In the present study the esterifi cation of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), a by-product from palm oil industry, in the presence of super phosphoric acid (SPA) catalyst was studied. The effects of various physico-chemical parameters such as temperature, PFAD to methanol molar ratio and amount of catalyst on the conversion of biodiesel were investigated. The percent conversion of FFA and properties of the biodiesel were determined following standard methodologies. Percent conversion of biodiesel was found to increase with the increase in PFAD to methanol molar ratio and at 1:12 molar ratio and 70 o C temperature 95% conversion was achieved. Thermodynamic parameters were also evaluated in terms of Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and entropy at different molar ratio and temperatures. Both pseudo fi rst and second order irreversible kinetics were applied to a wide range of experimental data. However, according to regression coeffi cient (R 2 ) the second order described better experimental behavior of kinetic data.

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The present study reports the findings of experiments carried out to optimize super phosphoric acidcatalyzed esterification of palm fatty acid distillate-a low-cost by-product of the palm oil refining process for biodiesel production. The main objectives were to develop an approach that would enable us to better understand the relationships between the governing variables, i.e., oil to methanol ratio, temperature and catalyst concentration, and the response (conversion of the biodiesel), and to obtain the optimum conditions for biodiesel production using central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). All the three variables significantly affected the acid value of the product, oil to methanol ratio being the most effective followed by temperature and catalyst concentration. Using response surface methodology, a quadratic polynomial equation was obtained for acid value by multiple regression analysis. Verification experiments confirmed the validity of the predicted model. Various properties of the biodiesel were evaluated and compared in relation to that of conventional petro-diesel. The prepared biodiesel blended with different proportion of petro-diesel was then subjected to performance and emission tests at varying loads in order to evaluate its actual performance, when used as a diesel engine fuel.

Objective: Three Different varieties of Banana namely Dwarf Cavendish (Ankleshwar region), Lacatan (Valia region) and Harichal (Bharuch region) were collected from the south Gujarat region, India to check the drying parameters. A pilot scale natural draft tray dryer was used for the drying experimental work. Methods: The performance of all the varieties of banana were verified with and without blanching operation. Change in colour, texture, shrinkage and appearance were studied. Blanching has a remarkable effect on the appearance and shrinkage of the banana samples. Results: On the other side, temperature does not show any countable effect on the shrinkage. For the Lacatan and Harichal banana samples, observed shrinkage was found to be very less at 60 º C and 70 º C while for Dwarf Cavendish sample, shrinkage was found more effective at all varying temperature ranges. Conclusion: Appearance, Colour and Texture of Dwarf Cavendish and Harichal were found to be significant at 70 º C and 80 º C while for Lacatan, no such acceptable changes were observed. Overall, blanching was found to be effective in improving the appearance and colour of all varieties of banana.

Aim: The aim of the experiment is to characterize the Modified Membrane from PVDF/PAN and its application in removing the Emulsified oil waste from the Industry. Objective: To get the maximum separation of the emulsified oil from the waste water, composite (PVDF/PAN) membrane was prepared in the laboratory. Methods: New PVDF/PAN blend based ultrafiltration membranes were synthesized by phase inversion method. The blend membrane was treated at room temperature with aqueous sodium hydroxide solutions. Results: The facile eco-friendly preparation of PVDF/PAN blended membrane has a wide potential for practical applications in emulsified wastewater remediation. The chemical functionality of the modified membranes was confirmed by IR spectra. Conclusion: For the separation of emulsified oily wastewater, the as-prepared composite (PVDF/PAN) membrane could effectively separate oil/ water emulsions with separation efficiency of above 99.8%. Unmodified membranes (A and B) showed 95.4-99.8% rejection. However, in the case of membranes C and D, oil rejection was higher for the modified membranes as compared to the unmodified membranes.