Chemical Engineering

Chromium removal from wastewater is becoming increasingly important both to meet discharge consents and prevent
eutrophication of water resources. A series of simple batch tests were conducted to investigate the influence of fly ash dosage on chromium adsorption from synthetic wastewater containing Chromium trioxide. Chromium removal of up to 84.5% was obtained. Different adsorption and kinetic models were studied namely; Langmuir, Freundlich, First order, Second order, Factorial power and Elovich and their constants were calculated. Using KL values, it is known that adsorption fits well in Langmuir isotherm. Second order kinetics is observed for the adsorption process carried out. Activated Fly ash is used in the treatment process. The effect of various
parameters such as initial pH, contact time, adsorbent amount and initial Cr (III) concentration are studied. Adsorption capacity and adsorption intensity were calculated. Rate constants and order of the reaction were determined and final rate equation was developed.

Although some amount of caffeine is good for health it has many serious health risks such as high blood pressure, hypertension among young adults, gout flare up, insomnia, indigestion, infertility, inhibition of collagen production in skin etc., Caffeine is an addictive drug whose consumption must be limited. Hence an alternate natural substance that looks tastes and smells like coffee that has no health risk is very much needed. Roasted date palm seed is taken as a substitute or coffee in this study. Date seed coffee powder is manufactured by washing, drying and roasting it for 30 minutes at 125°C. This date seed coffee powder was analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy and it revealed that it contains 0% caffeine (indicted by the absence of peaks 1600 and 1800 cm-1).This paper indicates that the 9 % roasted date seed powder can be used as a suitable alternate for coffee.

Objective: The present investigation was based on the design and evaluation of floating tablets of Pedalium murex and Tribulus terrestris fruit extracts as the medicinal source and the excipients that can enhance the bioactivity and prolong the gastric retention time. Methods: The fruit extracts were prepared from the powdered dry fruits of Pedalium murex and Tribulus terrestris using Soxhelt apparatus for 8 h. direct compression technique was used for the formulation of polyherbal floating effervescence tablets which consists of different compositions of Hydroxy Propyl Methyl Cellulose (HPMC K4M, HPMC K15M), Micro Crystalline Cellulose (MCC) and Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). The formulations were evaluated for thickness, hardness, friability, average weight variation, drug content, floating lag time, duration of floating and in vitro drug release. The data obtained from the in vitro dissolution studies were fitted in different models. Results: All the tablets were satisfactory during the preformulation studies while F11 polyherbal formulation showed the maximum floating time of 15 h, minimum floatation lag time of 35 s and drug release of 100.12%. The dissolution kinetic studies for the optimum formulation was found to follow Korsemeyer and Peppas model with R 2 value, rate constant KK and n as 0.9819, 1.0492 and 1.7385 respectively with a significance of P<0.05 and showed better results compared to that of film coated herbal tablets. Conclusion: Thus this polyherbal floating effervescence tablets can be used not only as an effective drug release method for herbal drugs to enhance their bioactivity but also as a replacement for film coated herbal tablets.

Urinary calculi are one of the most common disorders of the urinary tract seen all around the world. It is mainly due to the supersaturation of urine. Although there are many medical treatments there is no satisfactory drug to treat them. Urinary calculus is mainly composed of calcium oxalate (CaOx) which is formed due to the higher concentration of stone forming salts in urine. This study is aimed to look for an alternative treatment using Pedalium murex and Tribulus terrestris fruit ethanol extracts. To confirm the antiurolithiatic activity the extracts were tested in artificially prepared urine samples. The inhibitory effect of the extracts on CaOx was measured using UV-Vis spectrophotometer at 620 nm over various concentrations of extracts 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 μg/ml. A significant inhibitory effect on CaOx nucleation, crystal growth and aggregation in the urine sample was found. Maximum inhibition of nucleation of 84.5 % was observed for Pedalium murex and 81.3 % for Tribulus terrestris at concentration of 2600 μg/ml.

The dyeing process involves the use of inorganic salts (NaCl) in large quantities during the dye fixation of fabric and here the disposal of saline effluent from textile industries is an increasing problem worldwide. Zero discharge desalination process is the most promising technology to prevent addition of salinity and thermal shocks to ecosystem by effluent streams of desalination unit drained into the water bodies. Multiple Effect Evaporator and Crystallizer are the major equipment involved in conventional method of desalination of textile wastewater which require enormous amount of energy and produces a large quantity of contaminated unusable NaCl crystals that are stored unnecessarily. In order to overcome these complications, Capacitive Deionization (CDI) is one of the methods for treating RO reject. In this work, CDI with an activated carbon (AC) modified by nitric acid has been used as the electrodes for the desalination of simulated textile wastewater. The experimental results showed that the modification could greatly increase the efficiency of salt removal from the solution for various residence time and voltage. It was found that the modification greatly increased the oxygen-containing functional groups on the surfaces of activated carbon, leading to an increase in capacitance and decrease in charging resistance, which might be attributed to the improvement of the desalination.

Microspheres (MSs) of paramagnetic iron oxide (α-Fe2O3) embedded with palladium nanocubes (PdNCs) were biosynthesized using Myrtus cumini L. leaf extract. The synthesized PdNCs embedded α-Fe2O3 microspheres were characterized using FTIR, XRD and SEM/EDX. The FTIR spectrum of the Myrtus cumini L. leaf extract confirmed the presence of phenol, ester and amine groups that were involved in the bio-reduction of PdCl2 to PdNCs. SEM/EDX revealed that the PdNCs with size range of 15-250 nm were present on the surface of the synthesized microspheres. Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was employed for optimization of Methyl Orange (MO) decolorization using α-Fe2O3MSs and PdNCs embedded α-Fe2O3MSs at pH (1, 2 and 3), catalyst dosage (1, 3 and 5 g L-1) and reaction irradiation time (30, 60 and 90 min). It was found that PdNCs embedded α-Fe2O3MSs had maximum decolorization of 96.56 % at pH 1.72, catalyst dosage 2.69 g L-1 and irradiation time 68.34 min.