 Department Facilities - The
department occupies more than 60,000 square feet
of space and houses state-of-the
art research facilities. Several
million dollars in funding from federal, state,
and industrial
sources, such as the National
Science Foundation, the National Institutes of
Health, the
Environmental Protection Agency,
the Department of Energy, the Department of
Defense, the
Ohio Board of Regents, and several
major chemical companies, recently have been used
to
equip our laboratories with
state-of-the-art research equipment in various
frontier areas.
Our bioprocessing
laboratory
is equipped with bioreactors and fermentors—from
5 liters
to 150 liters—with automatic
computer control and validation. The biochemical
engineering and
cell culture laboratories house a
wide range of biotechnology research equipment,
including
HPLC, FPLC, GC-MS, ion
chromatograph, capillary electrophoresis,
microplate readers, Coulter
cell sizers, thermal cyclers for
PCR, 2-D protein gel electrophoresis, a gel
documentation
system, and a fluorescent
microscope with a digital camera.
The polymer
and composite processing laboratory
is equipped with resin injection
pultrusion, compression molding,
injection-compression molding and gas-assisted
injection molding machines, and a
twin-screw extruder with supercritical CO2
injection,
an Instron micro-tester, and a
clean room for microfabrication of bio-MEMS
devices. Our
rheological measurement laboratory
has a mechanical spectrometer, a fluids
extensional analyzer, a solids
analyzer, and a fluids spectrometer that can test
samples
from rigid solids to low viscosity
liquids and even to reacting systems.
Equipment in the colloidal
and particle technology laboratories
includes an atomic
force microscope, a dynamic light
scattering apparatus, a flow birefringence system,
an
imaging ellipsometer, a Brewster
angle microscope, Langmuir troughs for BAM
analysis
and spectroscopic analysis of
monolayers at liquid/vapor and liquid/liquid
interfaces, Sensadyne
bubble tensiometer, Cahn dynamic
contact angle system, an image analysis system for
sessile
and pendant drop analysis, HPLC
with evaporative mass and UV detectors, particle
size
analyzers, various testers for
powder flow and mechanics, and turbulent flow heat
transfer and
drag reduction circulation loops.
The multiphase
flow and reaction engineering laboratories
house pilot scale circulating
fluidized beds and high pressure
and temperature flow visualization systems. For fluid
mechanics research,
there are a variety of flow facilities available
that include an opposed jet
mixer, a dual moving wall linear
couette flow system, a circular couette flow
system, and a fourmill
roll for stagnation flow studies.
Each of these systems can be used with our
particle
tracking velocimetry (PTV) systems
that can provide full-field, time-resolved
velocity vector
measurements. A novel, real time,
three-dimensional Electric Capacitance Tomography
(ECT)
developed here allows measurement
of gas-liquid-solid flow field. Specialized
equipment used
in catalysis
and
reaction engineering research includes laser Raman
spectrometers, GC-MS, a
high-pressure porosimeter, a
chemiluminescence NOx analyzer, a thermo
gravimetric analyzer,
and an atomic absorption
spectrometer. The OSCAR Pilot Plant, a
multi-disciplinary integrated
design that has 10 unit operations
and a sophisticated automated measurement and
control
system, offers an unparalleled
platform to support research in the clean coal
technology.
The thermodynamic
and separation laboratories
have several custom-designed highpressure
apparatuses for measuring phase
equilibria and physical properties in
solid-liquid-gas
phases, supercritical fluid
extractors, a high-pressure transient adsorption
apparatus, and also
membrane systems for
microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration,
and reverse osmosis. The
department also has a pilot-scale
pulsed extraction column and a computer-controlled
12-tray
bubble cap distillation system.
The membrane
research laboratory
is well equipped for the
synthesis and characterization of
new membranes for separations and has reactors for
the
synthesis of new membrane
polymers, casting devices for the fabrication of
flat-sheet
membranes, gas permeation units
capable of handling CO and H2S, a water-gas-shift
membrane reactor, and a supported
liquid membrane system.
Major research equipment and
analytical instruments such as NMR, ESR, an X-ray
crystallograph, scanning and
transmission electron microscopes, confocal laser
scanning
microscopes, flow cytometers,
real-time PCR, and DNA synthesizers and sequencers
are also
available on campus. The
department has machine and electronic shops for
the design,
construction, and repair of
research equipment.
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Computing Facilities -
ll
students enjoy 24-hour keycard access to
the facilities offered by the ChE/MSE
Joint
Computing Facility, which includes
over 100
personal computers and a number of
related
peripherals such as a digital
camera and DV
camcorder that are available for
checkout. Each of
the desktop PCs is licensed to run
dozens of
commercial software applications,
including some
of the most sophisticated
technical packages
available, such as Polyflow, HySYS,
and the
Cambridge Engineering Selector. A
Macintosh-based multimedia lab provides complete
facilities
for scanning, slide making, video
editing, and large format plotting (for posters).
Funded by the
student computing fee, these labs
are updated on a regular basis. The facilities and
resources of
the Ohio Supercomputing Center,
the College of Engineering, and the university are
also
available.
Ohio
State’s library system is one of the
largest academic collections in
North America
with more than five million print
volumes, and
includes a main library, two
undergraduate libraries,
and nearly 20 departmental
libraries. Chemical
engineering students have 24-hour
access to the
Science & Engineering Library,
a beautiful new
facility located close to the
department and one of the largest science and
engineering libraries
in the country. The library
catalog, journals, and research databases can be
accessed online
through the Internet. Ohio State’s
library is also a member of OhioLINK, a statewide
library and
information network, which
provides access to the
collections of major academic
libraries in Ohio. We
also have access to the large
number of journals at
Chemical Abstract Service (CAS)
and Battelle
Research Institute. Both of these
companies are
located adjacent to campus.