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Updated Guide to Graduate Studies on ChE Website
by Field, Catherine A 12 Aug '14

12 Aug '14

Hello Everyone, This is just a note to let you know that Dr. Morgan and I updated the Guide to Graduate Studies, and the updated Guide is now on our website (see link below). https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/Academics/Graduate/index.html Grad Students: For those of you planning to take your Quals or Prelims, please review the relevant sections in the Guide since we extensively updated those sections to make exam procedures and requirements more clear. I will also send general e-mail reminders to those of you taking exams this semester (Quals, Prelims, and Finals), and of course, please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you. Best, Katie Catherine Field, Ph.D. Graduate Program Administrator School of Chemical Engineering Purdue University 480 Stadium Mall Drive West Lafayette, IN 47906 E-mail: field2(a)purdue.edu<mailto:field2@purdue.edu> Phone: 765-494-4057 Fax: 765-494-0805 www.engineering.purdue.edu/ChE<http://www.engineering.purdue.edu/ChE>

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Dhairya Mehta Dissertation Defense on Friday, August 15th, at 1:00 p.m. in G124
by Field, Catherine A 12 Aug '14

12 Aug '14

This e-mail is to announce that Dhairya Mehta will be defending his dissertation, Kinetic Studies of Model Reactions to Transform Biomass into Fuels, on Friday, August 15th, at 1:00p.m. in FRNY G124. The dissertation is being directed by Dr. Ribeiro, and the abstract is below. All are welcome to attend. Abstract: Second-generation biofuels utilizing lignocellulosic biomass are considered to be a promising alternative to fossil-based fuels. Lignocellulosic biomass is structurally diverse and therefore requires detailed understanding of the thermal depolymerization and catalytic hydrodeoxygenation reactions to optimize the overall process. This dissertation describes experimental work using model compounds to elucidate the role of bimetallic catalysts and control of the reaction operating parameters such as temperature and hydrogen pressure to maximize energy recovery in the liquid product from biomass resources. Fast-hydropyrolysis of biomass followed by in-line catalytic hydrodeoxygenation has been shown to have the potential to produce hydrocarbon fuels using hydrogen as a co-feed. The objective of the research project was to identify and quantify the primary products of fast hydropyrolysis as well as to establish the effect of temperature on the overall product distribution. A torch igniter, typically used in rocket engines, was modified to design a reactor that is able to continuously feed biomass at a gram per minute scale and complete the entire process from fast hydropyrolysis to condensation of bio-oil in less than about 70 ms at 3.6 MPa hydrogen pressure. The identification and quantification of products with molecular weight higher than the monomer (levoglucosan) at 70 ms residence time compared to their absence in reactors with residence time of 2-3 s indicate that levoglucosan is not the sole primary product of cellulose pyrolysis. Thus a portion of levoglucosan is a result of dimer (cellobiosan) and trimer (cellotriosan) degradation. Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation is used to selectively remove oxygen as water and thus transform the oxygenated organic compounds to fungible hydrocarbon fuels. Furfural and dihydroeugenol were the chosen model compounds to represent the cellulose and lignin fractions of biomass. Discerning the role of catalyst descriptors and hydrogen pressure were the main goals of this study. A bimetallic catalyst system comprising platinum as a hydrogenation function and molybdenum as an oxophilic promoter supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) was used to achieve 100% hydrodeoxygenation of dihydroeugenol resulting in >96% yield of C9 aromatic and saturated hydrocarbons. At 0.1 MPa hydrogen pressure, direct deoxygenation of the phenolic hydroxyl group to produce propylbenzene was the dominant pathway, whereas at higher hydrogen pressures (0.7 and 2.4 MPa), aromatic ring hydrogenation followed by dehydration took precedence yielding propylcyclohexane as the major product. In the case of furfural, increasing the hydrogen pressure from 0.1 to 1.9 MPa resulted in an increase of C5 product selectivity from ~25% to ~80% at a conversion of 18%. Scanning transmission electron microscopy combined with electron energy loss spectroscopic analysis on the 5%Pt-2.5%Mo/MWCNT revealed that 77% of nanoparticles were bimetallic Pt-Mo. X-ray absorption spectroscopy also confirmed the presence of Pt-Mo alloy and that Mo was partially reduced with an average oxidation state between 0 and +4. Combination of results from catalyst characterization and kinetic studies over a series of Pt-Mo catalysts suggest that the overall site time yield was proportional to Pt loading, whereas the selectivity toward C-O scission products increased as the relative Mo to Pt ratio increased.

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Active Shooter Presentation
by Nagy, Gabriela 12 Aug '14

12 Aug '14

Hello Everyone, This is just a gentle reminder that Lt. Keene Red-Elk from the Purdue Police Department will present for our School on how to deal in case of an active shooter on campus. His presentation is scheduled for next week on Wednesday, August 13, from 11 am in FRNY G140. Please attend. Sincerely, Gabriela On behalf of the ChE Safety Committee ________ Gabriela Nagy, PhD Industrial Education Director ChE Safety Committee Chair School of Chemical Engineering Room FRNY G051 Purdue University Tel: (765)-496-1710 E-mail: nagyg(a)purdue.edu<mailto:nagyg@purdue.edu> From: Nagy, Gabriela Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 4:59 PM To: chme(a)ecn.purdue.edu; chmegrad(a)ecn.purdue.edu Cc: Red Elk, Keene L Subject: Save the date - Active Shooter Presentation Hello Everyone, Lt. Keene Red-Elk from the Purdue Police Department agreed to present exclusively for us on how to deal in case of an active shooter on campus. This presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13, from 11 am in FRNY G140. More details nearer the time, but for now please save the date! Sincerely, Gabriela On behalf of the ChE Safety Committee ________ Gabriela Nagy, PhD Industrial Education Director ChE Safety Committee Chair School of Chemical Engineering Room FRNY G051 Purdue University Tel: (765)-496-1710 E-mail: nagyg(a)purdue.edu<mailto:nagyg@purdue.edu>

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Phone List
by Akers, Christa N 12 Aug '14

12 Aug '14

Hello, Here is an up to date phone list attached. Thank you The Sky is the limit just reach for it and see how far you can go! Christa N. Akers Secretary room 1060 Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering 408 Stadium Mall Dr. West Lafayette, IN 47907 765-494-4050 cakers(a)purdue.edu

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Jeff Switzer's defense is Thursday, August 14th, at 2:00 p.m. in 3062A
by Field, Catherine A 11 Aug '14

11 Aug '14

This e-mail is to announce that Jeffrey Switzer will be defending his dissertation, Quantitative Kinetic Analysis of Olefin Polymerization by Single-Site Group IV Amine Bis-Phenolate Catalysts, on Thursday, August 14th , at 2:00PM in FRNY 3062A. The dissertation is being directed by Dr. Caruthers and Dr. Thomson, and the abstract is below. All are welcome to attend. Abstract: Polymerization by homogeneous single-site catalysts is a recent and growing area of research. While single-site catalysts are typically not as fast as heterogeneous ones, their major advantage is that the kinetic rate constants may be manipulated through precise changes to the catalyst structure and reaction conditions. Such a process yields tailored polymers not generally available through heterogeneous catalysis. Two breakthroughs are needed in this field in order to achieve this goal: (i) reliable rate constants must come from experimental data, and (ii) correlations between rate constants and chemical structure must be discovered. At present, the majority of new single-site catalysts are reported without detailed kinetic parameters, in part due to the complexity of simultaneously modeling all polymerization data. The purpose of this body of work is in part to discuss the complex process of kinetic modeling in the context of single-site polymerization in order to promote this activity by other researchers. To this end, kinetic modeling has been performed for a number of single-site catalyst systems. The Group IV amine bisphenolate catalysts studied are all similar in structure except for the metal (Zr or Hf) and the pendant donor arm (THF, pyridine, NMe2, furan, or SMe). The similar systems were chosen in order to probe how these small changes affect the kinetic rate constants. It was found that the donor arm has a large effect on the rate of chain transfer of the polymer, changing the rate by 1-2 orders of magnitude depending on the system. Meanwhile, the metal has a large effect on the propagation rate constant, with the rate constants in Zr faster than those in Hf by an order of magnitude. The temperature dependence of the rate constants was also examined for selected catalysts (Zr metal with THF, NMe2, and SMe pendants). The key findings were: (i) lower temperatures were discovered to prefer monomer dependent chain transfer while higher temperatures prefer monomer independent chain transfer, and (ii) reactions with sterically bulky active sites have high entropies but low enthalpies of activation, while less sterically hindered active sites have low entropies but high enthalpies of activation. These results allow for the possibility to manipulate the kinetic mechanism and can direct future catalyst and experiment design in order to engineer desired polymer products.

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More details on the University of Minnesota lab explosion
by Nagy, Gabriela 04 Aug '14

04 Aug '14

Hello everyone, On June 17, an explosion in a chemistry lab at the University of Minnesota injured graduate student who was synthesizing trimethylsilyl azide. The explosion resulted in injuries and burns to his arm, side and injuries to his eardrum. For more details about this incident, please follow the link below. http://cenblog.org/the-safety-zone/2014/07/more-details-on-the-university-o… The American Chemical Society's Committee on Chemical Safety developed in 2013 a document with comprehensive guidelines on identifying and evaluating hazards in research laboratories. Please follow the link below to access this document and use these guidelines when developing SOPs or hazard assessments for new or modified experiments. http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/about/governance/committees/chemicals… Thank you for your commitment to safety! Sincerely, Gabriela On behalf of the ChE safety Committee ________ Gabriela Nagy, PhD Industrial Education Director ChE Safety Committee Chair School of Chemical Engineering Room FRNY G051 Purdue University Tel: (765)-496-1710 E-mail: nagyg(a)purdue.edu<mailto:nagyg@purdue.edu>

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This Afternoon (IMPORTANT)
by Hayden, Amy L. 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

Good Morning, This afternoon the business office will be closed from 2-5 pm for staff to attend College of Engineering Quarterly meeting. We will return on Monday morning. If you have any urgent items please contact chebo(a)purdue.edu<mailto:chebo@purdue.edu>. Thank you, Amy Hayden Account Clerk Purdue University 480 Stadium Mall Dr West Lafayette, IN Phone: 765-494-4072 Fax: 765-494-4073 hayden(a)purdue.edu

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Staff Retreat July 25
by Farmus, Cristina D 25 Jul '14

25 Jul '14

This afternoon most staff in our School will attend a retreat off campus. The main office will remain open. For any emergencies please see Chris Murray in the main office or call my cell phone at 765-430-6067. Regards, Cristina Cristina Farmus Managing Director Chemical Engineering Purdue University 765 494 0027 cfarmus(a)purdue.edu<mailto:cfarmus@purdue.edu>

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Reminder - Atom unavailable Wed 8pm - Thurs 8am
by Harrington, Michael P 23 Jul '14

23 Jul '14

A reminder that ChE's main server "Atom" will be unavailable from 8pm Wednesday evening until 8am Thursday morning so the operating system, can be upgraded.. Please log out of your computers before you leave for the day on Wednesday. Also if you try to log into your supported machines before 8am it is very possible you will see serious problems. If you have a self-supported machine or a non-Windows machine you may not see as many issued but be away that any connections you have to Atom will not work between 8pm Wednesday and 8am Thursday. If your email service is on Atom it will also be down during that time. If you have an Exchange or "MyMail" account it should continue to function. -Mike Harrington ******************** Mike Harrington Computer Facilities Manager ECN/Chemical Engineering Purdue University 765-494-6428 mph(a)purdue.edu

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FW: Call for Nominations for Engineering Staff Awards
by Farmus, Cristina D 23 Jul '14

23 Jul '14

Dear Colleagues, Please let me know before the end of the month if you plan to nominate someone from our School for the COE staff awards. The nominations are due by September 3; we intend to coordinate this process for the School to ensure we nominate people in each category: - Leadership - Professional achievement - Customer service AP - Customer service clerical - New employee - Team. Thank you, Cristina From: Engap-list [mailto:engap-list-bounces@ecn.purdue.edu] On Behalf Of Kokini, Klod Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 1:50 PM To: engcs-list(a)ecn.purdue.edu; engap-list(a)ecn.purdue.edu; engfac-list(a)ecn.purdue.edu Subject: [engap-list] Call for Nominations for Engineering Staff Awards Dear Colleagues, The call for nominations for the thirteenth annual Awards of Excellence for Engineering Staff is announced at: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Intranet/Groups/Administration/AA/Awards/Nom…. Please review the nomination categories and selection criteria, then nominate deserving members of your A/P and C/S staff! Nominations are due by September 3, 2014, and should be sent electronically to Marsha Freeland<mailto:mjfreeland@purdue.edu>. Past nominations may be carried over for one year following the initial submission. Nominators will be contacted the second year and will be provided the option of putting the nominee forward a second time, as well as an opportunity to update. The recipients will be recognized at the Staff Awards Banquet which will take place at 6:30 p.m. on November 7, 2014, so be sure to mark your calendars. Thank you for taking the time to nominate your colleagues and recognize their achievements. Best regards, Klod Klod Kokini Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Professor of Mechanical Engineering College of Engineering 765/494-5349

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