Sharif Digital Repository

Microalgae's biomass productivity and oil content depend heavily on the method of its cultivation. In this study, nutrient removal from municipal wastewater by Chlorella vulgaris in batch culture was investigated. Carbon dioxide was supplied from sodium hydrogen carbonate. Effect of parameters including light intensity, sodium hydrogen carbonate concentration, and daily illumination time on the productivity of biomass and lipid was investigated. Lipid and biomass production of C.vulgaris increased at higher concentration of sodium hydrogen carbonate concentration and higher light intensity until a certain value and then decreased, but longer daily illumination time, increased both biomass... 

Paenibacillus polymyxa ATCC 21830 was used for the production of curdlan gum for first time. A Box-Behnken experimental design was applied to optimize six variables of batch fermentation culture each at three levels. Statistical analyses were employed to investigate the direct and interactive effects of variables on curdlan production. Optimum cultural conditions were temperature (50. °C), pH (7), fermentation time (96. h), glucose (100. g/L), yeast extract (3. g/L) and agitation speed (150. rpm). The yield of curdlan production was 6.89. g/L at optimum condition medium. Response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) were used to model cultural conditions of curdlan... 

Originally, the application of nano zero valent iron/nickel (nZVI/Ni) particles for nitrate removal in porous media was studied. nZVI/Ni was prepared and employed in batch and continuous modes. Based on batch experiments, the reaction kinetics was consistent with the adsorption model by the order of 1-1.5. The variation of the kinetics order depends on pH and nickel content. So that highest reactivity was observed for nZVI with 10% of Ni at pH ≤ 3. Nitrate remediation in a continuous system was mostly influenced by seepage velocity, quantity and freshness of nZVI/Ni and particle size of porous media. In a batch mode, the maximum nitrate removal was 99% while in a continuous mode it did not... 

The aim of this research work is to investigate sorption characteristic of acid treated brown algae Sargassum bevanom (acid treated S. bevanom) for the removal of Cr(VI) ions from aqueous solutions. The acid-treated alga was prepared by transferring the S. bevanom into 0.5. M HCl and then stirring the mixture at 300. rpm for 6. h at room temperature. The sorption of Cr(VI) ions by batch method is carried out. The optimum conditions of biosorption were found to be: a biomass dose of 0.7. g in 100. ml of Cr(VI), contact time of 110. min and pH 3, respectively. In optimum condition, removal efficiency was 89.64%. It was found that temperature has a positive effect on the removal efficiency.... 

Biosurfactants are microbial substances which influence interfacial tension. The kinetic study was carried out for Pseudomonas aeruginosa MR01 during biosurfactant production in a two-phase liquid-liquid batch fermentation system. The maximum rhamnolipid concentration (Pmax) and the yield of biosurfactant per 1 biomass (YP/X) in a 5-L bioreactor containing soybean oil medium were found to be approximately 20.9 g.L and 3.1 g.g-1, respectively. Previously reported kinetic models in aqueous systems, three-parameter Gompertz, 2 Luedeking-Piret and Mercier equations, demonstrated adequate goodness-of-fit (r >0.9) to kinetic data recorded for biomass growth, nitrate consumption and rhamnolipid... 

Many research works in mathematical modeling of the facility location problem have been carried out in discrete and continuous optimization area to obtain the optimum number of required facilities along with the relevant allocation processes. This paper proposes a new multi-objective facility-location problem within the batch arrival queuing framework. Three objective functions are considered: (I) minimizing the weighted sum of the waiting and the traveling times, (II) minimizing the maximum idle time pertinent to each facility, and (III) minimizing the total cost associated with the opened facilities. In this way, the best combination of the facilities is determined in the sense of... 

Incremental learning has been used extensively for data stream classification. Most attention on the data stream classification paid on non-evolutionary methods. In this paper, we introduce new incremental learning algorithms based on harmony search. We first propose a new classification algorithm for the classification of batch data called harmony-based classifier and then give its incremental version for classification of data streams called incremental harmony-based classif ier. Finally, we improve it to reduce its computational overhead in absence of drifts and increase its robustness in presence of noise. This improved version is called improved incremental harmony-based classifier. The... 

In this paper, the sorption of uranium onto nanoporous silica adsorbent in the presence of nitrate, sulfate, chloride, fluoride and phosphate was studied. The effect of contact time between the nanoporous sorbent and aqueous solution, pH and initial concentration of uranium was also investigated. Uranium sorption onto nanoporous silica adsorbent is a very fast process as sorption rate increases with pH increment. Optimum pH for uranium sorption was 4-8. Experimental sorption isotherm is successfully described by Langmuir and Freundlich models. The results obtained by batch experiments showed that the presence of high concentration of nitrate, sulfate, chloride and phosphate anions alone had... 

The effects of temperature, seed mass and agitation rate on agglomeration kinetics of aluminum hydroxide in Bayer process have been studied in a batch system. Collected raw data were analyzed and the kinetics data of agglomeration were derived through simulation of the process using a pre-developed software. The results showed that agglomeration kinetics constant (agglomeration kernel) increases with increase in temperature and agitation rate. Moreover a maximum value of agglomeration rate versus added seed mass was observed. Furthermore the magnitude of calculated activation energy of agglomeration was close to that of growth  

In this study, copper oxide nano particles were synthesized by batchwise supercritical hydrothermal method. After preparation of CuO nano particles, they were immobilized into the porous matrix of sodium alginate. The drying process formed a very porous structure that is useful for enhancing of adsorption activity. Produced CuO particles were characterized by X-ray diffractometery (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and BET for measuring the surface area. The prepared materials were then used as adsorbent in the removal of toxic metal ions in aqueous solution. To optimize the adsorption system, the effect of various parameters such as adsorbent... 

This paper addresses scheduling a set of weighted jobs on a single machine in presence of release date for delivery in batches to customers or to other machines for further processing. The problem is a natural extension of minimizing the sum of weighted flow times by considering the possibility of delivering jobs in batches and introducing batch delivery costs. The classical problem is NP-hard and then the extended version of the problem is NP-hard. The objective function is that of minimizing the sum of weighted flow times and delivery costs. The extended problem arises in a real supply chain network by cooperation between two layers of chain. Structural properties of the problem are... 

This study proposes a multi-objective control algorithm for simultaneous process and quality control in non-Gaussian stochastic batch processes. The objective is to control a non-Gaussian process so that each batch is delivered within a pre-specified time. During each batch, the process is controlled by a fixed-parameter PI controller. Between any two adjacent batches the controller parameters are updated by a differential evolution algorithm so that the integral squared of tracking error, entropy of tracking error, integral of absolute processing time error and entropy of processing time error are minimised. the proposed algorithm is applied to a batch continuously stirred tank reactor... 

The present study examines the biorecovery of heavy metals from a spent refinery catalyst obtained from one of the oil refineries in Iran using Aspergillus niger. Bioleaching experiments were carried out in batch cultures using A. niger in the one-step process to mobilize Co, Mo and Ni from hazardous spent catalysts. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied for the design and analysis of experiments with the optimization of pH, temperature, inoculum percentage, pulp density and rotation speed during the bioleaching of the metals. Experiments were designed as per the central composite design (CCD) technique. Three cubic mathematical models were derived for prediction of the responses.... 

Thermodynamic and kinetic studies have been carried out on the adsorption of uranium(VI) by Amberlite IRA-910 resin. The adsorption process has been investigated as a function of adsorbate concentration, solution acidity, contact time, adsorbent dosage, and temperature. The experiments were preformed in batch mode, where uranium initial concentration on the solution samples were 185.5, 277.6 and 456.8 (mg/lit), sulfuric acid concentration range was 0.02-9 (mol/lit) and sorbent dosages were 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 g. Equilibrium isotherm data were analyzed using Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models. The results showed that the adsorption process was well described by Freundlich... 

Adaptation of Penicillium simplicissimum with different heavy metals present in a spent hydrocracking catalyst, as well as one-step, two-step, and spent medium bioleaching of the spent catalyst by the adapted fungus, was examined in batch cultures. Adaptation experiments with the single metal ions Ni, Mo, Fe, and W showed that the fungus could tolerate up to 1500. mg/L Ni, 8000. mg/L Mo, 3000. mg/L Fe, and 8000. mg/L W. In the presence of multi-metals, the fungus was able to tolerate up to 300. mg/L Ni, 200. mg/L Mo, 150. mg/L Fe and 2500. mg/L W. A total of 3% (w/v) spent catalyst generally gave the maximum extraction yields in the two-step bioleaching process (100% of W, 100% of Fe, 92.7%... 

Azotobacter beijerinckii DSMZ 1041 strain was used for production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and the optimum glucose concentration, as the carbon source and ammonium chloride, as the nitrogen source were obtained 60gr/lit and 0.5gr/lit respectively. The resulting optimum PHB production was investigated 2.95gr/lit. The obtained yield of PHB with respect to glucose (Yp/s) and PHB productivity (Qp) were 0.202 g/g and 0.123 g/lit.hr, respectively. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to verify the accuracy of the designed experiments. azotobacter beijerinckii microorganism from Deutsch sammlung von microorganismen und zellkulturen(DSMZ) bank is used for production of Poly Hydroxy... 

In this paper, we develop the multi-product, multi-constraint, Single Period Problem (SPP) with uncertain demands, considering an incremental discount situation. Three new models are presented for multi-product, multi-constraint SPP in fuzzy, stochastic and rough environments. We consider constraints, such as service rate, restriction on order quantity and restrictions on warehouse space and budget. We also consider that the order quantity is a multiplier of predefined batch size. Furthermore, three kinds of solution algorithm, (1) harmony search, (2) hybrid intelligent based on harmony search and fuzzy simulation and (3) hybrid intelligent based on harmony search and rough simulation, are... 

Batch cultures of Azohydromonas lata DSMZ 1123, Hydrogenophaga pseudoflava DSMZ 1034, Cupriavidus necator DSMZ 545 and Azotobacter beijinckii DSMZ 1041 were investigated for producing the intracellular bioplastic poly-•-hydroxybutyrate (PHB). The effects of temperature, seed age, type of carbon sources and the agitation rate on the production rate of PHB were investigated using four mentioned spices. The optimized shaking rate, temperature and seed age were obtained 250 rpm, 30°C and 15 hrs for H. pseudoflava DSMZ 1034 and A. beijerinckii DSMZ 1041 and 18 hrs and 24 hrs for A. lata DSMZ 1123 and C. necator DSM 545, respectively.The effect of carbon sources including glucose, fructose, whey... 

This study was designed to compare one-step, two-step and spent medium bioleaching of spent catalyst by adapted Aspergillus niger in batch cultures. Aspergillus niger, which was adapted to heavy metal ions, Ni, Mo, Fe, and W, was grown in medium containing up to 5% (w/v) of spent catalyst. The main lixiviant in bioleaching was gluconic acid, which was produced at all pulp densities in the one-step bioleaching process. Gluconic acid was also produced in the two-step bioleaching process when the spent catalyst was present at pulp densities greater than 1% (w/v). In the spent medium leaching, however, the primary agent was citric acid. The pulp density of the spent catalyst was varied, and this... 

There are many fundamental problems with the injection of nano-zero-valent iron (NZVI) particles to create permeable reactive barrier (PRB) treatment zone. Among them the loss of medium porosity or pore blocking over time can be considered which leads to reduction of permeability and bypass of the flow and contaminant plume up-gradient of the PRB. Present study provides a solution for such problems by confining the target zone for injection to the gate in a funnel-and-gate configuration. A laboratory-scale experimental setup is used in this work. In the designed PRB gate, no additional material from porous media exists. NZVI (d 50 = 52 ± 5 nm) particles are synthesized in water mixed with...