Mentor(s)

Clifford Murphy, Chemistry, Roger Williams University

Project Location

Roger Williams University

Project Description

Marine diesel engines, particularly those used in large-scale shipping, are significant contributors to air pollution. According to a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2014, marine shipping was responsible for 17-31% of NOx gas, 5-10% of SOx gas, and 2-3% of CO2 gas emissions globally. The goal of this proposal is to develop a novel catalytic material/process for in-line treatment of marine diesel exhaust to reduce or eliminate these emissions.

A successful material that allows the catalytic treatment of pollutant gases from marine diesel exhaust would be a salable technology with application to all sizes of marine craft from pleasure boats up through large scale shipping. While the patent literature is rife in and around the subject (5600+ patents from 2000 to present), only 58 patents include some mention of an electrolytic component to their design and almost all of those patents are for terrestrial diesel engines. This is not accidental – a significant design challenge is to not introduce an electrolytic process that applies a potential to parts of the metal components of a ship in what is already a corrosive saline environment. A key feature of a resultant process from this work will be the isolation of the electrolytic treatment of exhaust from the metallic components of the vessel.

In prior work, I have incorporated the doctor blading technique to deposit titanium dioxide layers on conducting substrates to help with the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells or chemosensory devices. This technique is also applicable to the creation of perovskite materials that are photovoltaic and can be extended to other metal oxide layer fabrication. Materials produced this way on electrically conducting substrates are readily characterized by optical tensiometry (aka contact angle measurements), and cyclic voltammetry. Some chemical synthesis will be required which also includes common techniques for chemical separation (chromatography, distillation) and identification (UV-Vis spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy). Analysis of dissolved NOx gases in the marine diesel water can be determined colorimetrically using a phenoldisulfonic acid procedure.

This project involves lab work

Required/Preferred skills

Students must have completed the first year General Chemistry sequence. Preferred students will have completed Organic Chemistry I and/or Instrumental Analysis courses as well.

Will the project require transportation to field sites? No

Is this project open to Surf Flex? No

In which core facilities might student conduct research? None

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