University of Wyoming April 27, 2013 Student Abstracts Oral Presentations: Classroom Building, University of Wyoming Campus 9:30 – 4:00 PM Poster Presentations: Family Room, Wyoming Student Union 3:30 – 5:30 PM Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day 2013 Page 1 Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day 2013 Page 2 Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day 2013 Page 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The University of Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day would not be possible without the contributions of many people and programs. We are especially grateful to the following: Working Group Steven Barrett, College of Engineering and Tina Markos, UW/Casper College/INBRE Applied Science Anne Sylvester, Wyoming EPSCoR Susan Stoddard, McNair Scholars Program Rick Matlock, Wyoming EPSCoR Zackie Salmon, McNair Scholars Program Lisa Abeyta, Wyoming EPSCoR Angela Faxon, Office of Research and Economic Beth Cable, Wyoming EPSCoR Development Ted Haskell, Wyoming EPSCoR R. Scott Seville, UW/Casper College/INBRE Moderators for the Oral Presentations Alex Xu Edward Koncel Brian Towler Chicory Bechtel Mark Garnich Scott Morton Dennis Coon Scott Seville Glaucia Teixeira Stanislaw Legowski Joe Holles Mark Stayton Jun Ren Allison Meyer JoAnna Poblete Michael Stoellinger David Bagley Roger Coupal Carol Frost Caroline McCracken-Flesher Steve Holbrook Lynne Ipina Jonathan Prather Ruben Gamboa Catherine Connolly Stanislaw Legowski Elizabeth Simpson Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day 2013 Page 4 Special Staff and Technical Support Nicholas Gurbhoo, Instructional Technology, Client Support Austin Foster, Instructional Technology, Client Support Special Thanks Ryan Dinneen O’Neil and Robert Perea, Events Office, Wyoming Union Michael Marsh and the staff of the UW Custodial Department Michael Kottenstette and the staff of UW Catering The Staff of the UW Copy Center Sponsors Research Day is sponsored by the UW Offices of Research, Student Affairs, and Academic Affairs; the A&S Summer Independent Study Program; the College of Agriculture; the College of Engineering; the College of Health Sciences; the UW Honors Program; the McNair Scholars Program; the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium; Wyoming INBRE, funded by the National Center for Research Resources (5920RR01647412) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (8P20GM103432-12) from the National Institutes of Health; and Wyoming EPSCoR, funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant # EPS-1208909). Most important, we thank all of the students and their faculty mentors. Students participating in Wyoming Research Day represent the very best and brightest of UW and the Community Colleges. Without the support and encouragement of dedicated UW and Community College faculty these exceptional students would not have the opportunity to do independent research in such a wide array of exciting areas…we thank you! Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day 2013 Page 5 Manufacturing of Acetic Acid from Natural Gas via Methanol Process Ameen Alabdulaal, Abduljawad BuAreash, Hassan Alsaraaf, Abdusalam Alghamdi and Evan Dearth, Dr. Joseph Holles Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering University of Wyoming Oral Presentation Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Acetic acid is a valuable chemical that can be utilized in a variety of applications. The demand for this compound is expected to continue increasing in the next few years. Our objective is to produce acetic acid from natural gas passing through three main units of the plant: syngas plant, methanol plant and acetic acid plant. The method that is utilized to manufacture acetic acid uses methanol and carbon monoxide as feed stocks. There are four main reactions that are taking place within the plant, one of which involves a catalyst that has a large impact on the operating cost. The quantity of acetic acid that is going to be produced is approximately 500MMlb/yr. The material balance requires 131.5 million lb/yr of natural gas; this is one of our major expenses since it is a main feed. The location of the plant has been selected to be in Ohio due to the readily available amount of shale gas. The cost estimation of the entire plant is $950 million. It is anticipated that the revenue will reach $330 million and yields a profit of $230 million. Based on our calculations and simulation, our payback period is about four years. Production of Cellulosic Ethanol using Ammonia Hydrolysis Mohammed Al Bader, Brandon Ruckman, Mashhor Aljabrine, Abdullah Alshaik, and Dan Asker Dr. Joseph Holles Department of Chemical Engineering University of Wyoming Oral Presentation Department of Chemical Engineering Laramie, WY Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel that is produced from the inedible parts of plants. The demand for fuel sources and fuel additives such as cellulosic ethanol has become much greater due to the need for cleaner, renewable energy sources. Currently, the majority of cellulosic ethanol is made through a process known as acid hydrolysis. This is where the inedible parts of plants, such as corn stover, are treated with acid to release the sugars which can be fermented into ethanol. Although ethanol can be produced in this manner, it is not economically feasible. A more efficient method is to treat the feedstock with liquid anhydrous ammonia, known as ammonia hydrolysis. Our senior design project is to build an ethanol plant that will use this method to not only increase production of ethanol but also allow for the unfermentable parts of the plant, known as lignin, to be captured and sold as a value added by-product. One of the biggest benefits to using ammonia hydrolysis is the ability to recycle the ammonia, with only a small make-up stream, which is not possible with acid hydrolysis. Our plant will have the ability to produce a more economically feasible ethanol. Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day 2013 Page 6 Air Separation Unit to Create Zero-Emission Oxy-Combustion Energy Khalid Aldhahri, Thomas White, Daniel Marken, and Omar Alrajeh with Dr. Joseph Holles Chemical Engineering Department University of Wyoming Oral Presentation Laramie, WY The University of Wyoming has proposed the construction of a large wind tunnel that will draw 1-2 MW of electricity. This is a significant amount of energy that may affect the University and possibly all of Laramie. To avoid power outage throughout the city, the first part of the process is proposed to use a gas-powered turbine to provide the electricity for the wind tunnel. The turbine will use oxy-fuel combustion, combustion of pure oxygen as opposed to air, so that pure CO2 and water will be the sole emissions. With CO2 and water being the sole emissions our hope is we will create a suitable design for zero emission energy. The second part of the process is using an Air Separation Unit. Having an Air separation Unit will allow us to extract pure oxygen from the air. Finding an optimal method of air separation or oxygen concentration will be required to supply the oxygen for the combustion. This project is not cost effective because there are not really any products being sold. However, this project is still useful because the energy created will provide the wind tunnel its needed energy, which enhances academic prosperity. Manufacturing of Acetic Acid from Natural Gas via Methanol Process Abduljawad BuAreash, Hassan Alsaraaf, Ameen Alabdulaal, Abdusalam Alghamdi and Evan Dearth, Dr. Joseph Holles Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering University of Wyoming Oral Presentation Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Acetic acid is a valuable chemical that can be utilized in a variety of applications. The demand for this compound is expected to continue increasing in the next few years. Our objective is to produce acetic acid from natural gas passing through three main units of the plant: syngas plant, methanol plant and acetic acid plant. The method that is utilized to manufacture acetic acid uses methanol and carbon monoxide as feed stocks. There are four main reactions that are taking place within the plant, one of which involves a catalyst that has a large impact on the operating cost. The quantity of acetic acid that is going to be produced is approximately 500MMlb/yr. The material balance requires 131.5 million lb/yr of natural gas; this is one of our major expenses since it is a main feed. The location of the plant has been selected to be in Ohio due to the readily available amount of shale gas. The cost estimation of the entire plant is $950 million. It is anticipated that the revenue will reach $330 million and yields a profit of $230 million. Based on our calculations and simulation, our payback period is about four years. Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day 2013 Page 7 Monitoring crop growth before and under center-pivot irrigation system using multi-temporal Landsat images Emmalee Allen1 with Ramesh Sivanpillai2 1. Department of Plant Sciences/Agroecology program and 2 Department of Botany University of Wyoming Oral Presentation WyomingView Eden, WY The small town of Eden is located in the Eden Valley in southwest Wyoming. This small community, located in a semi-arid high desert region, consists mainly of agriculture. Growers in the area produce primarily Alfalfa for livestock fodder. Due to the semi-arid climate and sandy soil conditions, salt runoff into the Colorado River through irrigation caused problems prior to the 1980’s. The government established a program at this time to encourage Eden Valley farmers to change from flood to center pivot irrigation. Several growers did make the switch to center-pivot irrigation from flood irrigation system in order to minimize salt leaching from runoff waters as well as to conserve water. The research objective was to analyze the effect of the switch from flood to center pivot irrigation on crop growth through the use of Remote Sensing. Remote sensing has been used as a successful tool to analyze management practices in agricultural operations. Crop growth in a 140 acre of alfalfa grass mixture field in the Eden Valley was analyzed before (1984, 1985 and 1987) and after (1991 – 1993) the center-pivot irrigation system was installed.