EnvE 551 Course in Graduate Environmental Engineering
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Environmental Curriculum
Course Description: Theory, applications, and experimental laboratory work with unit processes and operations to solution of environmental engineering problems encountered in water treatment. Physical and chemical methods of treatment emphasized.
Text: Water Quality and Treatment, AWWA, McGraw Hill
Optional Text: Notes purchased from Civil Engineering department at cost
Prerequisites: CE 256, CE 356, CE 456, or instructor's consent [rare occasion] (4 cr.)
Note: All technologies addressed in this class have direct application in wastewater treatment, industrial waste treatment, and hazardous waste treatment. The course is focused on municipal water treatment to provide a sense of continuity and a historic context.
Topics:
Introduction to water treatment; typical process flow schematics for surface and groundwater sources.
Type-1 settling
Non-spherical
Water
Particulates in the Environment
Coagulants and Coagulation Mechanisms
Coagulation and Rapid mixing
Turbulence
Flocculation
Type-2 settling
Types 3 & 4 Settling
Design of Sedimentation Basins
Filtration
Filter components
Head-loss through a filter
Backwashing hydraulics
Under-drain Design
Declining Rate Filtration
Filter Operational Strategies
Adsorption Theory
Adsorption Materials
Adsorbent Comparisons (i.e.. Isotherms)
Activated Carbon Column Design
Gas/Liquid Equilibrium Theory
Air-stripper Theory
Air-stripper Design
Ion Exchange Media
Anion vs. Cation, Strong vs. Weak
Reverse Osmosis
Electro-dialysis
ENVE 551 Lab
Unit Processes/Operations of Water Treatment Lab
Report Preparation Requirements:
CE 551L is a requisite for the CE 551 class. Attendance to the laboratory is compulsory. Students will be evaluated on laboratory performance, attendance, and quality of laboratory reports. The data from the laboratory studies will form the basis for the class design project.
Each student is expected to present laboratory reports which may comprise laboratory work from one or more Lab sessions. Reports will be turned in at the assigned date, which will be one week after the last Lab period associated with the report. Late reports will be penalized. No reports will be accepted after one week from the deadline. All text must be typed, and graphs and tables must be generated using computer aid (spreadsheets or other CAD systems are satisfactory). The microcomputer lab in Room 240 is furnished with Microsoft works which has word-processing, spread sheeting, and graphics capabilities. The laboratory work will be performed in a team setting, but the reports are to be individual efforts.
Report Content:
1. Abstract.Provide a brief description of the work conducted and results presented in the report.
2. Intro.Discuss the background information pertinent to the lab. Specifically indicate how the information sought in the lab might be of use to a consulting engineer in either design or operation of a treatment plant.
3. Objectives.List the objectives of the laboratory. (Stating the objectives in a concise manner is extremely important!!)
4. Experimental Procedures.Discuss the methodology used to accomplish the objectives. List equipment and materials used, and describe the procedures used. A sketch of the equipment used in the Lab must be included in the write-up. Enough detail must be shown to allow a person to build the equipment.Many of the procedures used in the labs are not well documented elsewhere. Your write up may be all you have at some future date.
5. Results.Present the experimental results obtained in the laboratory. Use tabular and/or graphical data presentations whenever possible.
6. Interpretation of Results.Evaluate the experimental results in light of the objectives stated above. It is important to tie the lab scale information into reality!! Compare the results you have gotten with theoretical expectations or modeled data. Compare your results to common engineering design values and field values.
7. Conclusions & Recommendations.Present your personal conclusions about the quality of the work and summarize main findings.
8. References.List the references cited in the report.
Lab Structure: It is intended that this lab will provide the student with many of the basic tools needed to perform pilot studies for the design of physical/chemical treatment processes. The pilot scale studies are frequently utilized in designing of:
Large municipal water and wastewater treatment facilities
One of a kind industrial water and wastewater treatment facilities (here the study may be both a feasibility study and a design parameter study)
Hazardous waste treatment (similar to the industrial, but with some distinctly different concerns).
The students in the class will be divided into teams of two or three. Each week one of the teams will be responsible for preparing the laboratory for the rest of the class. The team preparing the laboratory will consult with the instructor, locate the required equipment, prepare the required reagents, and verify that the equipment present is adequate for performing the proposed study. This will probably involve performing a dry run on part or all of the lab study.
At the beginning of the laboratory period the team which set up the laboratory will take 15-20 minutes to brief the rest of the class on:
How is the test to be run
What particularly interesting things are to be noted during the test
What test parameters are of interest in evaluating the process (i.e.., what numbers should we be collecting?)
Assign responsibilities (you are the project engineer, make sure everyone knows what they need to be doing).
Laboratory Content
Laboratory Studies will be performed in the following areas:
Type I Settling
Rapid Mixing/Flocculation (Jar Test Studies)
Sedimentation (Type II) (Suspended Solids Based)
Sedimentation (Type III and IV)
Filtration (Bed Hydraulics)
Activated Carbon (Batch and Column)
Air-stripping (Demonstration)
Ion Exchange(Demonstration)
*This requires a total of 12 weeks, there is some time provided for slippage and experimental problems.*
Grading:
Lab Participation
There is no good way to grade the effort a person has put into the laboratory. This is unfortunate since it is a significant time commitment. The instructor will be aware of your team effort and it will be considered in assigning grades.
Lab Reports
The analysis and interpretation of the information gathered during the laboratory study is obviously the first concern. 40% of the laboratory grade will be based on the analysis of the data. If data is to be useful, it must be processed correctly. 40% of the laboratory grade will be based on the interpretation and discussion of the data. The best data in the world is worthless if the observer can not use the data in a design setting. (Why did you collect these particular numbers?)
Presentation is 20% of the grade. It is seldom admitted, but an engineer is more often than not judged on appearance rather than on technical merit. Usually the engineering report is evaluated by a city council, typically consisting of a barber, a plumber, a sausage manufacturer, a housewife, and an English teacher. This audience, because of its very nature, is more sophisticated in their critique of the presentation esthetics than they are in their critique of the technical substance. Communication is the only reason for writing a report. If the report fails to communicate, then it fails. If the areas the audience is familiar with are handled poorly, the audience will not trust the writer concerning areas in which the audience is ignorant.
It is probably obvious at this point that this lab is going to be a bunch of work. It will however, also be a bunch of fun and extremely valuable in your future professional life. Block out enough time in your schedule to do justice to this professional opportunity. Don't schedule anything the hour before or after the lab. If you leave a fairly large time block free around the lab you will find this whole experience much less frustrating and rewarding. I look forward to working with you in this lab.
References of interest in laboratory set-up:
Unit Operations and Processes in Environmental Engineering, Tom Reynolds
Standard Methods for the Analysis of Water and Wastewater
Environmental Engineering Unit Operations and Unit Processes Laboratory Manual, Fourth edition, Association Of Environmental Engineering Professionals
