10 June – Final year students 4SKKB had finally presented their final plant design project. Well done to all especially my design group (Rachel, Khairul, Nadiah, Aisyah). They have completed the project on the “Design of 30,000 MTA Cocoa Butter Equivalent (CBE) Plant”.
10 Jun 2015
Early this week on 5th June we were shocked to hear about the earthquake that struck Ranau, Sabah with a magnitude of 6.0. This earthquake lasted for 30 seconds and is the strongest to affect Malaysia since 1976.
According to a geologist, the earthquake was caused by the presence of active fault lines. The tremors resulted in a rapid release of energy where seismic waves move in all directions from the source. As the centre of the earthquake was near to Mount Kinabalu, the focus caused massive landslides. Tremors follow along faults, or longitudinal cracks in the earth that have bent and snapped back like an elastic rebound. Then, aftershocks will take place, which are smaller tremors that occur while the Earth’s crust settles.
The source of the Poring Hot Springs turned murky for a few hours due to the earthquake, which disrupted a clay deposit that interrupts the fault gap that heats up the rainwater which enters the earth. The water flowed more smoothly and had access to more heat. Strong tremors in Ranau are predicted to continue whenever the stored energy exceeds the Earth’s ability to store it, in which occurs on a regular basis. In the case of Ranau, an earthquake will happen at an approximate rate of every 25 years.
During the earthquake, one of the peaks on Mount Kinabalu (called the Donkey’s Ears) was broken off. The water at Poring Hot Springs, a popular tourist area near Ranau, also turned black after the event. Other infrastructures were also reportedly damaged with around 23 schools in six different districts affected, while Ranau Mosque was effectively damaged due to the tremor.Serious damage occurred to the hostels and resthouse near the summit of Mount Kinabalu. Buildings were similarly affected by the earthquake in Kota Belud and Tuaran. The areas around Kundasang and Ranau suffered water supply disruption when the main water drainage pipe burst, and several plants in both regions were damaged with a leakage in the deposition tank.
187 climbers were impacted, according to Sabah official sources, with most of them from Malaysia and Singapore, and others from Australia, Canada, China, Denmark,India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. 137 of them were stranded but subsequently rescued. As of 7 June, 18 people of 5 nationalities were confirmed dead.
Source: Wikipedia
Location of Ranau
The Donkey’s ear: Before and after the earthquake
On 5th June 2015, we have given the opportunity to visit one of the biggest project by Petronas which is RAPID Pengerang. We have a short discussion with Ir. Adnan the possibilities for our program Creativity Station 2015 to visit the site in August.
Photos from our visit with Ir. Adnan. With Dr. Fadzil, Prof. Seo, Jiin, Pak Dwiki, Pak Subhan and Nabila.
Malaysian oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) is developing a refinery and petrochemical integrated development project (RAPID) and other associated facilities in Pengerang, Southern Johor, Malaysia, through a project called Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC).
Launched in May 2012, PIC is part of the larger Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) proposed by the Johor State Government. Total investment for the PIPC project is approximately RM97bn ($27bn), of which the RAPID project costs RM57bn ($16bn) and the associated facilities require RM40bn ($11bn).
Southern Johor was chosen as the location for the project due to its proximity to deepwater port facilities and regional demand centres. The location enables easy transport of finished products to the market.The complex will cover an area of 2,000ha and includes a 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude oil refinery and a petrochemical complex. These two projects together will produce 7.7mtpa of differentiated and specialty chemicals such as synthetic rubbers and high-grade polymers.
The RAPID project refinery will produce gasoline and diesel which will meet Euro 4 and Euro 5 fuel specifications. It will also supply feedstock for the petrochemical complex which will produce highly-specialised chemicals. The refinery will use modern technologies to produce these products and follow stringent environmental regulations.
Source: Rapid Project
Location of Pengerang
The area for RAPID project
UTM Centre for Student Innovation (UTM-CSI) provides conducive facilities to help students to develop mindset and skillset for creating, testing, and achieving ideas and innovations. It is located at Kolej Tuanku Canselor, UTM.
website: SOMChE2015
Organized by:
Department of Chemical & Process Engineering
&
Fuel Cell Institute
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
7th June 2015 – Congratulations to all UTM staff who have been awarded “Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang 2014” (Excellent Service Award). From FKK, Prof Dr. Ida Idayu, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Haslenda, Prof Dr. Ani Idris have been awarded Innovation award, Best Research award, and Publication award. Faculty of Chemical Engineering has won the Academic Quality Award 2014 against Faculty of Built & Environment and Faculty of Civil Engineering.
27 September – 1 October 2015
Melbourne, Australia
APCChE is a bi-annual conference for the Asian Pacific community of chemical and process engineers and industrial chemists who come together to discuss latest developments in the field, recognise outstanding achievement and share lessons learned.
website: APCChE 2015
My Masters student, Reiza Mutia has been awarded Best paper in recent IICIST conference on 20th April 2015 in Kuala Lumpur with paper titled “Optimization of Cocoa Butter Equivalent Production from Formulated Hard Palm Oil Mid-fraction and Canola Oil Blends”.
