Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Scalable, Solar Powered Membrane-Based Water Purification Systems For Community Development In Developing Countries, Yung Wong

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This manuscript style thesis presents a community development model developed at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) to deliver sustainable water purification systems and originate a companion micro-business to sell excess clean water in communities in Haiti. Since 2010, students and faculty from ERAU have partnered with strategic partners to not only provide clean water to their in-country operations but also provide an opportunity for economic growth through a clean water selling micro-business. Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) training is also implemented to aid in community buy-in. Lessons learned from the history of foreign aid to developing countries is taken into account …

Algae: Opportunities For Biomass Feedstock Production, Wastewater Treatment And Educational Outreach, Trina Cassandra Halfhide

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Algae are a diverse group of simple organisms that lack roots, stems or leaves and are able to use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and nutrients to produce complex compounds, such as carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. These compounds, especially lipids, are highly sought-after by agricultural, nutraceutical and energy interests. Although there is great potential for algae derived biofuels, there are technical and economic challenges associated with their cultivation. Relevant to this dissertation, the environmental impacts associated with algae cultivation can be reduced by using municipal and agricultural wastewaters as a water and nutrient source. This research was divided into three sections to …

Assessing The Impacts Of Unrestricted Pesticide Use In Small-Scale Agriculture On Water Quality And Associated Human Health And Ecological Implications In An Indigenous Village In Rural Panam[Aacute], Sarah Louise Watson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2014, the global pesticide industry's projected worth is $52 billion and by 2020, the developing world will make up one-third of the world's chemical production and consumption. Pesticides can have unintended negative consequences for human health and the environment, especially in the developing world where regulations are loose or nonexistent. One country with unrestricted use of pesticides is Panam[aacute], especially in Santa Rosa de Cucunatí. In this indigenous village, small-scale farmers and ranchers spray paraquat, glyphosate, picloram, and 2,4-D at higher elevations than the spring water source of a gravity-fed water system, the river, and the village. The objective …

Investigating The Physical Properties And Runoff Treatment Capability Of Pervious Concrete Containing Granular Activated Carbon, Mark Elias Elkouz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A current environmental concern is that of urban stormwater runoff, which can carry a multitude of contaminants and could threaten or impair surface waters. Pervious concrete (PC) is a type of concrete with significant void spaces that can facilitate infiltration and lead to less runoff. The EPA cites previous research to show that pervious pavement structures reduce such contaminants as metals and total suspended solids. Since Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) is a well-known contaminant adsorbent, the purpose of this research was to determine if PC with added GAC would result in improved runoff treatment, while still maintaining its material properties. …

Evaluation Of Composting Of Municipal Solid Waste, J. Ryan Stebbins

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Millions of tons of organic waste are lost each year by being deposited in landfills instead of being composted. Composting would increase the life of landfills and reduce the loss of renewable resources. Current composting techniques take approximately 6 months to break down the organic components, such as yard trimmings and food waste. In addition, a large amount of area is required for the windrows piles. Recycling techniques help to separate organics, such as yard trimmings and food waste, from the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream for composting. However, these techniques are time consuming, costly, and not extensively practiced. Since …

Drinking Water In The Developing World: Sources Of Fecal Contamination In Pitcher Pump Systems And Measurement Alternatives, Meghan Wahlstrom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It has been reported that globally we have achieved Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Target 7C, to halve the proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water; however, there is a major flaw with this statement. While Target 7C calls for access to `safe' drinking water, what is actually being measured and reported is access to an `improved' water source. The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that they must use this proxy measure because the methods for water quality testing are too expensive and logistically complicated, but by doing so, they may be over reporting safe water coverage.

This …

A System Dynamics Approach To Integrated Water And Energy Resources Management, Yilin Zhuang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water and energy are two of the most important resources for societal prosperity and economic development. It is clear that water and energy are intrinsically linked together and depend on one another in modern society. To date, however, efforts on water-energy nexus concentrate on quantifying the energy use in water cycle or the water use in energy production. From management perspective, water and energy are still managed separately. Little work has been done to investigate the impacts of the management options associated with one resource on the other and examine the integrated water and energy management options. Accordingly, the overall …

Numerical Simulation Of Flow In Ozonation Process, Jie Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last two decades, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has shown great potential as a powerful and cost-efficient tool to troubleshoot existing disinfection contactors and improve future designs for the water and wastewater treatment utilities.

In the first part of this dissertation two CFD simulation methodologies or strategies for computing turbulent flow are evaluated in terms of the predicted hydraulic performance of contactors. In the LES (large eddy simulation) methodology, the more energetic, larger scales of the turbulence are explicitly computed or resolved by the grid. In the less computationally intensive RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) methodology, only the mean component of …

An Assessment Of The Emas Pump And Its Potential For Use In Household Water Systems In Uganda, Jacob Daniel Carpenter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rural improved water supply coverage in Uganda has stagnated around 64% for a number of years and at this point more than 10 million rural people do not have access to an improved drinking water source. It has been recognized that progress toward improved water supply coverage and increased service levels may be gained through Government and nongovernmental organization (NGO) support of private investment in household and shared water supplies, commonly known as Self-supply. Self-supply can be promoted by introducing and building local capacity in appropriate and affordable water supply technologies such as hand-dug wells, manually drilled boreholes, low-cost pumps, …

Damage Mapping Of Powdery Mildew In Winter Wheat With High-Resolution Satellite Image, Lin Yuan, Jingcheng Zhang, Yeyin Shi, Chenwei Nie, Liguang Wei, Jihua Wang

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Powdery mildew, caused by the fungus Blumeria graminis, is a major winter wheat disease in China. Accurate delineation of powdery mildew infestations is necessary for site-specific disease management. In this study, high-resolution multispectral imagery of a 25 km2 typical outbreak site in Shaanxi, China, taken by a newly-launched satellite, SPOT-6, was analyzed for mapping powdery mildew disease. Two regions with high representation were selected for conducting a field survey of powdery mildew. Three supervised classification methods—artificial neural network, mahalanobis distance, and maximum likelihood classifier—were implemented and compared for their performance on disease detection. The accuracy assessment showed that the ANN …

Small-Scale Minimal-Maintenance Anaerobic Digestion Of Food Waste For Solids Reduction And Methane Production: Feasibility Study, Leland C. Scantlebury

Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Six gallons of food waste was anaerobically digested for 76 days in two small-scale digesters sitting by a lab window. The main difference, besides waste sources, of these digesters was substrate processing: chopping versus blending. An effort was made to minimize the maintenance of the digesters, however, after 45 days of overly acidic (pH

Water At The Centre Of Environmental Issues – Research At The Ucd Dooge Centre For Water Resources Research, Zeinab Bedri, Eva M. Mockler, Michael Bruen, Yaqian Zhao, Pj Purcell, John O'Sullivan, M. Alsaji, Aisling Corkery, Liam Doherty, M. Dzakpasu, M. Martins, A. Rymszewicz, L. Willuwet

Conference papers

Since 1988, the UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research has been conducting research in a wide range of water topics including hydraulics, hydrology, coastal dynamics and wastewater with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary collaboration. This paper presents an overview of this research, both past and present, and provides an outlook to the future research directions of the Centre.

Hydro-Environmental Modeling Of Sewage And Riverine Discharges Into A Coastal Area: Comparison Of Depth-Averaged And Three-Dimensional Models, Zeinab Bedri, John O'Sullivan, Aisling Corkery, Louise Deering, Katalin Demeter, Wim Meijer, Gregory O'Hare, Bartholomew Masterson

Conference papers

This study applies and compares two hydrodynamic and water quality models; a depth-averaged (TELEMAC-2D) and a three-dimensional model (TELEMAC-3D) on their performance in simulating the transport and fate of Escherichia coli (a main microbial bathing water quality indicator) in the coastal waters of Bray, Ireland subjected to sewage discharges and freshwater inflows from the River Dargle. The models first calibrated and validated against hydrodynamic and water quality data, were used to simulate Escherichia coli distribution patterns based on mean spring and mean neap tides for dry and wet weather scenarios. The hydrodynamic calibration yielded a good match between both models …

Integrating Algaculture Into Small Wastewater Treatment Plants: Process Flow Options And Life Cycle Impacts, Muriel M. Steele, Annick Anctil, David A. Ladner

Publications

Algaculture has the potential to be a sustainable option for nutrient removal at wastewater treatment plants. The purpose of this study was to compare the environmental impacts of three likely algaculture integration strategies to a conventional nutrient removal strategy. Process modeling was used to determine life cycle inventory data and a comparative life cycle assessment was used to determine environmental impacts. Treatment scenarios included a base case treatment plant without nutrient removal, a plant with conventional nutrient removal, and three other cases with algal unit processes placed at the head of the plant, in a side stream, and at the …

Integration Of Qual2kw And Arcgis For Silver Bow Creek, Montana, Michael S. Potts

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The purpose of this project is to take preliminary steps towards the development of a QUAL2Kw model for Silver Bow Creek, MT. These preliminary steps include initial research and familiarization with QUAL2Kw, use of ArcGIS to fill in geospatial data gaps, and integration of QUAL2Kw and ArcGIS. The integration involves improvement of the QUAL2Kw model output through adding functionality to the model itself, and development of a QUAL2Kw specific tool in ArcGIS. These improvements are designed to help expedite and simplify the viewing of QUAL2Kw output data spatially in ArcGIS as opposed to graphically within QUAL2Kw. These improvements will allow …

Benchtop Minimal-Intervention Anaerobic Digestion Of Vegetarian Food Waste For Ph And Methane Production: Conceivability And Control Study, Emily J. Heleva-Ponaski

Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cities around the world transport large quantities of waste to landfills at a great expense to their residents, infrastructures, and environments. The objective of this study was to run an anaerobic food waste digester with minimal interference or maintenance. One specific goal of this research was to evaluate the relationship between anaerobic food waste and pH. Two benchop digesters were started with vegetarian food waste collected from the Portland State University campus. Measurements were collected over the course of the digestion process. Due to low pH and lack of biogas production, the digesters were buffered with sodium carbonate and seeded …

Effectiveness Of Air Sealing Measures And Other Energy Retrofit Measures In Lafayette Energy Improvement Program, Jia Ye

Open Access Theses

From September 2011 to March 2013, the City of Lafayette, IN implemented Lafayette Improvement Program. The goal of this project was to "increase energy efficiency of existing homes through retrofitting, thereby lowering the costs of home ownership within the Vinton and Glen Acres Neighborhood Target Area (The City of Lafayette, 2011)." Energy audit companies carried out before blower door test and after blower door test to identify air tightness of subjects. This paper finds out there was an improvement in air tightness in the population of 85 houses and the degree of improvement was between 16.85% and 17.85%.

Change point …

Experimental And Numerical Study Of The Air Distribution In An Airliner Cabin, Wei Liu

Open Access Theses

Nowadays, more people, including those with impaired health or who are otherwise potentially sensitive to the cabin environment, are traveling by air than ever before. The flying public demands a higher comfort level and a cleaner environment because they encounter a combination of environmental factors including low humidity, low air pressure, and sometimes, exposure to air contaminants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, various organic chemicals, and biological agents. Moreover, international air travel has increased the potential risks associated with airborne disease transmission and the release, whether accidentally or intentionally, of noxious substances during flight. Many studies suggest that the risk …

Attached-Growth System For Nitrification At Low Temperature, Zhe Sun

Open Access Theses

Attached-growth biological treatment systems have potential to conduct nitrification in cold-temperature climates. In this research, in order to simulate the attached-growth nitrification process (using BOBBER biological reactor) at a real wastewater treatment facility, two laboratory-scale mini-BOBBER systems were installed in a temperature-controlled room and were operated for 101 days with pure ammonium chloride feed solution. Steady-state conditions were approached at 20°C, 15°C, 10°C, and 5°C. In addition, a series of batch experiments were conducted at temperatures of 20°C and 5°C to investigate the relationship between nitrification rate and ammonia-N concentration. Results from these experiments were analyzed and compared with the …

Graphical Performance Measures For Practitioners To Identify Split Failures, Richard Scott Freije

Open Access Theses

Detector occupancy is commonly used to measure traffic signal performance. Despite improvements in controller computational power, there have been relatively few innovations in occupancy-based performance measures or integration with other data. This thesis introduces and demonstrates the use of graphical performance measures based on detector occupancy ratios to verify potential split failures and other signal timing shortcomings reported to practitioners by the public. The proposed performance measures combine detector occupancy during the green interval, detector occupancy during the first five seconds of the red interval, and phase termination cause (gap out or force off). These are summarized by time of …

Integrating Mammalian Hazards With Management At U.S. Civil Airports: A Case Study., Kristin M. Biondi, Jerrold L. Belant, James A. Martin, Travis L. Devault, Guiming Wang

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wildlife incidents with U.S. civil aircraft cost an estimated $1.4 billion from 1990 to 2010, with mammals 5 times more likely to cause damage than other wildlife. We surveyed 2 general aviation (GA) airports and 6 Part-139 certificated (i.e., certified) airports to assess efficacy of management practices for mammalian species hazardous to aircraft. We obtained information on mammalian species present on airport grounds, types and estimated effectiveness of management techniques, and effort spent on wildlife management. We evaluated management techniques relative to aircraft–wildlife collisions (i.e., incident) frequencies taken from Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) National Wildlife Strike Database and species hazard …

Lead (Pb) Contamination Of Water Drawn From Pitcher Pumps In Eastern Madagascar, David Bradlee Akers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Access to safe water supply--a major determinant of public health--is less than 50% in Madagascar, and access to piped, treated water remains out of reach financially for many in the urban and peri-urban areas where available. The Self-supply option of the Pitcher Pump has been meeting the need for household water in coastal areas of Madagascar since the early 1960s and has proven a sustainable option for many. These pumps make use of leaded components in the construction, however, which may pose a health risk for heavy metal intoxication and therefore cause the water to be unsafe for drinking and …

Sustainable Energy And Nutrient Recovery From Swine Waste, Adib Amini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Swine production represents approximately 40% of the world's meat production, and swine wastes contain high concentrations of organic matter, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Swine production is intensifying as meat demand increases and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are becoming increasingly common, making it difficult to treat the waste generated. A system for holistic treatment of swine waste produced in CAFOs was investigated in this study that sustainably generates energy and recovers N and P as saleable fertilizers. The system uses anaerobic digestion (AD) for methane production and solids stabilization, followed by precipitation of struvite (MgNH4PO4*6H2O) and recovery of N …

Evaluation Of Hand Augered Well Technologies' Capacity To Improve Access To Water In Coastal Ng[Oumlaut]Be Communities In Panama, Sarah Hayman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amid the global efforts surrounding United Nations' Millennium Development Goal Target 7c to improve access to safe and sustainable drinking water among populations who lack this resource, it has become essential to monitor and evaluate progress. Development initiatives working to achieve improved drinking water access often introduce appropriate technologies designed to be sustainably owned and operated by populations in rural areas suffering from water related hardships. It is valuable to thoroughly examine the degree to which these technologies satisfy intended objectives and affect user experienced water access. The accurate reflection of impact and progress can be complex, as the evaluation …

Soil Remediation Using Solvent Extraction With Hydrodehalogenation And Hydrogenation In A Semicontinuous System, Robert John Panczer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to aid in the development of Remedial Extraction And Catalytic Hydrodehalogenation (REACH), a green remediation technology used to remove and destroy halogenated hydrophobic organic compounds from soil. REACH has no secondary waste streams, uses an environmentally benign solvent, and aims to catalytically destroy rather than transfer the organic contaminants into a different phase. In this thesis, a bench-top semicontinuous model of the proposed remediation technology was constructed and used to extract the model contaminant, 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene, from soil and to convert it to an acceptable end product, cyclohexane. Palladium was used as a catalyst for …

Ultraviolet Light Emitting Diode Use In Advanced Oxidation Processes, Kelsey L. Duckworth

Theses and Dissertations

Cleanup from a hazardous chemical release can result in large volumes of water containing hazardous materials, such as organophosphates. Unfortunately, this water cannot be treated in a municipal wastewater treatment plant without adversely affecting the performance of the plant. A known method for pretreating this water to prepare it for processing in a traditional treatment plant includes the addition of hydrogen peroxide, followed by ultraviolet (UV) light exposure to form reactive hydroxyl radicals which oxidize the chemical. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are explored as a UV source as they are durable; compact; can be powered by low voltage, direct current …

Design Considerations For A Water Treatment System Utilizing Ultra-Violet Light Emitting Diodes, Michael J. Spencer

Theses and Dissertations

UV LED technology is in its infancy and research as it applies to UV water treatment is required to advance knowledge for practical application. This thesis focused on two subjects. First, the design, fabrication, and operation of a water treatment reaction system utilizing Ultra-Violet (UV) Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). Second, the measurement of UV LED output angle in water which is necessary to support future reactor designs. Several characteristics of the LED-water interface were revealed which impacted the effectiveness of the vessel including; UV dose requirements, LED wavelength, photon dispersion geometry, LED placement, optical efficiency, vessel material, and electronic control …

Is Horizon Sampling More Powerful Than Depth Sampling?, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Quantifying And Modeling Stream–Aquifer Interactions In The Elkhorn River Basin, Nebraska, Can Liu

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study combined statistical analyses, field investigations and numerical groundwater flow modeling to quantify the connectivity between the Elkhorn River and its adjacent aquifers in Nebraska. The Mann-Kendall trend tests were conducted to detect increasing or decreasing tendencies on the time series data of streamflow, which were collected from eighteen gauging stations in the Elkhorn River and its tributaries. Decreasing trends were not found in the annual streamflow data.

Field investigation of streambed hydraulic properties was performed in the Elkhorn River near Winslow and Norfolk. Vertical hydraulic conductivities (K_v) of the shallow streambed sediments were obtained by …

Identification Of Wheat Varieties With A Parallel-Plate Capacitance Sensor Using Fisher’S Linear Discriminant Analysis, C. V. K. Kandala, George Meyer, N. Puppala, V. Settaluri, R. S. Reddy

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Fisher’s linear discriminant (FLD) models for wheat variety classification were developed and validated. The inputs to the FLD models were the capacitance (𝐶), impedance (𝑍), and phase angle (𝜃), measured at two frequencies. Classification of wheat varieties was obtained as output of the FLDmodels.𝑍and 𝜃of a parallel-plate capacitance system,holding thewheat samples, weremeasured using an impedance meter, and the 𝐶 value was computed.The best model developed classified the wheat varieties, with accuracy of 95.4%, over the six wheat varieties tested.This method is simple, rapid, and nondestructive and would be useful for the breeders and the peanut industry.