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Economy Of Scale Of Energy Intensity In Aquifer Storage And Recovery (Asr), Alyson Haley Rapp

Theses and Dissertations

More water utilities are adopting Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) to balance long-term water supply and demand. Due to large implementation and operation costs, ASR projects need to be optimized, particularly for energy use, which is a major operating expense. This study examines the relationships among energy use, recharge, and recovery at two ASR projects in the western United States. The major finding is an economy of scale for recovery processes, but not for gravity-fed recharge processes. The economy of scale found is as follows: the energy intensity recovered decreases with volume. This suggests it is more energy-efficient to recover …

Viscosity Of Adsorbent Slurries For Washcoating Applications, Nitish Chauhan

Theses and Dissertations

The viscosity of adsorbent slurries is pivotal in understanding their rheological behavior, yet, the research on adsorbent slurry viscosity has been limited. This study addresses this gap by analyzing porous and non-porous solutes' behavior in solvents and then applying it to the washcoating adsorbents on ceramic substrates. By examining MIL-101 (Cr), glass beads, silica nanoparticles, and Titania, the study aims to comprehend the viscosity variations of each solute in the solvents, water and ethanol. A key observation from this study was the significant role of wetting in determining viscosity, as initial results found that MIL-101 (Cr) exhibited the highest viscosity …

A Systems Approach To Design And Plan Sustainable Antifragile Infrastructure Based On Aggregate Footprint And Satisfaction, Farboud Khatami

Theses and Dissertations

The concepts of robustness and sustainability in planning and design of water and energy infrastructures have been extensively explored in previous research, primarily focusing on system reliability, environmental considerations, and economic aspects. This study aims to broaden the understanding of these concepts by offering comprehensive frameworks that capture the essence of robustness and sustainability at two distinct levels.

The first level of investigation focuses on the performance of infrastructure networks during natural disasters. Traditionally, this has been addressed using reliability, resilience, and vulnerability metrics. However, these methods rely on static, deterministic, and non-stationary data, which is inadequate when dealing with …

Predictive Modeling The Impact Of Engineered Products In Dynamic Sociotechnical Systems: An Agent-Based Approach, Christopher S. Mabey

Theses and Dissertations

The impact of engineered products is a topic of increasing concern in society. The impact of a product can fall into the categories of economic, environmental, or social impact; the last category is defined as the effect of a product on the daily lives of people. Design teams lack sufficient tools to help improve the impact of products and understand the impact of products at scale in society. This dissertation aims to provide insight and methods for improving the social, environmental, and economic impact of engineered products. The majority of the research focuses on the prediction of product impacts on …

Integrating Steel Slag Aggregates Into Asphalt Paving By Harmonizing Availability, Quality, Economics, And The Environment, Timothy R. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides guidance on how to balance matters related to the environmental stewardship, market sources, origin and uses, material properties, performance, and economic impact of using slag materials in pavements. The literature on this topic provides numerous references on the use of slag materials for specific applications, and this thesis aims to make use of those references along with other data from the author to describe slag materials from a holistic perspective and provide some suggestions for balancing several factors that impact optimal use of this resource within pavement structures. Discussion is given to the increased importance of recycling …

Enhancing Sustainable Process Designs Through Strategic Material Utilization And Waste Minimization Approaches, John David Chea

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability is a growing concern as resources are continually depleted for various applications without adequate renewal plans. The resulting impacts on the ecosystem, health, and resource circularity are often overlooked. This research analyzes improvement opportunities at each major stage in a product's life cycle. Raw material acquisition, product synthesis, process waste management, and the fate of a material in the end-of-life phases were examined. The viability of utilizing renewable resources has been demonstrated in this work by extracting bio-based chemicals from underutilized renewable resources at a commercial scale and transforming the extracted resources into polymeric materials. The optimization of raw …