Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Pel Stories, Tim Miller, Cameron Schuh, Sandra Flum, Blake Dollier

Purdue Road School

PEL Stories: Bridging Planning and Environmental Review: This presentation will highlight stories from planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) projects, demonstrating how early planning can streamline environmental review and improve project outcomes.

IndyPEL: Advancing Planning through Environmental Linkages: This session explores the IndyPEL project, highlighting how Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) studies are shaping transportation decisions in Indiana. Attendees will learn about stakeholder engagement, data-driven planning, and lessons learned.

Efficiency Evaluation Of Different Methods For Nitrogen Removal In Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants: An Integrative Review, Cristiane G. Ferrarezzi, Juliana Canto Duarte

The School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering (SEE) Graduate Student Publications

Domestic wastewaters present high nitrogen levels due to the urea and ammonia, which are excreted into urine. Municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) normally face some challenges in keeping their treated wastewater at a low total nitrogen concentration, since the majority of their wastewater is domestic. Low nitrogen levels in the treated wastewater are important to avoid increasing eutrophication of the receptor body, which receives the treated wastewater. This work presents an integrative review considering studies related to denitrification in domestic WWTPs published from January 1st, 2018, to April 30th, 2023. This review aims to identify the most effective methods for …

From Test Tracks To Carbon Tracks: Evaluating The Carbon Emissions Of Autonomous Vehicle Development, Sarah Deniz

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Autonomous vehicle (AV) development has seen a sharp increase in the past 10 years, and there is a significant energy cost of training AVs to meet safety regulations. The training process includes virtual simulation training as well as physical training on public roads and within private testing facilities. The high energy expenditure associated with AV training has a respective environmental cost that can be quantified as a lifetime “carbon debt” of released carbon emissions. The environmental sustainability of AVs has not been thoroughly studied in currently available literature, and this paper showcases a model that quantifies the total “carbon debt” …

Biochar-Based Filtration And Barrier Systems For Urban Stormwater Treatment, Krishna R. Reddy

Stormwater Drainage Conference

Conference that deals a wide range of issues dealing with stormwater drainage. Professor Krishna Reddy of University of Illinois Chicago presented an invited talk titled "Biochar-Based Filtration and Barrier Systems for Urban Stormwater Treatment"

Jovial Family Farm Facilitates Intergenerational Learning Opportunities Through Urban Farming, Maera Williams

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Maera Williams is a sophomore in Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. She joined the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) Urban Farming team as a freshman and now serves as project manager of ten undergraduate students collaborating with Jovial Family Farm to design and develop three indoor hydroponics systems for a laboratory space on their property in Broad Ripple, IN. Jovial Family Farm is a nonprofit organization founded by Drs. Bobbie and Brian Jellison with the mission to provide senior citizens, their families, and their communities with meaningful engagement opportunities on an intergenerational scale through urban agricultural activities. …

Demystifying Utility Coordination: Understanding The Basics, Josshe I. Palm

Purdue Road School

This session will explain utility coordination to non-utility coordinators. It will help educate others about the role and responsibilities of a utility coordinator, an OSA, easy UC and design mistakes to avoid, scope and design considerations, items commonly overlooked, when to coordinate SUE, and how to work with your UC to request a letting adjustment. We will also highlight UC submittals and allow time for questions about the UC’s role in a project’s success.

Accuracy Of Nitrate Hysteresis And Flushing For Agricultural Watersheds In The Midwest, Noah Rudko, Sara K. W. Mcmillian, Jane Frankenberger, François Birgand

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

Storm event-based metrics, such as hysteresis (HI) and flushing (FI), are used to differentiate nitrate pathways and sources, which is essential for watershed management. Estimations of these event-based metrics typically use high frequency (15-minute – hourly) measurements, but daily data are also used due to their greater availability. To date, there has been no study assessing how using lower frequency samples affect the accuracy of HI and FI, which could skew interpretation of potential nutrient pathways and sources. We used continuous measurements of nitrate collected at 9 watersheds throughout the Midwest spanning 448 storms. HI and FI were estimated from …

Evaluating The Environmental Impacts Of U.S. Historical Oil Spill Incidents, Yiming Liu, Hua Cai

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

Exposure to risks associated with the production and usage of products, particularly oil, poses significant threats to both ecological systems and human health. Notable examples include the Gulf War Oil Spill (1991) and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2010). However, numerous smaller-scale oil spills, which collectively contribute to substantial oil releases, often remain overlooked. To fill this gap, our study first developed a detailed oil spill incidents database, covering 1967 to 2023. We quantified the released amount (RA) of oil spills recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Subsequently, we utilized life cycle impact indicators in ReCiPe to …

Sustainable Water Treatment Systems In The La Vega Region Of The Dominican Republic, Hannah Fulton, Justina Thomae, Jorge Del Angel, Ramin Ansari, Karina Peate, Rylan Elliott, Adam Spieth, Thalia May, Morgan Jung, Ernest R. Blatchley Iii, Rebecca C. Johnson

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

Purdue University's service-learning course, Water Supply in Developing Countries (WSDC) is dedicated to ensuring access to safe drinking water in the La Vega region of the Dominican Republic. The focus in the current academic year is to enhance the functionality, sustainability, and independence of community-based water treatment systems installed by previous WSDC students. Despite the construction of four water systems since 2012, operational challenges ensued, rendering them currently inoperable. Our objective is to learn from past mistakes, restore the systems and ensure their continuous functionality. During the fall semester, class members assessed repair needs in two communities with existing systems, …

Analyzing Video And Isobus Data To Understand Risk And Safety Practices For Roadside Mowing, Nathan Sprague, Timothy Wiegman, J. T. Evans

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

In Indiana, roadside mowing covers 11,200 miles, presenting significant risks. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) seeks safer methods, including automated evaluations and autonomous robots. Analyzing 120 hours of video and ISOBUS data, we quantify mower interactions with the road and obstacles, finding mowers on -road up to 91% of the time in rural areas and 57% on highways. Key obstacles identified include signs and posts. This research aids in developing risk assessment models and safety evaluations, aiming to improve mowing safety and efficiency, and it supports future development of autonomous mowing technologies.

Design And Development Of An Inert Controlled Environmental Chamber For Evaluation Of Contaminant Mass Transfer, Brian Magnuson, Zachary Limaye

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

The Complexities Of Green Infrastructure, Troy Weber

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The Wabash River is the most extensive river system in Indiana. The river drains two-thirds of Indiana’s 92 counties, which can have issues associated with stormwater runoff (Weist, 1981). As precipitation runs off impervious surfaces, it can carry high concentrations of pollutants, such as excess nitrogen and phosphorus, pet waste, and automobile fuel. Prior to impervious runoff entering the river, preexisting contaminants include industrial waste (acid mine drainage and oil field brines), municipal waste, and sediment (Weist, 1981). Thus, stormwater runoff can negatively impact the Wabash River watershed. On top of this pollution, Lafayette and West Lafayette have combined sewer …

Service-Learning In Action: Lafayette, Indiana, Rain Garden Installation, Elizabeth Mccleery

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Indiana’s Wabash River is being polluted with contaminated water runoff from precipitation events. A lack of pervious land cover has led to an accumulation of fertilizer, sediment, and waste in the river. Green infrastructure, a stormwater management practice that mimics the natural ecosystem, is one of the most effective ways to prevent pollution from stormwater runoff and benefit the community. This project consisted of a rain garden installation at the Lafayette Fueling Station, a site where frequent water drainage and water runoff into the Wabash occurs. The rain garden will allow on-site water infiltration during rain events and promote natural …

Evaluating The Environmental Impacts Of U.S. Historical Oil Spill Incidents, Yiming Liu, Hua Cai

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

The adverse impacts of extremely large oil spill incidents such as Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill have been widely studied in recent years. Catastrophic oil spill disasters such as Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill have been widely studied. While vast smaller oil spills, which also could result in significant amount of oil release, still lack attention.

This research assessed distributions and environmental impacts caused by historical oil spill incidents in U.S. We first analyzed the spatial and temporal characteristics of oil spills. Then the relationship between spillage amount and spill frequency is evaluated via statistical approaches. Last, based on a thorough literature …

Comprehensive Microenvironment Monitoring For The Productivity And Welfare Of Sows And Piglets, Jun Ho Kim

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

The world is facing increasing food demand and climate change. To improve piglet survivability and sow welfare through microenvironment management using precision technology, a USDA sponsored research project started in 2021 and is ongoing. A comprehensive yet low-cost system was designed and developed for continuous and real-time microenvironment monitoring in three rooms of Farrowing Building #1 at the Animal Sciences Research and Education Center, Purdue University. The system consists of two gas analyzers and 103 different sensors, including sensors in a weather station. The first trial of the project was conducted from Jan. 13 to Feb. 8, 2023, when the …

Investigation Of Mechanical Properties Of Recycled Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites Reinforcing Cement, Caleb Mull, Fnu Archie, Harry Lee, Guyuan Zhang

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

The usage of fiber-reinforced polymer composites in various fields has increased significantly due to their advantageous physical and mechanical properties. However, the sustainability of composite parts has not been fully solved for a long time. Most end-of-life (EOL) composite parts have been landfilled without recycling due to the recycling cost and lack of application of recycled composites. Mechanical composite recycling that shred the EOL composite part and reuse it for downgraded applications is one of the most commonly used recycling processes for the EOL composite part. In this research, mechanical composite recycling process was demonstrated for the construction application. The …

Home With Hope: Green Infrastructure Eee 495: Urban Water Projects, Madeline Mcintosh, Victoria Chillscyzn

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Urban landscapes have serious impacts on water quality through the disruption of the hydrologic cycle. The Purdue University course, Environmental and Ecological Engineering 49500: Urban Water Projects, seeks to use student-led service-learning projects to improve both water quality and quantity in the Wabash River water-shed. This year, students investigated and implemented strategies to guarantee that previous implementations succeed well into the future. Two students, Victoria Chillscyzn and Madeline McIntosh, were part of a team

working with the local nonprofit Home with Hope. Through interviews, a survey, and site visits, the team determined action items to improve the form and function …

Adapting Global Service-Learning Project And Community Partnership Outcomes Using A “Tele-Engineering” Approach In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Christiane Ley, Danielle Angert, Tessa Hudelson, Jordan Harris

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The Water Supply in Developing Countries (WSDC) service-learning course at Purdue University has fostered a strong partnership with the La Vega region in the Dominican Republic since 2012. During this time, an interdisciplinary group of engineering and science students has helped design drinking water treatment systems and the group has developed water, sanitation, and health (WASH) education materials. These WASH education and water safety approaches often have been conducted in person in the past. However, with the state of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability to travel in the fall and spring semesters of the 2020–2021 academic year, the students …

A Data‐Driven Framework To Characterize State‐Level Water Use In The U.S., E Wongso, Roshanak Nateghi, Benjamin Zaitchik, Steven Quiring, Rohini Kumar

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Access to credible estimates of water-use are critical for making optimal operational de-15 cisions and investment plans to ensure reliable and affordable provisioning of water. Fur-16 thermore, identifying the key predictors of water use is important for regulators to pro-17 mote sustainable development policies to reduce water use. In this paper, we propose18 a data-driven framework, grounded in statistical learning theory, to develop a rigorously19 evaluated predictive model of state-level, per capita water use in the US as a function20 of various geographic, climatic and socioeconomic variables. Specifically, we compare the21 accuracy of various statistical methods in predicting the state-level, …

Asymmetrical Response Of California Electricity Demand To Summer-Time Temperature Variation, Rohini Kumar, Benjamin A. Rachunok, Debora Maia-Silva, Roshanak Nateghi

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Current projections of the climate-sensitive portion of residential electricity demand are based on estimating the temperature response of the mean of the demand distribution. In this work, we show that there is significant asymmetry in the summer-time temperature response of electricity demand in the state of California, with high-intensity demand demonstrating a greater sensitivity to temperature increases. The greater climate sensitivity of high-intensity demand is found not only in the observed data, but also in the projections in the near future (2021–2040) and far future periods (2081–2099), and across all (three) utility service regions in California. We illustrate that disregarding …

The Critical Role Of Humidity In Modeling Summer Electricity Demand Across The United States, Debora Maia-Silva, Rohini Kumar, Roshanak Nateghi

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Cooling demand is projected to increase under climate change. However, most of the existing projections are based on rising air temperatures alone, ignoring that rising temperatures are associated with increased humidity; a lethal combination that could significantly increase morbidity and mortality rates during extreme heat events. We bridge this gap by identifying the key measures of heat stress, considering both air temperature and near-surface humidity, in characterizing the climate sensitivity of electricity demand at a national scale. Here we show that in many of the high energy consuming states, such as California and Texas, projections based on air temperature alone …

The Future State Of Mobility, Jerome Quandt

Purdue Road School

Formed in 2018, the Illinois Autonomous Vehicles Association (ILAVA) is a privately funded non-for-profit organization focused on establishing thought leadership in the state of Illinois, by identifying and addressing the current and emerging opportunities related to the inevitable growth of CAV technologies throughout the transportation network. Through the deployment of scalable and sustainable business solutions, facilitating industry education and establishing thought leadership, ILAVA is creating an ecosystem that defines Illinois as #TheFutureStateofMobility.

Wireless Underground Communications In Sewer And Stormwater Overflow Monitoring: Radio Waves Through Soil And Asphalt Medium, Usman Raza, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Storm drains and sanitary sewers are prone to backups and overflows due to extra amount wastewater entering the pipes. To prevent that, it is imperative to efficiently monitor the urban underground infrastructure. The combination of sensors system and wireless underground communication system can be used to realize urban underground IoT applications, e.g., storm water and wastewater overflow monitoring systems. The aim of this article is to establish a feasibility of the use of wireless underground communications techniques, and wave propagation through the subsurface soil and asphalt layers, in an underground pavement system for storm water and sewer overflow monitoring application. …

Updated Bulletin 70 Rainfall, Christopher B. Burke

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Conference Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Urban Underground Infrastructure Monitoring Iot: The Path Loss Analysis, Abdul Salam, Syed Shah

Faculty Publications

The extra quantities of wastewater entering the pipes can cause backups that result in sanitary sewer overflows. Urban underground infrastructure monitoring is important for controlling the flow of extraneous water into the pipelines. By combining the wireless underground communications and sensor solutions, the urban underground IoT applications such as real time wastewater and storm water overflow monitoring can be developed. In this paper, the path loss analysis of wireless underground communications in urban underground IoT for wastewater monitoring has been presented. It has been shown that the communication range of up to 4 kilometers can be achieved from an underground …

An Underground Radio Wave Propagation Prediction Model For Digital Agriculture, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Underground sensing and propagation of Signals in the Soil (SitS) medium is an electromagnetic issue. The path loss prediction with higher accuracy is an open research subject in digital agriculture monitoring applications for sensing and communications. The statistical data are predominantly derived from site-specific empirical measurements, which is considered an impediment to universal application. Nevertheless, in the existing literature, statistical approaches have been applied to the SitS channel modeling, where impulse response analysis and the Friis open space transmission formula are employed as the channel modeling tool in different soil types under varying soil moisture conditions at diverse communication distances …

Improving Access To Clean Water Through Service Learning, Rachel E. Gehr, Tolu Odimayomi, Carolina Tornesi Mackinnon

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

Epics Gaqt: Nandi Clean Kitchen Study, Yichen Fan

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

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

Purdue Air Sense: A Methodology For Improving The Accuracy Of Ambient Aerosol Mass Concentration And Size Distribution Measurement With Low-Cost Optical Sensing Techniques, Rishabh Ramsisaria, Satya Sundar Patra, Brandon Emil Boor

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There is a global lack of a means for monitoring air pollutant levels at a local level due to expensive and bulky instrument requirements. It is important to monitor toxic gas levels, as well as particulate matter levels, in the atmosphere to study their effects on human health and to further develop city- and community-level air pollution solutions. In this study, with the means of a Raspberry Pi, low-cost Alphasense Optical Particle Counter and gas sensors, and methodical calibration techniques, we built a portable 3-D printed module powered by clean electricity generated by an on-board Voltaic solar cell that measures …