PRISM :: Browsing by Author "Hill, Josephine M."

Browsing by Author "Hill, Josephine M."

Now showing 1 - 20 of 33

Open Access
3d modeling and experimental studies of ni/ysz anodes in an sofc with internal reforming of methane
(2007) Nikooyeh, Kasra; Hill, Josephine M.
Open Access
Adsorption of naphthenic acids onto activated carbon produced from petroleum coke
(2011) Dawson, Sean Christopher; De Visscher, Alex; Hill, Josephine M.
Open Access
An approach for the fractal characterization of a common alumina catalyst support
(2009) Ramirez Capitaine, Elsa Maria; Hill, Josephine M.
Open Access
Behaviour and Interaction of Calcium and Potassium during Catalytic Gasification
(2019-04-29) Arnold, Ross Alexander; Hill, Josephine M.; Ponnurangam, Sathish; Nassar, Nashaat N.
Gasification is a technique for the conversion of carbon sources such as biomass into syngas. Catalysts reduce the necessary gasification temperature and increase the reaction rate. Potassium is more active than calcium, but calcium addition has been shown to promote the rate of potassium-catalyzed gasification. The mechanism by which this promotion occurs was not well-understood. This thesis used switchgrass and biosolids as carbon feeds, as well as ash-free carbon black to isolate the effects of potassium and calcium. Calcium was found to promote potassium both indirectly and directly. Indirectly, calcium served as a sacrificial species, reacting with aluminosilicates, limiting the sites on which potassium could deactivate by forming catalytically inactive potassium aluminosilicates. X-ray diffraction demonstrated calcium aluminosilicate formation. Directly, calcium carbonate formed a low-melting eutectic phase with potassium carbonate above 820 °C, demonstrated by differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy. The eutectic increased the diffusivity of potassium, facilitating the movement of potassium between active carbon sites, increasing the gasification rate below 40% conversion. Above 50% conversion, the eutectic phase inhibited the gasification rate by hindering CO2 diffusion to the carbon. Activation energy calculations showed that diffusion became the rate-determining step at higher conversions. Two mixing methods, hand-mixing and ball-milling, were compared as to their effect on potassium- and calcium-catalyzed gasification. The diffusivity of potassium was high enough that increased dispersion by ball-milling with carbon black did not increase the reaction rate compared to ball-milling the components separately. Ball-milling calcium and carbon black together greatly increased the gasification rate when compared to ball-milling the components separately. The lower diffusivity of calcium compared to potassium explained its lower activity. As the reaction progressed, calcium sintered and hindered CO2 access to the carbon, which reduced the reaction rate even below uncatalyzed carbon black. Reducing the calcium particle size prior to gasification minimized inhibition in addition to increasing catalytic surface area. The experimental results helped to better understand the individual catalytic behaviours of calcium and potassium during gasification, as well as their interactions. The results will help in the design of gasifiers for carbon feeds containing potassium and calcium.
Open Access
Chemical modification of petroleum coke and applications of derived materials
(2021-05-07) Huang, Qing; Hill, Josephine M.; Lu, Qingye; Ponnurangam, Sathish
Petroleum coke (petcoke) is a by-product from the oil industry and is a solid product mainly composed of carbon (> 80 wt%) with some impurities. These impurities, in particular sulfur, limit petcoke as feedstock for the application-like fuel. The aim of this thesis was to explore the possible application of petcoke without activation procedure, which took advantage of the highly aromatic structure and high sulfur content (6.5 wt%) of petcoke. Petcoke was used as a precursor for preparing solid acid catalysts through direct functionalization (i.e., without an activation step) with nitric acid to access the inherent sulfur. For comparison, catalysts were also prepared using sulfuric acid and a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acid (1:3 vol ratio). Although compared to the sulfonated petcoke, nitric acid-treated petcoke showed higher strong acidity, the ester yield was lower than that of sulfonated petcoke. The effect of acid treatment conditions and ball milling pretreatment on the nitric acid-treated solid acid catalysts were investigated. Higher treatment temperature resulted in higher total acidity but did not increase the amount of sulfonic acid groups. The acidity increased with the increase of the treatment time and remained stable after 6 hours. However, the yield of the product is not only related to the number of sulfonic groups but shows a negative correlation with total acidity/oxygen-containing functional groups implying the adsorption effect of oxygen-containing functional groups might hinder the esterification reaction. With ball milling pretreatment, the defects and aromatic hydrogen of petcoke increased, which promoted the subsequent acid treatment to obtain more sulfonic acid groups. DFT calculations were used to analyze the pathways of sulfonic acid group formation, and the reaction pathway with NO2• was the most thermodynamically and kinetically preferable. The side product from the nitric acid treatment of petcoke was collected and it showed fluorescence characteristics and therefore was used to synthesis carbon dots-TiO2 photocatalysts, which improved the hydrogen production in the photocatalytic hydrogen generation reaction. The results in this thesis helped to explore the possible modifications and applications for using petcoke and taking advantage of its highly aromatic structure and high sulfur content.
Open Access
Co-gasification of Biomass and Non-biomass Feedstocks
(2013-09-05) Habibi, Rozita; Hill, Josephine M.
Canada has abundant sources of fossil fuels such as coal and renewable sources such as switchgrass, sawdust and biosolids. Gasification is a process that utilizes fossil fuels and renewable fuels to produce synthesis gas. Adding species such as alkali and alkaline earth salts can catalyze the gasification process. However, the issues with catalytic gasification are the cost and recovery of catalyst. There is also the chance of synergy during the co-gasification of biomass with fossil fuels due to high concentration of catalytic species in biomass. In this thesis, the availability of the gasification catalysts, especially alkali and alkaline earth elements, naturally present on biomass feedstocks during the co-gasification with non-biomass feedstocks was identified. The influence of pyrolysis temperature on the physical and chemical properties of the feedstocks during transformation to char at 1 atm pressure and temperatures of 750 ºC to 950 ºC were investigated. The biomass feedstocks were switchgrass (16.8 wt% potassium in ash), sawdust and biosolids and the non-biomass feedstocks were sub-bituminous coal (30.5 wt% ash) and fluid coke (2.0 wt% ash). The kinetics of CO2 co-gasification of switchgrass (char and ash) with non-biomass feeds was determined using a thermogravimetric analyzer. High interparticle mobility of the potassium in switchgrass to non-biomass feed was observed. The potassium in the switchgrass/coal mixtures deactivated, likely due to formation of potassium aluminosilicate during the co-gasification. Presence of excess potassium in the mixture (K/Al molar ratio > 1) for catalytic activity was required to satisfy the stoichiometric requirements of the deactivation reactions. The extended random pore model satisfactorily described the gasification profile of single and binary mixtures. The activation energy was influenced by the concentration of the catalytically active form of potassium. An increase in potassium concentration through the addition of switchgrass ash instead of char resulted in a decrease in activation energy in switchgrass/ash-free coal mixture, while the trend was reversed for coal, which had more interfering inorganic matter. Analyzing the co-gasification kinetics of the switchgrass and biosolids indicated increasing calcium concentration may allow more potassium to remain in a catalytically active form.
Open Access
CO2 Gasification of Sugarcane Bagasse Char: Consideration of Pyrolysis Temperature, Silicon and Aluminum Contents, and Potassium Addition for Recirculation of Char
(2020-11-24) Motta, Ingrid Lopes; Arnold, Ross A.; Lopez-Tenllado, Francisco Javier; Filho, Rubens Maciel; Wolf Maciel, Maria Regina; Hill, Josephine M.
In sugarcane bagasse gasification, char recirculation to the gasifier improves the syngas quality and process efficiency. To determine the effect of char properties on the reaction kinetics, in this work, the pregasification pyrolysis temperature, particle size, and catalyst (potassium) loading were varied. Char samples were prepared at 750–900 °C via pyrolysis and gasified isothermally in a thermogravimetric analysis unit at 850 °C with CO2, and gasification data were modeled using the random pore and extended random pore models. Increasing pyrolysis temperatures did not affect the char morphology and surface composition but did reduce the surface area, as determined by N2 adsorption, decreasing initial gasification rates, and the overall fitted rate constants. Reduction of the particle size via ball milling decreased the time required for complete conversion and changed the shape of the rate versus conversion curves from monotonically decreasing to concave down. The char sample prepared via pyrolysis at 900 °C was an exception, having a maximum rate at ∼10% conversion without ball milling. After ball milling of the char sample prepared at 750 °C, there was an accumulation of ash (Al and Si) on the surface of the particles and a reduction in the surface area, consistent with the ash blocking pores—the porosity in these samples increased during the initial stages (up to ∼20% conversion) of gasification. The gasification behavior was generally well modeled by the extended random pore model. Although the addition of KOH (K/Al mass ratio ∼ 0.2–1.25) enhanced the gasification rates, too much K—from the addition of KOH or after 90% conversion—created mass-transfer limitations resulting in lower gasification rates.
Open Access
Coke formation on ni/ysz working anodes
(2007) Alzate Restrepo, Vanesa; Hill, Josephine M.
Open Access
Conversion of petroleum coke to activated carbon and its application to naphthenic acid removal from tailings pond water
(2011) Barnard, Zaine Gavin; Hill, Josephine M.
Open Access
Conversion of Petroleum Coke to Porous Materials
(2019-12-13) Wu, Jingfeng; Hill, Josephine M.; Husein, Maen M.; Lu, Qingye
Petroleum coke (petcoke) is a low value by-product from oil and gas refinery. The production of oil sand petcoke has been continually increasing over the last 20 years. However, only 11-20% of the petcoke produced has been utilized as site fuel. The remainder has been largely stockpiled in northern Alberta. As oil sand petcoke contains higher carbon but a lower ash content compared to conventional crude oil petcoke, this project was designed to prepare porous carbon materials from petcoke. The aim of this thesis was to develop methods to convert by-products from oil refinery (eg. petcoke and asphaltenes) to value-added porous carbon materials. In order to combine nanoscale pores and macroscale pores into one monolithic structure, activation was proposed to develop micro and mesopores on oil sand petcoke as a first step. Both chemical activation (using KOH/NaOH) and chemical steam co-activation were studied to prepare activated carbon (AC) from petcoke. A salt template was then utilized to form macroscale pores between AC particles for hierarchical porous carbon (HPC) preparation. The co-activation of KOH and steam reduced the chemical agent amount without compromising pore volume. Before steam was introduced into the system, a molten phase around petcoke particles is presumed to be formed. A greater amount of chemical agent corresponded to a thicker molten chemical layer, which restricted the rate of steam gasification. By lowering the activation temperature to 500 ˚C, a 0.34 cm3/g pore volume and 800 m2/g surface area were obtained with an AC yield of 94%. Since there was almost no carbon consumption, the pores developed at 500 ˚C were most likely due to the opening of initial closed pores of petcoke. Finally, by using asphaltenes as natural binders to connect non-washed AC particles, HPC was fabricated with multiple scale pores after washing away the salts. The experimental results in this thesis provide feasible approaches to prepare porous materials from petcoke and asphaltenes. A better understanding of pore development during the activation process will help to optimize the process and control the properties of the final product.
Open Access
Development of nickel-based carbon tolerant bi-layer anodes for solid oxide fuel cells
(2012) Buccheri, Marco; Hill, Josephine M.
A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an electrochemical device that continuously coverts the chemical energy of a fuel directly into electricity and heat at high efficiency ( ~ 70 %). Of all fuel cell types, a SOFC can operate with carbon monoxide, synthetic gas and other hydrocarbon fuels. The objective of this thesis is the development of Nickel- (Ni) based anodes for SOFC that can be operated directly with methane without significant deactivation. In the first part of this thesis, the effect of the cell support (i.e. anode- versus electrolyte-supported SOFC) was evaluated. With hydrocarbon fuel (e.g. methane), the type of support plays a significant role in determining the gas-phase composition at the anode functional layer. For the cells that are supported by the anode, Ni in the support catalyzes the cracking and reforming reactions of methane, resulting in a gas-phase composition that is more easily electrochemically oxidized at the anode functional layer. It was shown that methane is not directly converted into electricity, but the electrochemical conversion proceeds through the oxidation of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon. Results show that the surface-chemical reactions play a significant role in determining the electrochemical activity of the anode and, for this reason, the type of support and current collector should be taken into account. Finally, the carbon that forms on a Ni/YSZ is a function of location within the anode. Specifically, the carbon that forms at the anode functional layer is reactive and hydrogenated, while the carbon that forms on the Ni support is stable and causes severe damage to the cell. By replacing the Ni of the anode conduction layer (ACL) with either a metal (Cu) or a perovskite-type material (La03Sr0_7 Ti03), it resulted in much improved stability in methane. The bi-layer anode - Cu/YSZ + Ni/YSZ - was operated at 100 mA cm-2 and 1023 K for nearly 5 days directly with methane. A small quantity of a reactive type of carbon was formed on the Cu/YSZ + Ni/YSZ bi-layer anode, and this carbon did not significantly degrade the cell performance.
Open Access
Development of sulfur-resistant hydrodearomatization catalysts using fluidization chemical vapor deposition
(2007) Asamoah Boateng, Kenneth; Hill, Josephine M.
Open Access
Direct utilization of methanol and ethanol in solid oxide fuel cells
(2008) Cimenti, Massimiliano; Hill, Josephine M.
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are high temperature energy conversion devices operating with hydrogen and synthesis gas, but - in principle - they could also utilize hydrocarbons and alcohols. The objective of this study was to investigate the direct utilization of methanol and ethanol in SOFC. Based on the published literature, the following anodic compositions were considered: Me/ceria and Me/zirconia-doped ceria, (Me = Ni, Cu, CoCo ); L8-0.1Sro.3Cro.sMno.sO3_15 (LSCM); L8-0.1Sro.3 VO3_15 (LSV); and Sro.86 Y o.os TiO3_15 (SYT). In the first part of this thesis, the pyrolysis of methanol and ethanol was examined. It was found that both alcohols undergo significant decomposition, producing mixtures rich in H2, CO and CH4. The conversion depends strongly on the flow and temperature conditions, and is higher for ethanol. The production of soot was always significant for ethanol, while for methanol it became negligible above 800°C. Subsequently, the oxidation of hydrogen and carbon monoxide was investigated on nickel and on the other anode materials using 2 and 3-electrode static and dynamic techniques, combined with impedance spectroscopy measurements. Since distortions affect measurements in 3- electrode planar cells, the configurations used in this study were first validated using a theoretical model. The results obtained indicate that the oxidation of H2 on Ni is about one order of magnitude larger than that of CO. On ceria, LSCM, LSV and SYT, instead, these rates are comparable, but the perovskites alone are very poor electrocatalysts. Besides, a gradual deactivation was observed for LSCM anodes in H2, possibly as a consequence of partial reduction, whereas LSV anodes were very unstable to redox cycling. Finally, the anodes were tested directly with alcohols. The direct utilization of methanol was feasible on all metal/ceria anodes without significant coking. With ethanol metal/ceria anodes were deactivated by coking; however, on Cu/ceria base anodes the deactivation was reversible after exposure to humidified hydrogen, and the anodic microstructure was not damaged. Stability and performance of metal/ceria anodes were improved by using zirconia-doped ceria. The deactivation by coking was delayed by adding small amounts of dispersed ruthenium.
Open Access
Effect of calcium and barium on potassium-catalyzed gasification of ash-free carbon black
(2019-06-15) Arnold, Ross A.; Hill, Josephine M.
Gasification of carbon black, an ash-free carbon feed, was performed with K2CO3 and either CaCO3 or BaCO3 as catalysts to examine their interaction. Mixtures were prepared by low-energy ball-milling, and then gasified with CO2 at 750–850 °C in a thermogravimetric analyzer. At temperatures below 800 °C, the presence of calcium had little impact on the potassium-catalyzed gasification of carbon black. At higher temperatures, calcium promoted the activity of potassium up to ∼50% conversion through the formation of a eutectic phase that increased the diffusivity of the potassium. At higher conversions, the tendency of CaCO3 to sinter and limit diffusion of CO2 to the carbon inhibited the reaction. BaCO3 also formed a eutectic phase with K2CO3 confirming that the phase change was beneficial. In contrast to CaCO3, however, BaCO3 does not sinter at 850 °C, such that gasification was promoted to complete conversion.
Open Access
Effect of pressure on gasification of petroleum coke with carbon dioxide
(2011) Malekshahian, Maryam; Hill, Josephine M.
Open Access
Electrode Materials and Energy Consumption for Desalination by Capacitive Deionization
(2020-09-04) Vandersleen, John Karl; Roberts, Edward P. L.; Hill, Josephine M.; Ponnurangam, Sathish
Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a brackish water desalination technology which uses capacitive charge storage within porous carbon electrodes to adsorb salt from water flowing through the cell. Selecting an appropriate electrode material is a critical step to optimize a CDI system. In this work the performance of two materials, a reduced graphene oxide foam – magnetite composite and a nanoporous carbon scaffold (NCS) were compared to that of activated carbon. Faradaic losses were lowest for the activated carbon electrodes but still consumed over a third of the applied charge. While quantifiable desalination was only achieved with the activated carbon electrodes, NCS displayed the highest volume specific, ideal (i.e. assuming 100% charge efficiency) average salt adsorption rate (ASAR). For adsorption half-cycles <3 minutes, NCS also demonstrated the highest mass specific ideal ASAR, due to the thin NCS electrodes and their large pore widths. A stack of activated carbon electrodes was constructed to investigate the dependence of CDI specific energy consumption on cell voltage. The minimum specific energy consumption achieved was 115 Wh/mol using an average cell voltage of 0.8 V. The Faradaic loss fraction was between 43% - 46% for all tested voltages. Shunt current significantly reduced the charge efficiency of the 10-cell CDI stack. A resistive-capacitive circuit model quantified this effect for stack voltages between 4 V – 10 V. The shunt current losses were greater for higher stack voltages, reducing the charge efficiency by approximately 18% to 30% for stack voltages between 4 V and 10 V, respectively. If dissolved oxygen is present, carbon anodes can be gradually oxidized, increasing their potential of zero charge and reducing their salt adsorption capacity and charge efficiency. The i-mD model was used to estimate the magnitude of these effects, suggesting that after 80 cycles the electrode PZC had shifted by 0.22, 0.14, 0.11, or 0.10 V for average cell voltages of 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 or 1.0 V, respectively. These results show that while the energy consumption of CDI can be reduced by optimizing the cell voltage, greater improvements can be achieved by minimizing shunt current and selecting electrode materials to minimize Faradaic losses.
Open Access
Esterification of Octanoic Acid over Solid Acid Catalysts Derived from Petroleum Coke
(2021-06-28) Schemberger Schafranski, Annelisa; Hill, Josephine M.; Hu, Jinguang; De la Hoz Siegler, Hector
Petroleum coke (petcoke) is a solid waste of the oil industry, with limited use due to its high sulfur content (> 6.5 wt%) and other impurities. As a carbon-rich, abundant and inexpensive material, petcoke is a potential resource for carbon-based catalysts. Esterification is a broad, important class of reactions for which carbon-based catalysts have been investigated and applied successfully. The treatment of petcoke (functionalization) with different conditions of temperature, time, and types of acid incorporates surface groups, which are the active sites for the reaction. This study tested the catalytic performance of acid-modified petcoke samples over a model reaction: esterification of octanoic acid with methanol. A commercial catalyst, Amberlyst-15, was used for comparison. The effect of various parameters was evaluated, including stirring speed (200 - 800 rpm), temperature (40 - 80 °C), catalyst loading (1 - 4.5 wt%), and methanol-to-acid molar ratio (40:1 - 10:1). The selectivity of all catalysts was 100% towards the ester yield, with no byproducts from the reaction. The method for the evaluation of catalyst activities was based on kinetic parameters and turnover frequency. The catalytic activity of acidic petcoke samples was comparable to the commercial catalyst in terms of conversion with time at the same reaction conditions, and even higher on a per acid site basis. Based on those results, acid-modified petcoke is a prospective material for catalyzing esterification reactions. Different properties arise from the treatment of petcoke with strong acids. The number of strong acid sites, overall acid strength as well as the surface hydrophobicity all influence the catalytic performance for the esterification reaction. Leaching of active sites was problematic and resulted in almost complete deactivation of the petcoke-derived catalysts. An appropriate balance in the surface hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity and a strong attachment of the active sites to the petcoke surface are required for stability.
Open Access
Hot Gas Desulfurization with Gamma-Alumina Supported Lanthanum Oxide
(2014-09-23) Feist, Benjamin Jacob; Hill, Josephine M.
The gasification of carbonaceous feedstocks is one method of producing syngas; however, the impurities present in the feedstock require a purification of the syngas prior to the ultimate use, with sub-ppm levels of H2S required. Significant efficiency gains are obtained by performing this gas cleaning step at temperatures between the gasification temperature and the ultimate application temperature (500 - 1200 K). In this thesis, the desulfurization performance of La/γ-Al2O3 is investigated for the removal of 100 ppm H2S in H2. Supporting La2O3 on γ-Al2O3 has yielded a highly dispersed La2O3 phase. Due to the complications of H2S, CO2 was used as a probe molecule for characterization. At higher lanthanum weight loadings, CO2 adsorbed on La2O3 sites was observable in DRIFTS spectra. Also, volumetric chemisorption and TPD data indicate an increased capacity for CO2 adsorption, due to La2O3. The volumetric chemisorption data suggest that an increased number of high energy (> 40 kJ/mol) sites are available for strong CO2 adsorption with increased lanthanum content. With this increase in strongly bound CO2, there is an increase in weakly bound CO2, which may compete with H2S for adsorption sites. The use of low weight loadings of La/γ-Al2O3 has yielded materials with sulfur capacities of 10-20 times more sulfur at breakthrough than the unsupported lanthanum oxide on a per gram of lanthanum basis. Regeneration of these materials in dilute air resulted in the rapid poisoning with sulfate, and the capacity decreased to that of the γ-Al2O3. Regeneration with humidified argon yielded a consistent capacity that was more than double that of the γ-Al2O3. While successful at removing H2S from H2, La/γ-Al2O3 was unsuccessful when CO, CO2 & H2O were added to the feed. The enhanced adsorption of CO2 found with DRIFTS and volumetric chemisorption acts to compete with H2S for adsorption sites, while H2O present resulted in an inhibition of the sulfidation. On the basis of characterization, an ideal sorbent would bind CO2 less strongly than alumina. From this, alumina is an unsuitable support for hot gas desulfurization with lanthana when significant quantities of CO2 or H2O are present.
Open Access
Impact of particle size and catalyst dispersion on gasification rates measured in a thermogravimetric analysis unit: Case study of carbon black catalyzed by potassium or calcium
(2020-11-19) Arnold, Ross A.; Motta, Ingrid L.; Hill, Josephine M.
Gasification is often studied in the laboratory using a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) unit with less than 1 g of sample in order to obtain intrinsic rates. Many studies, however, neglect to consider the impact of particle size, of both the gasification feed and the catalyst, and catalyst dispersion on the measured rates. The impact of these factors was demonstrated using catalytic gasification of carbon black, an ash-free feed, as a case study, with K2CO3 or CaCO3 as catalysts at 850 °C in a CO2 atmosphere. Hand-mixing and ball-milling were used to alter the initial parameters. Ball-milling reduced both the particle size of both species and increased the catalyst dispersion, resulting in higher interfacial areas and gasification rates than hand-mixing. The changes in gasification kinetics were estimated by modeling the rates using the random pore and extended random pore models (RPM and eRPM, respectively). The impact of the interfacial contact area between carbon and catalysts (varied by particle size and mixing method) was dependent on the activity of the catalyst with the more active (potassium) catalyst being less affected. CaCO3 was found to sinter at 850 °C, reducing available catalytic surface area and blocking CO2 access to the carbon feed. It is recommended to consider these factors in future studies and to always report the particle sizes used.
Open Access
Investigation of Intensive Pulsed Light Sintering for Conductive Hybrid Copper Ink
(2019-09-03) Kockerbeck, Zachary; Park, Simon S.; Kim, Seonghwan; Lee, Jihyun; Hill, Josephine M.
With the increasing demand for flexible electronic devices in applications such as OLED screens and wearable technologies, there is a large need to find improved manufacturing methods in order to reduce costs and increase reliability. With traditional photolithography methods relying on slow and costly processes, the printed electronics industry is becoming a popular alternative. The deposition of flexible, electrically conductive electrodes and circuits onto polymeric materials via a printing technology such as, screen and inkjet printing, is becoming an attractive alternative due to ease of use, system adaptability, processing time, and roll to roll scalability. Most conductive nanoparticle-based ink technologies rely on silver nanoparticles due to their low electrical resistivity and high oxidation resistance; however, this method creates inks that are relatively expensive. In this study, a novel copper nanoparticle-based conductive ink is developed for use with conductive ink-based printing technologies and is designed to replace silver nanoparticles due to the immense cost savings. Novel processing techniques are used to increase oxidation resistance and flexibility along with minimizing resistivity. To prevent thermal damages to low glass transition temperature polymeric substrates, an intensive pulsed light (IPL) technique is used to sinter the hybrid ink in order to induce conductivity. To optimize the sintering process, the IPL technique is then modeled in order to determine the thermal characteristics during the sintering process and to illustrate the geometric changes that occur during sintering. These simulations are then used to predict a resistivity for pure copper nanoparticle films of 6.8 μΩ·cm (~4x bulk copper). Copper ink on its own is also prone to thermal cracking, resistivity increases with bending, and oxidation over time. To mitigate these issues, a hybrid copper ink is created by adding various components such as graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) and silver. This hybrid ink demonstrated an improvement in flexibility and durability for bending performance along with greatly increased oxidation resistance. Another variation of the hybrid copper-silver-graphene (CSG) ink is also explored by doping the material with various low melting temperature metals, known as field metals. These field metals are shown to increase overall flexibility and demonstrate self-healing characteristics. Since stretching and bending processes in printed electronics result in microcracking over time, the inks need to be healed in order to maintain resistance properties. To achieve this self-healing, IPL re-sintering is done on the field metal infused inks. The process is shown to demonstrate complete self-healing without damage to the remaining film and underlying substrate. In order to make these films useful for circuit applications, a process called selective IPL sintering is utilized to micropattern the hybrid ink films into useful conductive patterns. The proposed method is then demonstrated by producing strain sensors in a simple two-step process. Therefore, this work presents the creation and optimization of a novel copper based conductive ink that can be used in various printed electronic applications. The various additives in the ink create a flexible, low cost, oxidation resistant, and even healable conductive ink that will aid in reducing industry costs and increase reliability for various electronics.