Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Nanoparticles for Delivering Peptide Drugs to the Brain Supervisor: CHAU Ying / CBE
Student: FAN Bohan / CBME Course: UROP1000, Summer
So far, nanoparticles (NPs) have gained increasing attention in the studies of target-specific drug delivery. The entire project focuses on the design of polymeric nanoparticles as a cargo to delivery peptide drugs into the targeted area in cerebellum of the brain across the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB). Various in-vitro characterization techniques are used to obtain the most basic information of NPs, including particle size, surface charge and drug release kinetics. Current methodology for preparation, synthesis and characterization of polymers, peptides and nanoparticles will be
introduced. In addition, measurement of drug release profiles by HPLC will also be provided for data analysis. Hence, the purpose of this project is to design and characterize nanoparticles in a condition that mimics the physiological environment in human body in order to correlate drug effects and their biological outcomes as well as predicting the therapeutic windows of medicines.
Supersoft Hydrogel for Extended Drug Delivery on the Eye Surface Supervisor: CHAU Ying / CBE
Student: CHEN Longfei / CENG Course: UROP1000, Summer
Crosslinked hydrogel refers to a class of hydrogel synthesized through bond formation of polymer molecules. In this study, we chemically modified two polymers, with two functional groups that can go through spontaneous crosslink and form hydrogel. From a perspective of engineering, the two significant features of hydrogel in control drug delivery researches are gelation and biodegradation (Li, Rodrigues and Tomás, 2012). To have a comprehensive understanding of hydrogel and some of its properties, we’ve done various experiments on its gelation condition, degradation kinetics and characterizations.
Green Processing of Seafood Shell Waste Supervisor: HUI Chi Wai / CBE
Student: HO Cheuk Hei / CENG Course: UROP1100, Fall
Shrimp waste can be a raw material for producing chitosan, a useful polymer. It can be done via appropriate industrial practices, which are deproteination, demineralization and deacetylation (Toan, 2009). This report emphasizes on optimization of shrimp waste demineralization and solvent extraction cycle study. Our result shows that reaction duration of demineralization should be less than or equal to 4 hours using 0.15M hydrochloric acid.
Similarly, reaction time should be less than or equal to 2 hours for 0.3M hydrochloric acid. For solvent extraction cycle study, which decolorization of shrimp shell is accomplished through pigment extraction using methanol, the
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
solvent can be re-used again for more than or equal to 5 times before pigment is recovered by evaporation.
Towards Zero-waste Pharmaceutical Processes: Mapping Complex Process Behavior of a Novel Membrane-assisted Crystallization Process
Supervisor: LAKERVELD Richard / CBE
Student: MADEJ Dominik / CENG Course: UROP1100, Spring
Optimization of process operating conditions with fixed solvent type and integrated optimization of the process and solvent selection using PC-SAFT based continuous mapping method for crystallization of paracetamol were
successfully conducted using GAMS software. The results suggest that, for conditions stated in the study, pair
DMSO/t-butyl acetate is the optimal solvent/anti-solvent pair for continuous crystallization of paracetamol. Moreover, the accuracy and correlation between predicted hypothetical and empirical data indicate that PC-SAFT model
combined with continuous mapping method can be successfully utilized in prediction of solubility and selection of optimal solvents for crystallization processes.
Improving the Efficiency of Spectral Library Searching in Mass Spectrometric Data Analysis Supervisor: LAM Henry Hei Ning / CBE
Student: LI Yan Chak / CPEG Course: UROP1000, Summer
Retention time (RT) alignment is a well-known problem in mass spectrometry data analysis. In this study, we extended LWBMatch, our previously proposed algorithm for RT alignment, to data-independent acquisition data, with scan-wise alignment by dynamic time warping (DTW) and feature-wise alignment. In DTW step, MS1-based and MS2-based method result in robust warping curves, while MS2-based takes longer time. Here, we propose a new MS2-based method - cosine similarity of random pairs (CS-RP). Employing CS-RP, recall and precision are above 80%
and 95%, comparable to MS1-based method with 84% recall and 96% precision. CS-RP finished 1.4~2.0 times faster than previous MS2-based method. This method enhances retention time alignment by SWATH or other DIA-MS2 data, also validating RT alignments with MS1-based method.
Investigation of Bacterial Antibiotic Persistence by Proteomics Supervisor: LAM Henry Hei Ning / CBE
Student: CHAN Shek Nga / CBME Course: UROP1100, Summer
Bacterial persistence is a phenotypic change that allows a subpopulation of bacteria to survive high dosage of antibiotic and is a leading cause of chronic infections. The eventual aims of this study aims to characterize the persistence mechanism of bacteria against antibiotic stress on a systems-wide basis and identify protein biomarkers that can serve as potential drug targets. The experimental plan involves treating bacterial cells with sub-inhibitory doses of antibiotic to induce persistence. Persistent cells and untreated cells are then analyzed using label-free
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering quantitative proteomics. In the initial stage of this project, proteomic sample preparation methods were tested on bacterial cells and optimized for sensitivity to handle limited samples. Preliminary work has been carried out to identify suitable experimental conditions for bacterial culture.
Extraction of Stevia Glycosides as Food Additives Production Supervisor: LAM Leung Yuk Frank / CBE
Student: LEUNG Ka Fung / CHEM Course: UROP1100, Fall
UROP2100, Spring
Stevia Glycosides are essentially non-caloric but having higher sweetness level than that of caloric natural sweeteners.
Rebaudioside C, one of the active species in Stevia Glycosides from Stevia extract, was used as food additives for calorie-reduced food. In this research, the main purpose is to extract Rebaudioside C from Stevia extract with higher purity by recrystallization. Recrystallization with reflux was performed for extracting Rebaudioside C, using solvent of methanol, ethanol and water in order to increase the concentration of Rebaudioside C. The crystallization rate of Stevioside was higher for ethanol system while crystallization rate of Rebaudioside A was higher for methanol system.
The ratio of water and organic solvent for solvent was important for content and yield for crystals.
Humanitarian Chemical Engineering - A Summer Expedition
Supervisor: MAK Andrew Tsz Chung / CBE Co-supervisor: LIU Yuanshuai / CBE
Student: LI Yongyi / IIM Course: UROP1000, Summer
In this investigation report, efforts are made to design a decentralized waste-to-energy (WTE) system for household food waste, and conduct a feasibility study under the context of Hong Kong. The objective is to develop a more efficient way to alleviate the problem of household food waste in Hong Kong, and minimize the pressure of landfills being filled up. Some literature reviews and quantitative interpretations have been made within the time constraint.
It was concluded that a decentralized WTE system in Hong Kong is economically feasible while challenges exist in energy performance and technical parts, and still some possible improvements are available in discussion section.
Humanitarian Chemical Engineering - A Summer Expedition
Supervisor: MAK Andrew Tsz Chung / CBE Co-supervisor: LIU Yuanshuai / CBE Student: PURNAMA Vincentius Mario / CBME Course: UROP1000, Summer
The investigation report is created because of the concern on the water scarcity problem in India. India has a lot of population yet the clean water supply is not plenty. Therefore, this project aims to find a new solution for the problem. A water purifier tank was developed before in India’s rural area. Referring to that water purifier technique, a new portable water purifier might be designed with practical, simple and cheap attributes. It should be
humanitarian; hence, it should be affordable and easily produced. By considering the guidelines provided by World
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Health Organization, the product design should be able to produce potable water with certain safety measurements as cheap as possible.
The Effect of Particle Size on Solids Suspension in a Stirred Tank Reactor
Supervisor: MAK Andrew Tsz Chung / CBE Co-supervisor: HUI Chi Wai / CBE
Student: TAI Siu Ting / CBME Course: UROP1100, Summer
This report attempt to find factors that may affects the exponent of particles diameter as a possibility in improving the Zweitering correlation (1958). A literature survey and an analysis of exist experiment data was made. It was suggested that particles with settling speed above and below 0.177shows different behavior and off bottom clearance of impeller may pose influence in the particle size effect. This behavior may suggest that the suspension mechanisms of particles are divided into providing energy to pick up particles and avoiding settling.
Advanced Catalysts for Water Splitting and Hydrogen Production Supervisor: SHAO Minhua / CBE
Student: LIU Yuebin / CIVL Course: UROP1000, Summer
The environmental problems, raising energy demand and energy shortage have motivated the development of renewable energy resources. Fuel cell through hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is one of the focuses in order to produce clean energy and meet the energy demand for long-term use. Yet, platinum catalysts have finite practicality in energy generation in fuel cell because of unaffordable cost and low energy output in alkaline environment.
Therefore, we work on PtRu alloys particles with different temperatures so as to find out alternatives. Mixed with Ru, PtRu showed higher electrocatalytic activity in both acidic and alkaline conditions than Pt/C. One possible reason could be the existence of Ru which helps remove Had intermediate through the reaction with OHad.
Advanced Catalysts for Water Splitting and Hydrogen Production Supervisor: SHAO Minhua / CBE
Student: WOO Nam Jae / CENG Course: UROP1000, Summer
Hydrogen is a valuable resource that would be very useful as an energy carrier in the future. As it not only has high efficiency of producing energy but also is free from pollution, producing and storing hydrogen efficiently is an important challenge that we face. Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) can be a major production method, and catalysts play an important role for its high efficiency. Thus, efficiency, which is activity of catalysts, is an essential property that should be under sufficient research. Existing highly efficient catalyst is platinum. However, its low cost-effectiveness hinders itself to be widely utilized. In this research, cobalt will be tested to find its potential to replace platinum for efficient hydrogen production. In addition, variation of sampling conditions is also conducted to find its optimal condition as a catalyst.
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Advanced Catalysts for Water Splitting and Hydrogen Production
Supervisor: SHAO Minhua / CBE
Student: YOU Chae Young / CHEM Course: UROP1000, Summer
Current outlook on hydrogen production through water-splitting has low cost-effectiveness due to expensive Pt-based catalysts. Although Pt-based materials exhibit high efficiency, its preciousness and susceptibility in alkaline medium hinder wider usage of hydrogen as an energy source. To augment the application of hydrogen, other
non-precious transition metals (Co, Ni, Fe, Ru) have been suggested as the substituents, but activities of these metals are inferior to that of Pt. Encapsulating these metals into the nitrogen-doped carbonaceous matrix through
electrospinning may remedy the inefficiency. This report aims to optimize conditions to synthesize electrospun catalysts and examine their performance. Ru-based material required the minimal overpotential to proceed the reduction, validating higher efficiency, but it still has limitations with its universality in different pH.
Catalysts for Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell Supervisor: SHAO Minhua / CBE
Student: HAN Eunhye / CHEM Course: UROP2100, Fall
The soaring energy demand, environmental concerns and limited fossil fuels have triggered the development of hydrogen-based energy production via hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), with an aim to obtain clean energy production as an alternative to fossil-fuel technologies. However, state-of-the-art Pt-metal catalysts exhibit finite practicality in fuel cell systems due to the high cost and relatively low energy output in basic media. Here, we present PdRu alloy catalysts with different composition ratios to be positive substitution for Pt. With the presence of Ru, PdRu showed better activity in both acidic and alkaline media than Pd/C. This could be due to the presence of Ru which helps to remove Had intermediate through the reaction with OHad.
Catalysts for Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell Supervisor: SHAO Minhua / CBE
Student: MADEJ Dominik / CBME Course: UROP1100, Fall
Platinum is one of the most popular catalysts utilized in Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell. To tackle a few limitations of pure platinum as catalyst, it is often alloyed with other metals in order to increase its selectivity and resistance to CO poisoning. As transition metals seem to be especially promising in this application, their formation of alloys with platinum and catalytic activity is extensively investigated. Here, we report the synthesis of Pt2Co and Pt2Fe alloys.
Their electrocatalytic activity in electro-oxidation of ethanol was investigated and compared with pure platinum catalyst. The results suggest that Pt2Co and Pt2Fe alloys have much higher catalytic activity than unalloyed platinum in ethanol electro-oxidation reaction.
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Fuel Production from Carbon Dioxide
Supervisor: SHAO Minhua / CBE
Student: HUI Yiting / EVMT Course: UROP1100, Fall
Reducing CO2 into hydrocarbon fuels has long been a popular concept since it could significantly ease global warming and help to prevent energy crisis. Given the low chemical reactivity of CO2, strong catalysts are required and thus many novel materials are synthesized in an attempt to figure out an optimal one with greatest catalytic activity and product selectivity. After reviewing the capability of copper to catalyze CO2 reduction, the affinity to CO of Pd nanoparticles, and the important influence of alloy composition in catalytic traits, this report aims to test whether Pd-Cu alloy with different composition ratios possess favorable characteristics. This report involves detailed experimental procedures, followed by results and discussions on observed phenomenon. Finally, it concludes that Pd-Cu alloys may not be suitable for catalyzing CO2 reduction and proposes some hypothesis for future study.
Air Quality Survey at Various Sites in Hong Kong Supervisor: YEUNG King Lun / CBE
Student: FAN Yuwen / EVMT ZHUANG Qinru / EVMT
Course: UROP1000, Summer UROP1000, Summer
Malodor is an obsessing environmental issue, on which many engineers work hard. This is a study about testing the effect of a new type of hydrogel in various sites of Hong Kong. We are assigned to help do the researches in Jordan Valley Box Culvert and Shing Mun River. In Jordan Valley Box Culvert, the midstream and downstream were polluted more seriously than upstream. After hydrogel treatment, both BOD value and COD value of the water are lower, which indicates the concentration of chemical pollution and the biodegradable organics content decrease. In Shing Mun River, the BOD value decreases overall after hydrogel deployment while COD value has no significant change. In conclusion, the hydrogel is efficient on reducing biology pollution.
Bioactivity of Indoor Dust and Particulates Supervisor: YEUNG King Lun / CBE Student: KIM Solin / CBME
SAMIN Felicia / CBGBM
Course: UROP2100, Fall UROP1100, Fall
Dust and particulates in indoor environment are known to contain various chemical compounds originating from various household products. Furthermore, the widespread use of disinfectants in many household cleanser expose risks of having unwanted reactions with dust and particulate matters resulting in toxic byproducts. This project is a continuation of a previous project aiming to measure the bioactivity of dust and particulates collected in indoor offices so as to investigate its effects upon living organism post-reaction with common household disinfectants:
bleach and antimicrobial coating. Particularly in this project, the bleach was exposed directly to the solid dry dust. In addition, customized antimicrobial coating without copper was used to eliminate the chance of cross-toxicity effect
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from the copper.
New Technologies against Malodors
Supervisor: YEUNG King Lun / CBE Co-supervisor: HAN Wei / ENVR
Student: WINATA Olivia / CBME Course: UROP1000, Summer
This project investigates the effectiveness of the technology to reduce the malodor in water drainage in several sites in Hong Kong. The project aims to reduce health risks of residents and complains received by the Drainage Services Department (DSD), as well as preventing corrosion of sewer. The technology that is currently used is hydrogel with active ingredients which are biocide acid and metabolic inhibitor to reduce generation of H2S gas, by killing and suspending the growth of Sulphur-Reducing Bacteria (SBR). Under anaerobic condition, SBR consumes the Sulphur and produce H2S, therefore good control of SBR will avoid the formation of H2S. The effectiveness of the gel is analyzed by monitoring the level of malodor gases and water sampling during and after the deployment of hydrogel.