seniordesign.engr.uconn.edu€¦ · web viewlakdawala, steven rodriguez, adam medina team 8:...

Team 8: Automation, Optimization, and Scale- up of EMD production Process Sponsored by: Duracell Sponsor Advisor: Michael Pozin Faculty Advisor: Dr. William Mustain Alkaline batteries are one of the world’s most popular and effective forms of energy storage. These batteries consist of a zinc anode and electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) cathode. Since the size and shape of alkaline batteries cannot change, internal improvements are crucial to producing higher capacity batteries. Our project focuses on improvements to the production and characterization of the EMD cathode. Currently, EMD contains impurities that are embedded during its production process; these impurities lower the achievable amount of energy and shelf life of the battery. Thus, our project aims to characterize impurities and determine the optimal conditions for EMD production. The goals of this capstone design are to: 1) understand how specific variables of the EMD production process influences the purity of the final product; and 2) design a state-of-the-art industrial-scale EMD manufacturing process that minimizes the number of plant workers through automation. This new facility will produce higher quality EMD while significantly reducing the burden of this typically labor-intensive production process. As proof-of-concept we have implemented a fully automated bench-scale reactor in order to show the effectiveness of the new plant design. To achieve these design goals, our team has performed a wide array of computational & experimental work. Experimentally, many different combinations of current density, acidity, and manganese content have been tested to find optimal conditions under which to make EMD. The results of these experiments, allowed for the optimal process control of our bench-scale reactor. The group has also spent a considerable amount of time on plant design, optimization and From Left to Right: Joshua Woodruﬀ, Nehal Lakdawala, Steven Rodriguez, Adam Medina CHEMICAL & BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING Figure 1: Automated bench scale reactor to create electrolytic manganese dioxide Figure 2: Electrode plated with EMD at higher purity Figure 3: Post process experimental EMD

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Page 1: seniordesign.engr.uconn.edu€¦ · Web viewLakdawala, Steven Rodriguez, Adam Medina Team 8: Automation, Optimization, and Scale-up of EMD production Process Sponsored by: Duracell

Team 8: Automation, Optimization, and Scale-up of EMD production Process

Sponsored by: DuracellSponsor Advisor: Michael Pozin Faculty Advisor: Dr. William Mustain

Alkaline batteries are one of the world’s most popular and effective forms of energy storage. These batteries consist of a zinc anode and electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) cathode. Since the size and shape of alkaline batteries cannot change, internal improvements are crucial to producing higher capacity batteries. Our project focuses on improvements to the production and characterization of the EMD cathode. Currently, EMD contains impurities that are embedded during its production process; these impurities lower the achievable amount of energy and shelf life of the battery. Thus, our project aims to characterize impurities and determine the optimal conditions for EMD production. The goals of this capstone design are to: 1) understand how specific variables of the EMD production process influences the purity of the final product; and 2) design a state-of-the-art industrial-scale EMD manufacturing process that minimizes the number of plant workers through automation. This new facility will produce higher quality EMD while significantly reducing the burden of this typically labor-intensive production process. As proof-of-concept we have implemented a fully automated bench-scale reactor in order to show the effectiveness of the new plant design. To achieve these design goals, our team has performed a wide array of computational & experimental work. Experimentally, many different combinations of current density, acidity, and manganese content have been tested to find optimal conditions under which to make EMD. The results of these experiments, allowed for the optimal process control of our bench-scale reactor. The group has also spent a considerable amount of time on plant design, optimization and automation processes. These improvements to the overall process, will allow for higher quality EMD to be produced, resulting in significantly improved batteries.

From Left to Right: Joshua Woodruff, Nehal Lakdawala, Steven Rodriguez, Adam Medina

EMIC

AL &

BIO

LECU

LAR

GIN

EERIN

Figure 1: Automated bench scale reactor to create

electrolytic manganese dioxide

Figure 2: Electrode plated with EMD at higher purity

Figure 3: Post process experimental EMD