Sharif Digital Repository

The experimental investigation of biodiesel production stages from microalgae especially biomass production stage was conducted in this thesis. The optimal rate of biomass productivity was determined.
A photobioreactor was designed and constructed to cultivate microalgae C. Vulgaris according to researchers’ works and obtained results in this study. The process parameters were examined and the optimal parameters were obtained according to the necessary tests which were carried out.
According to the results, the optimal condition for growing of microalgae was obtained with aeration of 6 lit/min with 3% CO2, and CO2 injection regime of 45 sec. injection and 3 min. of stoppage. A rapid... 

Biodiesel as an alternative fuel for fossil diesel has many benefits such as reducing regulated air pollutants emissions, reducing greenhouse gases emissions, being renewable, biodegradable and non-toxic. In this study, used frying oil was used as a low cost feedstock for biodiesel production by sodium silicate as an alkaline catalyst in transesterification reaction in order to optimize the conditions of biodiesel production. The factors studied were: reaction temperature, molar ratio of methanol to oil, catalyst amount and catalyst recovering. The optimum conditions of reaction obtained as follows: methanol to oil molar ratio of 7:1(mol⁄mol), catalyst amount of 3% w/w and reaction... 

The experimental investigation of biodiesel production stages from microalgae especially lipid extraction stage was conducted in this thesis. The optimal rate of biomass productivity and optimal method in lipid extraction for biodiesel production was determined.
A photobioreactor was designed and constructed to cultivate microalgae C. Vulgaris according to researchers’ works and obtained results in this study. The process parameters were examined and the optimal parameters were obtained according to the necessary tests which were carried out. Then, several methods of lipid extraction using different solvents such as chloroform, methanol, and n-hexane were investigated and the best... 

Blend of Polycarbonate/ poly(butylene terephthalate) is among the most famous blends of polycarbonate/polyester with vast engineering applications and unique properties. Miscibility and compatibilization of this blend are important as they directly influence the general properties.Transesterification which occurs in the melt state, is a series of cutting and rejoining of dissimilar polymer chains. The reaction ruins the order of pure chains and forms block copolymers of different natures. Further progress in transesterification lead into a completely random copolymer of initial chains. Time, temperature and addition of catalyst can effectively influence transesterification.In this study,... 

In this research, experimental study and modeling of biodiesel production process from microalgae has been investigated. First, to have a biomass with suitable lipid content, a novel two-step process based on cultivation under nutrient sufficient followed by cultivation under nitrogen starvation condition has been proposed. Then the effect of using different organic and inorganic carbon sources on this process has been investigated which the results indicated that sodium acetate had a better performance compare to other carbon sources. In the following, the effect of using different light regimes on growth rate, lipid content and fatty acid composition have been investigated. Experimental... 

Biodiesel has drawn the attention of many researches to itself as a replacing source for crude oil, recently. Transesterification is one of the most popular methods used for biodiesel production. Enzyme transesterification is a more simple method in comparison with acidic or basic transesterification. However, the high price and low yield of enzyme transesterification has caused many obstacles in its application. Enzyme engineering has gained much attention as a way to improve enzyme performance. In this thesis, biodiesel production by a native enzyme named Bacillus thermocatenulatus, and two engineered-enzymes is studied. First, effective parameters and variables in biodiesel production by... 

This study aims at synthesizing and investigating of heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production as an alternative to fossil fuel with the transesterification of oil and methanol. Three main sections of this thesis concern the synthesis of nano-catalysts, characterization analysis, and investigation of the transesterification reaction under different condition. Two series of heterogeneous catalysts, including different molar ratios of X%Li/Ca-La (X=0-7%) and Ca/Talc (Ca, 3Ca/1Talc, 1Ca/1Talc, 1Ca/3Talc, Talc) has been synthesized as active and stable catalysts to study the transesterification reaction of canola oil and methanol for biodiesel production. Prepared catalysts have been... 

Nowadays, one of the most basic human problem is how to manage energy resources for sustainable development and how to deal with problems caused by growing energy consumption. Various scenarios are being discussd that the most important of them can be considered research on finding alternative energy sources that are renewable and do not have common pollution. Thus, according to researches carried out until now, using sources such as wind, water, solar biomass, etc. have been proposed. However, due to problems in the development of each of these sources, biomass as the primary option has been introduced. because biomass has several subsidiaries, research shows microalgaes (as a subset) are... 

The purpose of this study is to study heterogeneous nanocatalysts for the production of biofuels by the method of exchange of styrene using oil and methanol as a fossil fuel alternative. Preparation of nanocatalysts, performing characteristic tests and investigating the reaction in different operating conditions in the batch reactor has already been studied. Therefore, in this study, the production of biodiesel fuel using the trans-esterification of canola oil with nanocatalysts in the micro-reactor reactor will be discussed. Previously, a heterogeneous catalyst (lithium based on calcium-lanthanum) was constructed using a co-incineration method and a wet inoculum, and as active and stable... 

The aim of this project is to investigate and synthesize CaO-based nanocatalysts derived from chicken eggshell calcination with alkali metals and sodium-potassium compounds promoters used in the transesterification reaction of canola oil and methanol. Sections of this thesis include the synthesis of nanocatalysts, catalyst characterization tests, and investigation of reaction under optimal conditions. Two groups of catalysts containing different weight percentages of alkali metals based on CaO and 1 %wt sodium-potassium based on CaO with different weight percentages of these two elements were synthesized by wet impregnation method and used in the reaction under optimum condition. Catalyst... 

This study aims at synthesizing and investigating of heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production as an alternative to fossil fuel with a transesterification reaction of sunflower oil and methanol. Three main sections of this thesis concern the synthesis of clay base catalyst, characterization analysis, and investigation of the transesterification reaction under different conditions. Talc clay base catalyst impregnated with a 40 wt.% of K2CO3 as active and stable catalysts to study the transesterification reaction of sunflower oil and methanol for biodiesel production. Synthesized catalysts have been characterized by power X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM),... 

The aim of this study is developing and investigating heterogeneous catalysts based on natural calcite for the transesterification of canola oil and methanol in order to produce biodiesel as a renewable and alternative fuel for fossil fuels. At first calcite was calcined at high temperature to decompose calcium carbonate to calcium oxide. Afterward, Mg-Zr/CaO catalysts were prepared with mass ratio of 2:1 Mg:Zr and different weight percent(2.5, 5,7.5 and 10 wt%) on calcite supported by impregnation method. In order to characterized synthesized catalysts used different analysis such as energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy... 

The aim of this project is to fabricate and study heterogeneous CaO-based nanocatalysts with lithium and zinc enhancers for the esterification reaction of rapeseed oil and methanol to produce biodiesel as a renewable and alternative fuel for fossil fuels. Is. First, Zn-Li / CaO catalysts with weight ratio Li: Zn: CaO, 2: 2: 7 and by combining different percentages of Li100% promoter, Li75% -Zn25%, Li50% -Zn50%, Li25% -Zn75%, 100% Zn were made on the basis of CaO by wet inoculation. Characterization tests to evaluate the structure and characterization such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (EDX) spectroscopy, Bruner-Emmett-Teller... 

The aim of this project is to inventigate and synthesize CaO-based nanocatalysts with metal promoters of magnesium and lithium by wet impregnation and coprecipitation methods, which are used in the transesterification reaction of canola oil and methanol. Sections of thesis include review of before researches , synthesis of nanocatalysts, catalyst characterization tests,and investigation of reaction under optimal conditions. In wet impregnation method, nanocatalysts were made with 5% by weight of lithium-magnesium on the basis of CaO and with different weight percentages of these two elements. In the co-precipitation method , catalysts with a combined base of calcium oxide/magnesium oxide ... 

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is known as the most important polyester in the world. This polymer is the raw material for synthetic fibers, films and plastic objects and widely used in textiles and food industry. In this project transesterification and polycondensation reactors of a semi-batch process with dimethyl terephthalate/ethylene glycol feedare simulated. First simulations areperformed for reactors in the laboratory scale.Then the reactors are scaled up to industrial scale in order to produce 100 tons per year of PET product. The optimal temperature trajectory for the fisrt reactor is obtained based on a performance index. This performance index includes the reaction time and... 

In this research, we studied the effect of compatibilizer and short glass fiber on microstructure and mechanical properties of PBT/PC blends. Fisrt, Antioxidants and sodium pyrophosphate dibasic were used to suppress transesterification in PBT/PC Blend. The results showed that best composition occur when both of them are used. In the next step, we used 3%wt MBS (methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene) and saw that this weight percent of this compatibilizer doesn’t useful. Moreover addition of short glass fiber to PBT/PC was examined and the results showed that mechanical properties of composite are extensively increased. Also in this step, we proved this idea that we can replace some of PBT... 

This project evaluates the feasibility of using waste salmon fish bones as the reusable and low cost solid catalyst support for synthesis of biodiesel from waste sunflower oil via transestrification method. Calcinated waste fish bone derived hydroxyapatite (HAP) was employed as the supporter for KOH & K2CO3 to prepare an efficient solid base catalyst for biodiesel production. The catalyst were characterized by SEM-EDS, XRD, FTIR, BET, TGA, ICP. The effects of catalyst preparation conditions (such as fish bone and KOH or K2CO3 calcination temperature, loading of KOH or K2CO3 on the support), reaction conditions (such as reaction time, methanol/oil molar ratio, reaction temperature and...