Research Output
Articles
Publication Date: 2025
Journal of Molecular Liquids (18733166)429
Natural gas is a valuable source of energy, however, it also contains hazardous compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) acid gas, which needs to be eliminated to make it safe for use. If H2S is released, it can cause serious hazards like environmental issues and human respiratory or even death. Up to now, amine-based solvents have been used for gas sweetening. However, they are not environmentally friendly solvents, so replacing them with green solvents is required. Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) are the high-potential candidates of green solvents for this purpose. This study investigated comprehensive thermodynamic modeling of H2S solubilities in a wide range of different nature DESs using two thermodynamic approaches of φ-φ and γ-φ and one chemical absorption approach. The largest and most updated H2S solubility in DESs’ data bank was gathered from open literature including 338 data points for 33 different DESs over a wide range of temperature and pressure. For the investigated approaches, the SRK-SRK, SRK-NRTL, and RETM (1:2) models with the AARD% values of 13.42, 11.64, and 11.21, respectively led to the best results. According to comprehensive investigation and data analysis, general guidelines for using different thermodynamic models for H2S solubility in DESs were proposed. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.
Publication Date: 2024
Chemosphere (0045-6535)366
Sulfur dioxide (SO2), produced mainly from the combustion of coal, is the most important cause of acidic rain, skin diseases, and environmental issues. To overcome the environmental problems, SO2 must be captured on an industrial scale before it is released into the air. In chemical industries, organic solvents are used for partial absorption of SO2. However, those organic solvents have negative environmental effects. Thus, proposing environmentally friendly and green solvents for SO2 absorption is vital for industries. Recently, increased attention has been paid to capturing SO2 using Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) as the most recently introduced category of green solvents. This study performed a comprehensive screening study on the investigation of the performance of various simple and complicated models for SO2 solubilities in a wide range of different nature DESs. For this purpose, the most updated and largest SO2 solubility data bank in DESs involving 976 data points for 63 different nature DESs over wide temperature and pressure ranges has been gathered from open literature. For model screening, for the physical absorption models, the performances of SRK and CPA as the simple cubic and complicated sophisticated equations of state, NRTL and UNIQUAC as the well-known activity coefficient models, and for the chemical absorption models, RETM were investigated and compared. For physical absorption models, coupling an equation of state with the UNIQUAC activity coefficient model i.e. CPA-UNIQUAC, SRK-UNIQUAC, and also using simple SRK-SRK models led to the best performances. Compared to all investigated models, RETM as the chemical absorption model showed the best performance with the AARD% value of 12.95. This shows the importance of considering the chemical absorption mechanism for SO2 absorption by DESs. Finally, general guidelines for using different modeling approaches were proposed to be considered by the researchers. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd
Publication Date: 2021
Fuel (0016-2361)290
Cogongrass, one of the most invasive pest species worldwide, was considered as a promising bioresource for second-generation ethanol production. For the first time, it was successfully valorized to bioethanol using a novel sequential ionic liquid pretreatment assisted by synergistic effects of ultrasound irradiation and biosurfactant impregnation. The biomass was sonicated (50 and 100 W, 20 kHz) for 15 and 30 min, suspended in rhamnolipid solution (1, 2, and 3% w/w), and finally pretreated with 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazole acetate at 120 °C. Enzymatic digestibility of the regenerated biomass substantially enhanced by ~ 1.2-fold, upon a fast and low-intensity sonication (15 min, 50 W) followed by impregnation with the diluted rhamnolipid solution (2% w/w). Accordingly, non-isothermal simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of the pretreated Cogongrass by fungus M. hiemalis led to a maximum ethanol yield of ~ 195 (g/kg dry substrate), which was almost 1.6-fold higher than that obtained from the conventionally ionic liquid pretreated biomass. Comprehensive semi-quantitative analyses of the biomass together with FTIR and FESEM measurements revealed major improvements in surface area, surface hydrophilicity, pore sizes and volumes, cellulose crystallinity, and morphological features following the pretreatment. The findings may also provide a promising approach for enhanced recycling of the expensive ionic liquid and lignin in a biorefinery framework; however, more investigation should be dedicated to this subject. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Publication Date: 2021
International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (17351472)18(2)pp. 297-316
Nanocrystalline metal oxides including TiO2, Fe2O3, and ZnO and their combinations were impregnated on activated carbon (AC) and characterized by XRD, FTIR, and FESEM analyses. The results showed the size of most Fe2O3/AC, TiO2/AC, TiO2/Fe2O3/AC, ZnO/AC, and ZnO/Fe2O3/AC particles are in the range of 25–60 nm. BET analysis verified the high surface area of the six adsorbents (201–448 m2/g). The adsorption results confirmed that the modification could improve the adsorption capacity and removal efficiency as the maximum monolayer adsorption capacity and cyanide removal efficiency were observed for ZnO/Fe2O3/AC (101.0 mg/g, 82.5%), TiO2/Fe2O3/AC (96.2 mg/g, 75.1%), ZnO/AC (91.7 mg/g, 73.5%), TiO2/AC (90.9 mg/g, 72.4%), Fe2O3/AC (86.2 mg/g, 69.2%,), and AC (78.1 mg/g, 66.3%), respectively. Moreover, the study of different isotherm models including Langmuir, Freundlich, and Redlich–Peterson indicated that the Langmuir model was the most suitable one for the six adsorbents with 0.56 < RL < 0.64. The kinetic modeling of experimental data revealed the cyanide adsorption on all adsorbents followed the pseudo second-order model confirming chemisorption can be a main mechanism of adsorption. The regeneration and reusability results showed modified AC adsorbents have more reusable and stable structure than AC to be used as adsorbents in industrial wastewaters. The performance of adsorption process was compared with different methods of cyanide removal. The results approved that adsorption process as a cost-effective and simple design method using bioadsorbents can be highly effective in full-scale applications for the removal of high concentration of cyanide. © 2020, Islamic Azad University (IAU).
