About Me: I am a current rising senior at WPI studying Chemistry with a minor in STEM Education. I recently completed my student teaching this past semester in 8-12 Chemistry! I am interested in designing interactive chemistry labs, and am looking forward to working on my Major Qualifying Project (MQP) involving chemical education at the collegiate level this fall.
Outside of academia, I love to read, listen to music, and spend time outside in the sun. I can also be found across campus working with VOX Musical Theatre here at WPI, as well as my involvement in Greek Life.
About the Lab
The Big Picture: The research domain for this project is in sustainable energy and waste removal. The big picture of the Timko lab began with a multi-year grant to convert wastewater treatment sludge into a form of renewable energy called biocrude oil, via a chemical process called hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). As part of this process, it was determined that per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) were destroyed.
Project Title: PFAS Analysis of HTL Products
Project Overview: HTL results in three phases – solid char, aqueous solution, and biocrude oil. The focus of the subgroup that Tiffani and I will be researching is to what extent is PFAS effectively removed from the samples, and in which component(s) does PFAS end up in after the HTL process. The process by which this will be measured has already been developed by Sadie Green and Geoffrey Tompsett, and it will be the responsibility of Tiffani and I to analyze aqueous and char samples.
Weekly Updates:
- Week 1:
After onboarding and introductions, we were given a tour of the chemical engineering labs. We were sent relevant scientific literature and SOPs to review in the beginning part of the week. In the later half, we started working with and practicing the procedures for analyzing each of the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) product components, as well as preparing standards. The primary instrumentation used to analyze the products is currently under repair, and we need to wait for it to be back online before we can start creating calibration curves.
Shaker table for PFAS sample prep, to be later analyzed on the LC/Q-TOF
- Week 2:
This week, the LC/Q-TOF was still under repair, so we worked on some computational chemistry work and preparing HTL samples from food waste. The HTL process involves a reactor that essentially acts as a pressure cooker to break down food waste in an oxygen-free environment to create biofuel. As far as computational work, we looked at the kinetic diameter or size of PFAS molecules so we could later determine what things would best filter them out of solution. This involved using the Joback method to calculate the kinetic diameter based off of the type and quantity of different functional groups of our target PFAS compounds
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) setup to produce biocrude in the Timko lab
Different phase samples from the HTL process (left to right: biocrude, char, aqueous)
- Week 3: The first half of this week, I was attending the Noyce Summit in Washington, DC. Once I got back, the LC/Q-TOF was running, but my PI got COVID. We were able to play around with the software a bit, and continue working through writing a paper on our Joback method studies. I sent in the first draft of the paper to our PI on Monday, and was able to edit and revise based off of his input.
Preview of the processing software, Agilent MassHunter, used for the LC/Q-TOF
- Week 4: The LC/Q-TOF is FINALLY back online! The first part of the week, we worked on our poster draft while the machine calibrated. We were then able to run blanks and create calibration curves for both the native PFAS samples and isotropic standards. We will be able to look at our samples from Week 1 on the machine, and then do a sample prep for the Q-TOF for our Week 2 HTL samples.
LC/Q-TOF system software as it is being set to run a sample
- Week 5: This week, we were up and running from the start to try and analyze our samples as quickly as possible as the end of the program was coming up. We analyzed our PFAS-spiked and non-spiked HTL samples. We were able to FINALLY get data! We analyzed the mass spec readings from the LC/Q-TOF and were able to back calculate how much PFAS was in our original samples.
Passing samples through a silica wool packed cartridge as part of the sample analysis process
Transferring data from the Agilent MassHunter software to an Excel sheet to compare data to our calibration curves and determine the amount of PFAS in the sample
- Week 6: Posters, extraction efficiency, and side quests, oh my! We finalized the poster at the beginning of the week, and then got the ball rolling on calculating extraction efficiency of our method that we had been using. This posed some road bumps, and we spent a lot of time working in an Excel sheet to figure out what was wrong with our calculations.
All of the different samples we’ve been running! We’ve been calling this the “sample graveyard” of all of the different leftover vials char, biocrude, and aqueous phases we’ve been collecting.
Since it’s the last week, we were able to have some fun towards the end! We went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the WooSox baseball stadium. As someone who used to do sports broadcasting at my high school, I loved seeing the A/V room and how they operate the big screen and all the different video feeds they run during the game. The final day of RET was an industry panel, a poster session, and a quick meeting with all of the teachers.
Polar Park’s own garden, that they use to supply fresh veggies and herbs to be used at their games. All the excess food is donated!
Final Deliverables
Final Poster: PFAS Poster 2025
Lesson Plan: Coming soon!