Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Our one of Batchmates passed away

Piumal, a final year mechanical engineering student passed away after suffering from serious cancer. We are very sorry about him. Our friends did lot of thing to save his life. But this is the world's nature. "May he attain to NIBBANA."*

*. This is a Buddist quote normally saying when somebody passed away.

Monday, July 30, 2007

NASA & AFRICAN BABY



1 image


2 image

The first image shows a picture of a NASA survey on MARS soil to check weather there are any water or other important material by sacrificing lot of resources.

The second image shows an African baby searching EARTH soil to find out some water to drink or something to eat.

How cruel our world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A bright future to our nation by developing process industry to its peak

The process industries, such as the chemical process industry, pulp and paper, food, pharmaceutical, and others, are vital to the economy of any country. It is important for a country to be able to convert raw materials into valuable and useful products rather than relying on imports in order to be a strong nation. Developed countries often have large-scale process plants that turn their natural resources into commercial realities.

Sri Lanka has had well-established process industries in the past, including a urea production facility at Sapugaskanda, a sulfuric production plant at Ranala, and a paper production plant at Embilipitiya. These industries contributed significantly to the country's GDP and saved a lot of foreign exchange by producing many of the essential industrial raw materials within the country. However, most of these large-scale production facilities, including the urea and sulfuric plants, have been closed down due to various reasons, such as environmental issues, lack of research and development, inadequate technological input, and poor maintenance.

The process industry in Sri Lanka today has not been able to meet the needs of the people. Despite having raw materials, production facilities, and a skilled workforce, the country still imports paper from other countries. Sri Lanka has the potential to produce sulfur as an intermediate product of petroleum refining and has abundant oxygen in the atmosphere, but still imports sulfuric acid from other countries. The production of ammonia and sulfuric acid is essential for the manufacture of fertilizers, and it would save a significant amount of foreign exchange and reduce the cost of fertilizers. Ammonia is also used in the production of plastics, fibers, explosives, and intermediates for dyes and pharmaceuticals. Sulfuric acid is used in ore processing, fertilizer manufacturing, oil refining, wastewater processing, and chemical synthesis. Even for basic water treatment, the country has to import alum, which was a main product of the Ranala sulfuric acid plant. These two base materials could greatly impact the economy. Sri Lanka produces salt but still does not meet all its own needs, and even in the salt production process, the valuable brine solution (an intermediate product of salt processing) is pumped back into the sea without being used. In contrast, Dow Chemicals started by producing bromine from brine solution in the 1900s and has since become the second largest chemical company in the world, with a turnover larger than the GDP of Sri Lanka. The brine solution is electrolyzed in the "chloralkali process" to produce bromine, sodium hydroxide, chlorine, and hydrogen, as well as hypochlorite and chlorate, which are valuable and essential chemicals in the industrial world.

Sri Lanka is confident that it has oil resources and plans to start exploring them. However, in order to make the most of these resources, it is important to process crude oil within the country using local resources and to maximize product yield, which is not currently happening. While Sri Lanka does have some process industries, most of them rely on raw materials imported from other countries. It is acceptable to import certain materials if the country does not have them, but as Sri Lanka is a resource-rich nation, it is important to maximize the output from its own resources. The country wastes foreign exchange by importing a wide range of products, including food items, on which it depends for 60% of its basic food needs and spends more than 2 billion rupees per year. Despite being an agro-based society with many sources of food and potential for a proper food industry, Sri Lanka still imports food. The country also relies on petroleum-based fuels for transportation, power generation, and household use, rather than developing renewable alternatives such as bio diesel, bio gas, ethanol, and others.

Friday, July 27, 2007

PRABHASHVARI


CLASSICAL MUSICAL EVE ORGANIZED BY CHEMICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT SOCIETY

We organized a grand musical eve as a fund raising programme.

Visit our PRABHASHVARI home page for more information & to buy a ticket


Thursday, July 26, 2007

Unforgettable “Katha Baha” session

Today our student society organized a “Katha Baha” program. Today Dr. Dammika Welhenge presented his experiences in his carrier in chemical & petrochemical industry. He presented a cased study on the Amonia production plant as well as the sulfuric plant. These plants have closed down now because of many reasons. He discussed the importance of the Ammonia other chemical industries for the development of the country. He has taken very big effort to collect all missing evidence of these factories. He show some pictures those were taken during production period of Ammonia plant. This “Katha Baha” session was very important to every one.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Biodegradable Polythene using Cassava Starch

Non degradable polythene has been a heavy burden on environment. It causes decreasing soil fertility, clogging irrigation systems, affecting aesthetical beauty & destructive to wildlife & other biological system. So as chemical & process undergraduates we were delighted when we were given chance to engage with designing of biodegradable polymer.

Our country is basically agriculture based one. Because of too many reasons most of farmers loose profits from their yield. Same product comes into market in very large quantities in narrow time period. So farmers can not demand their product; unfortunately this scenario has been converted to grab the effort of farmers into intermediate traders’ wallet. We select cassava as the main row material in order to minimize the above tragic situation. When our research become a commercial reality it will help to give a high bid for farmers’ product.

We were given chance to select approach to the design project. We were given three alternatives to produce biodegradable polymer.

1. Using only starch

2. Using starch plus biodegradable polymer

3. Using starch plus non – biodegradable polymer (This alternative was given for worst case. That mans if we could not found any way to follow above two alternatives we would able to follow this option. )

plusone.gif


Using only Starch

In environment lecture we were given a water bottle to observe which is made out of corn starch. Mervyn Dias from Plastic Packaging (Pvt) Ltd (PPCL) was introduced to us by our project coordinator. He discussed about his experiences in production of starch based polymers. These two junctures enhance our enthusiasm on this project & implies us to select total starch to produce our biodegradable polymer.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Developing University – School Interaction

_ Pictures will come soon _


Student society of Chemical Engineers Society Sri Lanka, ChESS organized a workshop for Advanced Level student of Embilipitiya area. This is organized in order to increase the interaction in between school & university community. We covered up industrial chemistry part of the Advanced Level syllabus. We present some of industrial chemistry practical using recorded video clips. All video clips were made up in university with our equipment & student. We did a presentation with a little video clip on bio gas generation additionally.


This program was totally funded by IRQUE project. So we were able to perform that workshop in ultimate condition with out warring about money. We gave them high quality education material. We additionally distribute some books on Bio Gas Generation which were given by Prof. Ajith de Alwis. Finally we gave them a MCQ paper with 15 questions related to areas which were covered up in work shop. Three Students with highest marks were gifted with special prizes.


This program was a success because of our unity, commitment of our lectures & our department staff. Every one in our department did their best towards this program. We scarify lot of our academic works to do this program. But finally we realize the value of our program by reading feed back forms.


tags
industrial chemistry, industrial organic chemistry, continuing education workshops, educational video clips, educational video clips

Monday, July 16, 2007

Tetra Pak recycling

The idea to develop tetra pak came due to keen for new kind of packaging for Milk, fruit juice etc. The developers were able to make it reality in 1943. This is a cardboard packing in the form tetrahedrons. From that day it was developed in various way. Because of availability of various layers it needs extra care in recycling. This video will give nice idea on tetra pak recycling.




tags
recycling packaging, recycling waste, recycling plastics,

Corn - based mineral water bottle


We know that there are so many mineral water bottles in market in various name. Most people thro' them everywhere after consuming water. The usual mineral bottles are non degradable so they will remain in soil for decades. This is a great environmental hazardous in present days. But Natureworks has been successful to develop corn based mineral bottle which is totally biodegradable. Prof. Ajith de Alwis showed one of this bottle in his solid waste management lecture. Actually it was brain stroming for us. We touched & test the bottle in our hands. It is same in every way to normal bottle. It did not emit any smell. Actually it is a greate innovation.

tags
corn based plastic, corn beverage bottle, new innovation, new product innovation, new technology and innovation

Oxo-biodegradable polythene now in sri lanka


There is a factory now in sri lanka to make oxo-biodegradable polythene which can replace environmentally hazardous normal polythene. Plastic Packaging (Pvt) Ltd (PPCL) is the company which manufactures oxo – biodegradable. It can carry frozen food and heavy items. When you throw it away after using, it degrades fast and disappears within a short period under the heat, sunlight or in any other place where oxygen is available. Oxo-biodegradable polythene is water-proof, can be used in the rain and carry wet things such as ice cream, fish and meat.


The degradation time period of oxo-biodegradable bags can be shortened or lengthened depending on the percentage of additives, added to the chemical structure. However, according to the manufacturing process, oxo-biodegradable bags degrade within six to 12 months. Oxo-biodegradable bags are manufactured with a high quality additive called PDQ-H which is imported from the USA.

Tags
biodegradable resin, biodegradable plastics, biodegradable bags, biodegradable material, biodegradable chemical

Friday, July 13, 2007

Plasma arc decomposition of solid waste into non hazardous gasses & vitrified solids

This is somewhat high end approach to solid waste management. This is done using extremely hot flame generated by a plasma torch. This will be trusty way to get rid of some hazardous waste such as PCB (Polychlorinated biphenyls). The temperature of the flame is in a range of 10000 0F. Quite unbelievable temperature which is generated by special electrode consuming about three megawatts range electricity. But today prof. Ajith de Alwis said in Solid Waste Management lecture that the emitting gasses of this plasma reactor can be used to produce electricity which covers the consumption of electrical energy of reactor. In that case we only need a back up source of 3 megawatts electricity for considerably short time period. The rest of energy to run the plasma arc furnace can be obtained using emitting gasses. This is a good approach on solid waste management because this kind of high end technology will boost interest on environmental engineering & other related fields.


This video will give you a nice idea on plasma reactor which convert waste into valuble energy





tags

plasma torch, plasma technology, process decomposition, plasma arc systems, hazardous waste incineration, safety waste incineration, hazardous waste disposal, hazardous waste incinerators, hazardous waste recycling, hazardous waste removal, hazardous waste management, incineration plant, waste to energy, waste to energy plant, municipal solid waste to energy

Monday, July 9, 2007

Magic of Chemistry

When we mix concentrated sulfuric with suger what will happen? See this video.



tags
smoke bomb, how to make a smoke bomb, make a smoke bomb, make a easy smoke bomb,

Potential Electricity Generation from Biogas

Bio gas can be used as fuel for generators to produce elecricity or to use for other useful work such as water pumping. This two video shows such a project in Sri Lanka





Tags
biomass electricity, renewable energy generation, biogas energy, biogas production , methane biogas, renewable electricity, natural gas electricity, bio gas heat potential,

Prof. Ajith de Alwis

My blog is now reading by lot of our department past student who live & study or work in other countries. I am sure they would like to see our prof. Ajith de Alwis even from this little video clip. This video clip was extracted from one of video documentary on biogas project. He is doing a lecture on biogas for rural community.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Open Source Research Centre for Chemical & Process Engineering

There are a good field in computer science or engineering called "Open Source Software Development ". This make huge development in their field & make equal development in all over the world. Nowadays there are no difference in between European, Asian , African or any other regions software industry, all work together to achieve the cream of the cream of their industry.

Chemical & Process in also a field which can be developed further by doing R&Ds and continuous improvements. I think if there is open source research center which share their designs, experimental data & observation among each other, definetly there will be a boost in our industry.

As example we can do a research on environmental impact on solid waste in sri lanka & design a good systematic approach to get rid of it. We can freely published all information that we gathered & designed to all chemical & process engineers all over world. They can evaluate our work and they can add their comments & views. They also can contribute further on that research if they like to do so.

This will make rapid growth in our industry. If there is such a program developing countries can get maximum advantage, because our R&Ds are backing because of financial weaknesses.

We can not do this kind of effort with out financial strength. But we can ask founds from IChemE, World Bank, ADB, UN. This kind of effert do not want to make as opportunity to grab money. But we have to do something other than ordinary do to uplift our industry.

"Average Never Wins"

tags
open source software development, chemical project management software, online chemical engineering consultants, chemical and process engineering research and design, free chemical and process engineering softwares, free process modeling tools, open engineering projects, online chemical engineering programs, online research course,

Friday, July 6, 2007

Our Identity can be seen from Outer Space



Great Wall of China



Staten Island where Fresh Kills Landfill is situated


"The Great Wall of China is often cited as the only man-made structure that can be seen from space. However, there is now another contender for this title - the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, New York. As the largest garbage dumping site in the world, covering an area of 2200 acres, the Fresh Kills Landfill is a modern-day marvel that can be seen from outer space.

In addition to its impressive size, the Fresh Kills Landfill is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As the largest single source of methane, a gas that is 25 times more potent than the most common greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, the landfill has a significant impact on the Earth's climate.

The Fresh Kills Landfill was opened in 1948 and has continued to grow over the years. In fact, in 2001 its peak was 25 meters taller than the Statue of Liberty. It is not only the largest landfill in the world, but also the highest man-made hill. While the Fresh Kills Landfill may not have the same historical significance as the Great Wall of China, it is a testament to the modern world's ability to create structures that can be seen from space."


The Fresh Kills Landfill is a garbage dumping site located on the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is the largest landfill in the world, covering an area of 2200 acres. The Fresh Kills Landfill was opened in 1948 and has continued to grow over the years. In fact, in 2001 its peak was 25 meters taller than the Statue of Liberty, making it the highest man-made hill in the world.

In addition to its impressive size, the Fresh Kills Landfill is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As the largest single source of methane, a gas that is 25 times more potent than the most common greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, the landfill has a significant impact on the Earth's climate.

Despite its environmental and health impacts, the Fresh Kills Landfill has continued to operate and receive waste from New York City and the surrounding areas. However, efforts have been made to reduce its size and impact through waste reduction and recycling programs. In 2001, the landfill was closed to new waste, and the city has been working to transform the site into a public park and recreational area.



tags
landfill, landfill sites, sanitary landfill, fresh kills landfill, landfill locations, waste management landfill, solid waste landfill, landfill information, landfill management, landfill statistics

Are Engineers money oriented?



One of my blog reader had put a comment on my site claiming that engineers are money oriented people. But we are also have sense on humanity and we are doing our best to server our nation. This is quite old social service done by our department, but this will show how chemical engineers helped our nation in the most tragic situation in Sri Lankan history, Tsunami.......

Our department worked as a group to distribute detergents & disinfections in to affected areas as soon as possible.

tags
cleaning detergents, liquid detergents, emergency and disaster management, disaster planning

DOW NOW & THEN



THE HUMBLE BEGINNING OF DOW (in 1987)



THE DOW STANDS PROUDLY IN THEIR PRESENT POSITION (2007 +)

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Can she save this world behalf of us?

“When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope." Prof. Wangari, Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

We cut down trees for several needs. Although trees involved in our life cycle in numerous ways we do not mind on planting trees. But pioneers who see this world with a widen & perspective vision have started several campaigns to save this planet behalf of us.

United Nations Billion Tree Campaign is a brainchild of professor Wangari Mathai who is the first African woman won the Nobel Peace Prize. She is also the founder of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement which is focusing on environmental conservation, community development and capacity building. This movement have been planted more than 30 million trees in 12 African countries since its humble beginning in 1977.

Professor Wangari Mathai expressed her idea on her campaign by saying “People talk too much. We are no longer talking, we are working. The challenge now is to tell the world to go dig holes and plant seedlings. I've no doubt we will achieve our goal.”

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Success Story of DOW

Herbert Henry Dow

Although the beginning of DOW is dated back to 1897, the success story of DOW is very interesting. It was founded by dedicated chemical industrialist Herbert Henry Dow. He showed his capabilities of innovation by making an incubator for chicken eggs before he was 12. After several years his father and he innovated a small steam turbine for US Navy. After graduating from high school he enrolled into Case School of Applied Science (Now it is known as Case Western Reserve University). After he completed his education he began research on Brine. He found that several samples those were collected from Canton, Ohio and Midland, Michigan were very rich in bromine. At that time bromine was a essential chemical as ingredient in medicines and was used heavily in the photographic industry. In 1889, Dow won his first patent for his more cost-effective and streamlined process for extracting bromine from brine. In 1890 he began the Midland Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan with his enthusiastic friends. Herbert Henry Dow did not satisfy by simple R&Ds. He wanted to do complex researches on electrolysis to yield other chemicals from brine. But the financial backers on Midland did not approve of his dedicated research and fired him from the Company.

Herbert Henry Dow continued his researches in Ohio & finally he developed a process to extract chlorine and caustic soda from sodium chloride & established the DOW chemical company. After three years of dedicated business progress DOW was able to acquire Midland Chemical Company. Do you think the DOW began to success? No another threat came across DOW.

A government-supported German bromine cartel, Bromkonvention began to sell bromine which was the main product of DOW at a very low cost than DOW price. This was planed tactic to eliminate DOW from US industry. But the DOW Company did not vanish. The used their agents and brought all most all bromine and resell them in Germany. Finally German bromine cartel, Bromkonvention realized the truth & DOW won the battle.

Now DOW is the second largest chemical company in world. It is known as Chemical Companies’ Chemical Company.

The most interesting thing is in Sri Lanka; we reject Brine & pump it back into Sea without getting any use out of it. But DOW used it before hundred of years ago and now their in top tire of business world.


tags
chemical manufacturer, salt brine, dow chemicals, dow, process chemical, process technology, process production, dow companies, strategic planning success, management success, dow market


Monday, July 2, 2007

Biography of a great environmentalist & political activist


Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai is a environmental & political activist in Kenya. She works for her society in order to uplift their quality of life & eliminate some of their myths which highly affect their society well being. She is working hard for a society which is in dark of myths & under development. Because her extra ordinary dedication she won Nobel Peace Prize. It was given for her dedication on "sustainable development, democracy and peace". She was the first ever woman who won such a price in African region. We can imaging her working environment by referring her saying.

"I have warned people against false beliefs and misinformation such as attributing this disease to a curse from God or believing that sleeping with a virgin cures the infection. These prevalent beliefs in my region have led to an upsurge in rape and violence against children. It is within this context, also complicated by the cultural and religious perspective that I often speak. I have therefore been shocked by the ongoing debate, generated by what I am purported to have said. It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive"

We can understand her society background which is being changed by herself.

What is our scenario? It is not worst like this. Our people Sri Lankan have good values & our society has the ability to change. Then why there are poverty, war, conflicts ... etc available with in the society? I think we do not have good leaders to show us the path. Majority of our political activists are not educated well. They do not love our motherland. They do not need to develop our nation. That is why we are under developing.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi created a path to follow for Indians, Mohammad ali jinnah created a country for his people, Lee Kuan Yew influenced their people to develop. But for us? We need good leaders to uplift our nation. Most of educated and best people are not active in our society. Because of violence nature of our political environment most of best people are not involving in politics.

tags
women's rights activist, community activist, nobel peace prize winners, noble peace prize, sustainable development, sustainable community development, sustainable human development, sustainable development masters, sustainable development strategy, sustainable development program, environmentally sustainable development, sustainable development ngo, environment and sustainable development, women in sustainable development, community development, community development foundation, great women personality

Do you know about Cassava well?

Cassava (or Manioc) is well known food in Sri Lanka. It is a magnificent food item given by nature for poor people. Because to prepair cassava root for meal is very easy and do not need more ingredients except a spoon full of salt.
Most people think that cassava is not rich with nutrients. But it contains lot of starch & significant amounts of calcium (50 mg/100g), phosphorus (40 mg/100g) and vitamin C (25 mg/100g). The cassava roots do not contains protein, but cassava leaves contains protein.
Do you know that cassava can turn into ethanol which is a good alternative fuel for motor vehicles? Cassava based ethanol production researches have been conducted in various countries using pilot plant modules. It is proven that we can produce 185 - 200 lts of ethanol from 1 MT of cassava roots. The normal harvest of cassava is 29 MT root per hectare. So we can achieve a production of 5365 - 5800 ethanol from 1 hectare of manioc farm.
In Sri lanka we can see farmers suicide because of inability to sell their harvest. According to my humble knowledge turning cassava or some other starch based thing into ethanol is not a rocket sciences. We have fuel crisis, energy crisis & farmers burning financial problems to be solved. There are more alternatives for this kind of burning problems. We need only one thing to solve this problem. That is desire & kindness to help people. That is only factor that a scientist or an engineers driven to solve peoples problems.

tags
ethanol production, ethanol production process, production of ethanol, cellulosic ethanol production, cellulose ethanol production, ethanol production technology, ethanol production from biomass, small scale ethanol production

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