In this study, the growth of sixty-one bacterial strains in crude oil were determined spectrophotometrically at 620 nm. Pseudomonas aeruginosa G1, Pseudomonas fluorescens G6, Pseudomonas stutzeri G11 and Pseudomonas putida G15 were chosen for the study based on the efficiency of crude oil utilisation. At 1% (v/v) crude oil concentration, P. stutzeri G11 strain degraded a maximum of 69%. The per...

Thermochemical conversion of non-edible biomass offers an efficient and economically process to provide valuable fuels and prepare chemicals derived from biomass in the context of developing countries. Pyrolysis has advantages over other thermochemical conversion techniques because it can convert biomass directly into solid, liquid and gaseous products by thermal decomposition of biomass in the...

Original scientific paper Renewable sources should be preferred by a modern society and this should be done not only in the areas of material engineering. Jatropha curcas L. is a plant with a high potential with many technologically utilized parts among which seeds most of all. The seeds of the plant serve for the pressing of oil. During this technological process worse utilizable commodities s...

Use of ultrasonication as a pretreatment before aqueous oil extraction and aqueous enzymatic oil extraction was found to be useful in the case of extraction of oil from the seeds of Jatropha curcas L. The use of ultrasonication for 10 min at pH 9.0 followed by aqueous oil extraction gave a yield of 67%. However, the maximum yield of 74% was obtained by ultrasonication for 5 min followed by aque...

A molecule-based characterization methodology was developed for correlation and prediction of assays and properties for crude oil and petroleum fractions. From readily accessible crude oil, the assay data such as distillation curve, API gravity, and PNA contents, identifies an optimal set of chemical compositions of model hydrocarbon molecules that were designed to mimic measurable physical and...

Crude oil is one of the most necessitated worldwide required commodities. Any slight fluctuation in crude oil prices can have both direct and indirect influence on the economy of the countries. The unpredictability of crude oil prices forced many companies away from the competition and it influence the stock market and many other macroeconomic variables (inflation, GDP, Import bill etc). Crude ...

We investigated and quantified defecation rates of crude oil by 3 species of marine planktonic copepods (Temora turbinata, Acartia tonsa, and Parvocalanus crassirostris) and a natural copepod assemblage after exposure to mechanically or chemically dispersed crude oil. Between 88 and 100% of the analyzed fecal pellets from three species of copepods and a natural copepod assemblage exposed for 48...

Vegetable oils are being investigated as potential source of environmentally favorable lubricants over synthetic products. Jatropha curcas L. oil (JO) identified as a potential raw material for biodiesel was explored for its use as a feedstock for biolubricants. Epoxidized jatropha oil (EJO) was prepared by peroxyformic acid generated in situ by reacting formic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the...

Background Biomass-derived jet fuel is an alternative jet fuel (AJF) showing promise of reducing the dependence on fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions. Hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) concept is also known as one of the pathways for producing bio jet fuel. HEFA fuel was approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials in 2011, and can be blended up to 50% with conven...

In this study, a nano-Ca(OH)2/Fe3O4 catalyst was used to produce biodiesel from a 1:1 mixed jatropha-castor oil. By loading Ca(OH)2 onto Fe3O4 nanoparticles, it increased the specific surface area by almost 40%, which improved the catalytic activity as it provided a larger area for the reactants to interact. The main purpose of mixing jatropha oil with castor oil was to lower the viscosity of t...