Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Impacts Of Climate Change On The World’S Economic, Political, And Demographic Structures, Dino Kanlic

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change will have negative impacts on the political, economic, and demographic structures of society. These include a rise in ethnic tensions in the Indian Sub Continent, massive immigration to Europe, regional economic collapse and political destabilization in Africa, the inundation of island nations and economic losses in the Americas among many other changes which will combine to destabilize humanity for generations. International affairs has failed to come up with a solution because global warming is a universal prevention focused problem that trades short term gains for long term losses. Global warming will be solved by the onset of grid …

Does Thorium Have A Place In The Future U.S. Electricity Mix?, Danny West

Master's Projects and Capstones

Thorium is an alternative fuel source for nuclear energy. Coupled with its use in a new reactor design, called a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor, the two have the ability to disrupt the nuclear industry and power sector. Nuclear energy is a clean and reliable source of energy; however, it generates hazardous waste that must be stored away for hundreds of thousands of years and power plants are at risk of a catastrophic incident that can lead to a wide scale release of radiation. These drawbacks to nuclear energy can be mitigated using thorium in a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor. These …

First Proof Of Concept Of Sustainable Metabolite Production From High Solids Fermentation Of Lignocellulosic Biomass Using A Bacterial Co-Culture And Cycling Flush System, Wanying Yao, Sue E. Nokes

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

To improve the lignocellulose conversion for ABE in high solids fermentation, this study explored the feasibility of cycling the process through the cellulolytic or/and solventogenic phases via intermittent flushing of the fermentation media. Five different flushing strategies (varying medium ingredients, inoculum supplement and cycling through phases) were investigated. Flushing regularly throughout the cellulolytic phase is necessary because re-incubation at 65 °C significantly improved glucose availability by at least 6-fold. The solvents accumulation was increased by 4-fold using corn stover (3-fold using miscanthus) over that produced by flushing only through the solventogenic phase. In addition, cycling process was simplified by re-incubating …

Evaluation And Forecast Of Energy Consumption In Different Sectors Of The United States Using Artificial Neural Networks, Arash Kialashaki

Theses and Dissertations

The United States is a country which consumes a vast amount of energy. In order to keep the development of the United States sustainable (diverse and productive over the time) energy planning should be carried out comprehensively and precisely. This dissertation presents a specific mathematical modeling approach towards energy demand modeling of the United States and forecast future energy demand. To generate more detailed and accurate results, this dissertation investigates the energy demand of each sector separately using the analysis of trend for unique set of independent parameters which affect the energy demand in that sector.

In solving a forecast …

Life Cycle Assessment Projection Of Photovoltaic Cells: A Case Study On Energy Demand Of Quantum Wire Based Photovoltaic Technology Research, Shilpi Mukherjee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With increasing clean-energy demand, photovoltaic (PV) technologies have gained attention as potential long-term alternative to fossil fuel energy. However, PV research and manufacture still utilize fossil fuel-powered grid electricity. With continuous enhancement of solar conversion efficiency, it is imperative to assess whether overall life cycle efficiency is also being enhanced. Many new-material PV technologies are still in their research phase, and life cycle analyses of these technologies have not yet been performed. For best results, grid dependency must be minimized for PV research, and this can be accomplished by an analytical instrument called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

LCA is the …

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 …

Spectroscopic Investigation Of The Chemical And Electronic Properties Of Chalcogenide Materials For Thin-Film Optoelectronic Devices, Kimberly Horsley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Chalcogen-based materials are at the forefront of technologies for sustainable energy production. This progress has come only from decades of research, and further investigation is needed to continue improvement of these materials.

For this dissertation, a number of chalcogenide systems were studied, which have applications in optoelectronic devices, such as LEDs and Photovoltaics. The systems studied include Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGSe) and CuInSe2 (CISe) thin-film absorbers, CdTe-based photovoltaic structures, and CdTe-ZnO nanocomposite materials. For each project, a sample set was prepared through collaboration with outside institutions, and a suite of spectroscopy techniques was employed to answer specific questions about the system. These …

Spectral Decomposition Of The Scattered Light Due To Deposits On The Solar Panel Surface, And Cross Correlated To Power Loss, Suzanna Ho

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The electric energy generated by solar panels declines due to dust particulates, bird deposits, water spots, and other contaminants that inhibit sunlight absorption and promote light scattering. As part of our research, we use cameras to capture images of solar panels, and analyze the images to detect the amount of scattered light. The more scattered light there is, the less light there is to penetrate the solar panel glass and reach the part of the panel that converts incident light to electric energy; therefore, less energy is generated. In this paper, we discuss the classification algorithm we developed to classify …

Predicted Performance Of A Skytherm North, A Highly Insulated Building Envelope System And A Frost Protected Shallow Foundation, Kitrina Ann Stratton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

How do you design a durable, sustainable, and financeable Net Zero Energy house for a cold weather climate using little or no external energy that is also affordable? Reviewing all of the factors that would influence the design and materials selection of an appropriate response to the issues, the perfect system for housing people, whether it is in response to affordability, durability, comfort, cultural sensitivity, appearance or being locally appropriate, is using some kind of straw bale construction system with an integrated frost protected shallow foundation and a SkyTherm North design.

The focus and intention of this research is to …

Managing The Risks Of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal And Regulatory Approaches, Sheila Olmstead, Nathan Richardson

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Booming production of oil and gas from shale enabled by hydraulic fracturing technology has led to tension between hoped-for economic benefits and feared environmental and other costs, with great associated controversy. Studies of how policy can best react to these challenges and how it can balance risk and reward have focused on prescriptive regulatory responses and, to a somewhat lesser extent, voluntary industry best practices. While there is undoubtedly room for improved regulation, innovative tools are relatively understudied. The liability system predates environmental regulation yet still plays an important—and in some senses predominant—role. Changes to that system, including burden-shifting rules …

Upward Flow Constructed Wetland For Treatment Of Water Contaminated With Chlorinated Aliphatics, Michael Shelley, Abinash Agrawal, Ke Qin, Garrett Struckhoff, Carl Enfield, James Waldron, Christina Powell

AFIT Patents

An improved upward flow constructed wetland cell for treatment of water contaminated with chlorinated aliphatics is disclosed. The improvements include adding ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms to the methane-oxidizing microorganisms already present in an oxygenated root zone and adding improved pore-water sample chambers for measuring the performance of the constructed wetland cell.

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. …

The Figure Of Bitu-Man, Paul Royster

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

The ominously imposing figure in the above illustration is “the Syncrude bird deterrent device, locally known as ‘Bitu-man’.” He stands (or stood—the original image was from the late 1970s) in the tailings pond of the Syncrude Canada Ltd. oil sands mining operation along the Athabasca River near Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta. That operation surface mines (i.e., strip mines) bitumen-impregnated sand, processes it with hot water and steam, and discharges the liquid effluent or “tailings” into a pond covering roughly 3000 hectares (11 square miles). (Google Map coordinates: 56.9°N, -111.3° W). Residue bitumen collects on the surface and poses a …

Sustainability Planning, Environmental Justice And Climate Change: Applications Of The Long Island Markal Model, David S. Friedman, Yehuda Klein, Jose Pillich, Michael T. Sullivan

Suburban Sustainability

As pointed out by many authors, sustainability is often vague and amorphous (See, for example, Dovers, 1989; Faber, et al, 2005; Glavič, et al. 2007). There is a clear need to make analytical and data-driven analyses of established and or proposed plans. MARKAL (MARKet ALlocation model) is an analytical tool that can be used characterize the impacts of sustainability plans at multiple spatial scales: global, national, regional, and local. In this study we apply the Long Island MARKAL model to answer three interrelated issues: 1, the development and incremental improvement of local and regional sustainability plans; 2, the impact of …

Green-Technology Automobiles: Can Modern Innovations Save The Environment And Consumers' Pockets, Nicholas M. Uline, Steven M. Mahon, Jason P. Potter

Student Publications

Cars of the past are notorious for poor fuel efficiency and high carbon emissions. With the presence of hybrid technology, along with a variety of other green innovations, many of these negative side effects can be mitigated. The purpose of this study is to answer the question: how do green technology vehicles compare with similar models that exclude such innovations in relation to efficiency and price? A total of 47 green-tech vehicles were identified and compared against their base model counterparts. Vehicle weight, horsepower, fuel efficiency and other variables were matched within pairs (green-tech vs. base) and between car types …

The Shale Revolution: Fracks And Figures, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

The U.S. shale revolution could yet make a difference in controlling climate change, but the media must first separate frack from fiction.

Getches Wilkinson Center Newsletter, Fall 2014, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment Newsletter (2013-)

No abstract provided.

Energy Conservation And Efficiency In Manufacturing: Employee Decisions And Actions, Marla Dee Corson

Open Access Dissertations

Energy conservation and intensity reduction efforts are becoming increasingly more prevalent and ultimately necessary, especially for energy-intensive manufacturing companies in particular to stay in business. Typical actions are to change technology, and thus, realize an energy cost savings in overall utilities. However, in today's competitive market, with climate change and other environmental impacts as well, it is necessary for the cost of energy to be valued as a cost of making a product, and thus, managed at the same level as the cost of labor or materials. This research assessed human behavior at the individual and organizational levels both at …

Waste Heat Recovery Options In A Large Gas-Turbine Combined Power Plant, Ularee Upathumchard

Open Access Theses

This study focuses on power plant heat loss and how to utilize the waste heat in energy recovery systems in order to increase the overall power plant efficiency. The case study of this research is a 700-MW natural gas combined cycle power plant, located in a suburban area of Thailand. An analysis of the heat loss of the combustion process, power generation process, lubrication system, and cooling system has been conducted to evaluate waste heat recovery options. The design of the waste heat recovery options depends to the amount of heat loss from each system and its temperature. Feasible waste …

What Drives Car Attitudes: An Analysis Of How Demographics And Environmental Views Relate To Car Attitudes, Kelly M. Gross, Alexandra S. Isaacson, Brian J.B. Lonabocker

Student Publications

Successfully marketing new, clean, car technologies to consumers requires an advertising strategy that fits consumers’ priorities and attitudes towards cars. We created a survey to study how attitudes towards cars are associated with demographics and environmental views. Our study examined car preferences and environmental concerns of a sample of Gettysburg College students in comparison to a national sample obtained from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Overall, we concluded that environmental beliefs are a significantly better prediction of car behaviors than demographics. We found that on average people would pay more for a car with a higher fuel economy, but not enough to …

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 …

Uncertainty, Irreversibility, And Investment In Secondgeneration Biofuels, Tanner Joseph Mccarty

Open Access Theses

The present study formalizes and quantifies the importance of uncertainty for investment in a corn-stover based cellulosic biofuel plant. Using a real options model we recover prices of gasoline that would trigger entry into the market and calculate the portion of that entry trigger price required to cover cost and the portion that corresponds to risk premium. We then discuss the effect of managerial flexibility on the entry risk premium and the prices of gasoline that would trigger mothballing, reactivation, and exit. Results show that the risk premium required by plants to enter the second-generation biofuel market is likely to …

Propogation Of Wind Turbine Noise Through Wakes And Turbulent Atmosphere, Yuan Peng

Open Access Theses

It is well known that the atmospheric inhomogeneities have great impact on sound propagation over long ranges. For the application of predicting wind turbine noise, either the flow wakes generated by rotating turbine blades or small-scale atmospheric turbulence can affect the propagation of sound over ground surfaces from individual turbines.

In this thesis, the effects of wake and atmospheric turbulence on the propagation of wind turbine noise are investigated. By introducing the Parabolic Equation (PE) method, the effects of atmospheric changes in sound speed can be incorporated at each marching step as the prediction of sound field advances in the …

Noise Pollution? What's The Solution?: Understanding Traffic Noise Pollution In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Andrew F. Kapp, Joseph M. Passmore, Anika H. Schneider

Student Publications

Noise pollution can be damaging to a community by impacting its atmosphere as well as the health of its residents, local quality of life, and local economy. Our study sought to gain insight into the level of noise pollution in Gettysburg, both in-town and on the Gettysburg College campus, and how noise pollution may be affecting the local residents and students. We selected 9 sampling sites, 6 in-town and 3 on the college campus, and measured the noise pollution in dBA with portable sound meters three days a week and three times a day over a three week period. Our …

The Perfect Pitch: Car Commercials In The Environment, Alyssa P. Beyer, Sara Moyer

Student Publications

Car commercials, like many advertisements, tempt its viewers with comfort, capability, or safety features, as well as being well‐engineered, affordable, attractive, large or compact sized, or fuel efficient. This study examines the pitches in YouTube car commercial video clips from the 1960s until 2014. We coded a total of 263 total car commercials based on pitch, setting, narrator, decade, and country of origin. The analysis revealed that most car commercials were presented in rural settings and capability was pitched most frequently overall. Fuel efficiency was ranked third overall; however, within urban settings, fuel efficiency had the highest frequency. During the …

A Crude Awakening: The Relationship Between Petroleum Exploration And Environmental Conservation In Western Uganda, Kristina Ericson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this study the researcher aims to explore the emerging oil and natural gas processes in the Republic of Uganda and the potential impacts that such exploration will generate upon Uganda’s biodiversity and local livelihoods. The researcher will approach this topic through extensive research on emerging and current legal frameworks pertaining to Uganda’s natural environment, and through practicum-based research via leading non-profit organizations in Uganda.

During the research process the researcher worked as a Student Research Intern with International Alert. International Alert is an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works to promote peace building and conflict resolution in over thirty …

The Mechanical And Social Feasibility Of Using Biogas To Fuel An Essential Oil Distillation Unit In The Rural Commune Of Ankarimbelo, Madagascar, Hannah Nesser

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The rural commune of Ankarimbelo is located on the edge of the Ikongo Rainforest Corridor in southeastern Madagascar. The commune’s remote location, an increasing population, and the prohibition of farming in the rainforest corridor have contributed to extreme poverty. In an attempt to mitigate these effects, the Malagasy NGO Ny Tanintsika has implemented an essential oils distillation plant as an alternative livelihood project. While the project may provide needed income to local populations, thereby diverting destructive agriculture practices such as tavy, or slash-and-burn agriculture, the distillation of essential oils still requires that firewood be burned. Over the course of …

Planetary Improvement: Discourses And Practices Of Green Capitalism In The Cleantech Space, Jesse Adam Goldstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is money to be made in saving the planet. A whole host of actors, such as investors, entrepreneurs, engineers, and policy makers have mobilized around our ecological problems, seeking to innovate new `green' and `clean' technologies that can serve a rapidly changing environment. The presumption that such technologies are both necessary and necessarily profitable anchors visions of a `green' capitalism that can and must be brought into existence.

However, just as free markets have never been all that free, why should we presume that green capitalism would be all that green? Instead of attempting to arbit whether or not …

Ocena Efektów Termomodernizacji Budynków Jednorodzinnych. 1. Zmniejszenie Zużycia Ciepła I Emisji Zanieczyszczeń Do Powietrza, Robert Oleniacz, Magdalena Kasietczuk, Mateusz Rzeszutek

Robert Oleniacz

One of the measures allowing to reduce the emissions of pollutants into the air from the housing sector is decrease in the energy demand, which can be most easily achieved by thermal renovations. This paper analyses some possible variants of thermomodernization of a residential building typical for single-family housing construction of the 1970s and 1980s in Poland (replacement of window frames, insulation of external walls, flat roof insulation and all of the above-mentioned measures together with heating system replacement). Each of the considered variants was assessed in respect to the heat demand and emission of basic pollutants into the air. …

Noble Gases Identify The Mechanisms Of Fugitive Gas Contamination In Drinking-Water Wells Overlying The Marcellus And Barnett Shales, Thomas H. Darrah, Avner Vengosh, Robert B. Jackson, Nathaniel R. R. Warner, Robert J. Poreda

Dartmouth Scholarship

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have enhanced energy production but raised concerns about drinking-water contamination and other environmental impacts. Identifying the sources and mechanisms of contamination can help improve the environmental and economic sustainability of shale-gas extraction. We analyzed 113 and 20 samples from drinking-water wells overlying the Marcellus and Barnett Shales, respectively, examining hydrocarbon abundance and isotopic compositions (e.g., C2H6/CH4, δ13C-CH4) and providing, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive analyses of noble gases and their isotopes (e.g., 4He, 20Ne, 36Ar) in groundwater near shale-gas wells. We addressed two questions. (i) Are elevated levels of hydrocarbon gases in …