Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Measurement Report: Long-Range Transport Patterns Into The Tropical Northwest Pacific During The Camp²Ex Aircraft Campaign: Chemical Composition, Size Distributions, And The Impact Of Convection, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Ewan Crosbie, Michael Shook, Yang Wang, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The tropical Northwest Pacific (TNWP) is a receptor for pollution sources throughout Asia and is highly susceptible to climate change, making it imperative to understand long-range transport in this complex aerosol-meteorological environment. Measurements from the NASA Cloud, Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP²Ex; 24 August to 5 October 2019) and back trajectories from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT) were used to examine transport into the TNWP from the Maritime Continent (MC), peninsular Southeast Asia (PSEA), East Asia (EA), and the West Pacific (WP). A mid-campaign monsoon shift on …

New Particle Formation In The Remote Marine Boundary Layer, Guangjie Zheng, Yang Wang, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Marine low clouds play an important role in the climate system, and their properties are sensitive to cloud condensation nuclei concentrations. While new particle formation represents a major source of cloud condensation nuclei globally, the prevailing view is that new particle formation rarely occurs in remote marine boundary layer over open oceans. Here we present evidence of the regular and frequent occurrence of new particle formation in the upper part of remote marine boundary layer following cold front passages. The new particle formation is facilitated by a combination of efficient removal of existing particles by precipitation, cold air temperatures, vertical …

Early Wildfire Detection By Air Quality Sensors On Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Optimization And Feasibility, Doaa Rjoub

Masters Theses

“Millions of acres of forests are destroyed by wildfires every year, causing ecological, environmental, and economical losses. The recent wildfires in Australia and the Western U.S. smothered multiple states with more than fifty million acres charred by the blazes. The warmer and drier climate makes scientists expect increases in the severity and frequency of wildfires and the associated risks in the future. These inescapable crises highlight the urgent need for early detection and prevention of wildfires. This work proposed an energy management framework that integrated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with air quality sensors for early wildfire detection and forest monitoring. …

Exposure Assessment Of Emerging Contaminants: Rapid Screening And Modeling Of Plant Uptake, Majid Bagheri

Doctoral Dissertations

"With the advent of new chemicals and their increasing uses in every aspect of our life, considerable number of emerging contaminants are introduced to environment yearly. Emerging contaminants in forms of pharmaceuticals, detergents, biosolids, and reclaimed wastewater can cross plant roots and translocate to various parts of the plants. Long-term human exposure to emerging contaminants through food consumption is assumed to be a pathway of interest. Thus, uptake and translocation of emerging contaminants in plants are important for the assessment of health risks associated with human exposure to emerging contaminants. To have a better understanding over fate of emerging contaminants …

Environmental Hygiene For Covid-19: It's All About The Mask, Daniel B. Oerther, Mona Shattell

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Leading Change During The Convergence Of An Epidemic And A Pandemic, Sarah Oerther, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As the first wave of COVID-19 cases spread around the globe in early 2020, the healthcare community adopted a medical model that emphasized the use of resources to mitigate viral spread (Oerther & Watson, 2020). Schools, churches, and businesses shutdown, and healthcare facilities – from outpatient clinics to inpatient elective surgeries – were closed or cancelled. Even long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, limited access of visitors to patients in an attempt at mitigation. And for six months, the healthcare community focused almost exclusively on a medical response to COVID-19, securing stockpiles of ventilators and fast-tracking vaccine development.

Modeling The Load Of Sars-Cov-2 Virus In Human Expelled Particles During Coughing And Speaking, Yang Wang, Guang Xu, Yue-Wern Huang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Particle size is an essential factor when considering the fate and transport of virus-containing droplets expelled by human, because it determines the deposition pattern in the human respiratory system and the evolution of droplets by evaporation and gravitational settling. However, the evolution of virus-containing droplets and the size-dependent viral load have not been studied in detail. The lack of this information leads to uncertainties in understanding the airborne transmission of respiratory diseases, such as the COVID-19. In this study, through a set of differential equations describing the evolution of respiratory droplets and by using the SARS-CoV-2 virus as an example, …

Development Of Amine-Functionalized Mesoporous Alumina For Radioiodine Removal From Water, Mansour Mohammed Alsalbokh

Masters Theses

“Radioactive materials have spread due to careless disposal and nuclear disasters. Some radionuclides can exist in an aqueous media, like radioactive iodine. As a result, in this work amine-functionalized mesoporous alumina was developed to adsorb radioactive iodine from the liquid phase. Bismuth was incorporated, using a wet impregnation method, to test it as a possible silver replacement. Amine grafting was used to functionalize the surface of the mesoporous alumina. All materials prepared in this work were characterized by N₂ physisorption, FTIR and TGA to determine the textural properties, surface functionality, and amine loading. The synthesized materials were tested for …

Soil-Water-Energy Nexus Of Green Roofs, Katherine Ann Bartels

Masters Theses

"As the urban landscape continues to sprawl into previously undeveloped land to accommodate population growth, the need to design cities that effectively manage urban stormwater is imperative for a sustainable future. Green roofs use rain-harvesting techniques to reduce urban stormwater discharge while simultaneously providing traditional roof services as well as several ecosystem services. However, green roof media design varies greatly among commercial applications, and little guidance is available to engineers when selecting the media for prospective green roofs. Efforts to maximize stormwater retention and enhance urban heat island mitigation capabilities of green roofs while concurrently reducing nutrient loading were examined …

Investigation Of Urea Decomposition And Deposit Formation In Diesel Exhaust After-Treatment System, Anand Alembath

Doctoral Dissertations

“Urea-selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system has proved to be an effective solution to reduce NO_x emissions in commercial vehicle (CV) diesel engines. A significant challenge in urea injection is to comprehend its decomposition chemistry that leads to formation of undesired deposits in the exhaust system unit. Due to complex interaction of multi-phase fluid flow and transport processes, significant uncertainty is associated with the identification of interacting factors that control the deposit initiation and its growth. To meet the future ultra-low NO_x emissions and to deliver ammonia without deposit formation, there is an imminent need to develop the urea-SCR …

Physical And Biological Factors Affecting Oxygen Transfer In The Activated Sludge Wastewater Treatment Process, Kenneth A. Campbell

Doctoral Dissertations

“The activated sludge (AS) process is widely utilized for wastewater treatment due to its versatility and general resiliency, but is energy intensive, requiring aeration and mixing energy inputs to maintain the biochemical reaction and optimize treatment performance. This study is focused on determining different factors that influence oxygen transfer and consequently its energy demand.

AS morphology, as described by the d₁₀, d₂₀, d₃₂, specific filament length (SFL), 30 min settleability (SV₃₀), etc., does influence the OTE. Filamentous organisms increase the hydrodynamic radius of suspended particles, which dilates mixed liquor apparent viscosity (µ …

The Combined Toxic Effect Of Nanoparticles And Lead In The Presence Of Algae (Raphidocelis), Xuesong Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

"The elevated toxicity of toxic metals in the presence of nanoparticles (NPs) has raised significant concerns on the NP environmental safety. This research focuses on the impact of environmental conditions, specifically algae, on this type of toxicity. An indicator aquatic organism, Ceriodaphnia dubia (C. dubia), was used to examine the combined toxicity and toxicity mitigation from algae by monitoring its 24-h mortality. Four papers are included in this research, which focus on four aspects of the combined toxicity and the corresponding algae (Raphidocelis) impact. The first paper examines the algae impact on the combined toxicity of …

Evaluation Of Naturally Occurring And Anthropogenic Contamination In Missouri Streams, Christina Jane Sehrt

Masters Theses

"The goal of this study is to observe the values and variability of water quality parameters and benthic macroinvertebrates in watersheds with very little anthropogenic impact and to compare these values with those acquired in watersheds with more anthropogenic impact. The following five HUC 12-digit watersheds had very little anthropogenic impact and were considered "pristine": Rogers Creek, Mill Creek, Middle West Fork-Black River, Bee Fork, and Ottery Creek. Five largely urban sub-basins were also considered; these basins are: Grand Glaize Creek, Glaize Creek, Sugar Creek, Hominy Creek, and Grindstone Creek. For each watershed, both water quality parameters and benthic macroinvertebrates …

Designing Bifunctional Materials For In-Situ Capture And Conversion Of Volatile Organic Compounds, Anirudh Krishnamurthy

Doctoral Dissertations

”Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a class of organic liquid compounds with low vapor pressures, which enables them to vaporize at ambient conditions. VOCs are largely toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic, and have profound adverse effects on human health and the ecological environment. Many VOCs cause ruinous health effects even at very low concentrations (ppm) and therefore control of these organic compounds is essential for ensuring good air quality. A large portion of VOCs cause catastrophic health effects such as cancer or liver damage even at very low concentrations (ppm), and the control of these compounds is vital in ensuring good …

Marine Boundary Layer Aerosol In The Eastern North Atlantic: Seasonal Variations And Key Controlling Processes, Guangjie Zheng, Yang Wang, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The response of marine low cloud systems to changes in aerosol concentration represents one of the largest uncertainties in climate simulations. Major contributions to this uncertainty are derived from poor understanding of aerosol under natural conditions and the perturbation by anthropogenic emissions. The eastern North Atlantic (ENA) is a region of persistent but diverse marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds, whose albedo and precipitation are highly susceptible to perturbations in aerosol properties. In this study, we examine MBL aerosol properties, trace gas mixing ratios, and meteorological parameters measured at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility's ENA site on Graciosa Island, …

Performance Of Carbon Aerogel/Fiber Paper As Capacitive Deionization Electrodes Under Variable Operating Conditions, Md Ashique Ahmed, Sanjay Tewari

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The capacitive deionization has garnered renewed interested with recent modifications resulting in efficient (energy and cost) alternatives to desalinate brackish water (salt concentration less than 10 g/L). Recent research efforts, to improve the technology, have been focused mainly on electrode material development and modifications of operational parameters for optimized performance. This research is focused on performance evaluation of carbon aerogel/fiber paper as capacitive deionization electrodes under variable operating conditions. The main operational parameters that were varied are applied voltage, influent temperature and initial concentration. The highest adsorption capacity achieved in this on-going study is 4.61 mg/g at 33.5 oC with …

Leveraging The Nam's 'Getting Nurses On Boards Coalition' To Promote Nae's 'Changing The Conversation' Campaign, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As described in reports by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), engineers and the profession of engineering lack visibility, relevance, and influence with the public. One approach to address this situation is the, "Changing the Conversation," campaign that uses market research techniques to improve the public image of the engineering profession. In related efforts, scientists have developed the, "March for Science," campaign to advocate for the role of science in evidence-based public policy at the local, state, and international levels. In contrast to marketing materials and advocacy campaigns, this article argues that the approach adopted by nurses and the profession …

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, And Math (Steam) Diplomacy: Preliminary Results From An Initial Pilot Course, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new course, "Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) Diplomacy," has been developed at the Missouri University of Science and Technology to introduce engineering students to the field of foreign relations and the tripartite objectives of: 1) science in diplomacy; 2) science for diplomacy; and 3) diplomacy for science. The course employs an available scholarly monograph as a text and integrates materials created by the Center for Science Diplomacy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as well as publically available materials. The new course employs a previously reported format including blended delivery, a flipped classroom, …

Introduction To Public Health For Environmental Engineers: Results From A Three-Year Pilot, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The field of environmental engineering traces its origins to the integration of "civil engineering" infrastructure and the objectives of "public health", namely cost effective disease prevention at the community-scale. To address the urgent need to re-invigorate the "ancient" sub-specialization of "sanitary engineering" within the field of environmental engineering, a new course was created at the Missouri University of Science and Technology entitled, "Public Health for Environmental Engineers." The new course leverages available online materials disseminated by The Johns Hopkins University as well as materials disseminated by the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) to emphasize environmental health practice in diverse communities …

Bioaccessibility Of Lead From Contaminated Soil Using Phosphate Treatment -- Physiologically Based Extraction Test And In Vitro Gastrointestinal Method Test, Austin Charles Doss

Masters Theses

"Phosphate treatments are used to immobilize lead in soil by forming pyromorphite. Soil from Bonne Terre, Mo was collected to study whether such treatment decreases the bioaccessibility of lead. The soil was treated using 0.5 soil wt% of phosphate. Treatments were: none, phosphoric acid, triple super phosphate, and organic bone meal. Each sample was studied after one, four, sixteen, and twenty weeks; during this time span, water was added approximating the average rainfall rate. Percolated water was collected to test the leached phosphate concentrations. Phosphate was below the detection limit in that leachate. Remediated soil samples were used in Physiologically …

Cellulose And Sulfate Degradation In A Biochemical Reactor During Treatment Of Mine Drainage, Sweta Ojha

Masters Theses

"Seventy-two biochemical reactors were set up, and operated using a mixture of chip-bark, horse manure, and gravel as the biochemical treatment substrate. The simulated mine water containing sulfate (1000 mg/l) was pumped into each reactor at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/minute (approximate), giving an empty bed contact time of 8 days. The main idea is that the microorganisms present in horse manure would convert the cellulose in chip-bark into volatile fatty acids. The produced volatile fatty acid would enhance the metabolism of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) initially present in horse manure, which would degrade (and eventually remove) the sulfate from …

Numerical Modeling Of Capillary-Driven Flow In Open Microchannels: An Implication Of Optimized Wicking Fabric Design, Mehrad Gholizadeh Ansari

Masters Theses

"The use of microfluidics to transfer fluids without applying any exterior energy source is a promising technology in different fields of science and engineering due to their compactness, simplicity and cost-effective design. In geotechnical engineering, to increase the soil's strength, hydrophilic wicking fibers as type of microfluidics have been employed to transport and drain water out of soil spontaneously by taking advantage of natural capillary force without using any pumps or other auxiliary devices. The objective of this study is to understand the scientific mechanisms of the capability for wicking fiber to drain both gravity and capillary water out of …

Atomic Layer Deposition Prepared Nanostructured Materials For Various Catalytic Reactions, Xiaofeng Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been widely used for thin film coating and metal nanoparticles (NPs) preparation. In this report, the applications of ALD prepared nanostructured materials in catalysis were examined.

Highly dispersed Pt monometallic catalysts with different substrates and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) supported Pt-Co bimetallic catalysts were synthesized by ALD for selective hydrogenation of α, β-unsaturated aldehydes to unsaturated alcohols (UA). Pt/MWCNTs showed the highest selectivity of UA in selective hydrogenation of citral, as compared to Pt/SiO₂, Pt/ALD-Al₂O₃, and Pt/γ-Al₂O₃. After adding Co, the highest selectivity was achieved …

A Humidity-Controlled Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (Hfims) For Rapid Measurements Of Particle Hygroscopic Growth, Tamara Pinterich, Steven R. Spielman, Yang Wang, Susanne V. Hering, Jian Wang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present a humidity-controlled fast integrated mobility spectrometer (HFIMS) for rapid particle hygroscopicity measurements. The HFIMS consists of a differential mobility analyzer (DMA), a relative humidity (RH) control unit and a water-based FIMS (WFIMS) coupled in series. The WFIMS (Pinterich et al., 2017) combines the fast integrated mobility spectrometer (Kulkarni and Wang, 2006a, b) with laminar flow water condensation methodologies (Hering and Stolzenburg, 2005; Spielman et al., 2017). Inside the WFIMS, particles of different electrical mobilities are spatially separated in an electric field, condensationally enlarged and imaged to provide 1 Hz measurements of size distribution spanning a factor of ∼3 …

Identifying Corrosion Zones In Coastal Regions For Metal Pipes -- A Gis Approach, Sanjay Tewari, Francis Manning

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Transportation agencies often allow metal pipes as an option for cross drains under/along roads and highways. Metal culverts can corrode over time at various rates based on their environmental conditions (e.g., corrosive nature of coastal soils, high water table and saltwater intrusion). This paper focuses on applying readily available soil data such as spatial distribution of soil types and soil characteristics (e.g., pH and conductivity) towards creating a geospatial information system (GIS) based approach to identifying corrosion zones in the coastal regions. A combination of data, obtained from field surveys provided by the Louisiana Transportation Research Center and Web Soil …

Reducing Costs While Maintaining Learning Outcomes Using Blended, Flipped, And Mastery Pedagogy To Teach Introduction To Environmental Engineering, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As part of a cost-savings initiative, an existing course of 'introduction to environmental engineering' offered using a 'traditional' format of didactic class meetings supplemented with hands-on laboratory sessions, was changed significantly. The 'modified' format uses 'blended', 'flipped', and 'mastery' approaches to teach "2601: Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering" to approximately 60 sophomores pursuing baccalaureate degrees in environmental, civil, or architectural engineering, each semester. This paper presents a summary of the results from eight course offerings over a period of four years to more than 450 total students. Assessments included student grades; open-ended invitations for anonymous feedback at the end of each …

Diplomacy Lab Provides Term-Length Group Projects Integrating Policy Analysis And Liberal Arts Into The Traditional Engineering Classroom, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Science in diplomacy, the use of trained scientist to inform and support foreign policy objectives, has been a part of U.S. foreign policy since the time of Benjamin Franklin. The Diplomacy Laboratory project, a public-private partnership, allows the Department of State to 'course source' projects to seek input from universities and to recruit talented students to consider careers in diplomacy. This paper provides a summary of a case study using a DipLab project as part of a term-length, writing assignment in courses for undergraduate and graduate environmental engineering students. An overview of DipLab and suggested best practices to integrate DipLab …

Using Nursing Theory To Improve The Teaching Of Engineering Practice, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Engineering education includes both classroom training in sciences and professional skills as well as learning-through-doing to integrate practice and engineering design into the future licensed Professional Engineer (PE). In a similar manner, nursing education includes both classroom training in sciences and professional skills as well as learning through doing to integrate practice and caring into the future licensed Registered Nurse (RN). From the mid-19th century until modern day, the fields of environmental engineering and community health nursing have worked side-by-side to prevent disease while promoting health and wellness. This paper provides a synthesis of previously published case studies by the …

Towards A Better Understanding Of Indoor Exposure To Air Pollutants: Window Opening Occurrence In U.S. Residences, Gauri Dilip Date

Masters Theses

"Opening a window dramatically alters how we are exposed to air pollutants. Online questionnaire surveys were deployed to assess window-opening occurrence of the occupants of US homes. This information will be used to better quantify population exposure to pollutants of indoor and outdoor origin. Frequency distributions of demographics were generated which showed percentages of respondents who participated in the surveys from categories including gender, race, household income and occupancy. In April 2016, 49.3% of the people surveyed opened their windows for at least 1 hour in a day. This increased to 52.5% in September 2016 and reduced considerably to 24.4% …

Advanced Buffer Materials For Indoor Air Co₂ Control In Commercial Buildings, Pavithra Ethi Rajan

Masters Theses

"The following describes a novel passive approach to control the indoor CO₂ levels in enclosed spaces, primarily focusing on commercial buildings. Amine impregnated silica sorbents were identified as suitable candidates and synthesized; the amine loading ratio was varied to create a range of materials. These samples along with other commercial zeolite candidates have been tested over a range of CO₂ concentrations to determine the CO₂ adsorption capacity in laboratory systems and under simulated room conditions. The research work also focuses on the CO₂ desorption capacity of the candidate adsorbents. The desorption is allowed to occur gradually …