Chemical Engineering News

Daniel Kulas to Present at NAMS 2020

Published January 14, 2020

Graduate student Daniel Kulas has been awarded the prestigious 2020 NAMS (North American Membrane Society) Elias Klein Travel Supplement Award to present his comprehensive experimental work on the rejection mechanisms of the four most significant PFAS molecules: PFOA, PFOS, PFNA and PFHxS by Nanofiltration membrane NF270.

The presentation will be at the conference in Tempe, Arizona on May 16-20, 2020. Kulas was nominated by his research mentor Andre Da Costa.

The Elias Klein Founders’ Travel Supplement program supports students needing limited financial assistance and will provide up to $500 in reimbursement for reasonable expenses (e.g. travel cost, registration, workshops) for attending NAMS 2020 to present their research (oral or poster presentation). This award program is named in honor of Elias Klein, whose vision and spirit guided the founding of NAMS in 1985.

Alexis Snell Earns Staff Legacy Award

Published January 13, 2020

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News

At an awards program Wednesday, January 8, 2020, in the Memorial Union Ballroom, staff members were honored with the Staff Council Making a Difference Awards.

Among the award recipients is Department Coordinator Alexis E. Snell. She was nominated by Department Chair Pradeep K. Agrawal for the Legacy Award.

She strikes the perfect balance between being friendly and approachable while ensuring that all tasks are handled in a professional and timely manner. Suffice to say, I would be lost without her guidance and support, and there is little or no margin of error in my current position.
Pradeep K. Agrawal

The Legacy Award recognizes a staff member who:

Has a minimum of 15 years of service to Michigan Tech
Engages in collaboration and promotes teamwork
Improves efficiency and exhibits a proactive approach to finding solutions
Invests time and effort into mentoring colleagues and sharing knowledge with others

Making Mining Safer from Dust

Published January 7, 2020

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Lei Pan is involved in a multidisciplinary project to improve the efficiency of dust scrubbers in mining operations.

His work and that of Virginia Tech researchers and collaborators from Cornell University incorporates new materials that better collect dust and use the continuous miner’s vibrations to help keep the filters from clogging as often.

In 2019 Pan received funding from the Center for Disease Control for the project “Temporal and Spatial Characterization of Respirable Coal Mine Dust Using Area Monitoring Devices and X-Ray CT.”

Mining dust was also the topic of a Michigan Tech URIP (Undergraduate Research Internship Program) project with chemical engineering major Caroline Inaury, funded by the Portage Health Foundation.

Pradeep Agrawal Comments on the Use of Biomass to Produce Chemicals and Fuels

Published December 2, 2019

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Sangareddy: Pradeep K Agrawal, Faculty and Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, US, on Monday said biomass be it agriculture waste, forest residues or crop remanants can be used to produce chemicals and fuels. The discarded portion of municipal solid waste (MSW) was another inexpensive resource for producing hydergen and carbon, he said.

Caryn Heldt on Human Nature Film Event Panel

Published October 31, 2019

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News

Human Nature

Thurs., 10/31, 7:30 p.m.

Adam Bolt, 2019

A breakthrough called CRISPR has given us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. Human Nature is a provocative exploration of CRISPR’s far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the bioengineers who are testing its limits. How will this new power change our relationship with nature? What will it mean for human evolution? To begin to answer these questions we must look back billions of years and peer into an uncertain future.

A panel discussion with Dr. Paul Goetsch, Dr. Caryn Heldt, and Dr. Alexandra Morrison will follow the film.

This film is sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences and the Health Research Institute.

93 minutes

Researchers discuss ethics of gene editing

HOUGHTON — Within six years, targeted gene editing has gone from a pipe dream to routine.

Targeting changes became easier with the use of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). The system, discovered by scientist Francisco Mojica, is used by bacteria, which use genetic strands from viruses to repel future invasions.

Heldt’s lab works on gene therapy, including how to manufacture large amounts of gene therapy drugs at a reasonable price. They focus on viral gene therapies, where viruses are modified to replicate not themselves, but a gene missing in a person. Clinical trials on gene therapy for hemophiliacs have been promising, Heldt said; they lack the Factor 8 gene, which causes blood to clot. After one dose of gene therapy, people who once had to go to the hospital after incidents as minor as running into the side of a table now have enough clotting ability to go only once or twice a year for more serious cuts.

“One of the really amazing things with this particular therapy is they’re only making 10% of the factor 8 a normal person makes,” said Heldt, director of Tech’s Health Research Institute. “So it doesn’t take a lot.”

NSF Funding for Lei Pan on Project to Sanitize Produce

Published September 12, 2019

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Agriculture and produce Lei Pan (ChemEng/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $159,999 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation.

The project is entitled, “Collaborative Research: Bubble Impacting a Curved Surface: A Sustainable Way to Sanitize Produce.”

This is a potential three-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Extract

Cleaning practices using microbubbles have been proven to be a sustainable and environmentally benign sanitation method in a wide range of industrial applications. When a stream of bubbles impact and slide on a surface, contaminants on the surface can be removed due to the strong force generated by the bubbles.

Bubble-cleaning of agricultural produce like fruits and vegetables has not been studied extensively. Potentially, this method could be used to minimize cases of food poisoning affecting millions of people every year, since bubble streams could be used to remove and inactivate pathogenic microorganisms from produce surfaces.

This research project could lead to a novel technology for an environmentally benign sanitization process for raw fruits and vegetables. The method could even be applied to other technological processes such as semiconductor manufacturing.

CDC Funding of Coal Mine Dust Monitoring Project

Published September 3, 2019

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Lei Pan is Principal Investigator on a project that has received a $293,614 research and development contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The project is entitled, “Temporal and Spatial Characterization of Respirable Coal Mine Dust Using Area Monitoring Devices and X-Ray CT.” This is a potential two-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Chemical Engineering Convocation 2019

Published July 2, 2019

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Chair’s Award

Dr. Pradeep Agrawal presented this award to Summer Oley.

The Chair’s Award for Outstanding ChE Senior recognizes a particular student in the graduating class whose actions embody excellence. Excelling in academics is expected, but the recipient must also exhibit the traits of character, leadership, and service–to-others that are valued to the department.

Kimberly Clark Communication Award

Dr. John Sandell presented the award to Sarah Boyd.

This award recognizes the winner of the Award for Excellence in Communication from the Department of Chemical Engineering for the academic year.

Kimberly Clark Professional Ethics Award

Dr. John Sandell presented the award to Charlie Biyong.

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 Technological University.

Prevent Accidents with Safety (PAWS) Award

Dr. Julia King presented awards to James Sutton, Adam Schmidt, Noelle Eveland, and Sarah Boyd.

Dow Chemical Marriot W. Bredekamp Award

Dr. Julia King presented awards to Madison Paul, Nicholas Olson, Logan Piegols, Kayla Furmanski, and Robert Dupont.

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 Dr. Mariott W. Bredekamp.

Patton Award 1st Place
(L-R) Madison Peggs, Laura Nitz, Amelia Henrickson, Maggie Evans

John Patton Senior Design Team Award—1st Place

Maggie Evans, Amelia Henrickson, Laura Nitz, Madison Peggs

Patton Award 2nd Place
(L-R) Andrew Watson and Michael Verbeke

John Patton Senior Design Team Award—2nd Place

Michael Verbeke, Andrew Watson, Missing: Zachary Oldenburg, Sam Root

Patton Award 3rd Place
(L-R) William Otto, Keegan Kroening, Seth Kriz, Bailey Mohrenweiser

John Patton Senior Design Team Award—3rd Place

William Otto, Keegan Kroening, Seth Kriz, Bailey Mohrenweiser

Professor of the Year

Dr. Jeana Collins

Research Mentors of the Year

Dr. Caryn Heldt, Dr. Faith Morrison, Dr. Timothy Eisele

VIEW THE PHOTO GALLERY

EPA Awards Student Team to Solve End-of-Life Lithium-Ion Battery Challenge

Published June 5, 2019

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced more than $450,000 in funding for six Phase II student teams as part of the People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) grant program. These teams, made up of undergraduate and graduate students from across the country, are building upon their successes in Phase I of the P3 grant competition where they designed innovate solutions to real-world environmental and public health challenges. With Phase II funding, the teams will now further develop those projects and designs to ensure they can be sustainably implemented in the field.

Michigan Tech is a recipient for the project Separation and Recovery of Individual Components from the End-of-Life Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Extract

The principal investigator is Assistant Professor Lei Pan.

Lithium-ion battery technology has become a state-of-the-art energy storage solution for consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and renewable energy. Because these batteries are expected to last only 2-10 years, they will enter the waste stream after reaching the end of their life cycles. The objective of the phase II project is to scale up the Li-ion battery recycling process from the bench scale that has been completed in the phase I project to a small-scale production prototype.

This project will provide approximately five undergraduate research assistant positions to students of diverse background at Michigan Technological University. These students will gain hands-on experience and interact with industrial partners. In addition, undergraduate students will be given opportunities to attend national and local conferences to present their research. The team will develop a mini mobile lab for high-school and middle-school teachers to teach engineering in their classrooms.

New REU at UA

Published March 11, 2019

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NEW! NSF REU Program Summer 2019

“Interdisciplinary Application of Advanced Polymers for Engineering Innovation “

Dept. of Chemical & Biological Engineering at The University of Alabama

Link: http://reu.eng.ua.edu/programs/interdisciplinary-application-advanced-polymers-engineering-innovations/