NSF Funds Major Industrial-Chemical Research Project; ECU Takes Leading Role
The National Science Foundation will fund a significant industrial-chemical processing research endeavor in which East Carolina University figures prominently. A team of researchers at three universities, led by ECU’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies Dr. Paul Gemperline, will work in partnership with the DuPont Corporation on “Measurement and Modeling for Improved Performance of Batch Slurry Process,” a project to which the NSF has pledged nearly $663,000 in support.
ECU is budgeted for a $243,000 share of the funding, with the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Oklahoma State University each to receive $210,000. DuPont will support the effort with on-site collaborations at its Stine Haskell Research Center in Newark, DE, amounting to a budgeted $375,000, and with $150,000 of in-kind monetary support. Slurries—mixtures of liquids and insoluble, heterogeneous matter—are widely used in important chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, yet capabilities for the characterization and control of slurries remain primitive in comparison with those for homogeneous reactions. The team seeks to improve understanding of and measurement capabilities for the complex dynamics of slurries by developing better sampling, analysis, and data handling techniques in the chemical monitoring of batch slurry reactions.
Gemperline said, “Manufacturing of fine chemical products like pharmaceutical active ingredients is often conducted using slurries. But chemical measurements in slurries, for monitoring and process control, have always presented significant technical challenges. So research aimed at improving slurry measurement and control has the potential to contribute significantly to American industrial competitiveness.” Beyond the business implications of this project, its educational impact will extend to students, both graduate and undergraduate, from all three universities through hands-on, interdisciplinary training and research in partnership with a major U.S. corporation, providing exceptional career preparation.
Despite the many promised benefits of this project, it looked for a time like things might never get off the ground. NSF did not approve funding until the team had made its third proposal. Said Gemperline, “The reviewers made it clear that we needed to better articulate the scientific goals and objectives of this research.” The team’s success with NSF, finally achieved after a three-year effort, bears out the lessons of perseverance. Sometimes, even the best and most experienced of academic investigators must knock on a door more than once before it finally opens.
View the entire April/May 2008 issue of Exploration & Discovery here: http://www.research2.ecu.edu/Newsletter/XD_AprMay08.pdf
