Sustainable development is a growing concern expressed by many businesses, organizations and individuals. Yet, no workable quantifiable definition of sustainability is available for evaluation of specific projects or operations. This paper attempts to set a framework for such a definition in terms of the first and second law of thermodynamics. Specifically, the proposed description of sustainability relates the fundamental processes of chemical, physical or biological transformation, and mass transport to energy and entropy changes. Unlike previous applications of these concepts, the proposed definition is focused on the smallest unit operations and processes while allowing for aggregation into larger systems. The proposed description also explicitly considers the time horizon for sustainability. An example of sustainability analysis for a water treatment process is included.

In the project, we investigated enhancement removal of estrogenic activities in activated sludge. These activities are caused by natural and synthetic substances that mimic the effect of the human hormone estrogen and they potentially can disrupt the endocrine systems of exposed species and the reproductive systems of aquatic fauna. Human and animal wastes are a source of natural and synthetic estrogens to the environment since only a fraction is removed in conventional wastewater treatment. A yeast-based assay developed previously was modified to detect the estrogenic activity in wastewater samples. Using the assay, it was possible to quantify estrogenic activity in range equivalent to between approximately 100ng/L to 100µg/L of the female hormone 17-β estradiol (E2), with sensitivity as low as 0.03ngE2/L. The assay is therefore sensitive to the concentrations of environmental estrogens typically found in wastewater and the new assay may be a useful tool for screening for estrogenic activity. Compared to existing chemical analytical methods, the new test is simpler and covers a wider range of compounds. This is important because by-products of some of the influent estrogens are also active estrogens. For example, E2 is metabolized to estrone and estriol, which are estrogenic. Monitoring the removal of only a few substances may underestimate the estrogenic properties of treatment plant effluents and solids disposed of into the environment. Further experiments were carried out to determine the removal of estrogenic activity from water. Results show that the presence of activated sludge enhances removal of total estrogenic activity by at least 40% within 10-15 days.

Developing sustainable building technologies to confront the growing pressure of

essential resource scarcity is an important task for civil and environmental

engineers in the 21st century. This dissertation describes the design,

experimentation, and performance modeling of a multi-physics, building integrated,

solar-powered panel system for on-site greywater recycling and thermal gain for

interior climate conditioning. The hybrid CORE (Cylindrical Optical Reactive

Cylinders) panel type is novel in itself, using wave-guides to support titania

photocatalyst and distribute UV light for inactivation and mineralization of

contaminants, which has not been studied to date, particularly in a multi-scale

format.

Several research directions are detailed, from determining the potential for

interception mechanics in the cylinder bank of waveguides, to the use of

mathematical optimization for performance analysis. In chapter II, Finite Element

Analysis on the micro-scale is used to develop a new correlation for particle capture

of cylinder banks in non-creeping laminar flow. In chapter III laboratory

experimentation on a CORE prototype is detailed in order to estimate reaction rates

under solar conditions and determine the efficacy of the optical waveguides for

stimulating mass transfer in a turbid medium. In chapter IV the NSGA-II algorithm

for multi-objective optimization is employed to assess the influence of multiple

parameters on the mass and heat transfer performance of the panel.

A novel correlation for particle interception in cylinder banks at moderate flow is

given, as well as a simplifying rule of thumb for engineering design purposes.

However, it is also shown that particle interception does not contribute

meaningfully to disinfection in the CORE panel. The reaction rate for the CORE

panel type is determined in the lab: the results show pseudo-zero order kinetics and

an over all slow reaction proportional to the Reynolds number on the order of 1e-4.

A correlation for reaction potential of individual cylinders developed via Chilton-

Colburn analogy from Žukauskas’ work on heat transfer in cylinder banks is shown

to compare well with the experimental results, matching exactly at Re 350. It is also

shown that the photocatalytic response is predominantly due to the effect of

waveguide UV transmission.

The performance evaluation of the CORE panel in the pilot scale simulation in

Berkeley, CA. using the NSGA-II genetic algorithm for the multi-objective studies on

efficiency and output showed tendency for maximizing cylinder diameter and thus

solid fraction, tilt generally pushed towards a 45 tilt from the vertical, and that

CORE could function with a relatively thin over all profile of about 5cm. The

maximum daily output of recycled greywater for a 1m2 panel over a year was 87L, a

relevant contribution to reuse of an individual’s daily grey water production. The

panel system functions best as building added system on the roof, but could function

as building integrated with specific modifications to the catalyst to increase

photosensitization. Further research is required in the direction of multi-parameter

optimization both to incorporate more parameters and design constraints (such as

the effect of flow rate and solid fraction on energy return) and as a design tool to

estimate context dependent design requirements.

The formation of a substantial foam layer has severe impacts on the overall digestion process that is responsible for the major portion of waste stabilization. An understanding of dynamics of foam produced by three primary causes - dispersed gas bubbles, surface-active materials, and hydrophobic compounds - provides insight into the prevention of the foam layer and into the control of the foam stability. To better understand the mechanisms in three-phase foam dynamics, we developed a systematic methodology to characterize foam drainage behavior using electrical conductance measurements.

With no sludge conditions, all tested sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) foams exhibit a node-dominated drainage regime with high mobility at bubble surfaces. Drainage regime under similar foaming conditions was consistent with existing drainage studies using other measurement techniques in the literature.

The drainage of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) surfactant solution, a commercial form of linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) that is most frequently found in anaerobic sludge, was studied in detail by several approaches. Two complementary methods of macroscopic drainage investigations (forced and free drainage) were conducted to gain confidence in its validity. The experimental data can be fitted using a power law with an exponent of 1/3 for forced drainage and of 1.0 for free drainage. These data indicate the following drainage behavior: mobile bubble surfaces, causing plug-like flow within Plateau borders, thus dissipation mainly occurs inside the nodes.

With the drainage studies for a variety of aqueous surfactant solutions, experimental and theoretical studies to include wastewater sludge are important for understanding the stability of three-phase foams, and therefore foaming in anaerobic digesters. The drainage behavior of sludge-containing foams was characterized by our developed method. The presence of anaerobic sludge at total solid (TS) concentrations of approximately 2.5-2.8% induced a transition from the node-dominated regime to a Plateau-border (PB)-dominated regime. This apparent transition was verified in both forced and free drainage experiments. These drainage studies supported a more detailed estimation of foam stability in relation to its structure.

In summary, our developed method using the electrical conductance measurements was applied to understand the key aspects of foam stability required for prediction and control of foaming in anaerobic digesters. A systematic methodology for assessing foam dynamics was proposed and discussed in two- and three-phase foams.

For biological treatment of drinking water, several crucial issues need to be addressed: firstly, microorganisms used in the treatment must be confined and free from leaking into the bulk water; secondly, certain nutrients, particularly, organic carbon source must be provided for optimal microbial growth; finally, the end products of biological conversions must be non-toxic to humans and animals. These objectives are difficult to attain in a typical water treatment plant, as a result, most water treatment technologies employed in America have not been out of scope of physical-chemical treatment. In this study, however, application of artificially-immobilized microorganisms in alginate gel beads to drinking water treatment has proved to be a viable technology in solving these problems associated with the removal of high concentrations of soluble pollutants, such as nitrate in raw water sources. Naturally-derived alginate beads were used as support materials for immobilized microorganisms from activated sludge. Calcium tartrate was co-immobilized into the gel structure and it functions both as an organic carbon source and as a stabilizing agent for the gel structure. Several batches of denitrification experiments were carried out to test the feasibility ofthis immobilization technology. The results of these experiments show that the nitrate removal rate is very high. There was very low concentrations of residual nitrite in the treated water. The alginate beads containing microorganisms survived the harsh hydrodynamic environment with high biomass retention both in treatment experiments and the stability testing experiment. The alginate beads are also recyclable and are very easy to use in immobilization procedures.

Bacterial chlorate respiration is an important part of the biogeochemical cycling of chlorine in the environment, but very little is known about the metabolism at the molecular level. This work extends our current understanding of microbial chlorate reduction by genome sequencing isolates and uncovering the novel architecture of chlorate reduction composite transposons (Chapter 2); by characterizing the physiology of an environmental isolate Shewanella algae ACDC using proteomics, RNA-seq, and genetics (Chapter 3); by engineering the ability to reduce chlorate de novo in the non-chlorate reducer Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 (Chapter 4); and by applying genetic tools (Bar-seq, allelic exchange) to dissect the metabolism in Pseudomonas stutzeri PDA (Chapter 5).