Professor receives eco-friendly grant
Chemistry department awarded $60,000 for environmental issues in gas and oil
Nathan Knox
Issue date: 9/11/08 Section: News
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The American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund awarded the $60,000 grant, which allows Gengenbach to hire two undergraduate students who will assist in the research.
Gengenbach's project, titled "Fundamental Studies o Metalloporphyrin Catalyzed Oxidation of Dibenzothiopenes," began Sept. 1 and will conclude in 2011.
The research of Gengenbach and the student assistants aims to explore the relationship of sulfur in crude and diesel oils. The research will focus on removing sulfuric compounds from the gas and oil that can be quite harmful to the environment, Gengenbach said.
"We want to change the sulfur compounds into different types of compounds that will be easier to filter out," Gengenbach said. "The way it is, is hard to remove."
Instead of working with the technology aspect of filtering compounds out, which is more often heard about, they will be working with the chemical
reactions and processes involved in changing the compounds in gas and oil that will lead to an easier removal, Gengenbach said.
Gengenbach said that there could potentially be more areas of research after this project, but it is too hard to tell right now.
"It depends on what we learn," Gengenbach said. "It's a brand new project for me. We could get an unexpected product that we might want to chase after that. It's just too hard to know what's going to come out of this."
The project, which has already received attention from other press, as well as faculty and students, has not fully kicked-off yet. Gengenbach said that he has hired two main assistants and is looking into hiring more depending on how the financing works out. Gengenbach said that it's not likely to draw much attention from the community, but senior Nathan Ferger said that it's something that could be beneficial.
"It sounds like a great project," Ferger said. "I think it's definitely worth looking into."
Gengenbach also said that there are plenty of people in the chemistry department involved with and heading up many different research projects.
The department is researching a broad array of topics, some including environmental concerns and some not.
"The chemistry department alone has been awarded over $700,000 in grant money and has over 25 students working on the different projects," Gengenbach said.
Gengenbach encourages students to learn about the other research projects being conducted in the department as well as the rest of the university.
He also says that even though they are important, students should not only pay attention to projects concerning environmental issues.
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