Facilities
Laboratories and Research Equipment
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 equipped our laboratories with state-of-the-art research equipment in various frontier areas.
CBE's 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 high-pressure 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.
Computing Facilities
All students and faculty in the Department have access to extensive computing and information resources located in the chemical and biomolecular engineering and materials science complex on Ohio State’s campus.
A large array of software enables 3D imaging of atomic structures, diffraction analysis, mathematical modeling, casting simulations, stress analysis, and a variety of other engineering capabilities.
DVD recording, color laser printing, large format plotting, digital video recording and editing, and high-resolution scanning provide students and faculty with the tools needed to prepare professional presentations and manuscripts.
TouchSmart computers, custom tables, wall-mounted flat panel displays and digital white boards to help convey technical information. Clustered seating and interactive switching enable student teams to display their information to other team members or the entire class. Both on-campus and distance students benefit from on-the-fly recording of lectures that can be streamed live or archived for reference.
Remote Computing
Staff and faculty have access to the Ohio Supercomputer Center located on Ohio State’s West Campus. The Center holds frequent training sessions on parallel programming and performance optimization.