Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Analysis Of The Fate Of Chlorine Species As Part Of On-Site Generation Evaluation Of Sodium Hypochlorite At Deer Island, Somnath Basu, Kenneth Shilinsky, Irvine Wei

Irvine W. Wei

No abstract provided.

Identifying The Source Of Pressure Filters' Mudball Problem Leads To A Simple Solution: An Investigation Of Media Failure In Pressure Filtration, Fawn L. Sances, Irvine Wei

Irvine W. Wei

Within the first 17 months of operation the pressure filters at a 1.8 MGD (78.91/s) water treatment plant began having trouble. The operator first observed problems by a shortening of the filter run. When one of the hatches blew out, the operator had his first look at what was going on inside of his filters. He saw an orange slime coating the interior walls of one of the filters. Further inspection of the filters showed an accumulation of fine sediment on the top of the media and mud balls. In spite of corrective actions by its second year the plant …

Leachability Of Metals From Five Sludges, Somnath Basu, Irvine W. Wei, Paul H. King

Irvine W. Wei

No abstract provided.

A Novel Approach To Flow Estimation In Tidal Rivers, Hamed Moftakhari Rostamkhani, David A. Jay, Stefan A. Talke, Tobias Kukulka, Peter D. Bromirski

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reliable estimation of river discharge to the ocean from large tidal rivers is vital for water resources management and climate analyses. Due to the difficulties inherent in measuring tidal-river discharge, flow records are often limited in length and/or quality and tidal records often predate discharge records. Tidal theory indicates that tides and river discharge interact through quadratic bed friction, which diminishes and distorts the tidal wave as discharge increases. We use this phenomenon to develop a method of estimating river discharge for time periods with tidal data but no flow record. Employing sequential 32 day harmonic analyses of tidal properties, …

Pilot Study Of Greater Boston Drinking Water Quality Changes - Impacts Of Ozonation And Distribution System, Irvine W. Wei, Xin (Cindy) Huang, Windsor Sung

Irvine W. Wei

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) provides drinking water to 2.2 million people in Greater Boston. To ensure good water quality without filtration, the MWRA is about to replace chlorination with ozonation as the primary disinfection at the new Walnut Hill Water Treatment Plant, scheduled to be on-line in 2005. The objective of this study was to understand the influence of ozonation on monochloramine decay and pH change in the MWRA system. The influence of the distribution system, which consists of old cast-iron pipes, on the ozonated water was also investigated. A pilot plant, including a simulated distribution system with …

Cyclic Heating To Inhibit Bacterial Growth In Activated Carbon Point-Of-Use Treatment Devices, Irwin Silverstein, Irvine W. Wei

Irvine W. Wei

The effectiveness of using heat treatment on a cyclic basis as a means of inhibiting bacterial growth in activated carbon point-of-use treatment devices was examined. Heat treated and non-heat treated devices were compared in a controlled experiment with respect to parameters such as standard plate count, total organic carbon, total residual chlorine and head loss. The results of the study indicated that cyclic heat treatment can inhibit bacterial growth on the surface of granular activated carbon without compromising total organic carbon and total residual chlorine removal efficiencies or accelerating head loss. Microbiological testing verified that the control device had become …

Advanced Chemical Oxidation Of 2,4,6-Trichlorophenol By Using Fenton's Reagent - Dechlorination And Toxicity Reduction, Kuang-Wei (Stone) Chen, Irvine W. Wei

Irvine W. Wei

Chlorinated phenols are priority pollutants, regulated by stringent discharge limits. The presence of chlorine increases the toxicity of these phenolic compounds and decreases their biodegradability. This study is to examine the removal of a priority chlorinated aromatic pollutant, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP), in aqueous solution by using Fenton's Reagent (a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and fenous iron catalyst), in terms of dechlorination and toxicity reduction. Test results indicate that the higher the molar ratio of H₂O₂ to TCP, the faster the release of chloride from TCP. However, the chloride released in all runs eventually approach the same level of theoretical chloride concentration, …

Installation And Evaluation Of Permeable Pavement At Walden Pond State Reservation, Irvine W. Wei

Irvine W. Wei

Permeable pavements have been proposed for use in controlling surface runoff. A test installation was constructed at the Walden Pond State Reservation in Concord, Massachusetts to determine the feasibility of using permeable pavements in the New England environment. A brief history of the development and use of permeable pavements is provided. Background information, design methodology, and construction techniques are described for the data collection system and the parking area itself. All the following data are presented and discussed: mix gradation; pavement density; pavement, ground, and air temperatures; flow through permeable pavements; water quantity; water quality; and structural stability. This report …

Simulation Of Lime-Soda Softening, Li-Shiang Liang, Irvine W. Wei, Henry G. Sideropoulos

Irvine W. Wei

No abstract provided.

Passive Stormwater Samplers For Sampling Highway Runoff From Bmps: Feasibility Studies, Mitchell R. Klein

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Pollution from highway stormwater runoff has been an increasing area of concern within the environmental field. To respond to the need for reduced contamination within runoff many Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been implemented. One difficult aspect of BMPs is monitoring their effectiveness along with determining effluent concentrations. The current methods for stormwater sampling include sending technicians or installing an auto-sampler to collect either grab or composite samples. These methods become costly, cumbersome and infeasible due to the potentially large amount of BMPs across a region and the irregularity and difficulty of predicting storms. Passive samplers have proven themselves as …

Evaluating Predictability In The Community Earth System Model In Response To The Eruption Of Mount Pinatubo, Abigail Laurel Gaddis

Doctoral Dissertations

A central goal of climate research is to determine the perceptible effects of climate change on humans; in other words, the regional and decadal scale effects of carbon dioxide forcing. Identifying the most pronounced and long-lasting responses of climate variables to forcing is important for decadal prediction since forcing terms are a source of predictability on those time scales. Powerful volcanic eruptions provide a transient forcing on the climate system, creating a test bed for climate models. In this study, the Mount Pinatubo eruption is simulated in the Community Earth System Model, CESM1.0, for three model configurations: fully coupled T85 …

Establishing And Understanding The Electron Balance In Microbial Fuel Cells, Fei Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been intensively studied in the past decade as a promising alternative wastewater treatment technology. However, the critical mass balances such as carbon (or electrons) balances have not well addressed before. Clear understanding of a carbon balance in the anode of an MFC will help to identify electron distribution among different electron acceptors, and the limiting factors that divert electrons from electricity generation. In this study, the effect of substrate loading rate, sulfate, temperature, substrate type and nitrate concentration on MFC's performance were investigated. At different operation condition, the biomass, current, biogas, dissolved oxygen, sulfate and …

The Role Of Solution Chemistry And Cell Surface Properties In Mediating Bacterial Transport And Deposition In Porous Media And Interactioin With Nanomaterials, Lixia Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater is an important source for drinking water supply. Microbial contaminants have been implicated in two-third of the waterborne disease outbreak. Understanding the fundamental processes, the governing factors and the interfacial interactions that contribute to the deposition of microbial contaminants to porous media will help to elucidate the microbial attachment/transport profile and is highly needed for bioremediation in the environment as well as water purification industry.

In this study, the effects of (1) chemical factors including ionic strength, pH and concentration of phosphate, (2) biological factors including lipopolysaccharide (LPS), biofilm and biofilm extracellular polysaccharide (EPS), and strain type on E.coli …

Renovation Of Ammonia Contaminated Produced Water Using Constructed Wetlands, Donald Beebe

All Dissertations

Pilot-scale wetland treatment systems were designed and constructed to evaluate renovation of simulated oilfield produced water contaminated with ammonia (20 mg/L ammonia-N). A process-based pilot-scale constructed wetland was designed to meet specific biogeochemical conditions for conversion of ammonia to nitrogen gas through microbial nitrification and denitrification. The process-based constructed wetland treated the simulated produced water to meet stringent discharge requirements (less than 1.2 mg/L ammonia-N). Clinoptilolite, a zeolite mineral, was evaluated for use in constructed wetlands to increase ammonia sorption and nitrification activity. Clinoptilolite increased wetland ammonia sorption capacity and served as a microbial carrier for nitrifying bacteria when ranges …

Air Pressure Energy Storage For Reverse Osmosis: Bench-Scale Proof Of Concept, Ying Sun

All Theses

Society faces diminishing access to clean drinking water because of increasing global population and the development of modern industries. At the same time, climate change and other environmental problems caused by the increase in fossil fuel consumption the emphasis on reducing dependency on traditional energy resources in the process of potable water production. To address both problems, a small-scale wind powered reverse osmosis (RO) desalination system with a unique energy storage mechanism was envisioned to provide an energy buffer such that fluctuating and intermittent wind can be utilized. Energy is stored in the form of compressed air in a pressure …

Describing Plutonium Contamination Issues In Hanford Soils: Development Of A Thermodynamic Surface Complexation Model, Sarah Herr

All Theses

The development of remediation strategies for long-term site management requires knowledge of an actinide's geochemical behavior. Understanding this behavior can lead to the formation of a subsurface transport model. For example, plutonium mobility in the subsurface environment is significantly influenced by oxidation-reduction and complexation reactions. This work considered the surface-mediated reduction of plutonium, as well as the hydrolysis and carbonate complexation of the actinide.
Evaluating the significance of these reactions required several variable pH batch sorption studies. Experiments incorporated plutonium and neptunium sorption to sediments from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. Two different sediments were examined: coarse-grained and …

Evaluation Of Broiler Litter Heat Production During Windrowing & Nitrogen Based Gas Emission Mitigation Using Biofilter, Min Lei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ammonia emission from animal feeding operations (AFOs) has negative effects on environment and animals' health. Thus measuring and mitigating ammonia emission from AFOs is important for environmental protection. In chapter I, different ammonia measurements were discussed and a mitigation technology- biofilter was represented.

In-house windrowing of built-up litter has been used by broiler producers to reduce pathogen loads and rejuvenate litter for the next flock. When litter is piled up for an extended period during downtime, heat generated by the litter pile can become a substantial heat source due to the metabolism of microorganisms. In chapter II, heat production rates …

Removal Of N-Nitrosodimethylamine And Trihalomethane Precursors With Powdered Activated Carbon, Wilson Beita Sandi

All Theses

N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) has been used commercially in several applications, including the production of liquid rocket fuel, and a variety of foods, but gained more relevance when it was discovered as a drinking water disinfection by-product (DBP) in 1989. NDMA is a probable human carcinogen with 10-6 lifetime cancer risk associated with a drinking water concentration of 0.7 ng/L, and is listed as a priority pollutant in the Code of Federal Regulations; no federal maximum contaminant level has been established for drinking water yet. However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency is planning to make a preliminary regulatory determination in 2013 …

Removal Of Arsenic From Simulated Groundwater Using A Pilot-Scale Constructed Wetland Treatment System, Jeffrey Schwindaman

All Theses

A pilot-scale constructed wetland treatment system (CWTS) was designed and built to produce biogeochemical conditions that promoted targeted processes for removal of arsenic from simulated groundwater. Two series were designed to promote co-precipitation and sorption of arsenic with iron oxyhydroxides under oxidizing conditions, and two series were designed to promote precipitation of arsenic sulfide and co-precipitation of arsenic with iron sulfide under reducing conditions. The two major objectives were to (1) assess arsenic removal performance and (2) determine the fate and distribution of arsenic in each series. Results indicate that arsenic removal performance was greater in series designed to promote …

Evaluation Of Anaerobic Biodegradation Of High Concentrations Of Halogenated Methanes, Priya Rachel Jacob

All Theses

Removal of the chlorinated methanes, carbon tetrachloride (CT), chloroform (CF) and dichloromethane (DCM), and the halogenated methane, trichlorofluoromethane (commonly known as CFC-11 or Freon-11) from contaminated soil and groundwater remains challenging. Releases to the environment resulted from historically poor disposal practices, as well as spills and leaks from underground storage tanks. Among these three compounds, CF is considered the benchmark for evaluating the feasibility of bioremediation, due to its typically high level of toxicity towards most anaerobic prokaryotes. However, inhibitory effects of low concentrations of CFC-11 on anaerobes have been reported as well. Bioremediation is an attractive option for clean-up, …