Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Efficiency Mapping And Determination Of Reliability, Resiliency And Vulnerability Of Atmospheric Water Generators In The United States, Erica F. Sadowski

Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG) extract water from the air using one of three available technologies: refrigeration, sorption, and fog harvesting. A refrigeration device works like a dehumidifier and works best in conditions above 60% relative humidity. A sorption device utilizes a desiccant to extract the water vapor from the air and works in very low humidity levels. A fog harvesting device utilizes a mesh to capture the water vapor from the air and requires 100% relative humidity. In this research, I analyze two refrigeration-based devices and one sorption-based device and their efficacy in providing supplemental water supply. Due to climatological …

Land Use Influences The Composition And Antimicrobial Effects Of Propolis, Amara J. Orth, Emma H. Curran, Eric J. Haas, Andrew C. Kraemer, Audrey M. Anderson, Nicholas J. Mason, Carol A. Fassbinder-Orth

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Honey bee propolis is a complex, resinous mixture created by bees using plant sources such as leaves, flowers, and bud exudates. This study characterized how cropland surrounding apiaries affects the chemical composition and antimicrobial effects of propolis. The chemical composition and compound abundance of the propolis samples were analyzed using Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and the antimicrobial effects were analyzed using the 50% minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC₅₀) assay against four relevant bee pathogens, Serratia marcescens, Paenibacillus larvae, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Propolis composition varied significantly with apiary, and cropland coverage predicted mean sum abundance of …

The Breathing Human Infrastructure: Integrating Air Quality, Traffic, And Social Media Indicators, Heather O'Leary, Scott Parr, Marwa El-Sayed

Publications

Outdoor air pollution is a complex system that is responsible for the deaths of millions of people annually, yet the integration of interdisciplinary data necessary to assess air quality's multiple metrics is still lacking. This case study integrates atmospheric indicators (concentrations of criteria pollutants including particulate matter and gaseous pollutants), traffic indicators (permanent traffic monitoring station data), and social indicators (community responses in Twitter archives) representing the interplay of the three critical pillars of the United Nations' Triple Bottom Line: environment, economy, and society. During the watershed moment of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in Florida, urban centers demonstrated the gaps …

Precipitation And Temperature Extremes And Association With Large-Scale Climate Indices: An Observational Evidence Over India, S Rehana, Pranathi Yeleswarapu, Ghouse Basha, Francisco Munoz-Arriola

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Climate change exposes more frequent natural hazards and physical vulnerabilities to the built and natural environments. Extreme precipitation and temperature events will have a significant impact on both the natural environment and human society. However, it is unclear whether precipitation and temperature extremes increase physical vulnerabilities across scales and their links with large-scale climate indices. This study investigates the relationship between precipitation and temperature extremes, as recommended by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI), and large scale climatological phenomenon indices (Indian Summer Monsoon Index (ISMI), Arctic Oscillation (AO), and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)), using India as …

Coral Reef Restoration Monitoring Through An Environmental Engineering And Social-Ecological Lens, Michelle C. Platz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Florida Reef Tract (FRT) has experienced catastrophic coral cover declines since the 1970s, and active coral restoration is therefore needed to recover ecosystem integrity, preserve intrinsic values, and guarantee the provision of ecosystem services on which humans rely. While the coral restoration field’s ability to grow and outplant coral has improved extensively in the last two decades, this growth has led to the development of research gaps pertaining to restoration monitoring, specifically regarding the technical capacity to perform long term monitoring, spatial and temporal resolution, and metrics with which to quantify changes in ecosystem function resulting from restoration. The …

Cobalt Ferrite Nano-Composites For The Oxidation Of Phenols In Oil Refinery Wastewater, Amira Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

Phenolic compounds have the tendency to persist in the environment over a long period making them a main source of concern because of their toxic characteristics towards humans and animals (Bruce et al., 1987). Therefore, existence of phenolic compounds in aquatic environment is unfavourable and as a result, many treatment techniques have been implemented to treat the wastewater produced from petroleum refineries. Petroleum refineries are among the top industries that produces significant quantities of high phenol concentration wastewater. Photo-catalysis is a promising and effective method to treat phenol present in oil refineries effluent. In this study, the photo-catalyst used is …

Global And Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios For The United States, National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (Noaa)

State & Federal Reports and Publications

This report and accompanying datasets from the U.S. Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flood Hazard Scenarios and Tools Interagency Task Force provide 1) sea level rise scenarios to 2150 by decade that include estimates of vertical land motion and 2) a set of extreme water level probabilities for various heights along the U.S. coastline. These data are available at 1-degree grids along the U.S. coastline and downscaled specifically at NOAA tide-gauge locations. Estimates of flood exposure are assessed using contemporary U.S. coastal flood-severity thresholds for current conditions (e.g., sea levels and infrastructure footprint) and for the next 30 years (out …

Characteristics And Assessing Biological Risks Of Airborne Bacteria In Waste Sorting Plant, Abbas Norouzian Baghani, Somayeh Golbaz, Gholamreza Ebrahimzadeh, Marcelo I. Guzman, Mahdieh Delikhoon, Mehdi Jamshidi Rastani, Abdullah Barkhordari, Ramin Nabizadeh

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Examining the concentration and types of airborne bacteria in waste paper and cardboard sorting plants (WPCSP) is an urgent matter to inform policy makers about the health impacts on exposed workers. Herein, we collected 20 samples at 9 points of a WPCSP every 6 winter days, and found that the most abundant airborne bacteria were positively and negatively correlated to relative humidity and temperature, respectively. The most abundant airborne bacteria (in units of CFU m⁻³) were: Staphylococcus sp. (72.4) > Micrococcus sp. (52.2) > Bacillus sp. (30.3) > Enterococcus sp. (24.0) > Serratia marcescens (20.1) > E. coli (19.1) > Pseudomonas sp. (16.0) > Nocardia …

Mathematical Modeling And Optimization Of Water Efficiency In Residential Buildings, Mahmoud Amin

Theses and Dissertations

Water scarcity is a global issue that is rapidly worsening. The domestic sector is one of the fastest-growing segments of world water usage. Many researchers have explored various approaches to promote sustainable uses of water, with Greywater (GW) recycling and utilization of innovative plumbing fixtures among the methods presented to reduce freshwater consumption for domestic usage. Nonetheless, previous studies have dealt with both means independently, with limited analysis of the integrated effect of utilizing GW recycling with innovative plumbing fixtures, both on quality of supplied water, as well as on cost of the integrated system. Accordingly, this research aims at …

Impact Of Rapid Urbanization, Climate Change, And Drainage Design On Urban Flash Floods In New Cairo, Egypt, Bassma Taher Hassan

Theses and Dissertations

Urban flooding is considered one of the most hazardous disasters in metropolitan areas, which causes growing risk on people’s lives, infrastructure and environment. Egypt witnessed an unprecedent extreme rainfall event in 2020 that caused more than four hundred injuries and major damage in properties and infrastructures affecting the economic and social aspects adversely. This was not the first extreme rainfall event causing catastrophic implications, over the past 5 years, New Cairo have been experiencing intense rainfall events almost every year that put the community in jeopardy. This research intends to investigate the main drivers prompting urban flash floods in New …

Conceptual Framework To Integrate Economic Drivers Of Decision Making For Technology Adoption In Agriculture, Thiago L. Romanelli, Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, Andre F. Colaço

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study evaluates how much technology adoption could cost in a variety of crop-production scenarios. Cost-reduction simulations consider scenarios of higher input use efficiency such as reducing the usage of diesel, labor, irrigation, fertilizer, herbicide, and seed, among others. The scenarios aim to increase yields by integrating the effect of each input-reduction on the total operating costs. Agricultural production estimates for Nebraska in the US indicates that a technology that saves 1% of diesel is cost-effective, costing between USD 0.15/ha and USD 0.32/ha (for corn). Improvements on input use efficiency should be prioritized to incentivize technology development and adoption. This …

Maize Response To Coupled Irrigation And Nitrogen Fertilization Under Center Pivot, Subsurface Drip And Surface (Furrow) Irrigation: Growth, Development And Productivity, Suat Irmak, Ali T. Mohammed, Meetpal S. Kukal

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Water availability and water quality problems negatively impact agricultural productivity due to improper nitrogen (N) and irrigation management, which can also negatively affect environmental services. Coupled irrigation and N management practices must be developed and practiced for alleviating these challenges. Investigating crop growth and development and yield response to coupled irrigation and N management under different irrigation methods can aid in developing optimum agronomic management practices to enhance crop production efficiency. Field experiments were conducted in 2016 and 2017 growing seasons to measure and compare maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield, leaf area index (LAI), plant height (and their …

Chromium-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Alleviates Chromium Toxicity By Developing Synergistic Relationships With Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles In Wheat, Shoaib Ahmad, Manar Fawzi Bani Mfarrej, Mohamed A. El-Esawi, Muhammad Waseem, Aishah Alatawi, Muhammad Nafees, Muhammad Hamzah Saleem, Muhammad Rizwan, Tahira Yasmeen, Alia Anayat, Shafaqat Ali

All Works

Chromium (Cr) is a toxic heavy metal that contaminates soil and water resources after its discharge from different industries. It can act as carcinogen and mutagen for biological systems. Microbe-assisted phytoremediation is one of the most emergent and environment friendly technique used for detoxification of Cr from Cr-contaminated soils. In this study, wheat as a test crop was grown under varying stress levels (0, 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg) of Cr in a pot experiment under a complete randomized design. Alleviative role of Staphylococcus aureus strain K1 was assessed by applying as a treatment in different combinations of zinc oxide …

Comparison Of Phosphorus Removal And Recovery Methods And Proposed Design Of High Rate Algal Pond For Swine Wastewater, Taylor Fauth

Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Students Plan B Capstone Projects

High phosphorus concentrations in wastewater effluent can have harmful effects to aquatic environments and water quality. An excess of nutrients such as phosphorus in water bodies will cause eutrophication, which depletes the available oxygen within the water and is detrimental to aquatic life. Additionally, phosphorus leaching from wastewater discharge has negative impacts to groundwater quality. The depletion of phosphorus as a natural resource is also of concern as phosphorus is an essential product for agricultural and industrial production. Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource, and natural sources are becoming more difficult and expensive to access. Therefore, the removal and recycle of …

Gadolinium Enrichment In Association With The Magnetic Fraction Of 1 Fly Ash: Real Or An Illusion?, James C. Hower, John G. Groppo, Dali Qian, Nicolas J. Briot, Tonya D. Morgan, Shelley D. Hopps, Elizabeth Cantando

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Gadolinium, and possibly praseodymium, are relatively enriched in the magnetic 24 fractions of Class F fly ashes from Central Appalachian coal sources. Although the enrichment is 25 evident in the inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) 26 determinations of the rare earth content, transmission electron microscopy–energy dispersive x-27 ray spectroscopy (TEM-EDS) examination of the fly ash fails to show the sites of the Gd or Pr. 28 This apparent lack of correlation could be due to the inability of the EDS to detect low 29 concentrations of the rare earth elements definitively; interferences in the analytics, leading to 30 false …

Supervised Machine Learning Techniques Applied To Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor Suites, Peter Wahman

All Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Low-cost PM sensors have garnered interest for their ability to reduce the cost of investigating PM concentrations in both indoor and outdoor spaces. They perform well in high concentration lab testing with correlation coefficients greater than 0.9. In real-world applications, the correlation coefficients drop significantly because of sensing floors and adverse ambient conditions. There are plenty of supervised machine learning techniques that aim to correct the measurements ranging from linear regression to more advanced neural networks and random forests. This work aims to use those more complicated techniques to adjust the measurements using other data sets gathered by a sensor …

Quantitative Sustainable Design (Qsd) For The Prioritization Of Research, Development, And Deployment Of Technologies: A Tutorial And Review, Yalin Li, John T. Trimmer, Steven Hand, Xinyi Zhang, Katherine G. Chambers, Hannah A. C. Lohman, Rui Shi, Diana M. Byrne, Sherri M. Cook, Jeremy S. Guest

UK CARES Faculty Publications

The pursuit of sustainability has catalyzed broad investment in the research, development, and deployment (RD&D) of innovative water, sanitation, and resource recovery technologies, yet the lack of transparent and agile methodologies to navigate the expansive landscape of technology development pathways remains a critical challenge. This challenge is further complicated by the higher levels of uncertainty that are intrinsic to early-stage technologies. In this work, we review and synthesize published literature on the sustainability analyses of water and related technologies to present quantitative sustainable design (QSD) – a methodology to expedite and support technology RD&D. With a shared lexicon and a …

Nebraska Water Center Annual Report 2022, Nebraska Water Center, Daugherty Water For Food Global Institute

Nebraska Water Center: Administrative Materials

CONTENTS

Overview: The Nebraska Water Center (https://watercenter.unl.edu)

Fast Facts: NWC 2022 Snapshot

Our Work

Water Sciences Lab Sees Rapid Growth in 2022 (https://watercenter.unl.edu/water-sciences-laboratory2)

WSL is Key to AltEn Contamination Monitoring (https://go.unl.edu/mead)

Know Your Well Project Enters Third Phase (https://knowyourwell.unl.edu)

Computer Science Students Build New Platform for Know Your Well Data Collection

Water Sciences Laboratory Helps Nebraska Tackle Nitrate (https://watercenter.unl.edu/water-sciences-laboratory2)

Nebraska Rural Poll Includes Water Quality Questions (https://ruralpoll.unl.edu and https://go.unl.edu/nitrate_strategy)

NWC Holds Platte River Basin Conference (https://watercenter.unl.edu/2022-nebraska-water-conference)

Spring Seminar Series (https://watercenter.unl.edu/spring-seminar-series)

Water Center Undergoes Five-Year …

Stormwater Sensitivities To The Climatic And Land Cover Drivers In A Heavily Urbanized Coastal Basin Along The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Usa., Md Faisal Razy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Stormwater runoff response in a complex coastal-urban basin varies with the changes in climatic and land cover drivers. This thesis aims to assess the runoff responses to variation in climatic and land cover variables and perform a sensitivity analysis in complex coastal-urban basins. The Buffalo San Jacinto Basin (BUSJ) of southeast Texas, USA was considered a pilot study area for this research. BUSJ is a heavily urbanized coastal basin, draining an area of 3132 km² through the City of Houston, Texas into the northern Gulf of Mexico, USA. A process-based hydrological model was developed with fine spatio-temporal resolutions for …

Development Of An Innovative Co-Treatment Technology For Produced Water And Blowdown Water: A Regional Approach Of Water Management For Energy Production, Golnoosh Khajouei

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Freshwater use for power generation represents the second-largest water use globally. In the United States, freshwater withdrawals for thermoelectric power accounted for 38% of the total freshwater withdrawals for all uses in 2010. Cooling systems are the most water-intensive part of the thermoelectric generation process. For instance, one 300 MW power generator required about 20,000 m³/h circulating cooling water. The cooling operation discharges a large volume of wastewater in the form of blowdown water (10-20% of the consumed water) that requires treatment for reuse or surface discharge. Produced water (PW), the fluid which returns to the surface from …