Faculty Publications
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Item Biological treatment of toxic petroleum spent caustic in fluidized bed bioreactor using immobilized cells of thiobacillus RAI01(2008) Potumarthi, R.; Mugeraya, G.; Jetty, A.In the present studies, newly isolated Thiobacillus sp was used for the treatment of synthetic spent sulfide caustic in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed bioreactor. The sulfide oxidation was tested using Ca-alginate immobilized Thiobacillus sp. Initially, response surface methodology was applied for the optimization of four parameters to check the sulfide oxidation efficiency in batch mode. Further, reactor was operated in continuous mode for 51 days at different sulfide loading rates and retention times to test the sulfide oxidation and sulfate and thiosulfate formation. Sulfide conversions in the range of 90-98% were obtained at almost all sulfide loading rates and hydraulic retention times. However, increased loading rates resulted in lower sulfide oxidation capacity. All the experiments were conducted at constant pH of around 6 and temperature of 30?±?5 °C. © 2008 Humana Press.Item Effect of substrate surface roughness on wetting behaviour of vegetable oils(2009) Prabhu, K.N.; Fernades, P.; Kumar, G.Vegetable oils are mainly used in the heat treating industry due to their environmental friendliness. In the present work the effect of surface roughness on spreading of vegetable oils on stainless steel substrates was investigated. Spreading phenomenon was digitally recorded and analyzed. All of the oils under investigation exhibited power law spreading behaviour of the type: A = ktn, where A, t, k and n represent the drop base contact area, spreading time, constant and exponent, respectively. The coconut and sunflower oils exhibited accelerated kinetics owing to their lower viscosity as compared to palm and mineral oils while peanut oil showed intermediate behaviour. Viscous regime was dominant during spreading of mineral and palm oils as compared to that of coconut oil. All the oils took longer period of time on rough surfaces than on smooth surfaces to relax to the same degree of wetting. Oils spreading on rough surfaces had to overcome the additional barrier due to asperities of the rough surface. Contact angle decreased with increase in roughness supporting the Wenzel's proposition. The decrease was significant for increase in roughness from 0.25 ?m to 0.50 ?m for all oils. However, the effect was negligible with further increase in roughness particularly for high viscosity oils. A spread parameter (?) is proposed to account for the variation of contact angle with surface roughness of the substrate and momentum diffusivity of the spreading liquid. The result suggested that low viscosity liquids exhibit improved wetting characteristics during spreading on rough surfaces. A model is proposed to estimate dynamic contact angles on substrates having varying surface roughness. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Modelling, analysis and optimization of adsorption parameters for H3PO4 activated rubber wood sawdust using response surface methodology (RSM)(2009) Helen Kalavathy, M.H.; Iyyaswami, I.; Ganesapillai, M.G.; Miranda, L.R.Adsorption capacity of Cu2+ from aqueous solution onto H3PO4 activated carbon using rubber wood sawdust (RSAC) was investigated in a batch system. Kinetic and isotherm studies were carried out, the thermodynamic parameters like standard Gibb's free energy (?G°), enthalpy (?H°) and entropy (?S°) were evaluated. The pseudo-second-order model was found to explain the kinetics of Cu2+ adsorption most effectively. The process optimization was performed through Central Composite Rotary Design using response surface methodology (RSM) by Design Expert Version 5.0.7 (STAT-EASE Inc., Minneapolis, USA). An initial concentration of 35 mg L-1, temperature of 26 °C, carbon loading of 0.45 g (100 mL)-1, adsorption time 208 min and pH of 6.5 was found to be the optimum conditions for the maximum uptake of copper ions of 5.6 mg g-1 in batch mode. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Item Optimization and analysis of nickel adsorption on microwave irradiated rice husk using response surface methodology (RSM)(2009) Ganesapillai, M.G.; Iyyaswami, I.; Helen Kalavathy, M.H.; Murugesan, T.; Miranda, L.R.Background: The removal of heavy metals using adsorption techniques with low cost biosorbents is being extensively investigated. The improved adsorption is essentially due to the pores present in the adsorbent. One way of improving the porosity of the material is by irradiation of the precursor using microwaves. In the present study, the adsorption characteristics of nickel onto microwave-irradiated rice husks were studied and the process variables were optimized through response surface methodology (RSM). Result: The adsorption of nickel onto microwave-irradiated rice husk (MIRH) was found to be better than that of the raw rice husk (RRH). The kinetics of the adsorption of Ni(II) from aqueous solution onto MIRH was found to follow a pseudo-second-order model. Thermodynamic parameters such as standard Gibbs free energy (?G°), standard enthalpy (?H°), and standard entropy (?S°)were also evaluated. The thermodynamics of Ni(II) adsorption onto MIRH indicates that it is spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the design parameters for the present process. Conclusion: Microwave-irradiated rice husk was found to be a suitable adsorbent for the removal of nickel(II) ions from aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacity of the rice husk was found to be 1.17 mg g-1. The optimized parameters for the current process were found as follows: adsorbent loading 2.8 g (100 mL)-1; Initial adsorbate concentration 6 mg L-1; adsorption time 210 min.; and adsorption temperature 35°C. © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry.Item An optimization study on microwave irradiated, decomposition of phenol in the presence of H2O2(2009) Prasannakumar, B.R.; Iyyaswami, I.; Murugesan, T.Background: Removal of phenol from industrial waste waters involves basic techniques namely extraction, biodegradation, photocatalytic degradation, etc. Among the available processes, the oxidation of phenols using H2O2 is a suitable alternative because of low cost and high oxidizing power. The application of an oxidation process for the decomposition of stable organic compounds in waste water leads to the total degradation of the compounds rather than transferring from one form to another. Since oxidation using Fenton's reagent ismore dependent on pH, in this present work it was proposed to use H2O2 coupled with microwave irradiation. The effects of initial phenol concentration, microwave power and the irradiation time on the amount of decomposition were studied. Results: In the present work experiments were conducted to estimate the percentage degradation of phenol for different initial concentrations of phenol (100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 mg L-1), microwave power input (180, 360, 540, 720 and 900 W) for different irradiation times. The kinetics of the degradation process were examined through experimental data and the decomposition rate follows first-order kinetics. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the design parameters for the present process. The interaction effect between the variables and the effect of interaction on to the responses (percentage decomposition of phenol) of the process was analysed and discussed in detail. The optimum values for the design parameters of the process were evaluated (initial phenol concentration 300 mg L-1, microwave power output 668 W, and microwave irradiation time 60 s, giving phenol degradation 82.39%) through RSM by differential approximation, and were confirmed by experiment. Conclusion: The decomposition of phenol was carried out using H2O2 coupled with microwave irradiation for different initial phenol concentrations, microwave power input and irradiation times. The phenol degradation process follows first-order kinetics. Optimization of the process was carried out through RSM by forming a design matrix using CCD. The optimized conditions were validated using experiments. The information is of value for the scale up of the oxidation process for the removal of phenol from wastewater. © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry.Item Wetting behaviour and evolution of microstructure of Sn-Ag-Zn solders on copper substrates with different surface textures(2010) Satyanarayan, S.; Prabhu, K.N.The effect of surface roughness on wetting behaviour and evolution of microstructure of two lead-free solders (Sn-2.625Ag-2.25Zn and Sn-1.75Ag-4.5Zn) on copper substrate was investigated. Both solders exhibited good wettability on copper substrates having rough surface and lower wettabilty on smooth surfaces. The contact angles of solders decreased linearly with increase in surface roughness of the substrate. The exponential power law, ?=exp(-K ?n), was used to model the relaxation behaviour of solders. A high intermetallic growth was observed at the interface particularly on copper substrates with rough surface texture. A thin continuous interface showing scallop intermetallic compounds (IMC) was obtained on smooth surfaces. With an increase in surface roughness, the IMC morphology changed from scallop shaped to needle type at the Sn-2.625Ag-2.25Zn solder/substrate interface and nodular to plate like IMCs for Sn-1.75Ag-4.5Zn solder matrix. Copyright © 2010 by ASTM International.Item Behavioral study of alumina nanoparticles in pool boiling heat transfer on a vertical surface(2011) Hegde, R.N.; Reddy, R.P.; Rao, S.S.Experiments were carried out to investigate the pool boiling of alumina-water nanofluid at 0.1 g/l to 0.5 g/l of distilled water, and the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer of pure water and nanofluid at different mass concentrations were compared at and above the atmospheric pressure. At atmospheric pressure, different concentrations of nanofluids display different degrees of deterioration in boiling heat transfer. The effect of pressure and concentration of nanoparticles revealed significant enhancement in heat flux and deterioration in pool boiling. The heat transfer coefficient of 0.5 g/l alumina-water nanofluid was compared with pure water and clearly indicates deterioration. At all pressures the heat transfer coefficients of the nanofluid were lower than those of pure water. Experimental observation revealed particles coating over the heater surface and subsequent SEM inspection of the heater surface showed nanoparticles coating on the surface forming a porous layer. To substantiate the nanoparticle deposition and its effect on heat flux, investigation was done by measuring the surface roughness of the heater surface before and after the experiment. While SEM images of the heater surface revealed nanoparticle deposition, surface roughness of the heater surface confirmed it. Based on the experimental investigations it can be concluded that an optimum thickness of nanoparticles coating favors an increase in heat flux. Higher surface temperature due to the presence of nanoparticles coating results in the deterioration of boiling heat transfer. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Item Production of propyl gallate in nonaqueous medium using cell-associated tannase of Bacillus massiliensis: Effect of various parameters and statistical optimization(2013) Aithal, M.; Belur, P.D.Enzymatic synthesis of propyl gallate in an organic solvent was studied using cell-associated tannase (E.C. 3.1.1.20) of Bacillus massiliensis. Lyophilized biomass showing tannase activity was used as a biocatalyst. The influence of buffer pH and strength, water activity, temperature, biocatalyst loading, gallic acid concentration, and 1-propanol concentration was studied by the one-factor-at-a-time method. Subsequently, response surface methodology was applied based on a central composite design to determine the effects of three independent variables (biocatalyst loading, gallic acid concentration, and 1-propanol concentration) and their mutual interactions. A total of 20 experiments were conducted, and a statistical model was developed, which predicted the maximum propyl gallate yield of 20.28 ?g/mL in the reaction mixture comprising 40.4 mg biocatalyst, 0.4 mM gallic acid, and 6.52 % (v/v) 1-propanol in 9.5 mL benzene at 30°C. The subsequent verification experiments established the validity of the model. Under optimal conditions, 25% conversion of gallic acid to propyl gallate was achieved on a molar basis. The absence of the need for enzyme purification and subsequent immobilization steps and good conversion efficiency makes this enzyme system an interesting one. Reports on the applications of bacterial whole cell systems for synthetic reactions in organic solvents are scarce, and perhaps this is the first report on bacterial cell-associated tannase-mediated esterification in a nonaqueous medium. © 2013 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.Item Experimental investigations on performance characteristics in wire electro discharge machining of Ti50Ni42.4Cu7.6 shape memory alloy(2013) Narendranath, S.; Manjaiah, M.; Basavarajappa, S.; Gaitonde, V.N.This article investigates the effect of pulse on time, peak current and pulse off time on wire electro discharge machining characteristics of Ti 50Ni42.4Cu7.6 shape memory alloy. A Ti 50Ni42.4Cu7.6 alloy was prepared by conventional tungsten arc melting. The machining experiments were performed as per Box-Behnken design on computer control wire electro discharge machining machine using molybdenum wire electrode. The relationships between the process parameters (pulse on time, peak current and pulse off time) and wire electro discharge machining responses (surface roughness and material removal rate) have been established using response surface methodology-based quadratic models. The analysis of variance has been employed to test the significance of the developed second-order mathematical models. The parametric analysis-based results reveal that low peak current with prolonged pulse on duration leads to reduced surface roughness. However, combination of low peak current with low pulse on time is beneficial for achieving better material removal rate for machining of shape memory alloy. © IMechE 2013.Item An optimization study of microwave assisted extraction of oil from oily sludge using response surface methodology(CAFET INNOVA Technical Society cafetinnova@gmail.com 1-2-18/103, Mohini Mansion, Gagan Mahal Road, Domalguda, Hyderabad 500029, 2014) Kumar, B.; Raj Mohan, B.Petroleum oily sludge, a hazardous waste, generated by the refineries and at the production sites in huge quantities comprises of a mixture of petroleum hydrocarbons, asphaltenes, long chain paraffinic wax, waste water, sediments and metals. The present study is aimed to recover oil from the petroleum oily sludge using n-heptane as the solvent in microwave assisted solvent extraction process and to optimize the process variables for the recovery of oil from the oily sludge. The simultaneous effects of process variables such as irradiation time (2 - 10 minutes), solvent to sludge ratio (40 – 80 wt %), reactant volume (100 – 300 ml) and microwave power (80 – 400 W) on the recovery of oil were evaluated. A central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM) were used for the optimization of the extraction process. Based on the CCD, quadratic model was developed to correlate the extraction process variables with the responses and the model was analysed using appropriate statistical method (ANOVA). Optimization of process variables shows that the maximum recovery of oil was about 88.6% at 100 ml of reactant volume with microwave power output of 351 W at 6.5 minutes of irradiation time with 58.99% of nheptane to sludge ratio. © 2014 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.