Engineering Commons^™

The Biological Activity Of Dual-Responsive Glycopolymers For Intracellular Codelivery Of Antigen And Lipophilic Adjuvant, Micaela Shields

Honors Theses

Subunit vaccines present themselves as an attractive alternative to traditional approaches to vaccines, which utilizes whole organisms to trigger an immune response. While these traditional approaches have proven themselves reliable within the history of vaccinations, they generally deliver subpar robust cellular-mediated immunity and pose many safety risks. Composed of proteins and /or peptides, subunit vaccines are safer and more precise alternatives to traditional approaches. However, the pharmacokinetic properties of the macromolecules that make up these vaccines hinder the subunit vaccine’s level of immunogenicity [d1] Examples of this hindrance include but are not limited to aggregation at the injection site and …

Optimization Of A Fluidized Bed Reactor For The Production Of Acetone From Isopropyl Alcohol, Andrew Rawls Wasson

Honors Theses

For the optimization of the isopropyl alcohol to acetone process, Unit 1100, the Net Present Value (NPV) was used as the objective function to observe the economic impact of each of the optimization factors being tested. During the optimization process, it is not only important to optimize the process’s profitability but also to ensure that the process operates efficiently and meets product specifications. The goal of this optimization was to alter variables from the base case calculations of Unit 1100 to maximize the NPV of the unit. AVEVA ProII software was used to simulate the process and make changes to …

An Analysis Of The Production Of Pharmaceutical-Grade Acetone Via The Dehydrogenation Of Isopropanol (Ipa), Jordan Desplas

Honors Theses

The production of 99.9 wt% acetone from isopropanol in Unit 1100 is designed to start up in 2025 and operate for 12 years after startup. The engineering team was tasked with designing the process, creating an economic model, and optimizing the net present value (NPV). The process was simulated in AVEVA PRO/II Simulation for the design process, and the economic analysis was estimated in Microsoft Excel. Parametric and topological optimization was performed linearly on the unit operations in the process. The NPV was improved by $14M from a base case of $122M to an optimized case of $136M. The project …

The Design Estimate Of A Warehouse Refrigeration System, Jackson Dear

Honors Theses

The intention of this project was to provide a design and cost estimate for the refrigeration systems within an industrial cold storage distribution center for Magnolia Country Frozen Foods, Inc. in East Rutherford, NJ. The facility includes eighteen 300,000 ft3 units (200 ft x 100 ft x 15 ft). These units require 200 tons of refrigeration at a maintained temperature of 0oF. This project's scope included choosing an optimal refrigeration system, selecting a refrigerant for use within the system, and providing a cost estimate for the purchase of the refrigeration system equipment and for the yearly cost associated with running …

Investigating Myosin Ensemble Force Generation Using Optical Tweezers, Janie Watts

Honors Theses

Myosin is a motor protein that facilitates muscle contraction and movement by stepping along actin filaments using energy from ATP hydrolysis. If myosin or other motors are disrupted throughout the body, it can have many harmful effects. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a disease caused by gene mutations that affect myosin heavy chains in the heart. The tissue of the heart becomes abnormally thick, which can make it more difficult to pump blood or block blood flow out of the heart. Our goal is to discern the mechanistic difference function of a healthy and diseased heart. To accomplish this, we construct model …

Conversion Of Biomass To Bio-Fuel Using Fast Pyrolysis With Companion Coal Gasification, Nicholas Hayes

Honors Theses

The objective for this design is to determine the economic benefits of using soybeans to combine biomass pyrolysis with coal pyrolysis processes to reduce the complexity and cost of producing bio-oils. Biomass is produced in multiple industries and is converted to a usable fuel substitute for petroleum. There will be many methods to analyse the pros and cons which will be used for comparison of biomass to bio-oils reactors system which in this case would be soybeans vs coal gasification.

After thorough research, the team selected a fluidized bed reactor as the main equipment for the fast pyrolysis. The reactor …

Api Drying And Packaging Technology Upgrades, Destiny Washington

Honors Theses

Certain classes of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) require higher levels of containment during handling. This project explores upgrades and new technology to improve currently used systems. The upgrades will include containment during drying and packaging while maintaining required ergonomic, industrial health, and GMP requirements. Design of this system and a full economic analysis have been performed for these upgrades.

This project details the profits and costs that are associated with the conversion of the API drying process from a batch process to a semi continuous process using an agitated thin film evaporator. The implementation of the new equipment is expected …

Air Pre-Heat System Optimization For Flash Dryers, Sophia Louden

Honors Theses

Primient, a leading producer of food and industrial ingredients made from plant-based, renewable sources is the industrial sponsor for this project. The company is currently using Plate & Frame Heat exchangers to heat up a 40% by-weight glycol and water solution that is then used to preheat the incoming ambient air. Glycol is being added to reduce the risks of freezing in the system during the winter season. It is important to highlight that this fact affects the heat transfer properties of the liquid overall. Since air heating is a highly energy-demanding process, an outlet stream of hot water produced …

Hygroscopic Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (Htdma) Design And Testing For Aerosol Hygroscopic Behavior Studies, Ziheng Zeng

Honors Theses

Most particles in the atmosphere take up water when exposed to increasing relative humidity (RH), and this behavior is described and quantized by a hygroscopicity parameter, kappa. Hygroscopic Tandem Differential Mobility Analysis (HTDMA) can be used to measure the physicochemical properties of aerosol particles and study phenomena that lead to size changes in submicron aerosol particles. Specifically, HTDMA measures how aerosol particles of different initial dry sizes grow or shrink when exposed to changing RH. HTDMA uses two differential mobility analyzers (DMAs) and a humidification system to make these measurements. One DMA selects a narrow size range of dry aerosol …