Engineering Commons^™

Mechanistic Models On Enzymatic Hydrolysis And Anaerobic Digestion, Yang Zhang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

For enzymatic hydrolysis, a mechanistic model on enzymatic hydrolysis of pure cellulosic substrates was improved to consider oligomer reactions with beta-glucanases, inhibition of oligomers to cellulases and enzyme decay. Then a novel and general modeling framework was developed for enzymatic hydrolysis of hemicellulose-cellulosic substrates. This mechanistic model, for the first time, took into consideration explicitly the time evolution of morphologies of intertwining cellulose and hemicelluloses. This novel mechanistic model was applied to optimize the composition of enzyme mixtures for substrate conversion and monosaccharides yield during simultaneous enzymatic hydrolysis of different lignocellulosic substrates. For anaerobic digestion, the original "Anaerobic Digestion Model …

Temperature Control Of An Emulsion Polymerization Process, Evan M. Arnold

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The project premise was to create a new temperature control scheme for an emulsion polymerization process at the pilot scale with intentions of implementing the system into a production facility in the near future. The data was collected using electronic instrumentation at a current emulsion polymerization pilot plant facility in real-time and saved in a Microsoft Excel format. The control scheme was based on three parameters: the rate of change, temperature dead band around the set point to determine heating or cooling, and a jacket fluid clamp temperature. After research and experimentation on actual emulsion polymerization batches it was determined …

Plasma Processes And Cancer - Special Topical Cluster Of The 2nd Iwpct Meeting, Masaru Hori, Mounir Laroussi, Kai Masur, Yuzuru Ikehara

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Although the emerging multidisciplinary field of plasma medicine has been around for nearly two decades important advances have already taken place that could one day revolutionize healthcare and the way various challenging diseases can be treated.1-3Amongst these advances the effects of low temperature plasma (LTP) on cancer cells in vitro and in vivo stand out.4-13Current cancer treatment modalities, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, have serious side effects and tend to lose their benefits to the patients after a while. Therefore, novel and improved therapies that can be used alone …

Ambit Of Multiphase Cfd In Modelling Transport Processes Related To Oil Spill Scenario And Microfluidics, Abhijit Rao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

During the ‘Deepwater Horizon’ accident in the deep sea in 2010, about 4.9 million barrels of oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico, making the spill one of the worst ocean spills in recent times. To mitigate the ill effects of the event on the environment, subsea injection of dispersants was carried out. Dispersant addition lowers the interfacial tension at oil/water interface and presence of local turbulence enhances the droplet disintegration process. The oil droplets contain a plethora of hydrocarbons which are soluble in water. In deep spill scenarios, droplets spend large amounts of time in water column; hence, …

Sinking Of Crude Oil Amended-Model Oil Mixtures Due To Evaporative Or Dissolution Weathering On The Surface And Submerged In Water, Cameron Joseph Loebig

LSU Master's Theses

Despite the popular belief that crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons that floats on the surface of water, tar balls continue to wash up on beaches from the sea floor years after the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. This is because of the rarely studied weathering effects that occur during deep sea spills. While the evaporative weathering process of oil at the water’s surface has been studied, no currently implemented models assess the weathering effects of dissolution within the water column. The evaporative effects at the sea surface and the dissolution of soluble components within droplets located in the …

The Future Of Carbon-Based Scaffolds In Foot And Ankle Surgery, Jarema S. Czarnecki, Khalid Lafdi, Panagiotis A. Tsonis

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Autologous grafts have been the gold standard in tissue replacement and the most accurate means of recapitulating both the biological and mechanical properties of tissue. However, autologous grafts have had complications and drawbacks. Skin grafting, a prime example of an autologous tissue graft, has been limited by the size of graft, availability, and secondary donor site morbidity. Use of cadaveric tissues circumvents several limitations of autologous grafts; however, sterilization processes used to reduce the risk of disease transmission potentially weaken tissues and eliminate living cells and some growth factors from scaffolds, making them suboptimal tissue replacements. Chemical cross-linkage of tissue …

Effects Of Disorder State And Interfacial Layer On Thermal Transport In Copper/Diamond System, Vikas Sinha, Jaime J. Gengler, Christopher Muratore, Jonathan E. Spowart

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

The characterization of Cu/diamond interface thermal conductance (h_c) along with an improved understanding of factors affecting it are becoming increasingly important, as Cu-diamond composites are being considered for electronic packaging applications. In this study, ∼90 nm thick Cu layers weredeposited on synthetic and natural single crystal diamond substrates. In several specimens, a Ti-interface layer of thickness ≤3.5 nm was sputtered between the diamond substrate and the Cu top layer. The h_c across Cu/diamond interfaces for specimens with and without a Ti-interface layer was determined usingtime-domain thermoreflectance. The h_c is ∼2× higher for similar interfacial layers on …

การเตรียมและการวิเคราะห์สมบัติของ น้ำมันถั่วอินคานาโนอิมัลชัน ที่ห่อหุ้มวิตามินอีสำหรับการใช้เป็นเครื่องสำอาง, ปภิชญา ตั๋นคำ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วัตถุประสงค์ของงานวิจัยนี้เพื่อศึกษาการเตรียมน้ำมันถั่วอินคานาโนอิมัลชันบรรจุวิตามินอีอะซิเตท สำหรับการประยุกต์ใช้เป็นเครื่องสำอาง องค์ประกอบหลักทางเคมีของเมล็ดถั่วอินคาประกอบด้วย น้ำมัน (42.55 เปอร์เซ็นต์), คาร์โบไฮเดรต (32.38 เปอร์เซ็นต์) และโปรตีน (18.40 เปอร์เซ็นต์) สารประกอบหลักของน้ำมันประกอบด้วยกรดไขมันแอลฟ่าไลโนเลอิค (42 เปอร์เซ็นต์), กรดไขมันไลโนเลนิค (40 เปอร์เซ็นต์), แกมมา โทโคฟีรอล (0.095 เปอร์เซ็นต์) และ เดลต้า โทโคฟีรอล (0.068 เปอร์เซ็นต์) ความสามารถในการต้านออกซิเดชันของน้ำมัน ตรวจวัดด้วยวิธี DPPH และ ABTS พบว่า มีความสามารถต้านออกซิเดชัน คือ 24.91 ไมโครกรัมเทียบกับสารโทล็อกซ์ และ 41.13 ไมโครกรัมเทียบกับสารโทล็อกซ์ ตามลำดับและปริมาณฟีโนลิครวมเท่ากับ 6.43.มิลลิกรัมเทียบเท่าสารมาตรฐานกรดแกลลิคต่อน้ำหนัก 100 กรัมของน้ำมัน น้ำมันถั่วอินคานาโนอิมัลชัน ถูกเตรียมได้ด้วยวิธีการกลับวัฏภาคในสภาวะต่างๆ เพื่อประเมิณอิทธิพลของปัจจัยที่มีต่อลักษณะทางเคมีฟิสิกส์และความคงตัว สูตรตำรับที่ดีที่สุด ประกอบด้วยน้ำมันถั่วอินคา 5 เปอร์เซ็นต์ ใช้สารลดแรงตึงผิวผสม (Span80 และ CremophorH40) 7 เปอร์เซ็นต์ ที่ค่า HLB (ค่าสมดุลการชอบน้ำและการชอบไขมัน) เท่ากับ 9 วิตามินอี อะซิเตท 1 เปอร์เซ็นต์ และน้ำ 88 เปอร์เซ็นต์ นาโนอิมัลชันที่ได้ มีลักษณะค่อนข้างโปร่งแสง และมีความคงสภาพสูง ด้วยขนาดหยดอนุภาคเฉลี่ยอยู่ระหว่าง 52 ถึง 58 นาโนเมตร และ มีค่าศักย์ไฟฟ้าอยู่ระหว่าง -45 ถึง-38 มิลลิโวลต์ ประสิทธิภาพการกักเก็บ เท่ากับ 87.37 เปอร์เซ็นต์ วิตามินอี อะซิเตทที่บรรจุ ในตำรับที่เหมาะสม พบว่ามีความคงตัวภายหลังกระบวนการผลิต และเก็บรักษาที่อุณหภูมิ 4 องศาเซลเซียส 30 องศาเซลเซียส และ 45 องศาเซลเซียส เป็นระยะเวลา 60 …

Evaluation Of Preformed Particle Gel Treatment Using Homogeneous And Heterogeneous Models, Hilary Ogochukwu Elue

Masters Theses

"This research investigates the effects of preformed particle gel (PPG) in remedying the problems of excess water production and low oil recovery of heterogeneous reservoirs by placing the PPG in the high-permeability layer, thus diverting displacing brine to the unswept low permeability layer. This investigation was completed with three tasks.

The first task was to evaluate the PPG swelling kinetics and strength as a function of concentration of brine. The result of this task indicate that PPG prepared with low concentration of brine swells more, becomes weaker, more deformable than PPG prepared with high concentration of brine.

The second task …

Survey And Data Analysis Of Polymer Flooding Pilot And Field Applications In China, Yandong Zhang

Masters Theses

"Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes are regarded as important methods to recovery remaining oil after primary and secondary recovery. It is significant to select the most appropriate EOR process among the possible techniques for a candidate reservoir. EOR screening criteria has been created using available EOR datasets and served as the first step to compare the suitability of each EOR method for a particular reservoir. Most of these datasets are collected from EOR surveys published by Oil & Gas Journal. This study proposes a comprehensive study of a dataset including 55 pilot and field polymer flooding applications in China. Statistical …

Chemical Process Analysis And Modeling Case Studies: Liquid Diffusion And Thermodynamic Considerations, Connor Redwine

Honors Theses

Two case studies completed under the direction of Jacobs Engineering are presented and discussed. In the first case study, the economics of the installation of an oil cooler are examined. A vapor recovery unit (VRU) for an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) facility in Grieve, WY, will be installed to capture the vapors from an oil tank. With the installation of the VRU, a question arose: would an oil cooler proposed to be installed before the oil tank be necessary? A simulation and economic analysis of the process suggests that oil cooler installation is still economically favorable. When the low pressure …

Economic Optimization Of An Ethylbenzene Process, Erin L. Dyer

Honors Theses

This report describes the process of optimizing an existing design for a chemical plant that produces the chemical intermediate ethylbenzene. For an engineer, economic optimization involves manipulating the design variables of a chemical process in order to improve the economic outcome of the project. In this case, the objective of the optimization was to maximize the net present value of the ethylbenzene plant. After analyzing the net present value of the existing design, the team conducted subsequent analyses on the operation of the process, adjusting variables such as temperature, pressure, and flow rate in order to minimize the costs of …

Secondary Metabolites Isolated From Perovskia Atriplicifolia And Their In Vitro Binding Affinity For Human Opioid And Cannabinoid Receptors, Ashli Fitzpatrick

Honors Theses

Plants and their natural products have been utilized for thousands of years in the treatment of many human diseases. Because of their structural diversity, natural products are ideal lead compounds for drug development. In this thesis, the natural products of the plant Perovskia atriplicifolia were investigated, specifically their in vitro binding affinity to receptors in opioid and cannabinoid classes. Extracts that demonstrated good selective opioid and cannabinoid receptor binding were subjected to bioassay-guided fractionation. Four active compounds were identified from the crude extract in Perovskia atriplicifolia: 1) 5-hydroxy-3',4',6,7-tetramethoxy flavone, 2) 5,7-dihydroxy-3',4',6,-trimethoxy flavone, 3) 5-hydroxy-4',6,7-trimethoxy flavone, and 4) 5,7-dihydroxy-4',6,-dimethoxy flavone. Each …

A Guide To Process Optimization, Shannon Leeann Kynerd

Honors Theses

Optimization is improving upon an existing process. Generally, the motivation behind optimization is economical. Companies are always looking for ways to improve their process in order to maximize their profit. There are several key steps and strategies that need to be followed in order to guarantee an optimized process and ultimately the maximum profit. An analysis of the base case is essential to optimization. If the starting point is not fully known, then the amount of progress is not known. The top-down and bottom-up strategies determine the overall procedure for optimization. Top-down begins with the big picture while bottom-up starts …

Carbon Dioxide Capture By Functionalized Graphene Oxide Adsorbent, Sulihat Oreoluwa Aloba

Honors Theses

The accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere is a major environmental hazard. As a result various methods for capturing CO2 was suggested. One of such methods included the development of carbon-based adsorbents due to their large surface area and low heat capacity for CO2 capture which was studied in this report. Graphene oxide (GO) was selected as the adsorbent for its potential benefit in CO2 capture. A modified hummers method was used for the synthesis of GO which showed the existence of the hydroxyl (3440 cm-1), epoxyl (1036 cm-1) and carboxyl (1720 cm-1) functional groups in its FTIR spectra. The …

Chemical Process Optimization For Dummies, Troy Mannino

Honors Theses

Chemical process optimization is a daunting task. The purpose of this work is to summarize and organize successful approaches which may be employed by the chemical process engineer when confronted with optimization problems. In general, optimization is making any process better; common goals are to increase the efficiency or maximize the economic potential of a process. The improvements made to a process during optimization are generally measured in terms of an objective function. Since the purpose of any industrial chemical process is to be profitable, objective functions most often have units of dollars. The objective function is dependent upon changes …

Exploration Of Cannabinoid And Opioid Agents From Plants Used In Traditional Medicine, John Fitzpatrick

Honors Theses

Ten plants, with known medicinal uses, were gathered to study for their possible production of secondary metabolites that act as opioid and cannabinoid agents. All plants were subjected to in vitro bioassays testing for their affinity for the opioid and cannabinoid receptors. Banisteriopsis caapi extracts displayed the greatest affinity for both opioid and cannabinoid receptors. B. caapi extracts underwent column fractionation yielding fractions that were subjected to further in vitro studies. We discovered that the ethanolic extract of this plant (foliage) binds to all three opioid receptors (µ, κ and δ) and cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) with values ranging …

A Look Into Process Optimization, Joshua Hunter Lambert

Honors Theses

The goal for this paper is to inform the reader on the optimization process in chemical engineering design. The reader will gain knowledge about the step-by-step process as well as terminology of the optimization journey. Optimization takes a great amount of work, and it can be a daunting task if one gets caught up in the minute details. However, I will show that looking at the big picture will drastically ease the process and make optimizing much simpler. A base case will first be presented. The base case should be modeled using a process simulator, and then an economic analysis …

Targeting G-Quadruplexes Within The Adam-15 Promoter: A Novel Therapeutic Approach For Breast Cancer, Rachel L. Jenkins

Honors Theses

ADAM-15 is a protein that is up-regulated in many diseases, particularly breast cancer; its over-expression is correlated with more aggressive and invasive phenotypes. The critical core promoter region of ADAM-15 is capable of forming a secondary DNA structure known as a G-quadruplex. The stabilization of this G-quadruplex has the potential to decrease the transcription of the over-expressed ADAM-15 protein. Six hundred forty compounds were screened for their ability to cause a shift in the melting temperature of an ADAM-15 oligonucleotide using FRET melt. Two compounds, NSC 146771 and NSC 260594, produced a significant shift in the melting temperature; further experimentation, …

The Dispersion And Selective Flocculation Of Hematite Ore, Howard James Haselhuhn Iii

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

Iron ore is one of the most important ores in the world. Over the past century, most mining of iron ore has been focused on magnetite (Fe3O4). As the name suggests, magnetite is magnetic in nature and is easily separated from gangue (unwanted) minerals through magnetic separation processes. Unfortunately, the magnetite ore bodies are diminishing. Because of this, there has been a recent drive to pursue technology that can economically separate hematite (Fe2O3) from its gangue minerals as hematite is a much more abundant source of iron. Most hematite ore has a very small liberation size that is frequently less …

Mechanical Properties Of Graphene Nanoplatelet/Epoxy Composites, Danielle René Klimek-Mcdonald

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

Due to their high specific stiffness, carbon-filled polymer composites are commonly used in the construction of structural components of subsonic fixed-wing aircrafts, such as the fuselage and control surfaces. In this work, neat epoxy (EPON 862 with EPIKURE Curing Agent W) was fabricated along with 1- 6 wt% of three types of GNP available from XG Sciences Inc. and 1-4 wt% of another type of GNP available from Asbury Carbons added to epoxy. The curing cycle for this epoxy was 121 °C for 2 hours followed by 177 °C for two hours.

GNP are short stacks of individual layers of …

Modeling Of Biomass Torrefaction And Pyrolysis And Its Applications, Jordan L. Klinger

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

Utilizing biomass provides a possible near-term alternative solution for fossil energy dependence in both electricity generation and transportation. Though thermochemical conversion can produce solid/liquid fuels that are compatible in existing infrastructure, detailed scientific chemical and mechanistic understanding are still being developed. In contribution to these efforts, this work is focused on development of a semiempirical, lumped parameter, chemical kinetic model to describe the degradation of woody biomass.

The initial kinetic model was developed in the torrefaction region to describe the gas-phase evolution of products (water, organic acids, permanent gases, and furfural) through a three consecutive reaction model. In this model, …

Synthesis, Characterization And Anti-Proliferative Activity Of An Imidazolium Salt And Its Silver Carbene Complex: Utilization Of Picolyl And Quinolylmethyl Substituents, Cari E. Molnar

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The imidazolium salt (IS) and silver carbene complex (SCC) studied in this report are 3-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)-1-(quinolin-2-ylmethyl)imidazolium chloride (1) and 3-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)-1-(quinolin-2-ylmethyl)imidazole – silver acetate complex (2). It was anticipated that the anti-proliferative activity of 1 and 2 would be similar to other characterized ISs while having increased solubility. The SCC (2) was synthesized in order to simulate the ligand-metal coordination similar to that of cisplatin.

The success of the synthetic processes of 1 and 2 were determined by ¹H NMR (300 MHz) spectroscopy. In addition, 1 was also characterized by ¹H NMR (500 MHz) …

Predicting Key Residues Relevant To Hiapp Fibril Stability Using Permuted Residue Minimal Distance Pairs Of Riapp And Hiapp Dimers, Zak Kohler

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In order to discover the most significant residues involved in hIAPP fibril formation, Replica Exchange Molecular Dynamics (REMD) trajectories of both fibril forming hIAPP dimers and non-fibril-forming rIAPP dimers were analyzed. An import heuristic for this is the minimum distance between the peptides. To gain a greater resolution than the standard center of mass distance or 1-1, 2-2, etc.\ residue distances, every permutation of residue distance between molecules of the dimer was measured ranked. It was found that while the rIAPP had a single favored contact, (26 10), hIAPP appeared to have a network of at least three significant contacts: …

Effect Of Nanofiber Morphology On Pvdf Air Filter Performance, Andrew W. Marton

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) can be formed into small nanofibers by electrospinning that are useful for a variety of applications. Air filters produced with PVDF are known to capture ionic particles with high efficiency. Existing studies have focused on the effects of electrospinning conditions on nanofiber morphology. In this study fibers were generated with varying morphologies. Air filters were then made from each sample and then characterized by TSI. Air filters were found to have increased resistances relative to their capture efficiencies according to particle diameter. Capture efficiencies did not correlate strongly with particle diameter, and the presence of beads in …

Filtration Of Aerosolized Oils With Layered Filter Media And Drainage Channels, Corey A. Boldon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this experiment is to compare the efficiency of four different filter media with two different drainage channel materials when filtering out aerosolized oil. The filter media include 2 micron stainless steel fibers, 6.5 micron stainless steel fibers, 2 micron woven glass fibers, and 6 micron woven glass fibers. The drainage channel materials are 500 micron Teflon (PTFE) and nylon mesh.

One major application that this research is targeted towards is air compressors. Air compressors use lubricating oil to minimize wear and corrosion. During operation some of this lubricating oil is aerosolized into the outgoing air stream. Inhalation …

Electrospinning Of S-B-S Triblock And S-I-S Triblock Copolymers For Use In Fuel Filtration, Kevin Houser

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The following research project looked into the potential of using nanofibers of syrene-isoprene-styrene triblock copolymer produced through the electrospinning process for the filtration of water out of fuel as well as a comparison of styrene-isoprene-styrene triblock to the styrene-butadiene-styrene triblock nanofibers produced at equivalent operating parameters. Based on the work completed, it is concluded that the styrene-isoprene-styrene triblock is not suitable for use in filtration with the current electrospinning conditions. On average, the styrene-isoprene-styrene triblock produced nanofibers of lower average diameter and lower standard deviation in diameter when compared to styene-butadiene-styrene triblock.

Iso: Understanding Elective International Certification, Lauren R. Kukwa

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this paper is to investigate elective certification specifically as it pertains to the Process Engineering II capstone project assigned at the University of Akron in the Spring Semester of 2015. The standards for certification are those needed to obtain certification in International Organization for Standardization’s 9000:2005 Quality Management standard. The ethics of a Chemical Engineering position as it pertains to the project will also be presented and similarities between elective certification and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Code of Ethics will be noted.

Optimization Of Polydopamine Coatings, Helen C. Terrill Ms.

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Polydopamine coatings were fabricated onto the surfaces of glass slides, silicon wafers, and Teflon pieces. A method to change surface properties was optimized, providing a new way of using substrates by means of make-over surface properties. The technology has a wide range of potential approaches including high performance coatings and biomedical surfaces. The experiments can be conducted with various types of surface modifications to make surfaces hydrophilic, hydrophobic, conductive, or magnetic. The changes of film thickness and surface energy as functions of incubation time were quantified by means of ellipsometry, profilometry, and contact angle measurements. The use of primer polydopamine …

Biosurfactants In Electrospinning, Jonathan Russell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Surfactants are useful in electrospinning to help improve the fiber morphology. Crocin is a naturally occurring biosurfactant from saffron that is highly soluble in water. By electrospinning a biocompatible polymer, such as polyethylene oxide (PEO) and Crocin, one can improve the fiber morphology. A systematic study of PEO was conducted by varying the voltage, flow rate, and gap distance. The viscosity of the solution was determined using a viscometer and the surface tension was determined using the pendant drop method. Fiber morphology was examined using SEM and fiber diameters were determined using ImageJ to measure the fibers in the SEM …