The objective of the research was to understand and improve the unusual physical and atomization properties of the complexes/adhesives derived from the tapioca starch by addition of borate and urea. The characterization of physical properties of the synthesized adhesives was carried out by determining the effect of temperature, shear rate, and mass concentration of thickener/stabilizer on the complex viscosity, density, and surface tension. In later stage, phenomenological analyses of spray jet breakup of heated complexes were performed in still air. Using a high speed digital camera, the jet breakup dynamics were visualized as a function of the system input parameters. The further analysis of the grabbed images confirmed the strong influence of the input processing parameters on full cone spray patternation. It was also predicted that the heated starch adhesive solutions generate a dispersed spray pattern by utilizing the partial evaporation of the spraying medium. Below 40°C of heating temperature, the radial spray cone width and angle did not vary significantly with increasing Reynolds and Weber numbers at early injection phases leading to increased macroscopic spray propagation. The discharge coefficient, mean flow rate, and mean flow velocity were significantly influenced by the load pressure but less affected by the temperature.

This study presents the preparation of activated carbon from durian shell (DShAC) and durian seed (DSeAC) based by chemical activation with potassium hydroxide (KOH) as an activating agent under the nitrogen flow. In order to find the optimum physical characteristics, variation in concentration of KOH, carbonization temperature and duration time was employed. The result shows that activated carbon from durian waste is a promising activated carbon as the highest yield was obtained from the carbonization process that occurs at 400C for four hours with the KOH concentration is 0.6 M.

In this study, coating properties of the native cassava starch were improved by reacting it with urea and di-sodium tetraborate. The FTIR spectroscopy was used to study the possible reaction mechanism of the coating formulation. The prepared starch dispersions were used to coat 3·45 mm urea granules in a swirling fluidised bed reactor. An in-house built fluidised bed with an intermittent top spraying facility was used to coat the urea beds fluidised above their minimum level of fluidisation. The pre-coat solution temperature was varied from 50 to 80°C and the corresponding coated urea samples were further characterised for their surface morphology, coating hardness and nitrogen release time. The SEM images revealed that the surface of the coated urea was harder, denser and smoother as compared to the uncoated urea. Significant improvements in mechanical parameters of coated urea were seen with an increase in solution temperature and mass of the di-sodium tetraborate. The overall nutrients release time of the coated urea in water was increased from 63·33 to 209 s. The surface hardness and coating thickness of coated urea was also increased with an increase in pre-coat solution temperature and di-sodium tetraborate mass in the coating composition.