Chemical Engineering News

Category: Students

Seth Kriz Selected as MTU Nominee for MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award

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The Graduate School announced that Seth Kriz, Ph.D. student in chemical engineering, has been selected to represent Michigan Tech as a nominee for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award. Congratulations to Seth on this significant achievement.

Kriz’s journey is a testament to his dedication to both research and teaching. In his nomination materials, he shares a powerful anecdote about an early college experience that ignited his passion for engineering and ultimately led him to Michigan Tech. This pivotal moment involved his engineering physics professor, Professor Joe, who spent two hours helping him debug a program. This experience instilled in Kriz a deep appreciation for the impact of dedicated teaching.

Inspired by Professor Joe and other mentors, Kriz has pursued his own passion for education. Read about his philosophy of teaching and accomplishments at Michigan Tech at the Graduate School Newsblog.

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Consumer Product Manufacturing Team Shares Enterprise Success Story

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Huskies who participate in Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program learn how to partner with industry and get the kind of experience that employers are looking for when hiring. In the case of the Consumer Product Manufacturing Enterprise (CPM) OneTumbler Team, the research they conducted for their project also led to a publication credit and fewer single-use beverage containers on campus.

Hear from 2024 chemical engineering graduate Jacqui Foreman, who led the CPM OneTumbler Team, on the College of Engineering Blog.

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HRI Student Research Forum Winners Announced

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The Health Research Institute (HRI) at Michigan Tech is pleased to announce the winners of the poster and oral presentation sessions from our annual Student Research Forum, which was held on Nov. 20. Congratulations to the following:

Poster Session:

  • First Place — Taravat Sarvari, Chemical Engineering
  • Second — Grace Dykstra, Chemical Engineering
  • Third — Natalia Krakhaleva, Chemical Engineering

Oral Presentations:

  • First Place — Ahmad Bshennaty, Biomedical Engineering
  • Second Place — Kamand Sedaghatnia, Chemistry
  • Third Place — Victoria Santillan, Biomedical Engineering

For more information on the Institute, please visit the HRI website.

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COE Annual Lecture Series Features Inspiring ChE Alumna

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More than 800 first-year engineering Huskies turned out for the College of Engineering’s (COE’s) annual lecture, designed especially for them. The First-Year Engineering Series lecture took place Monday, Aug. 26, at the Rozsa Center, hosted by the Department of Engineering Fundamentals. This year’s featured lecturer was chemical engineering alumna Jessica Elwell ’02 ’03.

“Jessica told the fascinating and inspiring story of how she and her team at OxEon Energy worked with NASA to figure out how to make oxygen from in-situ resources on Mars (Yes, Mars!),” said COE Dean Michelle Scherer. “She also shared her journey to being chief operating officer at OxEon and how she has been able to focus her work on her passion of converting carbon dioxide into oxygen and sustainable fuels.”

Scherer said Elwell’s words of wisdom reinforced why it’s important to move outside the comfort zone to try new things and to remember that engineering design requires failing many times until you find the solution.

Read more about the lecture series and Elwell’s accomplishments on the College of Engineering Blog.

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ChE Convocation 2024 Awards

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These students, faculty and staff were presented awards on Friday (April 19) at the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) Convocation held in the MUB Alumni Lounge. Congratulations to all!

Outstanding Sophomore and Outstanding New Student Awards
These awards recognize an outstanding second-year student and an outstanding new student in chemical engineering who have demonstrated exemplary academic performance in coursework and exhibited excellence in related academic enrichment activities such as research, internship/co-op work experience and the Enterprise Program.
Outstanding Sophomore: Andrew Brenner
Outstanding New Student: Caden Arntz

Excellence in Communication Award
This award acknowledges the critical role that effective communication plays in successful leadership and recognizes a graduating ChE senior for their effective use of communication of the highest standard.
Recipient: Allison Swanson

Professional Ethics Award
This award recognizes a student who has exhibited exemplary ethics and admirable professional conduct during Plant Design and Unit Operations experiences and throughout their academic career at Michigan Tech.
Recipient: Kevin Garland

Prevent Accidents With Safety (PAWS) Award
The PAWS Undergraduate Lab Safety Program is a comprehensive safety program requiring training, constant vigilance and incident reporting and documentation systems — all with an eye toward critical review and continuous improvement. The PAWS program provides a framework to develop the necessary safety culture within the student community.
Recipients: Ryan Anderson, Cameron Hoogstraten, Lydia Nelson and Elizabeth Schumann

Dow Chemical Marriott W. Bredekamp Award
This award recognizes outstanding technical skills in the laboratory, outstanding teamwork and professionalism, effective oral and written communication and strong adherence to process safety practices as recognized by your peers and supported by the faculty of the department. This award is in memory of Marriott W. Bredekamp.
Recipients: Joseph Curro, Austin Foster, Josh Shane, Jackson Vidlund and Gary Vinson

Senior Design Team Awards
John Patton, as chair and faculty member, initiated much of today’s design course content in ChE. He brought his experiences at Exxon to the classroom to provide students with a systematic way to design and analyze a new, large-scale capital project. This award recognizes the student team in CM4861 that created the best plant design and recommendation for Fictitious Chemical Company.
Finalist Teams:
– Third Place ($400): Ava Farquhar, Brandon Espinoza Solis, Caleb Pitts and Erica Proehl
– Runner-Up ($600): Allison Swanson, Emmit Nelson, Joseph Lesko, Matthew Fooy and Mia Bidolli
– Winner ($1,000): Austin Foster, Cade Kaighen, Joseph Curro, Kevin Garland and Nathan LaFontaine

Davis W. Hubbard Outstanding Junior Award
The eligible candidate for this award has completed all their junior-level core chemical engineering courses. Selection is based on GPA for coursework done at Michigan Tech, research engagement and internship/co-op work experience. The award consists of a certificate and monetary award in the amount of $1,000.
Recipient: Chazz Rohrer

Leadership Awards
Recipients:

AIChE: Allison Swanson

CPM: Joseph Bachmeier

OXE: Spencer Kaastra

SAB: Caleb Krueger

AEE: Kristen Kautz

Green Campus: Caroline Brown

Finally, ChE students voted on these categories to honor our outstanding department employees!

  • Teacher of the Year: Kyle Griffin
  • Research Mentor of the Year: David Shonnard
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year: Emmanual Okoye
  • Undergraduate Grader of the Year: Joseph Curro
  • Staff Making a Difference: Daniel Kulas
  • Peer Mentor and Coach of the Year: Allison Swanson
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Kwabena Boafo, Taravat Sarvari, Natalie Nold to Present at GSC 2024

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Natalie Nold Takes First Place for Oral Presentation

Nold’s presentation was entitled “A Versatile Purification Method for Virus-based Gene Therapy.”

Presentation Extract

  • The costly manufacturing methods used for viral vectors are a key reason why gene therapies can be prohibitively expensive, often costing over $1 million per patient treated.
  • Our lab has developed a continuous purification method using aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS), which combines product capture and purification by partitioning the viral product and contaminating host-cell impurities to different aqueous phases.
  • ATPS holds promise as a viral vector purification platform with 66-100% overall product recovery for adeno-associated virus (AAV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), porcine parvovirus (PPV), and influenza B virus.

Graduate Research Colloquium 2024

Date: March 26, 2024
Time: 8 a.m.—9 p.m.
Location: Rozsa Center, MTU

March 26 (9 a.m.–3 p.m.) – Oral Presentations (MUB Alumni Lounge)
March 26 (5–8 p.m.) – Poster Presentations (Rosza Lobby)

Chemical Engineering at the Graduate Research Colloquium

Please attend the poster sessions to learn more from the graduate student presenters.

Flow chart of the experimental setup with the description in the caption.
Experimental setup with carbon dioxide supplying section and food (microorganisms) supplying section feeding into the metal leaching section. The output is the metal recovery section.

Sustainable Nickel Recovery from Ore and Mine Tailings Using CO2 and Microorganisms

Kwabena Boafo, Timothy C. Eisele

Abstract

  • As the demand for nickel increases in EV batteries and steel manufacturing, the depletion of high-grade nickel ore prompts the mining industry to process low-grade nickel ore, resulting in the generation of significant mine waste, known as tailings.
  • Despite the tailings containing valuable minerals and metals most times high metal content compared with original ore, they pose environmental and health risks.
  • There is a growing interest in exploring methods to extract the valuable minerals and metals from the tailings.
  • This study proposes a sustainable approach to extract nickel from ores and tailings, utilizing CO2  and microorganisms.
  • Operating at freezing temperatures, bicarbonate ions are formed that effectively complex with nickel.
Five step process for influenza vaccine production described in the caption.
Influenza vaccine production in five steps: infection with virus showing injection into an egg, virus replication showing virus inside the egg, virus harvest showing the virus outside the egg, virus purification showing an apparatus, and virus inactivation and formulation showing a vial.

Aqueous Two-Phase Systems for Influenza Viral Vaccine Purification: A Promising Alternative

Taravat Sarvari, Elizaveta Korolkov, Natalie Nold, Lynn Manchester, and Caryn L. Heldt

Background and Motivation

Viral vaccine production is currently performed in batch mode.

Current Influenza vaccine production in eggs is antiquated, slow, and cannot produce a new strain of vaccine quickly.

Goal: Develop a platform for continuous purification of Influenza virus using aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS).

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Letter from the Chair

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An aerial drone image of campus in the snow with pink sunlight at sunrise.
Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year to All, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Michigan Tech!

Dear Alumni and Friends,

Michael Mullins standing outside in campus near the Husky Statue
Michael Mullins, Professor and Chair

As you may have heard, with Dr. Agrawal’s retirement in June, I have stepped in to fill the department chair role until a national search for a new chair is completed.  When I was asked to return as chair this summer, I was happy to come back to the department I have spent over 35 years helping to build. I was able to come back up to speed quickly and help get the department ready for fall semester. Many major department changes have happened since then and I’d like to take this opportunity to bring you up to date on a few of those.

I am not exaggerating to say this is a pivotal time in the history of Michigan Tech’s Department of Chemical Engineering. In addition to Pradeep’s retirement, our long-time colleague Tony Rogers decided to retire this summer after leading our nationally recognized senior capstone design course for over 30 year and serving as mentor and advisor for our Consumer Product Manufacturing (CPM) Enterprise for more than 25 years. Professor of Practice Kurt Rickard retired after helping to rebuild our process control course and co-teaching our UO lab over the past 4 years. (He has now taken the job as mayor of Hancock!). In the previous year, Drs. Tom Co, Faith Morrison and Komar Kawatra, who had over 100 years of dedicated service to MTU between them, also retired!  We are now faced with a multi-year faculty rebuilding phase. Professor of Practice Jon Herlevich and Assistant Teaching Professor Kyle Griffin are great new additions to our department, and we’ve begun the search for additional rising stars to join our faculty over the next 2 years.

Our longtime academic advisor, Katie Torrey, has moved to another position in the university. I originally hired Katie when I was chair 18 years ago, and she has been an invaluable resource for a generation of students and our entire department. Katie will be greatly missed, but we have lured Judy Burl out of retirement to serve as academic advisor until we find a permanent replacement.  We are also lucky to have Tyson Kauppinen join our lab manager Stefan Wiesnewski to help keep our chemical engineering laboratories the best in the USA.

There have been many transformational changes to our facilities over the past few months!  Due to the generosity of our alumni, we have a wonderful new Student Learning Center and Department Conference Room, which are heavily used by students and faculty. This summer we finished a complete renovation of all the classrooms and public areas of our building, and the new $53M HSTEM addition to our building will be ready for move-in by late March 2024.

Just today, it was announced that Michigan Tech has received a $5 million grant – with a potential $2 million matching grant – from The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation for addition renovations to the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Building. In 2024 we are initiating 2 projects that will have a huge impact on our students: a new Senior Capstone Design Lab and a Maker’s Space for the Enterprise Programs centered in our department, which could be eligible for these matching gifts.

Chem Sci Building on Campus with newly constructed HSTEM addition attached. The new addition hard dark slate and lots of green tinted plate glass windows.
Michigan Tech’s new HSTEM addition is now mostly complete.

As a former (and now current) department chair, I know how important our alumni supporters and friends like you are to the success of our program.  The resources we receive from the state and from tuition dollars are just enough to cover the basic salaries of the chemical engineering program, and little else. It is the generosity of our alumni and industry friends that allows our program to truly excel. If you would like to be a part of this exciting time for our department, be sure to reach out to me anytime to learn more.

Warmest wishes for the new year,

Michael Mullins
Professor and Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering
memullin@mtu.edu

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Natalie Nold Awarded at 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting

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Natalie Nold accepts the award with Caryn Heldt and two other people.

Natalie Nold is the recipient of the 2023 Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award for her outstanding work in the area of bioseparations. Nold is a Ph.D. student working in Caryn Heldt’s bioseparation lab.

The award was presented at the Separations Division Dinner at the AIChE Annual Meeting. The 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting was held on November 5–10 in Orlando, FL.

The Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award recognizes outstanding graduate students in the following areas:

  • Distillation and Absorption
  • Crystallization and Evaporation
  • Extraction
  • Membrane-Based Separations
  • Adsorption and Ion Exchange
  • Fluid-Particle Separations
  • Bioseparations

Recipients receive a plaque and $200 for each award. For consideration a single paper must be submitted that contributes to separations fundamentals or applications. The paper must report on research, investigation or design, and must be part of the student’s work for a graduate degree.

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