Engineering Commons^™

Bicontinuous Interfacially Jammed Emulsion Gels (Bijels) As Media For Enabling Enzymatic Reactive Separation Of A Highly Water Insoluble Substrate, Sanghak Cha, Hyun Lim, Martin Haase, Kathleen Stebe, Gyoo Jung, Daeyeon Lee

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Although enzymes are efficient catalysts capable of converting various substrates into desired products with high specificity under mild conditions, their effectiveness as catalysts is substantially reduced when substrates are poorly water-soluble. In this study, to expedite the enzymatic conversion of a hydrophobic substrate, we use a bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gel (bijel) which provides large interfacial area between two immiscible liquids: oil and water. Using lipase-catalyzed hydrolysis of tributyrin as a model reaction in a batch mode, we show that bijels can be used as media to enable enzymatic reaction. The bijel system gives a four-fold increase in the initial …

Integrating The Three E’S In Wastewater Treatment, Kirti Maheshkumar Yenkie

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Water is often the most mispriced and misused component in domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors. The rise in world population and industrialization in developing nations has tremendously increased the demand for water and has resulted in the generation of wastewater which is contaminated with dangerous pollutants and unknown contaminants. Furthermore, if the wastewater is not treated properly the toxic pollutants will leach back into the ground ultimately contaminating the groundwater resources. Thus, wastewater treatment, reuse, and safe disposal have become crucial for sustainable existence. In this review, the different aspects involved in designing efficient and sustainable wastewater treatment systems such …

Tracking Lysosome Migration Within Chinese Hamster Ovary (Cho) Cells Following Exposure To Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields, Gary L. Thompson Iii, Hope T. Beier, Bennett L. Ibey

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Above a threshold electric field strength, 600 ns-duration pulsed electric field (nsPEF) exposure substantially porates and permeabilizes cellular plasma membranes in aqueous solution to many small ions. Repetitive exposures increase permeabilization to calcium ions (Ca²⁺) in a dosage-dependent manner. Such exposure conditions can create relatively long-lived pores that reseal after passive lateral diffusion of lipids should have closed the pores. One explanation for eventual pore resealing is active membrane repair, and an ubiquitous repair mechanism in mammalian cells is lysosome exocytosis. A previous study shows that intracellular lysosome movement halts upon a 16.2 kV/cm, 600-ns PEF exposure of …

Synthesis And Analysis Of Separation Processes For Extracellular Chemicals Generated From Microbial Conversions, Wenzhao Wu, Kirti Maheshkumar Yenkie, Christos T. Maravelias

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Recent advances in metabolic engineering have enabled the production of chemicals via bio-conversion using microbes. However, downstream separation accounts for 60–80% of the total production cost in many cases. Previous work on microbial production of extracellular chemicals has been mainly restricted to microbiology, biochemistry, metabolomics, or techno-economic analysis for specific product examples such as succinic acid, xanthan gum, lycopene, etc. In these studies, microbial production and separation technologies were selected apriori without considering any competing alternatives. However, technology selection in downstream separation and purification processes can have a major impact on the overall costs, product recovery, and purity. To this …

One-Pot Aqueous And Template-Free Synthesis Of Mesoporous Polymeric Resins, Mahboubeh Nabavinia, Baishali Kanjilal, Alexander Hesketh, Philip Wall, Alireza Shirazi Amin, Peter Kerns, Joseph F. Stanzione Iii, Steven Suib, Fujian Lu, Iman Noshadi

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

This work explores the novel one-pot aqueous phase synthesis of mesoporous phenolic-hyperbranched polyethyleneimine resins without the use of a template, and their utility as heterogeneous catalysts in batch reactors and continuous microreactors. Catalyst surface areas of up to 432 m²/g were achieved with a uniform Pd distribution and an interconnected, highly porous, network structure, confirmed through Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurements, scanning electron microscopes (SEM), X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The heterogeneous catalysts achieved a maximum 98.98 ± 1% conversion in batch Suzuki couplings, with conversions being dependent upon reaction …

Methods For Estimating Supersaturation In Antisolvent Crystallization Systems, Jennifer M. Schall, Gerard Capellades, Allan S. Myerson

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

The mole fraction and activity coefficient-dependent (MFAD) supersaturation expression is the least-assumptive, practical choice for calculating supersaturation in solvent mixtures. This paper reviews the basic thermodynamic derivation of the supersaturation expression, revisits common simplifying assumptions, and discusses the shortcomings of those assumptions for the design of industrial crystallization processes. A step-by-step methodology for estimating the activity-dependent supersaturation is provided with focus on ternary systems. This method requires only solubility data and thermal property data from a single differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiment. Two case studies are presented, where common simplifications to the MFAD supersaturation expression are evaluated: (1) for various …

Incorporating Solvent-Dependent Kinetics To Design A Multistage, Continuous, Combined Cooling/Antisolvent Crystallization Process, Jennifer M. Schall, Gerard Capellades, Jasdeep S. Mandur, Richard D. Braatz, Allan S. Myerson

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Combined cooling and antisolvent crystallization enables crystallization of many pharmaceutical products, but its process design typically neglects solvent composition influences on crystallization kinetics. This paper evaluates the influence of solvent-dependent nucleation and growth kinetics on the design of optimal, multistage mixed-suspension, mixed-product removal (MSMPR) crystallization cascades. The ability to independently select temperature and solvent compositions in each stage of the cascade serves to greatly expand the attainable region for a two-stage cascade, with diminishing returns for additional stages. Failure to include solvent-dependent kinetics can result in simulating incorrect attainable regions, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) yields, and crystal size distributions. This …

Fabrication Of Enhanced Carbon Based Biocompatible And Biodegradable Microelectronic Materials Derived From Lignocellulosic Biomass, Harrison Thomas Hawkins

Theses and Dissertations

The development of materials capable of harmlessly being broken down and removed from the body is a crucial step towards the development of short-term application electronic biomedical implants. Once developed, these implants, known as bioresorbable electronics, will open a wide array of temporary applications in the field of biomedical implantable devices. Necessary to the operation of bioresorbable electronics within the body is a power source that is similarly biocompatible and biodegradable. To this end, enhanced carbon-based materials and a bio-ionic liquid were developed for the fabrication of a preliminary implantable and bioresorbable battery and tested for functional properties. Electrodes were …

Bio-Based Thiol-Ene Polymer Electrolytes, Elyse Antonia Baroncini

Theses and Dissertations

Industrial and consumer demand for smaller and safer technologies motivates a global research effort to improve electrolytic polymer separators in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). To incorporate the aromatic structural advantages of lignin, an abundant and renewable resource, into polymer electrolytes, molecules that can be derived from lignin are functionalized and UV-polymerized with multifunctional thiol monomers. Monomer aromaticity, thiol molecular weight, and total functionality are varied, allowing for analysis of the relationships between polymer structure and electrochemical properties.

The synthesized polymers display conductivities on the order of 10^-5 S/cm for gel polymer electrolytes and 10^-4 S/cm for solid polymer electrolytes, comparable to …