Newsletter

Association of Chemical Engineering

Jan-march 2010

CONTENTS
ASSOCIATION NEWS ACE Celebrates its first anniversary p.1 New faculty p.2 IN THE NEWS p.3 GENERAL The green power grid p.4 Paper bags or plastic bags? p.6 Wearable windmill p.9 Eco friendly mobile phone p.10 NEWS LETTER FEEDBACK p.11

ACE CELEBRATES ITS FIRST ANNIVERSARY

The Association of Chemical Engineering celebrated its first Anniversary on Thursday, March 4. The function saw Dr. Arup Kumar Dutta, Managing Di rector, Excel Matrix Biological Devices P. Ltd. as the Chief Guest. He was honoured by Dr. V. S. Rao, Honourable Director, BPHC, and faculty members of the Chemical Engineering Association.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. V.S. Rao urged the Chemical Engineering students to prepare themselves to take up challenges in green chemistry, energy, and other varied domains of technology. He expressed the plans of the institute to set up small enterprises within the campus like the recently established GSS America. . Certificates http://172.16.100.227/chemicalprizes were also distributed by him to the student team mem1 and bers of ACE and also to the winners of competitions held by the

Contd.. Dr. Arup Kumar Dutta, who has done intensive research in the field of synthesis of Chemical Engineering and Biology, delivered an extremely informative talk on "Paradigm Shift in Chemical Engineering". He briefed us about various interesting facets of Tissue Engineering Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing and explained how biology can be used as an efficient tool for sufficing engineering needs. The event was concluded by a wonderful cultural program conducted by the Chemical Engineering students. The shows were applauded as students showcased their verve and talent through amazing performances. The function was a gracious reminder of the Association's progress and a testimony of its commitment to building the competency of its students.

Prior to his appointment in Feb. 2010 Prof. B.N.Murthy was with the University of Maryland as a faculty research associate from Feb. 2008 to Dec 2009. He was responsible for planning and performing computational and experimental fluid dynamics research projects. He has been working in the area of computational and experimental fluid dynamics for last 7 years and his interest runs from CFD modeling of high shear rotor systems to meshing complex geometries. Within the field of experimental fluid dynamics he has published 5 book chapters. His educational qualifications include : Doctor of Philosophy, Chemical Engineering, I.C.T (Formerly UDCT) India. November 2007 Dissertation: Experimental and computational fluid dynamics studies of single and multiphase systems: Pipe and Stirred vessels Master of Chemical Engineering, I.C.T (Formerly UDCT) India September 2004 Dissertation: Large eddy simulations of turbulent pipe flows Bachelor in Chemical Engineering , Nagarjuna University April 2001

NEW FACULTY

We are pleased to welcome our new faculty member who brings with him new research areas and has subsequently expanded our graduate program.

http://172.16.100.227/chemical

IN THE NEWS
1) Pearl:
Mayuri Dixit won the first prize in GANDHARA (the classical music event in our own Cultural Festival PEARL) under the Hindustani Music Category. Prateek Tiwari won the first prize in Mogul Empires and second in the Quiz Competition.

2) Apti-Holitic:
This quiz organized by ACE was a huge success with a participation of 150 students. The winners were Anita Kar and Rishabh Bhargava (first), V. Niharika and G. Kavya(second).

3) Quark:
Shruthi V. won high commendation for The Economic and Social Council in "BITSMUN" at Quark. She had represented Brazil and talked about food security and low carbon technology.

4) Mood Indigo:
Shruthi V. also won the Third prize in Classical Music Competition at Mood Indigo, Annual Cultural Festival, IIT, Bombay.

5) IIT Bombay Techfest:

Swapnil, Manvendra, Parth and Bhanu participated in the Robotics Competition at the IIT Bombay Tech. Festival. They made a planetary robot which collected soil samples and avoided obstacles.

6) Apogee:
Akhila and Vaideesh participated in Trackomania at Apogee, Annual Tech. Festival,BITS-Pilani. They made a line follower robot.

7) BOSM:
Srinivas, Osuri and Harish represented BPHC at BOSOM, Annual Sports Meet in the Cricket team.

Our Heartiest Congratulations to all the above students!!!

ASSOCIATION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 4

GENERAL

The green power grid:

Another source of clean energy that people are truly excited about is the bloom box a power source that is inexpensive, clean, and completely emission-free. With the Bloom Box, we will be able to generate our own electricity wirelessly. The Box is hoping to replace big power plants and transmission line grids the same way laptops are alternatives to desktops and cell phones to landlines. Bloom Boxes run on fuel cell technology which uses a series of self-sustaining chemical reactions to convert just about any fuel into electricity. The cells themselves are made of common beach sand that is baked and then coated with special inks. Right now one fuel cell can power a light bulb. To generate more electricity, the Bloom Box stacks fuel cells into small blocks and houses them in a unit about the size of refrigerator. The original technology comes from an oxygen generator meant for a scrapped NASA Mars program that's been converted, with the help of an estimated $400 million in private funding, into a fuel cell. Bloom's design feeds oxygen into one side of a cell while fuel

(natural gas, Contdbio gas from landfill waste, solar, etc) is supplied to the other side to provide

the chemical reaction required for power. The cells themselves are inexpensive ceramic disks painted with a secret green "ink" on one side and a black "ink" on the other. The disks are separated by a cheap metal alloy, instead of more precious metals like platinum, and stacked into a cube of varying capabilities -- a stack of 64 can power a small business like Starbucks.

Now get this, skeptics: There are already several corporate customers using refrigerator-sized Bloom Boxes. Google was first to this green energy party, using its Bloom Boxes to power a data center for the last 18 months. Ebay has installed its boxes on the front lawn of its San Jose location. It estimates to receive almost 15% of its energy needs from Bloom, saving about $100,000 since installing its five boxes 9 months ago -- an estimate we assume doesn't factor in the millions Ebay paid for the boxes themselves. Bloom makes about one box a day at the moment and believes that within 5 to 10 years it can drive down the cost to about $3,000 to make it suitable for home use.

Paper bags or plastic bags?

Paper or plastic bags: which is better?
It's an age old question, when it comes time to check out when grocery shopping: paper bag or plastic bag? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there are an incredible number of details and inputs hidden in each bag. From durability and reusability to life cycle costs, there's a lot more to each bag than meet the eye. Let's take a look behind the bags.

Where do brown paper bags come from?

Paper comes from trees -- lots and lots of trees. The logging industry is huge, and the process to get that paper bag to the grocery store is long, sordid and exacts a heavy toll on

the planet. First, the trees are found, marked and felled in a process that all too often involves clear cutting, resulting in massive habitat destruction and long-term ecological damage. Mega-machinery comes in to remove the logs from what used to be forest, either by logging trucks or even helicopters in more remote areas. This machinery requires fossil fuel to operate and roads to drive on, and, when done unsustainably, logging even a small area has a large impact on the entire ecological chain in surrounding areas.

Once the trees are collected, they must dry at least three years before they can be used. More machinery is used to strip the bark, which is then chipped into one-inch squares and cooked under tremendous heat and pressure. This wood stew is then "digested," with a chemical mixture of limestone and acid, and after several hours of cooking, what was once wood becomes pulp. It takes approximately three tons of wood chips to make one ton of pulp. The pulp is then washed and bleached; both stages require thousands of gallons of clean water. Coloring is added to more water, and is then combined in a ratio of 1 part pulp to 400 parts water, to make paper. The pulp/water mixture is dumped into a web of bronze wires, and the water showers through, leaving the pulp, which, in turn, is rolled into paper. Whew! And that's just to make the paper; don't forget about the energy inputs -- chemical, electrical, and fossil fuel-based -- used to transport the raw material, turn the paper into a bag and then transport the finished paper bag all over the world.

Where do paper shopping bags go when you're done with them?

When you're done using paper shopping bags, and further other household reuses, a couple of things can happen. The minimally-inked (or printed with soy or other veggie-based inks) used paper bags, can be composted or they can be recycled in most mixed-paper recycling schemes, or they can be thrown away for incineration.

If you compost them, the bags break down and go from paper to a rich soil nutrient over a period of a couple of months; if you throw them away, they'll eventually break down of the period of many, many years (and without the handy benefits that compost can provide). If you choose to recycle paper bags, then things get a little tricky. The paper must first be re-pulped, which usually requires a chemical process involving compounds like hydrogen peroxide, sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide, which bleach and separate the pulp fibers. The fibers are then cleaned and screened to be sure they're free of anything that Contd would contaminate the paper-making process, and are then washed to remove any leftover ink before being pressed and NEWS LETTER ( JAN-MARCH 2010) rolled into paper, as before. 6

How are plastic bags made?

Unlike paper bags, plastic bags are typically made from oil, a non-renewable resource. Plastics are a by-product of the oil-refining process, accounting for about four percent of oil production around the globe. The process requires enough juice to heat the oil up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, where it can be separated into its various components and molded into polymers. Plastic bags most often come from one of the five types of polymers -- polyethene-- in its low-density form (LDPE), which is also known as #4 plastic.

How does plastic bag recycling work?

Like paper, plastic can be recycled, but it isn't simple or easy. Recycling involves essentially re-melting the bags and re-casting the plastic. But, as any chef who has ever tried to re-heat a Hollondaise sauce will tell you, the quality isn't quite as good the second time around; the polymer chains often break, leading to a lower-quality product. Basically, plastic is often downcycled -- that is, the material loses viability and/or value in the process of recycling -- into less functional forms, making it hard to make new plastic bags out of old plastic bags.

What about biodegradable plastic bags?

Biodegradable plastic is a mixed bag (pun intended) as well; while biopolymers like polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and Polylactide (PLA) are completely biodegradable in compost (and very, very, very slowly -- if at all -- in a landfill) and are not made from petroleum products, they are often derived from our food sources. The primary feedstock for bioplastics today (for existing commercial process technology) is corn, which is rife with agro-political conflict and often grown and harvested unsustainably; because of these reasons, and because it competes with food supply, it is not likely to be a long-term solution in the plastics world. Plus, some bags marked "biodegradable" are not actually so -- they're recycled plastic mixed with cornstarch. The cornstarch biodegrades and the plastic breaks down into tiny little pieces but does not actually "biodegrade," leaving a yucky polymer mess (if in small pieces). The only way to avoid this is To look for 100% plant-based polymers, like the two menA look at the facts and tioned above. numbers Contd So, while it's good to have the alternative (and to recognize the innovation it represents), bioplastics aren't quite ready to save us from the paper or plastic debate.
Further insight into the implications of using and recycling each kind of bag can be gained from looking at overall energy, emissions, and other life cycle-related 7 costs of production and recycling. According to a life cycle analysis by Franklin Associates, Ltd, plastic bags create fewer airborne emissions and require less energy during the life cycle of both types of bags per 10,000 equivalent uses -- plastic creates 9.1 cubic pounds of solid waste vs. 45.8 cubic pounds for paper; plastic creates 17.9 pounds of atmospheric emissions vs. 64.2 pounds for paper; plastic creates 1.8 pounds of waterborne waste vs. 31.2 pounds for paper. Paper bags can hold more stuff per bag -- anywhere from 50 percent to 400 percent more, depending on how they're packed, since they hold more volume and are sturdier. The numbers here assume that each paper bag holds 50 percent more than each plastic bag, meaning that it takes one and half plastic bags to equal a paper bag -- it's not a one-to-one comparison, even though plastic still comes out ahead.

ASSOCIATION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

So, which is better: paper or plastic? here is the conclusion

GO GREEN......
Sources: environment.about.com, assortment.com, treehugger.com, worldwatch.org

Wearable windmill:

A windmill that you wear. Its a harness that you wear, so you can harness the wind. Like a functional fairy suit. Its called the Dandelion, and its quite the fashion statement. Earth Tech-ling points us toward what could be the funniest piece of fashion weve seen in a while- nothing so dorky since the polar powered vest that puts this writer over the edge when it comes to bad design ideas. The designer writes, Inspired by the theme of climate change, this piece explores ideas of personal, mobile power generation and kinetics. Dandelion is a wearable that captures energy from wind and human movement. It is a structure of miniature windmills that embraces the wearer. It is a fashion that creates an interface between nature, technology, and people.

Eco friendly mobile phone runs on coke:

Sources: www. ecoutere.com, www.inhabitat.com

It honestly doesnt look like itd hold up in any sort of breeze, let alone gather any charge to make it useful. Its kinda pretty.in a fanciful sort of way. But thats all about it.

Phone batteries are not very good- "they are expensive, consuming valuable resources on manufacturing, presenting a disposal problem and harmful to the environment." Now to be fair, fuel cells that run on sugar have been around for decades, and it can run on any sugary water, not just Coke. But if you are selling an idea as being environmentally friendly, why start with Coke? The Designer writes: The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment. Bio battery is an ecologically friendly energy generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst. By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugary drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out. Bio battery has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than

ASSOCIATION OF CHEMICAL whole new perception to batteries and afternoon tea. ENGINEERING
NEWS LETTER (JAN-MARCH 2010)

conventional lithium batteries and it could be fully biodegradable. Meanwhile, it brings a

NEWS LETTER

10 Jan- March 2010

NOV 2009

NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK
The Chemical Engineering Newsletter is a publication of the Association of Chemical Engineers, Bits-Pilani, Hyderabad campus. Its purpose is to provide news concerning faculty, staff and students in the group and also to provide insight into many facets of chemical engineering. News, comments and suggestions and articles for next newsletter can be sent to ace.bits@gmail.com

Acknowledgments:
The articles printed in this news letter have been taken from various sources and few of them are directly copied from recognized websites and books.
www.bloomenergy.com news.cnet.com www.economictimes.indiatimes.com www.mobilewhack.com www.impactlab.com

BITS PILANI
HYDERABAD CAMPUS
ASSOCIATION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS

BITS PILANI
HYDERABAD CAMPUS
ASSOCIATION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS