Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Removal Of Trace Heavy Metals From Drinking Water By Electrocoagulation, Joe Heffron

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Geologic and anthropogenic heavy metals contaminate drinking water for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Electrocoagulation -- the in situ generation of coagulant by electrolytic oxidation of metal electrodes -- is a century-old process gaining new traction for metal removal from water and wastewater. However, the low conductivity of drinking water and low target contaminant concentrations required for human consumption present challenges for electrocoagulation of drinking water. This study is unique in that it addresses seven different metal contaminants at the trace concentrations of concern to human consumption and investigates the wide range of possible source water matrices. The goal …

An Examination Of The Potential For Distributed Wind Generation (Dwg) In Urban Distribution Networks, Keith Sunderland, Thomas Woolmington, Michael Conlon, Gerald Mills

Conference papers

In a sustainable economy, smarter cities need energy networks that can deliver consistent electricity while maximising the use of intermittent renewables. Therefore an understanding of the available resource and a means for viable integration of distributed generation (DG) is required. In this research, energy harvesting of the wind climate is considered in the context of distributed wind generation (DwG) as an integral component of a smarter electricity network. The approach combines wind climate modeling of the resource at the urban scale with enhanced electricity network simulation. The former considers energy harvesting potential while the latter investigates the opportunities for this …

Pulsed Ultraviolet Light Emitting Diodes For Advanced Oxidation Of Tartrazine, Patrick M. Mudimbi

Theses and Dissertations

A study was conducted to evaluate the advanced oxidation of organic contaminants using pulsed ultraviolet light emitted diode (UV LED). Tartrazine was used as a surrogate organic compound. Low pressure Mercury-based lamps currently used in the treatment of water pose potential health risks if broken and create final disposal issues at the end of their service life. UV LED offers an alternative solution due to its non-toxicity, flexible design, and longer operating life compared to the mercury-based lamps. The apparent first order reaction rate constant for tartrazine degradation increased linearly with increasing duty cycle. At a continuous 100% duty cycle, …

The Effect Of Malathion On The Activity And Performance Of Activated Sludge, Erik G. Rauglas

Theses and Dissertations

Decontamination activities following a chemical weapons incident may generate significant quantities of contaminated wash water that may enter the wastewater collection system either intentionally or accidentally. This raises concerns about the effect of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) on the operation of a biological wastewater treatment plant. The goal of the study was to evaluate the effect of malathion on the activity and performance of activated sludge. Malathion is an organophosphate (OP) and is considered an environmental surrogate for VX. This study employed respirometry, short term batch tests, and long term exposure experiments to investigate the effects of different concentrations of …

Network Inventory Map Book 9: Berg-Olifants, South Africa

Policy

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is the custodian of ten national monitoring programs. The overall aim of this project is to undertake an evaluation of each monitoring network, in its present condition, and to redesign and realign the network based on scientific analysis and the strategic and management objectives of DWS and of the country as a whole. The water resources monitoring network will be optimised to ensure sustainable, relevant and up-to-date data of an acceptable quality. This Network Inventory Task focused on the production of maps to illustrate the spatial distribution of the existing monitoring stations for …

Network Inventory Map Book 4: Pongola-Mtamvuna, South Africa

Policy

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is the custodian of ten national monitoring programs. The overall aim of this project is to undertake an evaluation of each monitoring network, in its present condition, and to redesign and realign the network based on scientific analysis and the strategic and management objectives of DWS and of the country as a whole. The water resources monitoring network will be optimised to ensure sustainable, relevant and up-to-date data of an acceptable quality. This Network Inventory Task focused on the production of maps to illustrate the spatial distribution of the existing monitoring stations for …

Network Inventory Map Book 8: Breede-Gouritz, South Africa

Policy

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is the custodian of ten national monitoring programs. The overall aim of this project is to undertake an evaluation of each monitoring network, in its present condition, and to redesign and realign the network based on scientific analysis and the strategic and management objectives of DWS and of the country as a whole. The water resources monitoring network will be optimised to ensure sustainable, relevant and up-to-date data of an acceptable quality. This Network Inventory Task focused on the production of maps to illustrate the spatial distribution of the existing monitoring stations for …

Nutrient Removal From Clarified Municipal Wastewater Using Microalgae Raceway Ponds, Justin Andrew Kraetsch

Master's Theses

Shallow, mixed raceway ponds can be used to grow microalgae for the dual purposes of wastewater treatment and biofuel feedstock production. To improve the environmental sustainability of microalgae biofuels and to alleviate resource limitations, nutrients remaining after biofuel production should be recycled for additional cultivation. This thesis considers three topics: wastewater treatment by algae, nitrogen and phosphorus assimilation by algae, and algae cell disruption to facilitate nutrient recovery.

The main experimental work was done in pilot raceway ponds growing polycultures of microalgae on clarified municipal wastewater. In addition, two lab-scale pretreatment technologies were tested for their ability to disrupt cells, …

Identification And Quantification Of Gaseous Organic Compounds Emitted From Biomass Burning Using Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography–Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry, Lindsay E. Hatch, Wentai Luo, James F. Pankow, Robert J. Yokelson, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Kelley Barsanti

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The current understanding of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation within biomass burning (BB) plumes is limited by the incomplete identification and quantification of the non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs) emitted from such fires. Gaseous organic compounds were collected on sorbent cartridges during laboratory burns as part of the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment (FLAME- 4) and analyzed by two-dimensional gas chromatography– time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC–ToFMS). The sensitivity and resolving power of GC × GC–ToFMS allowed the acquisition of the most extensive data set of BB NMOCs to date, with measurements for 708 positively or tentatively identified compounds. Estimated …

Assessing The Water Quality Response To An Alternative Sewage Disposal Strategy At Bathing Sites On The East Coast Of Ireland, Zeinab Bedri, John O'Sullivan, Louise Deering, Katalin Demeter, Bartholomew Masterson, Wim Meijer, Gregory O'Hare

Articles

A three-dimensional model is used to assess the bathing water quality of Bray and Killiney bathing sites in Ireland following changes to the sewage management system. The model, firstly calibrated to hydrodynamic and water quality data from the period prior to the upgrade of the Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW), was then used to simulate Escherichia coli (E. coli) distributions for discharge scenarios of the periods prior to and following the upgrade of the WwTW under dry and wet weather conditions. E. coli distributions under dry weather conditions demonstrate that the upgrade in the WwTW has remarkably improved the bathing water …

Modeling Regional Secondary Organic Aerosol Using The Master Chemical Mechanism, Jingyi Li, Meredith Cleveland, Luke D. Ziemba, Robert J. Griffin, Kelley Barsanti, James F. Pankow, Qi Ying

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A modified near-explicit Master Chemical Mechanism (MCM, version 3.2) with 5727 species and 16,930 reactions and an equilibrium partitioning module was incorporated into the Community Air Quality Model (CMAQ) to predict the regional concentrations of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the eastern United States (US). In addition to the semi-volatile SOA from equilibrium partitioning, reactive surface uptake processes were used to simulate SOA formation due to isoprene epoxydiol, glyoxal and methylglyoxal. The CMAQ-MCM-SOA model was applied to simulate SOA formation during a two-week episode from August 28 to September 7, 2006. The southeastern US has …

Fates Of Spilt Oil And Factors Affecting The Bio-Degradation Of Oil: A Review, Amogh-Ranganath Chakravarthy

Theses

The usage of crude oil and its products is increasing; in turn, the number of spills is also going up. The inland spills are the more recurrent spills in the U.S today. This review article deals with the weathering of oils, which commences just after oil spills into the environment with various processes such as evaporation, dissolution, photo-oxidation, dispersion, emulsification and bio-degradation along with other possible fates. Biodegradation is one of the most significant processes of weathering which depends on oil physical and chemical characteristics, environmental characteristics, pH, salinity and oil concentration. There is a range of oil concentration for …

Towards Sustainability In The Oil And Gas Sector: Benchmarking Of Environmental, Health, And Safety Efforts, Jennifer Schneider, Salim Ghettas, Nacer Merdaci, Mervin Brown, Joseph Martyniuk, Waleed Alshehri, Anthony Trojan

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

The environmental, social and climate change issues that face the world today have all industries considering how they will address sustainability in the future. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the maturity of environmental, health and safety (EHS) efforts and progress toward sustainability in the oil and gas sector. Ten major oil companies have been analyzed based on public information including their published annual reports. Companies refer to voluntary initiatives when reporting their performance yet the assessment suggests that the sector overall continues to make progress and is maturing in its sustainability efforts. Many management system gaps were …

2015 Nebraska Groundwater Quality Monitoring Report

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The 2001 Nebraska Legislature passed LB329 (Neb. Rev. Stat. §46-1304) which, in part, directed the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) to report on groundwater quality monitoring in Nebraska. Reports have been issued annually since December 2001. The text of the statute applicable to this report follows: “The Department of Environmental Quality shall prepare a report outlining the extent of ground water quality monitoring conducted by natural resources districts during the preceding calendar year. The department shall analyze the data collected for the purpose of determining whether or not ground water quality is degrading or improving and shall present the …

Eight Principles Of Uncertainty For Life Cycle Assessment Of Biofuel Systems, Adam J. Liska

Adam Liska Papers

New environmental regulations in the USA and Europe require a reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation fuels as a component of climate change mitigation policy. The US Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) requires GHG emission reductions from the life cycles of biofuels compared to gasoline, by 20% for ethanol from maize grain (maize-ethanol), 60% for cellulosic ethanol, and 50% for other advanced biofuels. To determine these reductions, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employs life cycle assessment (LCA) methods which were not used previously in national environmental regulations. These regulations, entitled the “Renewable Fuel Standard …

2015 Nebraska Water Monitoring Programs Report, Marty Link, Ryan Chapman

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) is charged with monitoring, assessing, and to the extent possible, managing the state’s water resources. The purpose of this work is to protect and maintain high quality water and encourage or execute activities to improve poor water quality. Monitoring is done on nearly 17,000 miles of flowing rivers and streams, more than 134,000 acres of surface water in lakes and reservoirs, as well as the vast storage of groundwater in Nebraska’s aquifers.

Multistage Concentration Of Cenospheres In Fly Ash Using The Inverted Reflux Classifier, A. Kiani, J. Zhou, K.P. Galvin

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Cenospheres are one of the most valuable components found in the fly ash waste of coal-fired power stations, consisting of hollow, aluminosilicate spherical shells and offering very low bulk density, high strength, and high thermal resistance. Although wet processing methods offer the best prospect for achieving recovery and concentration of the cenospheres, significant impediments remain for achieving satisfactory economics. This work was concerned with the recovery and concentration of cenospheres from fly ash using a novel system, the inverted reflux classifier (IRC), covering single and multistage processing. The system consists of a series of parallel inclined channels mounted underneath an …

Evaluating The Potential For Passive Greywater Irrigation In Northern Ghana, Chelsea L. Fagan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Water scarcity, malaria, and malnutrition are all concerns facing the people of Chirifoyili and the Northern Region of Ghana. Greywater pooling outside of homes increases human exposure to pathogens and provides breeding grounds for disease carrying insects, especially malaria spreading mosquitoes. This project looks at draining this water away from the home and using it to irrigate vegetables, fruit trees and other beneficial plants.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the effects of greywater irrigation on the growth of plants commonly found in village home gardens. The field project consisted of constructing and managing household greywater irrigation systems …

Nebraska Water Center Annual Report 2015, Nebraska Water Center

Nebraska Water Center: Administrative Materials

Contents

Foreword 4

The Nebraska Water Center: Leadership in Research, Education and Communication 6

Director’s Letter 8

For More Than 50 years: The Nebraska Water Center 10

Helping Build the Future 11

Nebraska Water Center Advisory Board 14

Water Resources Advisory Panel: A key to success 15

Information for Our Clients and the Public 16

Primary Goals 18

USGS 104b Projects 20

Dvorak, Ray Aim at Improving Water Quality for Small Communities 20

October Retreat at UNK 24

Public Water Lectures 25

2015 Special Seminars 26

2015 Water Symposium and Water Law Conference 28

Water Tour Visits Republican River Basin …

Temporal Endogenous Gene Expression Profiles In Response To Polymer-Mediated Transfection And Profile Comparison To Lipid-Mediated Transfection, Timothy M. Martin, Sarah A. Plautz, Angela K. Pannier

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background Design of efficient nonviral gene delivery systems is limited by the rudimentary understanding of specific molecules that facilitate transfection.

Methods Polyplexes using 25-kDa polyethylenimine (PEI) and plasmid encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) were delivered to HEK 293T cells. After treating cells with polyplexes, microarrays were used to identify endogenous genes differentially expressed between treated and untreated cells (2 h of exposure) or between flow-separated transfected cells (GFP+) and treated, untransfected cells (GFP–) at 8, 16 and 24 h after lipoplex treatment. Cell priming studies were conducted using pharmacologic agents to alter endogenous levels of the identified differentially expressed genes …