Capital Facility Program
Reporting Forms
Progress and Reimbursement Report
Identifying Information
Contract number: / 3538479Center Director’s Name: / Robert E. Baier, Ph.D., P.E.
Center Director’s Mailing Address
(Street, City, State, Zip): / Center for Biosurfaces, Room 110 Parker Hall, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214-3007
Center Director ’s Telephone No.: / 716-829-3560
Center Director’s Email: /
Total funding amount of NYSTAR contract: / $1,273,000.
Entire period of NYSTAR contract: / From: / To:
2002
Period covered by current report: / From: / To:
July 1, 2008 / December 31, 2008
Progress Report Certification
“I, the undersigned officer/duly authorized representative of the Contractor hereby certify that all information contained in this report is clear and accurate and that no misrepresentations have been made by our organization in any part of this submission.”
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Signature of Authorized Organizational RepresentativeDate
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Printed Name and Title
CAPITAL FACILITY PROGRESS REPORT
Concerning the research conducted at the center since the last report was submitted.
1)Executive Summary of the progress that has been made by the Center since the last report was submitted.
The Center’s cooperative program with Industry partners has been extended to include monitoring of air quality improvements in conference room settings, significantly more challenging than for the Pure Room process previously validated for smaller and lower-occupancy hotel/hospitality rooms. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has solicited and received information to share with the U.S. Congress on University at Buffalo (UB) Center’s independent testing of interventions developed for air quality improvement in hotel hospitality rooms, as recognizedby industry partner Pure Solutions LLC receipt of the 2008 Innovator Award from the School of Hotel Administration of Cornell University and The Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship during the 2008annual meeting of “The Innovation Network”.
As of December 31st, 2008 the ErieCounty Clean School Bus Initiative Phase
1, which funded retrofits for Akron, Grand Island, Iroquois, Lancaster, Ken-Ton, and SweetHomeSchool Districts, successfully ended its two-year grant period. Approximately 230 buses were equipped with retrofits. Erie County Department of Environment & Planning (DEP)
designed and distributed bumper stickers for all retrofitted school buses to raise public awareness. DEP expressed gratitude to all the project partners, especially Engineers for a Sustainable World at the University at Buffalo, for their hard work in gathering and analyzing air
quality data from school buses. DEP’s Project Manager presented preliminary technical findings at the New York Association for Pupil Transportation meeting in November, 2008.The Erie County Clean School Bus Initiative Phase 2 is currently in progress. This phase is funding retrofits at Fisher Bus Company, a privatebus company serving Hamburg and OrchardParkSchool District. In addition, 12 pieces of idle-reduction equipment were purchased for Sweet
HomeSchool District.Erie County DEP continues to help other school districts and bus
companies pursue grant funding for diesel retrofits.
Joint work with CornellUniversity has continued in the area of holography and direct numerical simulation (DNS) of atmospheric particulate aggregation, using an approach that is unconventional in that it intermingles DNS and experiments completely to allow unique quantitative comparisons between DNS and experiments. The teams meet weekly, via videoconference, fordiscussions of all aspects of the work. This provides a rich environment for students, who areexposed at a high level to both sets of activities. Recent activities have included recruitment and mentoring of women and underrepresented minorities at their respectiveinstitutions, outreach within the community, and organization of a series of high-profile workshopsat the NSF directed towards encouraging underrepresented minorities into the academy.
2)Information on each project in which a significant research accomplishment has been achieved at the Center since the last report was submitted:
Project Name: Control of Nosocomial Infections in Public Health Facilities
Principal Investigator:Robert E. Baier, Ph.D., P.E.; Anne E. Meyer, Ph.D.,
John Campbell, D.D.S.; Richard Hall, D.D.S., M.D., Ph.D.
Research Sponsor:UB School of Dental Medicine, National Science Foundation; Industry/Univ. Ctr. for Biosurfaces
Research Funding Amount: services-in kind; University faculty, residents, graduate students
Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces equipment and NYSTAR-funded Capital Equipment for analysis of respirable aerosols is being utilized on an intermittent basis to monitor air quality indicators within the School of Dental Medicine as it recovers its atmospheric equilibrium following extensive roof repairs and fire proofing/re-insulation of interior structures during the previous 6 months.
Project Name: Videoconferencing Operations
Principal Investigators:Lisa Stephens, Ph.D., David Shurtleff, Mark Woodward
Sponsor: This NYSTAR CFP (equipment)
and University at Buffalo(personnel)
Funding:NYSTAR-EQS; University at Buffalo
Reporting statistics through December, 2008 show system support for NYSTAR videoconferencing operations to be sustained at the prior level, exceeding 100 operations for the preceding 6-month term.
Project Name: ErieCounty Clean School Bus Initiative
Principal Investigators:Robin Paget, Thomas Hersey, Bonnie Lange Lawrence,
Erie County Department of Environment and Planning
Robert Baier, University at Buffalo
Michael Dio, Brian Beckmann, Clean Air Technologies
Adam Blair, Siddhesh Prasad, Engineers for a Sustainable World
Sponsor:Erie County Department of Environment and Planning
Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces, Clean Air
Technologies, International, Inc. (CATI)
Funding: CATI services-in kind; University undergraduate and graduatestudents participate in curricular Independent Study assignments
Erie County Department of Environment and Planning (DEP) continues to help local school districts and bus companies pursue grant funding for diesel retrofits, based on UB-student-documented improvements in emissions reductions. DEPsubmitted an application to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency forover $500,000 in funding for six more ErieCounty school districts. In October, 2008, DEP submitted additional applications for clean school bus funding to theNew York State Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on behalf of regional companies First Student and Rainbow Transportation. First Student provides busservice to over 15 school districts in Western New York. Rainbow serves theTonawandaCitySchool District. These grant applications are pending.
Ultimately, DEP hopes to retrofit all school buses in ErieCounty andimprove regional air quality through reduced diesel emissions. The UB air quality monitoring team expects to provide continuing measurement support through its Engineers for a Sustainable World student group.
Project Name: Collaborative Biodiesel Testing Project
Principal Investigators:Michael Dio, Jeremy Dabbeekeh, Sanketh Guruswamy
Sponsor:UB Facilities Operations, National Science Foundation;
Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces, Clean Air
Technologies, International, Inc. (CATI)
Funding: CATI services-in kind; University undergraduate and graduate
students participate in curricular Independent Study assignments
Formal negotiations for a test program have begun between the University at Buffalo and Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW-UB), an organization of students of UB that seeks to reduce the University’s environmental impact and improve its community standing through the use of environmentally sustainable technologies and alternatives. ESW-UB is promoting biodiesel fuel as a domestically produced vegetable-oil-based fuel that can be used in all diesel engines and has been shown to significantly reduce harmful emissions, improving the health of both humans and the environment.
Project Name: Emissions: Design Improvements of Monitoring Equipment
Principal Investigator:Robert Baier and Clean Air Technologies, Inc.
Sponsor:Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces
Funding:Clean Air Tech. (proprietary); IUCB portion in-kind
This study was designed to test certain improvements needed on the Montana Portable Emissions Monitoring System to facilitate its usage in extreme temperatures. During earlier projects conducted by CATI, some problems that were encountered were overheating of the gas analyzers, and making the unit hermetically sealed so that it could be used without any fear of water flooding the inside of the unit.A number of ideas such as increasing the air circulation inside the unit, and having larger and better heat dissipaters were tested to determine the best way to keep the analyzers cool and not to overheat in a closed container.
Advances have been made in air circulation, data processing, and module interfacing. The result of this project has been a new “Axion System”, which replaces the Montana System design. The new system has been the result of ongoing testing and evaluation. The system is still in the prototype phase. The finished project is expected early next year. This is an ongoing project.
Project Name: ETV Certification Program for Innovative Hydrogen Solutions
Principal Investigators:Michael Dio, Sanketh Guruswamy
Sponsor:Innovative Hydrogen Solutions (HIS), Winnipeg, Canada (to CATI)
Funding: proprietary to CATI; IUCB services-in-kind
This is an ongoing project. The Certification process is now with Environment Canada.
The goal of the test program was to generate enough valid and repeatable data so that CATI could make confident conclusions on specific emission and/or fuel performance improvements resulting from the use of the H2 N-GEN™( a hydrogen retrofit device). Use of the H2 N-GEN™ showed a marked reduction in emissions under different driving conditions and those are listed below.
Highway Driving:NOx – 23.84%; HC - 26.72%; CO – 38.23%;
CO2 - 30.82%; PM - 86.14%
City Driving: NOx - 8.62%; HC - 16.86%; CO - 37.63%;
CO2 - 12.71%; PM - 16.06%
It also showed reduced fuel consumption for the above mentioned driving conditions. This is shown below.
Reduced fuel consumption:
Highway Driving:30.96%
City Driving:13.12%
Project Name: Accuracy of ECU/ECM data for the Calculation of Fuel Flow
Principal Investigators:Brian Beckmann, Mike Dio, and Kyle Tucker.
Sponsor:Alberta Finance, Tax and Revenue Administration to CATI;
Industry/Univ. Ctr. for Biosurfaces
Funding:Alberta TRA; IUCB portion in-kind
A project has been nearly completed to generate enough measured valid and repeatable data to verify the vehicle data generated by the Engine Control Unit. Four methods of fuel flow calculation were employed: The UB Montana System, a pair of Turbine Flow Meters, a Bypass Fuel Tank, and ECU. Vehicles were tested both in Buffalo, NY, USA and Edmonton, AB, Canada. Results are now being reviewed prior to organization for publication.
Project Name: Impact of Air Quality Interventions in Conference Rooms
Principal Investigator:Anne E. Meyer, Ph.D., Robert E. Baier, Ph.D., P.E.
Research Sponsor:NIEQRI, Inc.,Pure Solutions LLC,
National Science Foundation; Industry/Univ. Ctr.
for Biosurfaces
Research Funding Amount: $5,000 Equipment Maintenance Agreement + services-in-kind from Pure Solutions LLC
Based on work completedduring the previous reporting period, comparing Hotel guest rooms converted to PURE Allergy Friendly Room status with an unmodified Control Room, Project partner Pure Solutions LLC has extended its business to include Air Quality improvements in Conference Rooms. Pure Solutions LLC was the recipient of the “best innovation award” for the hospitality industry in 2008 by Cornell’s Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship, based on providing a company product with distinctive services, industry appeal, customer satisfaction and credible Return on Investment. New work planned for the next term will document air quality improvements/interventions in large conference room environments, provided by existing Pure Room hospitality customers.
Project Name: Surface Characterization of Tissues
Principal Investigator:Anne Meyer, Robert Baier
Funding Source:Ethicon, Inc. Division of Johnson & Johnson
Funding Amount:$45279
Funding Time Period:10/01/2006 – 09/31/2009
This project was expanded during the past term to include the characterization of natural biological components used in tissue sealing and hemostasis, when delivered to wound surfaces as a combined two-component bioaerosol. Documentation of important surface tension features of the expensive blood-derived reagents allowed the selection of less expensive surrogate materials for testing of improved bioaerosol generation/delivery equipment by another contractor. Previous results were published as follows:
Meyer A, Baier R, Samuel S, Vailhe C (2008) Tissue Surface Characteristics Relevant to Sealant and Adhesive Applications, Abstract #156, World Biomaterials Congress, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Project Name: Fundamental Biodynamic Relationships at Tissue
Surfaces Exposed to Hydrodynamic Shear Stresses
Principal Investigator:Robert Baier, Anne Meyer
Funding Source:Alcon Laboratories, Ft. Worth, TX
Funding Amount:$269,873
Funding Time Period:4/17/2007 – 4/16/2010
Significant work was completed on the properties of friction-reduction formulations for relief and possibly prevention of symptoms of “dry eye”, particularly as related to environmental properties and exposure to fine particles, dusts, and biological matter. Final preparation is in progress for a 2009 Biomaterials Graduate Program Masters Degree thesis on this topic. Related aspects of the work have been published as follows:
Meyer A, Baier, R, Chen H, Gan O (2008) In Vitro studies of Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lens Lubrication Mechanisms, Abstract #155, World Biomaterials Congress, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Chen H, Gan O, Meadows D, Meyer AE, Baier, RE (2008) Evaluation of Lubricity of Marketed Dry Eye Products Using a Tissue-on-Tissue Model, British Contact Lens Association, Annual Clinical Conference, Birmingham, UK
3)Information for each of the inventions that have been disclosed by the Center since the last report was submitted:
R-6334 Title: Desiccant-Resistant Formulation for Relief of Xerostomia.
UB Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR)
STOR Commercialization Manager: Tim Dee
Phone: 716-645-8139 email:
4)Information for each patent applied for or received by the Center since the last report was submitted:
No new patent information this period:x
5)Information for each of the licensing agreements the institution in which the research at the Center concerns the intellectual property being licensed since the last report was submitted:
No new licensing information this period:x
6)Information for each research grant that has been applied for by, or awarded to, the Center and/or researchers associated with the Center since the last report was submitted:
NSF Proposal Submitted 9/18/2008 in response to program announcement NSF 08-01, CBET - PARTICULATE &MULTIPHASE PROCESSES, CBET - FLUID DYNAMICS
Requested funding: $294,966
Proposed duration: 36 months
Requested starting date: 8/16/09
Title: Collaborative Research: Inertial Particles in Turbulence - An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Dynamics of Particle Pairs
Intellectual Merit
We propose to extend digital holography particle image velocimetry (DHPIV) to enable measurement of relativevelocity statistics for inertial particles in isotropic turbulence. These measurements will allow usto quantify two important aerosol processes: (i) two-particle dispersion of inertial particles; and(ii) inertial particle collision, for the first time. Holography is a three-dimensional (3D) techniquecapable of accurately determining the instantaneous positions of large numbers of particles. Our collaborationhas advanced this capability to allow 3D velocity statistics to be gathered. The goal here is to exploitthis capability to experimentally measure relative velocity statistics for inertial particle pairs as afunction of their separation distance. Through kinematic relationships, these data will be used toquantify both two-particle dispersion and the collision rate as a function of the particle parameters (Stokes number and Reynolds number). We will build a new, enclosed turbulence facility in whichto make the measurements. The new facility, combined with a judicious choice of particles, willallow us to isolate the effects of each parameter.
In addition to the cutting-edge experimental work we have planned, we will perform state-of-the-
art direct numerical simulations (DNS) that complement the experiments. We will quantify
the effect of particle inertia on two-particle dispersion, a process that has not yet been studied withDNS. We recently developed a code that is capable of performing 10243 simulations on our 32--node Beowulf cluster. Taking advantage of the parameter control we have with DNS, we will studymonodisperse and bidisperse dispersion in a Lagrangian frame of reference. We will investigatethe role of the parameters (Stokes number and Reynolds number) on the dispersion process.Because of the limitations in the Reynolds number we can achieve, we will focus on how inertialparticle statistics differ from those of fluid tracers. Additionally, we will simulate conditions thatoverlap with some of the experiments so that we can continue our tradition of making quantitativecomparisons between the two.
Broader Impacts
The motion of discrete particles in a turbulent fluid is of great significance to a broad range of
engineering flows as well as natural flows. From understanding the competition between growth
and oxidation of soot particles in a diesel engine, to quantifying the impact these particles have onthe global climate, we are challenged to describe the dispersive and collisional properties of particlesin order to get these predictions right. Historically our understanding of turbulence has gone hand-in-hand with our ability to measure the key variables, either experimentally or computationally. Anexample that is relevant to this proposal is the recent experimental advances that enable Lagrangianmeasurements that can test decades-old theories such as Richardson's law, for the first time. Thegoal of this proposal is to extend that understanding to inertial particles. Our quantification oftwo important aerosol processes, dispersion and interparticle collisions, will stimulate exciting newtheoretical understanding, both within our group and elsewhere, and this will improve our abilityto predict a broad range of applications. Our approach is unconventional in that we intermingleDNS and experiment completely. Indeed, a strength of this work has been our ability to makequantitative comparisons between DNS and experiments. We meet weekly via videoconference tothoroughly discuss all aspects of the work. This provides a rich environment for students, who areexposed, at a high level, to both sets of activities.The PIs have been heavily involved with outreach throughout their careers. Recent activitiesinclude recruitment and mentoring of women and underrepresented minorities at their respectiveinstitutions, outreach within the community, and organization of a series of high-profile workshopsat the NSF directed towards encouraging underrepresented minorities into the academy.