The economically viable production of value added fuels and chemicals from lignocellulosic feedstocks hinges on our ability to quickly and efficiently transform structural carbon molecules to end products. The sugars in lignocellulosic biomass are held primarily within cellulose and hemicellulose. Cellulose is composed primarily of glucose monomers which are quickly...
The complex, dynamic nature of microbial communities in both natural and engineered environments complicates the work of scientists and engineers who wish to channel microbial interactions for societal good. The successful management of these communities towards engineering goals is dependent on developing predictive linkages between community structure and functional outputs....
Fossil fuels have been the main source of energy for a long period but due to growing concerns over climate change, oil depletion and energy security, the development of renewable sources of energy such as biofuels have been flourishing over the past few decades. Despite the fact that biofuels are...
Photo voltaic solar energy is a clean source of energy with much lower carbon footprint than other sources. However, the vast land requirements of solar energy arrays may make installation impractical when available land is better suited for other purposes. The goal of this research was to investigate changes to...
Further enhancement of energy generation is desired for practical application of anaerobic microbial systems such as microbial fuel cells (MFC) and anaerobic digesters (AD). A possible approach is to enhance the ability of microbial communities to transfer electron extracellularly in the form of electrical current. Critical to perform direct extracellular...
The thesis documents research about combining the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program with the Impact 2002+ methodology to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for wastewater treatment processes. The LCA for the operational phase of a local wastewater treatment plant was performed and the environmental impacts caused...
Attributional and consequential life cycle assessments are useful in evaluating the environmental impacts of a process, product, or decision. Both types of life cycle assessments differ however in their scope and their ability to answer specific questions. In order to fully understand and compare the environmental impacts of a sugarcane...
Microalgae has been under careful consideration as a sustainable feedstock for renewable fuel recently due to its year round production with high energy yields per unit area, reduced need for arable land, water treatment benefits with nutrient cycling, and minimal competition with the food industry. Despite of all these advantages,...
The Open Modeling Environment (OME) is a tool developed to address some known shortcomings in ecological System Dynamics (SD) modeling research. OME provides a common set of methods for interacting directly with spatial information, reducing the need for modelers to create their own methods for doing so. The environment is...
Developing new wastewater treatment technologies which will off-set the high-energy cost associated with treatment is necessary to maintain both water and energy security. Microbial fuel cell technology represents one such option. However, there are still many obstacles to overcome before practical application of this technology can be realized. Improving cathode...