Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Soy- Based Flexographic Ink For Linerboard Printing, Rahul Ramchandra Pingale

Masters Theses

Many printing inks use volatile solvents in the formulation, which are hazardous to the environment from emission of VOC’s and at the same time, synthetic resins in these inks are not biodegradable. These problems with the fluctuating and rising price of petroleum are main reasons to look for new resources for making more environmentally friendly printing inks. The majority of the commercially available water based inks are formulated based on using acrylic resins, synthetic colorants, solvents/water and additives, which are the common main components for formulating printing inks. In this research, soy proteins were tested for their suitability to partially …

Effect Of Aerogel On The Thermal Performance Of Corrugated Composite Sandwich Structures, Jacob Dillon Chess

Master's Theses

Current insulation solutions across multiple industries, especially the commercial sector, can be bulky and ineffective when considering their volume. Aerogels are excellent insulators, exhibiting low thermal conductivities and low densities with a porosity of around 95%. Such characteristics make aerogels effective in decreasing conductive heat transfer within a solid. These requirements are crucial for aerospace and spaceflight applications, where sensitive components exist among extreme temperature environments. When implemented into insulation applications, aerogel can perform better than existing technology while using less material, which limits the amount of volume allocated for insulation. The application of these materials into composites can result …

Experimentation And Modeling Of The Effects Of Along-Wind Dispersion On Cloud Characteristics Of Finite-Duration Contaminant Releases In The Atmosphere, Jessica M. Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Along-wind dispersion, or stretching of the cloud in the direction of the wind, plays an important role in the concentration and modeling of contaminant releases in the atmosphere. Theoretical and empirical derivations were compared for appropriate parameterization of along-wind dispersion. Available field data were analyzed to evaluate and improve previous parameterizations of the along-wind dispersion coefficient, σ_x. An experimental test program was developed and executed in an ultra-low speed wind tunnel at the Chemical Hazards Research Center to determine the effects of the time distribution coefficient on true finite-duration releases from an original area source. Multiple wind speeds, release durations, …

Repopulation And Stimulation Of Porcine Cardiac Extracellular Matrix To Create Engineered Heart Patches, Silvia Juliana Moncada Diaz

Theses and Dissertations

Heart failure is the main cause of death for both men and women in the United States. The only proven treatment for patients with heart failure is heart transplantation. The goal of this research is to create patches of tissue that could mimic the function of the native heart to repair the damaged portions of the heart. In this study, whole porcine hearts were decellularized to create a 3D construct that was recellularized with cardiomyocytes (CM) differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells. At day 4 of differentiation, IPS-derived CMs were implanted onto cardiac extracellular matrix (cECM) and ten …

Characterization Of Pyrolysis Products From Fast Pyrolysis Of Live And Dead Vegetation, Mohammad Saeed Safdari

Theses and Dissertations

Wildland fire, which includes both planned (prescribed fire) and unplanned (wildfire) fires, is an important component of many ecosystems. Prescribed burning (controlled burning) is used as an effective tool in managing a variety of ecosystems in the United States to reduce accumulation of hazardous fuels, manage wildlife habitats, mimic natural fire occurrence, manage traditional native foods, and provide other ecological and societal benefits. During wildland fires, both live and dead (biomass) plants undergo a two-step thermal degradation process (pyrolysis and combustion) when exposed to high temperatures. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of organic material, which does not require the presence …

Removal Of Carbamazepine From Drinking Water, Thomas Krumpolc, Juan Rodriguez, Jordan Alex Gadberry, Zach Wiese, Paola Marrero-Rivera, Adam Johnson

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the increasing prevalence of prescription medication over the past few decades, pharmaceuticals have accumulated in various water sources. This has become a public health concern because many pharmaceuticals have limited research on the effects of chronic low-level exposure. According to the World’s Health Organization (WHO), traces of pharmaceuticals products have been reported in different water sources such as surface waters, wastewater, groundwater, and drinking water.^[1] One pharmaceutical of interest that has been detected in water sources is carbamazepine. Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a common pharmaceutical prescribed for the treatment of seizure disorders, neuropathic pain, and various psychological disorders. …

Macro-/Micro-Controlled 3d Lithium-Ion Batteries Via Additive Manufacturing And Electric Field Processing, Jie Li, Xinhua Liang, Frank W. Liou, Jonghyun Park

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a new concept for making battery electrodes that can simultaneously control macro-/micro-structures and help address current energy storage technology gaps and future energy storage requirements. Modern batteries are fabricated in the form of laminated structures that are composed of randomly mixed constituent materials. This randomness in conventional methods can provide a possibility of developing new breakthrough processing techniques to build well-organized structures that can improve battery performance. In the proposed processing, an electric field (EF) controls the microstructures of manganese-based electrodes, while additive manufacturing controls macro-3D structures and the integration of both scales. The synergistic control of …

Characterization Of Microreactor And Analysis Of Carbonyl Compounds In Exhaled Breath., Qi Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Analysis of trace volatile organic compounds at parts per billion (ppbv) to parts per trillion (pptv) level has become an important research frontier because of the applicability for environmental monitoring and noninvasive diagnosis of diseases. The methods of preconcentration for detection of trace aldehydes and ketones both in ambient air and human exhaled breath have increased considerably over the last decade. However, the majority of these methods are not efficient. In this dissertation, we have improved an innovative microreactor that is suitable for quantitative analysis of volatile carbonyl compounds (VOCs) in ambient air as well as in human exhaled breath. …

Foam Materials With Controllable Pore Structure Prepared From Nanofibrillated Cellulose With Addition Of Alcohols, Jinbao Li, Te Song, Huijuan Xiu, Meiyun Zhang, Rui Cheng, Qiang Liu, Xuefei Zhang, Evguenii Kozliak, Yun Ji

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

Low-density foams based on nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) made from Pinus massonianesoftwood pulp were prepared from NFC aqueous suspensions containing one of four C2–C4alcohols followed by freeze-drying, with the goal of controlling their pore structure and reducing the shrink rate. The foams prepared from NFC suspensions containing ethanol, isopropanol and n-butanol exhibited highly porous structures with a honeycomb-like cellular texture featuring well-defined “cell walls” between the layers. By contrast, the tert-butanol/NFC foam featured a higher number of smaller size pores with irregular shape. The foams prepared by freezing at −196 °C with ethanol also revealed small size pores, with no layered …

Superelastic And Ph-Responsive Degradable Dendrimer Cryogels Prepared By Cryo-Aza-Michael Addition Reaction, Juan Wang, Hu Yang

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Dendrimers exhibit super atomistic features by virtue of their well-defined discrete quantized nanoscale structures. Here, we show that hyperbranched amine-terminated polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer G4.0 reacts with linear polyethylene glycol (PEG) diacrylate (575 g/mol) via the aza-Michael addition reaction at a subzero temperature (-20 °C), namely cryo-aza-Michael addition, to form a macroporous superelastic network, i.e., dendrimer cryogel. Dendrimer cryogels exhibit biologically relevant Young's modulus, high compression elasticity and super resilience at ambient temperature. Furthermore, the dendrimer cryogels exhibit excellent rebound performance and do not show significant stress relaxation under cyclic deformation over a wide temperature range (-80 to 100 °C). The …

Rapid Separation Of Bacteria From Blood For Sepsis Diagnosis, Mahsa Alizadeh

Theses and Dissertations

Sepsis is a severe blood infection caused by bacteria entering the blood stream. Sepsis caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria is very dangerous with a high mortality rate. The current clinical diagnostic methods for sepsis require culturing the blood sample prior to other steps of the diagnosis procedure. Culturing the blood samples is a time-consuming step which increases the time required for the diagnostic procedure. Considering the fact that the mortality rate of the sepsis increases as time passes, it is essential to find methods for sepsis diagnosis that do not require culturing the samples. The first step of a new …

Synergic Titanium Nitride Coating And Titanium Doping By Atomic Layer Deposition For Stable- And High-Performance Lifepo₄, Yan Gao, Jonghyun Park, Xinhua Liang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) method has emerged as a promising technique to address the dissolution and poor conductivity of electrode materials of lithium ion batteries. In this work, surface modification of LiFePO₄ (LFP) was carried out by titanium nitride (TiN) ALD, during which a Ti doping into LFP occurred simultaneously. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemical tests were performed to prove the Ti doping, and the composition of TiN layer on the surface of LFP particles was interpreted as a combination of TiN and titanium oxynitride (TiO_xN_y). Owing to the synergy of TiN coating and …

Fluid Agitation Studies For Drug Product Containers Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Matthew Hiroki Ichinose

Master's Theses

At Amgen, the Automated Vision Inspection (AVI) systems capture the movement of unwanted particles in Amgen's drug product containers. For quality inspection, the AVI system must detect these undesired particles using a high speed spin-stop agitation process. To better understand the fluid movements to swirl the particles away from the walls, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to analyze the nature of the two phase flow of air and a liquid solution.

Several 2-D and 3-D models were developed using Fluent to create simulations of Amgen's drug product containers for a 1 mL syringe, 2.25 mL syringe, and a 5 …

Experimental Study On The Influence Of Slickwater On Shale Permeability, Zhonghua Liu, Baojun Bai, Zheyu Zhang, Jing Tang, Shunpeng Zeng, Xiaogang Li

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

There are two diametrically opposite views of the influence of slickwater on shale permeability among scholars at home and abroad. We used the shale outcrops rock samples from the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation in Sichuan Basin. The permeability of these dry samples before and after immersion in different solution systems were tested by pulse attenuation method. The experimental results show that the impregnation of different slickwater components and standard salt solution can promote the increase of the permeability of shale samples. The stress sensitivity of shale samples after liquid immersion is medium weak to weak. The sample stress sensitivity is …

Removal Of Carbamazepine From Drinking Water, Adam Johnson, Thomas Krumpolc, Jordan Gadberry, Juan Rodriguez, Paolo Marrero-Rivera, Zachary Wiese

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the increasing prevalence of prescription medication over the past few

decades, pharmaceuticals have accumulated in various water sources. This has become a

public health concern because many pharmaceuticals have limited research on the effects

of chronic low-level exposure. According to the World’s Health Organization (WHO),

traces of pharmaceuticals products have been reported in different water sources such as

surface waters, wastewater, groundwater, and drinking water.[1] One pharmaceutical of

interest that has been detected in water sources is carbamazepine. Carbamazepine is a

common pharmaceutical prescribed for the treatment of seizure disorders, neuropathic

pain, and various psychological disorders. It’s mechanism …

Removal Of Carbamazepine From Drinking Water, Juan Rodriguez, Tom Krumpolc, Adam Johnson, Paola Marrero-Rivera, Alex Gadberry, Zach Wiese

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the increasing prevalence of prescription medication over the past few decades, pharmaceuticals have accumulated in various water sources. This has become a public health concern because many pharmaceuticals have limited research on the effects of chronic low-levelexposure. According to the World’s Health Organization (WHO), traces of pharmaceuticalsproducts have been reported in different water sources such as surface waters, wastewater, groundwater, and drinking water.[1] One pharmaceutical of interest that has been detected in water sources is carbamazepine. Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a common pharmaceutical prescribedfor the treatment of seizure disorders, neuropathic pain, and various psychological disorders. It’s mechanism of action …

Sulfate Removal From Mine Impacted Waters, Benjamin Drewry, Jean Morales, Tyler Shock, Derek Richard, Luis Sagarnaga, Benjamin Yeldell

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Woo Pig Sulfate (WPS) has developed two methods for reducing levels of calcium sulfate in mine impacted waters, a “hot process” and a two-stage nanofiltration process. Both processes were designed to treat gypsum saturated water that is currently being pumped via interceptor wells to prevent the spread of a sulfate plume into a nearby community. Each solution was designed for Freeport McMoran’s Sierrita mine in Green Valley, Arizona, which was visited in order to gain insight about the problem. Below 250 ppm on the treated stream, nanofiltration and the hot process achieve overall recoveries of 84 and 99%, respectively. The …

Design And Characterization Of A Triple-Input Microfluidic Droplet Trapping Array Towards Multiplexed And Dynamic Single Cell Analysis, Riad Elkhanoufi

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Large-Scale Non-Linear Dynamic Optimization For Combining Applications Of Optimal Scheduling And Control, Logan Daniel Beal

Theses and Dissertations

Optimization has enabled automated applications in chemical manufacturing such as advanced control and scheduling. These applications have demonstrated enormous benefit over the last few decades and continue to be researched and refined. However, these applications have been developed separately with uncoordinated objectives. This dissertation investigates the unification of scheduling and control optimization schemes. The current practice is compared to early-concept, light integrations, and deeper integrations. This quantitative comparison of economic impacts encourages further investigation and tighter integration. A novel approach combines scheduling and control into a single application that can be used online. This approach implements the discrete-time paradigm from …

Lipid Extraction From Spirulina Sp. And Schizochytrium Sp. Using Supercritical Co2 With Methanol, Shihong Liu, Husam A. Abu Hajar, Guy Riefler, Ben J. Stuart

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Microalgae are one of the most promising feedstocks for biodiesel production due to their high lipid content and easy farming. However, the extraction of lipids from microalgae is energy intensive and costly and involves the use of toxic organic solvents. Compared with organic solvent extraction, supercritical CO₂ (SCCO₂) has demonstrated advantages through lower toxicity and no solvent-liquid separation. Due to the nonpolar nature of SCCO_2, polar organic solvents such as methanol may need to be added as a modifier in order to increase the extraction ability of SCCO₂. In this paper, pilot scale lipid …

Preformed-Particle-Gel Placement And Plugging Performance In Fractures With Tips, Ze Wang, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Preformed-particle gels (PPGs) have been applied for reducing excessive water production caused by fractures in reservoirs. A portion of the fractures existing in reservoirs is composed of a void part and a fracture tip. The PPG placement behavior and plugging performance could be mainly affected by the fracture tips. A fracture with a tip, called a "partially open fracture" in this paper, was designed to investigate the placement and water-plugging performance of PPG. Cylindrical sandstone cores were used to manufacture partially open fractures. Pressure data of PPG injection, post-gel water breakthrough, and stable injection were analyzed to investigate the PPG …

Low Temperature Desiccants In Atmospheric Water Generation., Sunil Gupta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Surging global water demand as well as changes to weather patterns and over exploitation of natural water sources, such as ground water, has made potable water a critical resource in many parts of the World already – one rapidly heading towards a crisis situation. Desalination has been adopted as a solution – this is however energy intensive and impractical for most of the developing countries - those most in need of water. A renewable source of energy is solar thermal and solar photovoltaic. A plentiful source of water is the humidity in the atmosphere. This research is to push the …

Optimization-Based Spatial Positioning And Energy Management For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Ronald Abraham Martin

Theses and Dissertations

This research applies techniques from the field of optimization to spatial positioning and energy management in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Two specific areas are treated: optimization of UAV view plans for 3D modeling of infrastructure, and trajectory optimization of solar powered high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAVs. Structure-from-Motion (SfM) is a computer vision technique for creating 3D models from 2D images. View planning is the process of planning image sets that will effectively model a given scene. First, a genetic algorithm based view planning approach is demonstrated. A novel terrain simulation environment is developed, and the algorithm is tested at multiple sites …

Determining The Degree Of [001] Preferred Growth Of Ni(Oh)2 Nanoplates, Taotao Li, Ning Dang, Wanggang Zhang, Wei Liang, Fuqian Yang

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Determining the degree of preferred growth of low-dimensional materials is of practical importance for the improvement of the synthesis methods and applications of low-dimensional materials. In this work, three different methods are used to analyze the degree of preferred growth of the Ni(OH)₂ nanoplates synthesized without the use of a complex anion. The results suggest that the preferred growth degree of the Ni(OH)₂ nanoplates calculated by the March parameter and the expression given by Zolotoyabko, which are based on the analysis and texture refinement of the X-ray diffraction pattern, are in good accordance with the results measured by …

Cellulose-Specific Type B Carbohydrate Binding Modules: Understanding Oligomeric And Non-Crystalline Substrate Recognition Mechanisms, Abhishek A. Kognole, Christina M. Payne

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Effective enzymatic degradation of crystalline polysaccharides requires a synergistic cocktail of hydrolytic enzymes tailored to the wide-ranging degree of substrate crystallinity. To accomplish this type of targeted carbohydrate recognition, nature produces multi-modular enzymes, having at least one catalytic domain appended to one or more carbohydrate binding modules (CBMs). The Type B CBM categorization encompasses several families (i.e., protein folds) of CBMs that are generally thought to selectively bind oligomeric polysaccharides; however, a subset of cellulose-specific CBM families (17 and 28) appear to bind non-crystalline cellulose more tightly than oligomers and in a manner that discriminates between surface topology.

Results: …

High-Throughput Assessment Of A Novel, Thiol-Acrylate Hydrogel For Tumor Spheroid Synthesis In A Microfluidic Device, Nathan Daniel Kersker

LSU Master's Theses

The extracellular environment plays an important role in regulating cell behavior. The mechanical, structural, and compositional properties of the extracellular matrix can determine the fate of the growing cells. Standard two-dimensional culturing in a flask fails to represent a native cellular environment. To create the native environment suitable for cells, hydrogels were previously studied. One of the most extensively studied synthetic hydrogels was a poly(ethylene glycol diacrylate) (PEGDA) hydrogel. However, the need for UV polymerization may introduce unwanted changes in cell morphology and viability. The hydrogel being proposed was a form of a thiol-acrylate hydrogel that can eliminate this problem …

Highly Porous Ceramic Material And Method Of Using And Forming The Same, Alan W. Weimer, Xinhua Liang

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The present invention generally relates to porous ceramic material and to methods of making and using the material. More particularly, the invention relates to methods of forming ceramic materials by depositing material, using atomic layer deposition, onto a sacrificial substrate and to ceramic materials having controlled wall thickness, relatively large pores, and high surface area by weight.

Dynamic Optimization Of High-Altitude Solar Aircraft Trajectories Under Station-Keeping Constraints, R. Abraham Martin, Nathaniel S. Gates, Andrew Ning, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

This paper demonstrates the use of nonlinear dynamic optimization to calculate energy-optimal trajectories for a high-altitude, solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The objective is to maximize the total energy in the system while staying within a 3 km mission radius and meeting other system constraints. Solar energy capture is modeled using the vehicle orientation and solar position, and energy is stored both in batteries and in potential energy through elevation gain. Energy capture is maximized by optimally adjusting the angle of the aircraft surface relative to the sun. The UAV flight and energy system dynamics are optimized over a 24 …

Linking Lignin Source With Structural And Electrochemical Properties Of Lignin-Derived Carbon Materials, Wenqi Li, Yan Zhang, Lalitendu Das, Yikai Wang, Mi Li, Namal Wanninayake, Yunqiao Pu, Doo Young Kim, Yang-Tse Cheng, Arthur J. Ragauskas, Jian Shi

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Valorization of lignin to high-value chemicals and products along with biofuel production is generally acknowledged as a technology platform that could significantly improve the economic viability of biorefinery operations. With a growing demand for electrical energy storage materials, lignin-derived activated carbon (AC) materials have received increasing attention in recent years. However, there is an apparent gap in our understanding of the impact of the lignin precursors (i.e., lignin structure, composition and inter-unit linkages) on the structural and electrochemical properties of the derived ACs. In the present study, lignin-derived ACs were prepared under identical conditions from two different lignin …

Nanoparticle Catalytic Enhancement Of Carbon Dioxide Reforming Of Methane For Hydrogen Production, Nicholas Groden

Doctoral Dissertations

The U.S. produces 5559.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, of which 21% is produced by industrial processes. Steam reforming, an industrial process that accounts for 95% of all hydrogen production in industry, produces 134.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide or around 11% of the total carbon dioxide produced by industry. This carbon dioxide is then either emitted or goes through a sequestration process that accounts for 75% of the plant's operational costs. An alternative reaction to steam reforming is dry reforming, which utilizes carbon dioxide rather than emitting it and can be used in conjunction with current …