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Risk assessment of underground gas pipeline leakage incorporating Geographical Information System (GIS)
No full textMajor accidents caused by pipelines, such as explosions, deterioration can be harmful to the population's safety, public health and environment. Therefore, wide attention in preserving pipeline assets is needed to derive risk assessment of the pipelines from the accidents. This paper proposes a pipeline risk assessment method of space and visualisation focused on the existing state of gas pipeline risk assessment using an annotative geographical information system (GIS)-based approach to improve the administrative level of pipeline protection among the human physical area. This study aims to identify the losses of pipeline damage, calculate its losses in physical and monetary terms, and validate the calculated losses and its risk indexes with previous work. The calculation of overall consequences losses focuses on specifically Production Loss (PL), Asset Loss (AL), Human Health and Safety Loss (HHSL), Environment Loss (EL), Public Loss (PubL) and Reputation Loss (RL). An urban area of Bukit Istana is chosen for stimulation and to be investigated. As a result, the consequences loss assessment is produced and shown in the monetary unit. Assessment of hazard- affected bodies around the pipeline in Bukit Istana are also identified through spatial analysis and been visualized. This paper concludes by introducing the application of the environmental risk management method under the influence of the risk estimation system, obtaining the spatial distribution impact of environmental risk visualisation, and providing policymakers with a consistent decision basis
A solar energy based electric vehicle charging infrastructure for shopping centre
Full text linkAmong the numerous climate change concerns confronting our society, one of the most critical is lowering emissions from road transportation. Electric vehicles (EVs) are vital aspects in efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and improve air quality in urban areas. However, charging infrastructure is required to enable the transition from internal combustion engines (ICEs) to electric vehicles.To convince consumers to change to electric vehicles, Malaysia's government has declared in its 2022 national budget that EVs would be totally tax-free upon import, excise duty, and all other taxes. Making them more affordable is critical, but so is assuring their functionality.The study's objective was to develop the most appropriate model for enhancing the renewable energy system for EV charging stations located in shopping centres' parking lots in order to maximise electric power and carbon savings. The parking area of the IOI City Mall has been turned into public charging area and a solar farm. The simulations were conducted utilising the main five EV charging stations, which can accommodate 690 vehicles per month. The simulation consists of 4 main models. Each model corresponds to a different battery capacity: S, M, L, and XL. Each case was simulated twice: on a sunny day and on a gloomy day. The HOMERpro programme is used to determine the system's potential and the capacity of the generated electricity.The findings indicate that it is feasible to utilise the carparks of Malaysian shopping centres as a solar power plant for off-grid EV charging stations. The simulation of an unfulfilled electrical demand indicates the feasibility of the designed-solar panel installation. The electricity generated is sufficient to power the EV charging stations. On-site renewable energy (RE) generation for EV charging stations enables both cost savings and CO2 reductions associated with power generation
Application of palm methyl ester sulfonate as green surfactant for interfacial tension and wettability alteration for enhanced oil recovery
Full text linkOil productions keep depleting due to production problems such as high surface tension and interfacial tension reservoirs. Therefore, chemical flooding is one of the methods used in enhanced oil recovery. Injection of surfactant into an exhausted hydrocarbon (HC) reservoir is one method of lowering remaining oil saturation and thereby increasing crude oil production. These industrial and chemical substances may pose some economic and environmental risks. Stability under hard (or normal) reservoir conditions and excessive adsorption are still problems with surfactant flooding. The Palm (MES), and the synergy between (MES) and Sodium Carbonate has been proposed as a compound for chemical flooding in enhanced oil recovery in this project. The major aim of this study was to measure the effectiveness of Palm (MES), and the synergization between (MES), and Na2CO3 in oil recovery using chemical flooding. After the synergization of surfactant with alkali solution take place, the surface tension and interfacial tension test have been conducted to identify the optimum concentration when various concentrations have been used. The results showed that the optimum concentration for MES is 2000 ppm with surface tension (ST) and interfacial tension (IFT) are 38.5 and 10mN/m respectively. When the Sodium Carbonate alkali were added, it showed that 5000 ppm was the optimum concentration with reduction in surface tension and IFT to 36.5 and 8 mN/m respectively. Palm (MES), and Synergy of Palm (MES) with Na2CO3 changed the oil- wet sandstone to water-wet, and Palm (MES) droplet the contact angle from 960 to 340, and Palm (MES) with Na2CO3 changed the contact angle from 960 to 250. The 5000ppm brine and paraffin oil have been injected into the sand pack followed by waterflooding and chemical flooding to measure the oil recovery. The results from the experiment presented that the oil recovery for waterflooding were in between 27% to 31% therefore, more oil left in the sand pack. Then, surfactant with alkali solution was injected with 5000 ppm of brine as a slug as tertiary recovery. It showed that after Palm (MES) solution the oil recovery increase up to 48%, but after injection of Palm (MES) and alkali the oil recovery increase up to 53%. As a conclusion, it is proved that the synergization of Palm (MES) and Sodium Carbonate is applicable for chemical flooding as tertiary recovery because it can recover up to 68% of oil production
Radiation safety assessment of Malaysian consumer products with possible radioactive elements
Full text linkA wide range of consumer products containing radioactive materials are marketed for everyday use. Users are generally unaware of the presence of radioactivity in these products and the potential harm due to radiation exposures. Consumer products (CPs) containing naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) continue to be sold in local and online markets in Malaysia, including lantern mantle, jewellery accessories, negative ion, healthcare, tourmaline products, tungsten welding rods, and gaseous tritium light sources (GTLS). A hyper-pure germanium detector was used to perform the gamma spectroscopy analysis and investigation of the spatial distribution of long-lived radionuclides (238U, 232Th, and 40K) in these consumer products. The samples were prepared for elemental analyses which provide the composition of radioactive elements as well as rare earth elements (REEs) using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Monte Carlo (MC) simulations were performed to calculate the dose conversion factors (DCFs) that are used in estimating the equivalent organ doses and the annual effective dose (AED) from usage of these consumer products. Different scenarios in terms of use durations and consumer product placements on the human phantom were studied. The lantern mantle in sample M5 recorded the highest thorium activity at 12517 ± 1173 kBq, exceeding the exemption limit for thorium of 10 kBq adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Among the jewellery accessories products, glass pendant sample, GP11 recorded the highest activity at 6969 ± 483 and 687 ± 130 Bq of 232Th and 40K, respectively, while sample A14 (pendant pen shape) recorded the highest level of 238U at 1168 ± 131 Bq. The annual effective dose for GP11 can reach up to 3 mSv y-1, exceeding the public dose limit of 1 mSv y-1 recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). The glass disc coded A13 was estimated to give an AED of up to 2.5 mSv y-1 whereas the AED received from undergarment usage can be up to 2 mSv y-1. However, the estimation of AED from the use of tourmaline products ranged between 0.8 µSv y-1 to 640 µSv y-1. Currently, the investigated consumer products are available for purchase without information concerning their radioactivity content. Additionally, there is no impediment to the purchase of these products in Malaysia. There is a need to set specific criteria for the approval of these consumer products before their release for purchase and use by members of the public
Carbon dioxide intensity towards carbon-neutral glove industry
Full text linkDespite the heightened urgency of curbing carbon emissions around the world, the healthcare sector in general, and the glove manufacturing sector in particular have received very little attention from the sustainability community in terms of their contribution to the global carbon footprint especially during this pandemic. Producing more products with lesser resources is crucial in view of the growing scarcity of natural resources. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are one of the major causes of climate change. As environmental related issues are part of the sustainability areas of concerns, industrial players are required to oversees climate change in the company and reports accordingly. It is important to manage and implement environmental initiatives to improve operational eco-efficiency and reduce carbon footprint from company. Industrialist should recognise the importance of enhancing operational eco-efficiency as it improves competitiveness in terms of cost reduction and reduces environmental liabilities. An important step in emission reduction efforts is quantification of the emissions based on the inventory or scope segregation and identification of the specific sources of emission. The aim of this paper is to conduct GHG gas emission assessment in glove manufacturing plant. The results will inform plant owners and decision-makers about the major point source of emissions, which in turn, will reveal the operational requirements that should be prioritized for intervention. In conclusion, F24 contributed to 547.64 t CO2e / 1000 pcs of gloves in 2021 majorly by scope 3
An improvement of network facilities installation permit application process at Sabah state office MCMC
Full text linkThis study focuses on improvement of Network Facilities Installation Permit (NFIP) application process at Sabah State Office MCMC. There are three objectives of the study; to identify the issues and challenges in the current, to implement intervention action to improve the existing process and to evaluate the impact of the intervention implemented in improving the Network Facilities Installation Permit (NFIP) application process in Sabah State Office. Two interview sessions were conducted involving one assistant director (executive level) and the other one was head of branch office (manager level). The data obtained from the interviews was analysed using thematic analysis manually. NFIP dashboard was developed using Microsoft Power BI as the cycle one intervention action. A set of questionnaires adopted from Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is distributed to 17 respondents to assess the perceived ease of useful, perceived usefulness and intention to use the developed NFIP Dashboard during pre-intervention and post-intervention. The data obtained from the survey was analysed using SPSS for descriptive analysis, normality test, reliability test and t-test analysis. Based on the analysis result, there is significant difference between pre and post intervention of NFIP Dashboard as intervention action to improve NFIP application process in Sabah State Office. The intervention implemented in action research cycle one will be improved and will be measured again in the action research cycle two. The improvement of NFIP application process will eventually assist to expedite the rollout of telecommunication infrastructure in Sabah
Evaluation of total antioxidant and phytochemical from different maturity of jackfruit leaves using ultrasonic-assisted extraction
Full text linkJackfruit or Artocarpus heterophyllus is a tropical fruit that having high medicinal value to human health. Through the previous results of pharmacological studies, it proves that jackfruit leaves provide benefits in medicine such as have some properties of antioxidants, antidiabetics, anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and possess wound healing properties. Many studies reported that jacalin from Artocarpus heterophyllus seed is the major source of antioxidants from jackfruit. However, the study on evaluation the total of antioxidant content in Artocarpus heterophyllus leaves extract are rarely reported. This study was focused on Artocarpus heterophyllus young and matured leaves extract capability in antioxidant activity using environmental friendly extraction via Ultrasonic-Assisted Extraction (UAE) method. It was found that antioxidant activities existed in both young and matured leaves extract. The comparative of different maturity of leaves (young and matured leaves), whereas the ultrasonic extraction parameter involved as variables parameter of ultrasonic amplitude (20%, 60% and 100%) and time sonication (5min, 15min and 25min). At 60% amplitude and 15 minutes sonication, the total of antioxidants of leaves extract in which determined through DPPH analysis showed the percentage of DPPH scavenging activity was low compared to matured leaves with 59.7 % and 78.6 % respectively. These results showed that the occurrence of high antioxidant activity in young leaves compared to mature leaves with the value exhibited in the percentage of DPPH analysis showed the opposite value with antioxidant activity. The phenolic content was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu assay method while the flavonoid content was examined using colorimetric assay. As a result, the extract of young leaves has contributed the higher phytochemical content of phenolic (43.03 g GAE/100 DM) and flavonoids (25.56 g CE/100 DM) compared to matured leaves. The phytochemical content was given significant results which is in line with higher antioxidant in young leaves compared to matured leaves. Therefore, extraction parameters were observed influenced the level of bioactivities in jackfruit leaves extract
Retaining SAP (ERP system) knowledge among SAP expert in FGV Prodata Systems Sdn Bhd
No full textThe study is to investigate and to develop a knowledge retention plan of SAP talents drain out in FGV Prodata. The purpose is to reduce the loss of Prodata’s Intellectual Capital (IC) when every time SAP expert attrition happens. FGV Prodata has lost SAP experts due to a few factors, uncompetitive salary scale, heavy job tasks, and better career development. This SAP experts’ turnover happens every year and FGV Prodata suffers from getting the replacement through either lengthy HR process or Prodata can’t afford to pay high salary to the same level of an expert replacement candidate. The best way to resolve this issue is to hire fresh graduates and train them, but the cycle to reach the expert level is a long process. These actually give a great impact on the quality of SAP customer support, especially in FELDA and FGV Group of Companies. It is an accumulative issue for Prodata, in which the replacement of the SAP expert is not resolved, and the remaining SAP expert is burdened with abandoned tasks. Therefore, this action research to focuses on how could Prodata cut the Intellectual Capital (IC) losses by implementing SAP knowledge retention (documented knowledge) and officiate mentoring program to shorten the learning curve of Prodata’s newly hired staff, literally fresh graduates. Knowledge management theory and mentoring models are used as guidelines of this study. Surveys before and after the intervention are required to measure the effectiveness of the intervention. The analysis is pursued through survey data and comparative assessment with the identified previous study
Framework for permit to work assessment
Full text linkPermit to work (PTW) is an official document used as a means of communication, control, and managing work activities to prevent accidents at petrochemical plants. However, there are cases whereby the PTW has failed to control work activities resulting in occupational accidents. Hence, this study was conducted to develop a framework for permit to work assessment related to occupational accidents in petrochemical plants. For this assessment, the PTW and occupational accidents questionnaires were verified by expert panels according to Delphi technique for five (5) selective PTW elements, i.e. hazardous activity, worksite inspection, supporting document, work description, and closeout. A total of 260 survey questionnaires were distributed to work leaders and workers at the selected plants. The data were analyzed using the exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis methods. Next, a structural equation model (SEM) was employed to identify the most significant element(s) related to the failure of PTW. The assessment results revealed that hazardous activity was the leading cause of occupational accidents in petrochemical plants. The SEM results were validated using the fault tree analysis technique, which indicated that the same rank of factors contributed to the occupational accident. In addition, a simple multilinear regression of the PTW element was used to develop predictive modelling, which was validated using a case study. Finally, the framework for permit to work assessment of occupational accidents in petrochemical plant has been developed. This framework can be further developed to extend the PTW assessment of occupational accident from other types of industry
Application of caputo fraction derivatives to the thermai radiative convective casson flow in a microchannel
Full text linkThe application of fractional derivative is currently convenient and anticipated in the industrial and technological fields due to its unique properties. Therefore, the goal of this research is to learn more about the characteristics of the Caputo fractional derivative, which is one of the most often used fractional derivative operators. Additionally, microchannels exist in many industries and engineering process equipment, and their geometrical structure is one of the most important factors influencing fluid flow. Therefore, in this thesis, the Casson fluid behavior flowing in three different forms of microchannel which are static, accelerated, and oscillating is investigated. The effect of thermal radiation on the Casson fluid is also considered. The formulation of the governing equation for the problems is thoroughly discussed. First, the partial differential equations and boundary conditions are transformed into dimensionless equations by using appropriate dimensionless variables. Second, the resultant dimensionless governing equations are transformed into fractional form by using Caputo fractional derivatives. The equations are then reduced to linear ordinary differential equations by using the Laplace transform technique and solved by using appropriate methods. Finally, the numerical solution is obtained by using the inverse Laplace transform technique with the help of Zakian’s explicit formula approach. The result of velocity and temperature profiles are plotted by using Mathcad software. The obtained solutions are reduced to the published results for such problem for verification and accuracy, and have achieved excellent agreement. The influence of key physical parameters on the velocity and temperature profiles is analyzed and discussed in depth. The results reveal that as the fractional and radiation parameters are increased, the velocity and temperature profiles for all three geometries of the microchannel increase. On the contrary, high Prandtl numbers have increased the viscous force, resulting in a reduction in both profiles. Since the Grashof number has a positive influence on the buoyancy force, it has caused the velocity profile to increase. Meanwhile, the velocity profile reveals a contrasting pattern, with the Casson fluid parameter increasing due to increased viscous forces compared to thermal forces