UML Chemical Engineering Student Derek Lovejoy Receiving Student Best Paper Award
UML Chemical Engineering student Derek Lovejoy receiving student Best Paper Award.

02/22/2023
By Sanjeev Manohar

Derek Lovejoy, undergraduate senior in chemical engineering, won the Best Paper Award at the IPC APEX 2023 Conference for study on removing hazardous copper metal ions.

Traditional systems that are used to remove excess copper from acidic cupric chloride etchant are hazardous. For example, directly removing copper from an etchant solution by electrowinning generates dangerous chlorine gas as a byproduct, while existing Liquid-Liquid-Extraction systems utilize hazardous and extremely expensive organic solvents. As a potential replacement for these systems, a feasibility study was conducted in which an ion-exchange resin was used to remove excess copper from the etchant. 

Derek was tasked to complete this study by GreenSource Fabrication LLC during his internship during Summer 2022. Derek showed that the resin was effective in removing sufficient amounts of copper from the etchant and the resin could be regenerated using an acid electrolyte, allowing the resin to be reused. Importantly, the resin material is completely non-hazardous, making this system an ideal replacement for current systems.

Derek's study and his resulting report won “Student Best Paper” at the 2023 IPC APEX Conference. GreenSource Fabrication is looking to perform further testing with a larger scale apparatus.