Engineering Commons^™

Life-Cycle Assessment (Lca) Of Different Pretreatment And Product Separation Technologies For Butanol Bioprocessing From Oil Palm Frond, Nazira Mahmud, Kurt A. Rosentrater

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

Environmental impact assessment is a crucial aspect of biofuels production to ensure that the process generates emissions within the designated limits. In typical cellulosic biofuel production process, the pretreatment and downstream processing stages were reported to require a high amount of chemicals and energy, thus generating high emissions. Cellulosic butanol production while using low moisture anhydrous ammonia (LMAA) pretreatment was expected to have a low chemical, water, and energy footprint, especially when the process was combined with more efficient downstream processing technologies. In this study, the quantification of environmental impact potentials from cellulosic butanol production plants was conducted with modeled ...

A Test System For Ercot Market Design Studies: Development And Application, Swathi Battula, Leigh Tesfatsion, Thomas E. Mcdermott

Economics Working Papers

The ERCOT Test System developed in this study is an open-source library of Java/Python software classes, together with a synthetic grid construction method, specifically designed to facilitate the study of ERCOT market operations over successive days. In default form, these classes permit a high-level modeling of existing ERCOT market operations. Users can conduct a broad range of computational experiments under alternative parameter settings. In addition, users can readily extend these classes to model additional existing or envisioned ERCOT market features to suit different research purposes. An 8-bus test case is used to illustrate the capabilities of the test system ...

Synthesis And Connection Of Iridium Hydrogen Evolution Catalyst To Chlorella Vulgaris Photosystem I For Light-Driven Hydrogen Evolution, Anna Ramirez

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Hydrogen gas has been shown to be a promising energy source as options other than fossil fuels are being looked at in the face of anthropogenic climate change. It is known that anthropogenic climate change is caused by the production of greenhouse gases being let into the atmosphere, specifically a common reason for this is the burning of fossil fuels for energy. The overall goal of this project is to design a biochemical hybrid system that will be used to make H 2 gas and does not require the use of fossil fuels. Burning hydrogen as fuel produces only water ...

Midwestern Cropping System Effects On Drainage Water Quality And Crop Yields, Brian W. Dougherty, Carl H. Pederson, Antonio P. Mallarino, Daniel S. Andersen, Michelle L. Soupir, Ramesh S. Kanwar, Matthew J. Helmers

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

Grain producers are challenged to maximize crop production while utilizing nutrients efficiently and minimizing negative impacts on water quality. There is a particular concern about nutrient export to the Gulf of Mexico via loss from subsurface drainage systems. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of crop rotation, tillage, crop residue removal, swine manure applications, and cereal rye (Secale cereale) cover crops on nitrate‐N (NO3‐N) and Total Reactive P (TRP) loss via subsurface drainage. The study was evaluated from 2008 through 2015 using thirty‐six 0.4‐ha plots outfitted with a subsurface drainage water ...

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2019, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Senior Projects (COE)

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the ...

Small Ruminant Health Intervention Calendar In Ethiopia, Mesfin Mergia Mekonnen, Ayalew Assefa, Tesfalem Nane, Firdawok Ayele, Asrat Arke, Belay Elias, Barbara Wieland

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Contents 1 Background................................................................................................... 3
2 Developing the health intervention calendar............................................................ 4
The treatment calendar ......................................................... 4 Applying the calendar..................................................................... 5 4 References................................................................... 8

Energy And Exergy Analysis Of A Novel Multiple-Effect Vapor Chamber Distillation System For High-Salinity Wastewater Treatment, Hamidreza Shabgard, Ramkumar Parthasarathy, Ben Xu

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A novel modular thermally-driven multiple-effect vapor chamber distillation (MVCD) system is presented for compact and portable desalination applications. The MVCD system consists of several vapor chambers connected in series with the condenser section of the upstream vapor chambers serving as the evaporator section of the following effect. A heat transfer model accounting for the major thermal resistances was developed to predict the heat transfer and distilled water production rates. A mass transfer analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of the accumulation of the non-condensable gasses within the chambers. An exergy analysis was also conducted to quantify the efficiency of ...

Defining Boat Wake Impacts On Shoreline Stability Toward Management And Policy Solutions, Donna Marie Bilkovic, Molly M. Mitchell, Jennifer Davis, Julie Herman, Elizabeth Andrews, Angela King, Pamela Mason, Navid Tahvildari, Jana Davis, Rachel L. Dixon

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Coastal economies are often supported by activities that rely on commercial or recreational vessels to move people or goods, such as shipping, transportation, cruising, and fishing. Unintentionally, frequent or intense vessel traffic can contribute to erosion of coastlines; this can be particularly evident in sheltered systems where shoreline erosion should be minimal in the absence of boat waves. We reviewed the state of the science of known effects of boat waves on shoreline stability, examined data on erosion, turbidity, and shoreline armoring patterns for evidence of a response to boat waves in Chesapeake Bay, and reviewed existing management and policy ...

Sustainable Urban Mining Of Critical Elements From Magnet And Electronic Wastes, Denis Prodius, Kinjal Gandha, Anja-Verena Mudring, Ikenna C. Nlebedim

Ames Laboratory Accepted Manuscripts

A straightforward and environment-friendly process for acid-free leaching of rare-earth elements and cobalt, which are critical materials, from waste magnet materials has been developed. The process also allows for selective leaching of rare-earth elements from magnet-containing electronic wastes, such as end-of-life hard disk drives and electric motors. The use of copper salts eliminates the use of volatile toxic acids in the dissolution and separation processes, which allows for a more eco-friendly approach to recovering critical elements and a safer work environment. Recovered critical materials were shown to be suitable for reinsertion into the materials supply chain.

Land Surface Temperature Variability Across India: A Remote Sensing Satellite Perspective, Satya Prakash, Hamidreza Norouzi

Publications and Research

Land surface temperature (LST) plays a key role in the surface energy budget computation and land surface process studies. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors onboard the Aqua and Terra satellites provide comprehensive global LST estimates at a fine spatial resolution. The MODIS products were recently upgraded to Collection 6, and shown to be more accurate than its predecessor Collection 5 products. In this study, LST and its variability have been examined across India from Collection 6 of the Aqua MODIS data at 0.05° spatial resolution for the period of 2003 to 2017. All-India mean LST characteristics show ...

Designing Wind Turbine Rotor Blades To Enhance Energy Capture In Turbine Arrays, Benham Moghadassian, Anupam Sharma

Aerospace Engineering Publications

An inverse design approach is proposed to compute wind turbine blade geometries which maximize the aggregate power output from a wind farm. An iterative inverse algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem. The algorithm seeks to minimize the target function, f = -C_P,av, where C_P,av is the average normalized mechanical power of all the turbines in the wind farm. An upper bound on the blade planform area, representative of the blade weight, is imposed to demonstrate how to incorporate constraints in the design process. The power coefficients (C_P) of the turbines in the farm are ...

Oxytree Pruned Biomass Torrefaction: Process Kinetics, Kacper Świechowski, Sylwia Stegenta-Dąbrowska, Marek Liszewski, Przemysław Bąbelewski, Jacek A. Koziel, Andrzej Białowiec

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

Oxytree is a fast-growing energy crop with C4 photosynthesis. In this research, for the first time, the torrefaction kinetic parameters of pruned Oxytree biomass (Paulownia clon in Vitro 112) were determined. The influence of the Oxytree cultivation method and soil class on the kinetic parameters of the torrefaction was also investigated. Oxytree pruned biomass from a first-year plantation was subjected to torrefaction within temperature range from 200 to 300 °C and under anaerobic conditions in the laboratory-scale batch reactor. The mass loss was measured continuously during the process. The relative mass loss increased from 1.22% to 19.56% with ...

Magnetocaloric Effect Near Room Temperature In Quintenary And Sextenary Heusler Alloys, Benjamin D. White, R. I. Barabash, O. M. Barabash, I. Jeon, M. B. Maple

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

An inverse magnetocaloric effect is studied in Ni₂Mn_1+xX_1-x-type Heusler alloys. Principally known for their shape-memory properties, these alloys also exhibit significant entropy and temperature changes (ΔS and ΔT_Ad, respectively) under adiabatic conditions when a modest magnetic field is applied. We investigated the impact on magnetocaloric properties of introducing substantial chemical disorder on the X-site (X = Si, Ga, In), of replacing Ni with nonmagnetic Ag, and of replacing a small amount of Mn with Gd. While a reduction in ΔS is observed in the first two cases, we observe a significant enhancement of ...

Pressure Effect On An Ocean-Based Humidification-Dehumidification Desalination Process, Yingchen Yang

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A new humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination process is proposed and analyzed. Being ocean based, the process does not produce any brine. It is largely powered jointly by solar energy, wind energy, and various types of ocean energies in a nearly natural way. A vacuum pump is employed to drive the air circulation throughout the HDH process. It is the only unit that consumes electricity. The HDH process is analyzed under various conditions, including using a low pressure (as low as to 0.2 atm) for humidification and the ambient pressure for dehumidification, running the entire HDH process around a low pressure ...

Barriers And Opportunities To Electric Vehicle Development In Nepal, Allyson Krupa

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the global carbon dioxide level reaches its highest point in human history (407.4 parts per million), energy systems must transition from fossil fuel to renewable-powered sources. Since the transportation sector contributes nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, electric mobility offers a significant opportunity to reduce GHG emissions. Globally, there has been a rise in demand for electric vehicles. In Nepal, a clean energy transition within the context of rising urbanization and air pollution is imperative for quality of life, socio-economic development, and broadly climate change mitigation/adaptation. Furthermore, Nepal’s vast hydropower potential may increase energy ...

Los Efectos De La Minería En La Salud: El Movimiento Social Aymara En Torno Al Cerro Márquez, Maya Hajny Fernandez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With the political and social state of Chile’s history, mining has been present for hundreds of years, affecting the land and the indigenous populations in the country. This study asked how mining in the town of Ticnamar would affect the community, what positive and negative results mining activity has, what the most important elements of the social movement against mining are and how all of these elements influence health. The study sought to learn and study the impact of and the motivations that mining could have in the community of Ticnamar, and how it is perceived by the community ...

Designing An Accessible Wave Energy Conversion Device For Powering Ocean Sensors, Sophie Coppieters ‘T Wallant

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Currently, less than 5% of our oceans are comprehensively monitored and much more ocean data is needed to facilitate understanding of ocean physics, carbon cycling, and ocean ecosystems. Today, most autonomous ocean sensors are powered by primary battery, which have both limited capacity and lifetime. The goal of this research is to design a small, accessible renewable wave energy device to power autonomous free-floating ocean sensors. By designing a cheap, accessible, and simple wave energy converter, this work hopes to make ocean sensor deployment easier and cheaper for researchers, increase the lifetime of autonomous ocean sensors, and reduce the reliance ...

Assessing The Implications Of A Tidal Barrage Power Plant In Hvalfjörður, Iceland, Olive M. Colangelo

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As climate change continues to threaten the future state of our world, we are searching for measures to take for mitigation. Among these measures, the most talked about method is the development of renewable energies. Great amounts of attention is paid to solar and wind power, but relatively little effort is given to researching the possibilities of ocean energy, particularly tidal barrage energy. This study assesses the possibility of a tidal barrage plant in Hvalfjörður, Iceland. This hypothetical power plant in Hvalfjörður would have an installed capacity of 840MWh and could produce 613GWh per year. This is less than 0 ...

Rational Design Of Photoelectrodes For Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting And Co2 Reduction, Yu Hui Lui, Bowei Zhang, Shan Hu

Mechanical Engineering Publications

Solar energy has promising potential for building sustainable society. Conversion of solar energy into solar fuels plays a crucial role in overcoming the intermittent nature of the renewable energy source. A photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell that employs semiconductor as photoelectrode to split water into hydrogen or fixing carbon dioxide (CO2) into hydrocarbon fuels provides great potential to achieve zero-carbon-emission society. A proper design of these semiconductor photoelectrodes thus directly influences the performance of the PEC cell. In this review, we investigate the strategies that have been put towards the design of efficient photoelectrodes for PEC water splitting and CO2 reduction in ...

Nutrition At The Crossroads: Food At The Intersection Of Environmental, Economic, And Social Sustainability, Kurt A. Rosentrater, Laetitia Palmade, Elif Kongar

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

Societies around the world are at a critical juncture. As the planetary population grows, there are increasing demands for expanding available food, more nutritious and healthy foods, and contemporaneously the need for greater efficiencies and decreased impacts upon the environment.

The sustainability of food production systems is a complex issue that requires a global and multidisciplinary approach, combining not only agronomy, ecology, nutrition, epidemiology, processing, energy use, but also marketing and sociology. It is within this context that this special issue aims to illustrate, through review articles, case studies, as well as modeling and simulation studies, some means of understanding ...

Removal Of Selected Pharmaceuticals And Personal Care Products In Wastewater Treatment Plant In Jordan, Othman Al-Mashaqbeh, Diya Alsafadi, Sahar Dalahmeh, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Daniel D. Snow

Faculty Publications from The Water Center

The largest wastewater treatment plant in Jordan was monitored in the summer to determine the removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Grab samples were collected from the influent and effluent of As-Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) were utilized to determine the concentrations of 18 compounds of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). The results showed that 14 compounds were detected in the collected samples from the influent and effluent of As-Samra WWTP. These compounds are 1,7-dimethylxanthine, amphetamine, acetaminophen, caffeine, carbamazepine, cimetidine, cotinine, diphenhydramine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), morphine, phenazone, sulfamethazine ...

A Comparison Of Three Types Of Permeable Pavements For Urban Runoff Mitigation In The Semi-Arid South Texas, U.S.A, Taufiqul Alam, Ahmed Mahmoud, Kim D. Jones, Juan Cesar Bezares-Cruz, Javier Guerrero

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study examines the hydrologic and environmental performance of three types of permeable pavement designs: Porous Concrete Pavement (PCP), Permeable Interlocking Concrete (PICP), and Interlocking Block Pavement with Gravel (IBPG) in the semi-arid South Texas. Outflow rate, storage, Normalized Volume Reduction (NVR), Normalized Load Reductions (NLR) of Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD₅) were compared to results obtained from adjacent traditional pavements at different regional parking lots. A notable percentage of peak flow attenuation of approximately 31–100% was observed when permeable pavements were constructed and implemented. IBPG was capable to hold runoff from rainfall depths ...

Investigating The Dispersal Of Antibiotic Resistance Associated Genes From Manure Application To Soil And Drainage Waters In Simulated Agricultural Farmland Systems, Schuyler D. Smith, Phillip Colgan, Fan Yang, Elizabeth L. Rieke, Michelle L. Soupir, Thomas B. Moorman, Heather K. Allen, Adina Howe

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

Manure from animals that have been treated with antibiotics is often used to fertilize agricultural soils and its application has previously been shown to enrich for genes associated with antibiotic resistance in agroecosystems. To investigate the magnitude of this effect, we designed a column experiment simulating manure-treated agricultural soil that utilizes artificial subsurface drainage to determine the duration and extent which this type of manure fertilization impacts the set of genes associated with antibiotic resistance in drainage water. We classified ARGs in manure-treated drainage effluent water by its source of origin. Overall, we found that 61% and 7% of the ...

Winslamm Simulation Of Hydrologic Performance Of Permeable Pavements—A Case Study In The Semi-Arid Lower Rio Grande Valley Of South Texas, United States, Taufiqul Alam, Ahmed Mahmoud, Kim D. Jones, Juan Cesar Bezares-Cruz, Javier Guerrero

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

his study used the Source Loading and Management Model for Windows (WinSLAMM) to develop a set of calibrated hydrologic models for three types of regional permeable pavements—porous concrete pavement (PCP), permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP), and interlocking block pavement with gravel (IBPG). The objective was to assess the hydrologic performance of permeable pavements, including the runoff depth, peak discharge, percentage increment in runoff reduction of pavements as a function of rainfall depth, development area, and base aggregate porosity, respectively. The permeable pavements were monitored over a wide range of rainfall events in the semi-arid Lower Rio Grande Valley of ...

Global Validation Of Columnar Water Vapor Derived From Eos Modis-Maiac Algorithm Against The Ground-Based Aeronet Observations, Vitor S. Martins, Alexei Lyapustin, Yujie Wang, David M. Giles, Alexander Smirnov, Ilya Slutsker, Sergey Korkin

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

The water vapor is a relevant greenhouse gas in the Earth's climate system, and satellite products become one of the most effective way to characterize and monitor the columnar water vapor (CWV) content at global scale. Recently, a new product (MCD19) was released as part of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Collection 6 (C6). This operational product from Multi-Angle Implementation for Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm includes a high 1 km resolution CWV retrievals. This study presents the first global validation of MAIAC C6 CWV obtained from MODIS MCD19A2 product. This evaluation was performed using Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observations ...

Proof-Of-Concept Of Spent Mushrooms Compost Torrefaction—Studying The Process Kinetics And The Influence Of Temperature And Duration On The Calorific Value Of The Produced Biocoal, Ewa Syguła, Jacek A. Koziel, Andrzej Białowiec

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

Poland, being the 3rd largest and growing producer of mushrooms in the world, generates almost 25% of the total European production. The generation rate of waste mushroom spent compost (MSC) amounts to 5 kg per 1 kg of mushrooms produced. We proposed the MSC treatment via torrefaction for the production of solid fuel—biocoal. In this research, we examined the MSC torrefaction kinetics using thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and we tested the influence of torrefaction temperature within the range from 200 to 300 °C and treatment time lasting from 20 to 60 min on the resulting biocoal’s (fuel) properties. The ...

Subsurface Mimo: A Beamforming Design In Internet Of Underground Things For Digital Agriculture Applications, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

In underground (UG) multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), the transmit beamforming is used to focus energy in the desired direction. There are three different paths in the underground soil medium through which the waves propagates to reach at the receiver. When the UG receiver receives a desired data stream only from the desired path, then the UG MIMO channel becomes three path (lateral, direct, and reflected) interference channel. Accordingly, the capacity region of the UG MIMO three path interference channel and degrees of freedom (multiplexing gain of this MIMO channel requires careful modeling). Therefore, expressions are required for the degree of ...

Modeling Irrigation Behavior In Groundwater Systems, Timothy Foster, Nicholas Brozovic, Adrian P. Butler

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Integrated hydro-economic models have been widely applied to water management problems in regions of intensive groundwater-fed irrigation. However, policy interpretations may be limited as most existing models do not explicitly consider two important aspects of observed irrigation decision making, namely the limits on instantaneous irrigation rates imposed by well yield and the intraseasonal structure of irrigation planning. We develop a new modeling approach for determining irrigation demand that is based on observed farmer behavior and captures the impacts on production and water use of both well yield and climate. Through a case study of irrigated corn production in the Texas ...

Water Productivity In Meat And Milk Production In The Us From 1960 To 2016, Mesfin Mergia Mekonnen, C.M.U. Neale, Chittaranjan Ray, Galen E. Erickson, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Global demand for livestock products is rising, resulting in a growing demand for feed and potentially burdening freshwater resources to produce this feed. To offset this increased pressure on water resources, the environmental performance of livestock sector should continue to improve. Over the last few decades, product output per animal and feedstuff yields in the US have improved, but before now it was unclear to what extent these improvements influenced the water productivity (WP) of the livestock products. In this research, we estimate changes in WP of animal products from 1960 to 2016. We consider feed conversion ratios (dry matter ...

Nitrate Removal And Placement Of Floating Treatment Wetlands In The Midwest, Mary G. Keilhauer

Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources

The Midwestern United States is vulnerable to eutrophic conditions from high nutrient concentrations. Recommendations for nonpoint source pollution management include runoff treatment (i.e., filter strips, riparian buffers) and in-situ lake treatment practices (i.e., aluminum sulfate (alum) treatments, aeration, up/downdraft pumping, floating treatment wetlands). Floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) are an innovative wetland design for nutrient removal from nonpoint sources and provide a unique in-situ treatment. Best management practice studies have commonly focused on adjacent to water practices, which have resulted in a gap for guidance for in-situ treatment placement and design. Therefore, the objectives of this project were ...