5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Oxidation Over Platinum Supported on Açaí Seed Coal for Synthesis of 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid

2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is produced from the selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and is an important platform molecule applied in the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries. Activated carbons produced from renewable resources are useful materials due to their physicochemical properties, defined mainly by the oxygenated functional groups on their surface. This work studies the oxidation of HMF to FDCA over Pt catalysts supported on açaí coal. The catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption, XPS, ToF-SIMS, FTIR, XRD, Raman, TEM, SEM, TPR-H2, and TGA/DTA. The conversion of HMF to FDCA in an alkaline medium occurred via hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA), which was oxidized to 5-formylfurancarboxylic acid (FFCA) and FDCA. The catalytic tests showed a high conversion of HMF with a 93.6% yield of FDCA. The excellent results were attributed to the high dispersion of Pt on the support and the presence of oxygenated functional groups on the coal surface. The functional groups increased the interaction between Pt-HMF and Pt-furan intermediates and favored a higher dispersion of platinum (53.3%) due to an anchoring effect.

Application of Wavelet Feature Extraction and Artificial Neural Networks for Improving the Performance of Gas–Liquid Two-Phase Flow Meters Used in Oil and Petrochemical Industries

Measuring fluid characteristics is of high importance in various industries such as the polymer, petroleum, and petrochemical industries, etc. Flow regime classification and void fraction measurement are essential for predicting the performance of many systems. The efficiency of multiphase flow meters strongly depends on the flow parameters. In this study, MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle) code was employed to simulate annular, stratified, and homogeneous regimes. In this approach, two detectors (NaI) were utilized to detect the emitted photons from a cesium-137 source. The registered signals of both detectors were decomposed using a discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Following this, the low-frequency (approximation) and high-frequency (detail) components of the signals were calculated. Finally, various features of the approximation signals were extracted, using the average value, kurtosis, standard deviation (STD), and root mean square (RMS). The extracted features were thoroughly analyzed to find those features which could classify the flow regimes and be utilized as the inputs to a network for improving the efficiency of flow meters. Two different networks were implemented for flow regime classification and void fraction prediction. In the current study, using the wavelet transform and feature extraction approach, the considered flow regimes were classified correctly, and the void fraction percentages were calculated with a mean relative error (MRE) of 0.4%. Although the system presented in this study is proposed for measuring the characteristics of petroleum fluids, it can be easily used for other types of fluids such as polymeric fluids.

Impact of Industry 4.0 and Lean Manufacturing on the Sustainability Performance of Plastic and Petrochemical Organizations in Saudi Arabia

Plastic and petrochemical industries are lagging behind in terms of environmental sustainability performance because of the nature of these industries. Although plastic and petrochemical industries have adopted lean manufacturing and/or Industry 4.0 technologies, more efforts are needed to enhance sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to explore the integrated impact of Industry 4.0 technologies and lean manufacturing on the sustainability performance of plastic and petrochemical industries in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it investigates the casual relationship between Industry 4.0 technologies and sustainability performance as well as the direct linkage between Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing. A questionnaire is used as the primary instrument for collecting data from 112 plastic and petrochemical organizations. A hypothesized relationship is formulated and then analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. The outcome of the analysis shows that Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing have a positive impact on sustainability performance. The study also presents a list of valid constructs for Industry 4.0 technologies, lean manufacturing, and sustainability performance. Furthermore, the study shows that the plastic and petrochemical industries in Saudi Arabia acknowledge and recognize the contribution of Industry 4.0 technologies and lean manufacturing principles to the protection of the environment as a dimension of sustainability performance.

Immunological mechanisms of occupational hearing loss in workers of oil-producing and petrochemical industries

Most jobs in the oil and petrochemical industries are characterized by exposure to industrial noise, air pollution of the working area with harmful chemicals, dynamic and static loads, forced working posture, and nervous and emotional overstrain. The complex, long-term impact of these factors on workers leads to the development of fatigue, disruption of the adaptive mechanisms of the body and the formation of pathology of the hearing organ. These changes are most pronounced at the initial stages of the formation of professional hearing loss. In order to study the role of immune mechanisms in the pathogenesis of occupational hearing loss, major groups of immunoglobulins (A, M, G, E) in blood serum were determined. The identification of mature T-cell populations was carried out by indirect immunofluorescence method with monoclonal antibodies of the ICO series (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD16+, CD20+) in 120 workers. The state of the immune status of employees of the main professions can be characterized by the presence of a tendency to form a secondary immunodeficiency state, manifested by the suppression of both cellular and humoral links. Violations of individual parts of the immune system among employees of «noise» industries reflect the level of adaptive reactions of the body and correlate with changes in the auditory analyzer and can develop long before the clinical manifestations of the disease. Identification of subclinical changes in the indicators of the immune system of the body of employees will allow timely preventive and pathogenetically justified rehabilitation measures, prevent the progression of the process and its transformation into professional hearing loss and preserve their ability to work for a long period.

Optimal Allocation of Gas Resources to Different Consumption Sectors Using Multi-Objective Goal Programming

Natural gas is a main source of energy in Iran, and optimal allocation to different sectors is crucial, based on realities, geopolitical considerations, and national security concerns. In this paper, a multi-objective goal programming model is developed to study the optimal allocation of this resource to various consumption sectors, including household business, industry, petrochemical industry, power plants, injection to oil fields, and export from Iran for the horizon of 2025. In this research, the energy security index is prioritized over other indicators. Two objective functions are considered: the first is maximizing the energy security index (minimizing the cost of energy security), and the second is minimizing the relative weight of different consumption sectors. The goal share of the various gas sectors, the amount of consumption of the various consumption sectors, and the allocatable and predicted amount for each year is calculated. Household business, power plants, petrochemical industries, industry, and export aid injection to oil fields are the most consuming sectors in 2025, respectively. Also, based on cost minimization, power plants, petrochemical industries, and industries in general are the more consuming sectors, respectively.

Evaluation of the Inhibitive Effect of Ibuprofen Drug on the Acidic Corrosion of Aluminium 6063 Alloy

This research examined the corrosion inhibition potency of inhibitive Ibuprofen drug (IID)on aluminium 6063. The effect of the inhibitive drug was tested in 0.5 M of H2SO4 solutionusing potentiodynamic method. The concentration of IID was mixed to the acidic mediumin 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 ml respectively. The polarization experiment shows IID adsorbed onaluminium specimens. Increase in IID concentration decreases corrosion rate of aluminiumspecimens. Maximum inhibitive efficiency of 80.58 % and further studies on the inhibitoryeffect of the drug inhibitor revealed that Freundlich isotherm displayed a regressioncoefficient value of 0.7893 while Langmuir isotherm exhibits a regression coefficient valueof 0.8864. These values of regression establish the reliability of IID as inhibitor, whichshows that IID can be used as inhibitor corrosion of aluminium in aggressive environmentsuch as marine and petrochemical industries where protection of aluminium is a necessity.