Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Nonlinear Data Driven Techniques For Process Monitoring, Michael C. Thomas

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of this research is to develop process monitoring technology capable of taking advantage of the large stores of data accumulating in modern chemical plants. There is demand for new techniques for the monitoring of non-linear topology and behavior, and this research presents a topological preservation method for process monitoring using Self Organizing Maps (SOM). The novel architecture presented adapts SOM to a full spectrum of process monitoring tasks including fault detection, fault identification, fault diagnosis, and soft sensing. The key innovation of the new technique is its use of multiple SOM (MSOM) in the data modeling process as …

Analysis Of Microseismic Events Associated With Hydraulic Fracture Propagation, Chennu Fan

LSU Master's Theses

Previous practice to determine the source mechanism of microseismic events associated with hydraulic fracture typically includes only far-field terms in moment tensor inversion. The intermediate-field terms and near-field term are normally ignored because of increased complexity in the calculation. Source-receiver distances in hydraulic fracturing are usually 1000 ft and the effects of near and intermediate-field terms are still unknown. We perform a study to improve the precision of the source mechanism by including the intermediate-field term in moment tensor inversion. We find that the intermediate-field term contributes 1/3 of the signal amplitude when the source-receiver distance is 1000 ft. The …

Techno-Economic And Life-Cycle Modeling And Analysis Of Various Energy Storage Technologies Coupled With A Solar Photovoltaic Array, Brian Andrew Peterson

Masters Theses

"Renewable energies, such as wind and solar, are a growing piece of global energy consumption. The chief motivation to develop renewable energy is two-fold: reducing carbon dioxide emissions and reducing dependence on diminishing fossil fuel supplies. Energy storage is critical to the growth of renewable energy because it allows for renewably-generated electricity to be consumed at times when renewable sources are unavailable, and it also enhances power quality (maintaining voltage and frequency) on an electric grid which becomes increasingly unstable as more renewable energy is added. There are numerous means of storing energy with different advantages, but none has emerged …

Utilizing Reversible Addition Fragmentation Chain Transer For The Synthesis Of Polymeric Gene Delivery Vehicles, Jared Spoons

Honors Theses

There are many techniques used today to make a variety of polymers but this thesis investigates the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization technique and illustrates the advantages and importance of using RAFT polymerization technique to make the desired polymer. The research focused on two monomer units that were to form the diblock copolymer; the hydrophilic part, oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate, and the cationic hydrophobic part 2-diethylaminoethyl methacrylate. The goal was to produce a target diblock copolymer with a Mn value of 44K and a PDI under 1.5 with the block sizes being a 35K Mn OEGMA chain and a 9K …

Virus Purification, Detection And Removal, Khrupa Saagar Vijayaragavan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The biopharmaceutical industry has a growing demand and an increasing need to improve the current virus purification technologies, especially as more and more vaccines are produced from cell-culture derived virus particles. Downstream purification strategies can be expensive and account for 70% of the overall manufacturing costs. The economic pressure and purification processes can be particularly challenging when the virus to be purified is small, as in our model virus, porcine parvovirus (PPV). Our efforts are focused on designing an easy, economical, scalable and efficient system for virus purification, and we focused on aqueous two-phase systems. Industry acceptable standards for virus …

Utilizing Dielectrophoresis To Determine The Physiological Differences Of Eukaryotic Cells, Tayloria Nicole Gail Adams

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Type 1 diabetes affects over 108,000 children, and this number is steadily increasing. Current insulin therapies help manage the disease but are not a cure. Over a child’s lifetime they can develop kidney disease, blindness, cardiovascular disease and many other issues due to the complications of type 1 diabetes. This autoimmune disease destroys beta cells located in the pancreas, which are used to regulate glucose levels in the body. Because there is no cure and many children are affected by the disease there is a need for alternative therapeutic options that can lead to a cure.

Human mesenchymal stem cells …

Design And Synthesis Of Multifunctional Polymeric Micelles For Gene-Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy, Alicia J. Sawdon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy is a form of cancer therapy in which delivery of a gene that encodes an enzyme is able to convert a prodrug, a pharmacologically inactive molecule, into a potent cytotoxin. Currently delivery of gene and prodrug is a two-step process. Here, we propose a one-step method using polymer nanocarriers to deliver prodrug, gene and cytotoxic drug simultaneously to malignant cells. Prodrugs acyclovir, ganciclovir and 5-doxifluridine were used to directly to initiate ring-opening polymerization of epsilon-caprolactone, forming a hydrophobic prodrug-tagged poly(epsilon-caprolactone) which was further grafted with hydrophilic polymers (methoxy poly(ethylene glycol), chitosan or polyethylenemine) to form amphiphilic …

Electrocatalytic Processing Of Renewable Biomass-Derived Compounds For Production Of Chemicals, Fuels And Electricity, Le Xin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The dual problems of sustaining the fast growth of human society and preserving the environment for future generations urge us to shift our focus from exploiting fossil oils to researching and developing more affordable, reliable and clean energy sources. Human beings had a long history that depended on meeting our energy demands with plant biomass, and the modern biorefinery technologies realize the effective conversion of biomass to production of transportation fuels, bulk and fine chemicals so to alleviate our reliance on fossil fuel resources of declining supply. With the aim of replacing as much non-renewable carbon from fossil oils with …

Time Lapse Seismic Observations And Effects Of Reservoir Compressibility At Teal South Oil Field, Nayyer Islam

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

One of the original ocean-bottom time-lapse seismic studies was performed at the Teal South oil field in the Gulf of Mexico during the late 1990’s. This work reexamines some aspects of previous work using modern analysis techniques to provide improved quantitative interpretations. Using three-dimensional volume visualization of legacy data and the two phases of post-production time-lapse data, I provide additional insight into the fluid migration pathways and the pressure communication between different reservoirs, separated by faults. This work supports a conclusion from previous studies that production from one reservoir caused regional pressure decline that in turn resulted in liberation of …

The Effects Of Diffusion, Capillary Heterogeneity, And Porous Media Morphology On Co2 Migration In Porous Media, Oluseye Babafemi Adeyemi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Modified Invasion Percolation (MIP) model was used to simulate the invasion of CO2 into a medium initially saturated with water and the style of capillary heterogeneity in combination with buoyancy and viscous forces were varied to yield 105 different simulation scenarios. Thereafter, the invasion of the CO2 gas is simulated using a finite difference model and the effective mass transfer coefficient is determined and linked to various styles of capillary heterogeneity. Results show that an increase in saturation does not result in an increase in mass transfer coefficient rather, the surface area, which in turn is controlled by the …

Development Of Silicon-Based Anodes And In-Situ Characterization Techniques For Lithium Ion Batteries, Jinho Yang

Wayne State University Dissertations

Development of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) with higher capacity has been booming worldwide, as growing concerns about environmental issues and increasing petroleum costs. The demands for the LIBs include high energy and power densities, and better cyclic stability in order to meet a wide range of applications, such as portable devices and electric vehicles. Silicon has recently been explored as a promising anode material due to its low discharge potential (<0.4 V) and high specific capacity (4200 mAh g^-1). The capacity of silicon potentially exceeds more than 10 times of the conventional graphite anode (372 mAh g^-1). However, the silicon anode experiences huge volume …

Evaluation Of Cotton Valley "D" Sand Production In Stampede Field, Mississippi, U.S.A., Patrick Lawrence Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Atomic Layer Deposition, Paul Kubicza

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Toward Polymer Coating With Easy Ice Release, Chenyu Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Minimizing adhesion of ice has been the subject of extensive studies for applications such aircraft wings, wind turbine blades spacecraft, power transmission wires, while a growing interest concerns coatings for aerospace applications. The work described here describes progress for coatings and ice release test method development over the last few years. Major achievements include: (1) New Rigid Adherent-Resistant Elastomers (RARE), (2) A new Epoxied Cylinder (EC) adhesion test, (3) Validation of an ice release test, and (4) Study of ice adhesion strength on coating thickness for a PDMS elastomer. Rigid Adhesion-Resistance Elastomers (RARE) are comprised of 3F 1 terminated with …

Approximations To The Solution Of The Frank-Kamenetskii Equation In A Spherical Geometry, Moustafa A. Soliman

Chemical Engineering

In this paper, an approximate analytical solution for Frank-Kamenetskii equation modeling a thermal explosion in a sphere, is obtained. The approximate solution is obtained by perturbation methods in terms of small and large distance parameter. The approximate solution is compared with the numerical solution obtained from an initial value problem formulation to the original boundary value problem. The approximate solution obtained is valid for all values of the distance parameter. For the original boundary value problem and for a given Frank-Kamenetskii parameter, a nonlinear algebraic equation needs to be solved to be able to apply the approximate solution.

Development Of Nickel Oxide And Manganese Oxide Nanostructured Binary Modified Anodes For Methanol Electro-Oxidation, Ghada El-Nowihy

Chemical Engineering

In this investigation, a nanoparticle-based binary catalyst composed of nickel oxide (nano-NiOx) and manganese oxide (nano-MnOx), both were assembled on a platinum substrate, was developed for the direct methanol electro-oxidation (MO) in an alkaline medium. The morphological investigation was performed using field-emission SEM and revealed the electrodeposition of MnOx in a nanorod structure and NiOx in round-shaped nanospheres. The electrocatalytic activity of the modified electrodes towards MO depended critically on the order of deposition of the two oxides. The optimum electrocatalytic activity was obtained at the MnOx/NiOx/Pt electrode (in which nano-NiOx was directly electrodeposited onto the Pt surface followed by …

Reuse Of The Product Obtained On Grinding Kiln Rollers In The Manufacture Of Ceramic Wall Tiles, Mai H. Roushdy, Shereen K. Amin, Marwa Mohamed, Magdi F. Abadir

Chemical Engineering

The production of ceramic tiles and to a lesser extent flat dinner ware and pottery is increasingly being done by firing in roller kilns. These kilns offer several advantages over conventional tunnel kilns: lower fuel consumption, computer controlled firing curves, low maintenance due to lack of kiln cars, rapid firing cycles of less than one hour and the possibility of shutting down the kiln on short notice.1 One recurrent problem in the operation of such kilns is the periodic need to grind the kiln rollers. These are usually fabricated from high alumina clays and are continuously contaminated by depositions of …

Information In Biological Systems And The Fluctuation Theorem, Yaşar Demirel

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

Some critical trends in information theory, its role in living systems and utilization in fluctuation theory are discussed. The mutual information of thermodynamic coupling is incorporated into the generalized fluctuation theorem by using information theory and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Thermodynamically coupled dissipative structures in living systems are capable of degrading more energy, and processing complex information through developmental and environmental constraints. The generalized fluctuation theorem can quantify the hysteresis observed in the amount of the irreversible work in nonequilibrium regimes in the presence of information and thermodynamic coupling.

One-Step Production Of Long-Chain Hydrocarbons From Waste-Biomass-Derived Chemicals Using Bi-Functional Heterogeneous Catalysts, Cun Wen, Elizabeth A. Barrow, Jason R. Hattrick-Simpers, Jochen A. Lauterbach

Faculty Publications

n this study, we demonstrate the production of long-chain hydrocarbons (C₈₊) from 2-methylfuran (2MF) and butanal in a single step reactive process by utilizing a bi-functional catalyst with both acid and metallic sites. Our approach utilizes a solid acid for the hydroalkylation function and as a support as well as a transition metal as hydrodeoxygenation catalyst. A series of solid acids was screened, among which MCM-41 demonstrated the best combination of activity and stability. Platinum nanoparticles were then incorporated into the MCM-41. The Pt/MCM-41 catalyst showed 96% yield for C₈₊ hydrocarbons and the catalytic performance was stable …

Tuning The Underwater Oleophobicity Of Graphene Oxide Coatings Via Uv Irradiation, H. Li, Yi Huang, Y. Mao, W. Xu, Harry J. Ploehn, Miao Yu

Faculty Publications

Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation was utilized to gradually modify the chemistry and structure of graphene oxide (GO) flakes, as confirmed by XPS and AFM. Ultrathin GO coatings/membranes, made of UV-irradiated flakes, showed tunable underwater oleophobicity. UV-treated, superoleophobic GO membranes exhibited excellent antifouling capability for oil/water separation.