Engineering Commons^™

Computer Modeling Of Tennessee Valley Authority’S Coal Based Power Plant At Kingston To Predict The Effluent To Emory River, Bratendu Bagchi

Doctoral Dissertations

In the wake of stringent environmental regulations, this research studies ash pond discharge to the river by Kingston Power plant. Currently 1296 MGD of fresh water from the Emory river via plant intake is used in condenser cooling. 40 MGD of ash sluice water containing ammonium compounds, mercury compounds, phosphates, Arsenic, Selenium, etc, is discharged to the plant intake via the ash pond for recycle back as sluice water into the plant. Ammonia slip from SCR unit is responsible for the ammonia and mercury comes from the coal. The research addresses the methodology to predict pollutants in the ash pond …

Investigation Of Ethanol Dehydration In A Microscale Pervaporation Process, Sudhir Ramprasad

Doctoral Dissertations

Challenges due to surface tension effects for vaporization in microchannels have restricted the implementation of conventional separation processes that involve liquid boiling in a micro-chemical system. However, membrane separations offer a feasible alternative for exploring the advantages of liquid phase separation in micro-chemical systems. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the process intensification effects in a microscale pervaporation process with experiments involving the separation of ethanol/water using a commercially available polymer dehydration membrane.

The microchannels in the microseparator were fabricated by the dry etch process at Louisiana Tech University. Microchannel depths of 20 to 120 μm, with …

Thermodynamic Characterization Of Polymeric Materials Subjected To Non-Isothermal Flows: Experiment, Theory And Simulation, Tudor Constantin Ionescu

Doctoral Dissertations

Frictional or viscous heating phenomena are found in virtually every industrial operation dealing with processing of polymeric materials. This work is aimed at addressing some of the existing shortcomings in modeling non-isothermal polymer flowing processes. Specifically, existing theories suggest that when a polymer melt is subjected to deformation, its internal energy changes very little compared to its conformational entropy. This statement forms the definition of the Theory of Purely Entropic Elasticity (PEE) applied to polymer melts. Under the auspices of this theory, the temperature evolution equation for modeling the polymer melt under an applied deformation is greatly simplified. In this …

The Effect Of Bacterial Chemotaxis On In Situ Bioremediation Rate, Christopher John O'Lenick

Doctoral Dissertations

The process of sensing an attractant chemical by a motile bacterium and subsequent motion towards that attractant, known as chemotaxis, occurs in Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas putida G7, Rhizobium meliloti, and several other subsurface strains. To date, there have been no widely accepted experimental studies that demonstrate whether bacterial chemotaxis can enhance biodegradation of contaminants in the subsurface. This research investigates the effect of bacterial chemotaxis on degradation rate in an experimental model for in situ bioremediation. The novel experimental protocols of this work, developed to investigate bacterial chemotaxis and migration, have provided for the systematic evaluation of the …