Processing and Drying of Biomass Residue for Feedstock to a Dedicated Congeneration Facility

Not Available Foster-Miller proposes to employ a revolutionary approach involving organic, self-assembling multilayer coatings to promote lubrication in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Such coatings would reduce the adhesive forces that lead to stiction and the frictional forces that lead to system inefficiencies and wear-related failure. Such a coating has the potential to improve the reliability of MEMS devices, increase their operational life-time, and raise their overall mechanical efficiency. The coatings proposed are based on novel self-assembling molecules. Unlike surface-modifying layers based on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanes, these films can be formed into multilayers that continuously expose a hydrophobic surface that is inherently robust. Like SAM-based surface modifiers, these molecules will be deposited onto all of the exposed surfaces (not just those open to line-of-sight deposition) via solution. Due to the stability of these molecules and their ability to form multilayers, they should drastically improve the wear characteristics of MEMS devices while improving device yields as well.