South African Journal of Chemical Engineering最新文献

{"title":"Sustainable utilization of post-extraction residual biomass for solid biofuel production","authors":"Diana Kindzera ,&nbsp;Viktoria Kochubei ,&nbsp;Roman Hosovskyi","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.07.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.07.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Post-extraction residual biomass, a by-product produced on an industrial scale following ethanol-water extraction of pelargonium (<em>Pelargonium sidoides</em>) tuberous roots, has been evaluated as a potential feedstock for solid biofuel production. To reduce the moisture content of biomass, the energy-efficient filtration drying method was used and pelargonium root (PR) test samples were prepared from the dried material. Comprehensive thermal analysis revealed that the thermal decomposition of the PR test samples occurred in four distinct stages, each characterized by specific temperature ranges and corresponding mass losses. The calorific value of the PR sample, determined via bomb calorimetry, was 19.3 MJ/kg. Considering the fixed carbon content of 20.6 %, the volatile matter content of 62.3 %, along with a favorable ash composition, but slightly elevated ash content of 5.1 wt.%, the dried post-extraction pelargonium root residual biomass can be recommended as feedstock for solid biofuel production when mixed with wood biomass.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 70-78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Life cycle assessment of facile applicable biodiesel production","authors":"Mohamed A. Hanafy ,&nbsp;Rehab M. Ali ,&nbsp;Abdallah S. Elgharbawy ,&nbsp;Ahmed I. Osman ,&nbsp;Mohamed A. Farrag ,&nbsp;Abdulaziz H. Al-Anazi","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.08.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.08.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biodiesel is crucial for mitigating fossil fuel depletion and reducing environmental impacts. Herein, this approach represents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of biodiesel production from waste cooking oil (WCO) utilizing potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃) as a heterogeneous catalyst instead of potassium hydroxide (KOH), which is the most used catalyst in industry. However, KOH requires a 20% methanol and a 66% reaction time, higher than K₂CO₃. Besides, KOH is used once, and produces impure biodiesel and glycerol. While K₂CO₃ can be used, recovered and reused twice, which decreases the net required catalyst amount without a significant decrease in biodiesel production yield, decreases the environmental burdens, and produces purer products. When using WCO or high free fatty acid (FFA) oils, K₂CO₃ has the advantage of effective direct transesterification, while KOH requires post-treatment process (esterification), which means extra usage of methanol besides the acid catalyst, which is commonly H₂SO₄, to decrease the FFA content and avoid the saponification reaction. Therefore, this research aims to quantify the environmental burdens of biodiesel production and compare the performance of K₂CO₃ with that of conventional KOH. Using the ReCiPe method in SimaPro 9.5 software, the LCA adheres to ISO 14040 and 14044 standards. Key findings indicate significant impacts in climate change (0.274 kg CO_2,eq), human non-carcinogenic toxicity (0.12 kg 14-DCB_eq), terrestrial ecotoxicity (0.536 kg 14-DCB_eq), and fossil resource scarcity (0.183 kg oil_eq). Methanol and K₂CO₃ are identified as major contributors to environmental burdens. In contrast, KOH demonstrates a less environmental impact compared to K₂CO₃. The economic study revealed that, for producing 250 thousand tons of biodiesel per year, the total CAPEX needed to build up the plant is around 12 M$ for both catalysts. The results proved that using K₂CO₃ leads to higher net profits. The study revealed that the biodiesel plant would achieve a remarkable net profit using any type of catalyst, with an advantageous economic indicator for K₂CO₃ over KOH, proving the high profitability of using K₂CO₃ as a catalyst.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 291-307"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144888715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigation of toluene alkylation with hept-1-ene over fresh and modified h-beta catalysts according to apparent activation energy values","authors":"Ali Al-Shathr ,&nbsp;Bashir Y. Al-Zaidi ,&nbsp;Safa Aal-Kaeb ,&nbsp;Zaidoon M. Shakor ,&nbsp;Hasan Sh. Majdi ,&nbsp;May A. Alsaffar ,&nbsp;Muhannad A.E. Al-Saedy ,&nbsp;Ahmed Majeed Jassem ,&nbsp;Ramzy S. Hamied ,&nbsp;Firas K. Al-Zuhairi ,&nbsp;Adnan A. AbdulRazak ,&nbsp;Talib M. Albayati ,&nbsp;James McGregor","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.07.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.07.010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This work has demonstrated improved conversion and selectivity and reduced coking in the alkylation of toluene with hept‑1-ene to linear alkyl methyl benzenes over onto H-beta (Si/Al = 367), desilicated H-beta (Si/Al = 231) and dealuminated H-beta (Si/Al = 563) zeolite catalysts. Additionally, kinetic modelling provided support for the proposed reaction mechanism, facilitating the design of improved catalysts for this reaction. The production of linear alkyl methyl benzenes is of critical import in the manufacture of detergents, a rapidly growing sector globally, however currently processes are limited by catalyst deactivation as a result of coke deposition. The properties of the parent and modified catalysts were analysed using XRD, FTIR, SEM, ICP-AES, TGA, and BET surface area. The results indicate that both types of catalysts whose structural framework was modified <em>via</em> acid or base leaching treatment techniques had improved catalytic activity, leading to an enhancement in the conversion and selectivity towards double-bond isomerisation and alkylation products. In addition, the experimental results were fitted using a reaction scheme consisting of seven components and thirteen reactions. Nonlinear optimization (genetic algorithm technique) with numerical integration (4th order Runge-Kutta) was utilized to predict the kinetic parameters, while Matlab 2021a software was used to perform all computation. The mean relative errors (MRE) values ​​estimated from comparing experimental and model-predicted outcome data showed remarkable agreement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 114-132"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144773214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Water hyacinth derived activated carbon electrode materials for water defluoridation using capacitive deionization technology","authors":"Hassan Johnson Kalilo ,&nbsp;Joyce Elisadiki ,&nbsp;Maheswara Rao Vegi ,&nbsp;Said Ali Hamad Vuai","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.08.013","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.08.013","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Safe water is a vital component of human life that requires purification to reduce the concentration of ionic pollutants using appropriate water treatment techniques, such as capacitive deionization (CDI) water treatment technology. The porous activated carbon electrode materials have prepared via the carbonization of water hyacinth plants followed by chemical activation using KOH at different temperatures (400-700°C with an increment of 100°C) labeled as CWH-400, WHAC-500, WHAC-600 and WHAC-700 all being activated for 1 h where CWH represents carbonized water hyacinths and WHAC represents water hyacinths activated carbon. The activation temperature has a significant effect on the specific surface area of the porous carbon prepared, as it increases from 464.67 m²/g for CWH-400 to 1020.01 m²/g for WHAC-700. The defluoridation experiments were done using water samples with initial fluoride concentrations of 4.21, 4.61 and 3.51 mg/L for water samples from Arusha (A), Manyara (B) and Shinyanga (C) respectively when the 2 V was supplied to the cell with 10 mL/min flow rate at 3 hours charging time. The defluoridation results were 1.28, 1.37, and 1.15 mg/L for water samples A, B, and C, respectively. The WHAC-700 electrode was found to possess a capacitance of 501.89 F/g, exhibiting removal efficiencies of 69.60%, 70.28%, and 67.24% for water samples from Arusha (A), Manyara (B), and Shinyanga (C), respectively, at a potential of 2 V with a charging time of 3 hours. Therefore, the water hyacinth plants are suitable precursors for preparing porous activated carbon electrodes to be used in a CDI cell for the defluoridation of any water sample.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 357-370"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144916379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Eco-friendly synthesis, characterization of silver-doped manganese oxide nanocomposites using Rumex Nervosus Vahl leaf extract and its antibacterial activity","authors":"Mihret Kendie,&nbsp;Bidir Kassaw,&nbsp;Tadesse Bizuayehu","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.09.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.09.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The alarming escalation of multidrug-resistant bacteria represents a critical global health challenge, demanding innovative antimicrobial solutions. Silver manganese oxide (Ag–MnO) nanocomposites were biosynthesized from silver nitrate and manganese sulphate using an eco-friendly and cost-effective method, assisted by hydroalcoholic leaf extract of <em>Rumex Nervosus Vahl</em>. The successful synthesis of Ag-MnO nanocomposites was confirmed using spectroscopic (UV–Vis and FT–IR), structural (XRD), and thermal (TGA/DTA) analyses. The surface plasmon resonance peak observed at 402.89 nm from UV–Viss afirms the formation of Ag–MnO nanocomposites. In FT-IR spectral shift indicates the effective chelating ability of the plant extract for the synthesizing of Ag–MnO nanocomposites. XRD analysis revealed an average crystallite size of 29.73 nm, confirming the material’s nanoscale crystalline nature, and the TGA/DTA analysis confirmed that the synthesized nanocomposites were stable at high temperatures. The nanocomposites showed notable antibacterial activity, with a greater effect against Gram-negative than Gram-positive bacteria, as demonstrated by the disc diffusion method. These results indicate that Ag–MnO nanocomposites hold strong potential as alternative agents for combating drug-resistant infections, with promising applications in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 484-493"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145118019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Magnetohydrodynamic double diffusive mixed convection of power-law non-Newtonian hybrid nanofluid in rotating eccentric annuli with different positions of inner cylinder","authors":"Israt Jahan Supti,&nbsp;Md. Zahangir Hossain,&nbsp;Md. Mamun Molla","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.09.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.09.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The study numerically analyzes magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) double-diffusive mixed convection in a rotating eccentric annulus filled with a non-Newtonian power-law hybrid nanofluid consisting of <span><math><mrow><mi>A</mi><msub><mrow><mi>l</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>O</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></math></span> and <span><math><mrow><mi>F</mi><msub><mrow><mi>e</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>O</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></math></span> nanoparticles suspended in water, considering various placements of the inner cylinder. The study utilizes the Galerkin weighted residual finite element method (GFEM) for the analysis. In this structure, the nanofluid fills the gap between the cylinders, keeping the outside circle of the geometry cold and the inner circle hot. In this structure, the nanofluid fills the gap between the cylinders, keeping the outside circle of the geometry cold and the inner circle hot. This study explores the effects of multiple governing parameters, including a power-law index varying between 0.7 and 1.3, nanoparticle concentrations from 0% to 2%, Hartmann numbers between 0 and 30, and buoyancy ratios ranging from −1 to 1. The analysis also considers Reynolds numbers in the range of 200 to 600, Richardson numbers from 0 to 5, Lewis numbers between 1 and 10, and angular velocity between −20 and 20 while maintaining a constant Prandtl number of 6.8377. In addition, heat and mass transfer rates are evaluated in terms of Nusselt and Sherwood numbers, and visualizations such as streamlines, isotherms, and concentration contours are presented. The heat and mass transfer rates remain nearly unchanged regardless of whether the inner cylinder rotates clockwise or counterclockwise. The results show that the heat and mass transfer rates remain nearly unchanged regardless of whether the inner cylinder rotates clockwise or counterclockwise. An increase in the Hartmann number leads to an enhancement in heat transfer, while it simultaneously reduces the mass transfer rate. On the other hand, a higher power-law index results in a decline in both heat and mass transfer rates. Conversely, a rise in the buoyancy ratio contributes to the enhancement of both thermal and mass transport. The novelty of this study is how varying angular velocities (positive and negative) influence heat and mass transport in a power-law non-Newtonian fluid under MHD effects. It offers a new parametric analysis of forced and free convection interactions using Reynolds number, Hartmann number, Richardson number, and angular velocity. For a non-rotating inner cylinder at power-law index = 0.7, the average Nusselt number decreases by 36.89%, while the average Sherwood number decreases by 17.14% as the Hartmann number increases from 0 to 30.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 546-566"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Efficient tofu wastewater treatment with biofiltration using OPEFB-activated carbon","authors":"Sri Suhartini ,&nbsp;Alya Vinurila ,&nbsp;Novita Ainur Rohma ,&nbsp;Andhika Putra Agus Pratama ,&nbsp;Ika Atsari Dewi ,&nbsp;Nur Hidayat ,&nbsp;Nimas Mayang Sabrina Sunyoto ,&nbsp;Riris Waladatun Nafi’ah ,&nbsp;Widya Fatriasari ,&nbsp;Lynsey Melville","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.09.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.09.012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study evaluates the effectiveness of biofiltration in treating tofu wastewater using a biofilter system with various media combinations, including OPEFB-derived activated carbon. The aim was to investigate the impact of media arrangement and activated carbon thickness on the reduction of pollutants such as pH, turbidity, colour, BOD, COD, and TSS. A series of experiments were conducted with different media arrangements (i.e., silica sand, activated charcoal, zeolite, and gravel) and varying activated carbon thicknesses (i.e., 10, 15, and 20 cm). The results showed that the biofilter system significantly improved wastewater quality, with the best performance observed in the S1A3 treatment, which achieved the highest removal efficiencies of 79.39% for turbidity, 68.42% for colour, 60.42% for BOD, 76.14% for COD, and 71.11% for TSS. The study suggests that biofiltration using OPEFB-activated carbon combined with silica sand, zeolite, and gravel is a promising and cost-effective method for reducing pollutants in tofu wastewater. However, further optimization and additional treatment methods are needed to meet regulatory discharge standards, particularly for BOD, COD, and TSS. The findings contribute to the development of sustainable wastewater treatment practices, with potential applications in the tofu industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 506-518"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An analysis of effect of temperature and pressure on bio pellets physicochemical properties","authors":"M.M. Manyuchi ,&nbsp;C. Mbohwa ,&nbsp;T.N. Mutusva ,&nbsp;Walter Stinner","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.06.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.06.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Organic municipal waste offers an opportunity for a renewable and clean source of energy through the production of bio pellets, for larger domestic thermal use, providing an attractive waste management initiative. In this study, municipal bio waste was shredded to particle sizes of 40 mm and pelletized at 200–400 °C for 10 min at a pressure of 150–450 MPa. The bio pellets’ physicochemical parameters such as moisture content, ash content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, density and the calorific value were measured using standard methods. The Analysis of variance and regression analysis in Matlab R2024b was used to determine the effect of temperature and pressure on the bio pellets physicochemical characteristics. The bio pellets had an average moisture content of 1–3–1.6 %, ash content of 4.1–8.1 %, volatile matter of 6.7–26.1 %, fixed carbon content of 60.7–88.0 % and density of 0.47–0.79 kg/cm³. The calorific value of the bio pellets ranged from 13.9–19.9 MJ/kg making it ideal for thermal energy purposes. An analysis of increased processing temperature and pressure of the bio pellets using a 2-way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis in MATLAB R2024b software at a p-value of 0.05 indicated that increase in these parameters resulted in decreased moisture content, ash content, volatile matter of the bio pellets. Consequently, using the same analysis, an increase in temperature and pressure resulted in increased fixed carbon content, density and calorific value of the pellets. The regression analysis and the experimental data had average R² values of 0.9.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 29-43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144655855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A novel approach incorporating Gibbs free energy of mixing to model the environmental impact of industrial brine treatment processes: a case study of hydrometallurgical recycling of lithium-ion batteries","authors":"Roelof Frederick Maritz,&nbsp;Guven Akdogan,&nbsp;Christie Dorfling","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.08.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.08.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The water quality of different industrial effluent streams, produced by various chemical and metallurgical processes, is liable to vary greatly which makes it difficult to compare the environmental impact of unique industrial effluent streams. When performing life cycle assessment studies for chemical processes, researchers are often left using generalised effluent treatment datasets to model their effluent streams. This approach disregards the thermodynamic properties of the effluent streams and only considers the volume of effluent being treated. The aim of this investigation was to develop a simplified, consistent methodology for modelling the environmental impact of unique industrial effluent streams. The proposed method primarily involves calculating the Gibbs free energy of mixing which can then be analysed as either a regular- or a specific energy value, thereby highlighting the importance of both improving effluent quality and reducing effluent quantity to minimise the environmental impact of treating industrial effluent. Subsequently, to approximate the actual energy requirement for treating each individual effluent stream, the Gibbs free energy of mixing may be divided by the exergetic efficiency of the appropriate effluent treatment technology for that specific effluent stream. To illustrate the utilisation of this methodology, a case study was performed which compared the environmental impact of effluent streams produced by different hydrometallurgical lithium-ion battery recycling plants. The process with the lowest specific effluent impact made use of citric acid as leaching reagent in comparison to a more traditional sulphuric acid-based lithium-ion battery recycling process. However, the citric acid-based process had a larger volume of effluent to treat and ultimately required more energy to achieve complete theoretical separation of the contaminants from the effluent than the sulphuric acid-based process.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 210-215"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144826541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Antibiotic removal in South African water using artificial neural networks and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system models: A review","authors":"Molly Katlo Keitemoge ,&nbsp;Matthew Adah Onu ,&nbsp;Olawumi Oluwafolakemi Sadare ,&nbsp;Naadhira Seedat ,&nbsp;Rishen Roopchund ,&nbsp;Kapil Moothi","doi":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.08.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sajce.2025.08.014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The growing occurrence of antibiotic residues in South African water systems poses serious environmental and public health risks, owing mostly to pharmaceutical discharge, agricultural runoff, and poor waste management. Conventional water treatment procedures frequently fail to properly remove these micropollutants, needing new predictive and analytical approaches. This review critically investigates the implementation of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) models to forecast and optimize antibiotic removal from South African water bodies. To the best of our knowledge, little or no research compares the models' respective performances in the context of the urban water cycle in South Africa. Therefore, this review elaborates on some of the pharmaceuticals (such as diclofenac sodium and tetracycline) that have been studied, as well as the challenges associated with their removal. It also emphasizes studies on modeling and predicting pharmaceutical removal from wastewater using ANN and ANFIS models. Additionally, this review considered the comparisons between ANN and ANFIS models in predicting the removal of emerging contaminants, as well as the challenges and limitations associated with these modeling techniques. The studies established that AI models achieved higher R² and lower error metrics compared to classical statistical or isotherm models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21926,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Chemical Engineering","volume":"54 ","pages":"Pages 371-389"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144932117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}