Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Shear Testing Of Precast Concrete Sandwich Wall Panel Composite Shear Connectors, Taylor Sorensen, Jaiden Olsen, Marc Maguire

Student Research Symposium

As energy codes become more stringent, thermal efficiency of Precast Concrete Sandwich Panel Walls has become more important. This paper addresses the problem of predicting the behavior of full scale precast concrete sandwich panel walls, using data collected from small, inexpensive push-off specimens. Several fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) connectors being used today underwent shear testing performed on component scale push-off specimens. Each specimen contained several of the FRP connectors and the variables studied were wythe thickness, insulation type and insulation bond. A simplified beam spring model was created which uses beams to represent the concrete wythes and shear springs to …

Optimal Location For Bike Sharing Stations In Downtown Kalamazoo, Lizmert Lopez Gonzalez

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

At present, emphasis is on increasing physical activities and expanding access to goods and services through non-motorized modes in order to enhance safety, social sustainability in transportation equity, environmental justice, and public health. Hence, there is an interest in developing bike sharing systems to encourage non-motorized activities in cities. This study focuses on developing a bike sharing system for city of Kalamazoo. One key parameter for a successful system is to identify optimum locations for bike sharing stations. This poster presents implementation of location-allocation models and spatial analysis tools to determine the most suitable locations for bike sharing stations within …

Kinetic Enhancement Of Adsorbent For Co2 Capture From Atmosphere By Porous Material, Tao Wang, Jun Liu, Kun Ge, Zhongyang Luo

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

Strategies for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations will need to consider future CO2 emissions from an enormous resource of worldwide fossil fuel supplies and a diverse range of mitigation technologies. In 2013, global CO2 emissions due to fossil fuel use (and cement production) were 36 gigatonnes (Gt CO2), and are projected to increase by an additional 2.5% in 2014. Even if all emissions from large fixed sources could be captured, the roughly 30-50% of global emissions due to transportation and mobile sources would still be released into the atmosphere. To ensure the concentration of atmospheric CO2 in the scope of …

Optimal Molecular Design Of Poly (Ionic Liquids) For Co2 Capture From The Atmosphere, Kun Ge, Tao Wang

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

Polymeric ionic liquids (PILs) are promising CO₂ adsorption materials for that they combine the unique properties of ionic liquids with the flexibility and properties of macromolecular architectures. Previous studies have demonstrated that a carbonated-functionalized quaternary ammonium based PIL could adsorb CO₂ from atmosphere when dry and release CO2 when wet, which constituted a moisture swing cycle, which provides an economical approach for air capture. Moreover, the performance of the PIL (such as CO₂ affinity, reaction kinetics, swing size and hydrophobicity), could be improved owing to its fine tunability. To find out its optimal structure, molecular simulation was …

Pathway To Achieve Negative Co2 Emissions - Combining Biomass With Ccs, Antti Arasto, Janne Karki, Kristin Onarheim

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

The urgency to stabilize the global temperature rise at 1.5°C as highlighted in Paris COP21 and the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report calls for solutions that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The ability of carbon negative processes to offset historic emissions and emissions across different sectors is also highlighted in recent scenarios by IEA and WEC. Achieving negative CO₂ emissions by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere is possible by applying carbon capture in processes utilizing biomass (bio-CCS). Biomass has the capability of withdrawing and storing atmospheric CO₂. As a result, CO₂ released during biomass thermo-chemical …

Co2 Mitigation Opportunities In China, Wayne Xu

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

Over the past thirty years China has focused on urbanization and economic growth through rapid development and modernization of its manufacturing capability. Much of this growth was achieved though massive adoption of coal based power generation with industry and manufacturing accounting for over 70% of all electricity consumption. Although the use of coal and other hydrocarbons have successfully fueled China into an era of prosperity and global recognition, it has come at a cost to the environment and quality of life. Significant efforts to reduce coal based generation emissions have recently been achieved through the development and adoption of world …

Techno-Economic Challenges Associated With Biomass Energy Utilization And Ccs, Carl Bozzuto

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

Despite the recent agreement by world leaders regarding the need for reductions in CO2 emissions from the global energy system, there will still be substantial amounts of fossil fuels utilized for the next few decades. According to IEA estimates, there will likely be an “overshoot” of the CO₂ concentration that is estimated to be needed to restrain average global temperatures increases in the range of 1.5–2˚C. As a result, biomass energy has been proposed as one means to reduce net CO₂ emissions and, perhaps, even reduce the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere. One approach has been …

Design And Testing Of Sorbents For Co2 Separation Of Post-Combustion And Natural Gas Sweetening Applications, Jiajun He, John To, Peter Psarras, Jianguo Mei, Jen Wilcox

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

In post-combustion processes, sorbents with both high capacity and selectivity are required for reducing the cost of carbon capture. Although physisorbents have the advantage of low energy consumption for regeneration, it remains a challenge to obtain both high capacity and sufficient CO₂/N₂ selectivity at the same time. A novel N-doped hierarchical carbon has been developed, which exhibits record-high Henry’s law CO₂/N₂ selectivity among physisorptive carbons while having a high CO₂ adsorption capacity. Specifically, the synthesis involves the rational design of a modified pyrrole molecule that can co-assemble with the soft Pluronic template via …

Evaluation Of Physical Adsorbents For Post-Combustion Co2 Capture, Youssef Belmabkhout

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

CO₂ capture using physical adsorbents such as activated carbon, zeolites, and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted a lot of attention because of the technical capability of adsorption technology using such separation agents to retrofit the energy demanding liquid amine scrubbing process. Nevertheless, this will be conceivable only if the separation agents (adsorbents) in question fulfil many unambiguous attributes in terms of porosity, CO₂ affinity, kinetics, energetics, stability, throughout the right capture mechanism, in addition to the adsorbents cost.

In this paper we report recent study about the evaluation of physical adsorbents for CO₂ capture from simulated flue …

Metallic Membranes For N2 Separation & Post-Combustion Co2 Capture Improvement, Simona Liguori, Kyoungjin Lee, Jennifer Wilcox

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

Carbon (CO₂) capture represents an important role in the reduction greenhouse gas emissions. Among various CO₂ capture technologies currently investigated, post-combustion capture allows for the retrofitting of existing plants and industrial units. Today, the amine scrubbing is considered the most competitive method for CO₂ removal in the flue gases from power plants in comparison to other technologies. Nevertheless, recent work has shown that the energy requirement for solvent recovery can decrease the overall efficiency of the power plants up to 16%¹. Moreover, additional costs may occur in the solvent absorption technology because of solvent …

Co2 Capture Using Nanoporous Tio(Oh)2/Tetraethylpentamine, Maryam Irani, Maohong Fan, Khaled Gasema

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

In this work, an inorganic-organic CO2 sorbent was prepared by immobilizing tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) onto nanoporous titanium oxyhydrate (TiO(OH)2). The prepared sorbents were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. At the optimal TEPA loading of 60 wt.% on TiO(OH)2, its CO2 sorption capacity reached 3.1 mmol CO2/g-sorbent for 1 vol.% CO2 in N2 along with ~1 vol.% H2O at 60°C. Studies of adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics showed that the activation energies for CO2 adsorption and desorption of TiO(OH)2/TEPA are 38.31 kJ/mol and 44.51 kJ/mol, respectively. Its low …

Carboncycle And Other Profitable Strategies For Air Capture Of Co2, Deane Little

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

Development of an effective and economically viable strategy for air capture of CO2 would be a game-changing development in the fight against global warming. If widely adopted such a process would allow “chemostatting” the atmosphere at sustainable CO2 levels and might not require widespread social change in how we use fossil fuels. Unfortunately the concept that air capture of CO2 “doesn’t work” has taken hold in academic and policy circles, based on the assumption that such a process is inherently expensive and results in no useful products. In fact, air capture of CO2 can be profitable and offers fundamental advantages …

Metal Oxides With Ionic-Electronic Conductivity For Thermochemical Energy Storage, Eric Coker, Sean Babiniec, Andrea Ambrosini, James Miller

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

One of the key approaches to developing a supply of renewable energy is Concentrating Solar Power (CSP). However, the diurnal and intermittent nature of the solar resource necessitates efficient energy storage solutions if a reliable energy supply is to be expected. By increasing the temperature and energy density of thermal storage, improvements in power cycle efficiency and energy storage cost are possible and can result in increased economic competitiveness. Thermochemical energy storage (TCES) holds promise for enabling this goal. Metal oxides (MOs), with their elegantly simple reduction/re-oxidation (redox) chemistry, approach an ideal medium for TCES in many respects. For instance, …

Nitrogen-Functionalized Porous Carbons For Enhanced Co2 Capture, Peter Psarras, Jennifer Wilcox

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

The global consequences of increased anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are well documented. To avoid the catastrophic long-term damages associated with climate change, much attention has been devoted to the development of CO₂ emission mitigation strategies. A present challenge in the mitigation of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions involves the design of less energy- and water-intensive capture technologies. Traditional capture methods, e.g. MEA solvent scrubbing, have prohibitive regeneration costs, and recent concerns in drought-ridden states like California have brought these water-intensive processes under increased scrutiny. Sorbent-based capture represents a promising solution to the aforementioned hurdles, as they do not incur the …

Direct Air Capture Versus Post Combustion Capture For Coal Fired Power Plants: Energy Balance And Life Cycle Environmental Assessment, Christoph Meinrenken

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

Direct air capture (DAC) has been suggested as a possible alternative to post combustion capture (PCC), as a way to lower the climate impact of fossil-based electricity generation. However, various literature suggests that the much lower concentration of CO2 in ambient air (compared to flue gas) will cause DAC to require ~3x higher energy consumption than PCC per ton CO2 captured, in turn leading to impractically high parasitic loads, costs, and potentially other adverse environmental impacts of DAC for purposes of mitigating emissions from e.g. coal-fired power plants. Here we present a comparative techno-economic and life cycle assessment (LCA) of …

Potential Effects Of Climate Change On Ecologically Relevant Streamflow Regimes, Sulochan Dhungel, David G. Tarboton, Jiming Jin, Charles P. Hawkins

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

We assessed the climate-driven changes in ecologically relevant flow regimes expected to occur by the year 2100 in streams across the conterminous United States. We used long-term daily flow measurements from 601 gauged streams whose watersheds were in relatively natural condition to characterize spatial variation in 16 flow regime variables selected for their ecological importance. Principal component analysis of these 16 variables produced five uncorrelated factors that described patterns of spatial covariation in flow regimes. These five factors were associated with low flow, magnitude, flashiness, timing, and constancy characteristics of the daily flow regime. We applied hierarchical clustering to the …

Optimizing Chemical & Rheological Properties Of Rejuvenated Bitumen, Dominic Nguyen, Hamzeh Haghshenas Fatmehsari, Santosh Kommidi, Yong-Rak Kim

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

Bitumen has long been a material used in the construction of roadways, yet new pavement only consists of low fractions of recycled materials due to poor compatibility of aged bitumen and new materials. Thus, rejuvenators, chemical additives, have been used in an attempt to re-balance the chemical composition and restore the physical properties of aged bitumen back to its virgin state. A fundamental understanding of how one particular rejuvenator, soybean oil, revitalizes bitumen was investigated using a multi-scale approach.

Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to determine the changes in chemical properties of pure and rejuvenated virgin and aged samples. …

Successes And Challenges Of Renewables Deployment In The Eu Power Sector, Hans-Wilhelm Schiffer

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

Several countries in the EU have taken initiatives to become global leaders in the deployment of renewable energy technologies. While this effort is generally aimed at reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, cost minimization, reducing the role of nuclear energy, increasing efficiency and simply expanding the role of renewables are also often named as motivations. Thus, with varied national goals and approaches, the path to decarbonize through renewables deployment in the EU has been far from simple and tension has between the EU and its members has grown in recent years. The successes, challenges, and current status of renewables …

Electrochemical Membrane Technology For Carbon Dioxide Capture From Flue Gas, Hossein Ghezel-Ayagh, Stephen Jolly, Dilip Patel, William Steen

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

To address the concerns about climate change resulting from emission of CO₂ by power plants and industrial facilities, FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCE) has developed the Combined Electric Power and Carbon-dioxide Separation (CEPACS) system. The CEPACS system utilizes Electrochemical Membrane (ECM) technology derived from the Company’s molten carbonate fuel cell-based Direct FuelCell^® products. The system separates CO₂ from the flue gas of other plants and produces electric power using a supplementary fuel. FCE is currently evaluating the use of ECM to cost effectively separate CO₂ from the flue gas of Pulverized Coal (PC) power plants under cooperative …

Development Of The First Internationally Accepted Standard For Geologic Storage Of Carbon Dioxide Utilizing Enhanced Oil Recovery (Eor) Under The International Standards Organization (Iso) Technical Committee Tc-265, Steven Carpenter

CO2 Summit II: Technologies and Opportunities

The Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) industry is lacking standardization and therefore the ability to allow CCUS projects to advance as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or to be considered for any type of carbon management or accounting scheme is also hindered. An international effort between the United States and Canada, funded by the International Performance Assessment Centre for Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide (IPAC-CO2 Research Inc.), and managed by CSA Standards, have developed the first internationally recognized Standard for the geologic storage of carbon dioxide (Z-741). The Z-741 Standard has been adopted by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) …