Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Leveraging Data Science To Promote Sustainable Resource Recovery From Organic Waste Streams In Rural Regions, Mohammed Tamim Zaki

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Conventional organic waste management practices such as landfilling contribute to global warming and degrade environmental and human health. Alternatively, organic waste can be treated to recover energy, nutrients, and carbon through resource recovery technologies. Data science could benefit such technologies by improving their efficiency through data-driven process modeling along with reducing environmental and economic burdens via life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA), respectively.

A critical review of 616 peer-reviewed articles published during 2002–2022 was conducted on the use of data science methods in resource recovery from organic waste. Although applications of machine learning (ML) methods have drastically increased …

Valorization Of Xylan In Agroforestry Waste Streams, Harrison Appiah

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Valorization of Xylan in Agroforestry Waste Streams.

Harrison Appiah

Microwave-assisted deep eutectic solvent and gamma-valerolactone metallic chloride catalyzed conversion of xylan to furfural were investigated using a 2x3 factorial experimental design at two levels of percent microwave power, reaction time, and catalyst concentration. The levels of each factor studied were (20%, 60% microwave power, 2, 4 minutes, and 10, 20mg) respectively. The effect of three metallic chloride catalysts (LiCl, FeCl3.6H20, CuCl2) on the conversion of xylan to furfural was also investigated. The gamma-valerolactone-ferric chloride sent system exhibited the highest mean yield of furfural (56.50%). The next highest furfural yield of …

Integrated Techno-Economic And Life Cycle Analyses Of Biomass Utilization For Value-Added Bioproducts In The Northeastern United States, Yuxi Wang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A multi-stage spatial analysis was first conducted to select locations for lignocellulosic biomass-based bioproduct facility, using Geographical Information System (GIS) spatial analysis, multi-criteria analysis ranking algorithm, and social-economic assessment. A case study was developed to determine locations for lignocellulosic biorefineries using feedstocks including forest residue biomass and three energy crops for 13 states in the northeastern United States. In the entire study area, 11.1% of the counties are high-suitable, 48.8% are medium-suitable for biorefinery siting locations. A non-parametric analysis of cross-group surveys showed that preferences on biorefinery siting are homogeneous for experts in academia and industry groups, but people in …

Lignocellulosic Biomass Derived Activated Carbon For Energy Storage And Adsorption, Changle Jiang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Lignocellulosic biomass has been converted to hierarchical porous carbon materials which possess macro-, meso- and micro-pores. The natural structure of porous lignocellulosic structure was preserved during activation with further developed porosity by the activation. The activated carbon can be well applied to electrochemical double layer capacitor for transportation storage of ions as well as adsorbent materials for metal ion removal from wastewater.

The first chapter of this dissertation presents an introduction of biomass derived carbon and its applications. In the second chapter, both direct and indirect activation methods using carbon dioxide were adopted in this study. The results show that …

Characteristics Of Activated Carbons Produced From Herbaceous Biomass Feedstock, Oluwatosin Jerry Oginni

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Energy security and environmental protection are at the forefront of research due to the forecasted depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the growing concern of its adverse environmental impacts. The use of renewable sources for energy applications has centered on the use of biomass feedstocks and this include from herbaceous, woody, agricultural waste, forest residues and municipal wastes. The thermochemical conversion (pyrolysis) of these biomass feedstocks has potential to produce liquid fuel, a solid residue (biochar) and non-condensable gas. The biochar is primarily composed of renewable porous carbon and other inorganic compounds. The biochar is used for soil amendment, adsorption …