March 2003

CHAUDHURY QUOTED IN SCIENCE NEWS
                                  
Waterproof Coats: Materials Repel Water with Simplicity, Style

Manoj K. Chaudhury, professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh, was quoted in an article on two new promising finds in the world of waterproofing. Research from Japan shows that water-repellant materials can also be decorative, and Turkish researchers have discovered a way to convert plastic into a new type of cheap, easily produced waterproofing. When asked about the process used by Zhong-Ze Gu of the Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology in Japan to develop the brightly-colored superhydrophobic coating, Chaudhury said, "It's a very clever trick."

Read the entire article at:

http://www.sciencenews.org/20030301/fob4.asp

ChE faculty and students active at annual AIChE meeting

Three dozen faculty and students from the department of chemical engineering (ChE) attended the 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers recently in Indianapolis.

Ten professors presented papers and led sessions. These included Mohamed El-Aasser (dean of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science), Gary Poehlein (interim department chair), Hugo Caram, John Chen, William Hencke, James Hsu, Mayuresh Kothare, William Luyben, Harvey Stenger and Israel Wachs.

Caram co-chaired a session on “Solids Handling and Processing” and was co-author of a paper presented by Guillermo A. Viecco, graduate student in ChE, that was titled “The Reverse Flow Chromatographic Reactor: RFCR.” Chen chaired a session on “Future Developments for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers” and gave a paper titled “Scale-Up of Heat Transfer Processes In Fluidized Beds.” Hencke took part in the Student Job Search and Career Workshop and presented a session on “Interviewing Tips.”

Hsu was co-author of three papers presented by a colleague. The papers were titled “Design and Scale-Up of a Polymer Foaming Process Development Unit,” “Novel Supercritical Fluid Extraction Process for Extraction of Natural Products,” and “Extraction of Natural Ingredients from Natural Feedstocks.” Hsu also gave a keynote address on “Chemical Engineering in the Life Sciences” at the Chinese-American Chemical Society while attending the conference.

Stenger gave a paper titled “Methanol Decomposition and Steam Reforming over Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 Catalyst,” that he co-authored with Yongtaek Choi, a graduate student in ChE. Wachs co-chaired a session on “Fundamentals of Oxide Catalysis” and presented a paper titled “Molecular Engineering of Metal Oxide Catalysts.” He was co-author of a second paper, “Selective Oxidesulfurization of CH3SH, COS and CS2 over Supported Metal Oxide Catalysts,” that was presented by Sukwon Choi, a graduate student in ChE. Wachs organized and chaired a National Science Foundation workshop on “Environmentally Benign Process Research Needs.” He and Choi presented three papers at the workshop: “Summary of the EPA 2000 Toxics Release Inventory,” “Pollution and Solutions for the Pulp and Paper Industry” and “Recommendations of the NSF Workshop on Environmentally Benign Process Research Needs.” Wachs also took part in a round table discussion on “Rational Catalyst Design.”

Luyben, who is co-director of the Chemical Process Modeling and Control Research Center (PMC), was co-author of three papers presented at the conference. “Steady-State Economic Comparison of Alternative Tubular Reactor Systems” was presented by Phisit Jaisathaporn, “Plantwide Control of Continuous Multiproduct Processes” was presented by Kulchanat Kapilakarn, and “Plantwide Control of a TAME Reactive Distillation Processes” was presented by Muhammad AlArfaj, all of whom are or were graduate students in ChE.

Kothare, the PMC’s other co-director, co-chaired a session on “Advances in Process Control” and co-authored five papers. “Efficient Schedules Stabilizing Output Feedback Model Predictive Control for Constrained Nonlinear Systems” was presented by Zhaoyang Wan, graduate student in ChE. "Modeling, Design and Control of Silicon based Microchemical Systems” and “Design and Fabrication of a Microreactor for Hydrogen Production by Catalytic Methanol Reforming” were presented by Ashish V. Pattekar, graduate student in ChE.

“Modeling of Multicomponent Concentration Profiles in Membrane Microreactors” was presented by Khaled A. Alfadhel, graduate student in ChE. “A Novel Micro-Membrane Reactor for Fuel Cell Application” was presented by Samrat Mukherjee, graduate student in ChE. The paper was also co-authored by Miltiadis K. Hatalis, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Lehigh.

Kerri Schramm ’04 gave a paper titled “Recovery of a Valuable Product Through Phase Transfer Catalysis – Modeling of the Conversion of Phenol From a Waste Stream to Create Methyl Phenyl Ether,” which was based on her summer internship project.

Other undergraduate students from Lehigh’s AIChE student chapter attending the meeting were Rachelle Carbonari, Ilya Furman, Brian Fyfe, Tanya Gerner, Jill Gliem, Danielle Higgins, Christopher Jewell, Neil Raghoo, Joseph Sipley, Nathan Tilghman and Lisa Toback. The chapter, which is advised by Stenger, earned Department Honor Roll recognition for student chapters.

Also at the AIChE conference, Lehigh’s department of chemical engineering hosted a reception in honor of the appointment of Anthony J. McHugh as Rossin Professor and chair of the department and in celebration of 100 years of chemical engineering at Lehigh.