Jennifer Lewis, a graduate of East Ridge High School and a senior chemical engineering Departmental Honors student at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, recently received an award in an international undergraduate student research poster competition held in Nashville at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2009 Annual Conference.
Jennifer Lewis
Lewis’ work is part of Dr. Frank Jones’ (UC Foundation Professor, UTC Chemical Engineering) research group that uses microchemical technology to make biodiesel fuel. The advantages of microtechnology should lead to making biodiesel faster and cheaper than conventional methods. Her poster was titled “Design Studies of Heterogeneous Catalysis in Microchannels,” which is also her departmental honors thesis work.
Undergraduate students from 200 universities around the country and around the world participated in this competition. Washington University in St. Louis, Rutgers, Tennessee Tech University, the University of Naples, and the University of Monterey were represented.
“This competition showed an application of what I have learned in classes,” said Lewis, who plans to graduate in May 2010. “It also was a good way for me to know what others are doing in this field, and where they stand.”
Lewis’ second place award in the Catalysis & Reaction Engineering division is listed on the American Institute of Chemical Engineers website at http://www.aiche.org/Students/Awards/posterwinners09.aspx.
“The competition was a lot of fun. It’s one thing to work problems in a book, but this research presented a real-world scenario,” Lewis said.
Lewis’ abstract, written with Dr. Jones and Dr. James Hiestand, UC Foundation Professor, Mechanical Engineering at UTC, described “a numerical study of the fluid flow and catalytic behavior in microreactors to produce biodiesel fuel. Vegetable oil and alcohol feed flows into a very small channel about the size of a human hair… The channel walls contain obstructions to add reactive surface area to redistribute the fluid. These microreactors have a metal oxide catalyst coated on all surfaces. Due to the micro scale and heterogeneous catalysis, processing times is reduced from hours to seconds, and product purity is greatly increased…The focus of this study is to optimize the cross sectional area and flow rate to more efficiently meet conversion goals, taking into account micro fabrication and operational constraints, such as pressure drop. Simulations show that high levels of conversions are obtained in seconds.”
To prepare for the conference, Lewis presented her research multiple times, including to the Chattanooga Engineers Club in October.
