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A very warm welcome to all participants of the 10^th Curtin University Technology, Science and Engineering (CUTSE) Conference 2015.

This annual conference dates back to 2006 when the first Curtin University of Technology Science and Engineering (CUTSE) Conference was held in Curtin University, Miri Sarawak. CUTSE Conference was initially intended for Curtin's undergraduates to participate and present their research in a conference.

This year the Department of Applied Geology is organizing the 10th CUTSE Conference with support from The Institute of Engineers Malaysia, Miri Branch and the Miri Port Authority. This year, our theme is "Science, Engineering and Technology for a Sustainable Environment".

The 10th CUTSE Conference 2015 is an excellent venue for researchers, engineers, scientists, academics, professionals from industry and students to share their research findings and initiate further collaborations in their respective fields.

On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to thank this year's sponsors and supporters. We appreciate your support for CUTSE 2015. The CUTSE 2015 conference would not be possible without the dedicated work and efforts of the organizing committee members, staffs and students who worked tirelessly in every aspect. I thank you for your hard work and commitment towards making CUTSE 2015 a success.

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

The material performance is a crucial issue in the current fuel cell technology, and for this reason we present this new series of Samarium family which can be used as electrode giving a high performance in a particular application. Sm₀.₅Ba₀.₅MnO_3-δ was prepared by solid state reaction method and characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Rietveld analysis of XRD data shows that the material has an Orthorhombic crystal structure with cell parameter a = 3.883(1) Å b = 3.8742(5) Å c = 7. 762(4) Å, in the Pmmm space group. TGA analyses shows that the materials is going to decrease by 0.32%. The density of the materials was calculated from structural refinement and found to be 8.372 gm/cm³.

To fulfill the demand of the world energy, more technologies to enhance the recovery of oil production are being developed. Sandstone acidizing has been introduced and it acts as one of the important means to increase oil and gas production. Sandstone acidizing operation generally uses acids, which create or enlarge the flow channels of formation around the wellbore. In sandstone matrix acidizing, acids are injected into the formation at a pressure below the formation fracturing pressure, in which the injected acids react with mineral particles that may restrict the flow of hydrocarbons. Most common combination is Hydrofluoric Acid - Hydrochloric with concentration (3% HF - 12% HCl) known as mud acid. But there are some problems associated with the use of mud acid i.e., corrosion, precipitation. In this paper several new combinations of acids were experimentally screened to identify the most effective combination. The combinations used consist of fluoboric, phosphoric, formic and hydrofluoric acids. Cores were allowed to react with these combinations and results are compared with the mud acid. The parameters, which are analyzed, are Improved Permeability Ratio, strength and mineralogy. The analysis showed that the new acid combination has the potential to be used in sandstone acidizing.

Cloud computing provides services on demand instantly, such as access to network infrastructure consisting of computing hardware, operating systems, network storage, database and applications. Network usage and demands are growing at a very fast rate and to meet the current requirements, there is a need for automatic infrastructure scaling. Traditional networks are difficult to automate because of the distributed nature of their decision making process for switching or routing which are collocated on the same device. Managing complex environments using traditional networks is time-consuming and expensive, especially in the case of generating virtual machines, migration and network configuration. To mitigate the challenges, network operations require efficient, flexible, agile and scalable software defined networks (SDN). This paper discuss various issues in SDN and suggests how to mitigate the network management related issues. A private cloud prototype test bed was setup to implement the SDN on the OpenStack platform to test and evaluate the various network performances provided by the various configurations.

The pyrolysis of oil palm frond is studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) equipment. The present study investigates the thermal degradation behaviour and determination of the kinetic parameters such as the activation energy (E_A) and pre-exponential factor (A) values of oil palm frond under pyrolysis condition. The kinetic data is produced based on first order rate of reaction. In this study, the experiments are conducted at different heating rates of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 K/min in the temperature range of 323-1173 K under non-isothermal condition. Argon gas is used as an inert gas to remove any entrapment of gases in the TGA equipment.

An experimental investigation is planned in order to study the machinability of Inconel 718 with silicon carbide whisker reinforced ceramic inserts in end milling process. The relationship between the cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut against the response factors are studied to show the level of significance of each parameter. The cutting parameters are optimized by using Taguchi method. Implementing analysis of variance, the parameter which influences the surface roughness the most is determined to be the cutting speed, followed by the feed rate and depth of cut. Meanwhile, the optimal cutting condition is determined to have high cutting speed, low feed rate, and high depth of cut in the range of selected parameters.

As a potential electrolyte for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC-Hs) and to get better protonic conductivity and stability, zinc doped BCZY material has been found to be promising. In this study, we report a new composition of proton conductors BaCe_0.7Zr_0.2Y_0.05Zn_0.05O₃ (BCZYZn5) which was investigated using XRD, SEM and conductivity measurements. Rietveld refinement of the XRD data revel a cubic perovskite structure with Pm-3m space group. BaCe_0.7Zr_0.2Y_0.05Zn_0.05O₃ shows cell parameter a = 4.3452(9) Å. Scanning electron microscopy images shows that the grain sizes are large and compact which gives the sample high density and good protonic conductivity. The total conductivity in wet atmosphere is significantly higher than that of dry condition and the conductivity was found to be 0.276 × 10^-3 Scm^-1 and 0.204 × 10^-3 Scm^-1 at 600°C in wet and dry Ar, respectively. This study indicated that perovskite electrolyte BCZYZn5 is a promising material for the next generation intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs).

Biodiesel as a renewable fuel has emerged as a potential replacement for petroleum-based diesels. Heterogeneous catalyst has become the focus of researches in biodiesel production with the intention to overcome problems associated with homogeneous catalyzed processes. The simulation of heterogeneous catalyzed biodiesel production has not been thoroughly studied. Hence, a simulation of carbon-based solid acid catalyzed biodiesel production from waste oil with high FFA content (50 weight%) was developed in the present work to study the feasibility and potential of the simulated process. The simulated process produces biodiesel through simultaneous transesterification and esterification with the consideration of reaction kinetics. The developed simulation is feasible and capable to produce 2.81kmol/hr of FAME meeting the international standard (EN 14214). Yields of 68.61% and 97.19% are achieved for transesterification and esterification respectively. Sensitivity analyses of FFA composition in waste oil, methanol to oil ratio, reactor pressure and temperature towards FAME yield from both reactions were carried out. Optimization of reactor temperature was done to maximize FAME products.

Ground water of hard rock aquifers due to its lesser permeability results in the increased residence time, which leads to the higher concentration of ions. Hence in order to understand the hydro-geochemistry of the groundwater of a hard rock aquifer in India, 23 groundwater samples were collected from different locations of the study area and subjected to analysis of major cations and anions. The results of silica showed different range of concentration and was plotted in different groups. In order to understand the reason for this variation, different techniques like Thermodynamics, Statistics and GIS were adopted and it was inferred that the concentration was mainly governed by lithology and land use pattern of the study area.

The uranium concentration in groundwater has attained greater importance considering the health effects in mankind. Groundwater being the major source of uranium; sampling and analysis of groundwater for the major cations and anions along with uranium has been carried out in hard rock aquifers of Madurai district. The sampling has been carried out in varied aquifers like, Charnockites, Hornblende Biotite Gneiss, Granites, Quartzites, Laterites and sandstone. The cation and anions showed the following order of dominance Na⁺>Ca²⁺>Mg²⁺>K⁺ and that of anions are HCO₃^->Cl^->SO₄^2-> NO₃^->PO₄^3-. Higher concentration of uranium was found along the granitic aquifers and it varied along the groundwater table condition. Further it was identified that the mineral weathering was the predominant source of U in groundwater. Tritium studies also reveal the fact that the younger waters are more enriched in uranium than the older groundwater with longer residence time.

The smart grid is the emerging energy system wherein the application of information technology, tools and techniques that make the grid run more efficiently. It possesses demand response capacity to help balance electrical consumption with supply. The challenges and opportunities of emerging and future smart grids can be addressed by cloud computing. To focus on these requirements, we provide an in-depth survey on different cloud computing applications for energy management in the smart grid architecture. In this survey, we present an outline of the current state of research on smart grid development. We also propose a model of cloud based economic power dispatch for smart grid.

The demand on electrical energy is rapidly increasing. Everything around us requires electrical energy either during its production or usage stage. Sustainability has become the main concern nowadays as the availability of fossil fuels is limited. As renewable energy is the path-way to energy sustainability and environmental friendly environment, this paper proposes a solar power system for Curtin University Sarawak to reduce its electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed 208 kW solar system saves an energy consumption of more than 380,000 kWh per year, and a CO2 offset by 285 Tons per year

The Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) is the first and largest offshore campus of Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, and the first foreign university to be established in East Malaysia in partnership with the Sarawak State Government. Today's major concern of Curtin is its monthly electrical energy consumption and the electricity bill since its monthly energy consumption exceeds 0.3 Million kWh, and the corresponding electricity bill surpasses RM 95000. Such a situation necessitates Curtin to curtail the heavy energy consumption with immediate effect. Introducing Renewable Energy Source such as PV Solar Systems is a cost-effective and environmental friendly solution to reduce the exponential increase in energy consumption charges of Curtin. Hence, this paper proposes a 90 kW solar power plant for Curtin Sarawak.

A component of artificial intelligence (AI), which is fuzzy logic, is combined with the so-called conventional sliding mode observer (SMO) to establish a hybrid type estimator to predict the butene concentration in the polyethylene production reactor. Butene or co-monomer concentration is another significant parameter in the polymerization process since it will affect the molecular weight distribution of the polymer produced. The hybrid estimator offers straightforward formulation of SMO and its combination with the fuzzy logic rules. The error resulted from the SMO estimation will be manipulated using the fuzzy rules to enhance the performance, thus improved on the convergence rate. This hybrid estimation is able to estimate the butene concentration satisfactorily despite the present of noise in the process.

The specimen of BaCe_0.7Zr_0.1Y_0.05Zn_0.15O₃, a perovskite-type electrolyte, has been synthesized for application in an anode-supported protonic solid oxide fuel cell by the conventional solid state reaction in air at 1200°C for 12 hours. Structural and thermal characterization has been performed using room temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA). Rietveld analysis of the XRD data has been analyzed by FullProf program and confirmed the single phase of the sample with an orthorhombic crystal structure in the Pbnm space group. To understand the temperature dependent behaviour TG/DTA scan of the precursor was recorded. The TG/DTA scan was performed under constant flow of Argon which exhibits a gradual weight loss up to 900^oC. The SEM image of the pellet surface of the sample shows that the sample sintered at 1200^oC was dense and suitable to use as electrolyte in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).

La_0.75Sr_0.25Mn_0.5Cr_0.2Ti_0.3O₃ has been synthesized in solid state reaction method and tested as a potential anode material for solid oxide fuel cells. Rietveld refinement of X-ray powder diffraction data of the composition using Fullprof software shows that the materials crystallize in the rhombohedral symmetry in the R-3C space group. The cell parameters are: a = b = 5.5143 (4) Å, c = 13.452(1) Å, α = β = 90°, δ = 120°. Addition of titanium to the B-site of La_0.75Sr_0.25Mn_0.5Cr_0.2Ti_0.3O_3-δ yields a total conductivity of 1.96 Scm^-1 in air at 800 °C with activation energy of 1.02 eV.

Asphaltene precipitation from crude oil and its subsequent aggregation forms solid, which preferentially deposit on rock surfaces causing formation damage and wettability changes leading to loss of crude oil production. To resolve this problem, asphaltene inhibitor has been injected into the formation to prevent the precipitation of asphaltene. Asphaltene inhibitors that are usually employed are generally toxic and non-biodegradable. This paper presents a new environmentally friendly asphaltene inhibitor (methyl ester sulphonate), an anionic surfactant, which has excellent sorption on formation rock surfaces. Result from adsorption study validated by Langmuir and Freundlich models indicate a favourable adsorption. At low volumes injected, methyl ester sulphonate is capable of reverting oil-wet sandstone surface to water-wet surface. Biodegradability test profile shows that for concentrations of 100-5000ppm it is biodegradable by 65-80%.

Recently, EEG based control in assistive robot usage has been gradually increasing in the area of biomedical field for giving quality and stress free life for disabled and elderly people. This study reviews the deployment of EGG based control in assistive robots, especially for those who in need and neurologically disabled. The main objective of this paper is to describe the methods used for (i) EEG data acquisition and signal preprocessing, (ii) feature extraction and (iii) signal classification methods. Besides that, this study presents the specific research challenges in the designing of these control systems and future research directions.

Two-phase pipe flow is a common occurrence in many industrial applications such as power generation and oil and gas transportation. Accurate prediction of liquid holdup and pressure drop is of vast importance to ensure effective design and operation of fluid transport systems. In this paper, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study of a two-phase flow of air and water is performed using OpenFOAM. The two-phase solver, interFoam is used to identify flow patterns and generate values of liquid holdup and pressure drop, which are compared to results obtained from a two-phase mechanistic model developed by Petalas and Aziz (2002). A total of 60 simulations have been performed at three separate pipe inclinations of 0°, +10° and -10° respectively. A three dimensional, 0.052m diameter pipe of 4m length is used with the Shear Stress Transport (SST) k - ɷ turbulence model to solve the turbulent mixtures of air and water. Results show that the flow pattern behaviour and numerical values of liquid holdup and pressure drop compare reasonably well to the mechanistic model.

In this study, particle size distribution and zeta potential of the suspended particles in municipal water and lake surface water of Curtin Sarawak's lake were compared and the samples were analysed using dynamic light scattering method. High concentration of suspended particles affects the water quality as well as suppresses the aquatic photosynthetic systems. A new approach has been carried out in the current work to determine the particle size distribution and zeta potential of the suspended particles present in the water samples. The results for the lake samples showed that the particle size ranges from 180nm to 1345nm and the zeta potential values ranges from -8.58 mV to -26.1 mV. High zeta potential value was observed in the surface water samples of Curtin Sarawak's lake compared to the municipal water. The zeta potential values represent that the suspended particles are stable and chances of agglomeration is lower in lake water samples. Moreover, the effects of physico-chemical parameters on zeta potential of the water samples were also discussed.

Adding suitable metal oxide into lanthanum silicate apatite can produce a composite with a good oxygen ion-conducting electrolyte that enhances the performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). In this paper we present the synthesis and characterisation of Bi₂O₃ and La₁₀Si₆O₂₇ composite prepared by a solid state reaction. The sintering temperature of the composite was 1500°C for 10 hours with the heating and cooling rates of 10°C per minute. The properties of the resulting composite have been characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ionic conductivity measured by an a.c. impedance spectroscopy (IS). Rietveld refinement of XRD data shows that the composition is purely the mixture of Bi₂O₃ and La₁₀Si₆O₂₇ with the unit cell parameters of the main phase as a = 9.9810 (8) and c = 7.3239 (6) Å. The room temperature crystal structure was hexagonal with space group P6₃/m. The highest ionic conductivity of 1.76 × 10^-2 Scm^-1 with a corresponding activation energy of 0.39 eV was obtained at 750°C. SEM images show the material is densed enough to use as an electrolyte for SOFCs.

This paper presents a new control strategy which unifies the direct and indirect multi-scale control schemes via a double-loop control structure. This unified control strategy is proposed for controlling a class of highly nonminimum-phase processes having both integrating and unstable modes. This type of systems is often encountered in fed-batch fermentation processes which are very difficult to stabilize via most of the existing well-established control strategies. A systematic design procedure is provided where its applicability is demonstrated via a numerical example.

Water-Gas Shift Reaction (WGSR) has become one of the well-known pathways for H₂ production in industries. The issue with WGSR is that it is kinetically favored at high temperatures but thermodynamically favored at low temperatures, thus requiring careful consideration in the control design in order to ensure that the temperature used does not deactivate the catalyst. This paper studies the effect of a reactor arrangement with an inter-stage cooling implemented in the packed bed reactor to look at its effect on outlet temperature. A mathematical model is developed based on one-dimensional heat and mass transfers which incorporate the intra-particle effects. It is shown that the placement of the inter-stage cooling and the outlet temperature exiting the inter-stage cooling have strong influence on the reaction conversion. Several control strategies are explored for the process. It is shown that a feedback- feedforward control strategy using Multi-scale Control (MSC) is effective to regulate the reactor temperature profile which is critical to maintaining the catalysts activity.

Trapping mechanisms taken place during and after CO₂ injection in a geologic storage medium are impacted by a number of parameters including injection rates together with rock and pore fluid compositions. There have been many studies on the factors controlling the capillary trapping and injectivity of CO₂ storage sites. However, there are only few works carried out discussing on the effect of flow rate and rock and fluids compositions in controlling the trapping mechanisms. In this paper a CO₂ storage site located in a heterogeneous aquifer is simulated to investigate the efficiency of structural, capillary and dissolution trappings as a function of injection rate and concentration of calcium carbonate. The results obtained from numerical analysis indicated that CO₂ injection must be made within an optimum injection rate for having an effective storage in place. It was also found that concentration of CaCO₃ is an important parameter to consider during the analysis as it drastically controls the fate of trapping mechanisms at high injection rates.