Digital Commons Network^™

Building Better Water In Lake Erie, Morgan Potts

Honors Projects

This paper addresses two of the common forms of pollution in Lake Erie: excess nutrients leading to blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria and pollution from heavy metals. The paper provides a brief history on the state of pollution in the lake, as well as historical methods to solve these problems. It addresses the causes of both harmful algal blooms (HABs) and heavy metal pollution in the lake, which are both related to the structure of modern agricultural, urban, and industrial environments. The major focus of this paper is on practices that are currently being used to address this pollution and how …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Carbon-Based Nanomaterials From Lignin, Xuefeng Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this research was to develop a catalytic thermal conversion process for production of carbon-based nanomaterials (CNs) from kraft lignin. Four specific objectives were to: (1) understand the structural evolution of kraft lignin during its thermal treatment process; (2) investigate effects of temperature, and iron catalyst loading and morphology on the catalytic thermal conversion of kraft lignin to CNs, understand lignin catalytic thermal conversion mechanism; (3) explore potential applications of CNs synthesized from kraft lignin as an adsorbent for lead removing from contaminated water; (4) and propose effective methods for graphene material characterization. Experimental results indicated that …

Forest Industry Byproducts Improve Soil Quality And Increase Pepper Growth In Three Soils Infested With Phythophthora Blight, Xiaojun Zhao

Open Access Theses

Phytophthora blight is a serious threat to the Midwest vegetable industry, because the oomycete pathogen responsible for this disease, Phytophthora capsici, has a wide host range, can spread quickly in fields, and produces resilient oospores that can survive in soil for years. Phytophthora capsici has become resistant to commonly used fungicides and resistant crop varieties are rare. Amending soil with complex organic substrates has potential to improve soil quality and suppress soil-borne pathogens including P. capsici. Indiana has a significant forest industry with many residual products that could be used as locally available amendments to meet this goal. …

Characterization Of Fusarium Species And Alternaria Alternata, And Their Effects On Switchgrass Health And Chemical Components, Sara Beth Collins

Masters Theses

Panicum virgatum L., readily referred to as Switchgrass, is a perennial warm-season bunch grass, used as an alternative energy source for biofuel production. There is insufficient research on switchgrass pathogens, and is expected that an increase in disease pressure will result as more land is reserved for this perennial crop. The purpose of this research was to identify and characterize pathogenic Alternaria alternata and Fusarium species on Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), and to evaluate their impact on stand establishment and plant health. Molecular identifications of fungal isolates obtained from infected commercial switchgrass seed yielded eight species (A. alternata, …

Removal Of Carboxylic Acids And Water From Pyrolysis Oil, George Alexander Marshall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over 70% of the world’s energy consumption is provided by fossil fuels and with those reserves depleting at a fast rate, alternative energy sources or methods are needed to support the world’s energy needs. This research was done in an attempt to make it more economically feasible to produce fuel products, such as bio-diesel, from the upgrading of bio-oil obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass waste material such as sawdust. The high water and oxygenated compound content of bio-oil make it undesirable for fuel use; however, two methods involving surface modified commercial membranes were utilized in hopes of overcoming these …

Timber Talk, Vol. 54, No. 4, December 2016

Timber Talk: Nebraska Forest Industry Newsletter

In This Issue

Lumber Market Reports 1

Hardwood Lumber Prices 2

Note from the Editor - EAB Meeting Discussion 3

THE CHALLENGE - Using Forest Residues from Forest Operations 4

2016 Tax Tips Bulletin Available 4

Nebraska Forest Industry Spotlight 5

Alaska Airlines’ first flight with biofuel made from forest residuals 7

The Four “P’s” of Marketing Your Small Sawmill Business 7

Trading Post 8

Bioenergy And Carbon Farming Opportunities In The Pilbara, Robert Sudmeyer, Kim Brooksbank, David Rogers

Bulletins 4000 -

The Pilbara region covers 270 000 square kilometres of north-west Western Australia. Its main agricultural land use is pastoralism, with beef cattle grazing native pastures. Currently, only 24km² is under irrigation, with irrigated fodder the principal crop, but this could expand to 100km². This expansion has the potential to significantly broaden the economic base of the Pilbara.

Irrigation and the opportunities for changing land use and management may facilitate greater participation in the carbon economy by Pilbara land managers. Bioenergy feedstocks could be sourced from purpose-grown crops or agricultural wastes. Carbon farming activities may be facilitated by …

Sigma Gamma Epsilon Student Research Poster Session, Geological Society Of America Meeting 2016, Denver, Colorado, Usa, Paula Even

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The 2016 Sigma Gamma Epsilon Undergraduate Research (Poster Session) took place during the 2016, Geological Society of America annual meeting in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, 27 September 2016: 9:00 AM-6:30 PM. The National Council of Sigma Gamma Epsilon awarded the Austin A. Sartin Best Poster Award to Alexa Harrison and Nicholas Schrecongost from Radford University. Jessica Robinson and Allison D. Jones, students at University of Pacific, were awarded the National Council’s Best Poster Award.

Recycled Waste Increased Tomato Production Under Field Conditions, Lusekelo J. Nkuwi

Posters-at-the-Capitol

As more municipal sewage sludge (SS) treatment districts turn to composting as a means of sludge stabilization and because of the rapid growth in the poultry industry, significant chicken manure (CM) and municipal SS generation will become available in increasing quantities. A field trial area was established at the University of Kentucky South Farm. Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. Mountain spring) seedlings of 52 days old was planted in 30’ × 144’ beds of freshly tilled soil at eight inch row spacing on June, 2016. The entire study area contained 30 plots ( 3 replicates × 10 treatments). Each bed …

Specific Phosphate Sorption Mechanisms Of Unaltered And Altered Biochar, Kathryn D. Szerlag

Masters Theses

Biochar has been shown to act as an effective sorbent for many organic and inorganic contaminants (including phosphate) and can help to improve the quality of our fresh water resources by preventing eutrophication. Most of the high efficiency biochar phosphate-adsorbent feedstocks are modified with chemical pretreatment, phytoremediation or anaerobic digestion to accumulate desired elements. The main objectives of this project were to first engineer magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca) altered biochar by chemical pretreatment followed by pyrolysis at either 350 or 550°C and evaluate their phosphate adsorption rate and potential as compared to their unaltered counterparts. Determination of surface physiochemical …

Adsorptive And Kinetic Characterization Of Aqueous Zinc Removal By Biochars, Sergio Mireles, Yongsik Ok, Chu-Lin Cheng, Jihoon Kang

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Biochars have shown a great potential to treat stormwater runoff contaminated with heavy metals due to their favorable physical and chemical characteristics. Biochar materials were produced from pyrolysis of oak tree and wood at 400C and 450C respectively, and their Zn adsorption behavior from aqueous solutions were evaluated to assess their applicability as a filter media for stormwater treatment. Two adsorption isotherm models, Freundlich and Langmuir, were used to fit the batch-scale experimental data. The kinetics of Zn adsorption was investigated under two contrasting physical condition (stagnant vs. agitated). The adsorption isotherm was better fitted with the Langmuir model (R2 …

Pyrolysis Of Wastewater Biosolids Significantly Reduces Estrogenicity, T. C. Hoffman, Daniel Zitomer, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Most wastewater treatment processes are not specifically designed to remove micropollutants. Many micropollutants are hydrophobic so they remain in the biosolids and are discharged to the environment through land-application of biosolids. Micropollutants encompass a broad range of organic chemicals, including estrogenic compounds (natural and synthetic) that reside in the environment, a.k.a. environmental estrogens. Public concern over land application of biosolids stemming from the occurrence of micropollutants hampers the value of biosolids which are important to wastewater treatment plants as a valuable by-product. This research evaluated pyrolysis, the partial decomposition of organic material in an oxygen-deprived system under high temperatures, as …

2016 Program, Office Of Academic Affairs

Programs

Eastern Illinois University is a community enthusiastically engaged in intellectual exploration. This includes faculty testing the boundaries of knowledge within their disciplines and the boundaries of how to convey that knowledge to their students. It also includes students, both graduate students joining with their faculty mentors in pressing the disciplinary boundaries, and undergraduate students discovering the front edges of the disciplines under the guidance of their instructors. Today we celebrate the full range of such faculty contributions: journal articles, book chapters, monographs, art works, music compositions, performances in all forms, and a host of others. Funded research contributions also are …

October 25, 2016, The Daily Mississippian

Daily Mississippian (all digitized issues)

No abstract provided.

Research: South Dakota State University, Fall 2016, Christine Delfanian, Emily Webber

Research: South Dakota State University

CONTENTS:

Cattle primary host for new influenza virus [page] 1
Statisticians evaluate probability models for crime scene evidence [page] 2
Beef reproduction research to increase sperm, embryo survival [page] 4
Chemicals in ice core reveal climate-changing events [page] 6
New pediatric drug delivery method uses corn, milk proteins [page] 8
Strategic application key to biochar application [page] 8
Outstanding Scholars:
Collaborative projects brings pioneer women to life [page] 9
Nurses to learn substance abuse intervention technique [page] 9
Dietitian targets weight management, goal-setting to improve health [page] 10
Photovoltaic group helps Pakistani scientists harness sun's energy [page] 10
New capabilities …

Common Ground Newsletter Fall 2016, Missouri University Of Science And Technology

Common Ground

-Earth First, Brennan finds passion at S&T
-University Innovation Fellows

Chemical Engineering Professors Lead Sustainable Energy & Environment Project, Edwin Smith

University of Mississippi News

Wei-Yin Chen and Nosa Egiebor are co-principal investigators for collaborative $1.6 million grant

Diclofenac And Its Transformation Products: Environmental Occurrence And Toxicity - A Review, Linson Lonappan, Satinder K. Brar, Ratul Kumar Das, Mausam Verma, Rao Y. Surampalli

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Diclofenac (DCF) is a prevalent anti-inflammatory drug used throughout the world. Intensive researches carried out in the past few decades have confirmed the global ubiquity of DCF in various environmental compartments. Its frequent occurrence in freshwater environments and its potential toxicity towards several organisms such as fish and mussels makes DCF an emerging environmental contaminant. At typical detected environmental concentrations, the drug does not exhibit toxic effects towards living organisms, albeit chronic exposure may lead to severe effects. For DCF, about 30–70% removal has been obtained through the conventional treatment system in wastewater treatment plant being the major primary sink. …

Comparison Of Permanganate-Oxidizable Carbon And Mineralizable Carbon For Assessment Of Organic Matter Stabilization And Mineralization, Tunsisa T. Hurisso, Steve W. Culman, William R. Horwath, Jordon Wade, Deandra Cass, Joshua W. Beniston, Timothy M. Bowles, A. Stuart Grandy, Alan J. Franzluebbers, Meagan E. Schipanski, Shawn T. Lucas, Carmen M. Ugarte

Faculty Publications

Permanganate-oxidizable C (POXC) and mineralizable C (as determined by short-term aerobic incubation of rewetted soil) are measures of active organic matter that may provide early indication of soil C stabilization and mineralization processes. To date, the relationship between these two promising active organic matter tests has not been comprehensively evaluated, and little is known about their functional role in the soil ecosystem. Here, we examined the relationship between POXC and mineralizable C across a wide range of soil types, management histories, and geographic locations across the United States (13 studies, 76 total sites; n = 1071) and the ability of …

Starx Technology For Waste Oil Sludge Treatment Investigated With Numerical Modelling, Rebecca L. Solinger

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Growing stockpiles of industrial liquid waste stored in lagoons are an outstanding problem worldwide. Self-sustaining Treatment for Active Remediation (STAR) is an emerging technology based on smouldering combustion that has been successfully deployed for in situ remediation of field sites (Grant et al., 2016). STAR is currently being developed as an ex situ treatment system (STARx) for industrial wastes by intentionally mixing them with sand. One engineering concept for STARx is the “hotpad”, for which some initial experiments have been conducted. However, a thorough experimental investigation is challenging due to the cost and time associated with each experiment. This work …

Timber Talk, Vol. 54, No. 3, September 2016

Timber Talk: Nebraska Forest Industry Newsletter

Lumber Market Reports 1

Hardwood Lumber Prices 2

Green Star Gasifier Seeking Wood Fuel 3

Emerald Ash Borer Discovered in Eastern Nebraska 4

Nebraska Forest Industry Spotlight 5

Timber Sales 7

Trading Post 8

Pyrolysis Of Dried Wastewater Biosolids Can Be Energy Positive, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Jon Koch, Zhongzhe Liu, Daniel Zitomer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Pyrolysis is a thermal process that converts biosolids into biochar (a soil amendment), py-oil and py-gas, which can be energy sources. The objectives of this research were to determine the product yield of dried biosolids during pyrolysis and the energy requirements of pyrolysis. Bench-scale experiments revealed that temperature increases up to 500 °C substantially decreased the fraction of biochar and increased the fraction of py-oil. Py-gas yield increased above 500 °C. The energy required for pyrolysis was approximately 5-fold less than the energy required to dry biosolids (depending on biosolids moisture content), indicating that, if a utility already uses energy …

Recovery Of Agricultural Nutrients From Biorefineries, Daniel Elliott Carey, Yu Yang, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Brooke Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This review lays the foundation for why nutrient recovery must be a key consideration in design and operation of biorefineries and comprehensively reviews technologies that can be used to recover an array of nitrogen, phosphorus, and/or potassium-rich products of relevance to agricultural applications. Recovery of these products using combinations of physical, chemical, and biological operations will promote sustainability at biorefineries by converting low-value biomass (particularly waste material) into a portfolio of higher-value products. These products can include a natural partnering of traditional biorefinery outputs such as biofuels and chemicals together with nutrient-rich fertilizers. Nutrient recovery not only adds an additional …

Removal Of Target Ppcps From Secondary Effluent Using Aops And Novel Adsorbents, Venkateswara Reddy Kandlakuti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Atenolol (β-blocker), Clofibric Acid (Lipid regulators) and Diclofenac (Anti-inflammatory) are the drugs widely used and reported to have adverse effects on fish and other organisms. These drugs are found at trace levels in lakes, rivers and sewage treatment plants and conventional treatment plants are ineffective to eliminate these at those levels. A high resolution LC-MS/MS was used to quantify these drugs at low levels. Various advanced oxidation methods were used for the present research to eliminate these drugs from secondary effluent. Complete removal of PPCPs was achieved by synthesizing immobilized TiO2 on a stainless steel mesh and using a combination …

Spatially Explicit Life Cycle Assessment: Opportunities And Challenges Of Wastewater-Based Algal Biofuels In The United States, Javad Roostaei, Yongli Zhang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

This work presented a Spatially-Explicit-High-Resolution Life Cycle Assessment (SEHR-LCA) model for wastewater-based algal biofuel production, by integrating life cycle assessment, GIS analysis, and site-specific Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) data analysis. Wastewater resources, land availability, and meteorological variation were analyzed for algae cultivation. Three pathways, Microwave Pyrolysis, hydrothermal liquefaction, and lipid extraction were modeled for bio-oil conversion. This model enables the assessment of seasonal and site-specific variations in productivity and environmental impacts of wastewater-based algal bio-oil across the whole U.S. Model results indicate that wastewater-based algal bio-oil can provide an opportunity to increase national biofuel output. The potential production of algal …

Decomposition Dynamics Under Climate Change Conditions In Boreal Peat, Rosa Del Giudice

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Boreal peatlands currently act as carbon sinks, but are projected to become carbon sources under climate change. Shifts in plant community composition alongside increased decomposition rates are potential mechanisms precipitating this change. My objective was to determine the decomposition potential of different peatland plant litters (Sphagnum magellanicum (peat moss), Carex magellanica (graminoid) and Chamaedaphne calyculata (woody shrub)) during short-term (48 hour) leaching and microbial decomposition (20 week) phases. The 48-hour leaching experiment measured mass loss and leachate chemistry of litters grown under ambient and elevated CO₂, while the 20-week experiment measured heterotrophic respiration and mass loss of …

Short-Term Effects Of Biochar Addition On Nitrification, Ammonia Oxidizer And Nitrous Oxide Emissions In Two Acid Red Soils, Xu Zhao

AgroEnviron 2016: 10th International Symposium on Agriculture and the Environment - May 23-27, 2016

No abstract provided.

Hydrothermal Liquefaction Of High-Water Content Biomass And Waste Materials For The Production Of Biogas And Bio-Crude Oil, Laleh Nazari

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Growing interest in renewable energies due to shrinking reserves of fossil fuels and climate change concerns have led to extensive research towards gaseous and liquid fuels production from renewable energy resources such as biomass and wastes. Energy generation from municipal and industrial wastes such as wastewater sludge is also environmental friendly way to deal with large volume of waste disposal with the additional advantage of eliminating part of the indirect greenhouse gas emissions from energy crops-derived biofuels.

In this thesis, a novel process for co-production of biogas and bio-crude oil from high-water-content wastewater sludge through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) treatments is …

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 …

Assessment Of A Mycorrhizal Fungi Application To Treat Stormwater In An Urban Bioswale, Alaina Diane Melville

Dissertations and Theses

This study assessed the effect of an application of mycorrhizal fungi to stormwater filter media on urban bioswale soil and stormwater in an infiltration-based bioswale aged 20 years with established vegetation. The study tested the use of commercially available general purpose biotic soil blend PermaMatrix^® BSP Foundation as a treatment to enhance Earthlite^™ stormwater filter media amelioration of zinc, copper, and phosphorus in an ecologically engineered structure designed to collect and infiltrate urban stormwater runoff before it entered the nearby Willamette River.

These results show that the application of PermaMatrix^® BSP Foundation biotic soil amendment to Earthlite …