Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Fabrication Of Polyvinylidene Fluoride Hollow Fiber Membranes For Membrane Distillation, Abdullah Al Balushi

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

Desalination technologies can help humanity tap into the most abundant source of water on earth, seawater; however, desalination is an energy-demanding process. Most of the desalination plants worldwide use conventional energy resources; therefore, desalination leaves a large carbon footprint. Solar energy is an available source of energy that can be harvested and integrated into desalination systems.

Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging purification technology that many offers many advantages over traditional desalination systems. For starters, it can utilize low-grade thermal energy to drive the separation, therefore, it can be suitably integrated into the solar-thermal energy scheme. Additionally, MD can be …

Recycling Of The Mixture Resulted From Roller Kiln Waste And Ceramic Tiles Sludge Waste In The Manufacturing Of Ceramic Floor Tiles, Mai H. Roushdy

Chemical Engineering

Ceramic tiles industry produced many types of wastes that are routinely discarded as stock piles. One of the environmental problems associated with roller kilns is the periodic need to grind its rollers which results in a waste powder. The second type of waste is ceramic tiles sludge which produced from a water treatment plant in the ceramic tiles factory. This paper investigates the probability of substituting part of the main body of floor tiles mixture by these two types of waste powder. Many Experiments were done on the raw materials. Rectangular tile specimens were molded, dried and fired. Linear firing …

Group Iv Environmentally Benign, Inexpensive Semiconductor Nanomaterials For Solar Cells, Lisa Je

ENGS 86 Independent Projects (AB Students)

Modern solar cells are composed of silicon, cadmium tellurium, and copper indium gallium diselenide. While these materials are efficient, elements such as cadmium and indium are rare and expensive. To make this renewable energy source more inexpensive and sustainable, the Liu Optics lab is substituting expensive rare earth metals for more commonly found transition state metals. Work has been done to replace the solar cell layers composed of cadmium and gallium to replace them with glass, silicon, and/or thin films. Common metals such as germanium and tin are investigated and characterized to provide a platform for solar cell components.

The Use Of Electrical Resistance Tomography To Determine The Minimum Agitation Speed For Solids Suspension In Stirred Tank Reactors, Baran Teoman

Theses

Njs, the minimum agitation speed needed to just suspend all the solid particles in a solid-liquid mixture stirred in an agitated vessel, is a critical parameter to properly operate industrial tanks in a large number of industrial operations. As a result, a significant literature on Njs is available. The oldest and the most common method to measure Njs experimentally is that of Zwietering’s (Chem. Eng. Sci., 1958, 8, 244-253), where Njs can be visually obtained by determining when the solids stay at the bottom of the tank for no more than 1-2 seconds before being swept away. Although this has …

The Effect Of Fabric Architecture On The Processing And Properties Of Composites Made By Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding, Francois Ntakobatagize, Oscar Ntakontagize, Donald A. Klosterman

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of this research project was to evaluate and compare the effect of fabric architecture on the processing and properties of composites made by Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM). The fabric architectures investigated included plain weave, satin weave, and warp-knit unidirectional. The fiber types included E-glass and standard modulus carbon fiber. Flat panels were fabricated with a lab scale VARTM process using an epoxy resin system. Fabric plies were cut to 45 cm x 30 cm (18 in. x 12 in.), and the number of plies used depended on the fiber areal weight of each fabric to produce …

Modeling Of Vapor Sorption In Nanoparticle Chemiresistors, Alexandra Oliveira

Honors Scholar Theses

Chemical vapor sensors possess a number of uses in a variety of fields, from environmental and health monitoring to food safety and national security concerns, such as the detection of improvised explosive devices. Many sensors currently in the market have the ability to detect the presence of a select few compounds and measure the concentration at which the species is present. However, these types of sensors require that the vapor to be investigated is known beforehand; they cannot be used for identification except on a case by case basis. In response to this issue, one branch of vapor sensor research …

How Moisture Content Levels And Packing Density In Soil Affect Crude Oil Spreads, Shaylin N. Williams

Venture: The University of Mississippi Undergraduate Research Journal

Crude oil spills are one of the most destructive disasters that can occur, and they are extremely difficult to recover from. Many studies focus on what can be done to clean these crude oil spills, but more research should be focused on means of prevention. Currently, very little is known about how the moisture content levels and the packing efficiency of soil can affect an oil spill. These two factors alone can offer a variety of information to environmental agencies, manufacturers, and refineries. Through utilization of a chemical engineering lab, a recording mechanism, and ImagePro software, data was collected and …

Using Green Emitting Ph-Responsive Nanogels To Report Environmental Changes Within Hydrogels: A Nanoprobe For Versatile Sensing, Mingning Zhu, Dongdong Lu, Shanglin Wu, Qing Lian, Wenkai Wang, L. Andrew Lyon, Weiguang Wang, Paulo Bártolo, Brian R. Saunders

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Remotely reporting the local environment within hydrogels using inexpensive laboratory techniques has excellent potential to improve our understanding of the nanometer-scale changes that cause macroscopic swelling or deswelling. Whilst photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy is a popular method for such studies this approach commonly requires bespoke and time-consuming synthesis to attach fluorophores which may leave toxic residues. A promising and more versatile alternative is to use a pre-formed nanogel probe that contains a donor/acceptor pair and then “dope” that into the gel during gel assembly. Here, we introduce green-emitting methacrylic acid-based nanogel probe particles and use them to report the local environment …

Removal And Reuse Of Phosphorus As A Fertilizer From Cafo Runoff, Hannah Young

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Eutrophication is the process in which nutrient saturated waters promote algal blooms on the surface of the water. This limits the amount of dissolved oxygen content in the water, effectively limiting the range of species that can survive in a body of water. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) can contribute to this issue. The animals in a CAFO produce large amounts of nutrient-rich waste streams that can enter natural waterways if not properly managed and increase the problem of eutrophication. The ability to treat these waste streams and recover the excess nutrients would allow for not only the reduction of …

Removal And Reuse Of Phosphorus As A Fertilizer From Cafo Runoff, Kristin Moore

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Eutrophication is the process in which nutrient saturated waters promote algal blooms on the surface of the water. This limits the amount of dissolved oxygen content in the water, effectively limiting the range of species that can survive in a body of water. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) can contribute to this issue. The animals in a CAFO produce large amounts of nutrient-rich waste streams that can enter natural waterways if not properly managed and increase the problem of eutrophication. The ability to treat these waste streams and recover the excess nutrients would allow for not only the reduction of …

Scale Model And Flow Visualization Of Jack Rabbit Ii Chlorine Field Test, Charlotte Williams

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The release of hazardous gases, especially accidental releases, can have a major impact on the surrounding environment and population. The history of accidental hazardous gas releases is filled with plant destruction, civilian injury, and even death. Knowledge of how these gases travel and disperse once released can significantly lessen physical harm and improve emergency procedures. The Jack Rabbit II field test was conducted in pursuit of this knowledge for a chlorine release. In this field test, a purpose-built chlorine tank was surrounded by CONEX trailers assembled in the desert in Utah to model an urban setting. Multiple releases of chlorine …

Plasma-Assisted Liquid Phase Epitaxy Of Gallium Nitride Using Molten Gallium., Daniel Felipe Jaramillo-Cabanzo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Next generation semiconductor materials such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) are rapidly replacing Silicon (Si) for high power and high frequency applications due to Si’s inherent limitations. Despite the advantages of GaN over SiC, adoption of GaN has been hindered due to the lack of a cost-effective bulk production technique. Thus, the inability to precure native substrates requires GaN-based architectures to be heteroepitaxially synthesized on non-native substrates, such as sapphire and even SiC. This research seeks to develop a cost effective and scalable method to produce low defect, bulk GaN encouraging the adoption of GaN based devices …

Nanogels And Microgels: From Model Colloids To Applications, Recent Developments, And Future Trends, Mattias Karg, Andrij Pich, Thomas Hellweg, Todd Hoare, L. Andrew Lyon, J. J. Crassous, Daisuke Suzuki, Rustam A. Gumerov, Stefanie Schneider, Igor I. Potemkin, Walter Richtering

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Nanogels and microgels are soft, deformable, and penetrable objects with an internal gel-like structure that is swollen by the dispersing solvent. Their softness and the potential to respond to external stimuli like temperature, pressure, pH, ionic strength, and different analytes make them interesting as soft model systems in fundamental research as well as for a broad range of applications, in particular in the field of biological applications. Recent tremendous developments in their synthesis open access to systems with complex architectures and compositions allowing for tailoring microgels with specific properties. At the same time state-of-the-art theoretical and simulation approaches offer deeper …

Iron-Containing Nanoparticles For The Treatment Of Chrionic Biofilm Infections In Cystic Fibrosis, Leisha M. A. Martin

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common genetic disease resulting in the morbidity and mortality of Caucasian children and adults worldwide. Due to a genetic mutation resulting in malfunction of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein, CF patients produce highly viscous mucus in their respiratory tract. This leads to impairment of the mucociliary clearance of inhaled microbes. In addition to reduced microbial clearance, anoxic environmental conditions in the lungs promote biofilm-mode growth of the pathogenic bacterial species Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Chronic infections of P. aeruginosa begin in early childhood and typically persist until respiratory failure and death result. The …

Hazard And Operability Analysis Of An Ethylene Oxide Production Plant, Samantha Ciricillo

Senior Theses

The purpose of this work was to evaluate potential hazards and failures as part of the design and economic analysis for a chemical plant that would produce 150,000 tons of ethylene oxide per year. The Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) method of analysis was used to accomplish this goal. This method of hazard analysis involves brainstorming potential errors in a system by examining each element of each process unit in full detail. This project was focused on the reactor unit because the reactor has several important parameters that could fail, resulting in safety issues within the system. Input for this analysis …

Improving The Distribution And Use Of Biogas By Conversion To Methanol, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this technology review, the process of turning an average biogas into methanol will be presented. The purpose is to find a better method of transporting the energy contained within biogas so that it may be used in industry as a value added product. The first step is removal of hydrogen sulfide, a corrosive chemical that can breakdown mechanical parts. The second step is carbon capture and conversion of the biogas into hydrogen. The final step is the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide into methanol using a copper catalyst and an alcohol co-catalyst.

Novel Adsorbent For Industrial Wastewater Treatment Applications, Islam M. Al-Akraa, Ahmed Y. Zakaria Eng, Dalia A. Ali Eng, Hany A. Elazab Dr, Hoda A. Elsawy Dr

Chemical Engineering

In this study, the hydroxyapatite powder is investigated for both of methylene blue and thymol blue in aqueous solution. The physical and chemical properties of the adsorbent were evaluated systematically using the different techniques including Microsoft Excel programming, linear regression model and also the coefficient of determination. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to determine the effect of contact time, solution pH, initial dye concentrations, and also the adsorbent dosage on adsorption. The adsorption kinetic parameters confirmed the better fitting of pseudo-second order kinetic model for both of methylene blue and thymol blue. The isotherm data of methylene blue and thymol …

Design Of Geothermal District Heating And Cooling System For The West Virginia University, Oluwasogo Bolaji Alonge

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recent Appalachian Basin Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis estimated elevated heat flows in north-central West Virginia. This region provides an optimal and unique combination of elevated temperatures and flow necessary for geothermal development along with year-round surface demand for heating and cooling on the campus. Therefore, West Virginia University’s (WVU’s) Morgantown campus has been identified as a prime location in the eastern United States for the development of a geothermal direct-use heating and cooling application. The objective of this study was to perform a feasibility analysis for the development of a geothermal district heating and cooling (GDHC) system for WVU campus …

Improving The Delivered Specific Impulse Of Composite Rocket Propellant Through Alteration Of Chemical Composition: Methodology And Parameters For Characterization Of Propellant And Validation Of Simulation Software Common To The Amateur Rocketry Community, Isaac O'Brien, Austin Ryan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this study, two solid composite rocket propellants were designed utilizing ProPEP, a rocket propellant formulation software common in the amateur and hobby rocketry communities. The two propellants were designed to optimize specific impulse relative to a literature propellant designed by 1020 Research Labs. The literature propellant was also tested in order to validate the design of experiment as well as the mixing and testing procedures. All three propellants, which includes the literature propellant RCS-P, and the two novel propellants AKR-P1 and AKR-P2 were characterized with static tests. The results of the static tests provide data on propellant performance and …

Fluidized Bed Classroom Demonstration Unit, Theresa Chapa

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Fluid and Thermal Operations is a 4th year chemical engineering course at the University of Akron designed to introduce undergraduate students to the engineering and mathematical concepts behind the operation of a fluidized bed. The purpose of this honors project is to design and manufacture an inexpensive and portable unit that can be used in the classroom to visually demonstrate three functions of a fluidized bed to students. The fluidized bed is manufactured from items that can be purchased from a department or hardware store, is capable of being transported by a single person to and from a classroom and …

Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy To Determine Concentrations Of Quantum Dot Solutions, Cameron Sawyer

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

No abstract provided.

Cataloging The Degree Of Sensitization Via Electrochemical Reactivation For Studying The Corrosion Behavior Of Inconel 718, Austenitic, And Duplex Stainless Steels, Bradley Lynes

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Corrosion resistant materials can be expensive, but usually reduce the life cycle cost of metallic assets. However, negligent sensitization of these materials can lead to aggressive, intergranular corrosion. Using the methodology of the double loop electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation (DL-EPR), this project investigates different steel reinforced bars and Inconel to determine the degree of sensitization after a heat treatment of 900°C for 2 hours. The purpose of this research is to validate and determine the appropriate test parameters for performing further DL-EPR test in the future. Additionally, the kinetics observed for each sample during the DL-EPR test will be analyzed and …

Effects Of Hofmeister Ions On Transition Temperature Of Two Thermo-Responsive Polymers, Joshua Moser

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

It was hypothesized that through the use of Hofmeister Ions, the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) and poly(ethylene glycol)- poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PEG-b-pNIPAAm) block-copolymer could be controlled. Through literature searches and small lab experiments, our team found that there may be a connection between Hofmeister effects and phase transition of a thermo-responsive polymer. To try and prove this, the lab team decided to take four cations (Mg²⁺,Na⁺, Cs⁺, K⁺) in solution with the thermo-responsive polymers and compared their LCST to solutions of the thermo-responsive polymer in de-ionized …

Form Stable Phase-Change Materials, Russell Dent, Marjan Kashfipour, Nitin Mehra, Jiahua Zhu

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This work investigates the use of two different polyols, xylitol (Xyl) and erythritol (Ery), in conjunction with boron nitride (BN) aerogels, for the purpose of creating thermally conductive composites. While the BN filler in Xyl composites achieved a high anisotropic thermal conductivity of up to 4.53 W/m-K at 18.2 weight percent filler loading, they do not exhibit good phase-change material qualities due to a low solidification enthalpy even at low cooling rates. Alternatively, the BN-Ery composites have shown promising results with a solidification enthalpy of 225.14 J/g and a melting enthalpy of 385.84 J/g at a heat rate of 5 …

Prevention Of Harmful Algal Blooms By The Mitigation Of Phosphorus Nutrient Loading Via Filtration By Steel Wool And Activated Carbon, Ronald Simpson, Sara Kidd, Samantha Zidd

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are a devastating ecological and economic consequence of the abundance of nutrient-rich agricultural runoff entering aquatic ecosystems (Baker et al. 2014). Bio-available phosphorus from synthetic fertilizers is one of the major nutrients contributing to this global issue. Previous studies indicated that dissolved phosphorus can be removed from an aqueous environment when passed through a composite mixture of granular steel wool particles and activated carbon (Erickson, Gulliver, and Weiss, 2007). In this project, we conducted experiments using higher quality concentration measurements to determine what grades of steel wool (SW-0000, SW-000, SW-00) and types of activated carbon (granulated …

New Method Of Manufacturing Carbon Foam, Matthew D. Artimez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Carbon foam is a product that has some unique features. Carbon foam is a light weight material that has a high crush strength. It is electrically conductive, but because it is composed of air space between the tendrils, it is not a thermal conductor. Since it contains no volatile content, it is noncombustible. All these features allow carbon foam to have many modern applications. Currently, there are only three methods of producing carbon foam, and all three are not cost- efficient enough to meet the demand of potential new markets.

In this thesis, a new procedure of producing carbon foam …

Investigation Of The Synthesis And Optoelectronic Properties Of Ultrasmall Cdse Quantum Dots, Megan Webster

Dissertations and Theses

Traditional, or 1^st generation, solar cells have a theoretical upper limit of 33% power conversion efficiency based on the thermodynamic limitation of the single p-n junction cell design. This limitation is known as the Shockley-Queisser limit and methods to design solar cells to circumvent it have been creative, with a significant part of the field focused on quantum dot (QD) based systems. With theoretical efficiencies ranging between 44 and 67% for one sun concentration, QD solar cell designs are clearly superior to the limits of 1^st generation solar cells. However, maximum achieved efficiencies for QD-based designs are far …

Electrochemical Properties Of Crystalline Polymorphs Of Mno2 In Aluminum And Zinc Metal Batteries, Subhadip Pal

Dissertations and Theses

The widespread use of non-renewable fossil fuels has led to societal problems like global warming and climate change. Electrochemical energy storage can enable the integration of renewable energy sources that are inherently intermittent (solar, wind, etc.) into the electric grid, though major advances in cost, cycle life, and safety are necessary to have a global impact on the energy landscape. Both aluminium (Al) and zinc (Zn) metals are earth abundant, low-cost, safe, and exhibit high coulombic capacities, which make them promising electrode materials for “beyond lithium-ion” battery chemistries. However, the electrochemical feasibility and charge storage mechanisms of alternative Al and …

Designing Particle Tracking Software For A Theoretical Understanding Of Magnetic Janus Particle Aggregation, Thomas W. Long

Dissertations and Theses

Magnetic Janus particles are spherical colloids covered with a thin magnetic cap on one half of their surface. The asymmetric magnetic material gives the particles a magnetic dipole shifted away from the center of mass of the particle. The magnetic dipole either points perpendicular (axially-shifted FexOy caps) or parallel (radially-shifted (Co/Pd)x multilayered particles) to the shift vector. When a magnetic field is applied to a system of magnetic Janus particles, the particles aggregate into chains aligned with the magnetic field. The rate of aggregation is of theoretical and practical interest and the focus of the thesis.

Optically studying samples of …

Understanding Effects Of Engineering Outreach On Elementary Students, Thomas Cobb

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Currently, there is a desire to increase engineering understanding held by elementary students. As such, there needs to be a way to stimulate not only engineering, but other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics in a young student’s lifestyle. One way to emphasize the importance of STEM while also showing how fun it can be is through different hands on activities led by individuals partaking in undergraduate studies or the industry. While having the students participate in the activities, it is important to understand what the students are learning and how the activity overall is viewed. With the help …