Environmental Chemistry Commons^™

Visualizing Ozone Pollution In The Denver Metro Area Using A Bioindicator Garden, Ella K. Mathews, Hillary Hamann, Julie Morris, Erica L. Larson

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Since the industrial revolution, widespread fossil fuel combustion has significantly increased atmospheric pollution. The combustion of fossil fuels releases nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which form tropospheric (ground-level) ozone when exposed to sunlight. Ozone directly harms plants by disrupting their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and carry out photosynthesis. Bioindicator species are plants that have visible responses to environmental conditions, such as ozone, and can act as “canaries in the coal mine,” indicating the health of their environment. In this study, we used a garden of ozone bioindicator species (ozone garden) as a cost-effective tool …

Du Undergraduate Showcase Abstracts: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, Sophia Wismar, Henry Staats, Allison Metzler, Chloe Puckett, Rachel Levine, Christa Kilpatrick, Scott Wolf, Joe Walsh, Grace Doolittle, John Engebreston, Zoe Lopez, Christopher Aaby, Audrey Duff, Timothy Sisk, Katelyn Lamberton, Angela Narayan, Gilkah Argueta, Habiba Samir, Girena Tesfazghi, Genet Kenore, Sinit Tesfamariam, Effley Brooks, Abi Newell, Megan Doherty, Natalie Baer, Lexi Blood, Talya Riciputi, Jessica Jimenez, Devin Hernandez, Lynn Clark, Taj Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Allen Rutman, Mira Pronobis, Tess Carson, Anna Sher, Frankie Stroud, Tamra Pearson D'Estree, Alyssa Wilson, Emily Melnick, Jenalee Doom, Yihang Gao, Gwendolyn Geiger, Noah Gettle, Scott Nichols, Clare Ayoub, Cara Dienno, Sunny Walker, Zoe Hansen, Maya Wheeler, Addison Rice, Patrick Martin, Sanjana Acharya, Daniel Mcintosh, Amanda Mckellips, Calli Cain, Justin Blake, Peter Sokol-Hessner, Natalie Miller, Max Weisbuch, Sophia Dellota, John Macikas, Charlotte Snow, Mark Siemens, Zoe Lynch, Alex Huffman, Prachi Shah, Jason Roney, Halcyon Levi, Nicole Herzog, Andrea Koly, Daniel Linseman, Annie London, Xi Yang, Avery Zwisler, Jane Smith, Chaz Contag, Michael Kerwin, Lucy Rand, Grace Schroeder, Michelle Rozenman, Nissa Tapper, Guiming Zhang, Mateo Mazariego-Halpern, Keith Meyer, Julie Do, Dakota Park-Ozee, Travis Herink, Kara Neu, Jonathan Plomin, Eve-Odine Duchaufour, Debbie Gale Mitchell, Tennyson Anderson-Stricklin, Lily Treitz, Samantha Rosenberger, Sierra Griffith, Finley Joseph, Daniel Sampson, Emmy Davis, Skyler Kasnoff, Evon Lopez, Vivian Nguyen, Cassy Young, Franklin Sellner, Martin Tobon, Ila Graham, Zach Billings, Holden Hedit, Decatur Boland, Paul Kosempel, Cory Chandler, Jay Mahoney, Sam Dragan, Susan Dagget, Yarrow Ator, Heidi Vuletich, Owen Weber, Andrew Kloeppel, Petersen Gray, Mandi Schaeffer-Fry, Razleen Bassra, Bryanna Rodriguez, Christina Blue, Taubie Sanders, Rachel Epstein, Luke Milburn, Camryn Evans, Ezra Martinez, Mary Westwood, Gabri Notov, Robin Tinghitella, Lilou Cabrol, Eli Barbour, Juliet Mendik, Selma Myers, Zac Wise, Noah Fahlin, Michelle Knowles, Abigail Hopper, Michael Greenberger, Romi Laclair, Sarah Watamura, Sabrina Efroymson, Casey Barker, Sydney Seltzer, Bryn Yehle, Jennifer Hoffman, Sara Garcia, Ryuka Nagamine, Trevor Briggs, Remy Le Boeuf, Elena Krone, Eileen Farrell, Regan O'Rourke, Elena Roel, Greg Mortimer, Ali Ayoub, Stefani Langehennig, Caitlin Turk, Logan Scmid, Stefan Chavez-Norgaard, Karen Kim, Tatiana Peccedi, Courtney Cassidy, John Sebesta, Rhianna Lewis, Janice Bening-Lacek, Vivian Lawless, Mckenna Hanson, Jeffrey Amidon, Riya Joshi, Ram Ambre, Brady Worrell, Perrin Schneider, Ali Azadani, Brooke Agulnek, Lyndsie Salvagio, Elise Siemanowki, Yan Qin, Andre Allen, Melodie Nguyen, Megan Livengood, Abby Reams, Saffron Hartreeve, Bri Wylie, Sarah Brookman, Mariah Loiacono, Green Russo, Abhia Lodhi, Gabrielle Welsh, Nika Spehar, Shahked Levin, Evrim Baykal, Kimberly Chiew, Jocelyn Torres, Kailey Hicks, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Audrey Bellows, Akam Chahal, Madeline Tepper, Shannon Murphy, Alexa Fonseca, Deborah Han, Cassandra Perez, Oluwatoyin Alaba, Julia Roncoroni, Vy Nguyen, Nana Burn, Sarah Sasse, Rubin Tuder, Anthony Gerber, Nancy Lorenzon, Christine Vohwinkel, Camryn Gunter, Tristan Weber, Sam Rommel, Brian Michel, Muskan Fatima, Alannah Oleson, Kira Frey, Edward Garrido, Beckett Morris, Kerstin Haring, Drew Middleton, Abigail Walpert, Liam Dee, Gabby Ishaw, Cole Carnes, Maddie Weiser, Claire Fox, Valeriia Vlasenko, Kateri Mcrae, Riley Smith, Abigail Templin, Kushani Rajapaksha

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Abstracts from the DU Undergraduate Research Showcase.

Effects Of Ambient Temperature On Nox Emissions From Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicles Measured In Utah, Amber L. Gurecki Allen, Darrell B. Sonntag, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

This study investigates the effects of ambient temperature on NOx (NO + NO2) emissions from model year 2011 and later heavy-duty (HD) diesel vehicles. Emission measurements were collected in Perry, Utah, using the Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test (FEAT) remote sensing device. Data were limited to model year 2011 and later to focus on vehicles likely equipped with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, which control tailpipe NOx emissions and are shown to be temperature sensitive. HD diesel vehicles measured in the winter of 2020 had consistently higher NOx emissions than those measured in the summer of 2023, most significantly for vehicles …

Extreme Value Theory View Of High Emitter Diesel Vehicles In The Us From 1991 To 2021, M. Matti Maricq, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

Extreme value theory (EVT) is a statistical method to characterize the tails of distributions, such as high emitter vehicle emissions. The present work addresses the United States (US) diesel fleet. EVT confirms that high emitters contribute disproportionately to adverse air quality. It further reveals that high emitter emissions have responded differently to progressively tighter emissions standards compared to fleet averages. Carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) high emitter emissions fell in concert with the fleet average after widespread implementation of the diesel oxidation catalyst to meet US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tier 1 emissions standards, but remained unchanged after introduction …

Photochemistry Of Quinones And Combustion-Derived Particles, Desiree J. Sarmiento

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quinones are ubiquitous species that can be produced from the photochemical aging of combustion-derived particles (CDPs). Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a major component of CDPs and are precursors to quinones and other oxidized products (OPAHs). My work first expanded on the PAH and OPAH photochemistry research of Dr. John Haynes, who showed that anthracene (ANT) oxidizes into 1,4-naphthoquinone (1,4-NAPQ), 1,4-anthraquinone (1,4-ANTQ), and 9,10-anthraquinone (9,10-ANTQ), and of Dr. Heather Runberg, who demonstrated the ability of ANT and these quinones to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). Then at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), I was given the opportunity to investigate …

Extreme Value Theory Analysis Of High Emitter Trends Across Four Us Cities From 1995 To 2021, M. Matti Maricq, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

Extreme value theory provides a direct means to characterize the distribution of high emitters within a vehicle fleet and calculate statistical confidence intervals for comparisons. Defining a “high emitter” as the maximum emitter in a random sample of N vehicles implies in the limit of large N that high emitters follow an extreme value distribution, comprised of three distinct domains. The analysis of over twenty years of roadside remote sensing emissions measurements in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Tulsa reveals clear differences between gasoline vehicle high emitter distributions across pollutants (hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitric oxide (NO)), but …

Evaluating The Efficiency Of Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors At A Suburban Field Site, Olivia Wuttke

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

Science surrounding the use of low-cost sensors (LCS) to monitor air quality is rapidly expanding to satisfy the need to fill in regional air quality data gaps. This project evaluated the suitability of two types of LCS: Modulair-PM and PurpleAir (SD and Flex models) as efficient means to measure airborne particulate matter. The study involved physical installation of nine co-located sensors at a suburban site in Denver, connectivity troubleshooting as necessary, and data analysis/modeling of data over multiple months (19 weeks). PM data was compared between individual sensors of the same type, as well as across the two different sensor …

Du Undergraduate Showcase Abstracts: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, August Alexander, Kevin Summers, E. Paige Lloyd, Alyssa Aragon, Lauren Wols, Erica Larson, Colton Arciniaga, Lily Baeza, Ellie Barnett-Cashman, Sidney Barbier, Maverick Bartholomew, Ryan Bell, Trevor Briggs, Amanda Brown, Cory Marchi, Maddy Pontius, Jennifer Gallagher, Claire Kwok, Channing Bullock, Alex Mccollister, Kim Gorgens, Daniela Chavez, Yamilet Espinoza Nuñez, Giovanni Valladares Giron, William Christensen, Olivia Kachulis, Daniel Cierasynski, Brandon Cohen, Spenser Dobbs, Lindsay Goolsby, Noah Craver, Nyah Cubbison, Liam Doherty, Nicole Doris, Yan Qin, Alexander Nguyen, Lily Harmon, Shubh Todi, Naichen Zhao, Noah Fagello, Stacia Fritz, Paola Gascot-Chinea, Alex Volkova, Janelyn Geronimo, Elsie Harrington, Shane Simmons, Clarice Hise, Laura Moreno Palmer, Henry Xu, Yesu Leela Pasupula, Emily Fisher, Zachary Hogan, Colin Kleckner, Alyssa Knaus, Erin Kubat, Sam Werkema, Katie Lamberton, Lilliya Larson, Allie Leary, Vanessa Leon-Gamez, James H. Gallagher, E. Dale Broder, Robin M. Tinghitella, Emma Loeber, Alina Mali, Ixchel Marquez, Lauren Mcgrath, Ella Matthews, Grace Naegelen, Audrey Ng, Megan Lucyshyn, Rachel Brough, Alexandra Norman, Joe Ontiveros Rodriguez, Ben Dossett, Ori Miller, Janamejay Sharma, Christopher Reardon, Vincent Pandey, Regan Parish, Ren Pratt, Alisha Pravasi, Sanchari Das, Cari Reichel, Emma Robson, Victoria Rockwell, Jayce Rumsey, Steven Said, Norah Schroder, Alaina Smith, Shannon Murphy, Shujan A. Sharafeldeen, Stanley M. Kanai, James T. Nichols, David E. Clouthier, Macalia R. Augustus, Daniel Silva Rios, Scott Simpson, Anna Sparling, Chase Spurbeck, Kimberly Chiew, Christine Stadnik-Poteroba, Jacqueline Stephenson, Evelyn Stovin, Mia Supan, Lauren Tapper, Will Thrush, Anna Vogt, Michaela Walheim, Jon Weber, Hunter Whitehouse, Kansas Wood, Hayley Sayre, Lydia Mccann, Maread Mclaughlin, Kelly Krumrie, Olivia Wuttke

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Abstracts from the DU Undergraduate Research Showcase.

Data Set For "Atmospheric Aging Of Combustion-Derived Particles: Impact On Stable Free Radical Concentration And Its Ability To Produce Reactive Oxygen Species In Aqueous Media", Brian Majestic, Heather L. Runberg

Chemistry and Biochemistry: Data Sets

Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFR) are an emerging pollutant found in soot particles. Understanding how these change as they move through the atmosphere is important to human health. Here, soot was generated in the laboratory and exposed to simulated sunlight. The concentrations and characteristics of EPFR in the soot was recorded. Additionally, formation of hydroxyl radical from the photoactivated soot was measured.

Reno, Carson City And Las Vegas - 1994, University Of Denver

United States Data - Nevada

Relevant Publications

Science Total Environment Publication

Utah Wintertime Measurements Of Heavy-Duty Vehicle Nitrogen Oxide Emission Factors, Gary A. Bishop, Molly J. Haugen, Brian C. Mcdonald, Adam M. Boies

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

There have only been a few wintertime studies of heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) NO_x emissions in the U.S., and while they have observed increased emissions, fleet characterization to identify the cause has been lacking. We have collected wintertime measurements of NO_x emission factors from 1,591 HDV at a Utah Port of Entry in December 2020 that includes individual vehicle identification. In general, the NO_x emission factors for 2011 & newer chassis model year HDV are significantly higher than 2017 spring measurements from California. The newest chassis model year HDV (2017 - 2021) NO_x emission factors are similar …

Measurements Of Atmospheric Radicals, Heather L. Runberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is a global health concern. PM_2.5 is formed primarily through combustion processes such as automobile use and industrial activity. Natural sources of PM_2.5 result from events like volcanos and wildfires. Upon inhalation, PM_2.5 is small enough to travel deep into the lungs where it can form reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as hydroxyl radical (OH), causing oxidative damage to pulmonary tissues. PM_2.5 has been linked to cardiopulmonary diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and high blood pressure.

PM_2.5 is small enough to remain aloft and travel many hundreds …

Oakland

United States Data - California

Relevant Publications

2022 Data Summary

2022 Oakland Ca Data Summary, Gary Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

Simple data summary for 2022 on-road vehicle emission measurements from Oakland CA.

The Art Of Poetry And Its Place In The History Of The Coordinating Research Councils Real World Emissions Workshop {Poster}, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

On-Road Vehicle Emission Measurements And Their Use In Evaluating Emission Control Effectiveness {Presentation}, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

2021 West Los Angeles Data Summary, Gary Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

Simple data summary for 2021 West Los Angeles on-road emission measurements.

On-Road Nox Emissions Evaluation Of The Repair Effectiveness For Recalled Volkswagen Group Light-Duty Diesel Vehicles In The United States, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

The admission by the Volkswagen Group in the fall of 2015 that they had duped the United States new vehicle emissions certification testing resulted in perhaps the most expensive violation of U.S. environmental vehicle emission regulations in its history. As part of the subsequent recall of more than 500,000 vehicles in the U.S., owners could sell their vehicles back to the companies or have them repaired. We have used a number of large on-road emission measurement data sets that were routinely collected before and after the recall to evaluate the fuel specific NO_x emissions benefit for the vehicles that …

Utah - Perry Port Of Entry 2020, University Of Denver

FEAT Heavy-Duty Vehicle Measurements

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology publication.

Utah DEQ Final Report

Washington - Feat Bridge Based Train Measurements 2012, University Of Puget Sound

Non-Road Vehicle Data

Relevant Publications

Atmospheric Environment Publication (2019)

Records Of Enriched Uranium Atmospheric Deposition In Pond Sediments In Piketon, Oh, Brianna Herner, Brian Majestic, Michael Ketterer

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

The enrichment of uranium, often for nuclear weapons programs and commercial nuclear reactors, produces higher concentrations of radioactive uranium 235 (²³⁵U) than what naturally occurs, which can pose a human health hazard. The most abundant naturally occurring uranium isotope is ²³⁸U, which is still radioactive, however a higher concentration of ²³⁵U skews the observed isotopic uranium distribution. The Department of Energy Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, located near Piketon, OH, enriched uranium from 1954 to 2001 and ²³⁵U pollution has recently been detected in air and sediment samples in the surrounding community. The extent of the …

Taipei Taiwan - 1993

World Data - Asia

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1995)

Seoul Korea - 1993

World Data - Asia

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1995)

Leicester United Kingdom

World Data - Europe

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1995)

Lisbon Portugal - 1994

World Data - Europe

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1995)

Monterrey Mexico - 1995

World Data - North America

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1997)

Final Report

Tokyo Japan - 1995

World Data - Asia

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1995)

Malaysia - 1995

World Data - Asia

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1995)

Hong Kong - 1993

World Data - Asia

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1995)

Melbourne - 1992

World Data - Australia

Relevant Publications

Environmental Science & Technology Publication (1995)

Final Report