Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Electrochemical Disinfection Of Municipal Wastewater Using Alternating Current, Xavier A. Chavez Reyes

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on chlorine-free disinfection of wastewater by complying with today's regulations. The equipment used was a continuous flow electrochemical reactor connected to an alternating current (AC) power supply. The electrodes used were made out of titanium coated with iridium oxide. To determine the inactivation of Escherichia Coli, a bacterial count method based on the USEPA method 1603 was used.

After several experiments it was determined that electrochemical disinfection using AC was not efficient and economic enough to be classified as a viable alternative to chlorine disinfection. It was demonstrated that chlorine can be produced by electrolysis using AC …

2014 Fall Engr333 Project Final Report, John Sherwood, Jonathan Crow, Nicolaas Ourensma, Zak Devries, Andy Frandsen, Jack Kregel, Ryan Rhodes, Connor Vandongen, Schieffer Kwong, Jee Myung Kim, Matthew Deyoung, Jeff Demaagd, Tyler Devries, Doug Faber, Garrick Hershberger, Jake Derooy, Dustin Brouwer, David Evenhouse, Patrick Anderson, Thomas Brown, Ed Smit, Joel Smith, Thane Symens, Kaitlyn Weinstein, Seth Koetje, Nick Memmelaar, Austin Juza, Matt Ramaker, Ryan Demeester, Jordan Newhof, Wes Richards, Josh Vanderbyl

ENGR 333

The net-zero homes project that this class worked on throughout the semester was designed to determine what it would take to bring a home in Grand Rapids, Michigan to the status of net-zero and whether or not it is feasible to do so. The idea behind a net-zero home is to reduce the energy usage in the home, whether it is by lifestyle changes, insulation additions, or by appliance upgrades, and then produce the remaining energy deficit from renewable sources, so that the homeowner has a net usage of zero at the end of the year. This report details the …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2014, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

2014 Fall Engr333 Student Seminar Presentation, John Sherwood, Jonathan Crow, Nicolaas Ourensma, Zak Devries, Andy Frandsen, Jack Kregel, Ryan Rhodes, Connor Vandongen, Schieffer Kwong, Jee Myung Kim, Matthew Deyoung, Jeff Demaagd, Tyler Devries, Doug Faber, Garrick Hershberger, Jake Derooy, Dustin Brouwer, David Evenhouse, Patrick Anderson, Thomas Brown, Ed Smit, Joel Smith, Thane Symens, Kaitlyn Weinstein, Seth Koetje, Nick Memmelaar, Austin Juza, Matt Ramaker, Ryan Demeester, Jordan Newhof, Wes Richards, Josh Vanderbyl

ENGR 333

File for student presentation, given by students in the Fall 2014 class of ENGR333.

Microbial Community Shifts Caused By Changes In The Primary Oxidant At A Drinking Water Treatment Plant, Connie Marie Moloney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microbial communities resistant to common oxidants can cause concerns for water treatment plants (WTPs). If a bacterium is not fully oxidized during disinfection, these species can impede upon filtration processes or seed biofilms in the distribution system. In an effort to minimize disinfection by-products (DBP's) that result from the reaction of chlorine (Cl2) with natural organic matter, water treatment plants have the option to change their primary oxidant to chlorine dioxide (ClO2). The following study examines the change in microbial communities during the sedimentation process under differing oxidation regimes, specifically chlorine (Cl2) and ClO2 at the local water treatment plant …

Photobioreactor Design For Improved Energy Efficiency Of Microalgae Production, Alexander Burns

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Photobioreactor Design for Improved Energy Efficiency of Microalgae Production

Alexander Burns

The objective of this research was to investigate a new photobioreactor (PBR) design for microalgae production that retains the typical advantages of existing tubular PBRs while reducing power consumption by providing simultaneous culture circulation and gas exchange with airlift alone and no centrifugal recirculating pump. Traditional tubular PBR designs feature a compressed air supply and a centrifugal pump for culture circulation and gas exchange. Circulation and gas exchange in a closed-system PBR is necessary to keep the algae suspended and to provide sufficient mass transfer (mainly for the …

Growth Media And Lipid Determination Comparison Of High Rate Algae Ponds, Eric Alexander Nicolai

Master's Theses

Growth Media and Lipid Determination Comparison

of High Rate Algae Ponds

Eric Alexander Nicolai

The feasibility of algal biofuel production relies on the use of a non-potable water source. Municipal wastewater is nutrient-rich and a cost effective option as a growth media in algae ponds. However, this resource may be too valuable for algal biomass production, as reclaimed wastewater is needed for surface irrigation and groundwater recharge. This thesis compares the performance of 4.2 m² high rate algal raceway ponds (HRAPs) to 33 m² HRAPs grown on primary settled wastewater during a media recycling study and a growth …

Field And Greenhouse Studies Of Phytoremediation With California Native Plants For Soil Contaminated With Petroleum Hydrocarbons, Pahs, Pcbs, Chlorinated Dioxins/Furans, And Heavy Metals, Matthew Robert Poltorak

Master's Theses

Native and naturalized California plant species were screened for their phytoremediation potential for the cleanup of soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs), poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlorinated dioxins/furans, and heavy metals. This screening was followed by controlled greenhouse experiments to further evaluate the phytoremediation potential of the best candidates. Field specimens and soils used for this study were collected from the former Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Southern California that was operated by the Department of Energy (DOE). Soils at this site contain all of the contaminants of interest (COIs). Nine …

Sensitivity Of Columbia Basin Runoff To Long-Term Changes In Multi-Model Cmip5 Precipitation Simulations, Mehmet Demirel, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, we used precipitation elasticity index of streamflow, to reflect on the sensitivity of streamflow to changes in future precipitation. We estimated precipitation elasticity of streamflow from: (1) simulated streamflow by the VIC model using observed precipitation for the current climate (1963–2003); (2) simulated streamflow by the VIC model using simulated precipitation from 10 GCM - CMIP5 dataset for the future climate (2010–2099) including two different pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) and two different downscaled products (BCSD and MACA). The hydrological model was calibrated at 1/16 latitude-longitude resolution and the simulated streamflow was routed to the subbasin outlets of …

Fast Fission Neutron Detection Using The Cherenkov Effect, Matthew Millard

All Theses

The Cherenkov effect in optically clear media of varying indices of refraction and composition was investigated for quantification of fast neutrons. The ultimate application of the proposed detection system is criticality monitoring. The optically clear medium, composed of select target nuclei, was coupled to a photomultiplier tube. Neutron reaction products of the target nuclei contained within the optical medium emit beta particles and gamma rays that produce Cherenkov photons within the medium which can be detected. Assessed media include quartz (SiO2), sapphire (Al2O3), spinel (MgAl2O4), and zinc sulfide (ZnS), which were irradiated with un-moderated 252Cf. Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code …

Optimizing Light Collection From Extractive Scintillating Resin In Flow-Cell Detectors, Amy Meldrum

All Theses

The objectives of this study were to investigate the changes in light collection efficiency for flow cell detector as various parameters are altered to find the optimum flow cell configuration. Columns with inner diameters of 0.16 cm, 0.48 cm, 0.79 cm, and 1.11 cm were packed with synthesized nonporous, un-functionalized beads to measure their detection efficiencies for solutions containing 210Po, 14C, or 90Sr/90Y. The average diameter of the beads used in the experiments was 147 µm ± 33 µm. The highest detection efficiency for 210Po was 15.3 ± 3.9% with the 1.11 cm diameter column. The 1.11 cm diameter column …

Using Gis To Prioritize Green Infrastructure Installation Strategies In An Urban Watershed, Lauren Owen

All Theses

This study seeks to quantify runoff volume generation and peak flow rates from the urban Sand River Headwaters to determine the most effective placement of additional green infrastructure in Aiken, SC. ArcMap 10.1, HEC-GeoHMS, and HEC-HMS were used to delineate a total outlet watershed along with subwatershed(s) for urban stormwater infrastructure system by 'burning' the stormwater system at an artificial elevation below the existing topologically-based Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The result was a higher resolution DEM that allowed for storm routing and subsequent volume and flow predictions compared to that based on the original DEM created by using Light Detecting …

Experimental Evidence For Colloid-Facilitated Transport Of Plutonium, Hilary Emerson

All Dissertations

Colloid-facilitated transport of the actinides has been observed previously in the field on the kilometer scale. The objective of this work is to investigate the mechanisms of colloid-facilitated transport with controlled settings and conditions. The experimental work in this dissertation investigates transport of a ternary complex with iron oxide colloids, organic ligands and actinides in the presence of quartz or a natural sandy soil as well as simplified systems building up to the ternary complexes. The first three papers investigate the following: (1) unsaturated transport of iron oxide colloids in a natural sandy soil lysimeter with and without natural organic …

Toward Understanding The Thermodynamics And Mechanisms Of Actinide Sorption Reactions, Shanna Estes

All Dissertations

The environmental fate of actinides is greatly influenced by interfacial reactions, including sorption onto solid surfaces. Because changes in the primary hydration sphere of the actinide are expected to greatly influence the thermodynamics (i.e., reaction enthalpy and entropy) of these reactions, examining actinide sorption thermodynamics may provide insight into actinide sorption mechanisms. Additionally, examining actinide sorption thermodynamics may enhance the ability to model or predict these reactions in environmental or engineered systems where variable or elevated temperatures are expected. However, few researchers have studied actinide sorption thermodynamics. Therefore, this research examined the thermodynamics of Eu(III) (a trivalent actinide analog), Th(IV), …

The Effects Of Secondary Trapping Mechanisms On Geologic Storage Of Carbon Dioxide, Catherine Ruprecht

All Dissertations

The goal of this Dissertation is to further the understanding of secondary trapping mechanisms in geologic CO₂ storage systems to improve storage design and security. This Dissertation takes the form of three chapters. The objective of the first chapter was to analyze the storage performance of supercritical and brine saturated CO₂ injection strategies to determine their advantages and disadvantages on distribution and immobilization of CO₂ and pressure buildup. Results showed dissolved CO₂ injection was favorable in terms of storage security in all cases as it resulted in smaller areal extents on the caprock and did not …

Methane Production By A Packed-Bed Anaerobic Digester Fed Dairy Barn Flush Water, Sean Richard Thomson

Master's Theses

Packed-bed digesters are an alternative to covered lagoon digesters for methane production and anaerobic treatment of dilute wastewaters such as dairy barn flush water. The physical media of packed-beds retain biofilms, often allowing increased treatment rates. Previous studies have evaluated several types of media for digestion of dilute wastewaters, but cost and media fouling have setback commercial development. A major operational cost has been effluent recirculation pumping.

In the present effort, a novel approach to anaerobic digestion of flush dairy water was developed at pilot-scale: broken walnut shells were used as a low-cost packed-bed medium and effluent recirculation was replaced …

Catechol Oxidation By Ozone And Hydroxyl Radicals At The Air-Water Interface, Elizabeth A. Pillar, Robert C. Camm, Marcelo I. Guzman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Anthropogenic emissions of aromatic hydrocarbons promptly react with hydroxyl radicals undergoing oxidation to form phenols and polyphenols (e.g., catechol) typically identified in the complex mixture of humic-like substances (HULIS). Because further processing of polyphenols in secondary organic aerosols (SOA) can continue mediated by a mechanism of ozonolysis at interfaces, a better understanding about how these reactions proceed at the air–water interface is needed. This work shows how catechol, a molecular probe of the oxygenated aromatic hydrocarbons present in SOA, can contribute interfacial reactive species that enhance the production of HULIS under atmospheric conditions. Reactive semiquinone radicals are quickly produced upon …

United States Patent Application Publication, John H. Posselius, Christopher A. Foster, Santosh Pitla, Scott A. Shearer, Joe D. Luck, Michael P. Sama, Rodrigo S. Zandonadi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A multiple robot control architecture including a plurality of robotic agricultural machines including a first and second robotic agricultural machine. Each robotic agricultural machine including at least one controller configured to implement a plurality of finite state machines Within an individual robot control architecture (IRCA) and a global information module (GIM) communicatively coupled to the IRCA. The GIMs of the first and second robotic agricultural machines being configured to cooperate to cause said first robotic agricultural machine and said second agricultural machine to perform at least one agricultural task.

Development Of A Reusable Nutrient Recovery System To Sustainably Integrate Small-Scale Sanitation And Agriculture, Jorge Luis Calabria

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emerging technologies in sanitation and food production foster the potential to advance progress towards key sustainable development goals of ensuring adequate sanitation and food security to all. Non-Sewered Sanitation Systems (NSSSs), as detailed by the recent International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 30500 standard, are being developed to overcome challenges of lacking sanitation infrastructure and resource scarcity by providing autonomous, off-grid wastewater treatment (WWT) service in a much smaller footprints than large centralized treatment facilities. A promising NSSS platform is the anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) that can achieve high (WWT) throughput in a small footprint using ultrafiltration (UF) membrane filtration to …

Can Protected Bike Lanes Help Close The Gender Gap In Cycling? Lessons From Five Cities, Jennifer Dill, Tara Goddard, Christopher Monsere, Nathan Mcneil

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Even in areas with increased levels of bicycling, there remains a significant “gender gap” in bicycling in the United States, in contrast to many other countries with high rates of bicycling. The primary objective of this paper was to explore whether protected bike lanes could help reduce the gender gap. To do so, the authors used survey data from a comprehensive evaluation of protected bike lanes in five large U.S. cities (Austin, TX, Chicago, IL, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, and Washington, DC) that included survey responses of 1,111 intercepted bicyclists and 2,283 residents. Both men and women overwhelmingly felt …

Nutrient Runoff Following Swine Manure Application, Seth J. Lamb

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

A field study was completed to compare the effects of land application methods, swine growth stage, and varying flow rates following the application of varying amounts of swine manure to 0.75-m by 2.00-m long plots. Three different manure sources were used to represent key different growth stages including growers, finishers, and sows and gilts. The different swine manures were applied in May and Jun 2011 to meet a 1 year nitrogen (N) requirement for corn. Three different land application methods were used to apply the swine manure, broadcast, incorporation, and injection. Runoff water quality was measured during three 30 minute …

Reply To ‘Co2 Emissions From Crop Residue-Derived Biofuels’, Adam Liska, Haishun Yang, Matthew P. Pelton, Andrew E. Suyker

Adam Liska Papers

The soil organic carbon (SOC) model that we used was parameterized with data from arable land under normal farming conditions in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, but the equation is insensitive to changes in tillage, soil texture and moisture. The model has reasonable accuracy, however, in predicting changes in SOC, residue remaining and CO₂ emissions from initial SOC, carbon inputs from residue, and daily temperature; the shoot-to-root ratio used in the geospatial simulation was 0.29 (that is, root carbon is 29% of total aboveground carbon), which did not underestimate carbon input to soil (Supplementary Figure 2 in Ref. …

Soil Carbon Accumulation Under Switchgrass Barriers, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, John E. Gilley, Dean E. Eisenhauer, Paul J. Jasa, Alan L. Boldt

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The benefits of grass barriers or hedges for reducing offsite transport of non-point-source water pollutants from croplands are well recognized, but their ancillary benefits on soil properties have received less attention. We studied the 15-yr cumulative effects of narrow and perennial switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) barriers on soil organic C (SOC), total N, particulate organic matter (POM), and associated soil structural properties as compared with the cropped area on an Aksarben silty clay loam (fine, smectitic, mesic Typic Argiudoll) with 5.4% slope in eastern Nebraska. Five switchgrass barriers were established in 1998 at ~38-m intervals parallel to the crop rows …

Interactive Comment On “Iodine Oxide In The Global Marine Boundary Layer” By C. Prados-Roman Et Al., Marcelo I. Guzman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Estimating Mineral Weathering Rates In Catskills Watersheds, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Structure-Function Relationship Of Pamam Dendrimers As Robust Oil Dispersants, Nicholas K. Geitner, Bo Wang, Rachel E. Andorfer, David A. Ladner, Pu Chen Ke, Feng Ding

Publications

PAMAM dendrimers have recently been investigated as efficient and biocompatible oil dispersants utilizing their encapsulation capacity; however, their high cationic charge density has been shown to be cytotoxic. It is therefore imperative to mitigate cationic charge-induced toxicity and understand the effects of such changes. Presented here is a synergistic experimental and computational approach to examine the effects of varying terminal surface charge on the capacity of dendrimers to disperse model liner, polycyclic aromatic, and hybrid hydrocarbons. Uncharged dendrimers collapse by forming intramolecular hydrogen bonds, which reduce the hosting capability. On the other hand, changing the surface charges from positive to …

Fate Of Micropollutants During Pyrolysis Of Biosolids, John Ross

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Approximately 250 tons of organic micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals, antimicrobials, and hormones, are discharged to the environment during land application of wastewater biosolids annually. Reusing wastewater biosolids is vital to the sustainability of wastewater treatment, but current treatment processes do not remove micropollutants from biosolids in an efficient manner. Pyrolysis―the heating of biomass to temperatures between 400 and 800 °C under oxygen-free conditions―was proposed as a biosolids treatment process that could produce a beneficial soil amendment product, biochar, and remove micropollutants. The objective of this research was to determine the effect of pyrolysis temperature and residence time on the removal of …

Hydro-Climate Temporal Variations And Their Influences On Net Primary Production In A Eurasian Steppe Watershed, Xiaomin Yang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Climate, which is the most important factor that influences Net Primary Productivity, has been detected changing all over the world. The confounding effects of step change invalidate the stationarity assumption of commonly used trend analysis methods such as the Mann-Kendall test technique, so previous studies have failed to explain inconsistencies between detected trends and observed large anomalies. In this research, by formulating a trend analysis approach that considers nonstationary due to step changes, trends and extreme occurrences of precipitation, temperature, and runoff in annual, seasonal, and monthly scales were analyzed in a mid-latitude Eurasian steppe watershed in northeast China, and …

High Voltage Rear Electric Drivetrain Design For A Parallelthrough-The-Road Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Adam Garrett Fogarty

Open Access Theses

Purdue University was selected as one of 15 universities to participate in a three year Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) called EcoCar2: Plugging Into the Future. The vehicle built by the Purdue team was a Parallel-Through-The-Road Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PTTR PHEV). The vehicle utilized a B20 diesel powertrain to power the front wheels, as well as a custom electric drivetrain to power the rear wheels. Using this vehicle during the final year of the competition, the team was successful in placing 4th overall as well as 2nd in the category of Well-To-Wheel (WTW) Greenhouse Gas Emissions. A stock 2013 …

A New Passive Surface Water Flux Meter For Simultaneous Measurement Of Contaminant And Water Fluxes In Streams And Rivers, Stephen A. Sassman

Open Access Dissertations

A passive surface water flux meter (PSFM) for measurement of contaminant concentration/flux in rivers and streams is described and tested. The novel PSFM design was developed for portability and ease of adaptability for a variety of contaminant classes. Although previous designs have been evaluated under constant flow conditions, the PSFM has never been used for measurement of pesticides or hormones and this is the first time that it has been tested under transient flow. Discharge through the PSFM is assessed by measuring miscible displacement of alcohol tracers from granular activated carbon (GAC). The tracer retardation factors (R) measured by miscible …