Chemical Engineering Commons^™

A Study On The Hydrodynamics Of A Bench-Scale Top-Fed Bubbling Fluidized Bed Gasifier Using Biomass And Coal As Feedstocks, Ali Can Sivri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The production of synthetic gas (syngas) from renewable or carbon-neutral sources can significantly reduce greenhouse and other emissions associated with conventional fuels. One of the most promising technologies to efficiently convert carbonaceous feedstocks such as biomass, coal, or municipal waste into syngas for transportation, power, heat, electricity generation, and or production of added-value chemicals is the bubbling fluidized-bed gasifier (BFBG). However, the gasification process inside a BFBG is a very complex high-temperature multiphase flow phenomena still not well understood, particularly when binary mixtures are investigated. As a result, despite the numerous correlations in the literature developed to predict the hydrodynamics …

Time-Dependent Reliability Framework For Durability Design Of Frp Composites, Rajneesh Kumar Bharil

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The life-cycle performance, durability, and aging characteristics of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP or Structural Composites) have been of keen interest to the engineers engaged in the FRP design, construction, and manufacturing. Unlike conventional construction materials such as steel and concrete, the design guidelines to account for the aging of FRP are somewhat scattered or not available in an approved or consistent format. Loss of strength over time or aging of any structural material should be of concern to engineers as the in-service lifespan of many engineering structures is expected to exceed 100 years. Use of durability strength-reduction factors or factors …

Electrification Of Domestic Hot Water To Aid The Integration Of Renewable Energy In The California Grid, Alejandro Cervantes

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Water heating in residential buildings, also known as domestic hot water (DHW), is the third largest use of energy after appliances and space conditioning. About 90% of the residential buildings in the state use natural gas fueled water heaters, 6% use electricity, and a small percent use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or solar water heaters. The current energy use associated with residential water heating is small relative to the total amount of energy consumption in the residential building sector, but it is still a contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Improving hot water systems can be beneficial for bill customer …

A Foundational Approach To Extrusion And Compounding, David Frankart

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With a history of nearly 200 years, polymer processing and compounding is constantly changing to fit the material science needs of the era. Exposure of undergraduate students to the technology and practices used in industry today in a lab setting would create new opportunities for experiential learning and growth. The objective was to set up a 0.75”, 25 L/D Thermo Haake single screw extruder for lab use and run trials of material in a single screw extruder to set up a basis for experiments. Trials were run of co-polyester resin through a single screw extruder with carbon fiber additives varying …

Controlled Crystallization Of Pet Filaments In Additive Manufacturing, Ryan Kordahi

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) appears in daily life in many forms, the most common being disposable soft drink bottling. To deal with the ever-growing quantitity of disposed PET (both in landfills and environment), a waste plan revolving around depolymerization should be implemented. Specifically, the potential of PET depolymerization through aminolysis into useful, low molecular weight monomers will be explored with the end goal of producing a 3D printing filament and analyzing economic feasibility.

Effects Of Crosslinking Conditions On Biofouling Of Polymer Substrates With A Hydrogel Layer, Laura Davila

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The introduction of a hydrogel coating to a surface has been looked at for different benefits. Certain hydrogels offer antifouling properties that are beneficial to different applications like medical components. Previous attempts (2) (3)have been done to introduce a hydrogel surface to plastic substrates. One of them is to use grafting brushes which works properly but it is not sufficient since the layer is too thin and therefore can be damaged. The second method have a bulkier coating without crosslinking. Opposite to grafting brushes this method has too thick of a layer. Additionally, there is no crosslink therefore the coating …

Dynamic Study Of Mo/Zsm-5 Catalyst For Ch4 Dehydroadomation, Hadi Yahya Almusawa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Methane dehydroaromatization (CH₄-MDA) is a highly promising venture for natural gas utilization/exploitation, i.e., direct conversion of methane (CH₄) to liquid aromatics (benzene) and hydrogen. This process is a catalytic reaction and therefore, is subject to all the advantages and constraints of catalysis. This study discussed the structure and reactivity of Mo/ZSM-5 zeolite catalysts and their effect on the active conversion of methane to valuable aromatic products such as benzene: 1) The preparation and characterization of Mo/ZSM-5, which are crucial steps in any catalytic reaction process since a better performing catalyst consequently leads to better outcomes; 2) …

Integrated Approach To Investigate The Wellbore Integrity Under Downhole Conditions, Weicheng Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

“The integrity of the cement sheath is the key part to maintain zonal isolation and prevent the inter-zonal communication. Loads arising from multiple stages of wellbore life span may induce various modes of cement failure within the cement (disking and radial cracks) and at the cement-casing and the cement-formation interfaces (debonding fractures). This research utilizes the integrated laboratory and numerical approach to investigate the cement hardening process, to predict the cement failure under various loading conditions. An innovative experimental setup is established to measure the cement pore pressure variation during the hardening process under downhole conditions, and a staged 3D …

Preparation And Characterization Of Ceramic Nanofiltration Membrane Prepared From Hazardous Industrial Waste, Shereen Kamel Amin, Mai Hassan Roushdy, Heba Mohamed Abdallah, Ahmed Mostafa, Magdi Fouad Abadir

Chemical Engineering

Kiln rollers, which are widely used in ceramic tiles production, are usually subjected to surface grinding to remove the contaminations. The resulted fine powder is considered useless waste and a hazardous source of environmental pollution particularly as it contains health‐threatening fine free silica. In the present paper, the grind waste from kiln rollers was reused as raw material in the fabrication of nanofiltration cerramic membrane. The samples of produced ceramic membranes were formed into disks by adding 15% (by weight) organic binder solution with 2% concentration, then pressed at 35 MPa, dried and fired at temperatures range from 1100°C to …

Effect Of Hydrogen Spillover On Acidic Properties Of Silica-Supported Tungsten Oxide Catalysts: In Situ Drifts Study, Sirawat Boonpai

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The knowledge and understanding about hydrogen spillover on the acidic property over surface metal and metal oxide catalysts are beneficial information in catalytic reactions with hydrogen. The perception of the nature of the surface acidity is a key role in catalytic properties and surface chemistry. However, metal oxide catalyst is still not widely studied on this issue. Therefore, the aim of this work is to investigate the effect of hydrogen spillover on their acidic property over silica-supported W catalysts by in situ DRIFTS. The results of in situ DRIFTS experiments have confirmed that the acidic property of silica-supported W catalysts …

Esterification Of Ethanol And Lactic Acid With Wo3 On Montmorillonite Catalysts For Ethyl Lactate Production, Suthicha Mukjinda

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research aims to study the characteristics, catalytic properties and stability of tungsten oxide (13.5 wt%) supported on montmorillonite (W/MMT) catalysts prepared by using three different calcination temperatures including 375 (W/MMT375), 475 (W/MMT475) and 575 (W/MMT 575) °C. All catalysts were examined in esterification of ethanol and lactic acid at 80 °C. Characterization studies showed that the W/MMT475 catalyst exhibited the highest acidity, followed by W/MMT375 and W/MMT575, respectively. However, from the surface area result, W/MMT375 exhibited the highest surface area, followed by W/MMT475 and W/MMT575, respectively. When all catalysts were tested in esterification of ethanol and lactic acid, it …

Experimental And Modeling Studies Using Packed Bed Reactors: Liquid Phase Ethylene Production By Hydrogenation Of Acetylene, Humayun Shariff

Doctoral Dissertations

"Gas-phase catalytic hydrogenation of acetylene to produce ethylene, commonly practiced in industries, has green oil formation, which leads to catalyst deactivation and sometimes reactor runaway risks due to high exothermicity. To overcome these issues as well as to increase the selectivity and conversion, liquid-phase hydrogenation of acetylene was investigated in packed bed reactors (PBR) using a commercial catalyst. The reactor performance of two-phase flow PBRs was assessed experimentally complemented by a validated mathematical model at different scales.

The selective hydrogenation of acetylene in the liquid phase over a commercial 0.5 wt% Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst was investigated in a …

Strategies To Improve The Electrochemical Performance Of Lithium-Ion Batteries By Stabilizing The Interface Of Electrode/Electrolyte, Ye Jin

Doctoral Dissertations

”Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) provide great potential for electric vehicles, and smart grids as future energy-storage devices. However, there are many challenges in the development of the LIB industry, including low energy and power density of electrode materials, poor rate performance, short cycle life of electrode materials, and safety issues caused by the flammability of the conventional organic liquid electrolytes.

In this research, we were committed to using general approach to efficiently and economically synthesize or modify LIB materials by stabilizing the interface between electrode and electrolyte. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) method was used to coat metal oxide thin films on …

Fabrication, Characterization And Applications Of Highly Conductive Wet-Spun Pedot:Pss Fibers, Ruben Sarabia Riquelme

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Smart electronic textiles cross conventional uses to include functionalities such as light emission, health monitoring, climate control, sensing, storage and conversion of energy, etc. New fibers and yarns that are electrically conductive and mechanically robust are needed as fundamental building blocks for these next generation textiles.

Conjugated polymers are promising candidates in the field of electronic textiles because they are made of earth-abundant, inexpensive elements, have good mechanical properties and flexibility, and can be processed using low-cost large-scale solution processing methods. Currently, the main method to fabricate electrically conductive fibers or yarns from conjugated polymers is the deposition of the …

Nanostructured Metal Thin Films As Components Of Composite Membranes For Separations And Catalysis, Michael J. Detisch

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Novel metallic thin film composite membranes are synthesized and evaluated in this work for improved separations and catalysis capabilities. Advances in technology that allow for improved membrane performance in solvent separations are desirable for low molecular weight organic separation applications such as those in pharmaceutical industries. Additionally, the introduction of catalytic materials into membrane systems allow for optimization of complex processes in a single step. By adding a nanostructured metallic thin film to its surface, a polymer membrane may be modified to exhibit these improved properties. Using magnetron sputtering, thin metal films may be deposited on commercially available membranes to …

A Thermodynamic And Feasibility Study Of Green Solvents For The Fabrication Of Water Treatment Membranes, Xiaobo Dong

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS) has been widely used to fabricate polymeric membranes. In NIPS, a polymer is dissolved in a solvent to form a dope solution, which is then cast on a substrate and immersed in a nonsolvent bath, where phase inversion occurs. Petroleum-derived organic solvents, such as N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP) and Dimethylacetamide (DMAc), have been traditionally used to fabricate polymeric membranes via NIPS. However, these solvents may have negative impacts on environmental and human health; therefore, using greener and less toxic solvents, preferably derived from biomass, is of great interest to make membrane fabrication sustainable. In this dissertation, two …

Mno2/Carbon Material Cathode For Rechargeable Aqueous Electrolyte-Based Zinc-Ion Batteries, Sonti Khamsanga

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research focused on improvement of the electrical conductivity of cathode material by using the MnO2 on carbon material for the rechargeable aqueous electrolyte-based zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs). This study has been divided into two sections. delta-MnO2 with nanoflower structure supported on graphite flake (MNG) was synthesized for cathode material in first section. MNG exhibits a fast insertion/extraction of Zn2+ ions with diffusion scheme and pseudocapacitive behavior. The battery using MNG cathode exhibited a high initial discharge capacity of 235 mA h/g at 200 mA/g specific current density compared to 130 mA h/g which is displayed by the pristine delta-MnO2 cathode …

Synthesis Of Alkane From Lauric Acid Via Electrochemical Reaction In Microreactor, Thantip Kiattinirachara

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

In the present work, decarboxylation of lauric acid to undecane was conducted by Kolbe electrochemical oxidation process in a microreactor. The microreactor is widely used to study reaction kinetics as well as reaction mechanisms because of negligible heat and mass transfer resistances within the reactor. The reactor is also very effective in the control of residence time. The 250-micron thick reactor was formed between graphite anode and stainless steel cathode sheets. Reactive alkyl radicals were produced from the supplied electrical potential and their combination with proton produced alkane with the release of carbon dioxide. The experiments were conducted to study …

Novel Electrochemical Packed-Bed Reactor For Carbon Dioxide Reduction, Suwakul Chaiwarit

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) is a promising strategy to recycle CO2 into valuable chemical products. Nevertheless, a conventional apparatus which usually utilizes stack design to maximize its surface-to-volume ratio requires many elements and complicated instruction assembly. The stack design often requires feed streams to flow in narrow channels throughout the cell, which is also constrained by membrane size roughly 1 m2 by current manufacture technology. This research focuses on development of a new type of electrochemical reactor that is suitable for industrial-scale applications. The novel electrochemical packed-bed reactor is designed for the electroreduction to covert CO2 into CO …

Deactivation Of Pdni Catalyst On Nanoporous Carbon Support Derived From Cattail Leaves In Synthesis Of Partially Hydrogenated Biodiesel(H-Fame), Tripob Longprang

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Nowadays, biodiesel is an alternative energy that is widely used to replace fossil fuels because of its high heat value comparable to fossil fuels. Biodiesel was easily oxidized within air. It is commonly blended with diesel fuel to have the proper properties and increase shelf life. Partial hydrogenation is one of the processes used to enhance the properties of biodiesel. In this research, bimetallic PdNi on nanoporous carbon (NPC) support derived from cattail leaves was successfully synthesized via hydrothermal carbonization and chemical activation. The prepared nanoporous carbon has a high surface area of ​​2002 m2g-1, obtained by activation process with …