Biodiesel is an attractive alternative fuel because of its nontoxicity and biodegradability properties. Biodiesel is produced through transesterification of vegetable oils’ triglyceride. It is obtained from vegetable oils or fats either by chemical or enzyme-catalyzed transesterification with methanol or ethanol. By using whole-cell biocatalyst immobilized within biomass support particles (BSPs...

Tubular ceramic foams were prepared by using natural clay as starting material and 120 ppi polyurethane foam as template via polymeric sponge method. Samples were sintered with different temperatures from 1200°C to 1280°C. The result shows that 1250°C is the ideal sintering temperature where the highest compressive strength of 1.980MPa at 47.31% porosity is obtained. The highest value in compre...

Ceramic foam or cellular ceramics are proposed as a new solid breeder material configuration. Such cellular breeder materials would have an open cell structure consisting of a network of three-dimensional interconnected ligaments. Ceramic breeder foams could address some of the challenges facing packed breeder beds and potentially enhance thermal performance, increase breeding ratio, and improv...

Uranium contamination of groundwater increasingly concerns rural residents depending on home wells for their drinking water in communities where uranium is a source of contamination. Established technologies to clean up contaminated aquifers are ineffective in large contaminated areas or are prohibitively expensive. Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) are a low-cost alternative to these methods....

The sugarcane industry generates huge amounts of sugarcane bagasse ashes (SCBA). This work investigates the incorporation of a SCBA waste as an alternative raw material into a clay body, replacing natural clay material by up to 20 wt.%. Clay ceramic pieces were produced by uniaxial pressing and fired at temperatures varying from 700 to 1100 oC. The technological properties of the clay ceramic p...

This study was conducted to analyze the properties of deposit soil dredged from a reservoir which was processed for efficient treatment and management. Before starting this study, the physicochemical properties and the heavy metal content of the deposit soil were investigated to collect the fundamental data. In a treatment experiment proposed to use the deposit soil, the deposit soli was separa...

A process has been developed for obtaining closed cell metallic foams using a ceramic foam precursor. In the present study, the major constituent of the ceramic foam precursor was iron oxide (Fe2O3), which was mixed with various foaming/setting additives. The mixture set rapidly at room temperature, stabilizing the foam generated by hydrogen release. The oxide foam was then reduced by annealing...

This paper describes current and on-going work in adapting Z-Corp 3D printers to operate with low-cost ceramic materials. The components produced with these clay-based ceramic powders can be fired to produce strong, complex and lightweight ceramic parts. The final material properties, including the porosity of the parts, can be controlled through the part design and, potentially, through additi...

Clay from deposit Bilalovac, Central Bosnia, was characterized by chemical, IR, XRD and DTA/TG analysis. The major mineral components are kaolinite, illite, muscovite and quartz. Raw clay may be used for pottery products and terracotta. Clay was beneficiated by wet method removing fraction over 20 μm. Beneficiation process increased content of kaolinite and decreased content of quartz. Benefici...

CONTEXT For the general population, the dominant source of exposure to dioxin-like compounds is food. As part of the University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study (UMDES), we measured selected polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in serum of 946 subjects who were a representative sample of the general p...