Engineering Commons^™

Physical And Chemical Interactions Affecting U And V Transport From Mine Wastes, Sumant Avasarala

Civil Engineering ETDs

This research investigates the physical and chemical interactions that affect the transport of uranium (U) and vanadium (V) from uranium mine waste sites by integrating laboratory experiments and reactive transport modelling with various spectroscopy, microscopy, and diffraction techniques. The document consists of results from three related studies. In the first study (Chapter 3), the reactive transport of U and V was investigated by sequentially reacting mine wastes collected from Blue Gap/Tachee Claim-28 mine site, AZ with 10mM NaHCO₃ (7.9) and 10mM CH₃COOH (3.4) during continuous flow through column experiments. Under both of these conditions (pH 3.4 and …

The Effect Of Ms2 Bacteriophage On The Activity And Performance Of Activated Sludge, Sean M. Stuntz

Theses and Dissertations

As a medical waste product, the MS2 bacteriophage has been discharged into wastewater distribution and treatment networks. To categorize its impact to suspended growth treatment methods, this research investigated the effect of the MS2 bacteriophage on activated sludge through a series of respirometry tests. The effects of MS2 bacteriophage at a concentration of 3.2x10⁸ PFU/mL were assessed by determining peak O₂ consumption, cumulative O₂ consumption, molar CO₂/O₂ ratios, and shape factors. None of the MS2 samples caused statistically significant effects on the peak or cumulative O₂ consumption. The molar CO₂/O_{2 …}

The Tensile Root Strength Of Emergent Coastal Macrophytes, Lauris Olivia Hollis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Spartina patens is a dominant emergent macrophyte in fresh, intermediate, and brackish marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of United States where its biomechanical properties are a key component of wetland health and resilience. Its root biomass and tensile root strength are essential for anchorage, erosion protection, and are important determinants of soil strength. Nutrients and the herbicide atrazine are suspected of negatively impacting this wetland plant and others. The objectives of this study were to: 1) ascertain the tensile root strength of five emergent coastal macrophytes in coastal estuaries, and 2) test the effects of nutrient addition, atrazine …

Climate-Driven Crop Yield And Yield Variability And Climate Change Impacts On The U.S. Great Plains Agricultural Production, Meetpal Singh Kukal, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Climate variability and trends affect global crop yields and are characterized as highly dependent on location, crop type, and irrigation. U.S. Great Plains, due to its significance in national food production, evident climate variability, and extensive irrigation is an ideal region of investigation for climate impacts on food production. This paper evaluates climate impacts on maize, sorghum, and soybean yields and effect of irrigation for individual counties in this region by employing extensive crop yield and climate datasets from 1968–2013. Variability in crop yields was a quarter of the regional average yields, with a quarter of this variability explained by …

Decision Support System For The Design And Planning Of Low-Impact Development Practices: The Case Of Seoul, Jae-Yeol Song, Eun-Sung Chung, Soo Hyun Kim

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study presented the conceptual framework of the water-management analysis module (WMAM) to derive effective physical specifications for the design and planning of low-impact development (LID) practices using the storm-water management model (SWMM). This decision-support system can be used for six LID types and has the following key capabilities: determining relevant LID design parameters within the SWMM that critically influence the hydrological cycle components using a simple sensitivity analysis and determining the best hydrological values for LID planning specification. This study analyzed a highly urbanized university campus as a case study to determine the design and planning specifications for an …

Spot-R By Triax, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Triax’s Spot-r system was developed to tackle the construction industry’s unique safety and productivity challenges, stemming from a demonstrated lack of total jobsite visibility and automatically collected, easily accessible field data. Spot-r by Triax combines a proprietary mesh network with sensor technology to record and transmit previously unattainable workforce and equipment location, activity and safety data within a defined area – all in real-time.

The Spot-r network is installed around the site and operates in a 900 MHz network, with a subset using a cellular connection to forward Spot-r sensor data to Triax’s custom, cloud dashboard. In the hazardous construction …

The Effects Of Isoprene And Nox On Secondary Organic Aerosols Formed Through Reversible And Irreversible Uptake To Aerosol Water, Marwa M. El-Sayed, Diana L. Ortiz-Montalvo, Christopher J. Hennigan

Publications

Isoprene oxidation produces water-soluble organic gases capable of partitioning to aerosol liquid water. The formation of secondary organic aerosols through such aqueous pathways (aqSOA) can take place either reversibly or irreversibly; however, the split between these fractions in the atmosphere is highly uncertain. The aim of this study was to characterize the reversibility of aqSOA formed from isoprene at a location in the eastern United States under substantial influence from both anthropogenic and biogenic emissions. The reversible and irreversible uptake of water-soluble organic gases to aerosol water was characterized in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, using measurements of particulate water-soluble organic carbon …

Exploring The Determinants Of Vulnerable Road Users’ Crash Severity In State Roads, Álvaro Caviedes

PSU Transportation Seminars

Part of the Student Presentations from TRB

Pedestrians and bicyclists are the most vulnerable road users and suffer the most severe consequences when crashes take place. An extensive literature is available for crash severity in terms of driver safety, but fewer studies have explored non-motorized users’ crash severity. Furthermore, most research efforts have examined pedestrian and bicyclist crash severity in urban areas. This study focuses on state roads (mostly outside major urban areas) and aims to identify contributing risk factors of fatal and severe crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists in state roads. The results seem to suggest that besides improvements …

Purdue’S Biowall, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Mechanical ventilation, energy recovery ventilation, and infiltration (air that leaks into a building) are commonly used to introduce fresh air. These are all valid approaches, but a living plant-based filter is an innovative complement to these traditional technologies. A Biowall has the potential to improve indoor air quality while reducing the quantity of air needed for ventilation, creating the potential for energy savings. Figure 1 shows a Biowall prototype being evaluated in the ReNEWW House, a research home located near the Purdue University campus (http://www.renewwhouse.com/).

Mdp (Machine Drive Power) Intelligent Compaction Technology, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Caterpillar developed MDP (Machine Drive Power) technology to fill this gap. Rather than an accelerometer and vibratory drum, it uses the principle of rolling resistance to provide indications of soil stiffness. This allows it to perform more reliably on cohesive and granular soils with less variability than accelerometer systems. It also means that the technology can be used on both vibratory and static drum compactors, which are often used on larger sites. While the technology is quite useful on its own, it is even better as a complementary technology to the existing accelerometer-based systems. Contractors who use vibratory soil compactors …

An Evaluation Of The Groundwater Microbial Community's Toluene Biogenesis Potential At A Site In Southeast Louisiana, Michael A. Griffin Jr.

LSU Master's Theses

The broad goal of the research described in this thesis was to better understand the potential for biological toluene production to occur in groundwater at a Superfund Site located in southeast Louisiana. Previous literature reported that bacterial isolates under laboratory test conditions and undefined microbial communities in anaerobic sludge digesters and seasonally stratified lakes can produce toluene biogenically. Most of the research reported on this subject previously, however, has been on systems in Europe and little research has been reported previously on such phenomena in North America.

In the research described here, studies were conducted utilizing groundwater from a Superfund …

Color Removal Of Dye And Milk Wastewater Using Peanut Hull By The Process Of Adsorption, Venkatesh Kummarakuntla

ETD Archive

Dairy industry is one of the major industries from which organic wastewater is produced and released into the water bodies. Textile industries also generate considerable amount of dye wastewater that effect the water quality standards. Various treatment techniques are adopted to treat the wastewater. Adsorption is one of the low-cost treatment processes to treat the textile and milk wastewater. This thesis focuses on the treatment of combined dye and milk wastewater using the process of adsorption. The treatment process is carried out by using three different types of low cost adsorbents Peanut-hull, Banana peel and Activated carbon. The effectiveness of …

Where There Is No Engineer Chapter 06, Liam Mccarton, Sean O'Hogain

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter summarises the learning outcomes from the design program.

Integrated Analysis Of The Value Of Wetland Services In Coastal Adaptation; Methodology And Case Study Of Hampton-Seabrook Estuary, New Hampshire, Paul Kirshen, Semra Aytur, David M. Burdick, Diane Foster, Tom Lippmann, Ellen Douglas, Sydney Nick, Chris Watson

Jackson Estuarine Laboratory

The present impacts from coastal storms and high tides grow significantly over time due to SLR even over the relatively short period to 2060. Hydrodynamic model simulations of storm surge with and without sea level rise scenarios show that although flooding and inundation increases with increasing subtidal forcing and higher sea level, dissipation of the tide and storm surge in the estuary channel somewhat limits the maximum inundation that might otherwise be expected in the back marsh areas. The estuary is dominated by high marsh, which lies high in the intertidal zone and by 2060 it will convert to mostly …

Mechanistic Insight Into The Degradation Of Nitrosamines Via Aqueous-Phase Uv Photolysis Or A Uv-Based Advanced Oxidation Process: Quantum Mechanical Calculations, Daisuke Minakata, Erica Coscarelli

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering Publications

Nitrosamines are a group of carcinogenic chemicals that are present in aquatic environments that result from byproducts of industrial processes and disinfection products. As indirect and direct potable reuse increase, the presence of trace nitrosamines presents challenges to water infrastructures that incorporate effluent from wastewater treatment. Ultraviolet (UV) photolysis or UV-based advanced oxidation processes that produce highly reactive hydroxyl radicals are promising technologies to remove nitrosamines from water. However, complex reaction mechanisms involving radicals limit our understandings of the elementary reaction pathways embedded in the overall reactions identified experimentally. In this study, we perform quantum mechanical calculations to identify the …

Color Removal And Treatment Of Dye And Sugar Waste Water Using Low Cost Adsorbents, Saisantosh Vamshi Harsha Madiraju

ETD Archive

This study was undertaken to determine the treatment of wastewater from dye and sugar industry for removal of color. This specific treatment consists of adsorption using low cost adsorbents and micro filtration using whatman-41 micro filters. Considerations of this treatment process is to take the samples using batch adsorption and avoid coagulation with further dilution. Numerous runs were made with the ideal waste samples prepared in the laboratory. As a first step in the study different dyes were considered using different concentrations of sugar wastewater. Samples were treated with three different low-cost adsorbents. These treated samples using low cost adsorbents …

Cee 433: Water Technology & Policy Syllabus, University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Ashlynn Stillwell

All ECSTATIC Materials

This document is the syllabus for CEE 433: Water Technology & Policy, by instructor Ashlynn S. Stillwell at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The course is an elective class, open to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.

Energising Dairy Decisions, John Upton, Philip Shine, Michael Breen, Michael D. Murphy

Publications

A new tool developed by Teagasc researchers easily and quickly allows dairy farmers to see their energy usage and evaluate how renewable sources could decrease energy costs.

Color Removal From Combined Dye And Fruit Nectar Wastewater Using Adsorption And Microfiltration, Oluwatobiloba A. Akinwande

ETD Archive

Pollution of the waterways is a great challenge of the 21st century. Textile effluents contain compounds which have the capacity to cause more harm when ingested. There are many dye removal technologies like coagulation, photo oxidation which help to remove color from dye wastewater. The use of adsorption to remove color from dye wastewater has been used for many centuries. Activated carbon can efficiently remove color from dye wastewater but it is very expensive and so different researches have been conducted to get the adsorption capacity of different forms of adsorbents. These adsorbents can be gotten from agricultural waste, biomass, …

Factors Affecting Minimum Dissolved Oxygen Concentration In Streams, Chistopher Robert Huhnke

ETD Archive

Modeling water quality has been shown to be a useful tool in strategizing water quality management. Dissolved oxygen (DO) has one of the largest impacts on water quality compared to other parameters. The purpose of the dissertation research is to generate a regression equation model, using the US EPA QUAL2K model as the base, to determine different factors affecting minimum dissolved oxygen concentrations in streams, to determine the critical distance for the minimum dissolved oxygen concentration, and the magnitude of impact of each parameter. Based on regression analysis, the factors affecting minimum DO in river water are effluent biochemical oxygen …

Adsorption And Microfiltration Processes To Treat Dye And Coffee Wastewater., Abhiram Siva Prasad Pamula

ETD Archive

Wastewater from coffee processing industry creates high biological and chemical oxygen demand in the surface water. In addition to coffee wastewater from coffee industry, dyes from textile industry enter surface water affecting water quality in terms of transmissivity of light. Adsorption is an economical wastewater treatment process to remove color from dye and coffee wastewater. In the current thesis, adsorption using low-cost adsorbents like peanut hull and onion peel are used to treat combined dye and coffee wastewater. Three representative dyes including acid black 48, disperse yellow 3, crystal violet certified with processed coffee is used in preparing batch adsorption …

Analysis Of Micromixers To Minimize Scaling Effects On Reverse Osmosis Membranes, Jeremy Walker

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

ANALYSIS OF MICROMIXERS TO MINIMIZE SCALING EFFECTS ON REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANES

by

Jeremy Walker

December 2018

Advisor: Dr. Shawn McElmurry

Major: Civil Engineering

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Structural elements, typically mesh spacers, are required between membrane leaves in spiral

wound elements to ensure flow through reverse osmosis (RO) modules. The standard diamond-shaped

mesh spacer results in non-ideal hydrodynamics that can lead to fouling, which ultimately reduces the

flux of water through the membrane and the operational life of the unit. Additionally, traditional mesh

feed spacers do not allow for reverse flow cleaning due to obstructed flow paths and, once …

The Social, Educational, And Market Scenario For Nzeb In Europe, Evangelia Topriska, Maria Kolokotroni, Daniela Melandri, Simon Mcguinness, Andrei Ceclan, Georgios C. Christoforidis, Fazio Vittoria, Maria Hadjpannayi, Patrick Hendrick, Marija Kacarska, López Lopez, Kaj Leonhart Petersen, Jutta Steinbrecher

Articles

Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) are a significant part of the energy efficiency strategy of the European Union. As buildings represent approximately 40% of the final energy use in Europe, the reduction of their energy demand is key for a sustainable future. This paper takes a qualitative approach and presents data about professional and market barriers, as well as the educational market in relation to the implementation of nZEB policies for new and retrofit buildings in 11 European countries. Different levels of policy enactments and market penetration are reported and are generally found to be more advanced in western and …

Integrated Strategies For Sustainable Wastewater-Based Algal Biofuel Production And Environmental Mitigation In The Us, Javad Roostaei

Wayne State University Dissertations

Integration of algae cultivation with wastewater treatment has received increasing interest as a cost-effective strategy for biofuel production. However, there has been no full assessment of algal biofuel production with wastewater on macro-scale by taking into account wastewater resources, land availability, CO2 emission resources, and geographic variation. This research addressed and evaluated the use of wastewater for algae cultivation, in terms of modeling and laboratory experiments. The first goal of this research was to develop a spatially explicit lifecycle model, by integrating life cycle assessment (LCA), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, for the evaluation of the environmental and economic …

Evaluating The Integration Of Chlorine Dioxide Into A Coagulation, Sedimentation, And Filtration Process Treating Surface Water, Martin Coleman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Methods of optimizing the coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration (CSF) process at a conventional surface water treatment plant (WTP) were conducted to investigate opportunities for the reduction of disinfection by-product (DBP) precursor material. The research had two primary components: (1) optimize coagulant dosage and associated operating pH and (2) investigate pretreatment oxidation with chlorine dioxide (ClO2) and potassium permanganate (KMnO4). To accomplish the first component, jar tests were conducted at various pH and aluminum sulfate (alum) dosages to model current and potential treatment conditions during the CSF process at a WTP. Isopleths were developed to examine the removal efficiencies of …

Harmful Algal Bloom Mitigating Using Recycled Concrete Aggregate Coated With Fixed-Quat., Ikenna Ezeodurukwe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human activities generate surplus nutrients which may lead to algal bloom events in water resources along with serious ecological problems and thus substantial economic losses. Particularly, harmful algal blooms (HABs) represent toxic cyanobacterial blooms which produce cyanotoxins. The primary concerns of HABs are the exposures to a wide variety of cyanotoxins via ingestion of contaminated drinking water, inhalation during recreational activities, and consumption of contaminated fish and shellfish. However, conventional physical and chemical methods are not always possible to efficiently handle these HABs events. It is urgent to develop viable and rapid solutions to control HABs in field and mitigate …

Treatment Of Leachate Organic Matter Through Sunlight Driven Processes, Duncan Lozinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability to manage leachate during post-closure care (PCC) of a landfill may be increasingly difficult as leachate organic matter (LOM) becomes recalcitrant when a landfill ages, requiring advanced and costly treatment technologies. This research investigated the ability to treat LOM through sunlight driven processes, with a focus on photolysis, to provide insight to landfill owners and operators on the potential of wetlands treatment as a means for reducing long-term risks and costs associated with leachate treatment during PCC. The study was completed in eight batch tests, where leachate was exposed to natural sunlight in central Florida for a period …

Cost And Environmental Impacts Of Leachate Nitrogen/Phosphorus Management Approaches, Alaa Alanezi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Landfill leachate is a challenging wastewater to discharge into municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), the most common approach for leachate management, due to the presence of contaminants that may affect the performance of the treatment plant. Treatment, disposal, and transportation of leachate are expensive and therefore a concern. Currently, sidestream treatment is becoming increasingly common in WWTPs prior to returning the liquid to the plant influent. For this research, a new treatment scheme is introduced combining centrate and leachate to reduce contaminants, recover phosphorous and nitrogen through struvite precipitation, and reduce energy requirements through anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox). By combining …

Disinfection By-Product Reduction Study Of A Small Central Florida Public Water System, Paul Staubus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The disinfection of water for potabilization has proven to be one of the most significant public achievements of the 20th century. Although chemical disinfectants are successfully utilized to inactivate acute pathogenic organisms, they may react with natural organic matter (NOM) to produce potentially-harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs). As a result, the United States Environmental Protection Agency regulates DBPs such as total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). The research herein is focused on the formation, removal, and control of TTHMs and HAAs in a small public water system (PWS) in Polk County, Florida (County). Pilot-scale tests were implemented to determine the …

Vegetation Mapping Of A Coastal Dune Complex Using Multispectral Imagery Acquired From An Unmanned Aerial System, C. Suo, Eugene Mcgovern, Alan Gilmer

Conference Papers

Vegetation mapping, identifying the distribution of plant species, is important for analysing vegetation dynamics, quantifying spatial patterns of vegetation evolution, analysing the effects of environment changes on vegetation, and predicting spatial patterns of species diversity. Such analysis can contribute to the development of targeted land management actions that maintain biodiversity and ecological functions. This paper represents a methodology for 3D vegetation mapping of a coastal dune complex using a multispectral camera mounted on an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) with particular reference to the Buckroney dune complex in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. UAS, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) or drones, …