FOOD SAFETY: WHY YOU SHOULD DRINK SUGAR DRINKS AND NOT "NO SUGARS"

When you drink "no sugar" products they still taste sweet and even sweeter than sugars. Why? What is added there are sweeteners e.g. Aspartame or Saccharin. When you hear "no sugar" it is more of marketing term than safety. If you consume sugar in excess, worse that will happen is diabetes mellitus but if you consume sweeteners in excess you stand a chance of having cancer - a bigger devil. We need sugar in our body but I doubt if we need sweeteners. Sugars are natural chemicals while sweeteners are man-made. A small dose of sugar is good for you as it will be a primary source of energy. Good news is that you can burn it off completely if you are a hustlers - children are experts on this. Are you scared of diabetes? Only sugars that you can't burn off give diabetes. Meaning you consumed more than you needed. Mind you there are people that do not consume sugar but still have diabetes. Why? This type is due to imbalance of Antidiuretic hormone (ADH). In summary: Consume sugar not sweeteners. Do not take excess sugar. Honey, glucose are awesome for you.

LET ME COACH YOU ON HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY

I will be online to assist senior secondary school students on Chemistry. Go to comment, type or snap your questions. I am here to assist. Share with other kids

HOW IT WORKS: KEROSENE STOVE

This is kerosene stove. How do you use it? You put kerosene in the tank and leave space above the kerosene so you fill air. You lock the kerosene inlet. Pour little amount of spirit (alcohol, methylated spirit, or little amount of kerosene) around the lower part of the burner, light it and allow some time for the burner to heat up. Pump air into the kerosene champers, with the help of pump attached - Pump there work like that of bicycle. The air/kerosene mixture will burn to give flame without smoke. Anyone that has the stove should advertise in the comment section here. Whoever needs the stove should indicate interest. Ask any question you have on the technical aspect of this product.

SUCCESSFUL: BIOMASS WASTE TO ALCOHOL

Alcohol has many applications in the industry – as fuel, in producing diethyl ether, for sterilization etc. Two major methods of producing alcohol are hydrolysis of ethene and fermentation of glucose. Glucose is an expensive feedstock hence other carbohydrates are used. The good news is we can now produce alcohol from biomass wastes such as sugarcane bagasse and sawdust. In a research that I provided Technical Assistance at my Center, we were able to breakdown the lignin that hindered access to cellulose in these wastes, did chemical hydrolysis and then fermented the reducing sugar to alcohol. Physico-chemical analysis as well as GC-MS/FTIR result confirmed the claim. At Odfid Technical Center we conduct trial experiments at our lab, develop research proposal before a study is advanced to specialized laboratories for analysis, then we analyze results using Excel and MATLAB. Ongoing environmental researches we are assisting include converting biomass waste to biogas and biopolymer, development of adsorbent, design of batch reactor, combustor, and adsorber. “Odfid … Ensuring competence.” 07037263653

MY HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY KIDS MADE THIS SALT

 

The attached picture made my day.

A group of SS2 students in one of the schools I visit to teach Chemistry came excitedly, "Sir, we have produced our own salt. We would not buy salt again in the market."

 

I taught them in SS1 SEPARATION TECHNIQUES that you can obtain salt (NaCl) by evaporating sea water to dryness.

 

The students now secretly arranged for one of them to visit Ibeno water and get sample of the seawater which they evaporated to dryness and here comes our locally made salt.

Qualitative Analysis: The salt produced on exposure to air was found to be deliquescent - attracts water from the atmosphere to dissolve itself. It dissolves completely in water. The solution of the salt gave white precipitate when tested with solution of silver nitrate, the precipitate was insoluble in nitric acid (confirmatory test for chlorides)

This indeed is very rewarding as it has been my expectation to help this young minds to begin now to figure out ways of harnessing our natural resources.

While I will continue with the work of purifying the product at my private technical center, I have advised them that the salt need to be purified to remove carbonates and other non-sodium halides etc.

We would in the present state use the salt as preservative for our emulsion paint, we would use it for laboratory test for chlorides and to demonstrate removal of hardness of water (water softening by ion exchange).

My philosophy of high school chemistry is to let them understand the theory, carry out the laboratory practicals, and apply the knowledge to do mini projects.

 

CURRENT JOBS: APPLY IMMEDIATELY

 

1. DANGOTE JOB

2. NAMPAK NIGERIA LIMITED - Chemical and Electrical Engineers (Degree/HND)

Nampak Nigeria Limited - We are a frontline multinational manufacturing company with clientele cutting across the major sector of the economy.

Applications are invited for:

Title: 2022 Graduate Trainee Program

Location: Nigeria

Requirements

BSc - 2nd Class Upper or HND - distinction

Chemical or Electrical Engineering

0 year work experience

Not older than 25 years of age by January 2022

Application Closing Date

15th October, 2021.

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV to: bevcan.hr@nampak.com using the Job Title as the subject of the mail.

3. GRACECO LIMITED

Technical Operator (Functional Trainee)

Company: Graceco Limited

Location: Lagos

Job Summary

We are searching for a smart and well-focused Engineering graduate to join our team as a Functional trainee who will be in charge of specific machine on the production.

The person will operate the machine and ensure it is working optimally.

To be successful as a trainee engineer, you should always be expanding your engineering knowledge and sharpening your communication skills.

Requirements

Graduate of Electrical Engineering, 2.1 or better

0 - 2 years work experience.

Post degree training from Institute like IIT would be added advantage

Applicants under age of 30 are preferred.

Applicant who resides within Ikeja, Agege, Ipaja, Otta, Alagbado and environs will have added advantage.

Applicant must be knowledgeable about basic TPM knowledge, autonomous maintenance step 1,2,3 is preferable.

Basic computer skills (windows, excel) is preferable to enter performance results in the related database.

HACCP & Hygiene oriented.

Apply here:

https://lnkd.in/esPrvXKe

SS3 CHEMISTRY LESSON NOTE: PETROLEUM REFINING

 

1.0     Introduction

Fractional distillation is the process by which oil refineries separate crude oil into different, more useful hydrocarbon products based on their relative molecular weights in a distillation tower. This is the first step in the processing of crude oil, and it is considered to be the main separation process as it performs the initial rough separation of the different fuels. The different components that are separated out during this process are known as fractions. Fractions that are separated out include gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and bitumen. Fractional distillation allows a lot of useful products to be made from crude oil, with many environmental consequences for the use of those useful products

1.1     Process

The process of fractional distillation is fairly simple, but is powerful in the way that it separates all the different, complex components of crude oil. First, the crude oil is heated to vapourize it and is fed into the bottom of a distillation tower. The resulting vapour then rises through the vertical column. As the gases rise through the tower, the temperature decreases. As the temperature decreases, certain hydrocarbons begin to condense and run off at different levels. Each fraction that condenses off at a certain level contains hydrocarbon molecules with a similar number of carbon atoms. These boiling point 'cuts' allow several hydrocarbons to be separated out in a single process. It is this cooling with the height of the tower that allows for the separation.

After this rough refinement, individual fuels may undergo more refinement to remove any contaminants or undesirable substances, or to improve the quality of the fuel through cracking.

1.1.1  Fractions of petroleum

There are several ways of classifying the useful fractions that are distilled from crude oil. One general way is by dividing into three categories: light, middle, and heavy fractions. Heavier components condense at higher temperatures and are removed at the bottom of the column. The lighter fractions are able to rise higher in the column before they are cooled to their condensing temperature, allowing them to be removed at slightly higher levels. In addition to this, the fractions have the following properties:

• Light distillate is one of the more important fractions, and its products have boiling points around 70-200°C. Useful hydrocarbons in this range include gasoline, naphta (a chemical feedstock), kerosene, jet fuel, and paraffin. These products are highly volatile, have small molecules, have low boiling points, flow easily, and ignite easily.
• Medium distillate are products that have boiling points of 200-350°C. Products in this range include diesel fuel and gas oil - used in the manufacturing of town gas and for commercial heating.
• Heavy distillates are the products with the lowest volatility and have boiling points above 350°C. These fractions can be solid or semi-solid and may need to be heated in order to flow. Fuel oil is produced in this fraction. These products have large molecules, a low volatility, flow poorly, and do not ignite easily.

However, there are two major components that are not accounted for in these three categories. At the very top of the tower are the gases that are too volatile to condense,such as propane and butane. At the bottom are the "residuals" that contain heavy tars too dense to rise up the tower, including bitumen and other waxes. To further distill these they undergo steam or vacuum distillation as they are very useful.

1.2     Locations of petroleum refinery in Nigeria

The downstream industry in Nigeria is well established. NNPC has four refineries, two in Port Harcourt (PHRC), and one each in Kaduna (KRPC) and Warri (WRPC). The refineries have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 bpd. A comprehensive network of pipelines and depots strategically located throughout Nigeria links these refineries. 

Cracking of hydrocarbons

The process of breaking higher hydrocarbons with high boiling points into a variety of lower hydrocarbons that are more volatile (low boiling), is called cracking (or pyrolysis). For example, a higher hydrocarbon C₁₀H₂₂ splits according to the reaction.

The process of cracking, increases the relative amounts of the lower hydrocarbons. During cracking, carbon-carbon bonds get broken in a random manner, leading to various kinds of products being formed.

Types of cracking

Thermal cracking

Breaking down large molecules by heating at high temperature and pressure is termed as thermal cracking. Thermal cracking is further classified into the following classes.

• Liquid phase thermal cracking process: The higher boiling fractions e.g., fuel oil, lubricating oil are converted into low boiling fractions by heating the liquids at a temperature of 750 K, under a pressure of about 10 atmosphere.

• Vapor phase thermal cracking process: Low boiling fraction e.g., kerosene is cracked in the vapor phase at a temperature of about 875 K and under a pressure of 3 atmosphere.

Catalytic cracking

Higher hydrocarbons can also be cracked at lower temperature (600 - 650 K) and lower pressure (2 atm) in the presence of a suitable catalyst. Catalytic cracking produces gasoline of higher octane number and therefore this method is used for obtaining better quality gasoline. A typical catalyst used for this purpose is a mixture of silica (SiO₂), 4 parts; alumina (Al₂O₃), 1 part, and manganese-dioxide (MnO₂), 1 part.

Steam cracking

Here, higher hydrocarbons are mixed with steam in their vapor phase and heated for a short duration to about 900°C, and cooled rapidly. This process is suitable for obtaining lower unsaturated hydrocarbons.

1.3     Reforming

Reforming, in chemistry, processing technique by which the molecular structure of a hydrocarbon is rearranged to alter its properties. The process is frequently applied to low-quality gasoline stocks to improve their combustion characteristics. Thermal reforming alters the properties of low-grade naphthas by converting the molecules into those of higher octane number by exposing the materials to high temperatures and pressures. Catalytic reforming uses a catalyst, usually platinum, to produce a similar result. Mixed with hydrogen, naphtha is heated and passed over pellets of catalyst in a series of reactors, under high pressure, producing high-octane gasoline.

Reforming or aromatisation involves the conversion of open chain (aliphatic) hydrocarbons and/or cycloalkanes in the presence of a catalyst, into aromatic hydrocarbons (arenes) containing the same number of carbon atoms. Aromatisation involves reactions of the type, dehydrogenation, cyclisation, and isomerisation.

In reforming (or aromatisation), cyclic and acyclic alkanes containing six to eight carbon atoms are heated at about 670 K in the presence of palladium, platinum or nickel as catalyst. Platinum seems to be the best catalyst and so the process is sometimes called platforming.