Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Kinetic Modeling Of Self-Hydrolysis Of Aqueous Nabh4 Solutions By Model-Based Isoconversional Method, Rajasree Retnamma, A. Q. Novais, C. M. Rangel, Lin Yu, Michael A. Matthews

Faculty Publications

The present work reports the kinetic modeling of self-hydrolysis of non-buffered, non-stabilized NaBH4 solutions by model-based isoconversional method. The overall kinetics is described by a „reaction-order‟ model in a practical operating window of 10-20 wt% NaBH4 solutions at 25-80 C and 0-50% conversions. The apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor are interrelated through a kinetic compensation effect (KCE). The apparent reaction order remains constant at a given temperature irrespective of extent of conversion and decreases with increase in temperature. It decreases from firstorder to 0.26 with increase in temperature from 25 to 80 C. The apparent activation energy is found …

Evaluation Of Thin Film Nanotube-Antibody Matrix Materials For Potential Integration Into Immunodiagnostic Biosensors, Brian Young

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

Most quantitative immunodiagnostic assay products require large laboratory equipment, controlled lab environments, and highly skilled technicians, making them expensive and impractical for use in other environments such as physician offices, the home and field clinics of developing countries. The long-range goal of this work is to attempt to develop an inexpensive quantitative hand-held immunobiosensor-based technology that can easily be applied to any antibody:antigen combination and used in any setting. A new approach to measure antibody:antigen binding in the presence of nanotubes has been described in several recent studies. Using conductive polymer/nanotube/antibody solution-impregnated filter paper, these researchers showed a change in …

Model Predictive Control With A Rigorous Model Of A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, Lee T. Jacobsen, Dr. John D. Hedengren

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Degradation of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) can be minimized by maintaining reliability parameters during load changes. These reliability parameters are critical to maintain power generation efficiency over an extended life of the SOFC. For SOFCs to be commercially viable, the life must exceed 20,000 hours for load following applications. This is not yet achieved because transient stresses damage the fuel cell and degrade the performance over time. This study relates the development of a dynamic model for SOFC systems in order to predict optimal manipulated variable moves along a prediction horizon. The model consists of hundreds of states and …

Development Of Multimodal Membrane Adsorbers For Antibody Purification Using Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization, Juan Wang, Scott M. Husson

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

No abstract provided.

Carbon Fibers Derived From Sustainable Precursors, Meng Zhang, Jing Jin, Amod A. Ogale

Chemical and Biomolecular Graduate Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Producing A Liquid-Lignin Phase From Kraft Black Liquor: Phase Behavior And Structural Characterization, Julian Velez, Mark C. Thies

Chemical and Biomolecular Graduate Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Density Functional Theory-Based Modeling Of Catalyzed Water Purification, Lizzie Bollman

Chemical and Biomolecular Graduate Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Co Adsorption And Coverage On Ethanol Production From Syngas, Anuradha Gundamaraju, Ming He, David A. Bruce

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

In the future, the availability of reliable alternative fuels will be crucial for any country to become energy independent. One such alternative is ethanol as it can be used both as a fuel and as a fuel additive. Most of the ethanol produced in the world today is derived from biomass. The biomass feedstocks and fermentation broths used in ethanol production both contain high amounts of water and therefore, the energy efficiency of the process is lessened by product separation processes (azeotropic separation of water and ethanol) that are non-trivial and highly inefficient (due to the evaporation of water). An …

Template Free-Synthesis Of Polypyrrole Microtubes For Supercapacitor Electrodes, Kryssia P. Diaz, Mark E. Roberts

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

The purpose of this work is to develop a simple, scalable and template-free method to synthesize conducting polymer nano/micro-structures for supercapacitor electrodes. The microstructure and electrochemical properties of structure polypyrrole on various mesh substrates is investigated.

Recovering A Liquid-Lignin Phase From Paper Mill Black Liquors, Julian Velez, Adam Klett, Mark C. Thies

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Solvation Model, Adsorption Site, And Adsorbate Coverage Effects On Adsorption Energies At The Anode In Direct Methanol Fuel Cells, Cameron J. Bodenschatz, Rachel B. Getman

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

No abstract provided.

Synthesis And Characterization Of Extractive Scintillating Resin For Ultra-Trace-Level Quantification Of Uranium In Aqueous Media, C Duval, V Bliznyuk, A Seliman, T Devol, S Husson

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

The detection and quantification of radionuclides in aqueous media is of interest to both the Environmental Protection Agency, for matters of public health, and international organizations like the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, that use environmental samples to investigate claims of illicit nuclear activities. The current method of quantification involves batch style analytical techniques which utilize bulky instruments. Portable, flow cell detectors utilizing extractive scintillating resin with physically sorbed extractants and fluorophores have been developed; however, this resin shows poor long term stability as the active components leach from the resin over time. There is a need to develop chemically …

Roll-To-Roll Synthesis Of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes For Electrical Double Layer Capacitors, Margarita R. Arcila-Velez, Jingyi Zhu, Anthony Childress, Mehmet Karakaya, Ramakrishna Podila, Apparao M. Rao, Mark E. Roberts

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Surface Parameters On Interfacial Water Film Behavior, Brittany Glatz, Luke Rhym, Sapna Sarupria

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

Vapor-to-liquid and liquid-to-solid transitions on mineral surfaces are the primary pathways for phase transitions in atmospheric water. These phase transitions affect the microphysics of clouds and have significant effects on the weather and climate. Our overall goal is to elucidate the mechanisms through which surfaces affect these transitions, and develop predictive abilities to correlate surface properties to the thermodynamics and kinetics of the phase transitions. In this work, we use molecular dynamics simulations to study the structure, and dynamics of water near kaolinite-like surfaces. Kaolinite is the most abundant mineral dust in the atmosphere. We specifically investigate the effect of …

Carbon Fibers Derived From Pan/Bio-Based Bicomponent Precursor, Jing Jin

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

No abstract provided.

Optimization Of Pyrochlore Catalysts For Dry Reforming Of Methane, Felipe Polo-Garzon, Ming He, David A. Bruce

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

No abstract provided.

Fabrication And Analysis Of Soy Flour Filled Polyethylene Fibers, Ozgun Ozdemir, Sam Lukubira, Amod Ogale, Paul Dawson

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

Fibers composed of soy flour (soy) and linear low density polyethylene (PE) were produced by melt spinning method. The mixing time of soy flour and PE was adjusted to get better dispersion of soy flour inside the matrix. The inclusion of soy decreased tensile modulus by 35% and tensile strength by 30% of the fibers compared with 950 MPa and 43 MPa, respectively, for PE fibers. Strain to failure for soy-PE fibers was 292% where PE fibers have strain to failure at 513%. Tensile properties of soy-PE fibers are comparable to those of pure PE. Even washing did not deteriorated …

Study And Development Of Sulfated Zirconia Based Proton Exchange Fuel Cell Membranes, Brittany Wilson Kemp

Doctoral Dissertations

With the increasing consumption of energy, fuel cells are among the most promising alternatives to fossil fuels, provided some technical challenges are overcome. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have been investigated and improvements have been made, but the problem with Nafion®, the main membrane for PEMFCs, has not been solved. Nafion® restricts the membranes from operating at higher temperatures, thus preventing them from working in small electronics. The problem is to develop a novel fuel cell membrane that performs comparably to Nafion® in PEMFCs.

The membranes were fabricated by applying sulfated zirconia, via template wetting, to porous alumina membranes. …

Development And Utilization Of A Pair Of Sol-Gel Entrapped Lipases For Biodiesel Production From High Free Fatty Acid Oils, Cory M. Schwartz

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Biodiesel, which consists of fatty acid alkyl esters, is one of the most widely adopted and successful renewable fuels. Traditional physiochemical biodiesel production methods require high cost refined feedstocks, and so alternative methods of catalysis and feedstocks have been explored. This research investigated the use of polysiloxane entrapped lipases to catalyze the production of biodiesel from low cost feedstocks.

In this work, lipase from Burkholderia cepacia (lipase PS) and lipase B from Candida antarctica (CalB) were separately entrapped using sol-gel chemistry. Optimal reaction conditions for the esterification of free fatty acids by immobilized CalB with methanol were determined. Immobilized CalB …

Engineering Cell-Free Systems For Vaccine Development, Self-Assembling Nanoparticles And Codon Reassignment Applications, Mark T. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports on the technology of cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) including 1) stabilized lyophilized cell-free systems and 2) enhanced heterogeneous cell extracts. This work further considers applications of CFPS systems in 1) rapid vaccine development, 2) functional virus-based nanoparticles, 3) site-specific protein immobilization, and 4) expanding the language of biology using unnatural amino acids. CFPS technology is a versatile protein production platform that has many features unavailable in in vivo expression systems. The primary benefit cell-free systems provide is the direct access to the reaction environment, which is no longer hindered by the presence of a cell-wall. The “openness" …