The goal of this project was to research and propose the implementation of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling plant. The recommended process is recycling PET flakes into its base polymers and monomers via a hydrolase enzyme biocatalyst. The current design with supporting utilities and operations has an estimated total capital investment of $54.68 million dollars. The team recommends selling terephthalic acid (rTPA) at $2.21 per kilogram to reach a net present value of $0 after 10 years. This price is not yet competitive with the current market of virgin TPA, which historically has been between $1.00 and $1.50 per kilogram. This process also produces liquid ethylene glycol (EG) and sodium sulfate salt (SS) that can be sold as co-products. The return on investment (ROI) is 24.4% and the venture profit is $1.34 million. Future work includes further optimization of rTPA pricing, on-site wastewater treatment, unit operation modification, and further lab development and research regarding the biocatalyst enzyme
This document is supplemental materials for the book chapter "Playing in the Same Sandbox: Collaborations on Data Management, Research Technologies, and Research Computing" in the book Cases on Establishing Effective Collaborations in Academic Libraries authored by Amy Koshoffer and Amy Latessa
This project analyzes a print from the UC Art Collection called “Dusty Millers” and the amateur artist that created it. Diving into the artist’s biography and relations, this project first aims to understand how the amateur artist went about studying printmaking and how he became an important advocate for the medium in London. Secondly, the project discusses artistic influences from the 19th century that inspired his style and subject matter of his prints that include depictions of rural landscapes and daily labors.
The University of Cincinnati Art Collection houses prints by two early 20th century German Expressionist printmakers, Max Pechstein (1881-1955) and Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945). Pechstein’s Das Vater Unser (The Lord’s Prayer) series (1921) originally a portfolio of twelve, is represented in the University of Cincinnati Art Collection with nine of the bold woodcut prints. Kollwitz’s small postcard lithographs, Two Chatting Women with Two Children (c. 1930) and The Hospital Visit (c. 1926), are intimate and show the artists soft touch. Though formally very different, these prints share a common subject, the suffering of Germans during the interwar period (1918-1939). Both artists personally experienced both World Wars and their tragedies, and while Pechstein rarely addressed it directly, Kollwitz’s career was full of her antiwar sentiments. The prints grapple with the grief, political turmoil, and financial difficulties associated with the interwar period and each artist turns to their own form of religion to exercise their pain.