Omar Aboelazayem

Teesside University

According to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) report in 2017, Egypt produced 500,000 tonnes of WCO from various resources including food industries, restaurants and hotels. Based on our previous funded project, we have reported unique properties for Egyptian WCO as it has very high range acidity (≈18 mg KOH/ g oil) due...

Biodiesel has been established as a promising alternative fuel to petroleum diesel. This study offers a promising energy conversion platform to valorise high acidity waste cooking oil (WCO) into biodiesel in a single-step reaction via supercritical methanol. Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been used as a co-solvent in the reaction with a catalytic effect...

Biodiesel has been established as a potential alternative fuel for petroleum diesel. However, one of the main uncertainties about biodiesel is its susceptibility to oxidation. In the present study, biodiesel has been synthesized from high acid value waste cooking oil (WCO) using supercritical methanolysis. The influence of supercritical reaction co...

The valorisation of lignin is being increasingly recognised to improve the economics of pulp and paper making mills. In the present study, an integrated lignin–glycerol valorisation strategy is introduced with an overarching aim for enhancing the process value chains. LignoBoost kraft lignin was subjected to base-catalysed depolymerisation using gl...

Food waste reduction and utilisation are paramount to achieve the United Nations (UN) goals for sustainable development. The exploitation of food waste valorization into green chemicals, materials and biofuel is crucial to curtail the economic and environmental impact of food waste disposal. Specifically, WCO is considered as a major stream of the...

Energy security and environmental features are nowadays two major issues that have boosted the exploitation of an eco-friendly and renewable alternative to petrochemical resources. Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) is an abundant and sustainable feedstock of great interest for the production of valuable chemicals and biofuels. It consists of three majo...

This study provides a new emphasis for research on the valorization of biowastes into nanocatalyst and biorefineries to be integrated with petroleum bioupgrading and polluted water treatment. The response surface optimized batch transesterification of waste‐frying oil using methanol and sustainable animal bone valorized fluorapatite nanocatalyst (F...

Biodiesel production using supercritical methanolysis has received immense interest over the last few years. It has the ability to convert high acid value feedstock into biodiesel using a single-pot reaction. However, the energy intensive process is the main disadvantage of supercritical biodiesel process. Herein, a conceptual design for the integr...

This work aims to upcycle mandarin (Citrus reticulum) waste peels into valuable compounds with different applications. The one-factor-at-a-time method was applied to optimize the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using the hot water extract of mandarin peels’ waste. The maximum production reached 2.5 g L−1 in a 4-h, pH9, 100 rpm continuous stirr...

Pyrolysis process has been considered to be an efficient approach for valorization of lignocellulosic biomass into bio-oil and value-added chemicals. Bio-oil refers to biomass pyrolysis liquid, which contains alkanes, aromatic compounds, phenol derivatives, and small amounts of ketone, ester, ether, amine, and alcohol. Lignocellulosic biomass is a...

In this study, a simple and robust derivatisation-free method has been developed using a gas chromatograph (GC), which has been validated as a suitable analysis for free fatty acids (FFAs) of waste cooking oil (WCO). As biodiesel synthesis from high acid value WCO involves pre-treatment steps, a non-catalytic approach has been employed for biodiese...

The synthesis of butylene carbonate (BC) through the reaction of butylene oxide (BO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) has been investigated using highly efficient graphene-inorganic heterogeneous catalyst, cerium-lanthana-zirconia and graphene oxide represented as Ce–La–Zr–GO nanocomposite. The systematic multivariate optimisation of BC synthesis via CO2 u...

Non-catalytic transesterification has been recognised as an effective technique for biodiesel production. It has many advantages over conventional catalytic transesterification, where it eliminates the difficulties of catalysts preparation and separation. It also produces high biodiesel yield in shorter reaction time. However, it requires harsh ope...

In this study, valorisation of high acid value waste cooking oil into biodiesel has been investigated. Non-catalytic transesterification using supercritical methanol has been used for biodiesel production. Four controllable independent process variables have been considered for analysis including methanol to oil (M:O) molar ratio, temperature, pres...

A green, rapid and continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis (CHFS) route has been employed to synthesise highly efficient and active novel heterogeneous catalysts. Tin doped zirconia (Zr–Sn–O) and tin doped zirconia/graphene nanocomposite (Zr–Sn/GO) have been assessed as suitable heterogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC)....

In this study, biodiesel production from castor oil has been investigated. Five independent variables including; methanol to oil (M:O) molar ratio, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, time and stirring rate have been chosen to investigate their effect on biodiesel yield. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) via Rotatable Central Composite D...

Biodiesel has been recognised as one of the effective, green, renewable and sustainable fuels. It is derived from renewable living resources either animal fats or vegetable oils. Biodiesel production in the absence of catalyst using supercritical methanol has recently been receiving significant attention. Non-catalytic transesterification reaction...

Biodiesel production using supercritical methanol in the absence of catalyst has been analysed by studying the main factors affecting biodiesel yield. A quadratic polynomial model has been developed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Box-Behnken Design (BBD) has been used to evaluate the influence of four independent variables i.e. methanol...