Jidon Janaun

• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at Universiti of Malaysia Sabah

Laporan kajian kes ini membincangkan faktor kemiskinan komuniti yang mempengaruhi pengurusan sisa plastik dalam kalangan komuniti pulau Mabul. Perbincangan adalah berfokuskan kepada (1) Kemiskinan-literasi-maklumat pengurusan sisa plastik, (2) Kemiskinan-kemampuan mengurus sisa plastik dan (3) Kemiskinan-pemilikan teknologi pengurusan sisa plastik....

Plastic pollution on land and in oceans is currently a pressing environmental issue. The accumulation of waste has caused severe, irreversible impacts and consequences on marine life, ecosystems, and the environment due to the lack of good waste collection, treatment, and management systems. Limited resources and infrastructure constantly challenge...

During the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are required to wear personal protective clothing to impede the transmission of the virus. However, the impermeable design and the hot humid environment lead to risk of heat stress. Hence, a simple yet practical cooling vest called VestOsogit has been designed to be worn under PPC. This project was f...

The accurate prediction of biodiesel fuel properties and determination of its optimal fatty acid (FA) profiles is a non-trivial process. To this aim, machine learning (ML) based predictive models were developed for cetane number (CN) and cold filter plugging point (CFPP), where the extreme gradient boost (XGB) and random forest (RF) algorithms had...

In order to attain maximum efficiency in a solar drying system, continuous effort is made to the key component of solar dryer – solar heat collector (SHC). This research aimed to evaluate the thermal performance of SHC with different flow configuration in the air passage, namely single-pass (S-SHC) and multiple-pass (M-SHC), under natural convectio...

Textile dye is one of the significant pollutants of water worldwide. However, dumping the textile effluent to the environment is a common in most of the developing countries. Contaminated water in the textile industry may contain various toxic ingredients and people were easily infected with various diseases. The contamination may affect the marine...

The usage of plastic has increased exponentially over the past few years. This has led to an accumulation of plastic wastes in landfills and continuous depletion of fossil fuel resources. Mechanical recycling has been used to compensate for this problem; however, it is not sufficient as the separation process is costly due to feedstock requirements...

The application of solar energy conversion has been extensively utilized as an alternative energy source to generate heat. This approach would be a step towards sustainable energy development particularly in the manufacturing industry with energy-intensive process. In this paper, thermal enhancement on the key component of a solar energy device – s...

Utilization of solar drying for food preservation would be a step towards sustainable food processing. Even today, most of the agricultural and marine products are dried under open sun-drying. However, this method is associated with several drawbacks, which then leads to the use of solar dryer. Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) has developed a solar...

Basal stem rot (BSR) disease caused by Ganoderma boninense remains as one of the most devastating diseases of the oil palm industry especially in South East Asia. Currently there is no remedy mainly due to inability to detect BSR disease at the early stage. Therefore, early diagnostic method is vital to detect the BSR disease effectively. This stud...

A heterogeneous CaO/Ag nano catalyst was developed and applied for biodiesel production from transesterifi-cation of soybean oil. The silver performed synergistic effects with CaO on promoting biodiesel production. The CaO/Ag nano catalysts exhibited abundant strong basic sites with larger BET surface area (7.02 vs 2.05 m 2 /g), pore diameter (58.8...

A large-scale hybrid solar dryer was developed to account the limitations encountered in traditional open sun drying. With loading capacity of 500 kg and incorporated with a hybrid heating control system, this dryer is suitable for industrial drying that requires large drying capacity and products with high moisture content. In addition, this dryin...

A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Fatty acid methyl esters Microwave pyrolysis Palm oil mill effluent Rice husk Solid acid catalyst A B S T R A C T In this study, carbon-silica based acid catalysts derived from rice husks (RH) were successfully synthesised using microwave (MW) technology. The results showed that MW sulphonation produced Sulphur (S) c...

2-Acetyl-1-Pyrroline (2-AP) is a main aromatic compound that gives fragrant characteristics in rice. However, 2-AP is a volatile compound that would be escaped easily with moisture from the rice during the drying operation and resulted in poorer rice quality. Therefore, the search of a material that is capable in adsorbing 2-AP and maintaining the...

Fragrant rice is known to contain the aromatic compound of 2-Acetyl Pyrroline (2-AP). This compound has been known as a major compound that gives fragrant characteristics in rice. However, this compound is volatile and easily escapes from the rice upon the drying process. In order to recover the release of 2-AP from rice upon drying, a packed bed a...

In this paper, a renewable carbon catalyst was developed based on the non-functionalisation method. Three different pyrolysis temperatures at 400°C (SC400), 500°C (SC500) and 600°C (SC600) were used to prepare amorphous carbon. The non-covalent functionalisation was carried out by 1-pyrenesulfonic acid (1-PSA) in organic solvents such as ethanol, h...

Ganoderma boninense (GB), a causal agent of basal stem rot (BSR) disease, remains as a threat in oil palm plantation as it caused a considerable amount of yield losses especially in South East Asia. Studies related to spread and transmission of the disease through roots and airborne have been reported by researchers but, knowledge on the propagatio...

Residual palm oil that goes into the river untreated can become detrimental to the environment. Residual oil discharge during milling process into palm oil mill effluent (POME) is unavoidable. About 1 wt% of residual oil in POME causes major problems to the mills, in terms of environment, wastewater treatment and economy losses. This paper reports...

In this study, carbon-silica based acid catalysts derived from rice husks (RH) were successfully synthesized using microwave (MW) technology. The results showed that MW sulphonation produced Sulfur (S) content of 17.2 – 18.5 times higher than in raw RH. Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) showed peak at 1035 cm-1 which corresponded to O=...

Kampung Tudan is located at the rural area and protected under buffer zone of Crocker Range Biosphere Reserve Area by UNESCO, where human and society live in harmony. Mulberry plantations have been introduced as an alternative economic activity to enhance their livelihood. Tudan’s Organic Mulberry Tea was made locally in Kampung Tudan, is an innova...

The present study investigated the preparation of solid carbon through the electrolysis of a newly formulated molten salt electrolyte containing CaCO3-Li2CO3-LiCl with a continuous cell voltage of 4 - 6V, and temperatures of 550 and 650°C. The process was carried out in a two-electrode cell using AISI 304 stainless steel electrodes in CO2 gas envir...

In the present study, the effectiveness of the micro/nanofiber to adsorb oil was evaluated by varying the process parameters such as oil concentration, time, weight of micro/nanofiber and temperature. The reusability of the micro/nanofiber was also studied. The results showed that the oil adsorption capacity of the micro/nanofiber using refined pal...

Malaysia produces approximately 60 million tons of palm oil mill effluent (POME) annually. Raw POME contains 0.6-0.7% oil and it has high free fatty acids (FFAs). The residual oil in POME however, is a potential feedstock in biodiesel production. Oil in the POME was recovered and converted into biodiesel through catalysis esterification reaction. A...

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is an inevitable by-product of palm oil industry that challenges the engineering solutions for its complexity and recalcitrance in nature. This paper reports a new approach to solve the POME pollution, through the recovery of residual oil as opposed to the elimination approach. A field trial of this approach was succes...

Increasing world production of palm oil warrants effective utilization of its waste. In particular, conversion of waste cooking oil into biodiesel has obtained global interest because of renewable energy need and reduction of CO2 emission. In this study, oleic acid used as a model compound for waste cooking oil conversion using esterification react...

A novel structured carbon-based acid catalyst was prepared by depositing the carbon precursor onto glass, ceramic and aluminum supports via dip-coating method, followed by carbonization process for converting the d-glucose layer into black carbon char in an inert nitrogen environment at 400 °C. Then, the –SO3H group was introduced into the framewor...

Carbon-based sulphonated catalysts (CBSCs) were made from rice husk for biodiesel production. The CBSCs were prepared by microwave (MW) and conventional heating processes from the same feedstock. In both heating systems, the preparation was a two-step process: carbonisation and sulphonation. The aim of this study was to use MW heating to reduce the...

In this work, untreated empty fruit bunch (EFB) or microwave-assisted NaOH pretreated EFB with palm oil mill effluent (POME) were composted under mesophilic conditions either in the presence or absence of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens D203 for sixty days. During pretreatment conditions, the EFB was mixed with 1% (w/w) sodium hydroxide and then exposed...

The existing industrial dryers commonly used for paddy drying such as fluidised bed dryer (FBD), re-circulating batch dryer, and continuous bed dryers, despite its useful ability, have its limitation in terms of capital and operating cost, flexibility of processing in small and large scale, and requirement of skilled labours. In this study, a comme...

A facile route to fabricate carbon nanorods and their enhanced hydrogen storage performance were reported. The nanorods exhibited packing structure with different orientations having diameter of about 33 nm. The synthesized nanorods showed excellent hydrogen storage properties (7169 µmolg−1) compared with that of commercial carbon (2564 µmolg−1). T...

The hybrid-carbon catalyst has been studied because of its promising potential to have high porosity and surface area to be used in biodiesel production. Silica has been used as the support to produce hybrid carbon catalyst due to its mesoporous structure and high surface area properties. The chemical synthesis of silica-carbon hybrid is expensive...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the composting performance of anaerobically treated palm oil mill effluent (AnPOME) mixed with paper and grass clippings. Methods Composting was conducted using a laboratory scale system for 40 days. Several parameters were determined: temperature, mass reduction, pH, electrical conductivity, colo...

Sulfonated carbon-based catalysts derived from rubber tree leaves, and pulp and paper mill waste were synthesized and characterized. Three types of catalyst synthesized were sulfonated rubber tree leaves (S-RTL), pyrolysed sludge char (P-SC) and sulfonated sludge char (S-SC). Sulfonated rubber tree leaves (S-RTL) and sulfonated sludge char (S-SC) w...

Rice is a primary source to all human beings. It gives energy and supply carbohydrate in human daily life. It is also one of the main sources of employment for people living in the rural area to generate incomes. In this study, determinations of quality of rice dried in an oven and in a Laterally Aerated Moving Bed (LAMB) dryer were performed., tTe...

Perforated pipes are utilized to divide a fluid flow into several smaller streams. Uniform flow distribution requirement is of great concern in engineering applications because it has significant influence on the performance of fluidic devices. For industrial applications, it is crucial to provide a uniform velocity distribution through orifices. I...

Air heating unit is one of the most important parts in paddy drying to ensure the efficiency of a drying process. In addition, an optimized air heating unit does not only promise a good paddy quality, but also save more for the operating cost. This study determined the suitable and best specifications heating unit to heat air for paddy drying in th...

Sugar catalyst is a novel solid acid catalyst with reactivity comparable to that of sulphuric acid in biodiesel production. However, the fine powder form of sugar catalyst with the non-porous structure might cause large pressure drop in a packed bed reactor due to low bed porosity, affecting the reaction conversion especially in gas phase reaction....

This study was mainly concerned about the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorbent from rice husk (RH). Several chemical treatments were used to produce activated rice husk char (RHAC) from RH. Initially the RH was refluxed with 3M of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, activation followed by using 0.5M of zinc chloride (ZnCl2) solution and fina...

This paper deals with the comparative study on glycerolysis of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) in a solvent free system at different reaction conditions in an attempt to get maximum degree of FFA% reduction for biodiesel feedstock. Initially, optimization of varied reaction parameters was performed under all the different reaction conditions usin...

Carbon coated monolith was prepared by sucrose solution 65 wt.% via dip-coating method. Sulfonation of incomplete carbonized carbon coated monolith was carried out in order to synthesize solid acid catalyst. The textural structure characteristics of the solid acid catalyst demonstrated a low surface area and pore volume. Palm fatty acid distillate...

Carbon was successfully deposited on AISI 304 stainless steel rod cathode through electrolysis process in three molten salt mixtures, namely K2CO3-Li2CO3 (mole ratio: 1:1), CaCO3-Li2CO3-LiCl (mole ratio 0.09:0.28:0.63) and CaCO3-CaCl2-KCl-LiCl (mole ratio: 0.13:0.31:0.10:0.45), under CO2 atmospheres as continuous source of carbon. The process were...

The current synthesis of carbon-based bifunctional catalyst is energy extensive as it requires high heat treatment whereas the use of amorphous carbon as support is not well understood. This paper reports the study of bifunctional catalyst synthesis using an amorphous carbon with polycyclic aromatic structure as support. Initially, the support prec...

In this study major and minor energy loss in vertical pipe and vertical perforated pipe were investigated. Bernoulli's principle can be derived from the principle of conservation of energy. This states that, in a steady flow, the sum of all forms of energy in a fluid along a streamline is the same at all points on that streamline. This requires the...

Waste rubber tyres were used to prepare activated carbon via destructive distillation method employing a two stage process i.e. carbonization and chemical activation in a tubular furnace. Carbonization was done at 500°C for 1 h followed by impregnation of char with NaOH. Activation was done in a horizontal tube furnace via CO2 activation. Two varia...

β-Mannanase production in batch solid-state fermentation (SSF) of palm kernel cake (PKC) was evaluated with flasks and a laterally aerated moving bed (LAMB) bioreactor using Aspergillus flavus UMS01. Optimum condition for flask SSF was 110 % moisture content, initial pH 6, 30 °C and particle size 855 μm, yielding 383 U g−1 dry PKC after 120 h. Unde...

This study reports the synthesis and characterization of carbon-based catalyst derived from local seaweed species, Sargassum Polycystum. The synthesis involved pyrolysis at 400°C for 4h followed by sulfonation. The characterization study showed that the material had a total acidity of 2.01 mmol/g, and thermally stability up to 240°C. FT-IR analysis...

Dynamic water vapour adsorption isotherms by palm kernel cake in a packed bed column were determined at different relative humidity of air (20–95 ± 2%), superficial air velocity (0.05–0.15 m/s), constant ambient temperature (30 ± 1°C), and bed height, and with dried palm kernel cake of different particle sizes (0.86–5.15 mm). The isotherms were aff...

The bulk volumes of hydrated palm kernel cake (PKC) were investigated to generate information on bulk properties for solid-state fermentation (SSF). Measurements were made under ambient conditions as regards the range of moisture level, sieved and unsieved PKC and two substrate handling procedures, viz. loading, tapping and hydration (LTH) and hydr...

A systematic sieving method (1 kg sample; 50 Hz; 0° inclination; 20 min) was used to obtain particle size distribution of palm kernel cake containing seven different particle sizes (4.83, 2.68, 1.50, 0.80, 0.51, 0.32, and 0.11 mm). Regardless of particle size, palm kernel cake was found to be of different shapes qualitatively with optical microscop...

Mesoporous carbon catalysts have received considerable interest in the scientific community because of their tunable porosity, hydrophobic surface, and ease of functionalization with active groups such as –SO3H. The formation of silica templates is a typical method to prepare a mesoporous carbon, but little is understood on its role for effective s...

The recent discovery of sulfonated carbon catalyst made from sugar attracts attention owing to its renewable source. The sulfonated carbon catalyst shows higher reactivity on esterification and transesterification reactions over the conventional solid acid catalysts such as nobic acid and amberlyst. These findings are remarkable because the sulfona...

Solid-state fermentation (SSF) was employed to enhance the nutritive values of palm kernel cake (PKC) for poultry feeding. Aspergillus flavus was isolated from local PKC and utilized to increase the mannose content of PKC via the degradation of β-mannan in PKC; evaluation was done for batch SSF in Erlenmeyer flasks and in a novel laterally aerated...

The present global economy downturn affects every corner of the world including the vehicular fuel industry. This paper highlights some of the perspectives for the biodiesel industry to thrive as an alternative fuel, while discussing benefits and limitations of biodiesel. This includes the improvement of the conversion technology to achieve a susta...

Solid state fermentation (SSF) which involves the growth of microorganism on moist solid substrates in the absence of free flowing water, has gained renewed attention over submerged fermentation for specific applications. During the SSF process in fermenter, there are three main engineering problems encountered such as the removal of metabolic heat...

Solid state fermentation (SSF) is emerging as an attractive alternative to submerged fermentation despite the engineering problems such as removal of metabolic heat, transport of oxygen and moisture into the particles and the heterogeneity of the substrate. In the present work, a lab scale fermenter which can be operated as fluidized bed and packed...

The hydration properties of palm kernel cake (PKC) were investigated for the bioconversion of PKC to poultry feed via solid state fermentation. At room temperature, the swelling capacity of PKC was found to be constant and unaffected by different particle sizes, while the water retention capacity was affected by different particle sizes. PKC swelli...

Wastewater from pulp and paper mill is one of the most important sources of pollutants mainly due to the pulping and bleaching processes. This study evaluates the effectiveness of photo-Fenton`s process in reducing organic and suspended solid in pulp and paper mill wastewater. The photo-Fenton`s process produces the strongest oxidation and consumes...

This study measured the minimum fluidization velocity of Palm Kernel Cake (PKC) particles. PKC was used as it is a potential substrate in solid state fermentation. A laboratory scale fluidized bed reactor has been fabricated for this investigation. Minimum fluidization velocity (U_mf) for sand particles was initially tested to ensure the...

A laterally aerated moving bed (LAMB) bioreactor is developed for continuous solid state fermentation (SSF) of palm kernel cake by Aspergillus flavus to degrade the complex sugar (mannan) component to simple sugar (mannose) component at a nominal capacity of 0.37 Kg of dry PKC per day. Sugar conversions upto 111.24% at an aeration rate of 10 LPM we...

Solid substrate cultivation (SSC) or solid state fermentation (SSF) is envisioned as a prominent bio conversion technique to transform natural raw materials into a wide variety of chemical as well as bio-chemical products. This process involves the fermentation of solid substrate medium with microorganism in the absence of free flowing water. Recen...

Introduction The recent discovery of sugar catalyst gives a new dimension to the biodiesel production [1]. The sugar catalyst (also known as sulfonated carbon catalyst) is prepared by pyrolyzing sugar at low temperature (400 o C) and the resultant sugar char is functionalized with sulfonic acid using sulphuric acid. The sugar catalyst shows higher...

Introduction Since the discovery of sugar catalyst [1], also known as sulfonated carbon catalyst [2], the progress of carbon-based catalysts development has increased rapidly, especially for biodiesel production. A sugar catalyst is prepared by the incomplete carbonization of sugar, followed by sulfonation. Sugar catalyst has reactivities comparabl...