Chemical Engineers Earn Grants for New Projects

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Florida Tech Department of Chemical Engineering faculty members, Dr. Paul Jennings and Dr. Subhash Dutta, have become
partners with Eltron Research of Boulder, Colo., sharing two Phase One grants from the Department of Defense. The grants, through the Army Research
Division, are each for $100,000, shared equally.

The first grant will fund research into creating a portable microreactor system to synthesize hydrogen peroxide. The researchers’ goal is to develop an
on-site method to produce hydrogen peroxide, which has been demonstrated to be an effective disinfectant against biological warfare agents. On-site
production will avoid the problems of transportation and storage.

The second grant will fund development of a theoretical model for the reaction, or combustion, of gelled hypergolic fuels. This is a fuel that will
spontaneously ignite with an oxidizer, such as aniline with fuming nitric acid. It is used as the propulsion agent in certain missile systems.

“Gelled fuels are more stable and safer to store and transport than liquid fuels. Modeling the reaction, however, is much more complicated,” said
Jennings.

Both grants were made available through the Department of Defense’s Small Business Technology Transfer Program.