Abstract. This study presents a new method, Köhler Theory Analysis (KTA), to infer the molar volume and solubility of organic aerosol constituents. The method is based on measurements of surface tension, chemical composition, and CCN activity coupled with Köhler theory. KTA is evaluated by inferring the molar volume of six known organics (four dicarboxylic acids, one amino acid, and one sugar) in pure form and in mixtures with ammonium sulfate ((NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 ). The average error in inferred molar volumes are to within 18% of their expected value for organic fractions between 50 and 90%. This suggests that KTA is a potentially powerful tool for determining the CCN characteristic of ambient water soluble organic carbon (WSOC), providing physically-based constraints for aerosol-cloud interaction parameterizations.

Abstract. This study presents a new method, Köhler Theory Analysis (KTA), to infer the molar volume and solubility of organic aerosol constituents. The method is based on measurements of surface tension, chemical composition, and CCN activity coupled with Köhler theory. KTA is evaluated by inferring the molar volume of six known organics (four dicarboxylic acids, one amino acid, and one sugar) in pure form and in mixtures with ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4). Inferred molar volumes are to within 18% of their expected value for organic fractions between 90 and 100%. This suggests that KTA is a powerful and ideal method for determining the CCN characteristic of ambient water soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and provide physically-based constraints for aerosol-cloud interaction parameterizations.

In support of a reactive distillation experimental program, bench scale experiments were conducted for the production of high molecular weight olefins via metathesis. A fixed bed rhenium oxide (Re2O7) catalyst on a γ-alumina support was utilized to study the reaction of C6, C8, and C10 olefins to form light and heavy olefin products. Initial experiments determined the impact temperature and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) had on the reactivity of three different α- olefins. The investigated temperatures and WHSV were conditions that encompassed the anticipated reactive distillation column reactor zones temperatures and WHSV. All of these runs displayed high conversions, low selectivities, and significant secondary isomerization coupled with subsequent metathesis. This isomerization compromised the ability to make any quantitative assessments on the reactivity of olefins with respect to temperature, flow rate, and carbon number in the feed. However, it was concluded that there was a possible optimal condition of a low flow and low temperature. Additional experiments revealed the impact temperature had on conversion and selectivity of C8 and C10 α-olefins. These experiments concluded that between an ambient temperature condition and 60 °C, there was a moderate conversion of the feed and a relatively high selectivity to the primary liquid product. However, above 60 °C, there was a step change in the amount of isomerization, which resulted in significantly higher conversions and significantly lower selectivities. An experiment with a temperature ramp over time located this step change in isomerization by suggesting that this temperature occurred between 60 and 70 °C.