Award Data

Accidentally released lubricant into water bodies from hydropower production turbines and other marine (cruises, ships) applications challenges safe water recycling and management, and has invited a number of lawsuits.According to the Environmental Protection Agency, up to 16 million gallons of lubricants per year ? equating to 1.5 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill ? are washed off into wat ...

The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is the largest particle accelerator in the world.Upgrades bringing higher resolution (higher luminosity) is called HLLHC and will require improved lightweight materials.Thermal interface materials having higher thermal conductivity (> 4 W/mK) with low atomic mass and excellent radiation-resistance are required to achieve tight tolerances on detectors.The ob ...

Neutron scattering facilities are a key resource aiding the diverse and growing revolution in nano-science and technology. An ongoing challenge for these facilities is providing sufficient neutron flux for an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio for ever more precise experiments. Presently much of the neutron flux is lost because of inefficiencies in the hundreds of meters beam guides and other optics ...

Recent climate change conference of parties concluded the urgency of arresting the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. It is imperative that everyday fuels and products be renewable to keep the temperature of the planet below 2 °C at the turn of the century. In addition, it is important to reduce US dependence on foreign petroleum imports and create rural jobs. Production of fuels and chemicals ...

Industrial hydrogen production relies primarily on natural gas and hydrocarbon feedstocks to drive the various reaction chemistries that lead to hydrogen generation. Carbon dioxide, the ultimate co-product when such feedstocks and processes are employed, necessarily becomes a major contaminant of the generated hydrogen. Thus, carbon dioxide isolation and removal is an important process step in th ...

Ethylene and propylene are major chemical industry raw materials and consume a great deal of energy related to their production. It is estimated that 230 trillion BTU/yr are consumed in olefin/paraffin separations. Significant energy consumption is employed when cryogenically separating ethane from ethylene and propane from propylene. These cryogenic separations are difficult and are both capital ...

Coal gasification plants have exhibited sub-par performance and plant economics due to poor reliability and availability. A major contributor to the poor performance has been fouling of the syngas cooler located downstream of the gasifier. The fouling is due to vaporized ash from the coal gasification process depositing on the fireside surface of the tubes in the fire tube heat exchanger used for ...

60311 There are economic and environmental justifications for replacing conventional distillation processes with simpler membrane separations in certain applications. However, at present, there are no commercial membranes able to withstand the aggressive conditions associated with important industrial chemicals, including hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, and ozone. Prototype, chemic ...

60395 Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from gasoline refueling facilities continue to be an energy, safety, and environmental issue. In such applications, it is desired to vent the air in the system and keep the VOC behind. This project will develop a reverse separation membrane (RSM) system that allows for rapid venting of air while retaining the gasoline in underground storag ...

Many refinery product streams, particularly those from Ultra Low Hydrodesulfurisation units, are prone to haze due to water emulsions. Haze is also problematic for biodiesel production, as hazy fuel cannot be used until the haze settles or is removed, which creates costly scheduling and shipping delays. This project will develop a novel membrane process for the removal of dissolved and dispersed ...