Research Equipment Grants: Analytical Equipment for Phase Equilibrium Research

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Analytical equipment for phase equilibrium research on three specific projects will be acquired. The first project has to do with the thermodynamic properties needed to make intelligent choices for industrial water pollution reduction, water remediation, and for estimating the fate, transport and bioaccumulation of chemicals. The second project concerns the reduction of automobile air pollution emissions by the reformulation of gasolines, i.e., the production of "clean" gasoline. The key blending components in such gasolines may be oxygenated hydrocarbons, such as methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) as these compounds have been found to increase octane numbers of gasolines while reducing polluting emissions of the oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide. Research currently underway, for which some equipment is needed, is on the phase behavior of the oxygenate + hydrocarbon systems. The third project is aimed at developing a predictive design model for the purification of biomaterials using aqueous two- phase two-polymer systems. The experimental portion of this research deals with dependence of the liquid-liquid phase splitting and the biomolecule partitioning on variables such as polymer molecular weight and molecular weight dispersion, temperature, pH, ionic strength buffer salts used, etc.