Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Enabling High Energy Density Aluminum Anodes For Alkaline Batteries, Xinyi Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

Zn-MnO₂ primary alkaline batteries stood out immediately among all batteries after it was introduced in the late 1980s and has attracted world-wide attention. These batteries have dominated the portable power market for decades as a highly effective energy storage system with high energy density, long life and low self-discharge, dependable safety and other superiorities.

In order to achieve higher cell-level energy density, Aluminum has long been considered a very attractive anode material for alkaline batteries because of its high theoretical capacity (2980 mAh/g; 2.60 Ah/cm³) and low price. However, some early efforts to utilize aluminum anodes did …

Liquid Phase Modeling In Heterogeneous Catalysis, Mohammad Shamsus Saleheen

Theses and Dissertations

Conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into transportation fuels or commodity and specialty chemicals will be an important and fast-growing industry within the United States over the coming decades. Its growth will be driven by a variety of factors, including increased energy demands, environmental considerations, national security, and government mandates. To achieve the desired energy efficiency and economic impact, the emerging biorefining industries need novel heterogeneous catalysts with exceptional activity, selectivity, and stability. Catalytic materials developed in the petrochemical industries are generally not suitable for processing highly functionalized feedstocks typical of the biorefinery landscape. Due to the characteristics of this biomass feedstock …

Flame Spray Pyrolysis Of Ce-Mn Solid Solutions For Catalytic Applications, Nicole Cordonnier

Theses and Dissertations

Flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) is a method of quickly synthesizing active particles in a flame. Precursors are dissolved in a flammable organic solvent before being sprayed into the flame environment where they rapidly burn. Particle formation occurs on the order of 10 milliseconds. FSP has been shown to be a viable method of producing materials on an industrial scale, capable of producing grams of particles per minute. Metastable structures which exist in the liquid phase, but are difficult to synthesize using traditional impregnation methods can be formed with FSP due to fast quenching times. For example, solid solutions of Ce-Zr …

Notes On The Economics Of Residential Hybrid Energy System, Mahelet G. Fikru, Gregory M. Gelles, Ana M. Ichim, Joseph D. Smith

Economics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Despite advances in small-scale hybrid renewable energy technologies, there are limited economic frameworks that model the different decisions made by a residential hybrid system owner. We present a comprehensive review of studies that examine the techno-economic feasibility of small-scale hybrid energy systems, and we find that the most common approach is to compare the annualized life-time costs to the expected energy output and choose the system with the lowest cost per output. While practical, this type of benefit—cost analysis misses out on other production and consumption decisions that are simultaneously made when adopting a hybrid energy system. In this paper, …

Modeling The Interplay Between Photosynthesis, Co2 Fixation, And The Quinone Pool In A Purple Non-Sulfur Bacterium, Adil Alsiyabi

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

Rhodopseudomonas palustris CGA009 is a purple non-sulfur bacterium (PNSB) that can fix CO₂ and nitrogen or break down organic compounds for its carbon and nitrogen requirements. Light, inorganic, and organic compounds can all be used for its source of energy. Excess electrons produced during its metabolic processes can be exploited to produce hydrogen gas or biodegradable polyesters (polyhydroxybutyrate). A genome-scale metabolic model of the bacterium was reconstructed to study the interactions between photosynthesis, carbon dioxide fixation, and the redox state of the quinone pool. A comparison of model-predicted flux values with published in vivo MFA fluxes resulted in predicted …

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 …

Influence Of Tempering And Cryogenic Treatment On Retained Austenite And Residual Stresses In Carbonitrided 18crnimo7-6 Low Alloy Steel, Richard Katemi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

This work investigated the influence of tempering conditions coupled with cryogenic treatment on thermal stabilization of retained austenite and residual stress distributions in carbonitrided 18CrNiMo76 low alloy steel samples. The carbonitriding conditions were set to enable attaining surface carbon and nitrogen content of 0.87 and 0.34 mass.-percent respectively. After carbonitriding, some of the samples were subjected to varying tempering conditions followed by cryogenic treatment at-120 °C using nitrogen gas. Analysis of both retained austenite and residual stresses was conducted using X-ray diffraction. In the as-quenched state, carbonitrided samples contained 52 mass.-percent. Samples that were directly subjected to the cryogenic treatment …

A Simple And Effective Way To Overcome Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Of Platinum Surfaces In Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells, Yaser M. Asal Mr., Islam M. Al-Akraa Dr, Sohair A. Darwish Ms

Chemical Engineering

A glassy carbon (GC) electrode modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs), Pt/MWCNTs-GC, has been introduced for formic acid electro-oxidation (FAO). A similar loading of PtNPs has been conserved for a proper comparison between the Pt/MWCNTs-GC and the unmodified Pt/GC electrodes. The modification with MWCNTs could enhance the loading of PtNPs onto the GC electrode in a way that minimizes its agglomeration and increases its dispersion in the CNTs network. This not only increases the surface area exposed to the reaction but also interrupts the contiguity of the Pt active sites minimizing the adsorption of the poisoning …

A Promising Modification Of Pt Surfaces With Cnts For Decreasing Poisoning Impact In Direct Methanol Fuel Cells, Yaser M. Asal Mr., Islam M. Al-Akraa Dr, Aya A. Khalifa Ms.

Chemical Engineering

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are clean energy sources that have many applications due to the high energy density of methanol as a fuel. However, this type of fuel cells (FCs) has limitations that are preventing it from being commercialized. One such limitation is the adsorption of intermediates such as CO into the surface of the Platinum (Pt) catalyst during methanol oxidation (MO) which deactivates its active sites, where the reaction is taking place, and leads to poisoning of the electrode over the long term. In this study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have been introduced to the Pt-modified glassy carbon …

Electrocatalytic Nanomaterials For Reduction Of Hydrogen Peroxide As Potential Radioprotectors, Rui-Hong Jia, Jin-Xuan Zhang, Xiao-Dong Zhang, Mei-Xian Li

Journal of Electrochemistry

Nanomaterials have shown many potential application prospects in the biomedical field, such as medical imaging, drug delivery and biosensing due to their unique physical and chemical properties. In this review we focus on nanomaterials that have shown not only abilities of radiation protection, but also good electrocatalytic activities toward reduction reactions of hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. We discuss the abilities of radiation protection of these nanomaterials that are ascribed to their enzyme-like activities because their catalytic properties provide an effective pathway for scavenging free radicals in vivo via rapid reactions with reactive oxygen species. We also provide insights into electrocatalytic …

Responsive Coatings And Functional Systems From Pectin Polysaccharides, Zeinab Veisi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pectin polysaccharides provide promising potential as all-natural, non-toxic “green” coatings. Pectin polysaccharides have been drawing growing attention as elements of stimuli-responsive systems and as source materials for functionalized robust coatings. They can be extracted from several natural sources and are intrinsically biocompatible. The majority of the applications of pectin gels require a better understanding of the properties of thin layers of gels at surfaces and interfaces. Despite the prevalence of bulk gels of pectin, coatings of pectin have not been reported. In bulk hydrogels, swelling of polymer networks is controlled by a diffusion limited transport process in which the rate …

Fibrinogen, Factor Xiii And Fibronectin: A Biophysical And Kinetic Characterization Of Their Interactions, Frank Fabian

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

The development of recombinant-based liquid fibrin tissue sealants having enhanced hemostatic and wound healing properties will involve understanding as yet not well characterized interactions between fibrinogen, fibrin (Fbn) factor XIII, thrombin and fibronectin. We study these phenomena in the context of comparing plasma derived fibrinogen to recombinant fibrinogen (rFI) produced in the milk of transgenic cows. An abundance of purified γγ and γγ’ FI subspecies enables detailed study of γγ or γγ’ biomonomer and their respective Fbn biopolymer formation as having different substrate behaviors of activated plasma derived factor XIII (pFXIIIa₂b₂). High pressure size exclusion (HPSEC) …

Carbon Dioxide Adsorption Using Solid Amine Sorbents, Umadevi Gopalakrishnan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Biogas, being rich in methane, can be used as a fuel for various end uses such as electricity generation, compressed natural gas (CNG), production of liquid fuels, industrial heating, etc. CO₂ is the major contaminant in biogas (30–50%) along with other impurities such as NH₃, H₂S, and water. CO₂ in the biogas decreases the heating value of biogas. Natural gas pipelines and vehicle use require high purity (> 95%) CH₄. There are many commercial techniques available for CO₂ removal from biogas such as such water scrubbing (WS), chemical scrubbing (CS) using …

Development Of Automated Control Systems For Pilot-Scale Combustors In The New Byu Engineering Building Annex, Andrew Fry

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this MEG grant was to train 3 undergraduate students from either Chemical or Mechanical Engineering on the use of OPTO 22 control system and then to direct them, along with the input from engineers at OPTO 22, as they build and install a control system and logic for the Burner Flow Reactor (BFR), Multi Fuel Reactor (MFR) and the Pressurized Oxy Coal (POC) reactors in the new Engineering Research Laboratory (ERL). This program is comprised of 6 tasks as follows:

Effect Of Promoter (Mn) On The Performance Of Sba-15 Supported Iron Catalysts For High Temperature Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, Sreya Mariya Seby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Development of an effective High Temperature Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (HTFTS) catalyst is of interest in process intensification that combines methane reforming with long chain hydrocarbon production. Literature indicates iron catalysts supported on mesoporous silica performed relatively well in high temperature applications. In this work, we investigated the effect of manganese promoter on iron catalysts for FTS at 430 °C as it was known from previous studies that manganese promotion could enhance the CO conversion with higher hydrocarbon yields. Also, the effect of temperature on FTS activity was evaluated by testing the base and promoted Fe/SBA-15 catalysts for temperature ranging from 370 …

Method Of Forming Microparticles For Use In Cell Seeding, Sutapa Barua, Chase Herman

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The present invention is directed to methods for forming microparticles useful for cell seeding and for conjugating protein to the surface of the microparticles. The method comprises co-injecting an organic solution of PLGA or other polymer with an aqueous solution into a flow focusing tube.

Sorption Of Benzene, Tolueneand Ethylbenzeneby Plasticized Pema And Pema/Pmma Sensing Films Using Aquartz Crystal Microbalance (Qcm) At 298.15k, Deekshitha Adapa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Detection of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) in the environment is important for human health and wellness. Long term exposure of certain VOC’s like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) has a severe effect on human health. There are techniques such as gas chromatography, photo ionization, and mass spectroscopy that are time consuming, require gas sampling and are ineffective in real time sensing in air. Acoustic wave devices such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices can be used for sensing BTEX compounds in both vapor and liquid phase. The quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is a low-frequency acoustic wave device, which can …

A Combined Computational/Experimental Approach To Stabilize Proteins With Unnatural Amino Acid Modifications, Joshua Wilkerson, Dr. Thomas Knotts

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Proteins are versatile biological molecules that catalyze chemical reactions, provide cellular structure, and transport materials throughout the body. Proteins have been adapted for use in a wide variety of industries including food processing, medical diagnostics, and therapeutics. However, proteins must often be modified to enhance their utility in these operations. One method that can be used as an initial step in protein modification strategies is replacement of a naturally occurring amino acid with an unnatural amino acid (uAA). Previous research has suggested that it is very difficult to predict the stability of a uAA-modified protein based on any individual factor. …

Multichannel Ubm Conduit For Peripheral Nerve Repair, Elizabeth Mahoney, Alonzo Cook

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Neuropathy, disease, and trauma to the peripheral nervous system cause devastating effects. These effects can include both a loss of sensation and a loss of motor control. Due to the newness of the field of regenerative medicine, scientists are only beginning to understand how nerves regenerate. It is known that when damage occurs to the nerves, the body triggers a regeneration process. Unfortunately, this process is slow and the level of sensation that returns and motor control varies from person to person. Some options involving autografts and allografts have been employed to help the nerve endings regenerate to all distal …

Towards On-Demand E. Coli-Based Cell-Free Protein Synthesis Of Tissue Plasminogen Activator, Seung-Ook Yang, Gregory H. Nielsen, Kristen M. Wilding, Merideth A. Cooper, David W. Wood, Bradley Charles Bundy

Faculty Publications

Stroke is the leading cause of death with over 5 million deaths worldwide each year. About 80% of strokes are ischemic strokes caused by blood clots. Tissue plasminogen activator (tPa) is the only FDA-approved drug to treat ischemic stroke with a wholesale price over $6000. tPa is now off patent although no biosimilar has been developed. The production of tPa is complicated by the 17 disulfide bonds that exist in correctly folded tPA. Here, we present an Escherichia coli-based cell-free protein synthesis platform for tPa expression and report conditions which resulted in the production of active tPa. While the activity …

Evaluation Of Novel Molten Salt Eutectics And Their Application In Novel Reactor Designs, Kraig Farrar, Matthew Memmott

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Molten salt reactors (MSR) are a relatively unexplored but promising technology for civilian nuclear power. Original experiments with this technology was performed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the 1950s and 1960s. While this research was successful, it ultimately failed to receive additional funding and the program was cancelled as a result. Recently interest in MSR technology has resurged due to its promise of producing nuclear power at atmospheric pressure, high efficiency, and without the production of long lived waste. The purpose of this project is to determine the ideal material to use as both a fuel and coolant.

Novel Coupling Smart Water-Co₂ Flooding For Sandstone Reservoirs; Smart Seawater-Alternating-Co₂ Flooding (Smsw-Agf), Hasan N. Al-Saedi, Ralph E. Flori

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

CO₂ flooding is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective EOR technique that can be used to unlock residual oil from oil reservoirs. Smart water is any water that is engineered by manipulating the ionic composition, regardless of the resulting salinity of the water. One CO₂ flooding mechanism is wettability alteration, which meets with the main smart water flooding function. Injecting CO₂ alone raise an early breakthrough and gravity override problems, which have already been solved using water alternating gas (WAG) using regular water. WAG is an emerging enhanced oil recovery process designed to enhance sweep efficiency during gas …

Method Of Development And Use Of Catalyst-Functionalized Catalytic Particles To Increase The Mass Transfer Rate Of Solvents Used In Acid Gas Cleanup, Leland R. Widger, Cameron A. Lippert, Kunlei Liu

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty Patents

The present invention relates to methods for improving carbon capture using entrained catalytic-particles within an amine solvent. The particles are functionalized and appended with a CO₂ hydration catalyst to enhance the kinetics of CO₂ hydration and improve overall mass transfer of CO₂ from an acid gas.

Achieving Tiered Model Quality In 3d Structure From Motion Models Using A Multi-Scale View-Planning Algorithm For Automated Targeted Inspection, Trent Okeson, Benjamin Barrett, Samuel Arce, Cory Vernon, Kevin W. Franke, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

This study presents a novel multi-scale view-planning algorithm for automated targeted inspection using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). In industrial inspection, it is important to collect the most relevant data to keep processing demands, both human and computational, to a minimum. This study investigates the viability of automated targeted multi-scale image acquisition for Structure from Motion (SfM)-based infrastructure modeling. A traditional view-planning approach for SfM is extended to a multi-scale approach, planning for targeted regions of high, medium, and low priority. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can traverse the entire aerial space and facilitates collection of an optimized set of views, …

Sequential Earthquake Damage Assessment Incorporating Optimized Suav Remote Sensing At Pescara Del Tronto, Michael Freeman, Cory Vernon, Benjamin Barrett, Nicole Hastings, Jeff Derricott, Janessa Pace, Benjamin Horne, Joshua Hammond, Joseph Janson, Filiberto Chiabrando, John Hedengren, Kevin W. Franke

Faculty Publications

A sequence of large earthquakes in central Italy ranging in moment magnitudes (Mw) from 4.2 to 6.5 caused significant damage to many small towns in the area. After each earthquake in 2016 (24 August and 26 October), automated small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAV) acquired valuable imagery data for post-hazard reconnaissance in the mountain village of Pescara del Tronto, and were applied to 3D reconstruction using Structure-from-Motion (SfM). In July 2018, the site was again monitored to obtain additional imagery data capturing changes since the last visit following the 30 October 2016 Earthquake. A genetic-based mission-planning algorithm that delivers optimal viewpoints …

Non-Einstein Viscosity Phenomenon Of Acrylonitrile–Butadiene–Styrene Composites Containing Lignin–Polycaprolactone Particulates Highly Dispersed By High-Shear Stress, Sing-Hoon Kim, Kisuk Choi, Kyouk Ryeol Choi, Taesung Kim, Jonghwan Suhr, Kwang Jin Kim, Hyoung Jin Choi, Jae-Do Nam

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

Lignin powder was modified via ring-opening polymerization of caprolactone to form a lignin–polycaprolactone (LPCL) particulate. The LPCL particulates were mixed with an acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) matrix at an extremely high rotational speed of up to 3000 rpm, which was achieved by a closed-loop screw mixer and in-line melt extruder. Using this high-shear extruding mixer, the LPCL particulate size was controlled in the range of 3395 nm (conventional twin-screw extrusion) down to 638 nm (high-shear mixer of 3000 rpm) by altering the mixing speed and time. The resulting LPCL/ABS composites clearly showed non-Einstein viscosity phenomena, exhibiting reduced viscosity (2130 Pa·s) compared to …

Follow-Up And Kinetic Model Selection Of Dinitro Pentamethylene Tetramine (Dpt), Hany A. Elazab Dr

Chemical Engineering

The Synthetic route of Cyclotetramethylene Tetramine is implemented through the reaction of hexamine and nitrating mixture that is formed as a result of a reaction between ammonium nitrate and fuming nitric acid. The reaction medium includes acetic acid, acetic anhydride and p-formaldehyde. This synthetic pathway is relatively long and both of hexamine dinitrate and Dinitro Pentamethylene Tetramine (DPT) are considered as the two main intermediate compounds. The former compound (hexamine dinitrate) was prepared, purified, and then characterized. Conversion of hexamine dinitrate into DPT has been followed up experimentally at different temperatures. Various factors including temperature and time has been investigated. …

Composite Membranes Derived From Cellulose And Lignin Sulfonate For Selective Separations And Antifouling Aspects, Andrew Steven Colburn, Ronald J. Vogler, Aum Patel, Mariah Bezold, John D. Craven, Chunqing Liu, Dibakar Bhattacharyya

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Cellulose-based membrane materials allow for separations in both aqueous solutions and organic solvents. The addition of nanocomposites into cellulose structure is facilitated through steric interaction and strong hydrogen bonding with the hydroxy groups present within cellulose. An ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, was used as a solvent for microcrystalline cellulose to incorporate graphene oxide quantum dots into cellulose membranes. In this work, other composite materials such as, iron oxide nanoparticles, polyacrylic acid, and lignin sulfonate have all been uniformly incorporated into cellulose membranes utilizing ionic liquid cosolvents. Integration of iron into cellulose membranes resulted in high selectivity (> 99%) of neutral …

Biomethane Production From Distillery Wastewater, Zachary Christman

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

Distillery wastewater treatment is a great ecological problem, for example, India produces 2.7 billion liters of alcohol that results in 40 billion liters of wastewater. However, this material can be seen as a resource since 11 million cubic meters of biogas at 60% methane could be produced in addition to cleaning the water. The distillery has two options of what to do with the biogas. The first is to use the biogas to fuel the distillery making the production plant more energy efficient and removing some of the need to buy natural gas. The other is to upgrade the biogas …

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.