TCoE Trends Newsletter, Winter 2023
Last summer, as members of the University’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), two engineering students pursued what interests them most in their field.
Chemical engineering student Madison Liguori ’23 and her faculty mentor Huan Gu, Ph.D., an assistant professor of chemical engineering, collaborated closely on “Skin Thinning Mediated Bacterial Penetration During Space Travel,” giving Liguori priceless experience in hands-on research.
The project studied the impact that space travel has on the skin of astronauts. “When astronauts embark on a space journey, they undergo different levels of gravity,” Liguori explained. “This environmental change causes them severe skin-related issues. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the opportunistic bacteria that commonly reside on our skin and can cause persistent infections as it penetrates the skin’s surface.”
Using a microcentrifuge and a bacteria-to-fluid solution to mimic the gravity changes in space travel, they were able to conclude that microgravity (the state in which people or objects appear to be weightless) encourages bacteria to become more resistant to antibiotics.
Liguori’s goal is to use her knowledge of space travel-related skin issues in a future career as a chemical engineer in the cosmetics industry. In a global industry worth more than $380 billion, understanding how skin responds to a variety of stimuli has a gravity all its own.
“Determining the Oil Content of Seaweed Native to Connecticut for Biofuel Production” was the title of the project explored by another chemical engineering student, Timilehin E. Oluwole, and her faculty mentor Kristine Horvat, Ph.D., an assistant professor of chemical engineering.
Although the search for alternative, cleaner biofuels is nothing new, and the potential for algae-based biofuel has been researched for years, its economic viability has been the subject of heated discussion, which has impeded any commercial-scale production.
Timilehin and Horvat, therefore, set out to establish which of the seaweeds native to Connecticut had the greatest oil content and the most biofuel potential.
Three different seaweeds were collected — rockweed, sea cellophane, and mini sea lettuce. After drying them and extracting the oil from each, these were the findings:
Sea cellophane was the undisputed winner, yielding 6.64% oil due to its large surface area, compared to 4.74% oil from rockweed, and a paltry 3.62% from the “shrimp” of the group, mini sea lettuce.
Although sea cellophane outperformed in oil yield, 6.64% isn’t exactly impressive, partly due to the harvest area being out of sea cellophane’s depth — that is, the samples were collected near the shoreline instead of going further out. Collecting from deeper waters will increase the chances of finding sea cellophane with higher oil content.
Conclusion: Native Connecticut seaweed is not out of the running as a potential biofuel source.
This article appeared in the Winter 2023 issue of TCoE Trends, the official newsletter of the Tagliatela College of Engineering. Click here to read more from TCoE Trends.
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