Finally, my PhD battle is over

Posted on November 21, 2013 ·

This is the chronological story…

After roughly 4 years, I successfully completed defending my doctorate study. Alhamdulillah. Praise be only to Allah. It has been such a challenging and tough experience, discipline demanding which at finally end up with a happy ending. Thanks to everybody who have been supporting and helping me.

I wished I can immediately update and announce this wonderful news to the world (I mean my blog). Unfortunately I was quite hectic with work. I guess now, that I am already an active lecturer, I lost the luxury of time and freedom. I am now subjected and answerable to several bosses and superiors. They can give me task, assignments and anything, you name it – I must do it.

My PhD journey was not as fast as I have expected. I targeted to complete my PhD within 3 years. However, many things happen. It took me 4 years and 4 months. Below, I would like to share my PhD timeline.

 

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My New Publication in Biomass Bioenergy

Posted on November 20, 2013 ·

I managed to published my second journal for my PhD in another reputable Q1 journal.

Zaki Y. Zakaria, Nor Aishah Saidina Amin, Juha Linnekoski, Perspective on catalytic conversion of glycerol to olefins, Biomass and Bioenergy 55 (2013) 370-385. Impact Factor: 2.975 (PDF).

A perspective on catalytic conversion of glycerol to olefins
Zaki Y. Zakaria, Nor Aishah Saidina Amin, Juha Linnekoski

Glycerol, an alcohol and oxygenated chemical from biodiesel production, has enormous potential to be converted into higher value-added fuels and chemicals. Conversion of glycerol to olefins, although relatively new, has been proven viable by the limited number of literatures available. However, the studies on alcohol-to-hydrocarbons involving methanol and ethanol conversions to hydrocarbons (MTHC and ETHC) have extensively been conducted. Due to the increasing amount of glycerol produced worldwide and the importance of olefins in the industry, it is therefore essential to have broadened knowledge on the technology of glycerol conversion to olefin (GTO). This review focuses on GTO with reference to the more established MTHC and ETHC studies. The chemistry and reaction schemes for methanol and ethanol reactions to produce hydrocarbons are also reviewed to provide some basics study for GTO. Catalytic conversion processes with different raw
materials for obtaining olefins are then compared with GTO. GTO offers viable, sustainable and environmental friendly technology for green olefins production from renewable resources, and concerted efforts should be geared to explore its potential.

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Biomass Energy in Malaysia

Posted on November 17, 2013 ·
Biomass is one of the renewable energy sources are most important in biofuel National Malaezia.Politica launched in 2006 to promote the use of environmental resources, biomass energy sustainable and viable. In the five basic fuel, the Malaysian government has identified as one of biomass energy potential of renewable sources. Malaysia atleast produce 168 million tons of biomass, including wood and palm oil waste, rice husk fiber, coconut wood, municipal waste and waste from sugar cane per year. As a major producer of agricultural commodities in the region, Malaysia is well positioned among the ASEAN countries to promote the use of biomass as a renewable energy source. 

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Malaysia is one of the largest producer and exporter of palm oil in the world for forty years ago. The palm oil industry, in addition to the production of crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel oil, producing Palm Shell, Press Gentian, empty fruit bunches (EFB), Palm Oil Mill Wastewater Effluent (POME), Palm Trunk (during replanting) and Palm Leaf (during cutting). Almost 70% of the processing of fresh fruit bunches are eliminated as waste. Malaysia has about 4 million hectares of land under oil palm plantations. Over 75% of the total planted area is located in four states, Sabah, Johor, Pahang and Sarawak, each of which has over half a million hectares. Total value of FFB processed (fresh fruit bunches) is estimated at 75 million tonnes, while total product EFB estimated 16.6 million tonnes. About 58 million tonnes of POME are produced annually in Malaysia, which has the potential to produce approximately 1:15 billion m3 of biogas can be produced every year.
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Chemical Reaction Engineering

Posted on October 19, 2013 ·

Chemical engineering disciplines as a chemical reaction that began in the early 1950s under the impetus of researchers and research centers Shell and Delft University of Amsterdam. The chemical reaction of Electrical works by JC Vlugter after First European Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering, which was held in Amsterdam in 1957.

Chemical chemical reaction (reaction or electrical reactor technology) specialized in chemical, electrical, chemical, or house to store chemical reactors. A word that is often associated with the system catalyzed reactions of two or several aspects of a person will be present in the reactor. The reactor itself is not, and is integrated in the system, for example, reactive separation vessels, retorts, cells light oil, photocatalytic surface. Solvent effects on the reaction kinetics and is considered an important part.

The chemical reaction for monitoring electrical and optimize chemical reactions and reactor design best. Therefore it is very important to connect the structure of the reactor feed and the relationship between the phenomenon of flow, mass transfer, heat transfer, and reaction kinetics. Although initially used for the Petroleum and Petrochemical, all concepts that combine chemistry and chemical technology that makes it possible to optimize the various methods of modeling and reaction conditions of the program. The chemical reaction of certain electrical engineering approach to the development of new processes and upgrading existing technologies.

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The Interesting of Solar Energy

Posted on October 17, 2013 ·
Solar energy comes from the sun as fuel to create heat or electricity. Solar technology fall into two categories: passive and active. Passive solar heat generation and provide exposure to the structure. Active solar energy to produce electricity using a technology called the Solar Photovoltaic (PV), or heat, hot water or electric technology called Solar Thermal.
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Solar energy is considered environmentally friendly because the sun is a natural source of energy that does not require the burning of fossil fuels and emissions associated online. In addition, because it is considered a renewable energy generated from the sun does not reduce any of the natural resources, and endless.Solar energy, however, is called intermittent source, which means that it is not always there. When it is cloudy or rainy, the sun is not there to give light, and solar energy systems can not produce energy. Therefore, many systems are designed with one of several types of energy storage characteristics, or backup source of energy, such as electricity networks. Additional features allow users to continue to operate the rear even if the sun does not shine.

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Catalyst Engineering

Posted on October 6, 2013 ·
Catalysis Group focuses on the development and demonstration of catalysis and reactor engineering focuses on the concept of a new sustainable technologies with emphasis on the seriousness of the process, feed efficiency of cattle stock, and reduction of energy consumption and the impact of human activities on the environment and industry.
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Renewable Energy

Posted on August 27, 2013 ·
Movement or renewable energy can be defined as the energy that comes from natural sources plus the human time scales such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat wave integrated response replaces conventional fuels in four different areas:. Power generation, hot water / space heating, motor fuel, and the city (off–grid) energy.
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Based on REN21 2014 report, renewable energy accounted for 19 percent of our energy consumption and 22% of our electricity generation in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Second, during this movement, such as water, wind, solar and biofuels, as well as traditional biomass, accounted for about the same domain as the global power supply. Worldwide investment in renewable technologies and more than US $ 214 billion in 2013, with countries such as China and the United States invested heavily in wind, hydro, solar and biofuels [1].Amendment to a wide area, and various other sources of power, which is concentrated in a few countries. Fast action renewable power and energy efficiency led to the need for security, climate change mitigation, and economic benefits and the national public opinion survey that there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power and wind power and the national level, at least 30 countries around the world now have a renewable energy accounts for more than 20 percent of the power supply. State renewable energy market is expected to continue to grow in the coming decade and beyond.
Reference
1) REN21 (2014). “Renewables 2014: Global Status Report”. pp. 13, 17, 21, 25. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014.
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Electric Car

Posted on July 16, 2013 ·

All-electric vehicles (EVs) run on electricity only. Electric Cars use the energy stored in a battery (or series of batteries) for vehicle propulsion. Electric motors provide a clean and safe alternative to the internal combustion engine. There are many pros and cons about electric cars. The electric vehicle is known to have faster acceleration but shorter distance range than conventional engines. They produce no exhaust but require long charging times. This page provides articles about electric car technologies. They are propelled by an electric motor (or motors) powered by rechargeable battery packs. EVs have several advantages over vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICEs):

  • Energy efficient. Electric vehicles convert about 59–62% of the electrical energy from the grid to power at the wheels—conventional gasoline vehicles only convert about 17–21% of the energy stored in gasoline to power at the wheels.*
  • Environmentally friendly. EVs emit no tailpipe pollutants, although the power plant producing the electricity may emit them. Electricity from nuclear-, hydro-, solar-, or wind-powered plants causes no air pollutants.
  • Performance benefits. Electric motors provide quiet, smooth operation and stronger acceleration and require less maintenance than ICEs.
  • Reduce energy dependence. Electricity is a domestic energy source.
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Paper Presentation in International Graduate Conference on Engineering, Science and Humanity (IGCESH 2013)

Posted on April 17, 2013 ·

I presented a paper in an international conference recently. Following are the details of the paper and abstract:

Zaki Yamani Zakaria, Nor Aishah Saidina Amin, Juha Linnekoski, Thermodynamic Analysis of Glycerol to Ethylene, Presented in International Graduate Conference on Engineering, Science and Humanity (IGCESH 2013), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor. 16-17 April 2013. (PDF)

Thermodynamic Analysis of Glycerol to Ethylene

Abstract—Thermodynamic equilibrium analysis of glycerol steam reforming to ethylene has been investigated based on the total Gibbs free energy minimization method. Equilibrium product compositions for glycerol steam reforming were determined for temperatures ranging from 573–1273 K and GWR (glycerol/water ratio) 1:12 to 2:1 at 1 bar pressure. The objectives of this study are to identify the thermodynamic range of the process operation and study the variation of product distribution. It was found that the formation of ethylene was difficult to accomplish and the amount of ethylene produced is very small. Other means to encourage the formation of more ethylene is required.

Keywords: glycerol to ethylene, glycerol steam reforming, thermodynamic modeling, glycerol conversion, biomass conversion

More of my published journals are published here.

 

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Workshop at Shanghai, 2011

Posted on December 29, 2012 ·

One of the beauty of being an academician is the opportunities to travel in line of duty. Reasons could be due to attending conference, workshop, research exhibition, research competition, invited speaker, plenary speaker, research collaboration, post doctoral, research attachment and many other things.

zaki-shanghai

This was in Shanghai, when we attended the first SCRIP Engineering Workshop in 2011.

 

Read related post such as Research attachment at Newcastle University.

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