Engineering Commons^™

The Critical Role Of Dynamic Surface Tension Of Surfactants On The Impact Dynamics Of Water Droplets, Amir Esmaeili, Reza Mohammadi

Graduate Research Posters

Due to their time-dependent surface tension, the addition of surface-active agents or surfactants to water for specific applications has made controlling the impact dynamics of these droplets a complex phenomenon. This work investigates the influence of the molecular weight, concentration, and ionic nature of the surfactants as well as the substrate surface characteristics on the impact dynamics of surfactant-laden droplets using a high-speed camera at 10000 frames per second. Sodium dodecyl sulfate, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, and n-decanoyl-n-methylglucamine were used as anionic, cationic, and nonionic surfactants, respectively. We used hydrophilic glass slides, hydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene, and superhydrophobic alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) as substrates. …

The Role Of Microenvironment Reagent Solubility On Reaction Kinetics Of 4-Nitrophenol Reduction, Michael P. Zeevi, Andrew Harrison, Christina Tang

Undergraduate Research Posters

The Role of Microenvironment Reagent Solubility on Reaction Kinetics of 4-Nitrophenol Reduction

Michael Zeevi¹ with Andrew Harrison¹ and Christina Tang, PhD¹

¹Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, VCU School of Engineering

Introduction: Nanoparticles are of increasing interest due to their high surface area to volume ratio, as well as that they enable fine-tuning of the reaction microenvironment. Through flash nanoprecipitation, core-shell polymer nanoreactors were formed by directed self-assembly. Using the reduction of 4-nitrophenol as a model reduction reaction, we investigated the effect of reagent solubility in the nanoreactor microenvironment’s on nanoreactor kinetics.

Methods: The standard …

Lab-Scale Reproduction Of Siloxane Foam Synthesis, Albert Deangelis, Benjamin Ledoux, Conrad Roos

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Evonik has a synthesis reaction to create siloxane-based foam for sale that they run in their Hopewell plant. They would like to utilize a bench scale reactor system for experimentation on the process. The problem is that the foam created on the lab scale does not show the same properties as the foam created on the plant scale and to run experiments accurately they would have to use the plant reactor, wasting both reactor time and plant resources. Evonik wanted the Senior Design team to find a way of recreating the conditions of the plant reactor on the lab scale …

Compressible Media For Water Treatment, Christine Forkins, Steven Kammermeier, Antonio Musso

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Tertiary water treatment is used to remove total suspended solids (TSS) from wastewater. Suez uses compressible media for their tertiary water treatment. There have been supplier issues in the past such as unreliability, long lead-times, unknown manufacturing process, and chances of resale. The chance of resale is an important issue because the specifications may change from one supplier to another.

The group was tasked to characterize different types of compressible media for water treatment, design a lab scale filtration unit, and design and manufacture a new media to be tested. In order to gain an operational expenditure advantage, Suez accomplishes …

Hazardous Waste Reduction Continuation, J. Brian Morrell, Alex Alvarez, Adnan Qasem

Capstone Design Expo Posters

A silicone manufacturing process yields two-phase wastewater, of which the aqueous phase flashes at 2°C primarily due to hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO). To be classified as non-hazardous and immediately disposable, it must flash above 60°C. Project objectives entailed identifying a method and then designing a prototype for on-site aqueous phase treatment, removing enough HMDSO for non-hazardous disposal. The previous team’s proposal was gravity separation, NaCl extraction, and feeding through an activated carbon packed bed. Extraction proved ineffective, packed bed outlet samples flashed at 52°C, and HMDSO quantification methodology was incorrect. From titration, wastewater was determined to be 3.3 ± 0.2 wt.% aqueous …

Rapid, Diagnostic Test For Cardiac Ischemia, Jose Gonzales, Abdelmagid Nasreldeen, Emerson Physioc, Julio Contreras, Evan Thoresen

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Current methods to detect cardiac ischemia rely on biomarkers such as troponin. Elevated levels of troponin are observed hours after the cardiac event. There is an unmet need for rapid diagnostic tests for cardiac ischemia, which utilizes recently discovered biomarkers. A VCU patented assay for cardiac ischemia employs the use of chemiluminescence to detect metabolic byproducts of xanthine oxidase activity. These byproducts are detectable minutes after the cardiac event. Early diagnosis of and response to cardiac events is beneficial for clinical decision-making; therefore, a point-of-care device within the emergency health setting is sought. The CLSE 203 project team designed and …

Development Of A Tabletop Soft Gel Encapsulation Machine, Brigitte Ha, Emily Miller, Haya Rizvi

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Currently, to test new formulations of gel capsules at Pfizer, they must use the large-scale machine that requires a minimum of 25 kg of gel melt and produce hundreds of capsules per run. Production at a smaller scale to enable rapid changeover for research and development is desired. The team’s goal was to achieve continuous production of sealed capsules with 80% fill capacity. Capsule sealing was the prime consideration. Preliminary trials using the existing system and heat transfer analysis indicated localized heating was necessary to promote capsule sealing. To provide localized heating, a brass wedge was designed based on the …

Sensor Technology Using Fluorescent Dyes, Rebecca Jarrell, Rashed Rashed, Joshua Petteway

Capstone Design Expo Posters

This project is concerned with the application of fluorescent dye technology for leak detection in pulp and paper recovery boiler systems in order to avoid a smelt / water explosion. The dyes’ property to absorb light of short wavelength and emit light of a longer wavelength (fluoresce) is what makes them a quintessential candidate for the desired sensor technology. The projected benefits of this technology pertain to cost-effectiveness and safety of recovery boiler operations.

For all purposes, the inert dye pyrenetetrasulfonic acid (PTSA) was used as a tracer agent. Multiple methods of experimental design were attempted to determine the reaction …

Method And Apparatus For Removal Of Phosphate From Wastewater Streams, Steven Skeels, Arjun Subedi, Fred Williams

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Church and Dwight uses a phosphate-containing soap in their latex condom manufacturing process in Chesterfield County, VA. The wastewater streams from this process contain a concentration of phosphate that is over the county limit, costing $100,000/yr for non-optimized disposal. C&D has a need for an in-house method of phosphate removal which does not interfere with current manufacturing or wastewater treatment processes. The focus of the project was precipitation methodology as it is the most economically feasible option for these high concentrations of phosphate; more advanced technologies were considered for a potential final polishing step to remove any residual phosphate. The …

Champions’ Summer Defense: Manufacturing All-Natural Equine Spray, Brooke Riggs, Peter Rinaldi, Zach Taylor

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Research was conducted in 2014 and 2015 for the development of Champions’ Summer Defense, an all-natural product to protect horses from irritating and potentially harmful summer elements. This formulation provides sunscreen to protect the horses from sunburn and reduces coat bleaching. In addition, this spray acts as a conditioner and leaves the horse’s coat shiny by fighting dry skin and moisturizing the coat. Champions’ Summer Defense’s unique formulation is naturally antimicrobial, eliminating the need for a preservative and allows the product to be 100% natural. The antimicrobial property will also help prevent skin irritations from insects and will keep the …

Polyether Product Recovery: Salt-Induced Water-Polymer Separation, Carolina Andrea Mercado Buelvas, Chance Parrish, Rohit Sharma

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Evonik Industries currently loses approximately 50 tons of polyether product to wastewater washes annually. Evonik has requested an industrially viable solution to maximize the recovery of the lost product in the current process. It was required that the solution have a one year payback period, and be in compliance with current regulatory policies. Literature sources showed that salt is a commonly used agent to force the separation of polyether-water mixtures. Using this information, a method was developed using a salt already present in the process to induce a phase separation and to recover the polyether. An empirical multilinear refractive index …

Smart Medication Disposal: Subcritical Water Oxidation Of Pharmaceutical Compounds, Sharon Veeravalli, Charles Fricke, F. William Ronnau

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Disposal of unused or expired pharmaceuticals is neither safe nor environmentally-friendly. Current regulations for pharmaceutical disposal do not prevent environmental contamination. Industrial methods of disposing of waste medications can generate toxic compounds through incineration, or generate large volumes of waste through use of physical adsorbents. Medium sized providers (pharmacies, small clinics) typically hire expensive hazardous waste removal or dispose of these medications improperly.

The project goal is to deliver a safe, sustainable process, suitable for retail pharmacies and the like, for rendering pharmaceuticals chemically inactive. This project encompasses the development of a degradation process via testing of 5 model pharmaceuticals …

Phosphate And Selective Anion Removal Of Waste Water In Industrial Systems, Daniel Dillon, Campbell Mccolley, Laura Strukl

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Phosphorous is an essential nutrient for a functioning water ecosystem, however, heightened levels caused by waste water and agriculture can be damaging. High levels of PO43- cause toxic algae blooms, which kill wildlife and contaminate drinking water supplies. Therefore, cheap, efficient phosphate removal systems are beneficial for commercial settings in order to meet governmental standards. Similar research and technology can aid in the removal of toxic heavy metals in industrial waste water. Using a packed column with solid supported media, both phosphate and other selective anions were successfully removed from water. This was confirmed by inductively coupled plasma analysis. Constraints …

Development Of A Tabletop Soft Gel Encapsulation Machine, Amanda Carter, Lara Hamid, Harini Muralikrishnan, Bethlehem Solomon

Capstone Design Expo Posters

This VCU Chemical and Life Science Engineering student team is designing a tabletop gel encapsulation machine to produce ~50 capsules per minute enabling rapid changeover for research and development purposes for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. The preliminary design is based on reverse engineering of the large-scale encapsulation machine. Building from an initial prototype that included die rolls with variable rotation speed control and temperature control, the team identified and designed additional components to produce soft gel capsules: (1) producing gelatin ribbons from molten gelatin, (2) synchronizing the injection of medicine and capsule formation, and (3) ensuring that the capsules seal properly. …

Nanoparticles As Lubricant Additives, Jacob Miller, Rayyan Alsinan, Zainab Suwaiket, Samuel Wojcicki

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Nanoparticles have generated interest in the oil industry as potential additives. Many nanoparticles have been shown to improve fuel economy and engine efficiency. However, there are an infinite number of nanoparticle formulations, and to test all these would be impossible. The objective of this project was to develop a predictive model which demonstrates the impact of factors such as size, concentration, and hardness on the performance of nanoparticles as oil additives.

The concentrations tested were 0.01% and 0.5% by mass in PAO4 base oil. The sizes tested were 5-15nm and 20-50nm. Using four compositions to approximate hardness, a 4 x …

Method Of Mold Release From Process Equipment, Craig Paris, Jason Marshall, Trae Fuller

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Once a process cycle has been completed, glass condom molds are removed from spindles that connect them to the process equipment. Currently, glass molds are removed by destroying the glass around the spindle, resulting in safety hazards from glass shards, monetary loss due to replacement cost, and also loss of money due to the labor cost associated with time spent cleaning up the glass shards and breaking the molds. To solve the dilemma, the sponsor demanded a safe, cost efficient method or addition that would not harm the process during the cycle nor damage the spindle and glass molds at …

Hazardous Waste Reduction: Hexamethyldisiloxane, William Keesee, Reuben Gol, Kennet Castillo

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Waste Reduction: (1) Engineering problem - The manufacturing of a Silicone intermediate creates a flammable waste stream that must be disposed of at cost to QSI (0.48$/lb.). This stream contains two phases, which are mainly hexamethydisiloxane (HMDS) and aqueous ammonium hydroxide in roughly 50/50 ratio by volume. The HMDS phase (upper) is flammable and is thus hazardous. The clean aqueous phase (lower) can be discarded via the sewer at no cost if the flash point is above hazardous classification (60 °C). (2) Project deliverables - The Engineering solution must reduce the yearly volume of waste to under 13 tons/year and …

Treatment Of Menorrhagia And Irregular Menstruation: Cryo-Fluid Ablation Of The Endometrium, Baha Endisha, Benjamin Green

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Menorrhagia and irregular menstruation, characterized as dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB), is a condition that affects 15 to 20% of reproductive and pre-menopausal women. Common treatments are invasive, painful, or have low success rates; there is a need for new treatment. A 2014-2015 senior design team developed a prototype treatment based on the hypothesis that if free fluid was circulated in the uterine cavity at temperatures between 0 and -15ᵒC, cell death of the 2cm reproductive endometrial layer in the uterine cavity could be achieved and induce long term amenorrhea. The current senior design team significantly modified the prototype to reach …

Improved Ballast Recovery In Water Treatment, Zach Canfield, Ruqaia Suleman, Jasmine Wang, James Westbrook

Capstone Design Expo Posters

SUEZ Environnement’s Densadeg XRC™ is a high throughput water clarification unit capable of removing total suspended solids (TSS) with the aid of a high density ballast material. The ballast material is separated from the waste solids through a hydrocyclone and recycled into the system. Separation is inefficient and the unit experiences loss of ballast at 7 to 14 lbs per million gallons of treated water through the overflow of the hydrocyclone. Currently, ballast must be added at the loss rate to maintain the proper concentration to remove TSS. This requires that water treatment plants must provide storage space for ballast …

Smart Fabrics For Colorimetric Detection, Breland Edwards

Undergraduate Research Posters

Due to the prevalence of chemical warfare, soldiers often carry chemical sensing devices, to warn of oncoming nerve agents. However, these devices are cumbersome. A lightweight, wearable chemical sensing fabric that doubles as a protectant against toxins would be beneficial. This fabric can be created by incorporating (1) organophosphate hydrolase, an enzyme capable of degrading organophosphates and releasing an acidic by product, and (2) polyaniline, a color changing polymer that changes from purple to green in the presence of acid, into nylon or polyvinyl alcohol nanofibers. The first step is to produce fabrics containing polyaniline and demonstrate that the fabrics …

The Optimization And Comparison Of A Cerium Salt-Based Phosphate Filtration System To Industry Standard Phosphate Removal Water Filtration Systems, Nicholas Seymour, Snehi Shrestha, Laura Viktoria Pretzman

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Phosphorous, being one of the fundamental building blocks of life, has been linked with the increase of cyanobacteria and algae growth. One of the main ways that phosphorous enters the marine ecosystem is through the form of runoff phosphates from fertilizers and industrial processes. In addition to disrupting the biology of ecosystems another drawback of excess of phosphates is the tendency for these chemical groups to form scale buildup on metal through the form of calcium phosphate.

The goal of our project is to investigate a novel way of removing phosphate groups from wastewater with the use of the rare …

Rapid Diagnostics With Nanoparticles, Lance Johnson, Sai Katikala, Maaz Nawaz

Capstone Design Expo Posters

More than 500,000 open-heart surgeries are performed in the United States every year. The anticoagulant Heparin is used to decrease the likelihood of thrombosis or hemorrhaging in each surgery by bonding to the enzyme inhibitor antithrombin III (AT-III). However, anesthesiologists currently lack the ability to measure antithrombin levels in a patient quickly, making appropriate Heparin dosages difficult to determine and possibly resulting in thrombosis or hemorrhaging if thrombin levels move outside the allowable range. This could be prevented with a simple bedside test. Current tests use gold, but we believe Iron (III) Oxide (commonly known as rust) can be used …

A Treatment For Menorrhagia And Irregular Menstruation: Free Flowing Cryo-Fluid Endometrial Ablation, Julia Biddle, Hubertina Rose Tolpa, Krystal Zentgraf

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Menorrhagia (abnormally heavy and prolonged menstrual period) is a condition suffered by many women; these women have menstrual flow greater than 80 mL per cycle compared to the average 30 mL for normal cycles. The area of the uterus responsible for menorrhagia is the regenerative basal layer of the endometrium (inner uterine layer). In order to relieve menorrhagia, the endometrium needs to be destroyed through the basal layer. This project looks to address issues which patients face with current standard menorrhagia treatments, such as invasiveness, intense pain, or incomplete treatment of the uterine wall, by developing a superior remedy.

The …

Effluent Treatment And Recovery Of Polyether Using Nanoporous Technology, Suhaib Alramamneh, Zachary Turner, Allison Warth

Capstone Design Expo Posters

This semester Evonik Industries, a specialty chemical producer located in Hopewell, Virginia, approached VCU’s Chemical Engineering department with a project that would reduce their costs and increase process sustainability. The project is to determine a way to separate their liquid organic product from their waste stream in order to recycle the lost product. Liquid-Liquid extraction is a procedure used across most of the chemical industry. Proven separation techniques already exist for the standard liquid-liquid separation; however, when one liquid is miscible in the other the difficulty of separation is greatly increased. In order to do a liquid-liquid separation of an …

Separation Technologies Of Base Oils: The Optimization Of An Anaerobic Thermal Desorption Unit, Kelsey Mangham, Nicholas Montesdeoca, Michael "Ngyuon" Lay

Capstone Design Expo Posters

There has been a recent increase in the amount of oil and natural gas exploration due to fuel reserves that were once inaccessible in North America becoming available through methods such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. However, these methods of exploration generate substantial amounts of oil contaminated waste which pose significant pollution risks of which current methods of treatment are slow and ineffective. This project aims to design a better operating process for use with Anaerobic Thermal Desorption Units (ATDU) that are currently manufactured by RLC Technologies which offer more environmentally safe and quick processing of such wastes.

Current …

Carbon Adsorber Fouling: Removal Of Ammonium Bisulfate, Ahmed Ahmed Elmak, R. Luke Bolten, Christopher Holland

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Infilco Degremont’s efficient sludge treatment process using a High Temperature Fluidized Bed (HTFB) incinerator is used by several waste processing plants in the United States and Canada. In a few instances, a buildup of ammonium bisulfate within the activated carbon bed absorbers has become an issue. The carbon bed absorbers are used for the removal of mercury from the incinerator flue gas. Buildup of this compound on the carbon surface results in increases in the pressure drop across the adsorber, as well as decreases in the efficiency of the unit. This eventually leads to the need to shutdown the afflicted …

Creation Of An Annotated Library On Fda Approved Nanomedicines, Marley R. Hodson, Tanin Izadi, Nastassja Lewinski Ph.D, Bridget T. Mcinnes Ph.D

Undergraduate Research Posters

Nanomedicine is a type of nanotechnology used in the medical field to limit the dosage amount and target drug delivery to specific cells. Nanomedicines that are approved and used tend to be extremely successful; however despite over a decade of research, only a limited number of nanomedicines have advanced for clinical use. A possible reason for the numerous nanomedicine failures is lack of easily accessible information and research on previous nanomedicines. In this project, we have compiled nanomedicine labeling information from the Drugs@FDA website. We have extracted phrases/sentences from labels relating to keywords on nanomaterial properties and drug profile characteristics. …

Electrospinning Applications Air Filtration And Superhydrophobic Materials, Negar Ghochaghi, Adetoun Taiwo

Graduate Research Posters

Electrospinning is a widely applicable technique that generates non-woven fibers in the micro and nano range. In this project two of its applications are highlighted namely filtration media and enhancement of wettability. The first project demonstrates that electrospinning can be used to produce new fiber filtration media with controlled microstructure. The bimodal and unimodal orthogonal and random filters were made and characterized against their filtration efficiency and pressure drop. Figure of Merit (FOM) was also calculated and discussed. It is shown that the FOM increases when the electrospun fibers are arranged into alternating layers of aligned course and fine fibers. …