Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Environmental Carrying Capacity And Application Of The Sustainability Target Method, Chatpet Yossapol

Dissertations

The environmental carrying capacity (CC) is defined as the capacity of the earth to absorb or tolerate potentially stressful burdens imparted at various scales and locations, that is, to accommodate the ecological stresses without showing permanent damage. The CC can be used as a reference dataset for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) purposes and as a baseline for other environmental studies.

In this research, a set of impact-oriented U.S. CC is developed for both input- and output-related impacts. CC for eight common impact categories is evaluated: resource depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone formation, human toxicity, and eco-toxicity. …

The Impact Of Abiotic And Biogenic Mn Oxide Coatings On Contaminant Mobility, Bioavailability, And Attenuation, Thipnakarin Boonfueng

Dissertations

Abiotic and biogenic manganese oxide coatings significantly impact the mobility and bioavailability of metals in soils and sediments. While sorption to discrete Mn oxides has been investigated in a number of studies, coatings have not received as much attention. Abiotic nanocrystalline (hydrous manganese oxide (HMO)) and crystalline Mn oxides (bimessite and pyrolusite) coated on montmorillonite were studied for formation, structure, stability, and surface properties. Coatings dominated the clay surface characteristics where the surface charge behaved similar to that of the discrete oxide and the local structure was consistent with the pure oxide phase. Furthermore, in sorption studies, Zn and Pb …