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Wonder if...

John Pippins III, a chemical engineering major, looks at the stuff a lawnmower spits out differently than most people. 

Instead of grass clippings or bits of leaves and branches, Pippins, 19, of Lafayette, sees potential fuel and energy.

He’s conducting research as a student worker at the Cleco Alternative Energy Center in Crowley, La. Although he’s carrying an 18-hour course load this semester, he scoots over to the center several days each week after class.

He’s working on a project to identify the most efficient methods and materials for converting biomass—wood, plants, agricultural waste and other vegetation—into small, dense, coal-like lumps packed with energy.

To do that, Pippins implements a process called torrefaction. He piles biomass into a special furnace, exposing it to high temperatures, which alters the chemical composition of wood or plant matter and strips it of water without combustion.

The result is a material that burns cleanly, producing less volatile gases, and resists decomposing.

“Almost any type of plant or wood can be turned into torrefied biomass,” said Pippins, who’s experimenting with several, including pine, willow and bagasse, the dry fibrous material left over after sugar cane juice has been extracted from the stalk.

“It would be very interesting to go to a Third World country and use alternative energies there, because a lot of them don’t even have traditional energy sources yet. If you could find a way to develop alternative energy there, that would be really cool.”

Wonder how...

Nicholas Lipari is using 3-D technology to make big data useful.

He’s working on a project for the national Center for Visual and Decision Informatics, a collaborative effort of UL Lafayette, Drexel University, the National Science Foundation and industry.

Lipari, who’s pursuing a doctorate in computer science, is using data collected when Hurricane Isaac made landfall in Louisiana in August 2012. Sensors, installed on levees in and around New Orleans, recorded water levels as the storm moved inland.

His goal is to create a way to monitor real-time data, so the user can make decisions based on that information.

“We’ve become accustomed to using a computer keyboard or mouse in relation to a 2-D display. But we haven’t worked out the conventions of the 3-D environment. It’s sort of like the difference between driving a car and flying a helicopter, and obviously, it takes a lot of training to be able to fly a helicopter. We’re working to create an intuitive way to manipulate information in a 3-D world,” Lipari said.

He is writing software to enable people to use hand-held devices, such as smart phones or computer tablets, to interact with a 3-D display.

“We also want to take advantage of affordable, widely available components, such as 3-D televisions,” he added.

Wonder why...

Why are the eggs of alligators in the wild more likely to hatch than those of farmed-raised gators? Ashley Picou Mikolajczyk is studying alligator egg yolks to find out.

“In the wild, a fertilized egg is almost guaranteed to hatch,” she said. Studies suggest that about 95 percent of eggs hatch in the wild, compared to about 50 percent among captive animals.

Mikolajczyk, who’s pursuing a doctorate in chemical engineering, is comparing the fatty-acid profiles of eggs laid in the wild with those from captive alligators.

She measures a gram of yolk from each egg and uses a gas chromotography/mass spectrometry machine to separate the fatty acids. The machine forces the yolk sample through a narrow tube — roughly the diameter of a sewing needle  — and breaks the material into its molecular components. It then “reads” the molecular chains of fatty acids.

In addition to comparing egg yolks from wild and captive animals, she is also comparing eggs from two groups of farm-raised alligators. One group was fed typical commercial food, the other was given commercial food fortified with fish oil.

“I’m trying to determine whether there is a statistical difference that may indicate whether the enhanced food improved hatch rates,” she explained.

The development of better commercial food could improve hatch rates for farmers and be used in the conservation of related species that are threatened and/or endangered, such as some crocodiles.

Wonder where...

Akinjide Akintunde’s research involves infrasound, which is sound typically produced by earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, and explosions whose frequencies are too low to be heard by humans.

“Infrasounds have long wavelengths, and travel long distances with little loss of energy due to their low frequencies. My interest in this study is due to potential effect it might have on enhancing our ability to forecast natural disasters, such as avalanches, volcanoes and earthquakes, as these phenomena have a way of announcing their impending arrival through inaudible sounds,” he said.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization has positioned many infrasound sensors all over the planet to monitor clandestine nuclear tests.

An infrasound signal produced by a nuclear explosion reaches those sensors via several paths. One is a direct, “line of sight” path. Others are indirect paths because they are created when the infrasound signal is reflected from different layers of the atmosphere, such as the troposphere, stratosphere, and thermosphere.

In typical measured waveforms, the signals identified as arriving from the lower thermosphere, which is about 85 to 160 kilometers above Earth’s surface, are consistently stronger than what current models predict.

The lower thermosphere is critical because it shields the planet from solar X-rays and ultraviolet radiation, recycles water, and acts as thermal buffer that ensures a moderate surface temperature.

The objective of Akintunde’s project is to develop a theoretical model that can better predict the amount of energy lost by infrasonic waves in the thermosphere. That model could help scientists more accurately measure the sources of infrasound (such as nuclear blasts, meteorites, and volcanic eruptions) and also monitor the “health” of Earth’s thermosphere.

Wonder when...

Earth seems overdue for geomagnetic reversal, which happens when the orientation of its magnetic field flips: magnetic north and south switch places.

On average, this happens every 200,000 to 300,000 years, but it has been more than twice that long — about 780,000 years — since the last reversal.

Because the magnetic field determines the magnetization of sediment as it is deposited, past reversals are recorded in the geologic strata.

Fatemeh Karbalaei Saleh, who is pursuing a master’s degree in physics, is conducting research that may shed light on the reversal process. She is analyzing sediment samples from South Dakota that are made up of sandstones, limestones, silt and clay.

Dr. Natalia Sidorvoskaia, a professor of physics and head of the Department of Physics, is her advisor. “The reversal process is not well understood,” said Sidorovskaia.

“The work Fatemeh is doing may give us a better understanding of how the Earth evolves.”

At the Louisiana Accelerator Center on UL Lafayette’s campus, Saleh uses a machine that shoots a stream of protons, charged subatomic particles, at the sediment samples. The protons interact with the material to reveal what elements, such as iron, it contains.

Her research has a broad range of applications, including discovering natural resources, such as oil and gas, and understanding climate change. It also can be used to study coastal erosion and restoration in the Gulf Coast region.