Month: December 2015

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Eric Davis has joined the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering this Fall as an Assistant Professor.

Dr. Davis received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University and his Ph.D. from Drexel University. Prior to accepting his position at Clemson, Dr. Davis held a postdoctoral research appointment at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States Department of Commerce in Maryland. Dr. Davis’ postdoctoral research focused on two main projects: measure and model both structure and water transport in hybrid membranes used for vanadium flow batteries, and investigate the effect of confinement on water diffusion in Nafion thin films used in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Both projects have yielded high-impact results for the energy storage/delivery community and helped deepen the understanding of water transport in ionomer membranes.

At Clemson, Professor Davis’ research will be centered on the fundamental relationship between polymer structure, transport phenomena, and polymer physics. His current research focuses on the development of structure-processing-property relationships of polymer membranes for energy storage and delivery applications including fuel cells and redox flow batteries, as well as membranes for water desalination and moisture barrier applications. In these efforts, Dr. Davis hopes to shed light on polymer physics phenomena, as well as aid in the development of next-generation polymer membranes for a number of real-world applications.

Dr. Davis assisted with teaching Unit Operations II and, in the spring, will teach Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer.

On October 17th, ChBE hosted its annual Homecoming Tailgate.    We had classes represented from 1964 through 2015.     During the tailgate, the Class of 1985 held their 30th Class Reunion, which was organized with the help of their fellow classmate, Don Cain.  Many of them had not been in Earle Hall since they graduated so they enjoyed touring the building and catching up on news with their classmates.      Pictured above from the Class of 1985 are Don Cain, Steve Strickland, Brent Bailey, Kim Bowers, Susan Wilson, Brad Gantt, Bob Jones, and Ron Sassard.    Other classmates present were Sim Hogan and Tom Monaghan.     A special thank you to all of our alumni and their families who attended.

Graduate students Adam Klett and Juan Wang received AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Research Awards at the recent AIChE Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. They each received a plaque and $200. Adam’s advisor is Dr. Mark Thies, and Juan’s advisor is Dr. Scott Husson.
The AIChE Separations Division award honors students who have a high level of interest in the field of separations, have strong work ethics, and are the primary author on a research paper that has contributed to separations fundamentals or applications and has been published or accepted. The purpose of the award is to encourage graduate students to excel and to identify future leaders in the separations field.

Dr. Mark Blenner, Assistant Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, recently received an Early Career Faculty Award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study microbial synthesis of nutraceuticals and materials to enable long-term space exploration. The project entitled “Synthetic Biology for Recycling Human Waste into Nutraceuticals and Materials: Closing the Loop for Long-Term Space Travel” was among 8 awards NASA has selected to study innovative, early stage technologies that will address high-priority needs of America’s space program. The award funds 3 years of research for $600,000.

It is impractical for astronauts to travel with all necessary supplies in future long-term space exploration missions. Therefore, it is imperative that technologies enabling the production of food, nutraceuticals, medicine, and materials from extraterrestrial resources are developed. These resources found in space include minerals and feedstocks found on distant bodies, waste generated by humans and space shuttle operation, and solar energy. Together with synthetic biology-driven technology for engineering microorganisms that can reliably, efficiently, and flexibly utilize such “in situ resources”, astronauts will be able to generate the food, nutraceuticals, medicine, and materials they need to carry out their mission. Due to potential uncertainty in resource availability, this proposal focuses on engineering yeast to convert respiration carbon dioxide, algae biomass, and human urine into nutritional omega-3 fats and 3D printable plastics. The technology developed through this project will not only be limited to applications in space. The Blenner Research Group is also interested in figuring out how to convert municipal and industrial waste streams into more valuable products, such as biofuels, and renewable lubricants and plasticizers. The lessons learned from utilizing space waste may be translated to developing new bioprocesses on earth.

NASA’s Early Career Faculty efforts are an element of the agency’s Space Technology Research Grants Program. This program is designed to accelerate the development of technologies originating from academia that support the future science and exploration needs of NASA, other government agencies, and the commercial space sector.

Dr. Sarupria and her fellow researchers at Clemson in collaboration with Dr. Ilenia Battiato at San Diego State University were awarded a $1.2 million ($970K to Clemson) DMREF research grant from NSF entitled “DMREF: An integrated multiscale modeling and experimental approach to design fouling-resistant membranes.”

The research team at Clemson includes Drs. Sarupria, Scott Husson (Chemical Engineering), and David Ladner (Environmental Engineering). Dr. Sarupria will provide the molecular modeling expertise, Dr. Husson is an expert in membrane design and synthesis, and Dr. Ladner is an expert on membrane based water treatment processes.

The project addresses a grand challenge facing society today — how to make clean water available to a growing population at low cost. Membranes used in water treatment processes are exposed to feed waters containing organic, inorganic, and biological species, which lead to fouling and loss of membrane productivity over time. Fouling propensity of a membrane depends greatly on its surface properties such as chemistry and morphology. The goal of this project is to develop the multiscale mathematical framework to predict fouling behavior on the surfaces of membranes with different geometric patterns and chemical coatings. The ability to predict fouling properties of new membrane surfaces in silico will accelerate the discovery of novel membrane designs and decrease the time from lab- to-market.

For video and articles related to this research, please go the following links:

http://www.wyff4.com/news/research-aimed-at-making-it-easier-cheaper-to-get-clean-water/35161954

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/money/business/2015/09/08/clemson-grant-water-filter-research/71885180/

http://wach.com/news/education/clemson-gets-970000-grant-to-aid-in-safe-water-practices

http://www.independentmail.com/news/clemson-awarded-grant-to-develop-filter-to-improve-drinking-water_09021578

https://upstatetoday.com/2015/09/cu-researchers-receive-970k-grant/

Professor Mark Thies was elected Fellow in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and was honored at the organization’s annual meeting in November. Dr. Thies is a Dow Chemical Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Election as Fellow recognizes “service to the profession” and “significant professional accomplishment.” Contribution in one of these areas must be outstanding, and some contribution in both areas is necessary. The institute has more than 45,000 members and lists 877 Fellows on its website. That puts Fellows in the top 2 percent of the organization. “This honor reaffirms the high esteem with which your colleagues and peers view your distinctive professional achievements and accomplishments,” according to an award statement the institute sent to Thies.

Thies has been on the Clemson faculty since 1985. He is the author of more than 80 refereed journal publications, three patents, and three book chapters, and has directed more than $12 million in externally funded research. Douglas Hirt, chairman of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, said Thies’s election was a well-deserved honor. “Election as Fellow is outside recognition that recipients are highly accomplished and are among the world’s top chemical engineers,” Hirt said.

Thies’ research interests include thermodynamics, phase behavior, and separations, with an emphasis on the application of supercritical fluids to the fractionation and molecular characterization of poorly defined, oligomeric systems. Current systems of interest include lignin and liquid crystalline PAH oligomers for energy and materials applications.
(excerpts from article written by Paul Alongi, College of Engineering and Science)