Winning presentations on alternative fuel
THE University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) PhD students Chong Yen Yee and Tiong Yong Wei were both awarded the best oral presenter title at the 9th Regional Chemical Engineering Conference on Chemical Engineering (RCChE 2016) for their presentations on their research on producing fuel from bio-oil and bio waste respectively, held in Kuala Lumpur recently.
Chong and Tiong presented their research papers Emulsification of Bio-oil and Diesel and Conversion of oil palm biomass to ethyl levulinate via ionic liquids respectively to attendees at the conference who comprised industry professionals, researchers and academia in the chemical engineering field from various South-East Asian countries.
Biofuel from palm waste research
Chong’s research interest includes making bio-oil, a promising biofuel candidate from palm waste, as a means of reducing the use of fossil fuels.
As of now, bio-oil is not suitable to be used directly as fuel. In her research, emulsification of the bio-oil was carried out to enhance the oil quality, with the aim of using bio-oil directly as a suitable fuel.
Emulsification involves the blending of the immiscible bio-oil with diesel into a homogeneous state.
This project was funded by the Research Strategy Committee at UNMC in collaboration with Dr Poo Balan Ganesan from Universiti Malaya, under the supervision of Dr Suchithra Thangalazhy Gopakumar from UNMC.
According to Chong, “The dependency on fossil fuel, especially liquid fuel, has been increasing and the fact that fossil fuel is depleting is very alarming.
“The study on finding a potential substitute for liquid fuel is very important.
She continues, “Though it was nerve-wracking to present in the conference, I did my best and was surprised when my name was called out to receive the award.
“I am truly humbled and offer my sincere gratitude to God, my supervisor and other co-supervisors for their support.”
From oil palm biomass to biofuel
Tiong’s research is about using the abundant oil palm biomass to produce a value-added chemical product known as ethyl levulinate.
Ethyl levulinate is a viable bio-derived diesel fuel for diesel engines that could act as an alternative for petroleum fuel.
The main criterion of this research is to use an environmentally benign process. In her preliminary study, the ionic liquids exhibited the potential of converting oil palm biomass into ethyl levulinate as biofuel.
The project was funded by the Higher Education Ministry under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme and was supervised by Dr Yap Chiew Lin from UNMC.
“We have limited fossil resources and this posed a great challenge to process renewable biomass feedstocks into fuels,” says Tiong.
“My research provides an environmentally friendly method combined with economically viable technologies for the production of bio-derived diesel fuel as an alternative fuel option in the transportation sector.
“This was my very first conference and, to be honest, I have never thought of winning any award. I was overwhelmed with the number of questions asked during the Q&A session but I managed to handle the questions well.”
The RCChE 2016 is an annual convention for members of ASEAN University Network/Southeast Asia Engineering Education Development Network (AUN/SEED-Net) to showcase current research and technology developments in chemical engineering and related fields.
The Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, in collaboration with the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, hosted the RCChE 2016.
UNMC will be hosting its Open Day on March 11 from 9.30am to 4.30pm at its campus.
For more information, e-mail study@nottingham.edu.my or visit www.nottingham.edu.my.