Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Buffering Pv Output During Cloud Transients With Energy Storage, Yacouba Moumouni

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

The Problem

• Photovoltaic output power can be affected by many factors including clouds passing overhead.

• Utilities in generally prefer a guaranteed power delivery level over some specified power delivery period.

• Power delivered during peak demand hours is generally more valued by utilities. For the Desert Southwest this is in the summertime afternoons. For the local area this will be defined as 1-5 pm for the three summer months.

• While battery power can be adapted to this problem, large batteries to be expensive.

Solar Cell Design Using Metamaterials, Yang Liu, Yitung Chen, Jichun Li

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Natural structure with simultaneous negative permittivity and permeability has not been discovered yet. However, using specially-designed metal embedded in dielectric bodies can achieve a kind of artificial negative index. This periodic structure which is smaller than the guided wavelength is known as a metamaterial. However, recent designs of metamaterials have some disadvantages when they are used in the application of solar cell. The perfect absorption is only within a narrow band, and for most of the solar spectrum, the absorption is no more than 10%. Here, a new kind of absorber for the solar spectrum has been designed and analyzed, …

Modeling Passive Solar Distillation In Las Vegas, Nv, Noe I. Santos

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Project Background

• Many rural areas on the planet do not have easy access to clean water!

• Water distillation basins are capable of distilling water by using incident solar radiation to evaporate polluted water.

• Current thermodynamic models used to predict behavior require instantaneous data; requires the use of expensive equipment.

• Distillation basins are dependent on multiple meteorological variables: insolation, temperature, wind speed, cloud cover.

• Non‐linear behavior is difficult to predict for long term operations.

Impact Of Sludge Treatment Processes On Estrogen Concentration In Wastewater Sludge, Erica Marti

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs), such as estrogen, are known to be present in the aquatic environment at concentrations that affect fish and other wildlife. For example, juvenile male fish exposed to estrogen will synthesize vitellogenin, which is a female-specific protein. Estrogen exposure is also linked to sex reversal, intersexuality, and inhibition of gonadal growth (Jobling et al., 1996).

Wastewater treatment plants are major contributors of EDCs into the environment. EDCs end up in wastewater as a result of natural excretion from the body or being washed off the skin. WWTPs are not designed to remove these substances. As a result, EDCs …