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The interaction of a zwitterionic surfactant with the water treatment protein extracted from Moringa oleifera has been investigated by surface tension and ultrasonic velocity measurements. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of zwitterionic surfactant was determined to be 2.4 ± 0.3 mM by both techniques and the partial specific volume ν = 0.78 ± 0.06 cm 3 /g for the protein was found. There seems to be a mild interaction between the protein and the surfactant as shown by surface tension measurements. The ultrasonic velocity was found to decrease in the vicinity of the critical micelle concentration which may be due to micelle aggregates formation and the protein caused a shift of the surfactant's CMC to a higher concentration.

Coal combustion greatly contributes to global emissions of toxic gases into the atmosphere, with sulfur emissions as one of the prominent pollutants in addition to carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, Botswana utilizes Morupule's sub‐bituminous coal with average sulfur and ash contents, as determined in this study being 1.9 and 24.4 % by weight with an average calorific value of 22 MJ Kg −1 to generate electricity. We report an optimized extraction method for reducing total sulfur in Morupule coal from 1.9±0.2 to 0.43±0.02 wt.% at optimum conditions of ethanol/water (90/10, v/v %) at 129 °C (105 bars) in 10 minutes. A Box–Behnken experimental design was employed to select the optimal conditions of temperature (100–180 °C), water proportion in ethanol (10–90, v/v %) and extraction time (10–30 minutes), thus reducing the total sulfur under these mild conditions compared to conventional extraction. The optimized conditions were however not efficient in removing ash.