Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Optimum Geological Storage Depths For Structural H2 Geo-Storage, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

H₂ geo-storage has been suggested as a key technology with which large quantities of H₂ can be stored and withdrawn again rapidly. One option which is currently explored is H₂ storage in sedimentary geologic formations which are geographically widespread and potentially provide large storage space. The mechanism which keeps the buoyant H₂ in the subsurface is structural trapping where a caprock prevents the H₂ from rising by capillary forces. It is therefore important to assess how much H₂ can be stored via structural trapping under given geo-thermal conditions. This structural trapping capacity is thus …

Re-Crosslinking Particle Gel For Co2 Compliance Control And Co2 Filtration Blocking, Yifu Long, Baojun Bai, Thomas P. Schuman

Patents

The present invention generally relates to the composition of particle gels for CO2 - EOR and CO2 storage . More particularly , CO2 resistant particle gels are provided that can re - crosslink at subterranean conditions . These particle gels can be deployed to improve the conformance of CO , flooding , CO , huff - puff , or Water - Alternative - Gas ( WAG ) . The applications may also involve CO2 storage , such as the blocking of CO2 leakage and similar CO2 processing .

Fiber Assisted Re-Cross-Linkable Polymer Gel And Preformed Particle Gels For Fluid Loss And Conformance Control, Baojun Bai, Ze Wang, Zhe Sun, Jingyang Pu, Thomas P. Schuman

Patents

Described herein are compositions useful for controlling fluid flow, for example in a target zone of a subterranean environment, and methods of forming and using the same. The composition generally comprises a quantity of fibers and a quantity of swellable particles, which may be dispersed in a carrier fluid. The composition may be synthesized in the form of a bulk gel or may be gelatinated during use. The fibers in the compositions provide improved performance as compared to prior PPG and RPPG particle containing compositions. Specifically, the compositions reinforce the re-cross-linked/re-associated hydrogel plug in underground features and support proper rehydration …

3d Printed Zeolite Monoliths For Co2 Capture, Fateme Rezaei, Harshul V. Thakkar

Patents

Carbon dioxide (CO2 ) capture materials comprising one or more 3D-printed zeolite monoliths for the capture and or removal of CO2 from air or gases in enclosed compartments, including gases or mixtures of gases having less than about 5% CO2 . Methods for preparing 3D-printed zeolite monoliths useful as CO2 capture materials and filters, as well as methods of removing CO2 from a gas or mixture of gases in an enclosed compartment using 3D-printed zeolite monoliths are provided.

Reverse Cationic Flotation Of Hematite, Natalia Parra Alvarez

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The reverse cationic flotation of hematite is the most common method to process hematite ores. The goal of this research is to understand the impact of fundamental water and surface effects to enable the optimization of the flotation process. At present, reverse cationic flotation is performed using a single chemical as both collector and frother. Excessive amounts of frother or collector should lead to diminished performance. This research investigates this phenomenon by replacing some of the collector with frothers. It was found that flotation recovery can be improved up to 2.5wt% via 10% replacement with methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC). Since …

Towards A Circular Economy: Liquid-Fed Fast Pyrolysis Of Waste Polyolefin Plastics, Daniel G. Kulas

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Plastic usage has quickly grown in recent years as plastics have become an essential part of everyday life. Unfortunately, recycling rates have not matched the increased growth, with the majority of waste plastic landfilled. The strategy of circular economy has been proposed to reuse the waste plastic to create new polymers, thus avoiding both landfilling and the use of virgin raw materials. Achieving a circular economy for plastics requires the development of new technologies capable of recycling plastic waste under a circular economy perspective. In this dissertation, a novel liquid-fed fast pyrolysis process is introduced towards achieving a circular economy. …

Recovering And Upgrading Kraft Lignin For Application In Flexible Polyurethane Foam, Peng Quan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Lignin is the second abundant natural polymer and has been highlighted as a potential substitute for fossil-based raw materials. However, the inherent molecular heterogeneity and the complex recovery processes result in the challenge of controlling the molecular properties and value-added applications of lignin in large scale. To address those issues, a novel acid-liquefaction process was developed in this study to recover Kraft lignin with improved molecular homogeneity directly from black liquor.

In the first study, the liquefaction parameters were screened based on yield and molecular weight properties of the recovered lignin. Then, the recovered lignin samples were used to replace …

Understanding Strength Of Dried Iron Ore Pellets, Victor Claremboux

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

After an extensive literature review, it was found that there was no reliable way for predicting the impact of binders or mixtures of binders on iron ore pellets. This is a challenging problem because iron ore pellets are a complex product of an agglomeration process which is typically controlled only to the extent that is necessary to form a quality product for ironmaking. This work identifies the resistance of a dried pellet to abrasion as a prime variable to record and analyze to understand the influence of combined pellet binders. A consistent method of measuring abrasion resistance is identified and …

Predictions Of Produced Water Quality And Recycled Water Optimization For Spatially-Distributed Wells In Point Pleasant Formation, Armel Quentin Mbakop

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The treatment of produced water as a fracturing fluid is becoming an increasingly important aspect of water management surrounding the booming of the unconventional oil and gas industry. Two main problems facing the oil and gas industry are the availability of water for well drilling and completion and disposal of the produced water. Unconventional well drilling and completion in the Utica shale requires large amounts of water. The wastewater that results after production—containing high levels of organic and inorganic matter— is usually disposed of through deep well injection. A new approach reuses this produced water as part of subsequent fracturing …

Machine Learning Based Real-Time Quantification Of Production From Individual Clusters In Shale Wells, Ayodeji Luke Aboaba

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Over the last two decades, there has been advances in downhole monitoring in oil and gas wells with the use of Fiber-Optic sensing technology such as the Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS). Unlike a conventional production log that provides only snapshots of the well performance, DTS provides continuous temperature measurements along the entire wellbore.

Whether by fluid extraction or injection, oil and gas production changes reservoir conditions, and continuous monitoring of downhole conditions is highly desirable. This research study presents a tool for real-time quantification of production from individual perforation clusters in a multi-stage shale well using Artificial Intelligence and Machine …

Immunomodulatory Functions Of Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Are Enhanced When Cultured On Hep/Col Multilayers Supplemented With Interferon-Gamma, Mahsa Letter-Mahsa Haseli, David A. Castilla-Casadiego, Luis Carlos Pinzon-Herrera, Alexander Hillsley, Katherine A. Miranda-Munoz, Srikanth Sivaraman, Adrianne M. Rosales, Raj R. Rao, Jorge Almodovar

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) are multipotent cells that have been proposed for cell therapies due to their immunosuppressive capacity that can be enhanced in the presence of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). In this study, multilayers of heparin (HEP) and collagen (COL) (HEP/COL) were used as a bioactive surface to enhance the immunomodulatory activity of hMSCs using soluble IFN-γ. Multilayers were formed, via layer-by-layer assembly, varying the final layer between COL and HEP and supplemented with IFN-γ in the culture medium. We evaluated the viability, adhesion, real-time growth, differentiation, and immunomodulatory activity of hMSCs on (HEP/COL) multilayers. HMSCs viability, adhesion, and growth …

Application Of Sla 3d Printing For Polymers, Taylor Wilson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Stereolithography is a type of 3D printing that allows liquid photopolymer resin to be cured into layers that make up a 3D object. Creation of such resins for these purposes can require a significant amount of time to test and develop, and commercial resins also require some amount of testing for printer settings before use. This paper reviews how stereolithography works, the materials used, and experimentation done to compare the resin properties to the determined curing times. Using several commercially available resins, varying base exposure and layer exposure times were used to determine the lowest possible curing time that gave …

Design Project: 3d Printer/Injection Molder Hybrid, Lee Paolucci, Luke Everhart, Brandon Leap, Karson Lorey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In the realm of rapid, small-scale prototyping, there are a few main factors that drive decisions to invest resources in technology to make that prototyping possible. Cost and ease of use are two of the most influential when looking at most SMEs (Small to Medium-sized Enterprises). The U.S. Small Business Administration defines an SME as smaller than 1,250 employees. According to An Assessment of Implementation of Entry-Level 3D Printers from the Perspective of Small Businesses, 59% of small manufacturers had implemented 3D printers as of 2014. However, no matter what technology is used in rapid prototyping, there are common …

Designing A Distillation Process For A Local Brewery, Julia Syme

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Proper distillation of spirits is key in maximizing resource value and producing a consumable liquid. A local brewery owner is considering entering the distilling market, and he requested information regarding a small-scale continuous column. This project used CHEMCAD to determine an operating design for continuous distillation of ethanol at a few different feed compositions. Since this model was limited to CHEMCAD, it had to build off of previous research and engineering parameters without an experimental verification. The project determined that an eight stage distillation column produced 40-58% ethanol product when the feed ranged from 7.5-12% ethanol. Eight stages produced even …

Amino-Polymer For Co2 Capture By Vacuum Swing Adsorption, Sean Billy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The applications of sorbent compounds in conjunction with amines and other additives is an innovative method at combating CO2 pollution. An ideal solution would use an amine sorbent to trap the high levels of absorbed CO2 with a low binding energy (less than 45 kJ/mol) and subsequently release them into a stored vessel at ambient temperature with a vacuum swing adsorption system. Attempts at finding a best mixture will be conducted through the usage of a vacuum swing system, utilizing a bed syringe containing the sorbent mix and a vacuum syringe to pull on and subsequently release the CO2 into …

Reinforcement Of Elastomers By Reactive Ionic Surfactant, Nicole Vickerman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Elastomers without cross-linking agents or fillers do not have the necessary properties for practical applications in the rubber industry. Elastomers must be reinforced with fillers and/or cross-linking agents to achieve the needs of physical and mechanical properties for commercial products. Sodium octyl 6-mercaptohexyl phosphate (SOMP) and sodium ethyl (6-mercaptohexyl) phosphate (SEMP) were used to investigate the influence of a reactive ionic surfactant and its influence on the physical properties of peroxide crosslinked styrene butadiene rubber (SBR). SEMP and SOMP were both found to be able to be grafted successfully on to the SBR chains within the rubber using extraction testing …

Waste Cooking Oil Management In Egypt: Production Of Biodiesel-Development Of Rapid Test Method, Marwa Mohamed, Nourhan Sherif, Omar Aboelazayem, Hany A. Elazab, Mamdouh Gadalla, Basudeb Saha

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

According to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) report in 2017, Egypt produced 500,000 tonnes of WCO from various resources including food industries, restaurants and hotels. Based on our previous funded project, we have reported unique properties for Egyptian WCO as it has very high range acidity (≈18 mg KOH/ g oil) due to the extensive usage of oil in the cooking process. Further, the repeated heating of cooking oil for long time produces carcinogenic compounds that have significant impact on people health. On the other hand, high acidity WCO could be valorised into soap, biodiesel and value …

Advanced Materials And Processes For Gas Separation And Storage Applications, Qasim Mohammed Al-Naddaf

Doctoral Dissertations

"Transition to a clean, renewable energy future requires departure from thermally driven separation processes. In that regard, development of new materials that exhibit high adsorption capacity and selectivity, fast kinetics, and long-term durability under multicomponent conditions is becoming attractive for the applications in clean energy. Moreover, novel sorbents and separation systems that can store gases at normal conditions offer a promising approach for stationary or onboard gas storage. Due to the limitations on the surface area and biding energy restrict commercial materials effectiveness as a potential adsorption and storage material. There is significant interest in the properties of hybrid materials …

Evaluation Of Novel Preformed Particle Gels For Conformance Control And Acid Stimulation Through Core Flooding Tests, Shuda Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

"Acid stimulation and conformance control are two major methods to improve oil production. This study systematically evaluates two newly developed gels: Degradable Preformed Particle Gel (DPPG) and Re-crosslinkable Preformed Polymer Gel (RPPG). DPPG is designed to be a temporary plugging agent for acid stimulation and can self-degrade into a water-like fluid. RPPG is designed for reservoir sweep efficiency improvement and can re-crosslink to each other and form an immobile bulk gel after being placed in fractures or fracture-like conduits.

For DPPG, this study evaluates the effect of monomer, crosslinker, and initiator concentration on the swelling and degradation performance. Results show …

Optimization Of Blast Design For Better Fragmentation & Reduction Of Ground Vibration At Khao Mai Nuan Pyrophyllite Mine, Saraburi Province, Thailand, Arif Khan

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Control blasting with better fragmentation is very important to decrease the environmental impacts of blasting and the cost of downstream mining operations such as loading, transportation, crushing, and milling. Proper blasting designs with optimized parameters such as burden, spacing, stemming, sub-drilling, and amount of explosive ensure the required fragmentation with ground vibration within the standards set by different monitoring agencies. This study dealt with the blasting design parameters, fragmentation, and ground vibration at the Khao Mai Nuan Pyrophyllite quarry Saraburi province, Thailand. First, grab samples were collected from the quarry's active benches and tested in a lab for strength, compositions …