Nor Aishah Saidina Amin

• Ph.D. (Chemical Engineering)
• Professor (Full) at University of Technology Malaysia

This article studies the influence of titania morphology on the biomethane production from cellulose through photoreforming. First, TiO2 P25 was modified to titania nanotube (TiNT) via short-time hydrothermal reaction. It was confirmed by SEM and TEM that the nanotube morphology of titania could be obtained after heating at 150°C for 7 h. The XRD p...

Biomass carbohydrates' employment as feedstock in conversion processes aims to mitigate climate change by eliminating greenhouse gases emissions. Cellulose conversion to biofuel additive ethyl levulinate (EL) using a newly synthesized...

To combat the fast-degrading environment in this era, efforts are being made to consider biomass as feedstock for the production of biofuels and biofuel additives. Alkyl levulinates (AL), a good biofuel additive, exhibit excellent performance in improving the flow properties of biofuels. The growing market value of AL makes it highly desirable for...

Carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) is a cellulose derivative that is being used in many industries such as food packaging. This study evaluates the parameter region i.e., NaOH concentration, sodium monochloroacetate (SMCA) ratio, etherification temperature, and time for higher degree of substitution (DS) and viscosity of CMC synthesized from ozone pre...

Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) are converted into value-added products as it is abundant and low-cost. However, a pretreatment process is required to maximize the Total Reducing Sugar recovery (TRS). The ozonolysis pretreatment has appeared as an effective biomass pretreatment method. This study performed an optimization study of TRS recovery and lignin d...

Biochar is a porous fine‐grained substance produced from the pyrolysis technology of biomass that can be commercially used as a soil conditioner to promote soil fertility. Biochar is characterized by high carbon content, stability, and porosity. However, organic pollutants residue of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is also formed during the...

In this study, a novel externally reflected photoreactor was compared with a solar photoreactor for photocatalytic CO2 conversion in liquid phase using proton-rich functionalized carbon nitride (f-C3N4) modified ZnV 2O6 nanosheets. Effects of operating parameters such as reaction medium and catalyst loading were investigated to maximize yield rates...

Cellulosic materials generated from lignocellulosic biomass are significantly being used for so many applications including for energy application. The exemplary applications range from many types of nanomaterials, bioenergy, conducting materials, battery or electrodes, and also hybrid nanocomposites. The cellulosic materials being generated and re...

Biomass pyrolysis is one of the cleaner ways to produce bioenergy focusing on bio-oil. The high oxygen content of oxygen in bio-oil limits its application in transportation applications. The deoxygenation of bio-oil using various catalyst systems is required to upgrade the bio-oil. Herein, we presented the scientometric analysis of microporous zeol...

Fines migration has impacted the efficiency of low salinity water flooding at reservoir condition. However, previous studies on the use of nanoparticles to combat this problem were not done at reservoir condition and the effect of porous media length was neglected. Hence, the objective of this study is to use mesoporous silica (SiO2) nanoparticles...

In this study, Machine learning (ML) models integrated with genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) have been developed to predict, evaluate, and analyze biochar yield using biomass properties and process operating conditions. Comparative study of different ML algorithms integrated with GA and PSO were performed to improve the...

Levulinic acid (LA) has received significant attention as a platform chemical for synthesizing a broad range of bio-based fuels. In this study, a series of HY zeolite immobilized ionic liquid (HY-IL) catalysts have been explored for catalytic conversion of glucose to LA. The catalysts were prepared by immobilizing 1,4 methyl sulfonic acid imidazoli...

Biochar (BC) based materials are solid carbon enriched materials produced via different thermochemical techniques such as pyrolysis. However, the non-modified/non-activated BC-based materials obtained from the low-temperature pyrolysis of biomass cannot perform well in energy storage applications due to the mismatched physicochemical and electrical...

The development of sustainable materials to produce a highly stable and efficient tar removal catalyst is important for biomass gasification technology. In this study, the effect of support modification using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and Ni and/or Co loadings on catalytic performance over palm kernel shell-based activated carbon (AC) supported cata...

Alkyl levulinates have significantly attracted the attention of researchers around the world due to their high potential in various applications especially as fuel-blending chemical to improve fuel properties and performance. Alkyl levulinates can be derived from biomass derivative components such as levulinic acid via alcoholysis reaction. Current...

The development of sustainable materials to produce a highly stable and efficient tar removal catalyst is important for biomass gasification technology. In this study, the effect of support modification using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and Ni and/or Co loadings on catalytic performance over palm kernel shell-based activated carbon (AC) supported cata...

Wet milling and ultrasonication were utilized as an environmental benign approach to produce mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNP) to trap migrating reservoir fines. Static adsorption was performed at various conditions to ascertain effect of concentration, time, and salinity on MSNP adsorption onto reservoir fines. Adsorption kinetic and isotherm...

Carbon-doped (C-doped) TiO2 has demonstrated effective photocatalytic activity in the visible-light region. Here, we make use of density functional theory (DFT) methods to understand the photocatalytic activity of C-doped anatase-TiO2 (101) surfaces as a function of layer thickness. The formation energy results show that C-doped O sites (CO) are mo...

Herein thermally treated empty fruit bunch SiO2 nanoparticles (EFBSNP) was produced by ultrasound-assisted wet-milling and their effectiveness in enhancing cavitation effect of ultrasound to improve heavy oil recovery was evaluated. Empty fruit bunch ash (EFBA) was thermally treated to enhance its SiO2 content. Surface properties and size distribut...

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNP) were used to trap reservoir fines and adsorption capacity of MSNP was optimized. Box-Behnken design was used to model effect of concentration, time, salinity and pH on adsorption capacity of reservoir fines. Multiple response surface method was applied to optimize any combination of variables at which the maxi...

In this study, Machine learning (ML) models integrated with genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) have been developed to predict, evaluate, and analyze biochar yield using biomass properties and process operating conditions. Comparative study of different ML algorithms integrated with GA and PSO were performed to improve the...

The Malaysian palm oil industry has grown rapidly in recent years. An abundance of oil palm biomass is generated from the palm oil mil, including fronds, trunks, mesocarp fibre, shells, and empty fruit bunches (EFB). These oil palm wastes (OPW) were potentially converted into value-added products such as syngas, bio-oil, and biochar through thermoc...

The synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) generally uses isolated crude cellulose with alkaline or acid pretreatment followed by bleaching with sodium chlorite. In this study, the simple [BMIM][Cl] ionic liquid was used as a solvent in the pretreatment process before conduct the bleaching process with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to isolate cellul...

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), a cellulose rich lignocellulosic biomass has huge potential to be utilised as a raw material for the synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). In this study, CMC was synthesised from EFB extracted cellulose at the optimum carboxymethylation reaction conditions. The extracted cellulose yield obtained by alkaline t...

Microalgae is an excellent type of biomass for bio-energy production due to its high calorific value and fast growth. However, a large amount of ash would be generated during microalgae utilization. In this work, MCM41 was prepared from microalgae ash. The materials were calcined at different temperatures (450°C, 500°C, 550°C, and 600°C), and the e...

The ethyl levulinate is one of promising platform chemical from biomass and commonly involved the esterification reaction of levulinic acid. The reactions are extensively focussed on the catalytic performance by various catalysts and presented limited work on the kinetic, thermodynamic and mechanism study for heterogeneous catalyst reaction. To fil...

Increasing global energy demands requires a versatile approach, prompting many researchers to focus on renewable biofuel from sustainable resources, especially second-generation lignocellulosic biomass. The utilization of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel production requires proper pre-treatment in biorefinery to increase the reaction rate in the...

The transformation of biomass derivative components such as glucose to levulinate esters via direct conversion in alcohol with acid catalyst has attracted great attention. In this study, the sulfonate urea-furfural carbon cryogel doped with zinc (UFCS-Zn) has been applied as an acid catalyst for the glucose ethanolysis reaction. Initially, the carb...

Pre-treatment is the key step in biorefinery for enhancing cellulose accessibility from lignocellulosic biomass (LB) such as empty fruit bunch (EFB), which contains highly valuable cellulose. Ozonolysis pre-treatment appears as a promising green alternative for isolation of EFB to cellulose. This study develops the diffusion–reaction model of EFB o...

Hydrogen (H2) is considered as a zero-emission fuel when produced through biomass pyrolysis. The objective of this review article is to analyze the potential of the pyrolysis process in terms of H2 yield, the maturity of technology, current challenges, future perspective, and its commercialization potential. This review article has three folds. Fir...

Agricultural wastes especially empty fruit bunch (EFB) are abundantly available to be utilized as a feedstock for biochemical synthesis or biofuel production. The components of the waste include lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose. Cellulose, the polymer of glucose, is the active component for producing bio-based chemicals. However, it is difficult...

Current issues of global warming and environmental pollution due to extensive use of fossil fuels has been reached to an alarming position. Being CO2 as main byproduct of fossil fuel consumption and water as abundantly available on earth surface has great potential to replace fossil fuels as energy source. Herein, electrocatalytic CO2 reduction wit...

In this study, sulfonated carbon cryogel (CC) doped with zinc was prepared and used as a solid catalyst. Carbon cryogel was prepared by mixing urea and furfural, freeze-drying, and calcination. The CC was then sulfonated and impregnated with zinc (II) nitrate for ethyl levulinate production from ethanolysis of glucose. Experiment results showed tha...

Two dimensional (2D) reduced-graphene-oxide/g-C3N4 modified 2D ZnV2O6 heterojunction for enhanced photocatalytic CO2 reduction has been investigated. The catalysts were fabricated using one-pot solvothermal method and were tested in a fixed-bed reactor under visible and UV-light. The ZnV2O6/RGO/g-C3N4 composite catalyst demonstrated excellent photo...

Pretreatment method is essential for obtaining crude cellulose for synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) from biomass. Previously, alkaline pretreatment followed by bleaching with sodium chlorite or acid were commonly used for synthesis of CMC. In this study, [BMIM][Cl] ionic liquid (IL) and NaOH treatments were conducted on oil palm empty fru...

Biomass pyrolysis produces valuable solid, liquid, and gas products. However, the liquid products observed low heating value due to low hydrocarbon contents with the presence of high oxygenated species. To upgrade the bio-oil, appropriate solid acid catalysts are incorporated in the biomass pyrolysis process to deoxygenate the species to enhance th...

The defects in g-C3N4 by material substitution have been proven to enhance photocatalytic reaction. Even so, accurate position substitution of carbon doping for defects in g-C3N4 structure remains a significant challenge. Herein, we investigate the effects of C/doping on the optical and electronic structure of g-C3N4 by combining experiments and de...

Contamination of water sources by contaminants of emerging concerns, including pharmaceutical compounds, threatens the well-being of human who relies on the water sources. Development of cost-effective adsorbents for maximum removal of these contaminants is important to ensure clean and safe water access. This study demonstrates the reusability of...

The catalyst has a significant role in gas processing applications such as reforming technologies for H2 and syngas production. The stable catalyst is requisite for any industrial catalysis application to make it commercially viable. Several methods are employed to synthesise the catalysts. However, there is still a challenge to achieve a controlle...

This study investigates the potential of ozonolysis pretreatment on oil palm frond (OPF) for enhancing total reducing sugar (TRS) recovery. The OPF is pretreated by ozonolysis prior to two-step acid hydrolysis. The effect of ozonolysis pretreatment on the physico-chemical properties of OPF is scrutinized followed by the effect of process parameters...

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Considerable environmental concern regarding increased food wastage caused by population and economic growth has been raised worldwide. The verification of food waste recycling product for engineering purposes is also vague. This work evaluates a liquefied bio-product recovered from the hydrothermal liquefaction of food waste as a potential non-pet...

Ozonolysis pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass (LB) is envisaged as a green and effective method to selectively remove lignin for subsequent bio-based processing. Herein, this study investigates the ozone multiphase flow behaviour of an ozonolysis pretreatment reactor for lignin degradation of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB). A coupled transpo...

Catalytic steam reforming of toluene (SRT) over nickel-cobalt supported on modified activated carbon for hydrogen production has been investigated. The center composite design of experiment in response surface methodology (RSM) was initially applied to optimize the catalytic SRT for hydrogen production before being utilized in the model building of...

The study experimentally investigated a novel approach for producing hydrogen from methane cracking in dielectric barrier discharge catalytic plasma reactor using a nanocatalyst. Plasma-catalytic methane (CH 4) cracking was undertaken in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) catalytic plasma reactor using Ni/MgAl 2 O 4. The Ni/MgAl 2 O 4 was synthes...

The study experimentally investigated a novel approach for producing hydrogen from methane cracking in dielectric barrier discharge catalytic plasma reactor using a nanocatalyst. Plasma-catalytic methane (CH4) cracking was undertaken in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) catalytic plasma reactor using Ni/MgAl2O4. The Ni/MgAl2O4 was synthesised th...

The study experimentally investigated a novel approach for producing hydrogen from methane cracking in dielectric barrier discharge catalytic plasma reactor using a nanocatalyst. Plasma-catalytic methane (CH4) cracking was undertaken in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) catalytic plasma reactor using Ni/MgAl2O4. The Ni/MgAl2O4 was synthesised th...

Biomass-derived intermediate chemicals, such as furfuryl alcohol (FA) and levulinic acid (LA) are feeds for ethanolysis reaction to produce ethyl levulinate (EL). EL is a promising chemical that can be used as a biofuel additive and precursor for chemical synthesis, such as γ-valerolactone. The present study conducted the ethanolysis of FA and LA u...

The objective of this study is to build knowledge on the potential of agroindustrial residue gasification (AIRG) for use in captive power generation through a comprehensive case study. In order to evaluate the economic viability, key performance indicators, such as net present value (NPV), levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), and operating costs e...

The projections of ionic liquids as green solvents in chemical processes have increased in recent years. Ionic liquid is a versatile chemical with various applications. The aim of this review is to present a comprehensive perspective of ionic liquid for processing carbohydrate biomass by considering the recent progress in this field. Special attent...

The excess emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2 and CH4 is posing an acute threat to the environment and efficient ways are being sought to utilize GHGs to produce syngas (H2 , CO) and lighter hydrocarbons (HCs). In this study, the dry reforming of methane (DRM) has been carried out at 700 °C using La2O3 cosupported Ni/MgAl2O4 nano-catal...

Hydrogen (H2) is a clean fuel that can be produced from various resources including biomass. Optimization of H2 production from catalytic steam reforming of toluene using response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network coupled genetic algorithm (ANN-GA) models has been investigated. In RSM model, the central composite design (CCD)...

A systematic investigation on the performance of fixed‐bed and monolithic reactors for dynamic photo‐induced CO2 reduction with CH4 via dry and bi‐reforming of methane over La‐modified TiO2 nanocatalyst under UV light has been investigated. La/TiO2 is synthesized using modified sol‐gel method and the monolithic coated catalyst is synthesized using...

Due to the diminu­tion of con­ven­tional fu­els, biodiesel has at­tracted acute at­ten­tion due to its re­new­able and zero-emis­sion fea­tures. How­ever, cleaner pro­duc­tion of biodiesel on an in­dus­trial scale re­quires a sta­ble het­ero­ge­neous, low cost and re­cy­clable cat­a­lyst. This study pre­sents the prepa­ra­tion and ap­pli­ca­tion of...

Dry reforming of methane with carbon dioxide was investigated using oil palm shell activated carbon (OPS-AC) supported cobalt catalyst. The cobalt loaded OPS-AC catalysts were prepared by wet-impregnation method and characterized using SEM, FESEM, BET, TPR and TPD. Surface morphology of OPS-AC supported cobalt catalysts exhibited higher porosity, s...

Fast pyrolysis of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) has been conducted in an auger reactor to produce bio-oil. The reactor was a continuous feeding auger reactor heated by gas-fired external heater. The experiments were conducted under different operating temperatures ranging from 400 °C to 650 °C, different nitrogen flow rates ranging from 1 to 4 L...

The rapidly increasing generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) threatens the environmental integrity and well-being of humans at a global level. Incineration is regarded as a technically sound technology for the management of MSW. However, the effective management of the municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) ashes remains a challenge. This ar...

A kinetic study on dry reforming of methane (DRM) in hybrid dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor over La2O3 co-supported Ni/MgAl2O4 catalyst has been investigated. Three different parametric effects namely specific input energy (SIE), discharge volume (VD) and feed flow rate corresponding to GHSV (h-1) are studied using the modified po...

Adsorption of Reactive Black 5 and Congo Red from aqueous solution by coffee waste modified with polyethylenimine was investigated. The removal percentages of both dyes increased with amount of polyethyleneimine in the modified adsorbent. Characterization revealed that polyethyleneimine modification improved the adsorbent surface chemistry, while s...

The research on ethyl levulinate synthesis is now increased due to its potential to be derived from biomass and for applications in biofuel. In the present work, model compound of biomass-derived intermediates, levulinic acid and furfural alcohol, were utilized for ethyl levulinate synthesis using modified carbon cryogel. Carbon cryogel produced fr...

Biodiesel is one of the renewable fuels that has shown acceptable results in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This chapter summarizes the different raw materials and catalysts used in biodiesel production processes globally. In particular, the importance of algal biomass and heterogeneous catalysts is emphasized. The major aim is to conso...

One of the promising approaches to alleviate the problems associated with energy crisis and global warming is through photocatalytic reduction of CO 2 to hydrocarbon fuels. Ultimately, photocatalytic processes utilize solar energy to convert CO 2 into hydrocarbon fuels by deploying effective photocatalysts. Among the solar fuels produced from CO 2...

An alternative source for carbon-doped TiO2 photocatalysts, synthesized with glucose as precursor, calcined and tested for the reduction of CO2 have been investigated. These samples are characterized using XRD, FTIR, DRUV-Vis, XPS and HR-TEM. Glucose with 6 wt.% loading (6C-TiO2) corresponds to the optimum amount of carbon doped into TiO2 achieving...

Ni/La2O3-MgAl2O4 has been investigated for dry reforming of methane (DRM) in a cold plasma dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) fixed-bed reactor. Ni/La2O3-MgAl2O4 was prepared according to the modified coprecipitation assisted hydrothermal method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy...

Tar formation during biomass gasification is the main obstacle in the sustainable hydrogen (H2) production, which increases the processing cost due to clogging of pipes and engines as well as reducing the desired product efficiency. In this present study, catalytic performance of Ni and/or Co supported on modified-palm kernel shell-derived activate...

Well-designed Ag-La modified protonated graphitic carbon nitride nanotubes (pCNNT) are fabricated via a template-free sonicated assisted one-pot hydrothermal method. The structure and properties of the catalyst samples are obtained by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX, N 2 -sorption, XPS, UV–vis DRS and PL spectroscopy characterization techniques. The effect of A...

Oil palm biomass, which is abundantly available in Malaysia, has many types of applications in various industries. In this study, oil palm frond (OPF) was liquefied with 1-butyl-3-methylimidazole hydrogen sulfate ([BMIM][HSO4]) ionic liquid (IL) at optimum conditions. The liquefied OPF-ionic liquid (LOPF-IL) was mixed with furfural at a ratio of 0....

Silver-nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) supported over protonated graphitic-carbon nitride (pg-C3N4) for photocatalytic CO2 reduction in different reforming processes have been investigated. The Ag-NPs/pg-C3N4 samples, prepared by a combined ultrasonic-dispersion and photo-deposition process, were tested for photocatalytic CO2 reduction by H2O, steam reformi...

For the first time, C-doped g-C3N4@C, N co-doped TiO2 core-shell heterojunction photocatalyst was successfully prepared by an in-situ one-pot hydrothermal bio-template approach, assisted by calcination treatment at 500 °C. Kapok fibre was used as a bio-templates and in-situ C doping in g-C3N4 and TiO2 during the formation of core-shell heterojuncti...

The in-situ hierarchical heterojunction photocatalyst consists of C-doped g-C 3 N 4 (CCN) grafted on the C, N co-doped ZnO were successfully realized via simple bio-template hydrothermal approach. The resultants hierarchical heterojunction photocatalyst exhibited excellent UV to the near infrared absorption capability. The electrochemical analysis...

A new type of carbon cryogel was synthesized from ionic liquid, a green solvent, and furfural mixtures. Initially, the gel, formed via sol-gel polycondensation reaction, was freeze-dried, calcined and denoted as CCIL. The effect of furfural to IL (F/IL) ratio, water to IL (W/IL) ratio and sulfuric acid loading on the synthesis of gel was investigat...

Bio-mimetic C-doped graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) with mesoporous microtubular structure has been prepared by a simple chemical wet bio-template impregnation approach (direct impregnation and hydrothermal impregnation) using urea as a precursor and kapok fibre as bio-template and in-situ carbon dopant. Our finding indicated that the hydroth...

In this study, 10% Ni/La2O3-MgAl2O4 nano-flake catalyst was synthesized, characterized and tested in a catalytic dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma for dry reforming of methane (DRM). With design of experiment (DoE), the influence of process parameters namely (1) total feed flow rate (ml min−1), (2) feed ratio (CO2/CH4), (3) input power (W)...

Proses hidrolisis umum dilakukan untuk mendegradasi suatu senyawa dan mengubahnya menjadi senyawa lain, salah satunya adalah proses hot compressed water. Proses ini mempergunakan kondisi proses yang bersuhu dan tekanan tinggi untuk memutuskan rantai suatu senyawa dan merekomposisinya menjadi senyawa lainnya, contoh: dari glukosa menjadi furan. Pene...

The use of biological wastes to extract an alternative substance to the asphalt binder could potentially reduce the depletion of crude oil. This also could address the environmental pollution resulting from these wastes and develop the asphalt pavement economically and environmentally. Liquefied product extracted from food waste by hydrothermal liq...

Malaysia, as one of the leading palm oil producers in the world faces problems in disposal of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), which can be converted into various value-added products, including adsorbents. This study investigated the adsorption of phenol from its solution using biochar produced from EFB through carbonization. Response Surface Met...

Ethyl levulinate is widely used as a fuel additive, flavor or fragrance and as a component of fuel blending. This study focused on the production of ethyl levulinate from levulinic acid via esterification reaction in the presence of HPW/ZrO 2 .The catalyst was prepared using the wet impregnation method, characterized by using FTIR, BET and NH 3 -TP...