Effect of Intensifier Additives on the Performance of Butanolic Extract of Date Palm Leaves against the Corrosion of API 5L X60 Carbon Steel in 15 wt.% HCl Solution

The quest to replace toxic chemicals in the nearest future is revolutionizing the corrosion inhibitor research world by turning its attention to plant biomaterials. Herein, we report the corrosion inhibiting potential of butanolic extract of date palm leaves (BUT) on the corrosion of API 5L X60 carbon steel in 15 wt.% HCl solution. The mass loss, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), linear polarization (LPR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques were employed in the investigation. We also report the effect of intensifier additives, namely formic acid (FA), potassium iodide (KI), and zinc nitrate (Zn(NO3)2) as well as temperature on the corrosion inhibiting performance of BUT. BUT exhibits inhibiting ability but the extent of inhibition is dependent on concentration, temperature, and intensifiers’ concentration. At 25 °C, 200 mg/L BUT and 700 mg/L BUT protected the carbon steel surface by 50% and 88%, respectively. The addition of 3 mM FA and 5 mM KI to 200 mg/L upgraded the extract performance to 97% and 95%, respectively. Zn(NO3)2 performs poorly as an intensifier for BUT under acidizing conditions. The adsorption of BUT + FA and BUT + KI is synergistic in nature whereas that of BUT + Zn(NO3)2 drifts towards antagonistic behavior according to the calculated synergism parameter. Increase in the system temperature resulted in a slight decline in the inhibition efficiency of BUT + FA and BUT + KI but with efficiency of above 85% achieved at 60 °C. The SEM and AFM results corroborate results from the electrochemical techniques.

Forensic Molecular-Genetic Analysis of Objects of Biological Origin – a New Direction of Forensic Activity of the Russian Ministry of Justice

The article addresses the importance and basic preconditions for the forming a new direction of forensic activity in the system of forensic institutions of the Russian Ministry of Justice a new direction of forensic activity - molecular-genetic analysis of the objects of biological origin. The authors present the advantages of DNA analysis - one of the most modern and efficient methods in investigating criminal cases. The article also demonstrates the potential of different methods of DNA-analysis for forensic investigations. The history of forensic DNA-analysis development in Russia and its features when examining the human, animal, and plant biomaterials are briefly discussed. The authors propose the definitions for the molecular-genetic examinations’ object and subject, formulate the model tasks, and suggest a list of sample questions for this study.

ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC APPROACH TO SECONDARY BIOMATERIALS USAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

In the presented paper considers the issue associated with the depletion of traditional energy resources (coal, oil, peat, natural gas). Such a situation turns up in a process of their usage as a factor in the deterioration of the environmental situation in terms of Russian Federation transition to a model of a sustainable economic development. The article analyses the possibility of alternative raw materials using based on secondary plant biomaterials as a renewable substitute for the energy supply sources. A tendency of growth in the biomass consumption for energy generation in European countries, the USA, Canada is highlighted. The characteristics of the main economic advantages of its application are presented, along with a notion of the special importance of ecological component. The conducted research is a priority and promising direction for the world economy and energy, and the analysis of basic technical and economic features of various types of the waste biomass and the reasoning of its utilization ways can serve for its well-targeted and full-fledged usage as an energy resource.

Simultaneous Removal of Copper and Lead Ions from Industrial and Mining Effluents Using Biosorbents Derived from Rhododendron arboreum Plant: Adsorptive Optimization and Mechanism Evaluation

The present investigation is focused on developing simple and effective bioadsorbents for the simultaneous removal of Cu2+ and Pb2+ ions from industrial and mining effluents. Rhododendron arboreum plant biomaterials are identified to have strong adsorptivity for Cu2+ and Pb2+ ions. Stem powers (RSP), their active carbon (RSAC) and the active carbon doped in Ca-alginate beads, RSAc-Ca.alg, are investigated for the simultaneous removal of Cu2+ and Pb2+ ions. Various extraction conditions were investigated and optimized for the maximum Cu2+ and Pb2+ removal. The sorption capacities were 35.0 mg/g for RSP, 38.5 mg/g for RSAC and 45.8 mg/g for RSAC-Ca.alg. Common co-ions were marginally interfered and spent sorbents can be used after regenerating with 0.1 HCl for a multiple number of cycles. Thermodynamic analysis indicated the spontaneity of adsorption process and favourability of adsorption at elevated temperatures. The high positive ΔH values indicate the endothermic nature of sorption and mechanism is ion-exchange and or a sort of complex formation between Cu2+/Pb2+ ions and functional groups of sorbents. High positive ΔS values indicate intensive disorder at solution/solvent boundary and thereby, favouring enhanced sorption. Sorption is well explained by Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second order kinetics. The sorbents were applied to treat effluent samples collected from industries and mining in India and Ethiopia for the removal of Cu2+ and Pb2+. The results show that both the metal ions can be successfully removed at the optimum extraction conditions arrived in this investigation. The merit of this investigation is that at a convent working pH 6, effective simultaneous removal of toxic Cu2+ and Pb2+ ions from industries can be achieved with simple biosorbents derived from Rhododendron arboreum plant.

Non-Isothermal Combustion Properties of Plant Biomaterial Using TG-DSC Technique

Nowadays, plant biomaterials have been used in several types of industries for related purposes for example energy and electricity production, as our world is facing energy shortage problems. In this paper, the combustion behavior of a typical plant biomaterial, corn cob, was investigated using TG-DSC technique. Combustion experiments were conducted from room temperature to 900 °C at three heating rates of 10, 20 and 30°C/min in air atmosphere. It is observed that the process can be divided into three stages: dehydration (25°C-150°C), pyrolysis (150°C-380°C) and combustion (above 380°C). Besides, ignition and burnout temperature were investigated based on DSC profiles. Finally, two model-free methods (FWO and KAS) were adopted to perform the kinetic analysis for combustion reaction process. It is found that activation energies values against conversion rate present a rising trend (from about 172.40 KJ/mol to 326.95 KJ/mol) in the pyrolysis stage, while an opposite tendency was observed in the combustion stage (from about 365.55 KJ/mol to 202.86 KJ/mol), indicating that corn cob combustion is a complex process and relatively complex reaction schemes should be adopted to describe its combustion. It is anticipated that our current work could be helpful in providing reference to the design of energy conversion facilitates.