Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Evaluating Drug Concentration Profiles In Wastewater To Develop A Framework For Estimating Drug User Populations, Carl Michael E. Espinosa

All Theses

Chemical compounds, including licit and illicit drugs can be measured in wastewater and used to assess community drug consumption, providing valuable information for public health agencies, law enforcement, and local communities. While previous research primarily focused on estimating the per capita community drug consumption using back-calculation, this research focused on utilizing literature-derived parameters including drug dosage, renal excretion fraction, and sewer stability to develop a framework to estimate the user populations using Monte Carlo simulations. Samples were collected from two wastewater treatment facilities representing the Generostee Creek WWTP’s sewershed (GCS) and Mauldin Road WRRF’s sewershed (MRS). The target analytes included …

The Aggregation Of Microplastics By Enhancing Extracellular Polymeric Substance Production In Pseudoalteromonas Sp. Ncimb 2021 To Improve Removal Efficiencies In Environmental Matrices, Janelle L. Mercer

All Theses

Microplastics (MP) are ubiquitous in the natural environment and are a growing threat due to their small size and durability. Plastics are released into the environment through improper waste management, wastewater treatment outfalls, industrial spills, agricultural runoff, and landfills. These particles breakdown into secondary MP through degradation pathways. MP, less than 5 mm, require intricate removal techniques from water systems. Filtration techniques, though viable and effective, have implementation constraints due to high cost, maintenance demands, and filter fouling. By integrating coagulation and flocculation processes prior to filtration, MP removal efficiencies can increase, while minimizing operational challenges during filtration. Extracellular polymeric …

Evaluating The Potential For Chain Elongation To Produce Medium Chain Carboxylates From Anaerobic Conversion Of Lipids, Erin Boyer

All Theses

Medium Chain Carboxylates (MCCs), including caproate and caprylate, are valuable chemicals in various industries that can be produced biologically through an identified chain elongation pathway called reverse β-oxidation. During lipid degradation in anaerobic co-digesters at wastewater treatment plants, methane production is maximized to ensure the successful breakdown of the lipids. It remains unclear whether the anaerobic conversion of lipids possesses the potential to produce MCCs, and this study sought to evaluate the potential using anaerobic co-digester sludge from a full-scale wastewater treatment plant. Batch assays were conducted using the sludge from the plant as inoculum, as well as palmitic acid, …

Nutrient Enrichment Of Palm Oil Mill Effluent Digestate (Pomed) With Fish Amino Acid And Boiler Ash For Biofertilizer Production, Aryati Putri Maharani, Ziyaulhaq Umar, Shahrul Ismail, Zulkarnaini Zulkarnaini

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

Palm oil mill effluent digestate (POMED) has potential as a biofertilizer. However, its application is limited by unbalanced macronutrient composition, particularly low nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). This study investigated a laboratory-scale nutrient enrichment strategy for POMED using fish amino acid (FAA) as an organic nitrogen source and boiler ash (BA) as a potassium source. Nitrogen content was determined using a CHNS– O analyzer, while phosphorus and potassium were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Fertilizer quality was evaluated based on the standards and industrial research institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) and Indonesian national standard (SNI 2803:2010). FAA and …

Development Of A Coupled Hydrological-Nitrogen Modeling Framework For Urban Stormwater Pond Analysis, Tione Grant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization impacts the hydrological and biogeochemical processes that regulate water quality in downstream ecosystems, leading to increased stormwater volume and nitrogen loads in receiving aquatic environments. Although stormwater ponds are designed as simple hydraulic storage basins, they function more like managed ecosystems within urban drainage systems, offering both hydraulic attenuation and passive nutrient treatment. However, nitrogen removal efficiency varies significantly and depends on interactions between hydrological and biogeochemical factors. This thesis details the development, calibration, validation, and sensitivity analysis of a coupled hydrological-nitrogen model framework for Aaran’s Pond, an urban stormwater pond in Hillsborough County, Florida.

A process-based water budget …

Amending Planting Media With Typha-Derived Biochar For Sustainable Horticulture, Elissa Touma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Constructed wetlands are widely used to improve water quality by removing excess nutrients from wastewater and stormwater. Nutrients are stored within wetland vegetation, particularly in fast-growing plants such as Typha. Harvesting vegetation provides an opportunity to permanently remove these nutrients while generating biomass suitable for beneficial reuse. Converting harvested biomass into value-added products such as compost and biochar can support nutrient recovery and sustainable biomass management. In addition, increasing concerns regarding the environmental impacts of peat extraction have created interest in renewable alternatives for horticultural growing media. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of harvested …

Synthesis And Characterization Of A Graphene Oxide-Zif-8 Composite For Enhanced Post-Combustion Carbon Capture, Sydney Cooper

Master's Theses

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil fuel combustion are a major contributor to climate change and its associated environmental impacts. The current standard technology for post-combustion carbon capture, aqueous amine scrubbing, is effective but requires significant regeneration energy and has high operational costs. As a result, solid sorbents have been investigated as lower-energy alternatives. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a promising class of porous nanomaterials due to their high surface area, tunable pore structures, and adjustable surface chemistry. Among them, zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) has high thermal and chemical stability, hydrophobicity, and favorable adsorption properties. However, conventional synthesis methods often rely …

Integrating Sustainability Into Engineering Education, Riley R. Moller

Master's Theses

Engineering decisions shape lasting technology that affects environmental integrity, public safety, economic stability, and social equity. As global challenges such as climate change, infrastructure vulnerability, and rapid technological advancement intensify, the responsibilities placed on engineers continue to expand. Sustainability provides a framework for addressing these interconnected pressures through systems-based design and long-term thinking. Yet, sustainability education within engineering programs remains unevenly integrated, often positioned as elective or peripheral rather than as a foundational component of professional preparation.

Prior research shows that sustainability is most frequently addressed through stand-alone courses rather than embedded across required curricula, reflecting disciplinary structures that prioritize …

Can Generative Ai Make Farming Decisions? Current Status And Future Pathways: A Case Study In Row Crop Production With Chatgpt, Nipuna Chamara, Yufeng Ge, Joe Luck, Yu Pan, Saleh Taghvaeian, Cory Walters, Christopher Proctor, Daran Rudnick, Daren Redfearn

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The agricultural decision-making process is experience-based, knowledge-dependent, time-sensitive, complex, and driven by historical data. Planting, fertilization, irrigation, and chemigation are key categories in farm decision-making, and currently there is no one-shot decision-support tool that covers all these activities. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) models are more advanced than traditional machine learning and deep learning models. These models have been trained on vast amounts of data from the internet, allowing them to accept unstructured data in various forms and generate human-like text, solutions to problems, and scenario predictions. Given this capability, we became interested in exploring the potential of generative AI in …

Inconsistencies Emerge Between Regional And Local-Scale Water Security Metrics At Military Installations, Abigail Birnbaum, Michael L. Berg, Caitlin Grady, Daniel J. Weeks, Christopher M. Chini

Faculty Publications

Recent United States federal policy for military installations has emphasized the importance of developing a standardized approach for water security assessment to monitor changes in water resources and the ability for an installation to meet both its civilian and mission needs. For military installations in the United States, these assessments must consider demands both inside and outside the installation’s fence line, as regional resources are required to meet mission readiness. Focusing on physical water scarcity, this study compares four water security metrics with unique formulations and spatial resolutions, including an installation-scale metric and multiple regional metrics defined for either baseline …

Adsorption Of Pfas On Bridged Functionalized Organosilica Materials, Elisha Lawerh Kabutey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

PFAS are hazardous contaminants that have a devastating impact on human health and the environment. Their hazardous nature has led to the development of various adsorption methods for removing these contaminants from water sources. In this study, functionalized organosilica materials were synthesized from bis[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl] amine using the sol-gel method. The surface amino groups of the organosilica were converted into amine hydrochloride groups. Their adsorption properties were evaluated using salts of perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, and perfluorobutanesulfonic acid. Results showed excellent adsorption capacity of the materials. Adsorption of PFAS leads to particle agglomeration and flotation of the spent material. A column …

Assessing Diffusive Gradients In Thin Films Passive Samplers For Pfas Quantitation In Aqueous Systems, Brianna Harris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) passive samplers are an alternative to grab sampling for quantifying time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in aqueous systems. DGTs may enable long-term PFAS site characterization in a more time and cost-effective manner compared to grab sampling, but critical information is lacking in PFAS diffusion coefficient (DGel) uncertainty, PFAS quantitation limits, and environmental impacts on DGT performance. This work provides a thorough evaluation of DGT performance for a suite of 32 PFAS through (i) determining gel-layer PFAS diffusion coefficients and their associated error (i.e., 95 % confidence intervals (CIs)), (ii) assessing …

Dried Water Treatment Residuals Might Be An Option To Reduce Soluble Reactive Phosphorus Release From Soils, Katie B. Mckay

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nonpoint source pollution from agricultural landscapes contributes to freshwater eutrophication, with legacy phosphorus (P) in soils potentially driving soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) losses to surface waters. The objectives of this study were to evaluate SRP adsorption by dried water treatment residuals (WTRs) produced by Beaver Water District, quantify reductions in soil SRP release across increasing WTR application rates, and compare dried WTR performance to prior WTR studies.

Dried WTRs (~98% solids) were assessed using batch sorption experiments and soil core incubations. Phosphorus sorption was measured by mixing WTRs with CaCl₂ solutions containing increasing SRP concentrations and fitting results to …

Monitoring Streambank Morphology Using Iphone Lidar Technology, Lily C. Stitt

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Monitoring stream morphology is crucial for maintaining the health and safety of fluvial environments, particularly as these naturally dynamic systems are shifted out of equilibrium due to climate and land-use change. Quantifying changes in stream geometry are useful for infrastructure design, water quality assessment, water resource management, and stream restoration, among other applications. Traditional stream surveying methods contain numerous cost limitations that inhibit affordable and accessible stream surveying needed for evaluating stream geometry with high accuracy and larger spatial scales (>100s of ). In recent years, several advancements have been made in the use of Light Detection and Ranging …

Model Stormwater Standards 2026, Unh Stormwater Center

UNH Stormwater Center

The purpose of post-construction stormwater management standards is to provide reasonable guidance for the regulation of stormwater runoff to protect local natural resources from degradation and prevent adverse impacts to adjacent and downstream land, property, facilities, and infrastructure. These standards regulate discharges from stormwater and runoff from land development projects and other construction activities to control and minimize increases in stormwater runoff rates and volumes, soil erosion, stream channel erosion, and nonpoint source pollution associated with stormwater runoff.

Investigation Of Low-Pressure Mercury Lamp System Configurations And Xenon Excimer Lamp System Development As Vacuum Ultraviolet Sources For Optimal Photolytic Degradation Of Poly-/Perfluoroalkyl Substances, Eman Zuhair Alhamdan

All Dissertations

PFAS are persistent synthetic chemicals, with unique properties that enable them to easily enter and accumulate in water sources. Their public health impacts have raised concern and highlighted the need for effective treatment. Numerous techniques for PFAS removal from water have been studied, few have proven the ability of breaking down PFAS rather than separating and concentrating it. Many of these methods are chain-length dependent, showing slower degradation rate of short-chain PFAS and requiring substantial amounts of energy, and chemical agents that may produce byproducts.

Among available PFAS destruction methods, direct photolysis by high-energy UV with wavelength below 200 nm …

Developing Aero-Floating Treatment Wetland (Aeroftw) Scaffolds: A Non-Plastic Alternative To Conventional Plastic-Based Ftws, Ada C. Montoya Gomez

All Theses

This research was conducted to explore the possibility of constructing floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) without using plastic materials. FTWs are floating platforms that hold plants on the water’s surface, letting roots dangle within the water column, to help remove contaminants from contaminated water, especially in stormwater ponds. Many conventional FTWs are made with plastic components, such as mats and plastic cup containers, which can release microplastics into the environment over time. The goal of this project was to design and test a new type of FTW that does not depend on plastics to support FTW flotation. The study took place …

Evaluating The Impact Of Residential Landscape Audits Using 5-Second Water Use Data, Mahmud Aveek, Camilo J. Bastidas Pacheco, David E. Rosenberg, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Kelly Kopp, Belize A. Lane

Civil and Environmental Engineering Student Research

We used 5-s water use data to evaluate the effectiveness of residential landscape water audits in summer 2022. Fifty-nine households in two northern Utah cities were monitored for 2–5 weeks before and 3–10 weeks after an audit. We found that the distribution of weekly irrigation volumes postaudit was statistically less than the distribution preaudit (significant at the 1.9E10-5 level). Collectively, the participants reduced their landscape irrigation water use by approximately 379,000 L per week (100,300 gal per week; 0.3 acre-feet per week). We also analyzed changes in irrigation event volume, duration, frequency, and the number of days between events at …

Czts Nanoparticles As Cost Efficient Catalysts For Producing Green Hydrogen, Aidan Hau

Undergraduate Research Symposium (2026- )

Hydrogen gas is produced to be used as feedstock, fertilizer, and fuel. Traditional hydrogen production produces “gray hydrogen” in a process that uses and releases fossil fuels into the atmosphere. One way to produce “green” hydrogen is with renewable energy technologies that produce hydrogen gas using electrolysis without emitting fossil fuels. In electrolysis, the hydrogen atoms bonded to oxygen in a water molecule are split to produce hydrogen. A typical catalyst for this process would be a precious metal like palladium, which can be costly. In order to make green hydrogen production more affordable, an alternative catalyst composed of CZTS …

Ecovoltaic Solar Energy Development Creates Novel Microclimate, Temperature, And Soil Moisture Patterns Under Solar Panels In A Warm Desert, Juan Pinos, Seth M. Munson, Claire C. Karban, Matthew D. Petrie

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Background As solar energy development expands in desert regions, new installation practices and solar technologies seek to balance ecosystem conservation and energy generation (ecovoltaics). The Gemini Solar Project, a large ecovoltaic facility located in the northeastern Mojave Desert, employed low impact installation methods to reduce disturbance of the desert ecosystem within arrays of bifacial panels mounted on solar tracking systems. We evaluated microclimate and environmental conditions across five locations: four within-facility microsites (underneath solar panels, east and west panel driplines, and interspaces between panel rows) and one in the undisturbed desert outside the facility. Results Under panel microsites experienced lower …