Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Modeling The Effects Of Distribution System Topology On Water Quality, Chun-Ying Chao

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Inadequate treatment of drinking water causes the formation of disinfection by-products and the regrowth of harmful microbial species. Various studies have addressed the problem of water quality monitoring, but very few have employed topological analysis, a valuable mathematical tool widely applied in biological, business, and social research. This thesis examines the relationship between the topological properties of water distribution systems and water-quality models. In particular, the research proposes a novel framework for mapping network topological attributes to water-quality models. This research adopts topological metrics to assess the accuracy of the predictions of chlorine concentrations in dead ends. It examines four …

Silver-Based Microbial Check Valve For Spacecraft Potable Water Systems, Tanner Burns

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

As human space exploration increases, the development of a more efficient potable water treatment system suited for spacecraft becomes crucial. This Waste-management Education Research Consortium (WERC) challenge was designed to explore the viability of microbial control through the utilization of silver ions as a biocide for possible integration into the Tranquility Node 3 water purification system aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Current systems using iodine risk causing hyperthyroidism from overexposure; however, silver can be safely ingested without this side effect. After researching silver delivery methods including electrochemical ion production, controlled release, or a combination of the two, our team …

Effects Of Reservoir Conditions And Trace Co-Contaminant Gases On Geological Carbon Sequestration, Ram Kumar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Geological carbon sequestration in a saline formation is a promising technology for large-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation. Several factors such as temperature, pressure, salinity, hydraulic conductivity, and mineralogy of a formation affect the CO2 sequestration in saline formations. These factors can vary widely depending upon the type of formation or the degree of heterogeneity within a formation. In addition to these properties of the repositories, the CO2-rich flue gas streams captured from point sources often contains small amounts of impurities such as sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which may have serious implications on the chemistry of the repositories …

Application Of A Biodegradable And Recyclable Chelating Agent For Ash Removal From Algae, Temitope George Daramola

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Ash is inherent in algae biomass and it causes operational difficulties, equipment failure, and disposal issues during biomass conversion to biofuels and bioproducts. The objectives of this study are to (i) investigate the use of the biodegradable chelating agent for reducing ash content of algae and (ii) evaluate the potential of regeneration and recycle of the chelating agent for multiple uses. Conventionally, ethylenediamine-tetraacetic acid (EDTA) has been studied extensively to remove ash from biomass. However, EDTA is non-biodegradable and causes environmental issues at the disposal.

Nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) is a biodegradable chelating agent and was used in this study for …

Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation Reactions Of Lipids, Alexander Asiedu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of lipids was investigated using 2-propanol as hydrogen donor for producing liquid hydrocarbons, e.g. jet fuels. The main sources of lipids selected in this study were waste cooking oil (WCO) and oil-laden algae-derived biofuel intermediate (BI). Two different catalysts were employed in this study, namely activated carbon and trimetallic-doped zeolite.

The CTH reaction was between WCO and 2-propanol in a continuous flow reactor over a packed-bed activated carbon at near atmospheric pressure. Results revealed a high level of alkenes and aromatics compounds, which are not stable and are not environmentally unfriendly. To reduce these compounds in …

Role Of Submicrometer Particles In Advanced Technologies Of Carbon Capture, Zhichao Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Oxy-combustion and post-combustion carbon capture technologies are two of the most promising strategies for carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is a commonly accepted approach to address the challenge of climate change. Pressurized oxy-combustion has been actively studied due to its great potential to enhance the power plant energy efficiency by recovering latent heat from water vapor condensation without incurring additional gas compression cost. On the other hand, amine-based CO2 scrubbers have been demonstrated to have high removal efficiency of CO2 with the possibility to recycle amine solutions, which makes the technology a promising candidate for post-combustion carbon capture. Nonetheless, …

Role Of Submicrometer Particles In Advanced Technologies Of Carbon Capture, Zhichao Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Oxy-combustion and post-combustion carbon capture technologies are two of the most promising strategies for carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is a commonly accepted approach to address the challenge of climate change. Pressurized oxy-combustion has been actively studied due to its great potential to enhance the power plant energy efficiency by recovering latent heat from water vapor condensation without incurring additional gas compression cost. On the other hand, amine-based CO2 scrubbers have been demonstrated to have high removal efficiency of CO2 with the possibility to recycle amine solutions, which makes the technology a promising candidate for post-combustion carbon capture. Nonetheless, …

Biomethane Production From Distillery Wastewater, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Distillery wastewater treatment is a great ecological problem, for example, India produces 2.7 billion liters of alcohol that results in 40 billion liters of wastewater. However, this material can be seen as a resource since 11 million cubic meters of biogas at 60% methane could be produced in addition to cleaning the water. The distillery has two options of what to do with the biogas. The first is to use the biogas to fuel the distillery making the production plant more energy efficient and removing some of the need to buy natural gas. The other is to upgrade the biogas …

Electrochemically Reactive Membranes For Efficient Biomass Recovery, Pollutant Degradation And Commercialization, Likun Hua

Dissertations

Micropollution in natural waters such as rivers and groundwater aquifers is a widespread problem that prevents these potentially potable sources from being used as drinking water. In the United States, approximately two-thirds of the over 1,200 most serious hazardous waste sites in the nation are contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), a potentially carcinogenic compound. Other emerging and environmentally persistent organic micropollutants include polyromantic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organophosphate flame retardants, endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Membrane filtration is one of the most efficient separation processes widely used for water treatment and pollutant removal. However, traditional membrane …

How Moisture Content Levels And Packing Density In Soil Affect Crude Oil Spreads, Shaylin N. Williams

Venture: The University of Mississippi Undergraduate Research Journal

Crude oil spills are one of the most destructive disasters that can occur, and they are extremely difficult to recover from. Many studies focus on what can be done to clean these crude oil spills, but more research should be focused on means of prevention. Currently, very little is known about how the moisture content levels and the packing efficiency of soil can affect an oil spill. These two factors alone can offer a variety of information to environmental agencies, manufacturers, and refineries. Through utilization of a chemical engineering lab, a recording mechanism, and ImagePro software, data was collected and …

Removal And Reuse Of Phosphorus As A Fertilizer From Cafo Runoff, Hannah Young

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Eutrophication is the process in which nutrient saturated waters promote algal blooms on the surface of the water. This limits the amount of dissolved oxygen content in the water, effectively limiting the range of species that can survive in a body of water. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) can contribute to this issue. The animals in a CAFO produce large amounts of nutrient-rich waste streams that can enter natural waterways if not properly managed and increase the problem of eutrophication. The ability to treat these waste streams and recover the excess nutrients would allow for not only the reduction of …

Removal And Reuse Of Phosphorus As A Fertilizer From Cafo Runoff, Kristin Moore

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Eutrophication is the process in which nutrient saturated waters promote algal blooms on the surface of the water. This limits the amount of dissolved oxygen content in the water, effectively limiting the range of species that can survive in a body of water. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) can contribute to this issue. The animals in a CAFO produce large amounts of nutrient-rich waste streams that can enter natural waterways if not properly managed and increase the problem of eutrophication. The ability to treat these waste streams and recover the excess nutrients would allow for not only the reduction of …

Modeling Of Leakage Through Fault-Zone Structures In Co2 Geological Storage, Dayna Rodriguez Zambrano

LSU Master's Theses

Faults intersecting target geological CO₂ storage zones have important implications for storage integrity. Potential leakage pathways due to fluid over-pressurization are investigated in this project to ensure long-term containment of injected CO₂. Numerical flow simulations coupled with a geomechanical module are presented in this work with the purpose of determining the extent of CO₂ up-fault migration, the driving mechanisms of leakage and the corresponding response of quantified pore pressure and stress variations.

This study uses dual-continuum models performed by using CMG (2017) to correctly account of flow through fractures in a fault damage zone. Numerical simulations …

Synthesis, Characterization And Applications Of Reduced Graphene Oxide And Composite Membranes For Selective Separations And Removal Of Organic Contaminants, Ashish Aher

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Among the next generation materials being investigated for membrane development, partially reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) has received increasing attention from the membrane community. rGO-based nanofiltration membranes have shown promising results in applications such as partial desalination, organic contaminant removal, gas-phase separations, and separations from solvent media. rGO offers a unique platform compared to common polymeric membranes since it can be used for separation applications in both aqueous and organic solvent media. An rGO-based platform could also be utilized to synthesize reactive membranes, giving rGO membranes the additional capability of reactively removing organic contaminants. This research focuses on the synthesis of …

Prevention Of Harmful Algal Blooms By The Mitigation Of Phosphorus Nutrient Loading Via Filtration By Steel Wool And Activated Carbon, Ronald Simpson, Sara Kidd, Samantha Zidd

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are a devastating ecological and economic consequence of the abundance of nutrient-rich agricultural runoff entering aquatic ecosystems (Baker et al. 2014). Bio-available phosphorus from synthetic fertilizers is one of the major nutrients contributing to this global issue. Previous studies indicated that dissolved phosphorus can be removed from an aqueous environment when passed through a composite mixture of granular steel wool particles and activated carbon (Erickson, Gulliver, and Weiss, 2007). In this project, we conducted experiments using higher quality concentration measurements to determine what grades of steel wool (SW-0000, SW-000, SW-00) and types of activated carbon (granulated …

Experimental And Numerical Characterization Of Multiphase Subsurface Oil Release, Feng Gao

Dissertations

Subsurface oil release is commonly encountered in the natural environment and engineering applications and has received the substantial attention of researchers after the disastrous Deepwater Horizon Blowout oil spill in 2009. The main focus on the present research is to systematically study the hydrodynamics of underwater oil jet under a variety of conditions, including the effect of dispersant and different gas to oil ratios (GOR) by using experimental measurement as well as a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach, from which the measured turbulent characteristics (e.g., velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulence dissipation rate, etc.) of underwater oil jet are thoroughly examined …

Mechanisms Of Calcium Phosphate Mineralization On Biological Interfaces And Their Engineering Applications, Doyoon Kim

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

All living organisms utilize phosphorus (P) as an essential component of their cell membranes, DNA and RNA, and adenosine triphosphate. Bones, in addition to bearing loads, play an important role in balancing P levels in our bodies. In bones, a network of collagen templates and calcium phosphate (CaP) nanocrystals builds hierarchical levels, from nano- to macroscale. Within this architecture, the thermodynamic properties of CaP minerals are influential. Despite the importance of nucleation, growth, and crystallization in collagen structures for tissue development, little kinetic study of these processes has been conducted due to the limited in situ techniques for monitoring these …

Community-Scale Water Treatment Systems In The Dominican Republic, Jonathan Racey, Annabelle Papai, Elise Fischer, Becca Johnson

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

Engagement and Service-Learning Summit: Reciprocal and Sustainable Partnerships

Synthesis Of Crumpled Graphene And Titanium Dioxide Based–Nanomaterials And The Application To Carbon Dioxide Photoreduction, Yao Nie

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

With the rapid development of the economy, increasing combustion of fossils fuels has caused an increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) level, and has led to global climate change. As a mitigation approach, CO2 capture and conversion (CCC) can not only capture CO2, but also convert it to useable products, such as hydrocarbon fuels. Photocatalytic reduction is an attractive CCC option that directly harnesses inexpensive and abundant solar energy. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a widely used semiconductor for photocatalysis, and graphene nanosheets are a promising material for use in fabricating graphene-TiO2 hybridized photocatalysts. To realize the application of these …

Developing Multi-Scale Models For Water Quality Management In Drinking Water Distribution Systems, Ahmed A. Abokifa

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Drinking water supply systems belong to the group of critical infrastructure systems that support the socioeconomic development of our modern societies. In addition, drinking water infrastructure plays a key role in the protection of public health by providing a common access to clean and safe water for all our municipal, industrial, and firefighting purposes. Yet, in the United States, much of our national water infrastructure is now approaching the end of its useful life while investments in its replacement and rehabilitation have been consistently inadequate. Furthermore, the aging water infrastructure has often been operated empirically, and the embracement of modern …

Dynamic Modeling Of An Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, Komal Rathore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advanced wastewater treatment plants have complex biological kinetics, time variant influent rates and long processing times. The modeling and operation control of wastewater treatment plant gets complicated due to these characteristics. However, a robust operational system for a wastewater treatment plant is necessary to increase the efficiency of the plant, reduce energy cost and achieve environmental discharge limits. These discharge limits are set by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants to limit the amount of nutrients being discharged into the aquatic systems.

This document summarizes the research to develop a supervisory operational …

Stretchable Methyl Ammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cells For Photovoltaic And Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting, William Tait

University Scholar Projects

The goal of this work was to fabricate an inverse planar perovskite solar cell (PSC) that was stretchable in one dimension and completely solution-processible. Perovskites are a material that have attracted much attention in recent years due to their appealing characteristics, such as being photovoltaic and piezoelectric. PSCs have been the focus of many studies in the solar cell area, as they are solution-processible and have shown high efficiencies relative to the amount of time they have been studied. Fabricating a PSC on a stretchable substrate would be beneficial, as a bendable, stretchable PSC would likely have more applications than …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Fundamental Studies Of Solid-Fuel Combustion Using A Two-Stage Flat-Flame Burner, Adewale Ayodeji Adeosun

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Innovative coal technologies are essential for addressing concerns about air pollution and global climate change. A key pathway to advancing these technologies is through developing a thorough understanding of the fundamental physical and chemical processes that occur during coal combustion. Ignition influences many aspects of coal combustion, including flame stability, submicron aerosol evolution, and char burnout. As important as ignition and these associated processes are, they are challenging to study because they depend on many factors, such as the combustion environment, particle size, and particle-particle interactions.

While there have been many studies of coal ignition, none have studied the process …

Direct Potable Reuse Of Wastewater, Dakota Rusk, Molly Churchwell, Lauren Clark, Sabrina Castle, Boyce Bethel, Aaron Henry

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water is essential to our societies and mankind. Currently, 844 million people across the globe lack access to potable water. By 2025, it is projected that half of the world population will be in a region of water stress. The water crisis is often thought of as a problem limited to places that have always struggled to have clean water, but it is now affecting new areas such as the southwest United States. With increasing population demands and drought, the feasibility of direct potable reuse (DPR) of wastewater is being considered. According to an EPA report in 2017, there are …

Direct Potable Reuse Of Wastewater, Aaron Henry, Molly Churchwell, Lauren Clark, Boyce Bethel, Dakota Rusk, Sabrina Castle

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water is essential to our societies and mankind. Currently, 844 million people across the globe lack access to potable water. By 2025, it is projected that half of the world population will be in a region of water stress.5 The water crisis is often thought of as a problem limited to places that have always struggled to have clean water, but it is now affecting new areas such as the southwest United States. With increasing population demands and drought, the feasibility of direct potable reuse (DPR) of wastewater is being considered. According to an EPA report in 2017, there are …

Direct Potable Reuse Of Wastewater, Lauren Clark

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water is essential to our societies and mankind. Currently, 844 million people across the globe lack access to potable water. By 2025, it is projected that half of the world population will be in a region of water stress.⁵ The water crisis is often thought of as a problem limited to places that have always struggled to have clean water, but it is now affecting new areas such as the southwest United States. With increasing population demands and drought, the feasibility of direct potable reuse (DPR) of wastewater is being considered. According to an EPA report in 2017, there …

Direct Potable Reuse Of Wastewater, Sabrina Castle

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water is essential to our societies and mankind. Currently, 844 million people across the globe lack access to potable water. By 2025, it is projected that half of the world population will be in a region of water stress.5 The water crisis is often thought of as a problem limited to places that have always struggled to have clean water, but it is now affecting new areas such as the southwest United States. With increasing population demands and drought, the feasibility of direct potable reuse (DPR) of wastewater is being considered. According to an EPA report in 2017, there are …

Direct Potable Reuse Of Wastewater, Molly Churchwell

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water is essential to our societies and mankind. Currently, 844 million people across the globe lack access to potable water. By 2025, it is projected that half of the world population will be in a region of water stress.5 The water crisis is often thought of as a problem limited to places that have always struggled to have clean water, but it is now affecting new areas such as the southwest United States. With increasing population demands and drought, the feasibility of direct potable reuse (DPR) of wastewater is being considered. According to an EPA report in 2017, there are …

Removal Of Carbamazepine From Drinking Water, Jordan Alex Gadberry, Adam Johnson, Juan Rodriguez, Paola Marrero-Rivera, Tom Krumpolc, Zach Wiese

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the increasing prevalence of prescription medication over the past few decades, pharmaceuticals have accumulated in various water sources. This has become a public health concern because many pharmaceuticals have limited research on the effects of chronic low-level exposure. According to the World’s Health Organization (WHO), traces of pharmaceuticals products have been reported in different water sources such as surface waters, wastewater, groundwater, and drinking water.^[1] One pharmaceutical of interest that has been detected in water sources is carbamazepine. Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a common pharmaceutical prescribed for the treatment of seizure disorders, neuropathic pain, and various psychological disorders. …