Samah Zaki Naji

Title : Role of sulphuric acid modification to coconut shell activated carbon in catalytic cracking of waste ?cooking oil

Abstract:

Biofuel production from catalytic cracking of waste cooking oil is an attractive topic ‎because it incorporates waste management and introduction of a new clean ‎source of energy. Catalytic cracking is a promising technology for biofuel production ‎because it is a simpler and easy-to-manage process compared with fermentation, capable to produce a ‎wide range of products, and cost-effective. The catalyst type and/or surface ‎modifications have a substantial impact on the reaction and consequently the distribution of ‎product components. Activated carbon (AC) considers a viable catalyst in the catalytic cracking of vegetable ‎oils due to its high thermal stability, abundance, ease of surface modification, and high ‎surface area. ‎Acid modification with sulphuric acid could be regarded as a low-‎cost and simple pre-treatment step for activated carbon to enhance the chemical and ‎physical properties of the coconut-shell activated carbon catalyst. This work shows ‎the improvement in hydrocarbon yield and its distribution over different percentage of acid loading (5%, 10%, 20%, and 30%) on ‎the activated carbon surface. Besides, the characterization of the modified catalysts (BET-BJH, SEM, XRD, FTIR, TPD-NH3, ‎and TGA) are also discussed. The performance of the prepared catalysts is evaluated in terms of hydrocarbon fractions in the product stream, total liquid, coke, and gas yield.  

Audience take-away:

• How the surface acidity of catalyst influences the performance of the WCO cracking reaction.
• How a simple/low-cost modification action like acid modification can enhance the catalyst cracking performance.
• The compositions of the organic liquid products produce from the catalytic cracking of waste cooking oil.
• Characterization results of prepared catalysts.

Biography:

Mrs. Samah Zaki is currently a PhD candidate at School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia supervised by Associate Professor Ching Thian Tye. She completed her bachelor’s degree from the University of Babylon in Electrochemical Engineering, Babil, Iraq in 2010 with honor. She got her master’s degree in chemical engineering department from Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia in 2016 through full scholarship from the Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq. Then She worked as a lecturer and researcher at Kerbala University, petroleum engineering department, Iraq since 2016 to the present. She has published more than 20 research articles in ISI/SCOPUS journals. She is going to finish her PhD degree by middle of the next year.