Chemical Engineering capstone

Team members: Zainab Ishfaq, Sogand Shookohi, Ola Adebayo, Maya Fik, and Dylan Atreo Faculty advisor: Dr. Jake Nease Industry partner: Emerson Project Description: An exploration of an industrial process which manufactures steel while implementing carbon-reduction strategies and units; otherwise engineering a steel-manufacturing process which is ESG-conscious. Additionally, the project explores the applicability, feasibility, and implement-ability of various alternative sustainable fuels (Green H2, Blue H2, RNG). In collaboration with Adam Toma of Emerson.

Team members: Agustina Gallegos, Katherine Goetz, Myles Harrison, Jorge Lopez Faculty advisor: Dr. Jake Nease Industry partner: Hatch Ltd. Project Description: The iron and steel industry accounts for 9% of global carbon emissions. This project focuses on the decarbonization of this industry by exploring end-of-pipe solutions. The proposed design uses chemical looping combustion and membrane separations in the basic oxygen furnace to capture carbon for sequestration and minimize the emissions being emitted to the atmosphere.

Team members: Fabiola Gonzalez Rios, Anjuli Joachim, Lauren LaValley, Sara Milla, Melissa Vu Faculty advisor: Dr. Drew Higgins Industry partner: Heat Transfer Solutions (HTS) Project Description: The project consists of an Excel-based energy model and lifecycle cost analysis that can be applied during the design process of new buildings. The energy model will show emissions and costing data for both heat pump and boiler systems, to provide the consultant with both the environmental and financial benefits to heat pumps. The Excel-based model can be used by our industry partner, HTS to present to clients to show how heat pump type, location, water and air temperatures, and other various inputs will impact the total cost savings and carbon reduction over the equipment’s lifetime.

Team members: Jamie Koscak, Kathy Hua, Jagan Palraj, Krishna Prakash, Moses Barriffe Faculty advisor: Dr. Vincent Leung Industry partner: Ripple Therapeutics Project Description: Design and creation of a USP Type-4 Flow-Through Cell Device. With this apparatus, a continuous simulated medium can be pumped from a reservoir into a vertical column (the cell), which contains the implant/drug test articles for agitated release. The contacted medium will then flow into a sample collector that allows for a continuous concentration sampling via HPLC/UV-VIS for increased drug clearance estimation times, determination of kinetic release rates, and utilization of In-VItro-In-Vivo Correlations (IVIVCs).

Team members: Jenna Bullard, Kieran McKenzie, Danny Nguyen, Yusra Rao, Emma Seese Faculty advisor: Dr. Drew Higgins Industry partner: AI Materia Project description: Availability and quality of materials data and properties have a critical impact on the accuracy of data-driven materials design and development. However, materials data sets from experimental and computational measurements tend to be small, sparse, noisy, and expensive. This project will study materials properties for the design of additive manufacturing materials to propose a method for 1) predicting missing materials data and 2) searching for erroneous entries and 3) comparing the methodology to different approaches.

Team Members: Carmine Spedaliere, Michael Alemayehu, Tanya Hodkinson, James Kraliz, Ammar Lodhi Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Latulippe Industry Partner: Solvay Project Description: Solvay’s Welland site specializes in the production of phosphine and phosphine derivatives for use in mining, semiconductor manufacturing, and pharmaceutical development. Currently the facility utilizes vessels of granular activated carbon (GAC) to scrub environmentally damaging and hazardous chemical contaminants from reactor vent streams, while the GAC performs extremely well in preventing contaminant release to the environment the process has flaws. The disposal of contaminant saturated GAC is costly, dangerous for operators, and environmentally damaging, as such Solvay has tasked the team with developing a system to either replace the GAC beds entirely, or regenerate the activity of the GAC in situ to extend it’s usable lifetime and lessen the hazards posed by it’s disposal to operators and the environment.

Team Members: Flora Liu, Yue Tan, Karen Yang, Amber Zhang, Susu Zhang Faculty Advisor: Dr. Shelir Ebrahimi Industry Partner: Veolia Water Technologies Project Description: In 2040, the designed capacity of Hamilton’s wastewater treatment plant needs to be increased from the current 409,000 cubic m/day to 502,000 cubic m/day. If the amount of incoming wastewater exceeds the treatment capacity, the surplus would be directly discharged into the natural water bodies with insufficient treatment, which would put the health of the environment, humans, and wildlife at risk. Partnering with Veolia Water Technologies, this project aims to upgrade and expand the Woodward Avenue wastewater treatment plant to address this situation.

Project Title: Heavy Water Upgrading System Design Project Team Members: Katherine Zapata, Elody Julien, Kerstin Leitzinger, Yae Ji Kwon Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kamil Khan Industry Partner: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Project Description: The scope of the project is to design a combined electrolysis and catalytic exchanger also known as a heavy water upgrading system which will service a four unit CANDU nuclear station. This project will involve designing two heavy water upgraders: one for the Heat Transport System and one for the Moderator System. The designs for both upgraders will be similar but have different capacities.

Team Members: Emily Izzotti, Parizad Katila, Lara Musharbash, Afaf Sohail, Michelle Yip Faculty Advisor: Dr. Todd Hoare Industry Partner: Oligomaster Brief project description: Current wound-care adhesives can be irritating to those with Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) who have fragile skin and can contain harmful substances like carcinogens which can lead to health concerns. Polysaccharides such as guar-gum derived from plants can be considered to improve the sustainability of the product along with minimizing damage upon removal from skin.

Team Members: Phuc Michael Nguyen, Rifat Khan, Kavitha Sivanathan, Zisang Yan, Alexander Widla Faculty Advisor: Dr. Todd Hoare Industry Partner: Oligomaster Project Description: This project proposes the design of a PVC recycling plant for the specific application of recycling PVC roofing membranes. In this process the PVC will be selectively dissolved using a chloroform solvent and will be precipitated out using water as an antisolvent. The resulting pure PVC material will have physical and mechanical properties comparable to virgin PVC which will allow for higher concentrations of recycled material to be reincorporated into the formulation of new roofing membranes.

Team Members: Aimen Aleem, Barry Chen, Spencer Cetinic, Arjunan Rathakrishnan Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kamil Khan Industry Partner: HATCH Project Description: The simulation-based design process of an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant will be optimized and automated using GPS-X and metaheuristic optimization algorithms implemented in Python. The current wastewater design process at HATCH is laborious and time intensive. It requires iterations of simulations to arrive at a preliminary design that meets all effluent metrics. The primary goal of the optimization algorithm is to be able to take in the process design and automatically produce the parameters needed to satisfy the design objectives provided.

Team Members: Karunpaul Lottey, Seemaab Yousuf, Stephen Gobrial, Thomas Varghese, Zachary Burley Faculty Advisor: Dr. Vincent Leung Industry Partner: Stelco Holdings Inc. Project Description: With the utilization of in house biomass creation using several pyrolysis units, reduce the CO2 emissions within an integrated steel plant. Also investigate the logistics behind how to get the material for pyrolysis units into Stelco.