Correlating chemistry and mass transport in sustainable iron production.

Steelmaking contributes 8% to the total CO emissions globally, primarily due to coal-based iron ore reduction. Clean hydrogen-based ironmaking has variable performance because the dominant gas-solid reduction mechanism is set by the defects and pores inside the mm- to nm-sized oxide particles that change significantly as the reaction progresses. While these governing dynamics are essential to establish continuous flow of iron and its ores through reactors, the direct link between agglomeration and chemistry is still contested due to missing measurements.

A portable rotating disc as blood rheometer.

Abnormalities in biophysical properties of blood are often strong indicators of life threatening infections. However, there is no existing device that integrates the sensing of blood hematocrit (or equivalently, packed cell volume), viscosity, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in a unified paradigm for point-of-care diagnostics. In an effort to develop a rapid, integrated, accurate, portable, and inexpensive sensing platform to diagnose the corresponding pathophysical parameters, we develop a simple and portable spinning disk capable of yielding these results in a few minutes instead of the traditional duration of hours.