Extraction of Acetoin from Fermentation Broth
Avery Francis, Collette Riviere, Allie Stormer, Rachel Wallace
To enhance sugar beet processing profitability, this project focuses on recovering valuable coproducts from beet molasses fermentation. Acetoin, a precursor to 2,3-butanediol (BDO), was extracted using a “salting-out” method with acetone and dipotassium phosphate, achieving a 97.85% recovery rate. Computational modeling in Aspen Plus simulated the industrial-scale extraction, separation, and catalytic conversion of acetoin to BDO, evaluating efficiency, cost, and environmental impact. Economic analysis suggests that with a $2.7 million investment, the process could yield an annual profit of $31.1–$32.5 million, making it a highly viable industrial venture. Additionally, BDO’s application as a fuel additive has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 3.5 million kg per year, offering both economic and environmental benefits. By transforming low-value beet byproducts into high-value chemicals and clean fuel alternatives, this process could significantly improve the sustainability and profitability of sugar manufacturing.
Analyzing D246A Foaming Additive Performance in Cement Mixtures
Emily Campo, James Cockerham, Brenda Ellis, Anthony Nguyen
Our project aims to determine if D246A, a combined foaming agent and foam stabilizer, can replicate the performance of the current mixture of D139 (foam stabilizer) and F104 (foaming agent), where D139 is going obsolete. Through passing API standards, D246A can be approved by clients and SLB will be able to reduce costs of material by 13%.
Pyrolysis Oil Treatment Design and Optimization for Chemical Recycling Feedstock
Neil Budge, Robbie Eschete, Trinity Hixson-Wells, AC Nussbaum
Oil produced from the pyrolysis of post-consumer waste plastics (py-oil) is being investigated as a sustainable feedstock for chemical recycling and steam cracking into olefins, but contaminants within may lead to equipment fouling and unwanted products.
The py-oil must meet the specifications of the debutanized gasoline (DNG) that is the current steam cracker feedstock. This involves reducing the levels of olefins and unwanted impurities while also breaking down longer hydrocarbon chains. The proposed treatment process consists of a hydrocracker, hydrotreater, two-step acid gas treatment, and final distillation column. The process is modelled in Aspen HYSYS and applied to py-oil compositions from Company A and Company B. The final simulation produces a product stream from Company A that meets the specifications of DNG. Company B’s product stream has its contaminants removed but has low API gravity and paraffin content and a high final boiling point.
Toby Mendels, Charlie Everhart, Kiley Marandino
The energy demand required to run data centers is especially taxing on our power grids and environment. Thus, as societal reliance on data centers is exponentially increasing, finding more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to cool them has become a main goal at UDI. They have created a novel non-water-based coolant they hope will be more effective and environmentally friendly than other coolants currently used in industry. The objective of this project is to model their coolant through components of a cooling system to determine its effectiveness and how its viscosity impacts performance. Using open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling applications, OpenFoam, and ParaView, water, PG25 and Cargill Nature Cool – a coolant with properties very similar to their novel coolant – were simulated through a manifold pipe. Temperature, velocity, and pressure profiles of all coolants were produced to compare performance and determine if the experimental fluid can be effective.
