Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Membrane Ultrafiltration Of Treated Palm Oil Mill Effluent (Pome), Pui Wah Wong

Student Works (2000-2009)

The common practice for treatment of palm oil effluent (POME) in Malaysia employs a combination of aerobic and an anaerobic treatment. Bearing in mind that the quantity of POME produced is high, reaching 740 000 m3 in May 2001, reuse and recycling of treated POME can be an excellent practice in terms of saving of water resources. As the treated POME is already low in certain parameters required by the Department of Environment (i.e. BOD, total and ammoniacal nitrogen, oil and grease), further treatment will greatly enhance the water quality. The purpose of the advance treatment step is to allow …

Biological Reduction Of Perchlorate In Ion Exchange Regenerant Solutions Containing High Salinity And Ammonium Levels, Tina M. Gingras, Jacimaria R. Batista

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

The most promising technologies to remove perchlorate from water are ion exchange and biological reduction. Although successful, ion exchange only separates perchlorate from water; it does not eliminate it from the environment. The waste streams from these systems contain the caustic or saline regenerant solutions used in the process as well as high levels of perchlorate. Biological reduction could be used to treat the regenerant waste solutions from the ion exchange process. A treatment scheme, combining ion exchange and biodegradation, is proposed to completely remove perchlorate from the environment. Perchlorate-laden resins generate brines containing salt concentrations up to 6% or …

A Dynamic Simulation Model Of Beach Sand Replenishment: A Case Study Of Santa Barbara, California, David Turbow, Steve Norwick, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Sediment deprivation from dam installments contributes to beach erosion yet the underlying physical and economic factors linking them together have traditionally been isolated during regional planning. In order to gain a better understanding of the behavior of a managed beach system, a dynamic simulation model was developed incorporating physical and monetary factors influencing the amount of available beach sand. The Santa Barbara littoral cell was chosen as a case study to evaluate the feasibility of beach preservation goals under scenarios in which annual sand replenishment funding, sand prices, or sediment recovery from behind dams were limiting factors to available beach …

A Model For Palladium Catalyzed Destruction Of Chlorinated Ethenes In Contaminated Groundwater, Christopher M. Stoppel

Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater contamination by chlorinated ethenes is a widespread environmental problem. Conventional remediation technologies have shortcomings that have prompted further research into the development of novel treatment technologies. A palladium/ alumina catalyst in the presence of dissolved molecular hydrogen (referred to hereafter as a PD/H₂ system) has been demonstrated to rapidly destroy chlorinated ethene contaminated groundwater. First-order kinetics have been used to model chlorinated ethene destruction in a PD/H₂ reactor. However, catalyst deactivation and regeneration are important processes that also need to be modeled in order to better understand their effect on treatment efficiency. This study presents a model …

Determining The Value Of Groundwater Contamination Source Removal: A Methodology, Benjamin C. Recker

Theses and Dissertations

Subsurface contamination by industrial chemicals is one of the most prevalent and costly environmental problems facing the United States government. This contamination problem must be managed to protect human health and the environment. Two basic strategies are used to deal with subsurface contamination: source removal and contaminant containment. While much cost and performance data are available for individual technologies associated with each of these strategies, there have been very few studies that have examined the benefits of implementing source removal technologies in order to reduce contaminant containment (and hopefully total) costs. This study examines the tradeoff between extent of source …

Quantitative Validation Of A Model Of Chlorinated Ethene Natural Attenuation, Harold C. Young

Theses and Dissertations

Chlorinated ethenes are among the most prevalent groundwater contaminants at hazardous waste sites nationwide. In an attempt to manage the risks posed by these contaminants, while controlling costs, monitored natural attenuation (MNA) is being considered as a remediation strategy at many sites. MNA relies on naturally occurring physical, chemical, and biological processes in the subsurface to reduce the risk posed by the contamination. The implementation of MNA, however, requires a detailed understanding of these processes, and how they impact contamination at a particular site. One way to gain this understanding is through contaminant fate and transport modeling. In this study, …

Waste Management In Palm-Oleo Sdn. Bhd, Ramesh Ramasamy

Student Works (2000-2009)

Oleochemical industry in Malaysia has been diversifying significantly due to the availability of raw materials (palm oil) and the high demand for downstream products such as fatty acids, fatty alcohols and glycerine. The growth of oleochemical industries is further enhanced by fluctuations io petroleum price and regular animal diseases, which made tallow-based fats unreliable. Environmental awareness is growing rapidly in Malaysia. There is growing realization of the need to balance industrial and economic development with environmental preservation and protection, as well as, with efficient use of energy sources in order to achieve sustainable development. Extensive waste management studies were focused …

Comparative Performance Of Wastewater Treatment Plants In Three Rubber Glove Manufacturing Plants, Lee Kuan Loh

Student Works (2000-2009)

During the manufacturing of rubber gloves, water is used as wash water at different stages to clean the rubber gloves, thus generating quite a substantial amount of effluent. There are four main sources of effluent. i.e. a) from the glove formers cleaning tank, which collects the acidified water used to clean these formers, b) latex dipping tank, where it collects wash water used to cool the tank during dipping process and the sludge form the tank itself, c) leaching tank, where it collects wash water used to leach out the pollutants from the gloves and lastly d) latex compounding, containing …

Assessing Methodologies For Identification Of Significant Impacts In The Iso 14001 Ems (Environmental Management Systems), Ann Wye-Wye Wang

Student Works (2000-2009)

ISO 14001 is a voluntary environmental management system specification standard in the ISO 14000 series. It contains those elements that must be satisfied by an organisation seeking registration or certification to the standard. Identification of significant environmental impacts is one of the requirements as stated in clause 4.3.1 of MS ISO 14001 EMS - specification with guidance for use, and is an important step in the implementation of ISO 14001 standard. A study on the methodologies for identification of significant environmental impacts in the ISO 14001 EMS (Environmental Management Systems) was carried out. Three methods that have been developed are …

Studies On The Pollution Parameters Of Leachate From Ampang Landfill, Syed Fatimah Kamal Batcha

Student Works (2000-2009)

ln the first part of the study, the characteristics of the leachate from Ampang landfill, collected before and after the landfill closure was analysed. In general, the characteristics of the Ampang landfill leachate was found to be typical of other landfill leachates in the Klang Valley. The analysis reveals that the Ampang landfill leachate during its active life had high contents of sodium, potassium, chloride and ferum, with concentrations of 687 ppm, 785 ppm, 2500 ppm and 45 ppm respectively. Generally and as expected, the leachate collected before the landfiII closure was found to be more concentrated and contains more …

Development Of A Physico-Chemical Wastewater Treatment Strategy For A Chemical Plant, T. Alagarajah K. Thavarajah

Student Works (2000-2009)

A study was carried out to determine the physico-chemical treatment of the wastewater collected from a soap and detergent factory in Selangor, Malaysia. The study was initiated by determining the characteristics of the wastewater. Treatability studies involving coagulation and flocculation were determined by the jar test method. The parameters of interest were coagulant dosage, pH, mixing intensity, mixing time and settling time. The coagulants were restricted to alum and ferric sulfate and coagulant aids utilized were polyvinyl alcohol, sodium alginate and polycthylcninimine. An extended evaluation to determine the effect of double chemical treatment was also carried out with the most …

Alternative Principal Components Regression Procedures For Dendrohydrologic Reconstructions, Hugo G. Hidalgo, Thomas C. Piechota, John A. Dracup

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Streamflow reconstruction using tree ring information (dendrohydrology) has traditionally used principal components analysis (PCA) and stepwise regression to form a transfer function. However, PCA has several procedural choices that may result in very different reconstructions. This study assesses the different procedures in PCA-based regression and suggests alternative procedures for selection of variables and principal components. Cross-validation statistics are presented as an alternative for independently testing and identifying the optimal model. The objective is to use these statistics as a measure of the model's performance to find a conceptually acceptable model with a low prediction error and the fewest number of …

A Buffered Advection/Dispersion Lake Water Quality Transport Framework For Modeling Lake Gaston Pipeline Intake Water Withdrawal, Lloyd Ashton Gatling

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Water quality response to reservoir water withdrawal is investigated in Pea Hill Arm of Lake Gaston, a non-tidal reservoir tributary, where the point of water withdrawal is in an upstream tributary and influences the direction of tributary flow causing longitudinal velocity null flow conditions to occur. The study also focuses on control of withdrawal rate and timing to optimize both quality of water remaining in the tributary and quantity of water that can be safely withdrawn.

Research was conducted assuming steady state conditions and later under spatial and temporal variability experienced in the reservoir with main lake pool elevation fluctuations …

In Situ Treatment Of Chlorinated Ethene-Contaminated Groundwater Using Horizontal Flow Treatment Wells, Derek R. Ferland

Theses and Dissertations

The limitations of conventional containment technologies for groundwater contaminated with chlorinated solvents have motivated development of innovative technologies to achieve national groundwater remediation objectives. One inn9vative technology that is currently under development involves metal reductants or catalysts to chemically destroy the dissolved chlorinated solvent. Models are important tools that can be used to help transition this technology to the field. Model studies can be used to gain understanding about the technology, help determine when the prospective technology might work for a given site, and design full-scale field applications.

Modeling The Effect Of Nonlinear And Rate-Limited Sorption On The Natural Attenuation Of Chlorinated Ethenes, Peter P. Feng

Theses and Dissertations

Chlorinated solvents like tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) are the most common detected groundwater contaminants at Department of Defense installations in the United States. Unfortunately, technologies conventionally used to remediate chlorinated solvent-contaminated groundwater often fall short of achieving regulatory goals. Natural attenuation of chlorinated solvents offers an alternative remediation strategy that may achieve goals. However, the processes involved with natural attenuation are not fully understood, and this lack of understanding has hindered acceptance of natural attenuation by regulatory agencies. This study involved use of a numerical model that incorporated the physical, chemical, and biological processes thought to be relevant to …

Comparison Of One-Dimensional And Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Modeling Approaches For Red River Basin, Sajjad Ahmad, Slobodan P. Simonovic

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A devastating flood in Red River valley in 1997 emphasized the need to study the flood control measures in the Red River basin using state of the art modeling tools. The Red River and its floodplains can be modeled using one-dimensional, quasi two-dimensional or fully two-dimensional hydrodynamic models. Each modeling approach has its own advantages and limitations. The main purpose of this report is a comparison between one-dimensional (or quasi two dimensional) and fully two-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling approaches for modeling floods in the Red River basin.

A two-dimensional hydrodynamic model, MIKE 21, coupled with Geographic Information System (GIS) …

Metadata In A Digital Special Library: The Energy And Environmental Information Resources Center In Lafayette, Louisiana, Dan Foley

E-JASL: Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (1999-2009, Volumes 1-10)

This paper discusses three kinds of metadata and how they are used in the Energy & Environmental Information Resources Center (EE-IR Center), a digital special library of text, numeric, and geospatial data, located in Lafayette, Louisiana. These metadata are Dublin Core (DC), MARC21 (formerly USMARC), and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata.

The EE-IR Center was formed as a partnership between the National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Center for Advanced Computer Studies of the University of Southwestern Louisiana (CACS/USL). Both partners are located in Lafayette, Louisiana. The EE-IR Center is funded by a …

Shoreline Change Modeling As A Tool In Coastal Environmental Management, Jorge Espinoza Amaguana

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The one-line numerical model GENESIS has been calibrated to evaluate its performance as a tool in providing insights into the physical components to manage the coastal environment. To calibrate the model, physical environmental data, literature research, and computer modeling methodologies were utilized in addressing the objectives of this thesis. The model was applied at three beaches of the Virginia Beach City with different man-made structures by using the actual field wave data for wave year J 997. Waves are the main environmental component affecting the coastal system; however, additional environmental data and the best engineering decision were used as model …

Evaluation Of Toxicity, Bioavailability And Speciation Of Lead, Zinc And Cadmium In Mine/Mill Wastewaters, Mujde Erten-Unal, Bobby G. Wixson, Nord Gale, Jerry L. Pitt

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The toxicity of common compounds of lead, cadmium and zinc was evaluated in waters similar to that found in the world's largest lead producing area in Missouri. Static, acute toxicity tests were performed using fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and water fleas (Daphnia magna) respectively. Test organisms were subjected to varying amounts of sulfide, carbonate, chloride and sulfate salts of lead, zinc and cadmium mixed in hard, alkaline waters typical to this region. Median lethal concentrations were calculated using nominal versus measured metal concentrations. Measured metal concentrations included four different metal fractionation (extraction/filtration) techniques at different pH …

Modeling Uptake And Translocation Of Lead (Pb) In Maize For The Purposes Of Phytoextraction, Mark A. Brennan

Theses and Dissertations

Phytoextraction is a remediation technology that uses plants to remove heavy metals from soil. This technology has the potential to decrease the costs of remediating contaminated sites by several orders of magnitude compared to traditional technologies. To effectively implement this technology requires an understanding of the plant processes that control uptake and translocation of metals from the soil. Currently these processes are poorly understood, and especially so for Pb. The purpose of this thesis was to gain insights concerning the plant mechanisms that control uptake and translocation of Pb and how these mechanisms interact to control levels of Pb accumulation …

A Modeling Study For The Implementation Of In Situ Cometabolic Bioremediation Of Trichloroethylene-Contaminated Groundwater, John A. Christ

Theses and Dissertations

The limitations of conventional groundwater remediation technologies have led to the development of innovative technologies which may achieve national hazardous waste site remediation goals. Before an innovative technology can be implemented in the field, remedial project managers, regulators and other stakeholders require adequate modeling tools to help assess the applicability of the technology at a particular site. This modeling study investigates how an innovative technology, in situ cometabolic bioremediation, might be implemented to remediate a TCE-contaminated site, under different site conditions. A steady-state model is developed which couples an analytical expression to simulate the effect of flow between multiple pumping …

Mobilization Of Trace Elements In Aquifers By Biodegradation Of Hydrocarbon Contaminants, Scott L. Kearney

Theses and Dissertations

This study had two objectives: (1) to determine the extent of metal mobility within petroleum-contaminated aquifers, (2) to determine if biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons can explain metal mobility. The approach reviewed analytical results from 2305 groundwater sampling events, taken from 958 wells, located at 136 sites found at 53 Air Force installations. The study showed that high levels of metals are present at petroleum hydrocarbon sites where metals would not generally be expected. Of the metals with drinking water maximum contaminant levels (MCLs), mercury and silver were detected the least frequently. Barium and copper were detected at the sites, but …

A System Dynamics Model Of The Bioavailability Of Metals In Constructed Wetland Sediment, Timothy S. Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Constructed wetlands used for storm water treatment accumulate metals primarily in their sediment. This sediment has the potential to produce toxic effects in benthic organisms at some period in time. Bioavailability of metals in sediment is directly linked to pore water metal activity. The mechanisms that influence pore water metal activity are included in physical, chemical, and biological processes. A system dynamics model was developed to represent these processes and the major influences affecting pore water metal activity in a treatment wetland receiving storm water influent. The model structure and behavior was tested and validated using several system dynamics validation …

The Detoxification Of Petroleum Contaminated Coastal Plain Sandy Soil Using An Amended Vermicomposting Approach, John Charles Kraemer

Health Services Research Dissertations

This study explores the feasibility of utilizing an amended vermicomposting treatment approach for detoxifying petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sandy soil. The bench-scale testing of gasoline and diesel contaminated soil using three test soil vessels and one control soil vessel was performed in a laboratory setting for a six week time period. The control soil received no treatment other than distilled water to maintain soil moisture. Treatment 1 consisted of direct application of liquid municipal biologic sludge on a weekly basis. Treatment 2 consisted of the addition of 30 Eisenia foetida earthworms and distilled water. Treatment 3 consisted of direct application of …

Greener And More Equitable: A Vision For Dams And Other Western Water Issues, Bruce C. Driver

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

10 pages.

Contains 1 page of references.

The Future Of Western Water Developments, John Keys

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

9 pages.

River Management In The Twenty-First Century: The Vision Thing, A. Dan Tarlock

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

12 pages.

Contains references.

Of Dams And Salmon In The Columbia/Snake Basin: Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?, Don B. Miller

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

106 pages (includes illustrations and maps).

Contains 4 pages of references.

Klamath Basin: Balancing Instream Flows With Irrigation And Power, Carl Ullman

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

15 pages (includes illustrations and maps).

Initiatives And Conflicts In Changing Federal Facility Operation, Lawrence J. Macdonnell

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

18 pages.

Contains references.