Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Fouling And Aging In Membrane Filtration : Hybrid Afm-Based Characterization, Modelling And Reactive Membrane Design, Wanyi Fu May 2019

Fouling And Aging In Membrane Filtration : Hybrid Afm-Based Characterization, Modelling And Reactive Membrane Design, Wanyi Fu

Dissertations

Membrane filtration has been extensively used in water and wastewater treatment, desalination, dairy making, and biomass/water separation. However, membrane fouling, aging and insufficient removal efficiency for dissolved organic matters remain major challenges for wider industrial applications. In order to tackle these challenges, this doctoral dissertation investigates mechanisms of membrane fouling and development of antifouling membrane filtration technologies. Specifically, four major research areas are explored: (i) nanoscale physicochemical characterization of the chemically modified polymeric membranes; (ii) quantitative modelling between membrane properties and membrane fouling and defouling kinetics; (iii) development of quantitative structure-activity relationships for membranes that undergo thermal and chemical aging …


“Polysoaps” Via Raft Copolymerization To Form Well-Defined Micelles For Water Remediation And Targeted Drug Delivery Applications, Phillip Pickett May 2019

“Polysoaps” Via Raft Copolymerization To Form Well-Defined Micelles For Water Remediation And Targeted Drug Delivery Applications, Phillip Pickett

Dissertations

Amphiphilic copolymers have become increasingly important for environmental and biological applications due to their behavioral characteristics in aqueous solution. For example, structurally-tailored statistical amphiphilic copolymers or “polysoaps” can self-assemble into micelles or other architectures in water at various concentrations. Polysoaps may be differentiated from small molecule surfactant micelles in their capability to self-assemble into unimolecular associates (unimolecular micelles) with no dependence on concentration. Such micelles offer enormous potential for dispersion of hydrophobic species in water at high dilution. Importantly, each polymer chain forms its own micelle and upon dilution, these micelles remain intact and capable of dispersing hydrocarbon material in …


A Review Of Field Oil-Production Response Of Injection-Well Gel Treatments, Munqith Aldhaheri, Mingzhen Wei, Na Zhang, Baojun Bai May 2019

A Review Of Field Oil-Production Response Of Injection-Well Gel Treatments, Munqith Aldhaheri, Mingzhen Wei, Na Zhang, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As life-span extenders, bulk gels have been widely applied to rejuvenate oil production from uneconomic producers in mature oil fields by improving the sweep efficiency of improved-oil-recovery (IOR)/enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) floods. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the responses of injection-well gel treatments implemented between 1985 and 2014. The survey includes 61 field projects compiled from SPE papers and US Department of Energy reports. Seven parameters related to the oil-production response were evaluated according to the reservoir lithology, formation type, and recovery process, using univariate analysis and stacked histograms. The interquartile-range (IQR) method was used to detect the underperforming and …


Assessment Of Uv Light For The Treatment Of Cyanotoxins In Small-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Systems, Ryan Spencer Mclintock Jan 2019

Assessment Of Uv Light For The Treatment Of Cyanotoxins In Small-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Systems, Ryan Spencer Mclintock

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are commonly caused by the rapid growth of cyanobacteria in fresh waterways, which many people rely on for drinking water. When a HAB occurs, a variety of cyanotoxins can be produced and released into sources of drinking water, which can make people sick or die if not properly treated. Two of the most common toxins are microcystin-LR (MC-LR) and anatoxin-a (A-a), for which the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a maximum allowable concentration of 1 µg/L in drinking water to avoid health risks. The recommendation for maximum allowable concentration was calculated specifically for microcystins, but is …