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THESIS CHECK LIST (CHEMICAL ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING LAB)
ABSTRACT (200-300 words [undergrad]; 400-600 words [postgrad]) FIRST SENTENCE: ISSUES – 2-3 lines
SECOND SENTENCE: NOVELTY – 2-3 lines THIRD SENTENCE: AIM – 2-3 lines IMPORTANT METHODOLOGY – 3-4 lines RESULTS+CONCLUSIONS – 9-10 lines
FINAL SENTENCE: Why are these findings useful and important? The FINAL sentence should REFLECT to the ISSUES/problem (i.e. FIRST-THIRD SENTENCE)– 2 lines
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION (MAXIMUM 3 PAGES)
1. Overview of problem (from world scenario and focus to Malaysia): half page 2. Introduction of your own pollutant/specific problem: half page
3. National and international Protocols and Regulations and national Acts and Legislation on the control of pollution (half page).
4. Overview of general engineering component/system to tackle the problem/pollutant: half page 5. NOVELTY (1/4 page) & AIM (bigger picture of the study) (1/4 page)
6. OUTLINES OF THE THESIS (1/2 page)
[Note: When you’re writing “Introduction”, start your writing with “Objectives” (Specific) the “Aim” (Bigger picture) and finally, “Introduction”. ALL important words in the “Objectives” must be describe in the
“Introduction”]
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW (MAXIMUM 30 PAGES)
1. Literature review on the chemistry of pollutant. See TEXT BOOK or journal for general information. Draw the molecular structure.
2. Introduction of focused engineering system. State the advantages.: half page
3. Literature review on the FUNDAMENTAL/general info/MECHANISM of the selected chemical engineering system
4. SCOPUS analysis on particular topic. Year vs. Technology (if applicable)
5. Create Master table on the state of art of the chemical engineering system (Data on five years back is required). See: SCOPUS, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, Google Scholar etc.
6. Critically discuss/comments/analyze the Master Table. What are the: a) Major achievement, different opinion and main research question?
b) Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis c) Research priorities and future challenges
You may use SENTENCES such as: Thanz et al. (1980) reported … Phanh et al. (1980) also described …
On another hand, Chuchardt et al. (2007) suggested … Sulaiman and Phea (2004) demonstrated …
Another study reported by Abdullah (2008) used … Zahrim et al. (2009) applied …
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For instance, Ahmad et al. (2009) evaluated …The use of CSTR has been reported by Lulong et al. (2007).
For instance, an SBR-constructed wetland was introduced by Chong and Tan (2010) to … Hanh et al. (1980) proposed…
Bhanh et al. (1980) also studied… Chanh et al. (1980) recommended Zhanh et al. (1980) also presented
7. EXTENDED Novelty statement (don’t put special sub topic, embedded in the Objectives) 8. SPECIFIC Objectives (MAXIMUM 3 OBJECTIVES)
9. What to write at Literature Review 2.0
a) This chapter presents a review of emerging composting technologies used for treating dye-containing wastewater.
b) It includes a brief description of the palm oil wastewater origin and characteristics.
c) The treatment processes developed so far for oily wastewater and the electrocoagulation mechanisms
are also introduced.
d) This chapter summarizes the current applications of membrane technology for oil removal from wastewater.
e) The factors that influence the electrocoagulation treatment efficiencies as well as the process optimization and modeling studies are discussed.
f) The state-of-the-art and development trends of advanced process for oil removal are further introduced.
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY (MAXIMUM 15 PAGES)
1. 3.1 Overview of your methodology (Description, flow chart etc.)
2. DETAILS on materials e.g. palm oil mill sludge /chemicals e.g. aluminum sulphate (where you get it, who is the supplier?). NO THEORY PLEASE! ALL THEORY PUT IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW.
3. Characteristics of material. IF YOU DON’T ANALYSE, PLEASE REFER TO OTHER STUDY. 4. Engineering drawing/flowchart of the process.
5. Details on analysis (VERY IMPORTANT): calibration (including pH meter calibration), what standard you used? Write the reference, maximum wavelength graph, zeta potential graph, details on calculation.
6. No need to put normal lab equipment e.g. balance, beaker, pipette etc.
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (MAXIMUM 30 PAGES)
o 4.1 INTRODUCTION: Critical brief review (3-4 lines), Chapter novelty (2-3 lines), Purpose (1-2 lines), Methodology (1-2 lines). Then start 4.2, 4.3 and so on.
o Graph-Picture
o Mechanism
o Statistical Analysis
o Modelling and/or Optimisation
o FTIR/SEM/Zeta/Advanced Analysis
o COMPARISON
o Design
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TIPS! DO NOT RE-LISTING OF THE DATA FROM A TABLE OR FIGURE. Focus on describing of the figures/tables in a justification way. Simple and clear explanation/comment. Avoid redundancy. Connect this chapter back to the introduction
How the results agree/disagree with your expectations and to the literature cited.
How the research has moved the understanding of scientific knowledge forward BUT do not extrapolate too far.
No summarization of result (this belong to abstract)/No conclusion is THIS chapter.
Example of First Line
1)
Table 1 highlights
the initial and final values for pH and elec
trical conductivity (EC) in each
compost mixture.
2)
Total oxygen and nitrogen content in compost samples taken throughout the study were
measured and are presented in Table 4 .
3)
The laboratory flocculation treated water over a range of influent turbidities and filtration
velocities comparable to typical conditions for rapid sand filtration, as shown in Table 3.
4)
The variation in temperature with agitation speed is shown in Fig. 9 for the adsorption of the
four dyes onto chitin.
Example How to Write Discussion
1)
The pattern for acidic region is the same for all pHs studied, i.e. sharp increase up to the
maximum removal followed by sharp decrease as the concentration of aluminium sulphate
increases.
2)
As expected, when the concentration of aluminium (III) increases to about 0.003 M, the dye
removal also increases.
3)
The TOC removal increased with increasing pressure with the highest removal, about 98% at
0.44 MPa (Fig. 9.5).
4) At transmembrane pressures of 0.36, 0.39 and 0.44 MPa, the corresponding conductivity removal
is 90.4, 91.7 and 94.6%, respectively, (Fig. 9.6) might be due to higher adsorption tendency for
dye-sodium sulfate aggregates.
5) There is an increase in conductivity for CF
–
SF from 7.39 to 8.10 mS/cm (Table 1) which is due to
presence of unreacted aluminium sulphate [30].
6) Although the variation is small, there is an increase in temperature as agitation speed increases.
7) It is found that increasing the mean particle diameter results in an increase in temperature.
8) As compared to other studies (Kalamdhad and Kazmi 2009; Villegas and Huilinir 2014; Kulcu and
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9)
With the increase of composting time, the color of compost gradually
increased
from initial color
of 2353 Pt
–
Co to maximal 4903 Pt
–
Co on day 30 and then
decreased
to 2434 Pt
–
Co at the end
of the composting process.
FIGURE’S RULES
RULES 1
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Ir
re
v
e
rsi
b
le
fo
u
li
n
g
fact
o
r,
%
Transmembrane pressure, bar
Calibri, Bold, 10 pt, not all
cap
Calibri, 10 pt
Axis, solid,
black colour
Don’t forget
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RULES 2
RULES 3
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS (MAXIMUM 3 PAGES) Rewrite your contribution and novelty (in brief). (1/3 page)
In sentences form but for technical paper, it can be written in points form.
Major findings with VALUES and POSITIVE approach [Remember: If 3 objectives means 3 paragraph] CONTRIBUTIONS of this work to the nation, society and economy (1/3 page).
Possible future work (1/3 page)
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REFERENCES 50-60% of the references should be five years back
SUBMIT (in CD)
1. RAW data in EXCELL 2. Words with ENDNOTE 3. Words without ENDNOTE 4. Combined ENDNOTE file 5. Technical paper with EXCEL file 6. Power Point presentation
Common mistakes
1. Absorbance was found also … (X) Absorbance was also found… (√) 2. 8mg/L (X) [no space between “8” and “m”] 8 mg/L (√)
Note:
For FYP 1: Chapter 4 is only 2 pages AND No need Chapter 5.
FINAL Check for Good Thesis
•NOVELTY. Describe breakthrough technology, new concepts, novel applications of established concepts, or improvements to existing theories (with new supporting data).
•CONCRETE RESULTS that are well supported by data. •SIGNIFICANT and relevant study.
• WELL ORGANIZE, clear English, professional look graphic & accurate & up-to-date information. [TIPS:“Control Find” word: is, are, was, were…..and check whether it is written correctly.]
