Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Effect Of Palladium Loading On Catalytic Properties Of Pd/Gce For The Electro-Oxidation Of Methanol, Formic Acid, And Ethylene Glycol, Islam M. Al-Akraa

Chemical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Hybrid Hydro-Pyrometallurgical Process For Zn Recovery From Electric Arc Furnace Dust, Rana Adel Bayoumi, Nabil Mahmoud Abdelmenem, Moustafa Aly Soliman, Ibrahim Mohamed Ismail, Ahmed Ahmed Refaat

Chemical Engineering

Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) which is considered hazardous waste, contains significant amounts of Zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and some dangerous elements. Zn exists in the dust as Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Zinc Ferrite (ZnFe2O3) which is difficult to be leached with traditional methods. The main objective of the suggested process is to recover Zn from EAFD by using a hybrid pyro/hydrometallurgical method. This method includes mixing cement dust and EAFD and heating the mixture in a pyrometallurgical treatment step to convert ZnFe2O3 to ZnO. This step is followed by leaching the treated dust with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution using …

A Competent Mwcnt-Grafted Mnox/Pt Nanoanode For The Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells, Islam M. Al-Akraa, Ahmad M. Mohammad, Moutaz Mamdouh, Yasser M. Asal

Chemical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Castor Oil Conversion To Biodiesel: A Process Simulation Study, Islam M. Al-Akraa

Chemical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Biodiesel Production From Castor Oil: Mixing Optimization During Transestrification, Islam M. Al-Akraa

Chemical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Valuable Biodiesel Catalyst From Solvay Wastewater, Mai Hassan Roushdy, Rana Adel Bayoumi

Chemical Engineering

Biodiesel is considered a renewable, green fuel as it is derived from renewable living resources like animal fats or vegetable oils. This research is utilized to investigate the possibility of using Solvay wastewater as a source of biodiesel catalyst, which is CaO. CaCl2 from Solvay wastewater reacts with CO2 to produce CaCO3. CaCO3 is then heated to produce pure CaO. Waste cooking oil, wastewater, and CO2, which are considered dangerous materials to the environment, are used to produce valuable products. This research has environmental and economic benefit benefits of using waste materials as a replacement for raw materials. The selected …

Castor Oil Conversion To Biodiesel: A Process Simulation Study, Yaser M. Asal Mr, Islam M. Al-Akraa, Ahmad M. Mohammad, Razan Aymen

Chemical Engineering

The aim of this study is to highlights the importance to shift from the use of traditional fossil fuels to biodiesel as a clean energy source. A simulation study has been conducted using ASPEN HYSIS software for the biodiesel production form castor oil. The simulation was run and the properties of the produced biodiesel were highlighted. The optimum conditions resulted in 88 % conversion.

Biodiesel Production From Castor Oil: Mixing Optimization During Transesterification, Yaser M. Asal Mr, Islam M. Al-Akraa, Ahmad M. Mohammad, Hassan E. Hisham

Chemical Engineering

With the growing warning for accrediting the traditional combustion of fossil fuels for energy production, not only for their limited supply but also for their environmental risks (air pollution, climate change, …. etc), it became necessary to realize alternative greener and abundant sources for energy. Instead, the interest to sustain biodiesel for the energy production has recently been renewed as a replacement for petroleum diesel in conventional diesel engines. This was due to its renewable nature, low toxicity, high degradability and unique physical properties (high flash points & lubrication). Castor oil, in particular, appeared promising for biodiesel production with extremely …

Nano-, Encapsulated Manganese Oxide (Nemo) Particles For Mri Enhancement In Microfluidic Tumor Models, Kasey Alexis Freshwater

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Breast cancer is among the deadliest cancers in women, with approximately 2.3 million new cases and 685,000 deaths reported globally in 2020 alone. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is commonly used to diagnose, stage, and develop treatment plans for patients predisposed to breast cancer. However, current MRI-based screening of breast cancer has high false-positive rates up to 25%, leading to unnecessary invasive follow-up screening and testing. The gold-standard intravenous gadolinium (Gd)-based contrast agents (GBCAs) account for false-positive rates because they are always “ON”, providing a constant MRI signal that highlights both benign and malignant tumors. The work detailed in this thesis …

Reinforcement Learning For Process Control: Applications To Energy Systems, Elijah Ballard Hedrick

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a machine learning method that has recently seen significant research activity owing to its successes in the areas of robotics and gameplaying (Silver et al., 2017). However, significant challenges exist in the extension of these control methods to process control problems, where state and input signals are nearly always continuous and more stringent performance guarantees are required. The goal of this work is to explore ways that modern RL algorithms can be adapted to handle process control problems; avenues for this work include using RL with existing controllers such as model predictive control (MPC) and adapting …

Calcite Depression In Bastnaesite-Calcite Flotation System Using Organic Acids, Emmy Muhoza

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Bastnaesite is the primary source of light REEs, namely cerium (Ce), lanthanum (La), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), to name a few. Bastnaesite is typically concentrated using the froth flotation beneficiation method. Flotation of bastnaesite suffers from high reagent consumption due to the similar surface characteristics of bastnaesite and associated gangue minerals, including calcite. Additionally, complex stages of high-temperature conditioning are often required to suppress the detrimental impact of dissolved calcium ions on the flotation of bastnaesite. This research seeks to investigate the capabilities of organic acids in the bastnaesite-calcite flotation systems to selectively depress calcite minerals and effectively chelate calcium …

Thermochemical Water-Splitting Using Novel High-Entropy Perovskite Oxides, Hector Alexis De Santiago Hernandez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this project, we designed, synthesized, and tested the transformative (La_0.8Sr_0.2)(Mn_[1-x]/3Fe_[1-x]/3Co_xAl_[1-x]/3)O₃ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) high-entropy perovskite oxides (HEPOs) as redox active oxygen carriers for thermochemical hydrogen production with improved stability, kinetics, and H₂ yield. The developed HEPOs form an R3c (hexagonal) phase and were successfully synthesized using both the Pechini and solid-state reactions with the latter synthesis being the primary source for testing. These innovative perovskites demonstrated an improved kinetics with oxygen surface exchange coefficient, k, greater than 7.5 x 10^-4 cm/s, …

Quantitative Analysis Of Rate Transient Analysis In Unconventional Shale Gas Reserviors, Gabriel Quintero

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Rate Transient Analysis is a quick reservoir modeling solution that has been used throughout the oil and gas industry over its continuous development and has provided breakthroughs for modeling conventional plays for decades. As the Marcellus Shale play continues to be a massive producer of Natural Gas in the world, operators look to find economical yet fairly accurate solutions to develop accurate reservoir models of their wells given the complex nature of unconventional reservoirs. Due to extremely low permeability and heterogeneity along with its complex fracture networks, it becomes an extremely difficult problem to model and predict the fluid flow …

Application Of Artificial Intelligence For Co2 Storage In Saline Aquifer (Smart Proxy For Snap-Shot In Time), Marwan Mohammed Alnuaimi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology have grown in popularity. Smart Proxy Models (SPM) are AI/ML based data-driven models which have proven to be quite crucial in petroleum engineering domain with abundant data, or operations in which large surface/ subsurface volume of data is generated. Climate change mitigation is one application of such technology to simulate and monitor CO2 injection into underground formations.

The goal of the SPM developed in this study is to replicate the results (in terms of pressure and saturation outputs) of the numerical reservoir simulation model (CMG) for CO2 injection into …

Ethane Dehydrogenation For Light Olefins Production Over Stable Catalyst, Xiaoyan Wang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Accompanied by the development of modern industry, the demand for light olefins (e.g., ethylene, propylene, butene, butadiene) increases year by year. Light olefins are important intermediates in producing polymers (Polyethylene, Polypropylene, etc.) and rubber (Styrene Butadiene Rubber, Polybutadiene rubber, etc.). The primary process for the production of light olefins is steam cracking of petroleum liquids (naphtha and distillate fuel oil). It is an energy-intensive process, requiring high temperature (750-850℃) and pressure (1.0-4.5 MPa). Meanwhile, due to undesired side reactions, this process has lowered the efficiency of light olefins production and suffers from severe coking issues. Furthermore, as petroleum liquids become …

Design And Control Of Intensified Membrane Reactor Systems Through Module-Based Design Approach, Brent Bishop

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As interest in the modularization and intensification of chemical processes continues to grow, more research must be directed towards the modeling and analysis of intensified process units. Intensified process units such as membrane reactors pose unique challenges pertaining to design and operation that have not been fully addressed in the reported literature. This work aims to address the design and control challenges caused by the integration of phenomena and the loss of degrees of freedom (DOF) that occur in the intensification of modular membrane reactor units.

First, a novel first-principles approach for modeling membrane reactors is developed using the AVEVA …

Combinatorial Approaches For Effective Design, Synthesis, And Optimization Of Enzyme-Based Conjugates, Jordan Scott Chapman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The specificity and efficiency with which enzymes catalyze selective chemical reactions far exceeds the performance of traditional heterogeneous catalysts that are predominant in industrial applications such as conversion of commodity chemicals to value-added products, fuel cells, and petroleum refinement. Moreover, biocatalysts exhibit exceptionally high product turnover at ambient conditions with little health and environmental burden. These advantageous qualities have led to the prolific use of enzyme catalysis in pharmaceutical, detergents, and food preservation industries wherein their use has greatly reduced waste generation, Unfortunately, the full slate of benefits that enzymes can impart to a broader range of chemical processes is …

Advanced Process Modeling And Optimization Of Amine-Based Carbon Capture Process, Paul Jide Terhemba Akula

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

With the rise of carbondioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere to more than 400 parts per million (ppm), research efforts have been focused on achieving net-zero carbon emission technologies. Post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) is a key strategy in reducing CO2 emissions. Amine-based CO2 capture is the baseline technology for retrofitting existing power stations. However, the integration of amine-based PCC technology with power plants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions incurs a high energy penalty, decreasing a powerplant’s efficiency by about 23 percentage points. Understanding the capture plant dynamics plays an important role in its technical and economic performance. Rigorous models are …

Microwave-Assisted Carbon Nanotube Growth From Methane On Surface Catalyst Exsolving Perovskite Oxide, Angela M. Deibel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The novel method of using a perovskite exsolution catalyst, strontium titanium nickel oxide (STNO), proved capable of simultaneously producing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and CO_x-free hydrogen during methane decomposition under microwave irradiation. An optimization of common perovskite materials was conducted for microwave-responsiveness with the results reported in this study. Out of the materials screened, strontium titanium nickel oxide (STNO) was the best candidate to achieve an acceptable methane conversion rate as well as a decent responsiveness to microwave. STNO was further optimized through Ni content, reduction dwell time, and reduction temperature to produce the best methane conversion and CNT …

Shear Thickening In Dense Bidisperse Suspensions By Dynamic Simulation, Nelya Malbranche

Dissertations and Theses

Shear thickening, which corresponds to an increase of viscosity with shear rate, is ubiquitously observed in many concentrated suspensions and, as such, has implications for many industrial materials and geological phenomena. Controlling shear thickening is of significant importance, and many studies have been devoted to it. Recent works link shear thickening to the shear-induced transition from a lubricated particle interaction at low shear stress to a predominantly frictional interaction at high stress. In this dissertation, we investigate bidispersity and focus on mechanisms contributing to the viscosity evolution in rate-dependent suspensions, something that has not been addressed before. We perform detailed …

Fundamentals Of Microgel Flooding And Nanoparticles-Stabilized Foams In Enhanced Oil Recovery, Shuaijun Li

Dissertations and Theses

For centuries oil has remained a critical energy source for human civilization. After years of extraction, many oil fields have reached or are reaching a decline stage of production, even though up to a half of the total crude oil reserves in these fields has not been recovered yet. One reason is due to the structural heterogeneity of the oil reservoirs—reservoirs may consist of regions of higher permeability with larger pore size and regions of lower permeability with smaller pore size. Displacing fluids tend to flow through large permeability zones only without reaching the oil trapped in low permeability region; …

Droplets In An Electric Field: Surface Rheology, Coalescence And Rebound, Yu Han

Dissertations and Theses

Electrocoalescence is the process in which pairs of conducting droplets suspended in a continuous dielectric (nonconducting) liquid phase are drawn together and merge upon the application of an electric field. The electric field polarizes each of the droplets in the field direction. The polarization causes the drops to deform and drives a dipolar attraction which forces them to approach each other and coalesce. Many technologies use electric fields to manipulate fluid dispersions. Electrocoalescence is an essential unit operation for separating water droplets in a crude oil. This water in oil emulsion is stabilized by surfactants, such as asphaltenes, resins and …

Investigation Of Recyclable And Renewable Crude Oil From Biomass And Plastics, Golam Chowdhury

Dissertations and Theses

In the present world, the nonrenewable source of petroleum crude oil is suspected to cause irreversible climate impacts. So, refinery companies are looking for renewable and recyclable crude oil (RCOs). Biomass and Plastics are a great sources of RCOs. The goal of this work is to design, build and operate a pyrolysis reactor which is capable of converting different solid feedstock derived from waste to pyrolysis oil. The oils are characterized by GC-MS and sent to BASF Corporation in Iselin, NJ for catalytic upgrading potential. In this study, the feedstock ranged from virgin plastic resins (LDPE, HDPE, PS, PP), recycled …

A Vacuum-Driven Distillation Technology Of Aqueous Solutions And Mixtures, Guo Guangyu

Dissertations

Distillation of aqueous solutions and aqueous mixtures has vast industrial applications, including desalination, wastewater treatment, and fruit juice concentration. Currently, two major distillation technologies are adopted in the industry, membrane separation and thermal distillation. However, both of them face certain inevitable drawbacks. Membrane separation has disadvantages as relying on high-grade energy, requiring membrane, fouling problem, narrow treatment range, limited scalability, and vibrating and noisy operating conditions. Traditional thermal distillation technologies can avoid above concerns but has other shortcomings, such as relatively low energy efficiency and yield rate, complicated and bulky system structure, and scaling problem.

This project proposes an innovative …

Hydrodynamic Characterization Of Laboratory And Production Equipment For Pharmaceutical Testing And Manufacturing Using Experimental And Computational Approaches, Chadakarn Sirasitthichoke

Dissertations

The hydrodynamics of process units used in pharmaceutical industry, i.e., the distribution of velocity profiles and shear stresses within the vessel, often controls the process performance, significantly affecting product quality. The hydrodynamics is strongly influenced by several factors such as the vessel shape, stirrer type, presence of internals and baffles, agitation intensity, and liquid properties. Most of these parameters can be varied by the process designers and the operators to achieve the desired process outcomes. The impact of the hydrodynamics on the process outcome can be profound in both large vessels (e.g., reactors) and smaller vessels (e.g., dissolution vessels), involving …

Electric-Field-Driven Processes In Multiphase Fluid Systems, Qian Lei

Dissertations

Advantages of using electric fields in miniaturized apparatuses for a wide range of applications are revealed by numerous experimental and theoretical studies over the last several decades as it offers a simple and efficient method for manipulation of multiphase fluid systems. This approach is considered to be especially beneficial for control of boiling processes and colloidal suspensions considered in the presented work.

Boiling. Today's trends for enhancing boiling heat transfer in terrestrial and space applications focus on removal of bubbles to prevent formation of a vapor layer over the surface at a high overheat. In contrast, this dissertation presents a …

Bodipy Based Photodynamic Therapy And Potassium Probes, Xiangshan Liu

Dissertations

Boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) has become more and more popular in photophysical and biological applications. BODIPY based fluorescence compounds have numerous advantage properties including low toxicity, high absorption extinction coefficients, high fluorescence quantum yields, sharp fluorescence emissions, and resistance to photobleaching. All the good properties lead to the wide applications of BODIPY based compounds. In this research, two different kinds of BODIPY are synthesized. Firstly, BDBrC containing carbazole and BODIPY core is synthesized. Cellular uptake research shows BDBrC can target on lysosome and singlet oxygen generation research result indicates that BDBrC can be used in photodynamic therapy. BDBrC also shows pH-sensitive …

Flexible Microfluidic Device With Nonplanar Interdigitated Microelectrodes, Saud Alssaidy

Theses

The lab-on-a-chip concept has improved significantly in recent years to meet global demand for various applications with the advent of new technologies. Much progress has been achieved, but many microfluidic devices still suffer from design limitations in terms of sensitivity and selectivity because they use rigid, fragile substrate materials and conventional electrodes, which do not provide high sensitivity or selectivity and suffer from signal-to-noise ratio issues. This work proposes a novel device architecture that uses flexible, transparent top and bottom layers integrated with (nonplanar interdigitated microelectrodes) to create a sandwich-like flexible substrate base. The top and bottom layers consist of …

Itraconazole Nanocomposites Prepared Via Rotary Evaporator Drying Of Nanomilled Suspensions, Alexander Santos Coelho

Theses

The aim of this study is to explore the feasibility of rotary evaporation for drying wetmilled drug suspensions as a novel approach to produce drug nanocomposites that exhibit fast redispersion and immediate drug release. To this end, the physical stability of the nanomilled itraconazole (drug) suspensions, a.k.a., nanosuspensions, during the milling and storage; the drying of the itraconazole nanosuspensions via the rotary evaporator; and the type/loading of various polymers/surfactants (dispersants) on aqueous redispersion and drug release from the nanocomposites were examined. Our results suggest that smaller drug particle size, owing to nanomilling, and smaller nanocomposite particle size, owing to optimized …

Overview On The Lebanese Environmental Governance System: Main Hazards In The Oil And Gaz Sector, Rami Harkous

BAU Journal - Science and Technology

Due to harsh environment and vulnerability of marine ecosystems, many challenges are faced regarding offshore oil and gas activities. Many steps are currently undertaken to overcome such challenges.

As Lebanon is inside the new oil and gas sector in its offshore region, plans should be made to address environmental challenges that may occur in this sector. The Lebanese environmental governance system meets international standards in various aspects but some gaps are addressed to manage such risks that may be encountered with oil and gas activities in the Lebanese offshore. This article ends by a fast run through environmental regulatory authority, …