing in May, 2010

Sincerely Yours,

Ryan

Program Coordinator
26 Gaoneng St., R405, Dalian Hightech Zone
Dalian, LN 116025, China
Tel: 0086-411-84799609-811
Fax: 0086-411-84799629
Email: ryan@webbitmail.cn
Website: http://www.bitlifesciences.com/wccas2010

1. Are you interested in delivering a speech in this congress? Which session?

2. Would you like to chair or co-chair any session of this conference?

Session details PS: http://www.bitlifesciences.com/wccas2010/program.asp

Congratulations to REFRAC (RM 2.5 million grants)

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Hope this can inspire CREG whom is also under Energy Research Group (ERA)…

ERA would like to congratulates Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Group (REFRAC) head by Prof. Dr. Md Nor Musa for their success to get Symbiosis UTM-MTDC grant awarded by MTDC amounted RM 2.5 million.

REFRAC is going to commercialize their product called ATCS (Advanced Thermal Control System) and this grant is meant to develop a spin off company to commercialize the technology from UTM.

Congratulations!!

Thank you.

Mohd Fadhzir bin Ahmad Kamaroddin
Research Officer,
Energy Research Alliance (ERA)
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
81310 UTM Skudai, Johor
Tel: 07-5537849/37833 Fax: 07-5537849

Website: www.utm.my/era

PETRONAS Melaka-UTM CREG Collaboration

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currently, a joint-venture research study between CREG and Petronas Penapisan (Melaka) Sdn Bhd has been established as a PhD work of Mr.Fawzi M.Amin. The outlines of the research project summarized via an oral presentation presented by Mr.Fawzi while he did  approach Melaka site as follows:

  1. As the reactant feed to be tested via the catalytic pilot plant existing in the UTM/CREG laboratory consists of two different types of petroleum hydrocarbons (model compound: n-Decane doped with 1% S (DBT) and complex mixture, it has been recommended by both parties to use Melaka Blended cut (SRGO+SRLGO+DC)  as a real feed stock.
  2. Comparison study between two different types of catalysts in terms of activity, selectivity and stability will be carried-out. In this regard, the use of HDS catalyst on Melaka site is also proposed which will resulted in valuable information on evaluation of the currently used catalyst in term of sulfur removal, aromatics saturation, cetane index and deactivation due to coke deposition.
  3. As the proposed working plan include the optimization part of HDS operating conditions by developing mathematical models for the responses, an optimization study will carried out to optimize the currently operating conditions employed at the existing HDS unit at Melaka site using RSM approach.
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