Mohammed Abdillah Ahmad Farid

Smoke signals are traditionally used in military contexts, but in recent times, they have gained popularity among civilians. The M18 smoke grenade was designed with a highly reactive oxidizer, KClO3, and substituting it with a safer oxidizer, notably KNO3, is one way that helps provide a safer choice for civilian use. However, providing optimal formulations for both formulations helps in deciding whether KNO3 can be substituted for the traditional KClO3 oxidizer. One of the techniques for enhancing smoke formulation is the Design of Experiments (DOE). Many researchers these days are focusing on substituting the smoke chemicals for a safer option using a trial-and-error process. However, from the standpoint of environmental contamination, numerical testing to identify the most significant output causes air pollution and chemical waste, which is not only costly but also endangers sea life if not properly disposed of. Therefore, it is crucial to optimize the smoke formulation in order to decrease waste and air pollution as well as enable future mass production of the product for both military and civilian use. The purpose of this paper is to implement the mixture design tool of the DOE approach to determine the optimal formulation of smoke signals using KClO3-based formulations, as well as to provide a comparative analysis of substituting KNO3 to optimize KClO3-based formulations in terms of time and smoke emission. From the KClO3-based formulation (28.68 wt.% KClO3, 23.47 wt.% C12H22O11, 34.39 wt.% dye, and 13.46 wt.% MgCO3) with an average time of 73.43 seconds, an acceptable formulation with a data means of 73.43, substituting with KNO3 oxidizer gave an average of 80.18 seconds, in which the smoke emission was slightly thinner compared to KClO3. As a result, KNO3 can be used as an alternative oxidizer to KClO3, and the KClO3-optimized formulation can be considered a baseline for smoke formulation for future research.

This pioneering work explores the immense potential of young coconut waste, a continuously marginalized residue of the food and beverage industry, to serve as an indispensable feedstock in the production of biochar. Through an examination of the key carbonization factors that include time, temperature, and concentrations of the activating agent, KOH, the outcomes offer relevant insights that could be leveraged to maximize biochar production for tailored applications. This study stands out for its innovative use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approaches for predictive modeling. Fifty datasets, supplemented with secondary data obtained from the literature and experiments, were utilized for the purposes of training, testing, and validating the neural network model. Here, the datasets were processed utilizing the Deep Neural Network (DNN) framework, which was designed and implemented with the minimal loss function framework feasible. The architectural configuration comprises the following; an input layer, four hidden layers (128-neuron dense layer, batch normalization, and 64-neuron dense layer, batch normalization), a dropout layer, and an output layer. With an R² of 0.8238 for biochar yield and 0.7324 for iodine number, the trained DNN model showed a relatively high degree of accuracy in making predictions.

Organophosphates (OPs) are a group of poisonous chemicals that are commonly used as pesticides and at times as chemical weapons. Decontamination of these compounds from the contaminated surfaces is an important step in their poisoning incident management but techniques that are commonly used currently, washings with soap solutions are not effective as the contaminants are still active in the waste solutions. Addition of an active ingredient such as an oxime which acts as a nucleophile in the soap solutions will enhance the ability of the washing liquids to hydrolyse OPs to convert them into innocuous compounds. This article describes a procedure to synthesize and characterize oxime-incorporated palm oil-based liquid soaps with an oxime concentration in the range of 0.05–1% and the results of their evaluation for their decontamination efficacy to degrade the OPs into non-toxic compounds. The soaps were formulated from palm oil and stable with the pH of 11.0, which is within the pH range for decontamination purposes. Upon mixing the soap solutions with Methyl Parathion (MP), the MP degrades slowly with the formation of p-nitrophenol (p-NP) after 24h which appears at peaks 400nm of the UV-Visible spectrum. However, in the presence of 2-pyridine aldoxime methiodide (2-PAM) with concentrations of 0.05% to 1.0%, the degradation is immediately observed involving the 2-PAM/MP complexation, in addition to the formation of p-NP after 24h. Furthermore, with the concentration of 2-PAM of 0.5% to 1.0%, the degradation does not produce p-NP but dimethylthiophosphate (DMPT) suggesting that the oxime content in the soap is sufficient to neutralise the MP. Based on the above findings, it can be concluded that the addition of the 2-PAM at the right concentration into the soaps significantly enhances their ability to efficiently decontaminate MP.

Application of sewage sludge as fertilizer can be beneficial for sustainable agriculture as it could largely account for nitrogen and phosphorus demand for crops and has lower costs compared to other disposal routes, e.g., incineration, and sanitary landfills. This study evaluates the feasibility of pilot-scale pelletization of sewage sludge for non-food crops (e.g., ornamental plants). The co-pelletization method was designed by mixing sewage sludge and binder (tapioca starch) at a 9:1 sludge-to-starch weight ratio. The amount of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) of the resultant pellets were determined at 5.7%, 4.9%, and 0.2%, respectively. Following Malaysian and US Standards, non-essential elements and pathogenicity of the pelletized sewage sludge were measured below the predetermined limits and hence safe for agricultural application. The planting trial using 50% inorganic fertilizer + 50% sewage sludge pellets exhibited a promising result on the growth of the flowering plant Celosia plumosa, with having better dimension and color, 20% higher in height, 4% more chlorophyll content, 54% more leaf, 43% greater stem growth, and 27% more flowers compared to control. Likewise, the planting trial on Tagetes erecta resulted in 10.5% wider leaf, 10.6% heavier leaf dry weight, and 12.5% more chlorophyll content compared to control with full usage of inorganic fertilizer. By considering liquidities to operate the production facility, the economic analysis estimated that the production cost per ton of pelletized sewage sludge produced was USD 0.98.