The electrospun nanofibers membranes have gained considerable interest in water filtration applications. In this work, the fabrication and characterization of the electrospun polyacrylonitrile-based nonwoven nanofibers membrane are reported. Then, the membrane's performance and antifouling properties were evaluated in removing emulsified oil using a cross flow filtration system. The membranes were fabricated with different polyacrylonitrile (PAN) concentrations (8, 11, and 14 wt. %) in N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent resulted in various average fiber sizes, porosity, contact angle, permeability, oil rejection, and antifouling properties. Analyses of surface morphology of the fabricated membranes before and after oil removal revealed increasing the fiber size, decreasing the fouling amount, and increasing the permeate flux. On the other hand, decreasing the fiber size resulting in increases the oil rejection. It was observed that 11 wt. % PAN based nonwoven nanofiber membrane was the optimum membrane for emulsified oil removal due to its good porosity, permeability with good oil rejection. In addition, fouled nonwoven nanofiber membrane cleaning was done by backwashing technique using warm distilled water which was effective in retaining the membrane permeability and oil rejection for 7 times. The obtained results confirmed an efficient performance of the fabricated nanofibers membrane for oil-water separation with oil rejection percentage of 92.5% and a permeate flux of 120 LMH.
The study aims to build a water quality index that fits the Iraqi aquatic systems and reflects the environmental reality of Iraqi water. The developed Iraqi Water Quality Index (IQWQI) includes physical and chemical components. To build the IQWQI, Delphi method was used to communicate with local and global experts in water quality indices for their opinion regarding the best and most important parameter we can use in building the index and the established weight of each parameter. From the data obtained in this study, 70% were used for building the model and 30% for evaluating the model. Multiple scenarios were applied to the model inputs to study the effects of increasing parameters. The model was built 4 by 4 until it reached 17 parame
... Show MoreIn the present research, the chemical washing method has been selected using three chelating agents: citric acid, acetic acid and Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid (EDTA) to remove 137Cs from two different contaminated soil samples were classified as fine and coarse grained. The factors that affecting removal efficiency such as type of soil, mixing ratio and molarity have been investigated. The results revealed that no correlation relation was found between removal efficiency and the studied factors. The results also showed that conventional chemical washing method was not effective in removing 137Cs and that there are further studies still need to achieve this objective.
This study was focused on biotreatment of soil which polluted by petroleum compounds (Diesel) which caused serious environmental problems. One of the most effective and promising ways to treat diesel-contaminated soil is bioremediation. It is a choice that offers the potential to destroy harmful pollutants using biological activity. The capability of mixed bacterial culture was examined to remediate the diesel-contaminated soil in bio piling system. For fast ex-situ treatment of diesel-contaminated soils, the bio pile system was selected. Two pilot scale bio piles (25 kg soil each) were constructed containing soils contaminated with approximately 2140 mg/kg total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). The amended soil:
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The research Compared two methods for estimating fourparametersof the compound exponential Weibull - Poisson distribution which are the maximum likelihood method and the Downhill Simplex algorithm. Depending on two data cases, the first one assumed the original data (Non-polluting), while the second one assumeddata contamination. Simulation experimentswere conducted for different sample sizes and initial values of parameters and under different levels of contamination. Downhill Simplex algorithm was found to be the best method for in the estimation of the parameters, the probability function and the reliability function of the compound distribution in cases of natural and contaminateddata.
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The present study has been carried out to estimate heavy metals mobility, bioconcentration and transfer from polluted soil to roots tissues and from roots tissues to aerial parts using bioconcentration factor and translocation factor. Soil samples and the biomass of the eight vegetable species have been collected during summer season, 2019 from four different sites in Wadi Al-Arg, Taif Governorate, KSA. In general, heavy metals content of soil samples in site III and IV have recorded elevated values compared with those of site I and II. The soil from site IV has shown the highest concentration of Mn, Ni, Cr, Pb, Cu, and Cd amounted 31.63, 14.05, 13.56, 22.79, 31.02 and 2.98 mg/kg dry soil respectively, while the soil from site III has sh
... Show MoreThis research presents a study for precipitating phosphorus (as phosphate ion) from simulated wastewater (5ppm initial concentration of phosphorus) using calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)2 solution. The removal of phosphorus by Ca (OH)2 solution is expected to be very effective since the chemical reaction is of acid-base type but Ca(OH)2 forms complex compound with phosphate ions called. Hydroxyapatite Ca5 (PO4)3OH. hydroxyapatite is slightly soluble in water. This research was directed towards sustainable elements as phosphorus. Kinetics of the dissolution reaction of hydroxyapatite was investigated to find the best factors to recover phosphorus. The effect of con
... Show MoreThis work was conducted to study the extraction of eucalyptus oil from natural plants (Eucalyptus camadulensis leaves) by organic solvents. the effects of the main operating parameters were studied; type of solvent (n-hexane and ethanol), time to reach equilibrium, the temperature (45°C to 65°C) for n-hexane and (45°C to 75°C) for ethanol, solvent to solid ratio (5:1 to 8:1 (v/w)), agitation speed (0 to 900 rpm) and the particle size (0.5 to 2.5 cm) of fresh leaves to find the best processing conditions for the achieving maximum oil yield. The concentration of eucalyptus oil in solvent was measured by using UV-spectrophotometer. The results (for n-hexane) showed that the agitation speed of 900 rpm, temperature 65°C with solvent to soli
... Show MoreThe world is confronted with the twin crisis of fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation caused by fossil fuel usage. Biodiesel produced from renewable feedstocks such as Jatropha seed oil or animal fats by transesterification offers a solution. Although biodiesel has been produced from various vegetable oils such as Jatropha seed oil, the reaction kinetics studies are very few in literature, hence the need for this study. Jatropha curcas seed oil was extracted and analyzed to determine its free fatty acid and fatty acid composition. The oil was transesterified with methanol at a molar ratio of methanol to oil 8:1, using 1% sodium hydroxide catalyst, at different temperature
... Show MoreThe faujasite type Y zeolite catalyst was prepared from locally available kaolin. For prepared faujasite type NaY zeolite X-ray, FT-IR, BET pore volume and surface area, and silica/ alumina were determined. The Xray and FT-IR show the compatibility of prepared catalyst with the general structure of standard zeolite Y. BET test shows that the surface area and pore volume of prepared catalyst were 360 m2 /g and 0.39 cm3 /g respectively.
The prepared faujasite type NaY zeolite modified by exchanging sodium ion with ammonium ion using ammonium nitrate and then ammonium ion converted to hydrogen ion. The maximum sodium ion exchange with ammonium ion was 53.6%. The catalytic activity of prepared faujasite type NaY, NaNH4Y and NaHY zeolites