News from Chemical Engineering

Each year, teams of OSU ChE juniors and sophomores build a shoe-box sized car that is powered by a chemical reaction.  The competition requires the car to carry a payload and stop closest to the finish line.  This year, the car had to carry 500 milliliters (about a pint) of water and stop closest to the finish line 75 feet away.  Students find out 1-hour before the competition what the weight (0 to 500 ml) and distance criteria (50 to 100 ft) are.  The top three teams from our local event (March 24) will compete at the AIChE Regional meeting (April 2, at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS), and hopefully one or more will continue on to national competition (October 29, Cincinnati, OH).  An OSU Team qualified for Nationals 3 times in the past 4 years.

 “This is an entertaining and friendly competition that fundamentally supports chemical engineering education. It is fun while being integral to our mission.” Says School Head Russ Rhinehart, “And we are very grateful to Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. for their support of the event.”

 Students must apply their knowledge of chemical reactions, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamics in the car design; and through a poster session present and explain their choices relative to car performance as well as aspects safety, environmental impact, and reliability.  Student poster presentations and performance in the Q&A session is judged.

 Photo 1 – The Poster Judging Session.  Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. engineering and facility managers Gary Allen, Bill Beaulieu, Dave Register, Dan Looney, and Stan Zisman review the nine student posters and ask the penetrating questions.  Earlier in the year, Dave Register reviewed proposals from each team relative to safety.  The high level of C.P. Chem. Co. participation indicates the value they place on this exercise.  As Sweeney Plant Manager Gary Allen says, “The competition introduces students to what they will experience in the working world.” Students have to use technology to create something that works, within constraints, for a range of duties, and come in on budget and on time.  They have to focus on safety, loss prevention, and pollution.  They have to do it within a diverse team in competition with other enterprises.

Photo 2 – Students on the winning team are Darren baker, Nikki Ebert, Paul Engle, Murtaza Gulamhusein, Ben Lewis, Tyler Langley, and Davina Peter.  Here, at the start ling.  They named their car “Wheels of Mass Destruction”. 

Mixed teams of juniors and sophomores has several advantages.  Next year, when the sophomores become juniors will have a better understanding of competition.  And having worked with the class above last year, and the class below this year, students relate to individuals in other levels in sharing School pride and values.

Photo 3 – The reaction for “Wheels of Mass Destruction” is powered up, and Murtaza is opening the valve to start the piston.

Photo 4 – The first place car, “Wheels of Mass Destruction”, is on its way to the finish line, where it stopped within 10 inches of the target 75-foot distance.   It was powered by pureed beef liver and antiseptic grade hydrogen peroxide. Likely this will not become the fuel of the future for automobiles, but for this competition it has cost and safety advantages, is easily available, presents a relatively simple system to model, and is relatively insensitive to ambient temperature.  Outside in March, we could be operating at nearly freezing or at T-shirt weather conditions.

Photo 5 – Poster presentation winners with their car “The Short Bus”.  Byron Blazek, Emily Bruce, Jenny Ernst, Mike Kimler, Jordan Loudermilk, Iskander Mulia, Barkley Pruitt, and David Wiist chose to use a fuel cell power and an iodine clock to stop the car. Fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen as a clean burning fuel, with non-polluting steam as the only reaction product.  The iodine clock uses starch, iodine, and sodium thiosulfate. When the reaction is complete, the solution turns dark blue, which is detected by the electronics and stops the car.

Photo 6 – Second place competition winners also go to Regionals.  Stephen Burris, Jehna Ferster, Jeremy Grace, Lindsey Hall, Mike Keen, Huon Ho, Arjune Maraj, Stacie Pearson, and Matt Voss, chose to use baking powder and vinegar to power their “car” – a Tonka toy dump truck.

Photo 7 – “The Bird” placed third in the competition and its wobbly wheels, fits and starts, and bright color seemed to entertain best of all.

Photo 8 – Creators of The Bird placed third overall, and also go to Regional Competition.  Students are Sam Abrams, Sam Barnett, Bradley Chai, Joshua Fisher, Scott, Hovis, Clark Manahan, Archie Meiseman, and Joshua Sieck.

The junior-level students start planning for their cars in the fall as part of the chemical engineering thermodynamics class that Dr. Randy Lewis teaches.   Then in the spring semester, they continue to develop the cars from what they learn in Dr. Sundar Madihally’s reaction kinetics class; and they are joined by the sophomore students in Lewis’ material and energy balance class who focus on safety and loss prevention.  Lewis and Madihally get much assistance from the School Staff in planning and organizing the event.  Staff member Eileen Nelson designed the 2005 Logo. It is a long-term, highly-coordinated, engaging, and entertaining event which fosters student performance and pride.

Photo 9 – Fourth place team starting their fuel cell car.

Photo 10 – The OSU 2005 ChemE Car Logo - Pistol Pete riding a likeness of one of the recent cars.

We are especially grateful to the support from Chevron Phillips Chemical Co.  Their financial gift provides materials for the cars, the annual logo T-shirt, the awards banquet, and travel support to attend regional and national competition.  And, the time investment by Gary, Bill, Dave, Dan, and Stan is also important.  Their personal participation provides strong affirmation to the students that the curriculum topics, “co-petition”, safety and environment, teamwork, quality of presentation, and comprehensive student development are important enough to warrant high-level corporate interest.