Texas A&M Engineering News

Tamamis receives NIH grant to study potential therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and type 2 diabetes

Mon, 22 Jan 2018 00:00:00 CST

Dr. Phanourios Tamamis, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been awarded a grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his research on potential therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and type 2 diabetes.

Amyloid-β, α-synuclein and islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) self-assemble into amyloids – abnormal intracellular or extracellular deposition of proteins as fibrils – associated with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and type 2 diabetes, respectively. As increasing evidence supports an amyloid formation molecular link between the three molecules in the diseases, therapeutic approaches that focus on blocking single amyloidogenic proteins may not be sufficient. Rather than fighting any one particular protein, an approach that fights the formation of amyloids formed by the three proteins independently or together (in the case that combinations of two or three of these amyloid proteins cross-seed) will be more beneficial, and for example, it can be considered a most promising and efficient direction for the future effective treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in place of molecules binding to Αβ only.

One of the proposed approaches to inhibit amyloid formation formed by the three proteins is through β-wrapin dimeric proteins, which bind, sequester and ultimately inhibit amyloid formation, eliminating the threat posed by the three proteins - this is pictured above: a β-wrapin dimeric protein (red and black) "wrapping" and sequestering the amyloidogenic monomer IAPP (blue) involved diabetes type 2. Two recently discovered β-wrapin protein variants, AS10 and ZSYM73, may pave the way for future therapeutic approaches. AS10 is a β-wrapin variant that targets all three amyloidogenic proteins; ZSYM73 targets the amyloid-β protein with a very high affinity.

Tamamis’ funded project “Computational Design of Novel β-wrapins Targeting and Sequestering Amyloid, a-synuclein and IAPP,” will use computational methods to understand the function of the β-wrapins’ binding to the amyloidogenic proteins. Tamamis will then use this knowledge to design single- and multi-targeted β-wrapins with the highest recorded affinity and optimized specificity for amyloid-β, α-synuclein and IAPP, as potential novel therapeutics.

The design of highly potent β-wrapins multi-targeting all proteins, Αβ, α-syn and IAPP, can be considered a promising and efficient direction for the future effective treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease in place of molecules binding to Αβ only. To accomplish this, Tamamis’ lab will use molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations, and develop novel transformative computational design tools for the design of multi-targeted therapeutics.

In this study, researchers from Tamamis’ lab will collaborate with Dr. Wolfgang Hoyer at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, a world-leading authority in sequestering amyloid proteins using β-wrapins. The successfully designed β-wrapins will be experimentally validated by Hoyer’s lab for their capacity to constitute seeds of potential therapeutics for Alzheimer’s diseases, Parkinson’s disease and type 2 diabetes.

They published a paper with Hoyer on “Uncovering the Binding and Specificity of β-Wrapins for Amyloid-β and α-Synuclein” (J. Phys. Chem. B, 2016, 120 (50), pp 12781–12794), which paves the ground for the funded project by the NIH.

Hasan awarded prestigious ACS PRF grant aimed at tapping underutilized gas resources

Mon, 27 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

Dr. M.M. Faruque Hasan, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) Doctoral New Investigator Award for research that could benefit the entire energy sector and the natural gas industry.

Hasan’s funded project, “Modular Process Intensification of Methane Separation, Storage and Conversion,” could potentially open up large swaths of resources currently not being used in these industries.

Currently there are many different natural gas sources that are not being utilized, such as stranded natural gas, associated gas, distributed shale gas, landfill gas, biogas and fuel gas, to name a few. These gas sources are often small, regionally distributed and unused for a number of different reasons, all related to cost benefit. In most cases, these gases are just flared to avoid operational and environmental consequences. They often contain impurities at widely different concentrations, and the overall composition of these resources varies from source to source. Using the traditional method of transporting the raw gas through a pipeline to a distant processing plant is a significant investment, one that does not make financial sense for the quantities of gasses at these disparate sources.

Hasan’s research will use advanced process intensification methods, optimization theory and algorithms to discover modular technologies that will turn this problem into opportunity. Specifically, Hasan will employ a novel process intensification method developed in his research group that combines multiple operations into a single multifunctional unit. The goal is to develop modular technology that achieves the same performance of all of the processes that normally take place at a gas processing and conversion plant using less equipment. In this particular case, converting methane and/or other natural gasses into hydrogen, the raw gas has to be treated many different times using many different processes before it is converted into pure hydrogen. Hasan hopes to combine all of these different processes into one multifunctional gas technology.

“You don’t want to have a huge pipeline connecting all of these different gas sources, that is a huge investment that does not make sense,” said Hasan. “The solution is to go to these sources, not just to collect the gas, but to produce chemicals on-site.”

While modular process intensification is not a new concept, the costs associated with the current technologies are quite high. There are many different reasons for the high cost, but they are mostly due to poor economies-of-scale. Hasan is working from the other direction. By starting out with multifunctional and intensified equipment at smaller scales, Hasan will be designing completely novel technology for a completely novel process.

“Our methodology based on rigorous design and optimization theory and screening algorithms shows a lot of promise for discovering innovative processes without really waiting for a eureka moment,” said Hasan.

One such technology discovered in Hasan’s lab for integrated carbon capture and conversion has recently resulted in a patent application. Hasan has also had success in leading the frontier of process intensification research. He is currently the principal investigator of a National Science Foundation grant, and is one of the co-principal investigators in the RAPID Institute Project, a $4.2 million project led by the Texas A&M Energy Institute. Last year, Hasan was invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineering EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. He was also awarded the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Department of Energy-Oak Ridge Associated Universities in 2015.

Lutkenhaus selected as Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow and named ACS Rising Star

Tue, 07 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

In September Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus, associate professor and holder of the William and Ruth Neely Faculty Fellowship in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, delivered a lecture at the Japanese-American-German Frontiers of Science Symposium in Bad Neuenahr, Germany.

The symposium was hosted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, The National Academy of Sciences and the Kavli Foundation.

Lutkenhaus presented a lecture titled, “Plastic Power: Organic Polymer Batteries,” in which she discussed the functions and opportunities of energy storage platforms, primarily consisting of polymers. Along with presenting this lecture, Lutkenhaus was also named a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow.

Later in the month, Lutkenhaus received a tremendous honor from the American Chemical Society (ACS). She was named a Women Chemists Committee (WCC) Rising Star. According to the ACS, the WCC Rising Star Award recognizes women scientists “approaching mid-level careers who have demonstrated outstanding promise for contributions to their respective fields.” Along with the award, all of the winners are invited to present at a symposium in their honor.

These are just the two latest in what is growing to be a tremendous number of awards for Lutkenhaus. In late 2016 she received the Van Ness Award from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In March of 2017, she was invited to participate in the World Economic Forum's Young Scientists Program. Also in March, Lutkenhaus and her collaborators’ work was featured on the cover of an issue of Advanced Materials Interfaces.

Engineering students and donors recognized at awards banquet

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

Engineering students were honored and donors recognized at the Texas A&M University College of Engineering Student Awards banquet Oct. 26.

The Craig C. Brown Outstanding Senior Engineer Award is the most prestigious honor bestowed on a graduating senior in the College of Engineering. The award is based on outstanding scholastic achievement, leadership and character.

Established in 2012, the Outstanding Graduate Student Award recognizes one master’s student and one doctoral student who have demonstrated excellence above and beyond usual levels of achievement.

The Craig C. Brown Outstanding Senior Engineer Award winners

Willie D. Caraway

Huntsville, Alabama

Mechanical Engineering

Caraway has a strong love of learning and loves synergizing disparate knowledge to create new solutions. Being named a University Scholar provided him with the opportunity to regularly interact with other highly motivated individuals to sharpen their skills in analytical thinking and synthesizing knowledge. He also had the opportunity to perform research with Dr. Henry Everitt at the Army Material Research, Development and Engineering Center, and Dr. Patrick Shamberger in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M. Caraway also participated in the Zachry Leadership Program, which helped him improve his leadership skills and business knowledge. He is also involved in many student organizations, including the Jordan Institute, Pi Tau Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi and the American Society of Engineers.

Kendal Ezell

Tomball, Texas

Biomedical Engineering

With the passion to help people with neurological diseases, Ezell has shown great promise to accomplish the goals she has set for herself. Through her undergraduate research in biomedical engineering and neuropsychology, involvement in extracurricular activities and coursework, she has excelled, maintaining a 4.0 GPA while in the engineering honors program. Not only has she represented Texas A&M in the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program, but she has also received Phi Kappa Phi’s Outstanding Junior Award and the Peter Chaplinsky Memorial Scholarship. Most recently Ezell participated in the National Institute of Health’s 2017 National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship. Through her research she hopes to serve as an example to women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and encourage them to break barriers.

Kanika Gakhar

Katy, Texas

Aerospace Engineering

Gakhar’s passion for science and engineering have defined her outstanding academic career at Texas A&M. She regularly searches for opportunities in which she can build upon and strengthen her leadership and creativity. With these skills, she has helped design autonomous vehicles and build radio controlled aircrafts with heavy lifting capabilities. Gakhar aspires to create the next generation of bioinspired flying vehicles. She has presented conference papers at the 2017 American Helicopter Society Forum and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics student conference. In various leadership roles, she advocates for undergraduate research by helping her fellow Aggies find research opportunities that interest them. As a University Fellow, she has launched a workshop-based project aimed to empower the underprivileged and H.U.B., an initiative to reform entrepreneurship on the Texas A&M campus.

Jonah Haefner

Roswell, New Mexico

Nuclear Engineering

Haefner is a dedicated and passionate leader in all aspects of his life. He is a member of the Corps of Cadets, and has spent the past year serving as first sergeant where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of 50 other cadets. He actively engages with faculty members and has worked in a thermal hydraulics laboratory for the past two years. Through the O.R. Simpson Honor Society, he helped freshman engineering students succeed in their first semesters at Texas A&M through mentorship and tutoring to prepare them for continued success. Over the last two summers, he split his time between shadowing naval officers on active duty warships and working at Los Alamos National Laboratory on projects for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Carson Muscat

Seabrook, Texas

Petroleum Engineering

Muscat has a passion for engineering and a great enthusiasm for making a lasting impression on the local community and Texas A&M. He has revamped programs to help more than 3,500 engineering freshmen make informed decisions for their academic futures and aided in extending the reach to the Engineering Academies. He has served as an engineering student ambassador for three years and has talked to hundreds of prospective students about Texas A&M. Most recently, Muscat was the student leader for the Engineering Career Fair, the largest student-run fair in the nation. He has been awarded many academic honors, including the Dr. Dan Turner Engineering Leadership Award, the Academic Excellence Award, and being named a President’s Endowed Scholar and BP Student Scholar.

Dakota Plesa

Arlington, Texas

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Plesa is a first-generation college student who has made the most of his time at Texas A&M by not only focusing on academics, but also by forging lasting relationships with his fellow Aggies. He applied the skills he learned in the classroom to solving problems on campus, such as implementing a new organizational structure for the Memorial Student Center (MSC), and in international case competitions, such as at McGill University. Plesa was among the first non-business students to participate in the Mays Business Fellows Program, where he proved himself to be a highly effective member of his Fellows team and invested considerable time in developing relationships with his peers. He participated in the Jordan Institute, and served as vice president of programs and executive vice president of programs in the MSC.

Melissa Potts

Austin, Texas

Chemical Engineering

Potts attributes her success at Texas A&M to hard work. She balances membership in numerous activities and organizations with her studies. That dedication and persistence led her to success in Dr. Mark Holtzapple’s class— which at the time, she was the only freshman in the class. Through her determination and hard work, Potts was one of the few students who continued to work on a paper that would later be submitted to the Odebrecht Award for Sustainability. She continued working with Holtzapple the next year, spending about nine hours a week in the research lab on the MixAlco process, a technology that transforms waste biomass into fuels and industrial chemicals. Potts also shared her knowledge with her fellow Aggies, serving as a teaching assistant.

Kyle Wiggs

Weatherford, Texas

Mechanical Engineering

For Wiggs, engagement has been the key to his experience at Texas A&M. During his first year at Texas A&M, he was an active member in the Aggie Band, as well as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has spent the last two years of his college career in leadership. As first sergeant of the 0.R. Simpson Honor Society, he created new events, such as “Dinner with your Major,” where cadets were instructed to eat dinner with other cadets within their major to encourage engagement between students of the same departments. Within ASME and his Corps unit, he has served as a mentor to other students, helping them find leadership opportunities and experiences.

2017 College of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Joshua Harris

M.S. Candidate

Aerospace Engineering

Harris has proven himself to be an outstanding scholar and researcher. He is a master’s student in aerospace engineering, and works in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory at Texas A&M. His master’s research investigates a new theory and approach for intelligent control and integrated health management of complex systems, both manned and unmanned. Harris was awarded the 2017 Federal Aviation Administration PEGASAS General Aviation Center of Excellence Outstanding Student Researcher. He was also one of only 10 recipients of the National Defense Science Engineering Graduate Fellowships in 2014, in addition to the 2013 NASA Aeronautics Scholarship. Only 20 students nationally from all majors receive this NASA honor. Harris has authored or co-authored two conference papers and two journal papers.

Jonathan Gigax

Ph.D. Candidate

Nuclear Engineering

Gigax is a well-rounded scholar: intellectually curious, hardworking and supportive of his colleagues and fellow Aggies. Over the past five years, Gigax has published 26 journal papers, while maintaining a perfect 4.0 grade point average. He has made significant contributions in radiation materials science toward materials development for high-performance nuclear reactors. He established standard procedures in accelerator testing, which significantly influenced other labs. Due to his findings, other labs (including University of Michigan, University of Tennessee and University of Wisconsin in Madison) have changed their testing procedures to follow the Texas A&M method. Gigax has also made significant contributions in developing radiation tolerant materials having nanoscale features and inclusions, including nanograined materials, multilayered composite materials and nanoprecipitate alloys.

The College of Engineering also recognized the following newly endowed scholarships:

Angela and James Hambrick ’78 Endowed Scholarship in the College of Engineering

Carolyn and A. Damon Gowan ‘58 Endowed Scholarship

Dana and James R. Heinze ‘83 Scholarship Elsie and Vance Fairchild ’89 Endowed Scholarship

ExxonMobil Aggies Engineering Endowed Scholarship

Jimmie and Geoffrey Pope Endowed Scholarship

Jo and Mike Hunn ’59 Scholarship

Marilyn ’99 and Stewart ’99 Robinson Scholarship

Michelle ’88 and Todd Steudtner ’87 Scholarship

Richard W. Burr ’62 and Charity B. Burr Scholarship

Shah Smith & Associates Scholarship

Sue Nobles and Elmer Eldridge Goins Engineering Scholarship

Terri and Keith Hawkins ’79 Scholarship

Lele awarded leading NIH grant to study how mechanical forces regulate intracellular signal amplification

Tue, 24 Oct 2017 00:00:00 CST

Dr. Pushkar Lele, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, was recently awarded a single-PI, research project grant (R01) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The R01 grant is one of the most sought after federal grants, and the leading NIH grant.

The grant, “Mechanical Regulation of Ultra-Sensitivity in E. Coli Flagellar Motors,” will allow Lele to expand upon his research on the sensing and intracellular transduction of mechanical signals in bacteria with the aid of extracellular appendages. One such appendage is the flagellum, which enables a bacterium to swim and navigate in response to chemical signals, a process that is known as chemotaxis. Lele and his research team have already shown that the flagellar motor, which operates the flagellum, is able to detect mechanical cues and undergoes structural changes. It is unclear how the structural and functional adaptations within motors facilitate chemotaxis, colonization and infections. With this grant, Lele and his team will explain how mechano-responses influence chemotaxis and swarming motility, two processes that likely aid in the detection and colonization of a solid surface.

“All living systems have highly sophisticated mechanisms that serve to amplify important environmental signals and to suppress noise,” Lele said. “It takes a lot of resources for a bacterium to colonize a surface, so it has to have some certainty about the signal. Otherwise it will have wasted a tremendous amount of energy.”

Specifically, Lele is interested in how the output of the chemotaxis network, a molecular switch, responds to mechanical cues. For decades it was believed that chemical inputs alone controlled the switch activity. However, Lele and his research team found that the cell must ‘tune’ its chemotactic output to mechanical signals in order to colonize a surface. That said, the mechanisms of such adaptation remain unclear. This is a crucial bit of missing information that Lele believes could help influence current clinical strategies for tackling infections and antibiotic resistance. Such potential breakthroughs may prove instrumental in the prevention of bacterial infections without triggering the pathogen’s defense mechanisms.

Lele’s receiving the grant is unique, R01 investigators under the age of 36 as a group make up around three percent of the award total, down from 18 percent in 1983, a decline that is even more pronounced when considering that the overall NIH funding for such investigators is 1.3 percent. Lele falls in a rare category of young investigators under the age of 35 to receive this award.

Lele is currently looking to hire postdoctoral researchers with experience with LabVIEW software. More information can be found in the job posting.

Lele and Jayaraman receive grant to study mechanical properties of carcinogenic bacteria

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 00:00:00 CST

It is estimated that nearly 60 percent of the world’s population carries Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a gram-negative bacterium that has been categorized as a class 1 carcinogen. Although a great majority of infected individuals will probably never develop symptoms or complications from the pathogen, an infection increases the risk of gastric cancer, as well as many other illnesses such as peptic ulcer disease and gastritis.

H. pylori infection is currently treatable with antibiotics, but there is a growing concern about the threat of antibiotic resistance. According to Dr. Pushkar Lele, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, this could become a major concern.

“Once someone contracts H. pylori it can persist lifelong unless the individual undergoes a combinative antibiotic course,” Lele said. “As bugs become more and more resistant to antibiotics, we might have a situation where a class 1 carcinogenic pathogen gains multidrug resistance. That is a medical nightmare in the making.”

Lele, along with Dr. Arul Jayaraman, holder of the Ray B. Nesbitt Chair in the chemical engineering department, has received a High Impact High Risk Awards grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to study a different approach to fighting H. pylori infections. The team, led by Lele, will study the flagellum – a string-like appendage that enables a bacterium to swim, and investigate its role as a sensor for mechanical cues that originate within the host.

According to Lele, understanding the process of sensing and how it promotes host colonization will provide vital insights that may help prevent H. pylori infections and avoid the possibility of increasing antibiotic resistance. This leads to the question of whether it is possible to manipulate or interfere with the sensing process without applying a strong selection pressure. And if the host can be camouflaged by interfering with sensing pathways, the bug could be defeated without triggering its defense mechanisms.

This study will look at two main questions. First, do H. pylori flagella act as mechanical sensors? Second, does the sensing trigger the secretion of toxins and/or other virulence factors that facilitate infections?

To answer the first question, Lele and his group will employ several microscopy-based mechanical stimulation assays and advanced image analysis techniques to measure functional-changes in single-motors of live H. pylori cells. The experiments are anticipated to reveal the mechanistic principles that govern the ability of cells to detect suitable habitats within the host.

Subsequently, Jayaraman and his team will grow gastric epithelium cells in vitro to test if mechanical sensing by the flagella leads to increased production of toxins and infection by H. pylori. According to Jayaraman, the collaboration between his group and Lele’s is a perfect combination of fundamental mechanistic studies and their application to problems in human health. Jayaraman adds that as Lele’s group comes up with different models to explain flagellar sensing in H. pylori, they will test them in an in-vitro model system, and the results will feed back to revise the hypothesis and models.

Ultimately, Lele and Jayaraman hope that a greater understanding of the mechanosensing properties of H. pylori will lead to a treatment that eliminates the reliance on antibiotics and that prevents the onset of gastric cancers.

Elabd appointed holder of the Joe M. Nesbitt Professorship in Chemical Engineering

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 00:00:00 CST

Dr. Yossef Elabd, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, was appointed holder of the Joe M. Nesbitt Professorship in Chemical Engineering effective Sept. 1, 2017. This is just the latest in a long list of titles and honors for Elabd.

This summer, Elabd received three National Science Foundation (NSF) awards and also served as a Fish Camp namesake (Session C, Color Purple). Last year, Elabd was named the associate department head and director of the undergraduate program in the department. Also in 2016, Elabd was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 2015 he was awarded a senior visiting fellowship at the University of Bologna in Italy, the world’s oldest university. In addition to these honors, Elabd has also received the NSF CAREER Award (2007-12), the DuPont Science and Engineering Award (2005-06), the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award (2004-07) and an NRC Postdoctoral Award (2001-03).

In addition to these appointments and awards, Elabd has also made significant advances with his research. In 2014 and 2016, Elabd’s research led to two patents on the synthesis of a new class of materials, polymerized ionic liquid block co-polymers, which are now being implemented in improving the efficiency and lower the cost in fuel cells and lithium ion batteries.

Balbuena and Seminario awarded DOE grant for battery study

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 00:00:00 CST

In July, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new $19.4 million investment in advanced vehicle technologies. The program includes Phase I of “Battery Seeding” projects, 15 projects aimed at innovative research in battery materials and approaches that complement the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Battery500 Consortium's multi-institutional research. This effort aims to more than double the specific energy, to 500 watt-hours per kilogram, of lithium-sulfur battery technologies. Ultimately, the goal of this research, and of the batteries, charging and electric vehicles segment of the VTO, is aimed at creating smaller, safer, lighter weight and less expensive battery packs to make electric vehicles more affordable.

Two faculty members in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, Dr. Perla Balbuena, holder of the GPSA Professorship, and Dr. Jorge Seminario, holder of the Lanatter & Herbert Fox Professorship, were awarded a $400,000 grant for 18 months to study the development of advanced solid electrolyte technology for lithium-sulfur batteries. In this work, set to begin in October, Balbuena and Seminario will use atomistic methods to identify and characterize solid electrolyte materials. The materials selected will be analyzed computationally, and will then be synthesized and tested at DOE national laboratory facilities. Further integrated computational and experimental tests will be used to fully address interfacial issues.

“One of the key issues with lithium-sulfur batteries is associated with the extreme reactivity of the lithium metal in contact with liquid electrolytes,” Balbuena said. “It is expected that the use of well-designed solid electrolytes will allow lithium ions to diffuse through the solids in a more controlled way.”

The design also requires a smooth interfacial contact with the metal surface and low reactivity. In addition, the electrolyte must also provide a stable interface to the sulfur electrode, where additional challenges exist and will be addressed.

The electrolyte composition and properties are essential for overall improved battery performance. This research demonstrates the progress in computational techniques, which are able to provide reliable characterizations and designs for advanced battery technologies.

In 2016, a team led by Balbuena, which also included Seminario and Dr. Partha Mukherjee, assistant professor and Morris E. Foster Faculty Fellow II in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M, was awarded a $1.2 million DOE grant to study and model battery reactions.

El-Halwagi publishes second edition of sustainable process design textbook

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 00:00:00 CST

Dr. Mahmoud El-Halwagi, managing director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Gas and Fuels Research Center, and holder of the McFerrin Professorship in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, recently published the second edition of his textbook, “Sustainable Design through Process Integration: Fundamentals and Applications to Industrial Pollution Prevention, Resource Conservation and Profitability Enhancement.” The textbook, published by Elsevier, covers fundamental concepts and practical techniques on the use of process integration to maximize the efficiency and sustainability of industrial processes.

Until recently, sustainability, as a concept, was based on subjective opinions and anecdotal solutions. In the past two decades, however, as the field of process integrations has grown, engineers and plant designers have begun to reevaluate fundamental concepts and techniques to maximize the efficiency and sustainability of industrial processes. This textbook covers the many topics that are central to the process integration field, including benchmarking process performance, identifying root causes of problems and opportunities for improvement, designing integrated solutions, enhancing profitability, conserving natural resources and preventing pollution. The second edition of the book has expanded to include recent and developing topics like water-energy nexus, multi-scale system optimization, industrial symbiosis and shale gas monetization.

Beyond covering and exploring the topics and trends surrounding process integration, the textbook is filled with numerous industrial examples and case studies. All of these examples draw directly from El-Halwagi’s more than 30 years of experience in academic research and industrial consulting.

According to El-Halwagi, the textbook offers a great potential to impact the broader engineering field, and helps spread the benefits of his experience and research on process integration.

“I take special pride in teaching these tools and techniques to our students because I believe that such methods will support their preparation in becoming superb engineers and in making a difference, not only to their future employers but to humanity at large,” said El-Halwagi. “This is particularly important for our students since most of them are employed by the chemical and energy industries. The textbook also helps me reach out to a broader audience of students and practicing engineers around the world.”

El-Halwagi has written two other widely used textbooks, co-edited six books, and co-authored more than 350 refereed papers and book chapters. El-Halwagi is a recipient of The American Institute of Chemical Engineers Sustainable Engineering Forum Research Excellence Award, the National Science Foundation's National Young Investigator Award, as well as many university-level awards.

More information on the book can be found on the Elsevier website.

Elabd awarded multiple NSF grants to investigate fuel cells

Tue, 19 Sep 2017 00:00:00 CST

This summer, Dr. Yossef Elabd, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, was awarded two new National Science Foundation (NSF) grants for integrating polymers into electrochemical devices, most notably fuel cells.

Elabd, associate department head, director of the undergraduate program and recently appointed holder of the Joe M. Nesbitt Professorship, is single principal investigator (PI) on the two grants, and he received a third NSF grant as a co-PI with Dr. Costas Kravaris as PI, also a professor in the chemical engineering department.

Elabd’s research focuses on the main incentive for fuel cell research, which is to apply the technology to vehicles. While there are numerous benefits to using fuel cells in vehicles, as opposed to the now standard battery powered vehicles, one stands out. According to Elabd, “The main benefit of the fuel cell is that the energy density is just so much higher than a battery - six times higher.”

In a nutshell, a fuel cell produces electric energy directly from an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Fuel cells use positive and negative electrodes, anodes and cathodes respectively, to move protons through an electrolyte polymer, converting the chemical fuel directly into electrical energy. Currently, the electrodes in fuel cells are primarily composed of platinum.

Platinum is one of the most expensive commodities on earth. The price of platinum is one of the primary limiting factors for the adoption of fuel cell technology. The two NSF grants will allow Elabd and his research group to look for a way around the platinum bottleneck.

The first grant “Nanomanufacturing of Three-Dimensional Nanofiber-Nanoparticle Electrodes for Ultra-low Platinum Fuel Cells,” aims to dramatically reduce the use of platinum in fuel cells. This grant will help Elabd further develop a new electrode manufacturing process. This process consists of electrospinning polymer fibers and electrospraying a catalyst to create a new nanofiber-nanoparticle electrode. These new electrodes currently produce nearly the same power density as the current standard electrode while using only around 16 percent the amount of platinum. This new grant will target reducing this platinum amount even further.

The second grant “Polymerized Ionic Liquid Multiblock Polymers as Anion Exchange Membranes for Alkaline Fuel Cells,” will build on Elabd’s research toward developing a novel class of fuel cell electrolytes. On the whole, the chemical structure and makeup of a fuel cell is determined by the electrolyte. Currently there are relatively few proven electrolytes, which limits the flexibility and variety of every other component of the cell. However, using polymerized ionic liquids as the electrolyte opens the door to the use of a wide variety of different chemistries in fuel cells, which also provides the ability to remove platinum completely from the equation.

While fuel cell vehicles may not currently have the same popularity as battery-powered electric vehicles, advancements in research that reduce cost could change all this because fuel cells have six times higher energy density compared to batteries, and vehicles with fuel cells are not limited by weight constraints, the same constraints that dramatically limit the range of current electric battery vehicles.