Digital Commons Network^™

Nitrate Removal From Subsurface Drainage By Denitrifying Bioreactor, Erin Chichlowski

Open Access Theses

Denitrifying bioreactors are an edge-of-field best management practice that reduce nitrate in runoff and subsurface drainage waters with minimum surface foot print and management requirements. The objectives of this study included evaluating a 173 m3 wood chip bioreactor for nitrate reduction and removal rates, the effects on phosphorus, and the impacts of the bioreactor's physical characteristics on effective nitrate reduction During periods of flow, weekly water samples were collected for lab analysis of nitrate+nitrite (nitrate-N), total nitrogen (TN), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), and total phosphorus (TP) and measurements were made of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, oxidation reduction potential, temperature, …

Profit-Maximizing Responses To Climate Change In Commodity Agriculture: Does Adaptation Matter?, Sajeev Erangu Purath Mohankumar

Open Access Theses

Accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has led to rising temperatures, and is expected to lead to a change in climate. Crop yields are vulnerable to these changes. Adaptation is expected to be key to combating climate change impacts, but the effectiveness of adaptation strategies is not well understood. Hence, there is a need to assess the impacts of climate change on agriculture and devise profitable adaptation strategies to combat its effects. This study uses historical and three projected climate data sets to simulate yields using the crop model Daycent, empirical relationships between weather and agronomic variables that influence …

Watershed Delineation In The Field: A New Approach For Mobile Applications Using Lidar Elevation Data, Samuel Adam Noel

Open Access Theses

With the advancement of mobile devices, opportunities to take watershed management tasks out of the office and into the field can be realized. In turn, field workers can utilize these technologies to expedite the decision-making process so that they may focus on meeting with clients and addressing agricultural watershed management issues. High-resolution (∼1.5 m postspacing) elevation data gathered by light detection and ranging (LiDAR) provides the topographic detail necessary to model hydrology at the field-scale (∼1 km2).

Non-artifactual surface depressions lead to erroneous surface flow patterns when using existing algorithms. So a sequential depression-filling algorithm (SDFA) has been developed to …

Waste Heat Recovery Options In A Large Gas-Turbine Combined Power Plant, Ularee Upathumchard

Open Access Theses

This study focuses on power plant heat loss and how to utilize the waste heat in energy recovery systems in order to increase the overall power plant efficiency. The case study of this research is a 700-MW natural gas combined cycle power plant, located in a suburban area of Thailand. An analysis of the heat loss of the combustion process, power generation process, lubrication system, and cooling system has been conducted to evaluate waste heat recovery options. The design of the waste heat recovery options depends to the amount of heat loss from each system and its temperature. Feasible waste …

The Barriers To Adopting Composting Toilets Into Use In Urban And Suburban Locations In The United States, Julia Branstrator

Open Access Theses

The amount of fresh water available in the world is a finite resource. Large quantities of the fresh water are located in remote locations, while more accessible sources of fresh water are disproportionately distributed around the world. Some populations lack reliable access to clean water for daily life, making the routine use of potable water in toilets of upper-income countries a questionable practice in terms of resource responsibility, energy use, and sustainable infrastructure. The innovative nature of composting toilets offers potential solutions to the downfalls of conventional, waterborne toilets. However, the path to adoption of composting toilets has encountered barriers …

High Voltage Rear Electric Drivetrain Design For A Parallelthrough-The-Road Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Adam Garrett Fogarty

Open Access Theses

Purdue University was selected as one of 15 universities to participate in a three year Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) called EcoCar2: Plugging Into the Future. The vehicle built by the Purdue team was a Parallel-Through-The-Road Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PTTR PHEV). The vehicle utilized a B20 diesel powertrain to power the front wheels, as well as a custom electric drivetrain to power the rear wheels. Using this vehicle during the final year of the competition, the team was successful in placing 4th overall as well as 2nd in the category of Well-To-Wheel (WTW) Greenhouse Gas Emissions. A stock 2013 …

Uncertainty, Irreversibility, And Investment In Secondgeneration Biofuels, Tanner Joseph Mccarty

Open Access Theses

The present study formalizes and quantifies the importance of uncertainty for investment in a corn-stover based cellulosic biofuel plant. Using a real options model we recover prices of gasoline that would trigger entry into the market and calculate the portion of that entry trigger price required to cover cost and the portion that corresponds to risk premium. We then discuss the effect of managerial flexibility on the entry risk premium and the prices of gasoline that would trigger mothballing, reactivation, and exit. Results show that the risk premium required by plants to enter the second-generation biofuel market is likely to …

Propogation Of Wind Turbine Noise Through Wakes And Turbulent Atmosphere, Yuan Peng

Open Access Theses

It is well known that the atmospheric inhomogeneities have great impact on sound propagation over long ranges. For the application of predicting wind turbine noise, either the flow wakes generated by rotating turbine blades or small-scale atmospheric turbulence can affect the propagation of sound over ground surfaces from individual turbines.

In this thesis, the effects of wake and atmospheric turbulence on the propagation of wind turbine noise are investigated. By introducing the Parabolic Equation (PE) method, the effects of atmospheric changes in sound speed can be incorporated at each marching step as the prediction of sound field advances in the …

Energy Analysis Of Cool, Medium, And Dark Roofs On Residential Buildings In The U.S., Michael A. Dunbar

Open Access Theses

This study reports an energy analysis of cool, medium, and dark roofs on residential buildings in the U.S. Three analyses were undertaken in this study: energy consumption, economic analysis, and an environmental analysis. The energy consumption reports the electricity and natural gas consumption of the simulations. The economic analysis uses tools such as simple payback period (SPP) and net present value (NPV) to determine the profitability of the cool roof and the medium roof. The variable change for each simulation model was the roof color. The default color was a dark roof and the results were focused on the changes …

A Study To Estimate And Compare The Total Particulate Matter Emission Indices (Ein) Between Traditional Jet Fuel And Two Blends Of Jet A/Camelina Biofuel Used In A High By-Pass Turbofan Engine: A Case Study Of Honeywell Tfe-109 Engine, Jacob Joshua Howard Shila

Open Access Theses

The aviation industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5% until the year 2031 according to Boeing Outlook Report of 2012. Although the aerospace manufacturers have introduced new aircraft and engines technologies to reduce the emissions generated by aircraft engines, about 15% of all aircraft in 2032 will be using the older technologies. Therefore, agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Astronautics Administration (NASA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) among others together with some academic institutions have been working to characterize both physical and chemical characteristics of the aircraft particulate matter emissions to …

The Effects Of Radar On Avian Behavior: Implications For Wildlife Management At Airports, Eleanor R. Sheridan

Open Access Theses

Airports are areas with a high availability of resources for wildlife to forage, breed, and roost. Airports also have different types of radars to assist with air traffic control as well as tracking of wildlife that could become a risk for aircraft. The effect of radar electromagnetic radiation on wildlife behavior is not well understood. The goal of this study was to determine if bird behavior is affected by radar in two contexts: static radar (e.g., surveillance radar) and approaching radar (e.g., aircraft weather radar). We used brown-headed cowbirds as a model species. In the static radar context, we performed …

A Fesability Analysis Of A Novel Constructed Wetland Design Tool For Arusha, Tanzania, Michael R. Sheehan

Open Access Theses

While water is a resource necessary for all life, in Tanzania alone over 20 million people who live in rural areas have no access to improved water sources. Water stress is a major concern in rural Tanzania, where annual potential evaporation can outpace precipitation by hundreds of mm per year. There is a significant need for improved access to water sources for Tanzanians living in rural regions of Arusha. To improve access to water, both water quantity and quality need to be addressed in a treatment system. Various water collection and treatment systems were compared and contrasted through the lens …

Systematic Analysis Of Drainage Events In Free Draining And Managed Subsurface Drainage Systems, Guy Bou Lahdou

Open Access Theses

Understanding the hydrologic controls that regulate outflow from free and managed subsurface drainage systems during drainage events can offer improved insight on the overall functioning and effectiveness of the systems so that they can be better managed or retrofitted to increase their environmental benefits. This study used drainage, precipitation, water table, and soil moisture data from a monitoring site located in east central Indiana to investigate the event hydrology of 22 drainage events in free and managed subsurface drainage systems. Relationships between event drainage volume, drain flow hydrograph metrics, column soil moisture, water table depth, and precipitation characteristics were explored …

Catalysts For Portable, Solid State Hydrogen Genration Systems, Jason Robert Gabl

Open Access Theses

Hydrogen and air powered proton exchange membrane fuel cells are a potential alternative to batteries. In portable power systems, the design requirements often focus on cost efficiency, energy density, storability, as well as safety. Ammonia borane (AB), a chemical hydride containing 19.6 wt. % hydrogen, has a high hydrogen capacity and is a stable and non-toxic candidate for storing hydrogen in portable systems.

Throughout this work, Department of Energy guidelines for low power portable hydrogen power systems were used as a baseline and comparison with commercially available systems. In order to make this comparison, the system parameters of a system …

Experimental Study Of Unsteady Heat Release In An Unstable Single Element Lean Direct Injection (Ldi) Gas Turbine Combustor, Varun S. Lakshmanan

Open Access Theses

In an effort to curb emissions from gas turbine engines, many low emission engine concepts have been developed. Among the most promising of these is the LDI (Lean Direct Injection). These systems operate at relatively low equivalence ratios close to blowout and are prone to instabilities. Combustion instabilities can reduce the life of the combustor by causing large pressure fluctuations and enhanced heat release to the walls of the combustor and reduce the efficiency of the engines. The understanding of combustion instabilities is vital to the implementation of such systems. Combustion instabilities are studied in an self-excited single element gas …

Field To Flight: A Techno-Economic Analysis Of Stover To Aviation Biofuels Supply Chain, Amanda C. Bittner

Open Access Theses

Greenhouse gas emissions have been a growing concern. The transportation sector contributes to one-third of GHG emissions in the United States from fossil fuel burning. The Renewable Fuel Standard set a requirement for 16 billion gallons (ethanol equivalent) of cellulosic biofuels to be used in the market. Aviation biofuels can help to meet both of these problems as well as improve U.S. energy security.

Investment in the biofuel industry carries a lot of risk. The biofuel industry is run by the private sector, but can be incentivized by government. Cellulosic biofuels carry even more risk than first generation biofuels, because …

A Novel Microgrid Demand-Side Management System For Manufacturing Facilities, Terance Jerome Harper

Open Access Theses

Thirty-one percent of annual energy consumption in the United States occurs within the industrial sector, where manufacturing processes account for the largest amount of energy consumption and carbon emissions. For this reason, energy efficiency in manufacturing facilities is increasingly important for reducing operating costs and improving profits. Using microgrids to generate local sustainable power should reduce energy consumption from the main utility grid along with energy costs and carbon emissions. Also, microgrids have the potential to serve as reliable energy generators in international locations where the utility grid is often unstable.

For this research, a manufacturing process that had approximately …

High Temperature Flooded Expansion For Solar Thermal Power Generation, Nelson Alexander James

Open Access Theses

Even though solar power usage has seen rapid growth over the past decade, fossil fuel generation sources are still generally a less expensive means of producing power. The Liquid-Flooded Ericsson Cycle (LFEC) was investigated as a high efficiency power cycle for reducing the cost of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants and helping to address this cost disparity. High temperature flooded expansion was identified as one of the main challenges in regards to utilizing the LFEC as a power cycle. Thermodynamic models were developed to help assess the performance of the LFEC and a load stand was constructed to test a …

Examining Sustainability Attitudes And Practices Among Overthe-Road Logistics Companies Operating In Indiana, Robert Louis Crull Iii

Open Access Theses

This research study takes a look at the sustainable attitude/awareness level and practices of over-the-road logistics companies operating in Indiana. It has a descriptive study design, providing information in an area that has not been previously analyzed. As the world adopts a "greener" mindset with the purpose of reducing the carbon footprint, this study helps lead the way towards this goal. It allows for the performance of further research into the reasons certain companies focus on sustainable practices more than others. Eventually, the hope is to increase the amount of companies operating sustainably.

The research study included an in-depth literature …

Cztsse Thin Film Solar Cells : Surface Treatments, Chinmay S. Joglekar

Open Access Theses

Chalcopyrite semiconducting materials, specifically CZTS, are a promising alternative to traditional silicon solar cell technology. Because of the high absorption coefficient; films of the order of 1 micrometer thickness are sufficient for the fabrication of solar cells. Liquid based synthesis methods are advantageous because they are easily scalable using the roll to roll manufacturing techniques.

Various treatments are explored in this study to enhance the performance of the selenized CZTS film based solar cells. Thiourea can be used as a sulfur source and can be used to tune band gap of CZTSSe. Bromine etching can be used to manipulate the …

Underground Natural Gas Storage: An Examination Of Property Values In Indiana, Michaela Jellicoe

Open Access Theses

Recent years have seen increased discussion of issues related to natural gas, generally focusing on perceived risks associated with natural gas extraction. One aspect of natural gas extraction that has received little attention is the impact of natural gas storage on surrounding areas. Further, recent advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing extraction techniques have greatly increased production of natural gas wells, and will likely increase demand for natural gas storage. Like other natural gas wells, underground storage wells have the potential for environmental and amenity impacts. The impacts of these risks may be reflected by a reduction in the …

Deforestation Of Cloud Forest In The Central Highlands Of Guatemala: Soil Erosion And Sustainability Implications For Q'Eqchi' Maya Communities, Ian Christopher Pope

Open Access Theses

Understanding the nexus between deforestation, food production, land degradation, and culture contributes knowledge that is useful for development practitioners working to enhance conservation and food security. Documenting deforestation and soil erosion in the Sierra Yalijux and Sierra Sacranix in the Central Highlands of Guatemala adds new knowledge about the rates and dynamics of deforestation and land degradation in areas with unique and sensitive cloud forest ecosystems. It also suggests possible areas of emphasis for efforts targeted at combining cloud forest conservation with sustainability for indigenous Q'eqchi' communities. In addition, this work contributes to a small but growing body of literature …

Floodplain Mapping Using Soil Survey Geographic (Ssurgo) Database, Nikhil Sangwan

Open Access Theses

Floods are the most damaging of all natural disasters, adversely affecting millions of lives and causing financial losses worth billions of dollars every year across the globe. Flood inundation maps play a key role in assessment and mitigation of the potential flood hazards. However, there are several communities in the United States for which the flood risk maps have not been published yet, as the current flood inundation mapping methods are typically very expensive and time consuming. The objective of this study is to develop and examine an economical alternative approach to floodplain mapping using widely available soil survey data. …

Retrofiting Lid Practices Into Existing Neighborhoods: Is It Worth It?, Timothy Wright

Open Access Theses

Low impact development (LID) practices are gaining popularity as a way to manage stormwater close to the source. This reduces infrastructure requirements and helps to maintain hydrologic processes close to predevelopment conditions. Studies have shown LID practices to be effective in reducing runoff and improving water quality. However, little has been done to aid decision makers in selecting the most effective practices for their needs and budgets.

To this end, the L-THIA LID model has been applied. Using readily available data sources, multiple scenarios can quickly be examined, and then analyzed to determine the cost of implementation and the approximate …

Determinants Of Energy Efficiency Across Countries, Guolin Yao

Open Access Theses

With economic development, environmental concerns become more important. Economies cannot be developed without energy consumption, which is the major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Higher energy efficiency is one means of reducing emissions, but what determines energy efficiency?

In this research we attempt to find answers to this question by using cross-sectional country data; that is, we examine a wide range of possible determinants of energy efficiency at the country level in an attempt to find the most important causal factors. All countries are divided into three income groups: high-income countries, middle-income countries, and low-income countries. Energy intensity is used …

Usability Testing Of The M.A.E.G.U.S. Serious Game, James He

Open Access Theses

Interpreting raw data in serious games and simulations can be a time consuming and uninteresting task without visualizations. This study proposes one possible solution for an interface that incorporates data visualizations for Whittinghill and Nataraja's (2013) MAEGUS simulation, a serious game used to increase the retention of wind energy and solar energy concepts in students, while still being fun. After the interface was designed and developed, a think aloud usability test was conducted to answer the following research questions: how do students use a series of information visualizations to operate a multi-variate game-based simulation and what are some the usability …

Economic And Policy Analysis For Solar Pv Systems In Indiana, Jinho Jung

Open Access Theses

In recent years, the energy market in the US and globally is expanding the production of renewable energy. With other energy sources, solar energy for electricity is also expanding in the US. Indiana is one of the states expanding solar energy with solar PV systems. However, the economics of solar PV systems in Indiana have not been analyzed and electricity customers in Indiana are not informed enough about the economics of solar PV systems. Therefore, we conduct benefit cost analysis with several uncertain input variables to determine the economics of adopting solar PV systems in Indiana based on policy instruments …

Study Of The Sustainbility Issues Of Food Production Using Vertical Farm Methods In An Urban Environment Within The State Of Indiana, Victor Mendez Perez

Open Access Theses

There are several problems around the globe related to water scarcity, energy shortages, deforestation and loss of fertile land, and food security. Climate change is making environmental and social issues arise. Issues such as, changes in the agricultural landscape, increasing population (9 billion is the expected population for 2040), rising food borne illnesses, scarcity of drinking water, and more crop failure due to plant pathogens and insect pests, among other factors make this study specially significant. Vertical farming could be a potencial solution to some of these problems.

Due to these problems the present thesis analyzed vertical farming as a …

M.A.E.G.U.S: Measuring Alternate Energy Generation Via Unity Simulation, Kavin Muhilan Nataraja

Open Access Theses

This paper presents the MAEGUS serious game and a study to determine its efficacy as a pedagogical tool. The MAEGUS serious game teaches sustainable energy concepts through gameplay simulating wind turbines and solar arrays. Players take the role of an energy manager for a city and use realistic data and information visualizations to learn the physical factors of wind and solar energy generation. The MAEGUS serious game study compares game assisted learning to a more traditional teaching method such as reading material in a crossover study, the results of which can inform future serious game development for educational purposes.

Improving Indoor Air Quality Through Botanical Air Filtration In Energy Efficient Residences, Daniel William Newkirk

Open Access Theses

According to the U.S. EPA, the average American spends 90% of their time indoors where pollutants are two to five times more prevalent than outside. The consequences of these pollutants are estimated to cost the U.S. 125 billion dollars in lost health and productivity. Background literature suggests botanical air filtration may be able to solve this problem by leveraging the natural ability of plants to purify indoor air. By improving indoor air quality, energy consumption can also be reduced by bringing in less outside air to dilute contaminants within the space. A botanical air filter, called the Biowall, was designed …