Kinetics Of Cellulose Dissolution In N-Methyl Morpholine-N-Oxide And Evaporative Processes Of Similar Solutions, John William Tierney

Masters Theses

The lyocell process is an environmentally friendly process for producing regenerated cellulose fibers, but is not entirely understood. The lyocell process uses the hygroscopic solvent N-methyl morpholine N-oxide (NMMO) to dissolve cellulose; the resulting solution is often termed a lyocell solution [1-4]. It is the objective of this study to better understand the process by which cellulose dissolves and the nature of lyocell solutions. By observing the disappearance of cellulose fibers into the solvent, rate data may be obtained from which kinetic parameters may be developed. Additionally an independent method for determining the concentration of cellulose in lyocell solutions was …

Bench Scale Evaluation Of Dense Ceramic Membranes For Production Of High Purity Hydrogen From Gasification, Binay Kumar Singh

Masters Theses

Gasification for production of hydrogen and other useful gases, has achieved increasing importance in recent years. The reactions involved in gasification are favored at high temperatures and they are also limited by thermodynamic equilibrium. The development of membranes which can separate these gases under gasifier exit gas condition will significantly improve process efficiency and economics and simultaneously provide for the recovery of valuable gases. The availability of a membrane with adequate hydrogen selectivity and good thermal and mechanical stability is the key for the successful application of membrane technology in hydrogen production and separation. This work introduces a special method …

Temperature Control Of The Online Rheological Sensor, Larry Scott Spencer

Masters Theses

Rheometers are devices that can be used to measure the rheological properties of polymers. Online rheometers test for rheological properties during a polymer process. Real-time rheological data would eliminate any time delays that accompany off-line rheometers and would provide the feedback information needed for tighter polymer process control. A real-time control system would eliminate the need for an offline rheometer to analyze polymer product properties, thus saving both time and money.

The Online Rheological Sensor was used to estimate the shear and elongational viscosities of a polymer from measured variables during processing. The Online Rheological Sensor was mounted on a …

Electron Beam Cured Resins For Wood Composites, Ting Song

Masters Theses

Adoption of rapid, low temperature electron beam curable resin systems provide a great potential for energy saving to the wood composites industry. Other considerable advantages benefit from the radiation progression including: cost saving, reduction curing time, increased throughout capacity, minimal volatile emissions, increased the design flexibility.

The research was mainly focused on radiation dose optimization, resin structure-property relationships investigation, and resin-wood bonds evaluation. Resin chemical, physical, and mechanical properties were explored in detail by means of various testing methods. The formulating studies were concentrated on the radiation curable monomers (polyfunctional and monofunctional) and their effects to the network performance. Mechanical …

Thermophysical Properties Of The Amyloid Beta Protein From Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Donald Edward Hicks

Masters Theses

The amyloid beta (Aβ) protein is thought to play a major role in Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's Disease is a late onset, progressive process associated with Aβ protein deposits and neurofibrillary tangles (Taylor 2003). Alzheimer's Disease is the most prevalent dementia (over 2/3 of all cases) in the developing world and the third leading cause of natural death in the United States (Walsh, 2001). Alzheimer's Disease is one of the amyloid diseases which are characterized by at least twenty proteins that aggregate to form insoluble fibrils with β-sheet secondary structure that affects humans and animals alike (Walsh, …

Evaluation Of Seal Integrity Of Flexible Food Polytrays By Destructive And Non-Destructive Techniques, Kshitish A. Patankar

Masters Theses

The companies which supply military ration packages (MRP) have been suffering significant loss due to high rejection rate (more than 20 %) by the military. The standards set by the military, as far as acceptance of packages is concerned, are very high and conservative. The means employed are also based mostly on visual observation. The aim of the project is to quantitatively device test which reduce the high rejections the companies are incurring. Thus the drive behind this project is to determine the extent to which certain defects affect the seal strength of food trays.

Earlier work on this project …