Civil Engineering & Architecture
Renat Mohamed, remohame@ttu.edu
Texas Tech University, with Dr. Amrika Deonarine and Dr. Yuexiao Shen
Civil Engineering
Evaluation of novel cost-effective materials for groundwater contaminant removal in the rural southwest US.
In the continental United States, roughly 44.1 million people rely on water from domestic water wells. These private, decentralized water systems often do not adequately treat the groundwater and consequently, exposure to high levels of groundwater contaminants that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency regulatory limits for drinking water can occur. In the rural southwest United States, the contaminants of concern include arsenic, barium, and nitrate. The objectives of this study are: (i) to develop novel, cost-effective filters for contaminant removal using materials such as cyclodextrin, moringa oleifera seed, and milk protein, which can be used in place of more commonly used materials such as activated carbon and ion-exchange resins, and (ii) to evaluate the effectiveness of these novel materials in the removal of groundwater contaminants. Removal efficiency will be evaluated using synthetic groundwater based on groundwater composition data obtained from the USGS Circular 1337 and 1358. The groundwater contaminant concentrations will be measured before and after filtration using ion chromatography (nitrate) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (arsenic, barium). Various combinations of filter materials will be tested. Filter performance will be evaluated using removal efficiency. This is ongoing work and the results have yet to be determined, however, we hypothesize that using cyclodextrin, moringa oleifera seed, and milk protein as materials in a water filter will remove groundwater contaminants so that the Environmental Protection Agency regulatory limits will be satisfied.
Hampton Perez, hamperez@ttu.edu
Texas Tech University, with Dr. Jon Crider & Dr. Latricia Philips
Architecture
Towards a Sustainable Future: "Investigating Net Zero Buildings and their Impact on Environmental Resilience"
The urgent need to address climate change and cut carbon emissions grows more obvious in today's world of fast change. In the fight for sustainability, net zero buildings, which attempt to balance the energy they use with renewable energy generation, have emerged as a possible answer. In addition to reducing their environmental impact, these advanced buildings promote resilience in the face of climatic problems. Given the growing organization of today's population, expanding research to fulfill the need for sustainable energy is essential to today's civilization. Future strategies, recommendations, and performance analysis are a few of the topics that have been explored in previous studies. This case study will examine five existing net zero buildings in various regions of the world. The aim will be to identify common trends of net zero principles, sustainable building, and resilience measures in the construction of buildings, such as material selection, energy storage, and passive design techniques. This study intends to add to existing literature on net zero buildings and highlight the numerous advantages for future construction.
Session Location
- Foster 126
Session Date/Time
- Thursday, 1:45 - 2:45pm
Session Type
- Oral Student Presentations
- Student Presentations