Development of Optical Sensors for Chemical Detection

Detection of biodiesel at low and high concentrations in diesel is highly desired in the aviation and fuel industries. Cross contamination of jet fuel with biodiesel may impact the thermal stability and freezing point which can cause deposits in the fuel system or cause the fuel to gel, leading to jet engine operability problems and possible engine flameout. A dye doped optical sensor utilizing the dye Nile Blue Chloride has been developed for quick and direct detection of biodiesel which mainly contains fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). The sensing mechanism relies on the solvatochromatic properties of the dye which undergoes a color change from blue to pink. A detection limit of 0.250 ppm (parts per million) and quantification limit of 0.750 ppm is obtained with a dynamic range from 0.5–200,000 ppm (20% v/v) FAME. This sensor is a viable alternative to compliment more sophisticated and expensive bench top techniques in current use. The detection of chloroform in aqueous and non-aqueous has direct environmental and pharmaceutical applications, due to its well documented toxicity. A sensor has been developed based on a modified Fujiwara reaction for detecting chloroform, a halogenated hydrocarbon, in the visible spectrum. 2,2’-dipyridyl and tetra-n-butyl ammonium hydroxide are the modified Fujiwara reagents encapsulated within a sensing film. Upon exposure to chloroform in non-aqueous solution, a colored product is produced within the film which can be analyzed spectroscopically yielding a detection limit of 0.830 ppm (v/v) and quantification limit of 2.77 ppm. Monitoring and detection of gas plume constituents is a useful diagnostic tool in evaluating combustion efficiency, ensuring safe testing conditions, and in quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. Rocket engine ground tests are vital to ensure the performance of the rocket engines during critical space missions. Optical sensors were developed for remote sensing applications to detect isopropyl alcohol utilizing the dye Chromoionophore IX. This sensor gave a detection limit of 9, 13, 21 ppm and quantification limits of 32, 43, and 70 ppm for methanol, ethanol, and isopropyl alcohol respectively. Also a fingerprinting method was developed utilizing several indicator dyes in order to detect kerosene vapor

Biorefinery Pathways for Institutional Food Waste

Every day, enormous quantities of nutritious food are wasted in landfills across the globe. Agriculture and food production use intensive amounts of water, chemicals, and land, rendering food waste as a major environmental and economic concern. New York State is currently considering legislation that would ban landfill disposal of food waste produced by large institutional generators, such as universities, hospitals, sports venues, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Institutions have concentrated populations which generate predictable volumes of food waste and waste cooking oil. At the same time, these populations need heat, electricity, vehicle fuel, and soap. Developing a biorefinery system offers great potential to institutions and provides viable and sustainable utilization of various waste streams to generate energy via anaerobic digestion and biodiesel production process while simultaneously solving a waste disposal issue. However, the implementation of biorefinery systems at institutional food waste generators is just beginning, and data required to design the system and relevant case studies are very limited. Recognizing the urgent need to find alternatives for the diversion of food waste from landfills, this dissertation has provided the technical and economic viability of decentralized, onsite biorefinery systems at institutional generators with a specific focus on large institutions generating, on average, more than 1.8 metric tons of food waste per week (~91 t/year, equivalent to 100 short tons/year). The challenges and opportunities of these alternatives have also been considered in this dissertation. First, development of sustainable food waste management requires an integrated, interdisciplinary management structure which includes a good understanding of regional variations in food waste resources, waste treatment facilities and processing capacity in a specific geographic region. Currently, poor quality and unreliable data on food waste prohibits proceeding to efficient waste management. These scarcities of data have led to a call for further research. To identify the research gaps, Chapter 2 begins with an assessment of reliable data on the quantity and types of food waste produced, transport of waste to treatment facilities, location of existing waste treatment facilities, and the amount of wastes that could potentially be treated at these facilities. Regions 3 and 8, as defined by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), were chosen as case studies to the underlying challenges and potential opportunities. The information provided in this chapter can be an important resource for implementing future waste diversion strategies, and further indicate which policy attributes should be considered. In Chapter 3, an assessment was conducted of the technical challenges, economic feasibility and policy opportunities to adopt low-volume anaerobic digester (LVAD) systems, designated for deployment at the scale of an individual food waste generation site. Food waste generators often have much lower volumes of organic material available for conversion than dairy farms or public-owned treatment works (POTW). Small anaerobic digestion systems are not a new technology but have historically been implemented primarily in treating animal waste in developing countries. In the U.S., anaerobic digestion of food waste is usually achieved by co-digestion with dairy manure in centralized facilities, while food waste-only anaerobic digestion is still emerging and public data or case studies necessary to establish this as a potential food waste management pathway are lacking. Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was chosen as a case study to assess the viability of implementing an LVAD system utilizing campus organic waste. It was demonstrated that the LVAD approach is economically feasible only if several conditions are met: biogas is utilized directly for thermal energy applications, thereby eliminating the capital/operation/maintenance costs associated with electricity production; system capital cost is reduced to $500,000 or less; and available feedstock is increased to at least 900 t/year by importing food waste from neighboring generators and collecting associated tipping fees. Chapter 4 documents an investigation of various solution pathways available to utilize another important institutional food waste material: waste cooking oil (WCO). Institutions such as universities usually generate large amounts of waste cooking oil that can be suitable for production of biodiesel via the process of transesterification. The free fatty acid (FFA) content of waste cooking oil from institutional cafeterias is often lower than many other establishments (i.e., fast food restaurants), and thus has a greater value as a biodiesel feedstock, because the cooking oil replacement rate is often higher. The development of a closed-loop biodiesel production system, including utilization of crude glycerol as an ingredient for soap production, is compelling especially in a constrained system because the locations of WCO feedstock supply and biodiesel demand are in close proximity and controlled by a single entity. Biodiesel can be utilized by the RIT community in vehicles and other applications. Crude glycerol can be refined and used to produce soap of varying quality and has potential as a value-added product. Potentially, the soap could be used in cafeterias and bathrooms across campus and dining services. This study indicated that using waste cooking oil for biodiesel production at the institutional scale could only be viable by generating the revenue from the sale of biodiesel and offsetting the cost of high quality liquid soap at retail price. In Chapter 5, it was demonstrated that black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) could potentially reduce the amount of food waste needing to be landfilled in areas of concentrated generation, such as urban areas and institutions like universities and hospitals. BSFL have previously been used by home gardeners and large agricultural enterprises to transform food wastes and animal manures into feed for chickens or fish, while significantly reducing waste volumes. Bioconversion of food waste biomass with BSFL results in useful products such as protein rich insect biomass. This study demonstrated that bio-methane potentials (BMP) of BSFL were higher than the potential of food waste and manures and 1.5 to 2 times higher than other representative feedstocks, including energy crops and algae. In addition, the yield of biomass per hectare of land used is much higher. BSFL could therefore be a viable feedstock for biogas production or as part of an integrated biorefinery system, and as an effective bioresource solution for the global problem of food waste management. Finally, it is uncertain that an on-site low volume anaerobic digestion system at institutional generators is most economically and environmentally beneficial. Therefore, a model was developed to compare different potential food waste treatment scenarios: centralized anaerobic digestors (AD) at large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), centralized AD at landfills, centralized AD at waste water treatments plants, and low volume anaerobic digesters (LVADs) at individual food waste generation sites. Chapter 6 presents an assessment of the optimal food waste conversion options for particular spatial distributions of food waste materials in two geographical regions of New York State. The assessment was based on three economic indicators, including net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and payback period (PP), to enable food system stakeholders to determine the most cost-effective food waste utilization strategy. The decision process considered was based on the availability of existing facilities (e.g., stand-alone AD, wastewater treatment plants with AD, and composting), available capacity of selected facilities, and available quantity of animal waste in each region. This assessment demonstrated that capital cost plays a significant role in achieving economic viability, and tipping fees are often the major sources of revenues for these treatment facilities. Without offset of the capital investment from government entities in the form of grants, the economic viability of new facilities is challenging. Therefore, diverting food waste to WWTPs with excess capacity was identified as an important option that showed the most profitable scenario without considering environmental incentives and renewable energy credits. This dissertation focused on economic implications of alternative food waste conversion options for institutional generators, through the integration of conversion technologies using different waste feedstocks in a decentralized, on-site biorefinery architecture. In this sense, the biorefinery model was presented as a potential alternative to centralized large scale-systems that utilize wastes from multiple sources, often including transport of waste over large distances. This concept aimed at maximizing the utilization of food waste in a manner that enables institutional generators to benefit from organic material they generate during normal operation. The findings from this dissertation provide valuable information to small-scale food processors and institutions that currently send their solid waste to landfills or incinerators, paying disposal charges or sending it to anaerobic digestion, usually involving transport costs and tipping fees. The method developed in this dissertation can be readily adapted by other institutions, and the information provided would assist entrepreneurs in achieving successful commercialization of small-scale food waste utilization systems

The “whole systems” energy sustainability of digitalization: humanizing the community risks and benefits of Nordic datacenter development

Digital platforms and the online services that they provide have become an indispensable and ubiquitous part of modern lifestyles, mediating our jobs, hobbies, patterns of consumption and forms of communication. However, no one is steering this development, or closely looking at the impacts that it may have on remote communities in the Arctic and Nordic region, a hotspot for datacenter development. Moreover, unlike other areas of energy consumption or technology adoption prone to rich, qualitative assessments, such work on datacenters involving local stakeholders and environmental concerns is less common, particularly at a larger scale. In this study, based on novel mixed methods—including corporate data, expert interviews, focus groups, and extensive site visits—across three countries, we offer a geographically and technologically bounded assessment looking at the sustainability impacts of datacenters on local communities. We ask: What impacts are occurring as part of datacenter development or planning proposals in Greenland, Iceland, and Norway? What is the actual and anticipated scale of those impacts on local Arctic communities? Finally, what impacts to datacenter development occur at the “whole systems” level? We examine not only impacts onsite at existing or proposed datacenters, but an entire range of consequences including the manufacturing of equipment, the laying of data cables, the construction of buildings, and issues of the dark web, cryptocurrency mining, hacking, spying, waste and decommissioning. Moreover, we humanize risks and benefits not only across scales, but also categorical types, including local impacts such as boom and bust cycles, the displacement of indigenous groups for land – particularly for power supply - and impacts on employment, especially after datacenters may close

Bioenergy and Minigrids for Sustainable Human Development

Human-caused climate change and deep disparities in human development imperil a prosperous and just future for our planet and the people who live on it. Transforming our society to mitigate global warming offers an opportunity to rebuild energy systems to the benefit of those who are harmed by global inequality today. I examine this opportunity through the lens of two sustainable energy technologies: bioenergy and miniature electricity grids (minigrids). Bioenergy requires land to produce biomass and is inextricably connected to the surrounding environment, agricultural livelihoods, and food system. I apply data science tools to study aspects of land use and food security that may intersect with increasing bioenergy production. I assess the potential to use over one billion hectares of grazing land more intensively with an empirical yield gap analysis technique called climate binning. To clarify how agricultural and socioeconomic characteristics relate to national food security, I study the relative importance of several drivers using simple linear regressions with cross validation and random sampling techniques. Minigrids can supply clean, reliable electricity to un- and under-served communities, but small and hard-to-predict customer loads hamper their financial viability. To improve predictions of daily electricity demand of prospective customers, I test a data-driven approach using customer demographic surveys and machine learning models. I also investigate opportunities to grow loads by stimulating income-generating uses of minigrid electricity in twelve Nigerian agricultural value chains. I conclude by emphasizing the fundamental complementarity of energy and agriculture as change levers for human development, especially in rural communities with low energy access and high poverty. I also provide recommendations to support the effective use of energy to solve pressing agricultural problems and drive multiplicative human development benefits

Project of electric yacht propulsion with hybrid power system

Global warming is an aspect that is increasingly concerning today's society and by which various projects and studies are being developed.The naval sector is not going to be less; it is more and more frequent to see boats with some elements that produces energy in a sustainable manner. The aim of this project is to redesign a power system of a 20 meters length yacht in order to minimize the diesel oil consumption. The yacht proposed for this analysis is the Nomad 65 made by the company Gulft Craft. Subsequent to this, the use of solar panels and wind turbine has been studied. In all the project it has been taken to account the yacht have to be enjoyable and elaborated with luxurious details. In this research, it has been proofed than nowadays is still not possible to have a yacht of this peculiarities that only works with renewable energies. Solar panels and wind turbine generate too little power to operate the yacht. Moreover, there is a limited space to instal this elements without modifying outdoor areas. In order to make the yacht serviceable it has been decided to allow the charge of batteries through a plug in harbor and to instal a diesel generator on board. The technology is still not enough to minimize considerable the amount of diesel oil consumption in a yacht

Recycling and Recovery of Biomass Materials

The growing demand for new forms of energy has led to a significant increase in the use of biomass as a primary source of energy. Although in many situations, the use of biomass is clearly well studied, in other cases, it is a new world, where knowledge is absent regarding how to best value and recycle these forms of biomass, many of which are classified as waste as a result of production processes. Thermochemical conversion technologies could provide an alternative for the processing of these materials, allowing for a reuse value through the transformation of their properties. The purpose of this Special Issue is to contribute to the increase in knowledge in this area when new forms of biomass appear that are cheaper and more available, but also are potentially more problematic, namely in terms of the effects that can be associated with the use of these new products.This Special Issue is focused on the recycling and recovery of biomass materials. Several innovative and alternative concepts can be presented, and the topics of energy recovery, circular economy, life cycle assessment, and supply chain could play a major role. Models on various temporal and geographical scales to understand the conditions of technical as well as organizational change are welcome, as are new methods of modeling that can fulfil technical and physical boundary conditions and consider economic, environmental, and social aspects