Engineering Commons^™

Design And Development Of Seed Hydration Analyzing Device And Its Utilization In Studying Cereal And Legume Hydration, Vinay Kumar Mannam

Doctoral Dissertations

Cereals and legumes are important sources of vegetable-based human nutrition. Together they account for 48.6 % of protein and 8.7 % carbohydrate consumption around the world. During preparation, majority of these agricultural staples are re-hydrated to aid in their digestibility, palatability and the bio-availability of the nutrients.

Study of hydration kinetics of cereals and legumes is an important and valuable necessity for industry and academia to understand and gain insights into seed hydration characteristics. An automatic seed hydration analyzing system is developed as a solution for lack of instruments with broad capabilities to study variety of seed properties. The device …

Toward Direct Biosynthesis Of Drop-In Ready Biofuels In Plants: Rapid Screening And Functional Genomic Characterization Of Plant-Derived Advanced Biofuels And Implications For Coproduction In Lignocellulosic Feedstocks, Blake Lee Joyce

Doctoral Dissertations

Advanced biofuels that are “drop-in” ready, completely fungible with petroleum fuels, and require minimal infrastructure to process a finished fuel could provide transportation fuels in rural or developing areas. Five oils extracted from Pittosporum resiniferum, Copaifera reticulata, and surrogate oils for Cymbopogon flexuosus, C. martinii, and Dictamnus albus in B20 blends were sent for ASTM International biodiesel testing and run in homogenous charge combustion ignition engines to determine combustion properties and emissions. All oils tested lowered cloud point. Oils derived from Copaifera reticulata also lowered indicated specific fuel consumption and had emissions similar to the ultra-low sulfur diesel control. Characterization …

Femtosecond Laser Patterned Templates And Imprinted Polymer Structures, Deepak Rajput

Doctoral Dissertations

Femtosecond laser machining is a direct-write lithography technique by which user-defined patterns are efficiently and rapidly generated at the surface or within the bulk of transparent materials. When femtosecond laser machining is performed with tightly focused amplified pulses in single-pulse mode, transparent substrates like fused silica can be surface patterned with high aspect ratio (>10:1) and deep (>10 μm) nanoholes. The main objective behind this dissertation is to develop single-pulse amplified femtosecond laser machining into a novel technique for the production of fused silica templates with user-defined patterns made of high aspect ratio nanoholes. The size of the …

Design Of An Underwater Video And Gps Mapping System For The Exploration Of Streambed Aquatic Populations, William Barbour

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

This design project was initiated due to the need for an underwater video mapping system optimized for exploration along the streambed or riverbed and under rocks. Such a system would be used for population mapping of fish and other aquatic species. The system also needed to incorporate global positioning system data with the visual data. The current prototype successfully fulfills the requirements for underwater practicality and visual and GPS data collection. It incorporates a compact waterproof camera with Sony lens, two Fenix high-intensity waterproof flashlights for illumination, a handheld DVR for recording video, and a Garmin 60CSx GPS unit. The …

Astaxanthin: A Comparative Case Of Synthetic Vs. Natural Production, Khoa Dang Nguyen

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Astaxanthin, the “king of carotenoids” has been widely used as an animal feed additive for several decades, mainly in the aquaculture industry. Recent studies have led to its emergence as a potent antioxidant available for human consumption. Traditionally it has been chemically synthesized, but the recent market interest has generated interests in producing it naturally via yeast (Phaffia rhodozyma) fermentation, or algal (Haematococcus pluvialis) induction. This work aims to compare these production processes and their impact on the economical, environmental, and societal scale. We also look at the attempts of increasing production yields by altering various …