Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Commons^™

Methyl Isobutyrate Production Via Hydrogenation Of Methyl Methacrylate Derived From Pyrolysis Of Acrylic Plastic Waste, Ramzi Nasser Ahmed Saif

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

According to zero waste and upcycling policy, this work aims to utilize waste polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) to methyl isobutyrate (MIB) via hydrogenation over nickel (Ni) based catalysts supported on commercial zeolites: HY, H-Beta-27 (SiO2/Al2O3 = 27 by mole), H-Beta-40 (SiO2/Al2O3 = 40 by mole) and H-ZSM-5. The appropriate catalyst support was first screen by using MMA monomer as the substrate for hydrogenation. Under 30 bar initial H2 pressure (PH2) at 250 °C for 3 h, Ni/H-Beta-27 catalyst effectively promoted hydrogenation to achieve 85% MMA conversion with 56.2 wt% MIB yield because of its larger external surface area and pore size. …

Running Shoe Pedometer, Benjamin Kasper

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Running shoe pedometer aims to solve the issue of worn out running shoes. It can be difficult to know just how many miles you have run in your shoes and when a new pair is needed. Running in old shoes and worn out shoes is heavily linked to injury. My proposed project is a device that is powered by the compressive forces on the shoes soles that counts the number of steps the wearer takes using a microcontroller. Then, when the shoe reaches milestone that indicate it has been used 75% 90% and 100% of its expected life, it will …

Level And Temperature Controlled Vessel, Cameron Macesich

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Using two Arduino microcontrollers, level and temperature Proportional-Integral control systems for a continuously stirred tank reactor were designed and configured. Open-loop step tests were performed and fitted with First Order Plus Time Delay responses so that controller tuning parameters could be analytically derived. The effectiveness of the designed systems was evaluated by monitoring the response of closed-loop setpoint changes.

Understanding The Kinetics And Mechanisms Of The Desired And Undesired Reactions During Electrochemical Hydrogenation And Hydrogenolysis Of Furfural On Copper In Acidic Media, Andrew S. May

Dissertations and Theses

The decarbonization of the chemical industry would have an immense impact on lowering greenhouse gas emissions and assisting in mitigating global warming. To achieve this there is a growing interest in implementing renewable feedstocks like biomass and coupling of chemical processes with renewable energy. Furfural is a biomass derived species that has been identified as a platform molecule. Electrochemical processes are more easily coupled with renewable electricity and can be used to valorize biomass derived species such as furfural. The installation of electrochemical processes is hindered by a smaller knowledge base compared to thermochemical processes. This dissertation investigates the electrochemical …

Carbon Dioxide And Steam Gasification Of Biochar: A Study On Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Producing Syngas For Downline Synthesis Of Renewable Hydrocarbon Fuel, Parth Patel

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This research explores the potential of mitigating CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel consumption and providing an alternative renewable source of energy by gasifying biochar with carbon dioxide (CO₂) and steam (H₂O). The utilization of captured carbon dioxide and wastewater in industrial sectors is considered to further contribute to the advancements in energy-efficient and low-emission technological solutions. This research evaluated the performance and kinetic parameters of biochar gasification through CO₂ and H₂O gasification using a stainless-steel fixed bed reactor. The operating parameters including biochar mass, reactor temperature, and inlet flow rate were varied. …

Investigation Of Additives And Ingredients Of Bio-Resin For Visible Wavelength Laser-Induced Polymerization, Patrick Riggs

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Optical 3D printing is a branch of Additive manufacturing (AM) that utilizes low-waste production leading to efficient and rapid prototyping. Currently, this method of AM is associated with mainly petroleum-based resins. Bio-resin polymerization is an emerging research area for finding replacements for petroleum-based resins, but curing the resin with laser energy is not normally a practical use case. Current optical 3D printing uses lasers to cure liquid resins to form solid 3D objects in a layer-by-layer process which is time consuming, defect prone, and a leading limiting factor for high volume production; so, finding a way to incorporate bio-resin into …

Applying Thermal And Microwave Heating For Natural Gas Conversion To Value-Added Chemicals Over Zeolite-Supported Catalysts, Ashley Marie Caiola

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The world’s demand for natural gas has been consistently growing over the past few decades. Natural gas is considered a potential alternative to oil and coal because of its ability to burn cleaner. Although not completely emission-free, it has dominated the energy industry by providing a continuous supply of cheap fuel. Currently, natural gas makes up 41% of North American energy production. The conversion of natural gas to value-added chemicals typically involves the indirect production of synthesis gas (syngas) as an intermediate before the production of the desired product. Steam reforming and partial oxidation are two of the most common …

Ambient Ammonia Synthesis Via Microwave-Catalytic Materials And Plasma Chemistry, Siobhan Brown

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ammonia is critical to supporting human life on earth because of its use as fertilizer. The Haber-Bosch process to produce ammonia has been practiced for over 100 years. This process operates at high pressure and temperature to overcome the thermodynamic and kinetic limitations of the ammonia synthesis reaction thus researchers have tried to overcome it for decades. At present this process represents 1% of global energy usage and 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions. The proposed chemical looping ammonia synthesis approach seeks to reduce the environmental impact of this critical process and to elucidate microwave-catalytic principles.

This research aims to …

Microwave-Assisted Ammonia Synthesis Over Cs-Ru/Ceo2 Catalyst, Alazar Kesete Araia

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ammonia synthesis is one of the greatest innovations of the 20^th century with extensive applications from fertilizers to intermediates for nitrogen-containing chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Annually, more than 242 million tons of ammonia is produced globally, supporting approximately 27% of the world’s population. One of the fast-growing applications for ammonia is as H₂ energy carrier due to its high energy storage capacity, considered to be a decarbonized energy source. The low volumetric energy density and incompressibility makes Hydrogen a non-preferable energy carrier; an alternative carrier becomes a requirement. Ammonia possesses unique property as an energy-dense carrier to store and …

Lead Acid Battery Recycling In The Current Tanzania Industrialization Drive: Challenges And Opportunities, Divina D. Kaombe

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

ABSTRACT Advancements in automotive technologies, Information and Communications Technology and renewable energy technologies have increased the use of lead acid batteries as a source of portable and rechargeable energy. This has considerably increased the number of spent batteries with adverse effects on the environment and human health; which calls for recycling of spent batteries. This work was conducted to investigate challenges facing the formal business of recycling spent batteries and potential manufacturers of new lead-acid batteries in Tanzania. The work involved collection of information from key stakeholders such as collectors, dealers, Tanzania Revenue Authority and recyclers. It was found out …

A Chemical Study Of Archaeometallurgical Ceramics From Southwestern Tanzania, Edwinus Lyaya

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Archaeometallurgical ceramics, including furnaces, tuyères, and potteries, were required for successful pre-industrial iron smelting and refining. However, there are limited chemical studies on archaeometallurgical ceramics in Tanzania. This paper examined the nature of clay source in terms of refractoriness, determined whether there were multiple clay sources, and verified the refractoriness of the archaeometallurgical ceramics. An x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analytical technique and experimental re-firing of the archaeometallurgical ceramics were employed. The chemical data clustered in the mullite region on the Al2O3-SiO2-FeO ternary system indicate that iron smelters and refiners chose refractory clay sources for making archaeometallurgical ceramics. Small range and standard …

Properties Of (Cd, Zn)S Films Deposited By Dc Co-Sputtering, Lwitiko P. Mwakyusa

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

CdS thin film is commonly used as a buffer layer in most thin film solar cells. However, the buffer layer with less absorption in the visible region of the solar spectrum as well as that which provides perfect lattice matching with the absorbers is required. The incorporation of Zn in the CdS films can affect the structural and optical properties of the buffer layer. In this work, films of CdS and (Cd,Zn)S films were deposited by DC sputtering utilizing CdS and Zn targets. The concentration of Zn in the CdS was varied by changing the sputtering power of the Zn …

Synthesis, Characterisation And Catalytic Evaluation Of Castor Oil-Templated Mesoporous Sulfated Solid Acid Catalysts For Esterification Reaction, Steven Nyandoro Pr

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

In bio-refinery and other catalytic reactions, heterogeneous catalysts confer advantage over homogenous catalysts due to minimized recovery and separation costs. However, templating surfactant and solid support for the synthesis of heterogeneous catalysts ought to consider their cheap sources and environmentally friendliness for their sustainable use. Thus, with the vision to make the process significantly benign, in the present work, solid acids were synthesised from renewable sources (castor oil as surfactant and rice husk as the source of silica). The synthesised castor oil-templated mesoporous sulfonic acid modified catalysts (SO3H-MTS and SO3H-MT-RHS) were characterised and evaluated for catalytic esterification of acetic acid …

Optimization Of Pulsed Laser Deposition Parameters For Single Crystalline (011) Oriented Tetragonal Pzt Thin Films, Mahamudu H. Mtebwa

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Recent advances in nanotechnology applications require the processing of high-quality thin films. A systematic study of the optimization of Pulsed deposition parameters for (110) oriented tetragonal PZT thin films is reported in this work. Prior to film deposition, a highly tetragonal Pb(Zr0.5, Ti0.95) or PZT 05/95 was selected to be deposited on (110) oriented Strontium titanate, SrTiO3 substrate, STO(110) to insure small compressive misfit strain. Unlike SRO, the LSOM bottom electrode was then successfully grown at 620 °C, 1.0 J/cm2 and a target-substrate distance of 3.9 cm. Finally, deposition parameters of PZT were progressively optimized through monitoring film morphological changes. …

Determination Of Effectiveness Of Combined Biological And Physicochemical Treatment Of Vinasse, Mahir Mohammed Said

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Combined biological and Physicochemical treatment method was used to treat vinasse using microorganisms (Aspergillus niger (fungi) and Bacillus subtilis (bacteria)), coagulants (aluminium sulphate (Al2(SO4)3) and iron III chlorides (FeCl3)) and followed by filtration. Three factors; coagulant type, type of microorganism and coagulant concentration was analysed using full factorial design (2n) with replication, on their percentage removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and turbidity. Pareto chart and regression analysis with a 95% confidence interval (5% significant level) were used to analyse the results using MINITAB 22 (current version). Initially, the vinasse had (COD), …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Hybrid Catalysts For Fischer-Tropsch Jet Fuel Production, Jack M. Steinagel

Honors College Theses

Climate change is a major issue that our world is facing today. Finding renewable options for current infrastructure is paramount to solving this issue. Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of syngas from gasified biomass can produce renewable fuels that can be used in current conventional combustion engines. In order to make this process more industrially viable, a higher selectivity towards the desired range of liquid hydrocarbon products must be achieved. A novel way to do this is to introduce a catalyst to the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. The catalyst’s physical and chemical properties can promote chain growth of specific hydrocarbons. For the purpose of this …

Synthesis Of Novel Chiral Phosphorothioic Acid Organocatalysts And Application To Synthetic Methodology, Parsa Azaei

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Much research efforts have been centered towards the synthesis of novel Bronsted acid catalysts. These organocatalyst enable synthesis of natural products, pharmaceuticals, and bioactive small molecules under toxic-metal-free conditions by donating their protons, while not being consumed in the reaction. Chiral phosphorothioic acid have significant potential as novel organocatalysts due to their high modifiability of chirality and acidity under environmentally friendly conditions; however, synthesis of these organocatalysts are far and in between. Therefore, our research aimed to i) synthesize novel phosphorothioic acid organocatalysts and ii) to apply these novel catalysts toward new methodology development.

Elucidation Of Active Site And Mechanism Of Metal Catalysts Supported In Nu-1000, Hafeera Shabbir

All Dissertations

Advances in extraction of shale oil and gas has increased the production of geographically stranded natural gas (primarily consisting of methane (C1) and ethane (C2)) that is burned on site. A potential utilization strategy for shale gas is to convert it into fuel range hydrocarbons by catalytic dehydrogenation followed by oligomerization by direct efficient catalysts. This work focuses on understanding metal cation catalysts supported on metal-organic framework (MOF) NU-1000 that will actively and selectively do this transformation under mild reaction conditions, while remaining stable to deactivation (via metal agglomeration or sintering). I built computational models validated by experimental methods to …

Insight Into The Effects Of Cation Disorder And Surface Chemical Residues On The Initial Coulombic Efficiency Of Layered Oxide Cathode, Jin-Li Liu, Han-Feng Wu, Zhi-Bei Liu, Ying-Qiang Wu, Li Wang, Feng-Li Bei, Xiang-Ming He

Journal of Electrochemistry

Lithium layered oxide LiNi_0.6Co_0.2Mn_0.2O₂ (NCM622) is one of the most promising cathode materials in high-energy lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. However, one drawback for NCM622 is that its initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) is only about 87%, which is at least 6% lower than that of LiCoO₂ or LiFePO₄. In this work, we investigated the effects of surface chemical residues (e.g., LiOH and Li₂CO₃) and Li/Ni cation disorder resulted during the sintering on the ICE. We found that the ICE of the as-prepared samples could be boosted …

Electrochemical Syntheses Of Nanomaterials And Small Molecules For Electrolytic Hydrogen Production, Jia-Qi Wei, Xiao-Dong Chen, Shu-Zhou Li

Journal of Electrochemistry

Hydrogen is a clean, efficient, renewable energy resource and the most promising alternative to fossil fuels for future carbon-neutral energy supply. Therefore, sustainable hydrogen production is highly attractive and urgently demanded, especially via water electrolysis that has clean, abundant precursors and zero emission. However, current water electrolysis is hindered by the sluggish kinetics and low cost/energy efficiency of both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this regard, electrochemical synthesis offers prospects to raise the efficiency and benefit of water electrolysis by fabricating advanced electrocatalysts and providing more efficient/value-adding co-electrolysis alternatives. It is an eco-friendly and facile …