Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Enhancing Nitrogen Removal In High Permeability Bioretention Media: The Combined Role Of Biochar, Wood Chips And Hydraulic Design, Joshelyn Guimaray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban stormwater runoff can transport high nutrient loads to receiving waters, leading toeutrophication, harmful algal blooms, and the formation of hypoxic zones. Bioretention systems are a form of green infrastructure designed to mitigate these impacts, but their application in dense, ultra-urban environments is often limited by large land area requirements. This has led to the adoption of high permeability media (HPM) to accommodate higher hydraulic loading rates (HLRs) and reduce the system footprint. However, conventional HPM systems often show inconsistent removal of dissolved nitrogen species due to short hydraulic retention times (HRTs), a lack of organic carbon, and insufficient anoxic …

Quantifying Wellbore Effects During Co2 Sequestration In A Saline Aquifer, Uzoma Johnpaul Ajugwe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a strategy for mitigating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from large stationary sources like fossil-fuel-fired power stations. One method of CCS involves carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration in deep saline aquifers, where supercritical CO2 is injected into an aquifer. The success of such projects depends on accurate predictions of CO2 behavior within the subsurface, which are obtained through numerical simulations.

TOUGHREACT, a renowned simulation tool, models subsurface fluid flow, geochemical interactions, and solute transport, providing insights into the feasibility of CO2 sequestration projects. A critical aspect of these simulations is the apportioning of …

Modeling The Pollution From Latrines In A Low- And Middle-Income Country Setting, Christopher Nenninger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Latrines are an important sanitation infrastructure that are critical to the United Nations’ effort to end open defecation and achieve the target regarding safely managed sanitation outlined in Sustainable Development Goal #6. This global effort has led to 40,000,000 new users being introduced to improved latrines each year, and this number is expected to increase as the world’s population grows. One of the drawbacks related to these new latrine additions is the potential increase in pollution from hydraulically connected latrine pits to shallow groundwater. This is especially problematic in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where communities are more likely to …

Can The Effluent From Wastewater Stabilization Ponds Be Effectively Managed For Health And Nutrient Recovery?, Michael Glass

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wastewater stabilization ponds, such as facultative and maturation lagoons, have been shown to be effective processes to manage conventional water quality parameters found in domestic wastewater. The main goal of this thesis is to explore whether wastewater stabilization ponds can simultaneously reduce pathogens to safe levels while supporting agricultural activities through nutrient recovery. A large dataset for water quality of wastewater lagoon effluent in the U.S. was obtained at the state level and combined into regional southern and northern locations. Analysis of data showed there was significant difference in lagoon effluent concentration between northern and southern states for the water …

The Newgeneratortm Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System For Non-Sewered Sanitation: Technology Advancement Through Field Evaluation And Modeling, Hsiang-Yang Shyu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-sewered sanitation systems (NSSS) offer innovative solutions to sanitation challenges in areas lacking basic facilities, utilizing advanced treatment technologies for on-site water reuse. The NEWgenerator (NG), an advanced NSSS developed at the University of South Florida under the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reinventing the Toilet Challenge, integrates an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), an ion exchange-based nutrient capture system (NCS), and an electrochlorinator for final disinfection. This study builds on previous field trials of the NG system, focusing on developing, evaluating, and optimizing its water reuse capabilities through field trials, system dynamics modeling, and advanced monitoring techniques.

In the first …

Development Of Data-Driven Models To Predict Chemical Dosage And Energy Intensity For Different Supply Sources Of Drinking Water, Rehnuma Salsavil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG6), access to clean water for the entire population and sustainable management of water resources have been stressed. Demand for water is increasing due to population growth, economic development, water quality degradation, and climate change. More water needs to be produced for the community at lower treatment costs. The chemical dosage and energy intensity are two important factors that influence water treatment costs and sustainable management of resources as well.

Previously, chemical dosage modeling to reduce treatment costs have been explored but there have been more focus in coagulant dosage modeling. Other …

The History And Explanation Of Stormwater Ponds In East Tampa, Natasha Sutton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overall goal of this research was to explore and understand the history of stormwater ponds in the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area (CRA), a 4,800-acre urban community comprising many different historic African American neighborhoods in Florida's City of Tampa. Seen as one of the most affordable stormwater management solutions in southeastern parts of the United States, stormwater ponds dot the East Tampa landscape. As the manager of CRA funds, the City of Tampa stands out as a main decision maker around the stormwater ponds within the East Tampa CRA. Over the years the stormwater ponds have generated much interest …

Leveraging Systems Thinking For Global Environmental Health, Martha M. Mcalister

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental health inequities such as household air pollution, inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene, and chemical pollution persist globally and have myriad consequences on individual and societal well-being. Unfortunately, while billions of dollars and countless hours of research have been applied towards addressing these issues in development, humanitarian, and environmental justice contexts, attempts to reduce the environmental burden of disease can seem successful at first, but then backslide to pre-intervention conditions (or worse). This is indicative of policy resistance, a tendency of complex systems that makes it very difficult to enact change if the “rules” of the system are misunderstood. There …

Dissolved Nitrogen Removal In Biochar Amended, High Permeability Media For Urban Stormwater Treatment, Mark Vicciardo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient pollution in stormwater drives the eutrophication of inland and costal waterbodies which leads to sea grass retreat and the proliferation of harmful algal blooms (HAB). These anthropogenic effects destabilize ecosystems, and some HABs can pose direct human health risk. Bioretention, or the storage and controlled discharge of stormwater run-off in an ecologically engineered setting, is a potential solution to this problem. However, it relies heavily on the settling of particles as a nutrient removal mechanism, and thus struggles with pollutants, such as dissolved nitrogen, which is a particular problem in Florida where the geological prominence of phosphorus leaves nitrogen …

Nutrient Removal Of Biochar Amended Modified Bioretention Systems Treating Nursery Runoff, Nicholas Richardson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Excess inputs of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, to surface water bodies can lead to the presence of harmful algal blooms (HABs). HABs can damage their surrounding environments and the economies dependent on them. Nutrient pollution can be properly controlled and monitored at point-sources, such as wastewater treatment plants, but is more difficult to control for non-point sources, such as fertilizer runoff. One form of fertilizer runoff that remains overlooked is runoff from plant nurseries. Controlled release fertilizers (CRFs) embedded in plant containers at nurseries can leach excess nutrients into the runoff. For nurseries in Florida, best management practices …

Development Of A Suspended Aerobic Membrane Bioreactor (Sambr) For Sustainable Wastewater Treatment On Early Planetary Bases, Talon James Bullard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) ideally should treat all “waste” streams for recovery in a sustainable and near closed-loop manner. This will be critical for Partial Gravity Habitats (PGH) and Early Planetary Bases (EPB) that will be established on the Moon and Mars due to the lack of readily available resources. Currently, the Water Recovery System (WRS), onboard the International Space Station (ISS), recovers and purifies water from urine and graywater. While efficient, this system is not optimized for future missions and utilizes physical-chemical technologies that operate with single-use and hazardous consumables. In response to the lack of …

Integrated Periphyton Biofilters In Marine Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, Adam N. Bell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marine aquaculture is a growing industry that has the potential to reduce eutrophication, overfishing, and loss of biodiversity. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are a type of aquaculture system that decreases discharge, raises biological control, and conserves water; however, RAS are challenged due to high energy cost, low biodiversity, water quality control, and waste nutrients. Periphyton biofilters are a new technology that allows for feed production, water quality control, microbial diversity, and resource recovery in marine aquaculture systems. The overarching question that this dissertation investigates is, how can periphyton biofilters be integrated into RAS to address the challenges of modern sustainable …

Wastewater Treatment Using Encapsulated Chabazite In Polyvinyl Alcohol-Sodium Alginate Hydrogel Biofilm Carriers, Susieanna Nevada Persaud

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen discharge from wastewater is a global issue and with increased urbanization as well as industrialization, it has become even more essential to develop more efficient wastewater treatment systems. The dominant form of nitrogen in wastewater is ammonium. Biological oxidation of ammonium to nitrite and nitrate is the first step in biological nitrogen removal processes. If left untreated, nitrogen can cause toxicity to aquatic life, unsafe changes in water quality, and eutrophication.

Biofilm carriers can help to improve the efficiency of traditional activated sludge wastewater treatment systems by reducing operating costs and reducing hydraulic retention time. Biofilm carriers also promote …

Optimizing The Membrane-Assisted Recovery Of Solids (Mars) Technology For Nutrient Removal And Recovery From Concentrated Waste Streams, Ben Yamin Hoque

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effective management of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, in decentralizedwastewater treatment environments is a pressing challenge. These nutrients pose significant risks to the environment and public health when discharged into water bodies, while their recovery and reuse can help alleviate nutrient shortages in various industries, including agriculture. Conventional biological treatment methods used in centralized facilities are not suitable for decentralized systems due to operational complexities and space limitations. Chemical treatment mechanisms, such as adsorption, ion exchange, precipitation, and air-stripping, offer potential solutions but are accompanied by challenges like high costs and logistical issues. Therefore, finding a sustainable and …

Adsorption Of Long And Short Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) Onto Granular Activated Carbon And Porous Organic Polymers, Yan Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made environmental contaminants causing increasing global concern due to their adverse effect on environmental and human health. Conventional treatment methods are ineffective in removing short-chain PFAS because of their hydrophilicity and resistance to degradation. This study is to design an appropriate adsorption system to remove both long- and short-chain PFSA at environmentally relevant concentrations and conditions. Four primary research tasks were designed to evaluate the performance of a structurally-tunable and chemically-stable porous organic polymers (POPs) for PFAS removal under realistic environmental conditions, including the assessment of POPs’ performance without co-contaminants (Chapter 2), the assessment …

Exploratory Data-Driven Models For Water Quality: A Case Study For Tampa Bay Water, Sandra Sekyere

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water, a crucial resource for sustaining life, covers approximately 70% of the earth's surface. Nonetheless, the quality of water is deteriorating rapidly due to the rapid growth of urban areas and industries, which is a worrying trend causing harm to human health and the ecosystem. Water quality forecasting has a key role in water resources management by enabling effective pollution control, ecosystem monitoring, and decision-making.

Previously, traditional statistical models were used to forecast water quality, but they were unable to examine the non-linear relationships between water quality parameters, and they assumed that all datasets were distributed normally. This study uses …

Resource Recovery From Crew Metabolic Wastes In Lunar And Martian Habitats: Reuse Of Effluent From An Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor Treating Fecal Organic Matter As Fertilizer Source For Plants, Alexandra A. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As humans set their sights on exploration of the Moon and Mars human focused challenges like providing potable water, supplying nutritious food to the astronaut crew, and managing their waste present themselves. There are no readily available resources on the Moon and Mars, therefore nothing should be considered unusable including the organic wastes (i.e., feces and urine) produced by the crew. Fecal matter is not currently recycled and is treated as solid waste. After collection, it is discarded out of the International Space Station where it is incinerated upon re-entry. This approach will not work on the Moon’s surface. There …

Anaerobic Digestion Of Brewery Waste Including Spent Yeast And Hops, Dhanashree Rawalgaonkar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida is home to more than 300 craft breweries, that brew over a million barrels of beer annually. Brewing is an energy intensive process and produces large quantities of high strength waste including spent grains, yeast, hops, and high strength wastewater. Brewery wastewater, and spent yeast have high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) concentrations between 5000 mg/L – 10,000 mg/L, and 200,000 mg/L – 300,000 mg/L respectively. Brewery effluent wastewater is sent to Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) which implement high surcharges based on the strength of brewery effluent (COD concentration). While some of the spent yeast and hops can be …

Exploring Alternative Electron Donors For Heterotrophic Denitrification At A Water Reclamation Facility In Tampa Bay, Tejas Athavale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An excess of nitrogen in water can pose problems, ranging from algal blooms to creating toxic environments for marine life. Therefore, wastewater treatment plants need to remove nitrogen from wastewater during the treatment process. Biological nitrogen removal is one process these plants may use, which commonly involves nitrification and denitrification, converting nitrogen in the form of ammonia to nitrate, and then ultimately nitrogen gas. The process of denitrification often requires an electron donor, and methanol is a common choice. However, it is flammable, and therefore there is a need to explore alternative electron donors. Alternative donors can include manufactured chemicals …

Characteristics And Hydraulic Behavior Of Adsorptive Media For Use In Permeable Reactive Barriers, Shelby Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Cargill ditch is located on the property of Se7en Wetlands, a 1600-ac treatment wetland system in Lakeland, Polk County, Florida. The Se7en Wetlands property was previously utilized for phosphate mining prior to the construction of the system. Nonpoint nutrient sources derived from remnants of abandoned phosphate mines – known as “legacy phosphorus” – become mobilized by stormwater runoff and impair surface water bodies by promoting harmful algal blooms (HABs). Thus, the Cargill ditch likely conveys nutrient rich flow resulting from legacy phosphorus and is thought to be one contributing factor in the occurrence of HABs within the treatment wetland …

Modeling Leachate Treatment Processes In Adsorbent-Amended Hybrid Constructed Wetland, Ishfaqun Nisa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to their efficiency in removing ammonia nitrogen, Constructed Wetlands (CW) are currently considered a very useful method for on-site leachate treatment. In recent years, the use of adsorbent media in CWs, such as zeolite and biochar, to improve pollutant removal efficiency has been explored and these studies indicate that incorporating zeolite can improve the nitrification process, while the addition of biochar can enhance the denitrification process and the removal of organic compounds. However, studies on mechanistic/process models simulating performance of adsorbent-amended CWs for treating landfill leachate are limited. This study presents simulation results for both unamended and adsorbent-amended hybrid …

Field-Base Exploratory Study Of Microbial Activity In Eight Potable Water Storage Tanks In Barbados, Katelyn M. Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There have been many initiatives to combat the global phenomenon of water scarcity. Potable water storage tanks have become widely known among water insecure countries and communities to provide adequate water quantity and quality for consumer use. Despite ubiquitous use in many low- and middle-income communities (LMIC), knowledge of microbial activity inside potable water storage tanks is limited. Barbados is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), labeled as a high income country, and also water scarce. The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) has adapted potable water storage tanks for hundreds of residents as a solution to water quantity and water quality …

Rehabilitation Technologies To Abate Infiltration In Sanitary Sewers, Steve Youssef

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In urban coastal environments, sewer infrastructure is plagued by infiltration which seeps into aging and compromised pipes. Infiltration increases pumping costs, reduces treatment efficiency, and may trigger release of partially treated wastewater at water reclamation facilities. To restore pipes and abate infiltration, local utilities rely on structural and non-structural trenchless rehabilitation technologies. These methods are commonly used throughout the United States and the world due to their numerous benefits compared to traditional open-cut construction. However, limited data is available regarding their efficacy in reducing infiltration in sewer systems. In this study, we analysed infiltration in a small urban sewershed in …

Biochar Amended Biological Systems For Enhanced Landfill Leachate And Lignocellulosic Banana Waste Treatment, Xia Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Biochar is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly carbonaceous pyrolysis byproduct with a high surface area, pore volume, and adsorption capacities for inorganic and organic compounds. The goal of this dissertation is to evaluate the feasibility of biochar application in biological treatment systems for enhanced waste management. Three major objectives guided this research to provide a compressive understanding of biochar enhancement effects on biological treatment systems for contaminant removal, energy recovery, and environmental impacts as well as essential factors influencing biochar production and properties.

In Objective 1 a low-cost hybrid Constructed Wetland (CW) system modified with biochar/zeolite was developed for enhanced …

Corrosion Performance Of Carbon And Galvanized Steel In Calcium Silicate Cement, Maria Cardoso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The concrete manufacturing industry has faced challenges with reducing carbon dioxide emissions as it currently produces about 8% of the world’s anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. With global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations being higher than ever, the solution is urgent. Due to this, a more sustainable type of concrete has been proposed.Calcium silicate cement (CSC) composed of essentially the same raw materials as ordinary portland cement (OPC) cures through the consumption of carbon dioxide rather than hydration like OPC. CSC is being explored as a potential alternative to OPC, however, there is little to no information on its corrosion related durability. …

Assessment And Prevention Of Bacterial Regrowth In Stored Household Water In Eastern Coastal Madagascar, Lauren Judah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As of 2020, diarrheal diseases were the leading cause of death in Madagascar. A major cause of diarrheal illness is contaminated water, and one crucial aspect of preventing contaminated water is safe household storage. Bacterial regrowth between point-of-collection and household storage has been well established in literature. A frequently implicated source of regrowth is the storage container’s biofilm, which is a community of varying bacteria enclosed in a “slimy” extracellular polymeric substance that forms on surfaces in wet environments and anchors bacteria to those surfaces. The overall goal of this thesis was to quantify and control bacterial regrowth in household …

Elemental Sulfur And Metal Sulfide Minerals For Autotrophic Denitrification: Applications To Aquaculture, Groundwater Treatment, And Domestic Wastewater Treatment, Erica Amah Dasi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient pollution of waterways, from excess N and P, is a global concern that results in harmful impacts the environment, human health, and aquatic animals. This dissertation harnesses sulfur autotrophic denitrification to remove nutrients from groundwater, domestic wastewater, and wastewaters produced from marine recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). Part 1 evaluates the denitrification performance of woodchips and elemental sulfur in cyclic denitrification filters (WS-CDFs) integrated into marine RAS operated under saline conditions. Part 2 investigates the use of metal sulfide minerals, with and without oyster shells, for supporting nutrient removal from groundwater in batch reactors. Part 3 assesses …

Modified Biosand Filtration Using Aluminum Hydroxide Filter Media To Enhance Fluoride Removal, Joshelyn Guimaray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are over 20 countries whose citizens consume groundwater containing high levels of fluoride, including Nigeria, Mexico, India, China, and Ghana, which all have major health crises when it comes to the safety of their drinking water. Minerals like fluorite contain fluoride which is often found in groundwater aquifers. The minerals release fluoride into the groundwater. Per the World Health Organization (WHO) standard, the maximum contaminant limit for fluoride consumption should be less than 1.5 mg/L. Chronic exposure of elevated levels of fluoride can cause people to suffer debilitating health effects, such as dental and skeletal fluorosis. Dental fluorosis causes …

A Convergent Approach To Aqueous Lead (Pb) Mitigation Of A Supplemental Self-Supply Shallow Groundwater Source Accessed By Handpumps In Madagascar, Adaline Marie Buerck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The World Health Organization (WHO) has consistently listed lead (Pb) as one of the ten chemicals of major public health concern. Though the toxic nature of lead has been known since the 20th century it is still utilized in a wide variety of products due to its favorable properties. Exposure to lead still accounts for approximately 900,000 deaths annually and disproportionately impacts those in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) due to a variety of reasons such as poverty, malnutrition, and lack of knowledge on the toxic nature of lead. Lead exposure routes include air, soil, dust, diet, and water. Though …

Fragmentation Of Chemically Herded Oil Slicks By Obstacles: Visualizations, Flow Measurements, And Spatial Distributions, Ali Alshamrani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical herders are a promising technique for treatment of oil spills in icy waters at high latitudes. However, obstacles on the water surface such as floating ice affects or interferes with all spill response countermeasures including chemical herder operations by fracturing the contracting oil slick and trapping small oil patches. Chemical herders are likely to be especially useful in containing oil spills in remote, ice-infested Arctic waters, where using booms to contain an oil slick is difficult. Much of the previous research into chemical herder has focused on the effectiveness of different types of chemical herder agents to thicken oil …