School Of Environment And Earth Sciences

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Author: search.filters.author.Kumar, P.

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    Geochemistry and provenance study of sediments from Krossfjorden and Kongsfjorden, Svalbard (Arctic Ocean)
    (Elsevier B.V., 2018) Kumar, P.; Pattanaik, J.K.; Khare, N.; Balakrishnan, S.
    Major, trace and rare earth element (REE) concentrations in combination with textural and mineralogical analysis of sediments have been used to understand geochemical fractionation in the sediment due to weathering and subsequent transport in the Svalbard region. Surface sediments from different water depths and a short sediment core have been collected from two fjord system Krossfjorden and Kongfjorden, located between Lat: 78? 50? to 79? 30? N and Long: 11??13? E in the west coast of Svalbard (Arctic Ocean). Bimodal distributions of grain size suggest that the finer size sediments were possibly deposited from the suspended load and coarser size from melting of sea ice and iceberg. Geochemical study reflects that the variation of chemical composition of the sediments is due to first order fractionations of elements during the grain size reduction and subsequent transport. The chemical weathering in the catchment area is incipient and the grain size reduction is dominated by mechanical weathering. REEs are mainly controlled by the presence of less weathered aluminosilicate minerals in these sediments. The source rock composition of the sediments is intermediate between granitic and granodioritic, with negligible contribution from the mafic rocks. ? 2018 Elsevier B.V. and NIPR
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    Characterization, activity and process optimization with a biomass-based thermal power plant's fly ash as a potential catalyst for biodiesel production
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015) Kumar, P.; Aslam, M.; Singh, N.; Mittal, S.; Bansal, A.; Jha, M.K.; Sarma, A.K.
    A typical thermal power plant operated using a solid biomass mixture as fuel, which comprised 70-80% gram straw, 10-15% cotton straw, 5-10% wheat straw and leaves (2%) with a small quantity of coal (1-2%) initially used for smooth ignition, produces a residue called Biomass-Based Thermal Power Plant Fly Ash (BBTPFS). BBTPFS was investigated for composition and structural characterization using different techniques. The versatile composition of the BBTPFS was confirmed by XRF analysis that indicated the weight percent of different components viz. CaO (30.74%), SiO2 (27.87%), K2O (13.96%), MgO (6.67%), SO3 (4.83%), Cl (3.36%), Al2O3 (2.83%), Fe2O3 (2.36%), P2O5 (1.34%), Na2O (1.14%), small quantities of TiO2, SrO, MnO, BaO, ZrO2, ZnO, Rb2O, Br, Cr2O3, CuO, NiO and As2O3 as active ingredients. The SEM and TEM image analysis showed the surface morphology of the BBTPFS which was found to be mixed in nature, having 1 to 500 nm range particles with meso, micro and macro porosity. BBTPFS was used as a catalyst for transesterification of Jatropha curcas oil having a high percentage of free fatty acids and appropriate process optimization was achieved using the Taguchi-ANOVA method. It was observed that at a temperature of 225?C and an internal vapour pressure of 3.2 MPa in a batch reactor with 5% catalyst loading, 1:9 mol mol-1 of oil-alcohol and 3 h reaction time, the optimum yield of biodiesel obtained was ?93.9%, which is in agreement with the theoretical value. The product quality was assessed and found to conform to ASTM and EN-standards. ? The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015.