Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Sweet (Small Wind Energy Estimation Tool), Thomas Woolmington, Keith Sunderland

Other resources

Description:

Generic Wind Energy Estimation Model incorporating Turbulence Intensity.

Requirements:

Manufacturer specific wind turbine characteristic

Mean wind speed at a specific height

Site conditions in terms of TI and Surface Roughness

Disclaimer:

This model has been designed as an estimation tool for estimating the wind power yield of a custom turbine for an idealised set of site conditions for a given year.

While the assumptions that are made in this estimation tool are mathematically plausible they should not in any way be interpreted as an alternative to a real world site assessment.

A list of assumptions to which the model …

Evidence Supporting Treatment Practice Based Delineation Of Stormwater Runoff Zones, Jacob J. Gorski

Dissertations and Theses

Particles mobilized by stormwater negatively affect receiving surface waters. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) can reduce solids along with associated pollutants in runoff but engineers and environmental managers have been long vexed by the problem of choosing the optimal BMP for a given situation. A common BMP process for solids removal is sedimentation. This thesis addresses the question of whether the effectiveness (and thus choice) of a sedimentation device can be estimated (and thus optimized) from the particle size properties of runoff, which, in turn, could be associated with specific runoff zones or land uses. Presented here is a series …

Adaptive Targeting: Engaging Farmers To Assess Perceptions And Improve Watershed Modeling, Optimization, And Adoption Of Agricultural Conservation Practices, Margaret Mccahon Kalcic

Open Access Dissertations

Targeting agricultural conservation practices to farmland that has the greatest impact on surface water quality has received wide support from scientists and watershed managers. The targeting approach has, however, been politically contentious as many believe farmers will oppose the approach on grounds such as privacy invasion and unfair distribution of government incentives. Targeting conservation practices using complex optimization models has become common in the scientific community, and yet targeted results are underutilized in practice because of difficulties such as knowledge transfer and absence of a political framework for their use. For targeting to be successful, it must be politically supported …

Optimization Of Demon® Sidestream Treatment And Potential For Anammox Mainstream Bioaugmentation, Andrea Lauren Nifong

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Anaerobically digested sludge dewatering liquors (e.g. centrate) can represent 15-25% of the total kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) load on a typical municipal waste water treatment plant (WWTP). Sidestream nitrogen removal has been demonstrated to be an effective tool for improving nitrogen removal performance and reliability with a savings in aeration energy, chemicals (supplemental alkalinity and carbon), and sludge production.

Deammonification, partial nitritation by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) combined with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (AMX or anammox), provides near complete nitrogen removal with a 65% reduction in energy and 100% reduction in supplemental carbon and alkalinity requirements as compared to traditional nitrification-denitrification. The …

Denitrification And Biological Phosphorus Removal Using Focused, Pulse-Treated, Thickened Waste Activated Sludge As An Internal Carbon Source, Holly Anne Hillard

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Recent research shows that an internal carbon source, derived from the treatment of waste activated sludge (WAS), could be used as an alternative to external carbon sources for denitrification in biological wastewater treatment processes. In this study, a thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) treatment technology, developed by the company OpenCEL, was used to treat TWAS with pulsed electric fields (PEF) to transform it into an organic substrate for heterotrophic denitrification in a biological nutrient removal (BNR) system. If effective, this technique could significantly reduce the external carbon source demand.

To determine the utility of OpenCEL-treated TWAS as an internal carbon …

Anaerobic Co-Digestion Planning And Research For Green Bay, Wi, Jonathan Kusowski

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The aspiration to find an alternative sustainable fuel source is an ever growing concern. Anaerobic digestion might hold the answer to finding an alternative sustainable energy source. Anaerobic digestion does not only provide a renewable resource in the form of biogas, but also stabilizes wastes, preventing large amounts from being landfilled or incinerated. Anaerobic digestion of municipal wastewater sludges can often be improved by the addition of high strength industrial wastes, in a process called co-digestion. High strength industrial wastes provide an additional carbon source for the microbes to utilize and convert into usable biogas. Co-digestion also offers the opportunity …

Ion Exchange Nutrient Recovery From Municipal Wastewater, Allen Williams

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Nitrogen and phosphorus discharge is regulated due to eutrophication. Typically ammonium-nitrogen is removed through nitrification which requires energy and phosphorus (P) is removed by metal salt addition to precipitate P. A more sustainable approach may be to implement nutrient recovery to form fertilizers. Most nitrogen fertilizer is formed through the energy intensive Haber-Bosch process. Phosphate rock, a limited resource, is mined for P fertilizer. Discharge regulations and the fertilizer production costs provide an economic driver for recovery. The current project used anionic and cationic ion exchange (IX) to concentrate the nutrients with recovery by struvite precipitation. Previous work lacks direct …

Operation And Modification Of A B-Stage For Efficient Nitrogen Removal In An A/B Process Pilot Study, Ryder Bunce

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Hampton Roads Sanitation District's Chesapeake-Elizabeth Wastewater Treatment Plant is a High-Rate Activated Sludge (HRAS) plant with no primary clarifiers. The plant operates at an SRT of 1.5 - 2 days and does not perform biological nitrogen removal (BNR). By 2021 HRSD anticipates the plant will be included in a bubble permit, resulting in a total nitrogen (TN) effluent target of approximately 5-8 mg/L. Converting the plant to a conventional BNR process would require a significant increase in reactor volume. Capital costs for the upgrade are estimated at 125 -150 million dollars, with a dramatic increase in operating costs as well. …

Dimensionless Criteria For Selecting Tidally-Influenced Advective-Dispersive Desalination Brine Mixing Plume Characterization Models, Alireza Shahvari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The very nature of requirements for implementing a desalination process is highly spatial due to the need to secure both a source for the operation and sink for brine dilution. Thus, the applicable coastal location is bound to natural tidal mixing characteristics and subjected to a near- or a far-field availability for source and sink. Mixing characteristics of coastal waters are very different from one point to another due to the spatiotemporal tidal characteristic in loco in a manner that it can vary from being highly advective to completely dispersive dominant. Once a location is identified, estimation of corresponding water …

Characterization Of Secondary Organic Aerosol Precursors Using Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography With Time Of Flight Mass Spectrometry (Gc×Gc/Tofms), Melissa Jordan Roskamp

Dissertations and Theses

The oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) plays a role in both regional and global air quality through the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA). More than 1000TgC/yr of non-methane VOCs are emitted from biogenic sources (significantly greater than from anthropogenic sources). Despite this magnitude and potential importance for air quality, the body of knowledge around the identities, quantities and oxidation processes of these compounds is still incomplete (e.g., Goldstein & Galbally, 2007; Robinson et al., 2009). Two-dimensional gas chromatography paired with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC/TOFMS) is a powerful analytical technique which is explored here for its role in better …

Rooftop Pv Impacts On Fossil Fuel Electricity Generation And Co2 Emissions In The Pacific Northwest, Daniel Albert Weiland

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis estimates the impacts of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) capacity on electricity generation and CO2 emissions in America's Pacific Northwest. The region's demand for electricity is increasing at the same time that it is attempting to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The electricity generated by rooftop PV capacity is expected to displace electricity from fossil fueled electricity generators and reduce CO2 emissions, but when and how much? And how can this region maximize and focus the impacts of additional rooftop PV capacity on CO2 emissions? To answer these questions, an hourly urban rooftop PV generation profile for 2009 was created …

Gloria Slope Approach - Monitoring Plant Community Changes In Mountain Ecosystems, Jarle I. Holten, Sverre Lundemo, Ph.D.

Guest Lectures

The research described in this presentation is part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) whose purpose is to establish and maintain a global, long-term observation network in alpine environments.

Despite changes in mountaintop-vegetation due to recent climate change being observed throughout the world, trends are not consistent. Moreover, as plant communities can be impacted by several different factors, it is important to be able to separate what is due to climate change and what is due to e.g. changes in grazing pressure (see additional file below).

A Novel Approach To Flow Estimation In Tidal Rivers, Hamed Moftakhari Rostamkhani, David A. Jay, Stefan A. Talke, Tobias Kukulka, Peter D. Bromirski

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reliable estimation of river discharge to the ocean from large tidal rivers is vital for water resources management and climate analyses. Due to the difficulties inherent in measuring tidal-river discharge, flow records are often limited in length and/or quality and tidal records often predate discharge records. Tidal theory indicates that tides and river discharge interact through quadratic bed friction, which diminishes and distorts the tidal wave as discharge increases. We use this phenomenon to develop a method of estimating river discharge for time periods with tidal data but no flow record. Employing sequential 32 day harmonic analyses of tidal properties, …

Passive Stormwater Samplers For Sampling Highway Runoff From Bmps: Feasibility Studies, Mitchell R. Klein

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Pollution from highway stormwater runoff has been an increasing area of concern within the environmental field. To respond to the need for reduced contamination within runoff many Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been implemented. One difficult aspect of BMPs is monitoring their effectiveness along with determining effluent concentrations. The current methods for stormwater sampling include sending technicians or installing an auto-sampler to collect either grab or composite samples. These methods become costly, cumbersome and infeasible due to the potentially large amount of BMPs across a region and the irregularity and difficulty of predicting storms. Passive samplers have proven themselves as …

Removal Of Arsenic From Simulated Groundwater Using A Pilot-Scale Constructed Wetland Treatment System, Jeffrey Schwindaman

All Theses

A pilot-scale constructed wetland treatment system (CWTS) was designed and built to produce biogeochemical conditions that promoted targeted processes for removal of arsenic from simulated groundwater. Two series were designed to promote co-precipitation and sorption of arsenic with iron oxyhydroxides under oxidizing conditions, and two series were designed to promote precipitation of arsenic sulfide and co-precipitation of arsenic with iron sulfide under reducing conditions. The two major objectives were to (1) assess arsenic removal performance and (2) determine the fate and distribution of arsenic in each series. Results indicate that arsenic removal performance was greater in series designed to promote …

Evaluation Of Anaerobic Biodegradation Of High Concentrations Of Halogenated Methanes, Priya Rachel Jacob

All Theses

Removal of the chlorinated methanes, carbon tetrachloride (CT), chloroform (CF) and dichloromethane (DCM), and the halogenated methane, trichlorofluoromethane (commonly known as CFC-11 or Freon-11) from contaminated soil and groundwater remains challenging. Releases to the environment resulted from historically poor disposal practices, as well as spills and leaks from underground storage tanks. Among these three compounds, CF is considered the benchmark for evaluating the feasibility of bioremediation, due to its typically high level of toxicity towards most anaerobic prokaryotes. However, inhibitory effects of low concentrations of CFC-11 on anaerobes have been reported as well. Bioremediation is an attractive option for clean-up, …

The Extraction Of Acetic Acid From Thermotoga Neapolitana Fermentation Spent Medium Using Fresh/Recovered Aliquat 336 And Produce Cma, Yifan Du

All Theses

To offer an alternative pathway to produce calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) as an environmental friendly deicer to relieve the pressure on fossil fuels demand, a liquid-liquid extraction process was studied. This process includes using Aliquat 336 (tri-n-octylmethylammonium chloride) diluted in kerosene as an organic extractant to extract acetic acid from Thermotoga neapolitana fermentation spent medium, which contained 34 g/L of acetic acid and 10 g/L of NaCl.
The extraction efficiency of Aliquat 336 was studied under several different extraction conditions. The initial pH of the spent medium was adjusted to a pH range of 2.25 to 5.75 with a 0.5 …

Describing Plutonium Contamination Issues In Hanford Soils: Development Of A Thermodynamic Surface Complexation Model, Sarah Herr

All Theses

The development of remediation strategies for long-term site management requires knowledge of an actinide's geochemical behavior. Understanding this behavior can lead to the formation of a subsurface transport model. For example, plutonium mobility in the subsurface environment is significantly influenced by oxidation-reduction and complexation reactions. This work considered the surface-mediated reduction of plutonium, as well as the hydrolysis and carbonate complexation of the actinide.
Evaluating the significance of these reactions required several variable pH batch sorption studies. Experiments incorporated plutonium and neptunium sorption to sediments from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. Two different sediments were examined: coarse-grained and …

Removal Of N-Nitrosodimethylamine And Trihalomethane Precursors With Powdered Activated Carbon, Wilson Beita Sandi

All Theses

N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) has been used commercially in several applications, including the production of liquid rocket fuel, and a variety of foods, but gained more relevance when it was discovered as a drinking water disinfection by-product (DBP) in 1989. NDMA is a probable human carcinogen with 10-6 lifetime cancer risk associated with a drinking water concentration of 0.7 ng/L, and is listed as a priority pollutant in the Code of Federal Regulations; no federal maximum contaminant level has been established for drinking water yet. However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency is planning to make a preliminary regulatory determination in 2013 …

Improvement Of Onsite Wastewater Treatment By Use Of Electrically Conductive Carbon Cloth, Christopher Weber

All Theses

The purpose of this research is primarily focused on carbon oxidation in domestic septic systems. Small-scale septic waste reactors utilizing electrically conductive carbon cloth were assessed for improving carbon oxidation and therefore the overall efficiency of on-site wastewater treatment systems.
A bioelectrochemical system was developed to enhance carbon oxidation in septic systems using electrically conductive carbon cloth as an anode/cathode bridge to transfer electrons from strictly anoxic septic wastewater to an oxic system outside of the septic reactor. This 'septic snorkel' (so named since the system 'breathes' via the carbon cloth extends into an aerobic zone) was designed to lower …