Food waste (FW), brewery waste (BW), and fats, oils, and greases (FOG), are prevalent waste streams in municipalities across the country, particularly in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Anaerobic digestion (AD), the microbial-mediated transformation of organic waste into methane-rich biogas, offers a sustainable, energy-generating, waste management solution for these wastes. Anaerobic...
In recent years, non-renewable and non-biodegradable plastic packaging forms the majority of landfilled waste. These products, mainly made from Polyethylene Tetraphlatate (PET) and other polyolefins, have excellent durability and barrier properties, but take hundreds of years to degrade.
Much focus has been put on developing environmentally friendly alternatives to polyolefins...
The rapid accumulation of plastic waste in landfill, waterways and oceans is becoming a critical problem, one that current recycling technologies are not capable of solving. Recent proposed approaches in the depolymerization of waste plastics employ an Olefin-Intermediate Process (OIP), where feedstocks like polyolefin plastics are ‘activated,’ producing an olefin...
The corrosion and heat resistance properties of nickel alloys are hallmarks of their importance in infrastructure and industrial catalysis processes, but these properties are highly dependent on the chemical composition of the alloy surface. Density functional theory was used for analysis of surface oxidation of four combinations of chromium and...
Solvent extraction is an integral chemical and biochemical separation process that is drastically intensified in microfluidic systems. A novel high-throughput micro-separator was additively manufactured for the intensification of liquid–liquid separation. The micro-posts array within the flow plate generated a capillary pressure gradient on the non-wetting organic phase, enabling continuous, membrane-free,...
Microplastics (MPs) are plastic particles less than 5 mm in diameter. These contaminants are increasingly found in the environment due to increased plastic production, use, and improper disposal. Detecting and measuring these contaminants in the environment has proven difficult, requiring the use of fate and transport models to assess MP...
The oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) to carbon dioxide (CO2) is ubiquitous throughout many industrial processes and is a common probe reaction used to help understand catalytic systems in research settings. The reaction is essential in power generation and transportation exhaust gas treatment technologies to ensure environmental safety, because CO...
Aromatic hydrocarbons represent a large class of environmental contaminants that have a broad range of structures, physicochemical properties, and toxicities. Arising from the burning of organic matter, particularly fossil fuels, they are both widespread and abundant in all environmental compartments. Both monoaromatic hydrocarbons (BTEX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are...
Aqueous, two-phase systems (ATPSs) may form upon mixing two solutions of independently water-soluble compounds. Many separation, purification, and extraction processes rely on ATPSs. Predicting the miscibility of solutions can accelerate and reduce the cost of the discovery of new ATPSs for these applications. Whereas previous machine learning approaches to ATPS...
Desferrioxamine B (DFOB) was reversibly and covalently conjugated to polystyrene microspheres via N-succinimidyl 3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate (SPDP) crosslinker. DFOB retained post-immobilization activity with at least 89% able to bind Fe(III)-citrate under pH 7.4 and a citrate:iron molar ratio = 100:1. Comparing iron capture by DFOB-activated beads and sulfhydryl (−SH) control beads demonstrated...
A dissertation describing the results of a series of greenhouse experiments conducted to better understand phytoremediation in stormwater bioretention systems.
Heterogeneous catalysis modulates the rate and selectivity of reaction processes by
stabilizing a series of intermediate states on solid surfaces, facilitating the production
of many commodity chemicals modern society relies upon. Conventional, thermal
catalytic processes—conducted at elevated temperatures and pressures—source
thermal, mechanical, and chemical potential energy from carbon-hydrogen bonds—
combustion...
CisCis-Dichloroethylene (ciscis-DCE), 1,1,1-Trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA), and 1,4-Dioxane (1,4-D) are chlorinated solvents used as solvents and degreasers in industrial cleaning agents that have become common groundwater contaminants. To develop an effective treatment method for these compounds, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sodium alginate (SA) hydrogel beads were co-entrappcapsulated with Rhodococcus rhodochrous Strain ATCC...
Nitrate is a toxic surface and ground water contaminant that poses human-health and ecological hazards. Contamination is anthropogenically sourced to over-amendment of ammonia-based fertilizers, in turn generated by the most carbon intensive chemical process in use today. Electrochemical approaches offer a green alternative to transform harmful waste nitrate into value-added...
ZIF-8, a zeolitic imidazolate framework that consists of zinc ions and imidazolate linkers, is of great interest due to its simple synthesis methods, low-cost raw materials, chemical and thermal stability, as well as its stability in moist environments. Furthermore, due to its unique structure, it contains well-defined pores that have...
Nanoscale polymers (including nanoplastics) are widely present through commerce and make their way into the environment. As the improper disposal of plastic waste leads to continued accumulation and degradation of plastic pollution, the presence of plastic particles less than 1 micron (μm) in size (nanoplastics) will increase. Heightened concern over...
This thesis presents an experimental study of radial porosity in a manually filled cylindrical container with glass spheres. The symmetric distribution of bead diameter allowed for normalization of container properties and porosity models. The aspect ratio of the container was approximately 3.9, with tube-to-particle-diameter ratio λ ≈ 24.6 and height-to-particle-diameter...
Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) resin grades have been successfully incorporated into plastic ink supply cartridges, with 80% of cartridge products containing 45% to 70% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). With this tremendously successful experience, incorporation of recycled polypropylene (rPP) into Injection Stretch Blow Molding (ISBM) bottles has been attempted to increase sustainability...
Hydrogen is of great interest as a fuel, as its oxidation produces benign water (without CO₂ emissions), its gaseous form can be transported in existing pipe infrastructure, and it can be obtained via renewable electricity from water. However, current hydrogen production is mainly produced from fossil fuels (e.g. methane), exacerbating...
Personal health monitoring tools, a subset of point-of care-diagnostics, enable more frequent testing of chronic health conditions outside of a clinic setting and can inform personalized therapy or support telehealth diagnostic capabilities. While there is evidence that regular monitoring of chronic conditions can lead to better health outcomes and lower...
Chlorinated solvents are a class of widespread groundwater contaminants that are toxic, carcinogenic, and difficult to remediate at low concentrations. 1,4-dioxane, a suspected carcinogen, is often a co-contaminant found in mixtures of chlorinated solvent plumes. In-situ bioremediation methods of degrading these chemicals through aerobic cometabolism have shown promise. Permeable Reactive...
Back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, entailing a significant socioeconomic impact. A primary source of back pain can be attributed to intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration allowing nerve ingrowth, facet joint arthritis, disc bulging, and osteophyte formations that press on nearby nerve roots or the spinal cord. While...
The human intervertebral disc (IVD) provides support for the vertebral bodies, allowing for movement and load bearing. The IVD can degenerate with age or injury, impeding function and causing chronic pain. Despite disc degeneration affecting over 90% of adults over age 50, and back pain being the leading global cause...
1,4-Dioxane (dioxane) and cis-dichloroethylene (cDCE) are compounds commonly found in industrial cleaning and degreasing agents that are frequently present as groundwater contaminants. In an effort to develop a more effective treatment method for these compounds, hydrogel beads were fabricated with either gellan gum or a combination of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)...
Hyperuricemia is the condition of excessive presence of plasma uric acid ≥ 6 mg/dl. Conventional clinical/hospital urate-lowering treatment includes the administration of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs or xanthine oxidase inhibitors. Numerous drawbacks can be observed from these conventional treatments. In patients with refractory gout symptoms and tumor lysis syndrome, recombinant uricase...
Oxides are a versatile class of materials with a wide range of electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. This makes them ideal for use in a multitude of functional devices for oxide electronics, electrochemical conversion, and storage. The overall performance of these devices is governed by atomic scale charge and mass...
This paper describes the construction and use of a cost-effective custom-built atomic layer deposition (ALD) system, as well as the investigation of aluminum oxide atomic layer deposition using trimethylaluminum and water. For this research, a cost-effective ALD system was constructed for less than $8,000 using existing parts that were given...
Water electrolysis plays a pivotal role in achieving a green hydrogen economy by sourcing electricity from intermittent renewable sources. However, the efficiency of the electrolysis process is limited by the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics, whereas the kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are more facile. This thesis...
Pesticides benefit agriculture by increasing crop yield, quality, and security. However, pesticides may inadvertently harm bees, which are valuable as pollinators. Thus, candidate pesticides in development pipelines must be assessed for toxicity to bees.
Leveraging a data set of 382 molecules with toxicity labels from honey bee exposure experiments, we...
The natural production of methane via anaerobic digestion (AD) is facilitated by a complex community of microorganisms, primarily bacteria and archaea, referred to as the AD microbiome. AD is growing in prominence as a solution to the disposal of food waste, sewage sludge, and the organic fraction of municipal solid...
The matrisome is an ensemble of genes that are highly relevant for characterizing the behavior of the extracellular matrix (ECM) during the onset and progression of many diseases. Recent advances in the definition of the matrisome, such as The Matrisome Project, have been instrumental in making more advanced resources available...
Exergy relates to thermodynamic value or usefulness in the universe. In this dissertation, three methods in the realm of "process intensification" are explored to reduce exergy destruction by equipment and processes that are used to convert and upgrade methane. Thermodynamic efficiency of a virtual heat exchanger is improved with a...
Plastics have become an essential part of everyone lives, found in almost every product made today. Tires only make up a fraction of these products but as their use increasing so does the microplastics that flake off. Many studies have evaluated the toxic effects of tire particles on aquatic environments...
Plastics have become an essential part of everyone lives, found in almost every product made today. Tires only make up a fraction of these products but as their use increasing so does the microplastics that flake off. Many studies have evaluated the toxic effects of tire particles on aquatic environments...
Successful cryopreservation of bone marrow in situ within vertebral bodies offers an opportunity for quick and convenient storage of a significant quantity of bone marrow stem cells, including hematopoietic- and mesenchymal-type stem cells. However, cryopreservation of more complex large tissues and organs, such as the vertebral body (VB), remains problematic....
The integration of low-pressure membrane filtration and aerobic granular sludge (AGS) reactor leads to a novel environmental biotechnological process with strong potential to overcome membrane fouling and demonstrate excellent wastewater treatment performance. However, membrane fouling mechanisms in the AGS based membrane bioreactor (MBR) are lack of systematic elaboration. In the...
Hydrogen is the green fuel that can be produced from water through electrolysis and used via hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity with zero carbon dioxide emission. The commercialization of electrolyzers and fuel cells is the critical step to achieving global carbon neutrality. However, it is severely hampered by the...
Surface-associated thrombosis is a critical concern in medical device development. Current extracorporeal circulation units require systemic anticoagulation to avoid thrombosis, which can cause adverse effects such as thrombocytopenia, hypertriglyceridemia, and hyperkalemia. To address this issue, we combine the technology of polydopamine (PDA) functionalization with slippery liquid infused porous surfaces (SLIPS)....
Solar cells, also known as photovoltaic devices, are a class of renewable energy systems that can convert photons into electrons without the carbon dioxide emission. Short-wavelength, high-energy photons in the ultraviolet (UV) range can't be efficiently utilized by most solar cells because of the spectral mismatch. Luminescent downshifting is a...
Heterogeneous catalytic reactions in solvents are important for chemical processes like direct methanol fuels, biomass conversion to biofuels and electrochemical reduction of CO2 to fuels. Numerous experimental studies have shown that co-adsorbates and solvents affect the rate and selectivity of heterogeneous catalytic reaction, therefore fundamental understanding of how co-adsorbates and...
There is an emerging interest in developing wearable electronics as a platform, which
provides the flexibility of a wearable while maintaining its promising functionality as smart textiles. Metal-halide semiconductors are attractive materials with tunable optical and electrical properties. Researchers have widely studied and applied it for advanced
photonics and optoelectronic...
This thesis experimentally determines the feasibility to creating C4 to C10 hydrocarbons from CO2, CO, H2, H2O and CH4. This is done in two steps, the initial step is the formation of ethylene through DC electrical glow discharge at ambient pressure while the second step is through temperature pulse controlled...
In order to synthesize polyethylene by the microreactor with a catalyst, this thesis prepares the chemical coating layers for the reactor channel. There are two layers in the channel: the Phillips catalysts and an antimony-doped tin oxide layer on glass substrate. The Phillips catalyst help to synthesize polyethylene in the...
The work presented in this dissertation highlights the various techniques available to characterize the increasingly complex surfaces of engineered biomaterials. The methods used range from the simple measurement of a contact angle with a smartphone to a complex synchrotron technique like near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy to...
In this work, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are computationally represented, generated, and evaluated. The organic linker molecules are represented as graphs and use graph grammars where the atoms are represented by nodes and the bonds are represented by arcs. The grammar rules that dictate the graph generation process work on the...
Atmospheric carbon reduction is arguably the most crucial facet among efforts to mitigate climate change. The Fifth International Panel of Climate Change report emphasizes a worldwide goal of maintaining global temperature elevation less than 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. This report also acknowledges without the proper utilization of counteractive emission strategies...
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was unprepared for such a massive challenge to global health. Individual testing kits and personal protective equipment were scarce. There were minimal ways to track the rapid spread of the disease, until researchers discovered that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,...
Light trapping plays a phenomenal role in enhancing light confinement and light absorption within the solar cells, thus increasing the optical efficiency of the cell. Different strategies are employed for trapping light photons within the cell. Methods used include a substrate or single layer texturing, light trapping coating, plasmonic gratings,...
Over the last two decades, urban stormwater management has grown to include green infrastructure, such as bioswales. These systems were primarily designed to mitigate hydraulic peaking during rainstorms but were also found to remove particulate and dissolved contaminants. However, little is known about the fate of these particulate contaminants after...
Remote health monitoring tools have significant potential to revolutionize the current healthcare paradigm. Such tools could improve efficiencies in healthcare by alerting patients and doctors to abnormal health conditions in real time, shortening the time to diagnose and treat ailments. To meet these needs, we pursue the development of fabric-based...