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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
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Effects Of Biochar Content And Particle Size On Mechanical Properties Of Biochar-Plastic Composites, Anne Marie Mozrall
Effects Of Biochar Content And Particle Size On Mechanical Properties Of Biochar-Plastic Composites, Anne Marie Mozrall
Theses
The recent increases in plastic pollution and consumption have put bioplastics in a strong position to expand. However, better understanding is needed for bio-fillers and their effect on popular bioplastics, such as poly (lactic acid) (PLA), in order for this to occur. Biochar (BC), a stable form of carbon derived from high temperature conversion of organic material, has potential application as a plastic filler. Although biochar’s effect on petroleum-based plastics has been widely studied, there are still major gaps in the literature surrounding biochar use as a filler in PLA/starch composites. Biochar particle size and loading are two factors that …
One-Pot Synthesis Of N-Rich Porous Carbon For Efficient Co2 Adsorption Performance, Qiyun Yu, Jiali Bai, Muslum Demir, Bilge N. Altay, Xin Hu, Linlin Wang
One-Pot Synthesis Of N-Rich Porous Carbon For Efficient Co2 Adsorption Performance, Qiyun Yu, Jiali Bai, Muslum Demir, Bilge N. Altay, Xin Hu, Linlin Wang
Articles
N-enriched porous carbons have played an important part in CO2 adsorption application thanks to their abundant porosity, high stability and tailorable surface properties while still suffering from a non-efficient and high-cost synthesis method. Herein, a series of N-doped porous carbons were prepared by a facile one-pot KOH activating strategy from commercial urea formaldehyde resin (UF). The textural properties and nitrogen content of the N-doped carbons were carefully controlled by the activating temperature and KOH/UF mass ratios. As-prepared N-doped carbons show 3D block-shaped morphology, the BET surface area of up to 980 m2/g together with a pore volume of 0.52 cm3/g …
Sustainable Applications Of Biochar Derived From Food Waste And Paper Feedstocks, Steven T. Barber
Sustainable Applications Of Biochar Derived From Food Waste And Paper Feedstocks, Steven T. Barber
Theses
There is general agreement in the scientific literature that carbon sequestration is an important tool to mitigate human-induced climate change, but current methods are lacking scalability and economic viability. Though charcoal has been a common fuel for millennia, it has only very recently been purposefully created to sequester carbon. This carbon dense material, called biochar, has been extensively studied as a soil amendment though less studied for industrial applications. Chapter 1 provides an in-depth overview and background discussion of the history and definitions of biochar, distinguishing it from closely related though often misconstrued terms like charcoal, activated carbon, and carbon …
Combating Global Warming: Modeling Enhanced Rock Weathering Of Wollastonite Using Density Functional Theory, Brian Luan
Combating Global Warming: Modeling Enhanced Rock Weathering Of Wollastonite Using Density Functional Theory, Brian Luan
Theses
Negative emissions technologies target the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as a way of combating global warming. Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a vital negative emissions technology that applied globally could remove gigatons of carbon dioxide per year from the atmosphere. In ERW, silicate minerals exposed to the atmosphere trap CO2 via mineral carbonation as thermodynamically stable carbonates. To obtain an atomic scale understanding of the weathering process and to design more reactive silicates for enhanced rock weathering, carbon dioxide adsorption on low Miller index wollastonite (CaSiO3) surfaces was modeled using density functional theory. Atomic scale structure of …
Sustainable Food Waste Management Through The Integration Of Anaerobic Digestion And Thermochemical Processes, Diana Carolina Rodriguez Alberto
Sustainable Food Waste Management Through The Integration Of Anaerobic Digestion And Thermochemical Processes, Diana Carolina Rodriguez Alberto
Theses
The processing of food waste along with animal manure through anaerobic digestion (AD) is a popular waste management strategy. However, there is the concern that with the proliferation of AD the management of its nutrient-rich effluent, known as digestate, becomes a challenge. Current digestate management practices not only present environmental risks, but also issues related to the seasonality of field spreading and the storage and transportation of large volumes of material. The integration of the AD process with thermochemical conversion (TC) could help reduce some of these issues. The production of biochar from materials already available in the digester setting, …
Carbon Soil Amendment For Promotion Of Native Species In Created Emergent Freshwater Wetlands, Taylor E. Williams
Carbon Soil Amendment For Promotion Of Native Species In Created Emergent Freshwater Wetlands, Taylor E. Williams
Theses
Wetlands created or restored to replace natural wetland often fail to achieve functional equivalence and delivery of similar ecosystem services, especially with regard to plant community structure. In these young ecosystems, native emergent plants may not successfully compete with invasive species that are more rapid colonizers and capable of taking advantage of disturbed systems. This susceptibility to invasion and lack of resilience is exacerbated under conditions of high nutrient availability or extreme variations in weather as a result of climate change. Management of invasive plants in wetlands typically involves costly chemical and mechanical control measures, necessitating development of cost-effective and …
Biodegradation And Microbial Co2 Evolution Of Blended Polymers In Food-Waste And Coffee Supplemented Disposal Environments, Abigail Rolston
Biodegradation And Microbial Co2 Evolution Of Blended Polymers In Food-Waste And Coffee Supplemented Disposal Environments, Abigail Rolston
Theses
The dependency of many industries on single-use materials, has led to an accumulation of plastic waste and subsequent harm to the planet. Since avoidance of plastic is often not viable and the current processes of recycling have their own environmental impact, many have looked toward development of sustainable replacements for plastics. Homogenous blended polymers made from varied ratios of polycaprolactone (PCL), starch, and biochar were made in the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Packaging Science Department, tested for percent weight loss and for carbon dioxide (CO2) evolution in soils. Testing was done across three burial matrices: soil amended with compost …
Controls On Denitrification And Nitrous Oxide Flux In Created Wetlands, Sonia Huang
Controls On Denitrification And Nitrous Oxide Flux In Created Wetlands, Sonia Huang
Theses
Freshwater wetlands are frequently created or restored with the goal of replicating valuable ecosystem functions lost elsewhere. However, studies in created wetlands have demonstrated production of greenhouse gases (GHG) may be enhanced during early establishment, potentially counteracting desirable ecosystem services such as nutrient removal. In this research, we investigated the impact of hydrology and carbon addition on denitrification and fluxes of N2O from two created wetlands that differ in antecedent land use and hydrology. Ten experimental zones were installed in both wetlands and compost (municipal leaf litter) was added to half of the zones as a soil amendment. Soil and …
Characterization Of Biochar Produced By Pyrolysis Of Biomass And Co-Pyrolysis Of Biomass And Agricultural Mulch Film, Ibrahim Cisse
Characterization Of Biochar Produced By Pyrolysis Of Biomass And Co-Pyrolysis Of Biomass And Agricultural Mulch Film, Ibrahim Cisse
Theses
Agricultural wastes can be valuable materials because they are generated in large quantities all over the world and contain a variety of feedstocks. These feedstocks include dairy manure, food wastes, solid wastes and plastics. Current waste management techniques include landfilling and incineration, both leading to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. However, alternative methods such as pyrolysis can present more sustainable pathways by transforming mixed wastes from the agricultural sector into value-added products such as biochar, bio-oil and syngas. Limited published literature has focused on producing biochar derived from co-pyrolysis of agricultural wastes with plastic wastes such as agricultural mulch …
Thermoformed Containers Based On Starch And Starch/Coffee Waste Biochar Composites, Carlos Diaz, Rahul Ketan Shah, Tyler Evans, Thomas A. Trabold, Kathleen Draper
Thermoformed Containers Based On Starch And Starch/Coffee Waste Biochar Composites, Carlos Diaz, Rahul Ketan Shah, Tyler Evans, Thomas A. Trabold, Kathleen Draper
Articles
Biodegradable containers support zero-waste initiatives when alternative end-of-life scenarios are available (e.g., composting, bio digestion). Thermoplastic starch (TPS) has emerged as a readily biodegradable and inexpensive biomaterial that can replace traditional plastics in applications such as food service ware and packaging. This study has two aims. First, demonstrate the thermoformability of starch/polycaprolactone (PCL) as a thermoplastic material with varying starch loadings. Second, incorporate biochar as a sustainable filler that can potentially lower the cost and enhance compostability. Biochar is a stable form of carbon produced by thermochemical conversion of organic biomass, such as food waste, and its incorporation into consumer …
Techno-Economic Optimization Of Food Waste Diversion To Treatment Facilities To Determine Cost Effectiveness Of Policy Incentives, Kanwal Shahid
Techno-Economic Optimization Of Food Waste Diversion To Treatment Facilities To Determine Cost Effectiveness Of Policy Incentives, Kanwal Shahid
Theses
New York state recently passed a food waste (FW) disposal ban, which will prohibit land-filling of FW produced by commercial entities generating more than 2 tons/week by the year 2022. This will redirect 370,000 tons/year of FW from landfills. In this work, we investigate three questions about the landfill ban: 1) How can this waste be diverted to treatment facilities at lowest system cost? 2) To what degree can an expanded anaerobic digestion portfolio help with the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standards? 3) What policies can help with the transition of waste-to-energy technologies? We develop a mixed-integer linear programming model that …
Assessment Of Dehydration As A Commercial-Scale Food Waste Valorization Strategy, Jon T. Schroeder, Ava L. Labuzetta, Thomas A. Trabold
Assessment Of Dehydration As A Commercial-Scale Food Waste Valorization Strategy, Jon T. Schroeder, Ava L. Labuzetta, Thomas A. Trabold
Articles
Using a commercially available dehydration unit, this study aimed to valorize various food waste streams from different sources in the Rochester, New York area. Dehydration of the food waste collected for the study helped reduce the weight of the feedstock by 70–90%, as the incoming waste streams were relatively wet. The output was materially characterized against end uses such as cattle feed, fish feed, and compost. The results demonstrated that, other than fertilizer, the remaining five end uses (compost, fish feed, cattle feed, pyrolysis, and pelletized fuel) were potentially compatible with varying waste feedstocks based on the parameters analyzed. Fish …
Application Of Biochar As An Additive To Enhance Biomethane Potential In Anaerobic Digestion, Cecilia B. Frias Flores
Application Of Biochar As An Additive To Enhance Biomethane Potential In Anaerobic Digestion, Cecilia B. Frias Flores
Theses
Energy and useful materials can be produced by applying biological and thermal conversion processes such as anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis. Agricultural and industrial wastes seem to be the most attractive substrates since they are essentially unlimited resources. Pyrolysis has been used mostly for the conversion of biomass to bio-crude and biochar, a stable form of nearly pure carbon that has application in many agricultural and environmental applications. There is a widespread literature describing use of biochar as an additive to stabilize the anaerobic digestion process. We studied the effects that biochar has on the biomethane potential (BMP) during anaerobic digestion …
Biochar As A Substitute For Carbon Black In Lithographic Ink Production, Vanessa Hulse
Biochar As A Substitute For Carbon Black In Lithographic Ink Production, Vanessa Hulse
Theses
Replacing carbon black with biochar, a more sustainable carbon negative material, in commercial inks will be presented. The overall project goal was to produce an optimal feedstock for biochar through impurity removal techniques. Biochar is most commonly used in soil applications or water remediation, due to its highly porous nature, leading to high contaminant adsorption. This project however, focuses on biochar as a pigment for lithographic inks. When raw boxboard or recycled paper pulp was subjected to pyrolysis, an appreciable amount of mineral impurities remained. These harder mineral impurities result in poor black coverage power. Harder mineral impurities also made …
Evaluation Of Alternative Valorization Options For Institutional And Industrial Food Wastes, Swati Hegde
Evaluation Of Alternative Valorization Options For Institutional And Industrial Food Wastes, Swati Hegde
Theses
In recent years many countries and several regions in the United States have passed legislation on banning landfilling of organic waste. It is a well-known fact that organic wastes, including food scraps, generate methane under anaerobic landfill environments and contribute significantly to global warming. As more regions are mandated to follow the landfill ban, there is an increasing demand for alternative technologies for the disposal, treatment and upcycling of food wastes. Disposal and treatment may not result in any value-added products and hence are not the most efficient ways to manage food waste. As food waste has a high energy …
Cohousing In The Flower City: A Carbon Capture Design, Samuel Elliot
Cohousing In The Flower City: A Carbon Capture Design, Samuel Elliot
Theses
Our climate is changing rapidly due to an excess of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. A major force behind the release of these gases is the means by which we generate our energy — the combustion of fossil fuels. One of the biggest drivers of this energy demand within the United States is our built environment and more pointedly our cold-climate, urban based, residential building stock. All signs indicate that unless steps are taken, this demand will continue to grow. Ed Mazria’s Architecture 2030 Challenge proposes an ambitious plan for achieving carbon neutrality in buildings by 2030. What if …