Engineering Commons^™

Bias Correction And Downscaling Of Climate Model Outputs Required For Impact Assessments Of Climate Change In The U.S. Northeast, Kazi F. Ahmed

Master's Theses

Global Climate Models (GCMs) are the typical sources of future climate data required for impact assessments of climate change. However, GCM outputs are related to model-related uncertainties and involve a great deal of biases. Bias correction of model outputs is, therefore, necessary before their use in impact studies. The coarse resolution of GCM simulations is another hindrance to their direct use in fine-scale impact analysis of climate change. Although downscaling of GCM outputs can be performed by dynamical downscaling using Regional Climate Models (RCMs), it requires large computational capacity. When daily climate data from multiple GCMs are required to be …

Adapting To Climate Change While Planning For Disaster: Footholds, Rope Lines, And The Iowa Floods, Robert R.M. Verchick, Abby Hall

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Technology To Increase The Recycled Content Of Asphalt Mix Designs, Nicholas Ricketts

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

This directed project examined the idea that increasing the amount of recycled asphalt product in road construction will result in a comparable performance to the current levels of recycled asphalt product in today’s pavement. A critical review of literature is structured in four areas: describing the need (financial and environmental) for the increased use of recycled materials, describing how others have addressed the issue and technology needed for increasing the use of recycled content, describing how some contractors have created the technology needed, and finally describing the direction needed in order to encourage customers and government agencies to embrace the …

Removal Of Disinfection By-Product Precursors Using Magnetic Ion Exchange (Miex(R)): The Effects Of Ph And Source Water Variability, Sarah Cousins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Disinfection by-products (DBPs) form as an unintended result of drinking water disinfection, from chemical reactions between disinfectants (e.g., free chlorine) and naturally occurring dissolved organic matter (DOM). At present, 11 DBPs are regulated in treated drinking waters due to potential adverse health effects, including four trihalomethanes (THMs). Despite nearly 40 years of DBP research, compliance with DBP regulations remains a challenge for many drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs), including the four DWTPs located on the Beaver Lake Reservoir in Northwest Arkansas. Due to the high net negative surface charge on DOM, anion exchange is one potentially viable method for removing …

Designing Carbon Taxation Schemes For Automobiles: A Simulation Exercise For Germany, Adamos Adamou, Sofronis Clerides, Theodoros Zachariadis

Theodoros Zachariadis

Vehicle taxation based on CO2 emissions is increasingly being adopted worldwide in order to shift consumer purchases to low-carbon cars, yet little is known about the effectiveness and overall economic impact of these schemes. We focus on feebate schemes, which impose a fee on high-carbon vehicles and give a rebate to purchasers of low-carbon automobiles. We estimate a discrete choice model of demand for automobiles in Germany and simulate the impact of alternative feebate schemes on emissions, consumer welfare, public revenues and firm profits. The analysis shows that a well-designed scheme can lead to emission reductions without reducing overall welfare.

Study On The Use Of Mgal Hydrotalcites As Solid Heterogeneous Catalysts For Biodiesel Production, João F. Gomes

João F Gomes

This paper, reports experimental work on the use of new heterogeneous solid basic catalysts for biodiesel production: double oxides of Mg and Al, produced by calcination, at high temperature, of MgAl lamellar structures, the hydrotalcites (HT). The most suitable catalyst system studied are hydrotalcite Mg:Al 2:1 calcinated at 507 ºC and 700 ºC, leading to higher values of FAME also in the second reaction stage. One of the prepared catalysts resulted in 97.1 % Fatty acids methyl esters (FAME) in the 1st reaction step, 92.2 % FAME in the 2nd reaction step and 34 % FAME in the 3rd reaction …

Evaluation Of Bioaugmentation Strategies To Treat High Concentrations Of Chloroform And Carbon Tetrachloride, Han Wang

All Theses

Halogenated methanes, including carbon tetrachloride (CT) and chloroform (CF), are significant groundwater contaminants. Options for bioremediation of high concentrations are limited. Previous studies have shown that an enrichment culture (designated DHM-1) that grows on corn syrup has the potential for use in bioaugmentation. DHM-1 cometabolically biotransforms high concentrations of CT and CF to nontoxic end products (mainly CO, CO2, and organic acids) in the presence of vitamin B12 (approximately 3% of chlorinated methanes on a molar basis). Sulfide is also required by this culture to function properly. However, insufficient data are available on its performance under field conditions. Also, it …

Hydrologic Evaluation Of Established Rain Gardens In Lincoln, Nebraska Using A Storm Runoff Simulator, Andrew R. Anderson

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Student Research

Increased urbanization has resulted in water quality and flooding problems for many receiving waters in the United States. Bioretention, or rain gardens, is one of the most widely popular and effective best management practices in low impact development (LID), which strives to return a watershed to a predevelopment hydrologic regime. Many studies have evaluated large bioretention cells in research settings. There is little information on the effectiveness of homeowner-maintained rain gardens that rely on deep percolation as the method for water exfiltration. Additionally, few studies address rain garden performance in cold, arid, or semi-arid climates found in the Midwest U.S. …

Water Quality Models For Stormwater Runoff In Two Lincoln, Nebraska Urban Watersheds, Jake Fisher

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

Water quality monitoring was conducted in two urban watersheds (Colonial Hills and Taylor Park) located in southeast Lincoln, NE over a three year period spanning from October 2008 through September 2011. In-line probes continuously measured for turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and water temperature while other water quality constituents were analyzed for discrete water samples collected using grab and automatic sampling techniques. The water quality data was used to calculate event mean concentrations (EMCs) for sixteen storm events sampled over the duration of the project period. Three types of stormwater quality multiple linear regression models were developed for the estimation of …

Water Quality Trends For Section 319 Priority Watersheds In Northwest Arkansas, 1997-2010, Bryan William Bailey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Northwest Arkansas contains two Section 319 Priority Watersheds that the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) has identified as being impacted by point and nonpoint sources of pollution (i.e., phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment), and the Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC) has monitored the water quality at several sites within these watersheds. Water-quality data has been collected over the last decade within the Illinois River Watershed (HUC #11110103) and the Upper White River Basin (Beaver Reservoir HUC# 11010001), each watershed containing three sampling sites. The Illinois River Watershed sites are located on the Illinois River, Osage Creek, and Ballard Creek, and the …

Dimensional Stability Of Geosynthetic Clay Liners In Landfill Applications, Gregory R. Olsen

Master's Theses

An investigation was conducted related to the dimensional stability of geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) in landfill applications. Multiple occurrences of panel separation of overlap seams in GCLs have been documented; however, explanation for the relative contribution of various mechanisms causing shrinkage has been limited. A systematic test program was conducted to determine the effects of a variety of conditions on GCL dimensional stability.

Effects of initial moisture content, permeant type, and overburden pressure were tested by subjecting various GCL products to wet-dry cycles and measuring the dimensional change with each cycle. Different GCL types were each tested under various combinations …

Hydroclimatic Forecasting In The Western United States Using Paleoclimate Reconstructions And Data-Driven Models, Christopher Allen Carrier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis investigated climate variability and their associated hydrologic responses in the western United States. The western United States faces the problem of water scarcity, where the management and mitigation of available water supplies are further complicated by climate variability. Climate variability associated with the phases of oceanic-atmospheric oscillations has been shown to influence streamflow and precipitation, where predictive relationships have led to the possibility of producing long-range forecasts. Based on literature review, four oceanic-atmospheric oscillation indices were identified in having the most prominent influence over the western United States including the El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal …

Physicochemical And Microbiological Quality Of Water From A Pilot Domestic Rainwater Harvesting Facility In Ireland., Sean O'Hogain, Liam Mccarton, Niamh Mcintyre, Jenny Pender, Anna Reid

Articles

DTC Research Group, Dublin Institute of Technology personnel were commissioned in 2005 by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government in Ireland to assess the feasibility of utilising harvested rainwater to replace treated mains water, for non-potable uses. A pilot project was set up. The project involved the design, installation, commissioning and monitoring of rainwater harvesting facilities in a rural housing development. A monitoring program was carried out to examine the physico-chemical and microbiological quality of the harvested rainwater. Harvested rainwater was sampled monthly and tested. Analysis of the harvested rainwater quality showed a consistently high quality of raw …

Potential Impacts Of Climate Change On Water Resources And Water Quality Of Norris Lake, Tennessee, Yong-Gil Choi

Masters Theses

This study assessed the potential impacts of climate change on hydrology, water resources operation, and water quality of the Norris Lake area in Tennessee. To project future climate conditions, the simulation outputs for 2030s, 2050s, and 2070s from six general circulation models (GCMs) were extracted under two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) greenhouse gases emissions scenarios (A2 and B1 for high and low emissions, respectively) to consider the range of uncertainty. The outputs of the six GCMs were weighted by considering their accuracy to simulate the climate conditions observed from 1961 to 1990 to suggest an ensemble average. A …

Correlating Suspended Sediment And Biological Metrics In East Tennessee Streams, Jeremy Robert Mefford

Masters Theses

Excessive suspended sediment is a major cause of pollution in US streams, as reported by the USEPA. Also known as siltation, having excessive sediment in a stream harms the biology of a stream through directly affecting living organisms, but also through harming natural habitats. Too much excessive sediment leads to a stream being declared impaired. Testing for suspended sediment levels is difficult and time consuming, so indirect methods of testing for total suspended solids (TSS) are desirable. While turbidity has been an oft used TSS surrogate in the past, this study takes the next step of looking at potential relationships …

Sensitivity Analysis On Mapping Evapotranspiration At High Resolution Using Internal Calibration (Metric), Venkata Naga Ravi Kumar Choragudi

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

Mapping EvapoTranspiration at high Resolution using Internal Calibration (METRIC) is most widely used to quantify evapotranspiration (ET) spatially and temporally. It is essential to inspect the model’s response to errors in various parameters used in the model. Landsat 5 images from May 30 2009, July 1 2009 and a Landsat 7 image from September 27 2009 are used in this study. Fourteen different fields composed of Corn, Soybeans, Alfalfa are randomly chosen for each crop type.

Two kinds of errors are addressed in this study. One, with the errors that are transferred and potentially compensated by calibration (Global error) and …

Enhancement Of Biohydrogen And Biomethane Production From Wastes Using Ultrasonication, Elsayed Elrefaey Elbeshbishy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis demonstrated the feasibility of using ultrasonication to solubilize the particulate matter, suppress the growth of methanogens, and enrich the biohydrogen producers, thus overcoming the main challenge of biohydrogen systems i.e. long-term stability and contamination with methanogens. Furthermore, this work emphasized the benefits of applying ultrasonication inside a bioreactor over using it as a pretreatment for biohydrogen and biomethane production from wastes. The results of this work showed that sonicating hog manure at specific energy (SE) of 500 kJ/kg TS resulted in a 20% increase in methane production and 36% increase in VSS destruction. The viability of using ultrasonication …

Comparative Life Cycle Assessments Of Lignocellulosic And Algae Biomass Conversion To Various Energy Products Through Different Pathways, Maria Juliana Pinilla

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bioenergy has the potential to reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels, and to decrease the CO2 emissions due to fossil combustion. Lignocellulosic and algae biomass have been presented as promising feedstocks for bioenergy production.

In this study, a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been developed to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with different energy products via different routes across the whole life of algal and lignocellulosic bioenergy. Results were compared per energy basis, the production of 1 million BTU of energy products.

For the development of the comparative algae biomass conversion LCA, algal biomass was converted to liquid …

The Impact Of Driving Conditions On Phev Battery Performance, Nathan Christensen, John Patten, Steven Srivastava, Gary P. Nola

john a patten

The battery performance of a modified Prius with a 5 kWh plug-in battery was documented for a year to determine the impact of environmental conditions and user attributes on vehicle performance. Both fuel economy and pure electrical efficiency were compared to ambient temperature. The fuel economy has a positive relationship with ambient temperature until approximately 70˚F where the efficiency begins to drop. Electrical performance has a positive linear relationship with ambient temperature. With the emergence of electric vehicles (EVs) and PHEVs from a variety of automotive manufacturers, information on EV and PHEV performance for consumers will become more important.

Produkcja Stałego Paliwa Wtórnego Na Przykładzie Przedsiębiorstwa Usług Komunalnych „Empol” Sp. Z O.O. / Production Of Solid Waste-Derived Fuel - A Case Study Of The Enterprise Of Municipal Services "Empol" Llc, Robert Oleniacz, Leszek Rataj, Monika Wyrostek

Robert Oleniacz

The work presents activities of the Enterprise of Municipal Services "Empol" Sp. z o.o. based in Tylmanowa (Małopolska Province, Poland) and the interrelated technological lines for sorting of waste and production of alternative fuels (refuse derived fuels - RDFs) started in 2009 in the Special Economic Zone in Gorlice. The paper also discusses properties of the produced RDFs and their typical applications.

Wpływ Procesu Współspalania Odpadów W Piecu Cementowym Na Jakość Powietrza / Impact Of Waste Co-Incineration Process In A Cement Kiln On Air Quality, Robert Oleniacz, Magdalena Kasietczuk

Robert Oleniacz

The work presents the general requirements for the control of emissions to air from waste co-combustion (co-incineration) plants, with particular emphasis on rotary kilns used for clinker production. Air emissions from the cement kiln during co-combustion of alternative fuels and the impact assessment on air quality are also presented. The object of the study was one of the Polish cement plant, which uses significant amounts of solid waste derived fuels (with over 70% share in the cement kiln heat balance). Assessment of the impact on air quality was made based on the results of the modeling of atmospheric dispersion of …

Soil Chemistry And The Recovery Of Sensitive Watersheds From Chronic Acidification, Chris E. Johnson

Chris E Johnson

No abstract provided.

Soil Chemistry And The Recovery Of Sensitive Watersheds From Chronic Acidification, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

No abstract provided.

Refining Greenstep: Impacts Of Vehicle Technologies And Its/Operational Improvements On Travel Speed And Fuel Consumption Curves, Kelly Clifton, Alexander Y. Bigazzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report describes analysis undertaken to establish a method for incorporating traffic operations and ITS strategies into the GreenSTEP model. We first discuss operations impacts on fuel economy and delay from the literature. Then, an investigation of delay adjustments in GreenSTEP shows that different methods of representing delay changes lead to similar (and small) impacts on fuel economy. From this result we establish average speed adjustment by congestion level as the preferred method for incorporating delay effects from operations improvements. An investigation of aggregate traffic operations impacts produces estimates of base speeds without operations improvements, maximum speeds with full operational …

Green Residential Stormwater Management Demonstration: An Integrated Stormwater Management And Graywater System To Reduce The Quantity And Improve The Quality Of Residential Water Discharges, Post Co Data Analysis, Ni-Bin Chang, Martin Wanielista, Manoj Chopra, Mike Hardin, Matthew Allen Goolsby

BMP Trains Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Nitrogen Transport And Transformation Beneath Stormwater Retention Basins In Karst Areas And Effectiveness Of Stormwater Best Management Practices For Reducing Nitrate Leaching To Ground Water In Marion County, Florida, Stormwater Academy

BMP Trains Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Tertiary-Treated Municipal Wastewater Is A Significant Point Source Of Antibiotic Resistance Genes Into Duluth-Superior Harbor, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Tucker R. Burch, Timothy M. Lapara, David T. Tan, Mi Yan, Jessica J. Eichmiller

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In this study, the impact of tertiary-treated municipal wastewater on the quantity of several antibiotic resistance determinants in Duluth-Superior Harbor was investigated by collecting surface water and sediment samples from 13 locations in Duluth-Superior Harbor, the St. Louis River, and Lake Superior. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to target three different genes encoding resistance to tetracycline (tet(A), tet(X), and tet(W)), the gene encoding the integrase of class 1 integrons (intI1), and total bacterial abundance (16S rRNA genes) as well as total and human fecal contamination levels (16S rRNA genes specific to the genus Bacteroides …

Stage-Dependent Transient Storage Of Phosphorus In Alluvial Floodplains, Derek M. Heeren, Garey A. Fox, Ronald B. Miller, Daniel E. Storm, Amanda K. Fox, Chad J. Penn, Todd Halihan, Aaron R. Mittelstet

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Models for contaminant transport in streams commonly idealize transient storage as a well-mixed but immobile system. These transient storage models capture rapid (near-stream) hyporheic storage and transport, but do not account for large-scale, stage-dependent interaction with the alluvial aquifer. The objective of this research was to document transient storage of phosphorus (P) in coarse gravel alluvium potentially influenced by large-scale, stage-dependent preferential flow pathways (PFPs). Long-term monitoring was performed at floodplain sites adjacent to the Barren Fork Creek and Honey Creek in northeastern Oklahoma. Based on results from subsurface electrical resistivity mapping which was correlated to hydraulic conductivity data, observation …

Understanding Formation And Transport Of Amorphous Iron Oxyhydroxides In Porous Media Using Microfluidic Flow Cells- A Novel Method To Study Freshwater Iron Cycling, Neha A. Ghaisas

Master's Theses

The ground water and surface water interface (GSI or Hyporheic zone) is a spatially- and temporally-fluctuating biogeochemical transition zone connecting these two distinct hydrological components. The mixing zone is characterized by a near neutral pH, ambient temperature and a sharp oxygen concentration which in turn has deep impact on the iron cycling and thus the fate of contaminants in the water column. We constructed an experimental micromodel that to observe key processes that affect biogeochemical iron cycling in the fresh water interface zones where the oxic surface water mixes with Fe (II) rich underlying ground water. The flow cell was …

Wachusett Reservoir Contaminant Spill Modeling Using Ce-Qual W2, Cory S. Devonis

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

This research studies contaminant spills in the Wachusett Reservoir by two dimensional modeling utilizing CE-QUAL W2. The Wachusett Reservoir, located in central Massachusetts, has a capacity of 65 billion gallons and is the primary water source for the metropolitan Boston area. There are numerous inflows and outflows to and from the Wachusett Reservoir, with the Quabbin Aqueduct supplying approximately half of the total water entering the Wachusett. The Quabbin Aqueduct connects the Quabbin Reservoir (412 billion gallons) to the Wachusett Reservoir and supplies water to maintain desired water surface elevations in the Wachusett during time of high demand and low …