Engineering and Technology Journal

Concerns on the environment, health and safety issues posed by synthetic resins has amplified numerous efforts of producing resin from various renewable sources. The use of plant oil as potential source of resin has attracted interest from various researchers. Jatropha Oil is a competitive source to petroleum counterparts due to its availability, biodegradability, low eco-toxicity but exhibit poor mechanical properties among many. The objective of this study is to study the effect of adding nanoparticles as reinforcing fillers to bio-based resin from Epoxidized crude Jatropha Oil (ECJO) to improve its mechanical performance. Various loadings of 0% to 4% of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles was tested on epoxy bio-resin. Later the specimens fabricated were cured and characterized for its mechanical properties. Addition of 1 wt% of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles improved the tensile strength of a bio-based epoxy resin to tensile stress of 29.37±2.00 MPa, elastic with an elastic modulus of 840.80±124.53 MPa. Further characterization at optimum addition of nano-Al₂O₃ resulted a glass transition temperature of 37.95˚C. In overall, the inclusion of nano-Al₂O₃ has definitely improved the mechanical properties of the material which will be useful for further application material engineering.

The production of straight and helical hollow fibers plays an important role in developing hollow fiber membrane technology that encompasses a broad range of designs. During the last two decades, scientific studies devoted to straight hollow fibers were more abundant than those focused on helical fibers. Several major applications considering side-by-side testing of these two geometries are discussed in this review. For membrane extraction, desalination, and membrane contactor processes, it is observed that permeability rates are 10%-400 % higher for helical fibers compared to straight fibers. This outcome is justified by the presence of Dean-vortices-induced flow turbulences inherent to the geometry of helical membranes. These conditions give rise to an uptake of mass and heat transfer coefficients and a reduction of temperature and concentration polarization phenomena.  Aside from enhanced flow properties, helical hollow fiber bundles tend to be more robust by design, thus exhibiting better resiliency over long service operations than straight bundles. One persistent shortcoming of the helical fibers seems to be an increase in pressure drop. However, this does not always translate into a higher energy consumption – i.e., versus straight bundles. Given the performance advantage, product robustness, and adaptiveness to a broad range of applications, the adoption of helical hollow fiber technology deserves growing support from the membrane community in academic and industrial settings.