Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Lc-Ms/Ms Quantitative Method For Trace Analysis Of Pesticides In Urban/Suburban Water Wells In Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, And Waukesha Counties In Wisconsin, Dulay Manuel Trujillo

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to develop a LC-MS/MS analytical method to quantitate aselection of pesticides that included: 2,4−dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid (2,4-D), carbaryl, dicamba, imidacloprid, malathion, 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA), and methylchlorophenoxypropionic acid (MCPP). Chromatographic and mass spectrum conditions were optimized by analyzing full scans, selected ion monitoring (SIM) scans, product ion (PI) scans, which developed a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) scan. Additionally, a pretreatment and cleanup strategy was designed and optimized using liquid-liquid extraction. The method demonstrated acceptable mean percent recovery of 83.2% ±12.56% at a spiked level of 10 ng/mL. The developed quantitative method was applied to groundwater from …

Sustainability In Construction: Using Lean Management Principles To Reduce Waste, Matthew Waite

Theses and Dissertations

The construction industry is facing many challenges. There are growing consumer demands for sustainable building. The construction industry generates a significant portion of the waste going into landfills. The construction industry has failed to keep pace with productivity in the manufacturing industry. Through adoption of Lean management principles, the construction industry can become more sustainable while increasing productivity. The literature was evaluated for three concepts: Lean management principles interaction with sustainability, the current state of sustainability in the construction industry, and the current state of Lean management principles in the construction industry. Lean management philosophies interactions with sustainability has been …

Development Of A Hydrodynamic And Sediment Transport Model For Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Bahram Khazaei

Theses and Dissertations

Sediment dynamics are strongly linked with biogeochemical and physical changes in estuarine systems. Understanding the links between sediment processes and ecosystem responses is necessary for the restoration of degraded systems. Located in Northern US, and one of the largest freshwater estuaries on earth, Green Bay is a distinct example of these degraded systems. Rapid development and anthropogenic activities increased nutrient loading rates into the bay and led to a major disruption of the pre-existing biogeochemical regimes in the ecosystem. Contaminated and nutrient-rich sediments were discharged to the bay by the Fox River for almost half a century. Green Bay’s seasonal-, …

Underwater Particle Image Velocimetry (Piv) Measurement Of Turbulence Over Mussel Bed In A Deepsite Of Lake Michigan, Tong Jin

Theses and Dissertations

The influence of the benthic filter feeders, such as bivalves, on ecosystem plankton, and nutrient dynamics is considered significant in shallow marine and freshwater systems. Recent indirect evidence showed that the profundal quagga mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) have fundamentally altered energy flow and dynamics of nutrients and phytoplankton in Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes. To investigate the phytoplankton grazing rate of the quagga mussel and the mussel siphon currents induced bio-mixing, a self-contained in situ Underwater Particle Image Velocimetry was developed to measure the turbulence structure and the turbulent diffusion coefficient immediately above the profundal quagga mussel covered substrate …

Construction Of Bismuth Oxyhallide-Based Heterojunction-Structured Composite And Its Environmental Application For Water Treatment, Li Wang

Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid development of the global economy, environmental protection and sustainable development have become the main trends of current society. In particular, water pollution and energy shortage are outstanding issues that need to be solved in a clean and sustainable way. Recently, semiconductor-based photocatalytic technology, an environmentally friendly technique, has attracted enormous attention and become an emerging research hotspot in the application of water/wastewater treatment and generation of renewable energy as it can convert infinite solar energy into chemical energy. Conventional semiconductor materials usually have a relatively large band gap that only responds to the ultraviolet light, which largely …

Biogas Quality Improvement Using Water Wash And Phosphorus Recovery As Struvite In Jones Island Wwtp, Md Abul Bashar

Theses and Dissertations

Raw biogas from anaerobic digestion has a methane content of 50 to 60% and a carbon dioxide content of 40 to 50% on a molar basis (Bortoluzzi, Gatti, Sogni, & Consonni, 2014). Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD)’s Jones Island Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) uses the biogas supplied from South Shore WWTP in drying Milorganite, a slow-release phosphate fertilizer. But with only 45% methane, the gas cannot be used for sophisticated purposes. To maximize its potential as energy source, the methane content must be upgraded to its market competitor natural gas. Based on simulation results from Aspen Plus software - …

Modelling Of Dreissenid Mussel Impacts On Lake Michigan, Chunqi Shen

Theses and Dissertations

Invasive dreissenid mussel appear to have profoundly altered Great Lakes food webs and nutrient cycles during the past several decades. Recent declines of phytoplankton were supposed to be highly related with the increase of mussel population. These phytoplankton declines were further found to be coincident with declines in the abundance of planktivorous fish. In addition, the resurgence of Cladophora in Great lakes was estimated to be associated with the high density colonization of mussels. More light is available at lake bottom due to the mussels’ graze effect. The mussels further promote Cladophora growth by fertilizing it with nutrient-rich excrement. And …

Influence Of Permeate From Domestic Reverse Osmosis Filters On Lead Corrosion And Leaching From Plastic Pipes, Jyotsna Shrestha

Theses and Dissertations

Reverse Osmosis filters are gaining popularity nowadays, in domestic water supply system, to meet the increasing demand of pure and improved drinking water. There are various types of domestic RO filters with varying sizes, capacities, and treatment stages available. However, there exist a few concerns regarding the RO treatment system. One of the major issues in the quality and distribution of drinking water is the corrosive water that the RO system produces. Therefore, this research herein tends to focus on the corrosive effect of the permeate water on lead metal, as lead is considered a serious problematic drinking water contaminant. …

Hydrodynamic Modeling Of The Green Bay Of Lake Michigan Using The Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code, Paula Estefania Cedillo

Theses and Dissertations

In this project we created a hydrodynamic model of the Lower Green Bay of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, United States using the Visual Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC). The model includes four tributary rivers to Lower Green Bay as well as the open boundary flow conditions at Chambers Island. This case study is used to: 1) compare the results obtained with a previous study of Lower Green Bay to validate the creation of the model 2) examine the hydrodynamics of the bay, and 3) create a framework for future studies at Lower Green Bay. The Geographic Information used to build …

Applications Of Microbial Desalination And Photocatalytic Disinfection For The Removal Of Contaminants In Drinking Water, Kristen Shirlee-Ann Brastad

Theses and Dissertations

Trends in drinking water treatment in recent years have been moving toward the use of membrane separation in order to reduce contaminants in water. There are many forms of membrane separation technology such as ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and extruded ion exchange membranes. These membranes have many different applications and may be used to remove many materials from water such as salts, viruses and bacteria, selectively remove cations or anions, or remove organics.

Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) are an emerging concept which use bioelectric potential produced from organics via microbial metabolism to accomplish desalination. MDCs consist of three compartments, …

Investigation Of Application Niche For Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Using Microbial Fuel Cells, Patrick Thomas Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

Microbial fuel cells represent a sustainable wastewater treatment technology due to its simultaneous treatment of contaminants and electricity production. Selection of suitable substrates is important to identifying proper application of microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology. In this work, four identical MFCs were used to treat the wastes sampled from different stages of a cheese wastewater treatment process, and both treatment performance and energy balance were examined. The two MFCs treating liquid wastes achieved more than 80% removal of total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD), while the other two MFCs fed with sludge or cheese whey removed about 60% of TCOD. The …

Sediment Microbial Fuel Cell As Sustainable Power Resource, Ananta Kothapalli

Theses and Dissertations

This research demonstrates that Ceratophyllum demersum a root less non vascular aquatic plant has negatively affected the power generation from a Sediment Microbial Fuel cell (SMFC). In SMFC the reduced organic matter in the sediment in water produces electrons, which reduces oxygen. Whereas in Plant SMFC continuous supply of organic matter to the anode is done by rhizodeposition (root exudates). Six SMFCs were run for more than 3 months to see the effect of plants, pH and temperature on power generation. Out of six only two SMFC showed stable data. The maximum power density 18 ± 1mW/m3 was generated from …

Effects Of Phosphate On The Transport Of Escherichia Coli In Saturated Quartz Sand, Nan Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Bacterial deposition and survival in porous media is a crucial phenomenon in various environmental processes including bioremediation, water treatment, and pathogen contamination. The fate of bacteria in porous media may be greatly influenced by ionic strength and phosphate. Although phosphate is widespread in the natural environment, the influence of phosphate on the transport of three strains of ESCHERICHIA COLI O157:H7 cells in the groundwater system remains unknown.

Experiments were performed in saturated sand packed columns with and without phosphate to examine the transport of bacteria, deposition rate coefficient, interaction energy between bacteria and sand, and bacteria surface charge.

Experimental results …