Idaho National Laboratory

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Environment

Method to Produce Durable Pellets at Lower Energy Consumption Using High Moisture Corn Stover and a Corn Starch Binder in a Flat Die Pellet Mill

Jaya Shankar Tumuluru¹, Craig C. Conner¹, Amber N. Hoover¹

¹Biofuels and Renewable Energy Technology Department, Idaho National Laboratory

In this study, a protocol was developed to produce good quality pellets using a flat die pellet mill at reduced specific energy consumption testing high-moisture corn stover and a starch based binder. The results indicated that adding a corn starch binder improved the pellet durability, reduced percent fines and decreased specific energy consumption.

JoVE Core

Atomic Force Microscopy Cantilever-Based Nanoindentation: Mechanical Property Measurements at the Nanoscale in Air and Fluid

Ashton E. Enrriques¹, Sean Howard², Raju Timsina³, Nawal K. Khadka³, Amber N. Hoover⁴, Allison E. Ray⁵, Ling Ding⁴, Chioma Onwumelu⁶, Stephan Nordeng⁶, Laxman Mainali^3,7, Gunes Uzer², Paul H. Davis^1,8

¹Micron School of Materials Science & Engineering, Boise State University, ²Department of Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering, Boise State University, ³Department of Physics, Boise State University, ⁴Energy and Environmental Science and Technology, Idaho National Laboratory, ⁵Science and Technology, Idaho National Laboratory, ⁶Harold Hamm School of Geology & Geological Engineering, University of North Dakota, ⁷Biomolecular Sciences Graduate Program, Boise State University, ⁸Center for Advanced Energy Studies

Quantifying the contact area and force applied by an atomic force microscope (AFM) probe tip to a sample surface enables nanoscale mechanical property determination. Best practices to implement AFM cantilever-based nanoindentation in air or fluid on soft and hard samples to measure elastic modulus or other nanomechanical properties are discussed.