Name: MUHD HAZIQ AMZAR BIN PISAL

Department: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UPM

Title of Final Year Project: EFFECTIVE DE-EMULSIFIER TO REDUCE EMULSION OIL IN CRUDE PALM OIL PROCESSING

Name: MUHAMMAD HAKIMI BIN RAZALI

Department: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UPM

Title of Final Year Project: DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATED FOAM BREAKER IN PALM OIL MILL WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Name: ONG PHEY ZHEN

Department: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UPM

Title of Final Year Project: CHARACTERIZATION AND APPLICATION OF SOPHOROLIPID AS A BIOFUNGICIDE

Abstract

Biosurfactants are surfactants produced by bacteria, yeasts and fungi. The current market-trends show that biosurfactants demand was increasing due to its environmentally friendly characteristics and high degree of degradability that can be utilised in many fields such as cosmetics, agriculture, pharmaceutical and food industries. Vegetable fruits such as tomato and chili are very important economic food crops grown worldwide for domestic usage and export. They are easily attacked by diseases which drastically reduce the yield, deteriorates the fruits quality and causes economically losses This study aims to characterize the Sophorolipid and determine its antifungal activity through Poison agar technique and surface coating on tomatoes and chilies. The preliminary results showed that Sophorolipid has significant effect on the inhibition of fungus growth at low concentrations (0.05%-5%) and it is able to prolong the shelf life of crops by preventing the fungus infections. These proved that Sophorolipid has the great potential to be used as a biopesticides.

Name: NURUL HUSNA BINTI RADZALI

Department: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UPM

Title of Final Year Project: APPLICATION OF BIOSURFACTANTS AS BIOREMEDIATION FOR WATER TREATMENT

Abstract

In Malaysia, water pollution has become a serious issue and impacts negatively on the sustainability resources of water. Many industries discharge their oil-polluted wastewater in coastal water, either by direct illegal dumping or indirectly to the river. Biosurfactants have been used in the remediation of oil pollution due to advantages such as biodegradability and low toxicity. Besides that, biosurfactants consist of hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface-active molecules as their fraction that enables them to interact and reduce the surface tension at the interface. Currently, synthetic surfactants that are used are usually toxic, hardly degraded, and also give a contaminant to the environment. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the application of sophorolipids as bioremediation for water treatment. This is because bioremediation has been proven as a technique that is effective in treating oil waste residue due to cost-effective and environmentally friendly. It uses microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria to break down complex chemical compounds into simpler compounds. In this study, sophorolipids is identified by using Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. Next, a different type of oil and non-aqueous phase liquid is tested to determine the emulsification index (E24) of sophorolipids. From the study, cooking oil shows the highest degradation rate compared to the others and this proven that cooking oil has great potential in bioremediation treatment.

Name: Amirah Bt. Manab

Department: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UPM

Title of Final Year Project: THE OPTIMISATION OF CARBON SOURCES IN SUSTAINABLE BIOSURFACTANT PRODUCTION USING GENERAL ALGEBRAIC MODELLING SYSTEM

Abstract

Biosurfactants are surface active agents that been synthesized by microorganisms naturally. They are consisting of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts in their general structures which can decrease the surface tension between two distinct stages or the liquid interfacial tension between water and oil. By having this feature, these natural surfactant have proven that they are more advantageous compared to the synthetic surfactants. However, these compounds unable to beat synthetic surfactants in term of production cost. In order to boost the output of biosurfactants, there are several options that can be carried out such as developing more economical manufacturing method and use the cheaper substrates during the process. The use of raw materials from agro-waste, hydrocarbon or by-products of process is one of the alternatives in offering a culture medium with carbon sources and, at the same moment, can be cost-effective in generating the biosurfactants. From this research, the potential carbon sources were evaluated to be used in biosurfactant production. To achieve the purposes of experiment, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model was created to select the suitable carbon origin. The software General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is chosen as an optimization instrument in developing the desired models. As a result of modelling, rhamnolipid is verified as the easiest biosurfactant to be produced. While, the soapstock is highly potential to be utilized as carbon source in synthesizing the biosurfactant.

Name: Nazifa Athirah Binti Mat Zakhi

Department: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UPM

Title of Final Year Project: Optimal Application of Biosurfactant by using Linear Programming (LP) Model

Abstract

In the generation of world industrialization, natural useful resource exploration has provided as a source of research and development for science and superior technology, leading to the manufacturing on the world market of products with high equity value, such as biosurfactants. Biosurfactants are amphiphilic microbial molecule that contains hydrophilic and hydrophobic that partition at liquid / liquid, liquid / gas or liquid / solid interfaces. Such characteristics of these biomolecules to play a key function in foam formation, detergence, emulsification, biopesticide and pharmaceutical which are acceptable aspect in a number of sectors. In addition to getting a strong advantageous effect on the major global issues, biosurfactant production performs a widespread function in establishing sustainable processes in the industry, such as the use of renewable resources and green products. Low toxicity and biodegradability have resulted in the escalation in scientific research on a broad range of industrial purposes for bioremediation biosurfactants as nicely as the oil, food processing, health, chemical, agricultural and cosmetic industries. This problem can be solved with the aid of developing a mathematical model that can determine the worthwhile products and biosurfactant-pathways that will give maximum profit to the biosurfactant application. There are eight stages of research methodology that will be employed in the improvement of the fine biosurfactant application. The model comprised of linear programming (LP) model that uses various equations to identify the most profitable application for biosurfactant.