Technical Highlights: January 1997

Technical Highlights: January 1997 - September 1997 TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS

CenCITT Researcher, Dr. Rajit Gadh, of the University of Wisconsin has received a Second Year Continuing Award for the NSF Industrial Ecology Fellowships Funded by Lucent Technologies Foundation. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Lucent Technologies Foundation have awarded 18 grants to researchers across the nation to advance the emerging field of industrial ecology and to encourage businesses to integrate pollution prevention practices into their day-to-day operations. The grants will support an individual or group of researchers focusing on research or teaching to help industry design processes that prevent pollution and create environmentally friendly products. (Go to Status Report)

Beta versions of the CenCITT/MTU/M.W. Kellogg Constructability Tool have been completed and approved at The M.W. Kellogg Company. This tool is a multimedia system that will allow designers and construction manager teams to consider on site environmental issues during facility planning and design while simultaneously evaluating facility performance criteria. In addition, collaborative efforts related to The M.W. Kellogg/MTU Environmentally Conscious Design for Construction Tool have resulted in the establishment of a team and track record which is attracting new data sources and funding to expand the database with environmental/ safety/constructability technology appropriate for use by practicing facilities planners and designers. (Go to Status Report

The Boiler/Combustion Analysis software has been applied to the analysis of the Hillman Power Company facility which is a 20 MW generating plant fired with a combination of wood waste and tire derived fuel (TDF). The software was particularly useful in performing parametric studies related to the percentage of TDF in the fuel and the effect of the fuel composition on predicted sulfur dioxide emissions and fuel cost. Results of the study were reported at the 32nd Intersociety Energy Conversion Conference in July 1997. (Go to Status Report)

Significant progress has been made in the development of the Environmental Technologies Design Options Tools (ETDOTs) for CPAS. The ETDOTs contain several important treatment technologies that are used in CPAS to determine whether it is more economical to treat or prevent waste streams. The Adsorption Design Software (AdDesignS), Aeration System Analysis Program (ASAP), Software to Estimate Physical Properties (StEPP), and Fate of Volatile Organic compounds in wastewater treatment facilities (FaVOr) tools are in final external beta testing stage by over 70 professionals from industry, academia and government. Pending necessary revisions due to Beta Tester comments, these tools will be ready for commercial release in the spring of 1998. (Go to Status Report)

Additional ETDOT tools which are under development are showing great potential for application in environmentally friendly process and reactor research and design: Adsorption for the Recovery of Organics (AdRecover^TM), Advanced Oxidation Process Software (AdOx^TM), Multi-Phase Multi-Component Catalytic Reactor Software (CatReac^TM) , and Ion Exchange Process Model Software(IonEx^TM). AdOx may be used to estimate the chemical dosages, power and reactor sizes needed to destroy toxic organics in water. IonEx may be used to make routine calculations to evaluate this water treatment technology for reuse. CatReac may be used to design two and three phase separative reactors and it considers parallel and series reactions of multiple components. CatReac is an unsteady state model which can consider dispersion, external and internal diffusion within a catalyst particle. AdRecover may be used to design adsorption systems to recover organics from dilute fluid streams. (Go to Status Report)

The combination of theoretical and experimental methods for the elucidation of catalytic chemistry and design of catalysts is a top goal according to the report: Technology Vision 2020 - The U.S. Chemical Industry. Continued support of research toward the rational design of catalytic reactions has placed the research group of Dumesic, Cortright, and Rudd as leaders in achieving this goal. (Go to Status Report)

The activation of alkanes and in particular the partial oxidation of methane to methanol is also a top goal according to the report: Technology Vision 2020 - The U.S. Chemical Industry. CenCITT is funding Carr's Group at Minnesota and they have developed a separative reactor that has more than doubled the previously observed selectivity for methanol production. This work builds on Carr's previous success in developing a separative reactor for the oxidative coupling of methane to make ethene. (Go to Status Report

Continued research has increased the fraction of lignin to 100% in kraft lignin-based plastics. These plastics have tensile properties comparable to those produced earlier under CenCITT research with only 85% kraft lignin. (Go to Status Report)

Beta Versions of databases to provide failure rate data for various pieces of equipment and failure mode information for major process equipment have been completed. These tools will provide accident probability that is essential in estimating risk. These tools will supplement the Fire and Explosion Index software reported previously and under evaluation by Dow Chemical Company. (Go to Status Report)

Results in the disassembly of a dash board from a Ford Taurus have revealed that by appropriately sequencing the disassembly, the disassembly cost could be reduced, thereby resulting in more economically attractive recycling. (Go to Status Report)