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December 1, 2013

Monthly Publication

www.publishpk.net

edu.pkk

In this issue:

R&D Brief News 2 New Journal Launched 2 Cheating and Role of our Academic Institutions 3 A Chemical Voyage from Sugarcane to Polyethylene 3 Algae Biofuel 4 Training & Development 6 Upcoming Events 6 News in Pictures 7

Editorial Team

Chief Editor

Zahid Iftikhar

Managing Editor

Rozeen Shaukat

Associate Editor

Mujahid Ali

www.irp.edu.pk

mujahid@irp.edu.pk

Phone: +92 42 3584 6988

Opportunities in life

Life is waiting for those who are willing and eager to change

and improve themselves and who want to excel in life. It

offers countless options to those who see an opportunity in

every difficulty and want to make use of those opportunities.

This phenomenon works if our desire to change ourselves

supersedes any other desire. It is always important to remind

ourselves of our larger goals in life in order to make the most

out of the brief time that we have got. We should seek to

improve ourselves by keeping a strict and vigilant eye on our

character and behavior that is how we act and react in certain

situations.

To get a broader perspective about doing well, we will have

to expand our horizon and look around at the life of those

who struggled to achieve excellence, who thought of

changing the environment around and left indelible marks on

the society. We should strive to excel in all acts of doing

good and more importantly, to strive to make lasting changes

in our behavior. Our goal is to discover our hidden

capabilities and make utmost use of them. We should

consistently push ourselves to increase our level of doing

good.

Apparently it seems difficult to change our old habits and

mental barriers because it needs a struggle against our own

selves. The important thing is to get a sincere intention

lodged in our hearts and to let that intention guide our

behavior for a sustained change. It needs a lot of patience

and wait but it is worth doing. We should remember that

opportunity will never knock unless we build a door.

Chief Editor

Zahid Iftikhar

Editor’s Pick

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Institute of Research Promotion (IRP) organized one day Technology Seminar in Quaid-

i-Azam University, Islamand on 21st November, 2013. Seminar inspired more than 100

scientists of QAU- Pakistan largest university to do industry driven research.

IRP and Shafi RESO team met with scientists of UET, KPK, Peshawar University &

University of Agriculture, Peshawar

IRP is looking for scientists for steel industry for refining smoke process and controlling

dust in quartz lining refractory.

IRP got association of scientists in electrochemistry. Industry is requested to share

technologies and potential electrochemical projects.

Researchers are invited to publish in International Journal of Innovative & Applied

Finance (IJIAF) and can earn high value for innovative and applied research. You are

welcome to publish any innovative and applied knowledge through peer reviewing

process in IJIAF.

We are looking for scientists/students to recover Benzioc acid from residue of two

distillation plants. A previous analysis indicates it contains 25% of benzoic acid. Sample

is available in IRP office

Launching of New Journal Launched

IRP has launched a new quarterly scholarly journal as Journal of Bio-

Molecular Sciences (JBMS). The scope covers quick publication of

original articles on all aspects of Life Sciences including Biology,

Genetic, Botany, Bioethics, Medical, Veterinary and Agriculture

Sciences. It aims to serve as a forum of life scientists and agriculture

professionals. The researchers are invited to submit original papers in

English (papers published elsewhere or under consideration elsewhere

shall not be submitted. The journal is initiated by Dr. Jameel Khatak of

Kohat University

For more information visit on http://publishpk.net/index.php/jbms

Brief R&D News

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CHEATING & ROLE OF OUR ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS

by Samra Tariq,

MS Scholar, University of Management and Technology

Cheating is one of the common or we can say major problem in our academic sector. As well as

there is a lot of discussion on this topic. Our trendsetters or policymakers devise many policies to

wipe it out but defective policies do not bring fruitful results. Here is need to understand the

reasons rather than to make solutions because without identifying reasons, we cannot find any

proper solutions. We can eliminate cheating from our system by changing traditional teaching

style. Our teaching style is same in schools, colleges as well as in universities. Resource persons

only come for the sake of attendance and topic completion they don't have any concern about the

student's understanding.

There are many reasons behind cheating like students are not clear about their subjects, lack of

understanding even after completion of subject. Many students do not know about the basics of

those subjects. The reason behind this terrible situation is teaching style. Most of the teachers get

so much strict in order to control the students in the class, so because of this strictness many

students hesitate to participate in class. Students not share their ideas and not raise queries about

the topic, so with the passage of time they lose confidence. Students just spend time in class for

attendance. There is dire need to create learning environment in classes and academic

institutions.

Teachers should come into class with the aim to deliver something new in class which they do

not know before it. They should compare known knowledge with new and generate discussion

in class. This thing is also helpful to eliminate cramming system which may help to gain marks

but destroy the analytical skills. Secondly, our examinations pattern should be conceptual base;

so the students write what they have learned during classes. These things may not eradicate roots

of cheating 100%, but it will bring positive effects in our education system.

A CHEMICAL VOYAGE FROM SUGARCANE TO POLYETHYLENE

By Raja Wajahat

Manager, SIMT Internationals

Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of sugar-cane and its

industry uses this production to generate sugar and almost

80% molasses is exported. Brazil, on the other hand uses all

of its molasses to produce bio-ethanol which is then used as

motor vehicle fuel. Recently, Brazil has preceded one more

step by producing Polyethylene, the most consumed

polymer, from the bio-ethanol, produced from sugar-cane.

Braskem developed a process to utilize the 92.5 wt. %

bioethanol to make ethylene, which is then polymerized into various grades of PE.

In the sugar-cane Bioethanol treatment includes the same steps of liming, heating and decanting as

it is done for the production sugar. To balance its sugars concentration the juice is evaporated after

this the liquor becomes ready to be fermented. The mash is then sent to the fermentation reactors,

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and yeasts are added to it. The fermentation period ranges from 8 to 12 hours which results in

producing 10% concentrated alcohols

Bio-Ethanol to Polyethylene

In Braskem’s process, randomly packed fixed-bed reactors

are used to carry out the ethanol dehydration reaction in the

vapor phase in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst. To

recover the product water and condensable polar substances

from the raw ethylene produced in this step, a water quench

is used. Traces of CO2 are removed by scrubbing the crude

ethylene with caustic. A chemical-grade ethylene, with purity

greater than 99%, is obtained by first compressing and then drying the ethylene stream from

scrubber. This chemical-grade ethylene is then processed to

remove heavy and light impurities to get polymer-grade

ethylene. The proof of viability of this process is that, in

Brazil, since 2011, an industrial unit is manufacturing

ethylene and PE with a 200,000-ton/yr. bio-based-ethylene

capacity. To summarize,

It is a great opportunity for Industrialists of Pakistan to

convert the molasses, to the most used polymer; PE,

instead of exporting it.

This will not only be very profitable for the industrialist but will also have a great impact on

Pakistan’s economy.

ALGAE BIOFUEL: AN OVERVIEW OF PRODUCTION AND POTENTIAL

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

By Eng. Rabia

Research Associate, Institute of Research Promotion

Pakistan can use its 27million acre of saline lands to cultivate Algae,

which is the best alternative feedstock to biofuel production. Increase in

the fuel prices, pollution and growing needs making the worlds concern

towards biofuel, making the world independent of the fossil fuel. Algae

proves to be the best for biofuel production because other plants used in

biofuel production are important food sources and require large area for

biomass production. This overview involves the biofuel production

from algae. Algal biofuel play vital role in the sustaining environment

by CO absorption and by replacing the fossil fuel. One of the best thing

about the biofuel is that biofuel is renewable. The biodiesel produced

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from algae also known as the third generation biofuel that is cheaper than the conventional fuel

oils and can play a great role in decreasing the Pakistan’s total import of diesel oil.

Algae are cultured in control conditions and harvested and then autotrophically synthesized.

Lipid content is extracted from it and fermentation produce ethanol which along with sodium

methoxide catalyze the triesterification of triacylglycerol (TAG). This triesterification result in

biofuel. Certain byproducts are also produced during this process which includes bioethanol, bio

methane, biobutanol, hydrogen with the main product of biodiesel.

Algae is a diverse group of simple plant like organisms, growing in fresh water and sea water,

and a specific group of algae are capable of producing oil more than 30 times than other crops.

The role of biofuel research would be of key importance to avoid the consequences of fuel and

environmental crisis in the coming future, the main problem was to make the biofuel production

cost effective and more environments friendly while maintaining universal standards. Some

organizations were fully engaged to achieve biofuel production targets by cultivating Jatropha

and Castor Oil, etc, but some revolutionary benefits in addition to biodiesel/biofuel production

could be achieved through some alternative feedstock like Algae.

As Algae needs salts, carbon dioxide and sunlight to grow and produce oil, it will intake

the salts from saline lands reducing its salt concentration or eradicating salinity while

ground saline water of some saline lands can be used to irrigate algae.

Cultivation of algae would also be helpful for the sequestration of carbon dioxide from

air and salts from our saline lands, cleaning our environment along with a package of

enough carbon credits to Pakistan.

Oil yield from Algae is 10000 liters/hectare. The advantages of Algal growth are:

Oil yield is higher (Bio diesel raw material).

Can be grown in saline and waste water ponds.

Can be used as biomass, burned to produce heat and energy.

Alga culture grown material can transformed into methane.

Biological hydrogen production by algae is also possible for use in fuel cells.

The advantages directly related to Pakistan’s economy may be:

Pollution free greener Pakistan.

Employment for farmers/ labors.

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Institute of Research Promotion is striving to ease the problems of research community. Due to

lack of research trainings, researchers are unable to design their research effectively. IRP team

developed an annual calendar of training activities. Researchers are invited to visit and plan

research learning accordingly.

See details at www.irp.edu.pk

Recent coming workshops are:

Qualitative Research Methods – Dec. 16-17 in University of Lahore

Managing Theses for MS and PhD – January, 2014 – online and onsite

ISOSS 2014: 12th International Conference on Statistical Sciences

http://www.dsu.edu.pk - Feb 10, 2014 - Feb 12, 2014 - DHA Suffa University, Pakistan

Submission Deadline Dec 31, 2013

Notification Due Jan 15, 2014

Final Version Due Jan 31, 2014

Upcoming Events

Training & Development

13 Oct 2014 - 15 Oct 2014

Amsterdam ,Netherlands

Bettina Falk :Expo Manager

+49-6151-733924

bettina.falk@wan-ifra.org

http://www.wan-ifra.org/events/world-publishing-expo-2014

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Write for R&D Voice – Monthly Magazine research@irp.edu.pk

Some moments at QUA of Technology

Seminar

News in Pictures