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Final Report: Improving Infrastructure for Environmental Research in North Dakota.
EPA Grant Number: R829415E01Title: Improving Infrastructure for Environmental Research in North Dakota.
Investigators: Hoffmann, Mark R. , Tilotta, David C.
Institution: University of North Dakota
EPA Project Officer: Winner, Darrell
Project Period: September 1, 2001 through August 31, 2003 (Extended to February 28, 2005)
Project Amount: $998,361
RFA: EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) (2000)
Research Category: EPSCoR (The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research)
Description:
Objective:The State of North Dakota is firmly committed to building a high quality environmentally-related research infrastructure that is well integrated and relevant to the needs of the state and the region. The Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) targets four goals: (1) installing outstanding investigators at each of the two major research universities in North Dakota who can perform high quality research in environmentally related areas; (2) increasing the number of new research programs in environmental science and engineering through the use of a competitive seed grant program; (3) recruiting more undergraduates to pursue careers in environmentally related areas in science and engineering; and (4) forming a cohesive network of individuals from across the state of North Dakota and the region who have interests in environmental science and engineering.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):All four stated goals were fulfilled. The two Science and Engineering Environmental Research (SEER) grant investigators working at North Dakota State University (NDSU) and the one at University of North Dakota (UND) have built outstanding programs. Nine UND researchers (Gerla, Kozliak, Lim, Mann, Muggli, Newman, Pyle, Seames, Shay) and five NDSU researchers (Croll, Lin, Hutchison, Stockwell, Hatterman-Valenti) were given seed grants for new research programs in environmental science and engineering.
Seven students were supported in part or entirety by recipients of the seed grants. Three additional graduate and four undergraduate students were involved in the SEER portion of the grant. Fifteen peer-reviewed papers (not including six resulting from the SEER part) have been published by the funded investigators. Proposals from this group of investigators have resulted in 12 additional environmentally-related grants (totaling over $1.5M), with four proposals that are still pending. Because EPA funding has declined in recent years, more environmentally-related proposals are now submitted to other agencies such as the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). A unique collaboration forged between the UND Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering has resulted in landing an energy- and environment-related NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant (with a complementary DOE EPSCoR grant pending).
Funds from this grant were used as part of the start-up package for two researchers at NDSU (Khan, Webster) and one at UND (Zhao) and also contributed towards a new faculty line at NDSU (Clark). The immediate result was a number of high-quality peer-reviewed publications (coming primarily from Khan). The most important outcome of this investment is a long-term impact that will be effective for many years to come.
The SIP portion of the EPSCoR grant has promoted environmental research in multiple disciplines. Clark, Hatterman-Valenti, Hutchison, Newman, Pyle, and Stockwell are in the Departments of Biological Sciences, Biology, or Plants; Mann, Muggli, and Seames are in the Department of Chemical Engineering; Khan, Lim, and Lin are in Construction Management and Engineering or Civil Engineering; Kozliak, Shay, and Zhao are in the Department of Chemistry; Croll and Webster are in Polymers and Coatings; Gerla is in the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering.
A variety of research has resulted from the seed grants; a few will be highlighted here. Seames (UND Chemical Engineering) reports that a novel anaerobic biofiltration apparatus has been constructed. A proof-of-concept study has been conducted showing the cleavage of H 2S to elemental sulfur under red light and anaerobic conditions in a simple packed-bed biofilter. A peer-reviewed publication is pending.
Shay (UND Chemistry) investigated ways to reduce the quantity of volatile organic solvents needed for organic synthesis and thereby to reduce the quantity of hazardous waste generated. The methods included the use of environmentally benign ionic liquids in place of organic solvents, and the use of cascade reactions in place of traditional stepwise synthesis procedures.
Lim (UND Civil Engineering) has focused on flood frequency analysis of the Red River. One of the objectives was to find the impacts of climate change factors on flood frequency. Some relevant data sets on floods and climatic factors have been compiled. Wavelet power spectra were used to ascertain the wet periods based on streamflow series of the Red River.
Muggli (UND Chemical Engineering) has developed a new method for assessing the efficiency of titania-based photocatalysts for cleaning indoor air.
Mann (UND Chemical Engineering) has developed a novel method using a catalyst contained within or upon filtration media that can be used to oxidize elemental mercury contained in a gaseous stream. The catalyst is added to a solid-phase filtration material, that is installed in a gaseous stream that also contains oxygen such as the flue gas from a combustion process. As the flue gas flows through the porous catalytic filtration material, elemental mercury contained within the flue gas is oxidized to form a mercury oxide compound. A patent application has been submitted.
Khan (NDSU Civil Engineering) has determined that almost all filters commonly used for water analyses contain a wide range of leachable organics. The leached organics can significantly interfere with the tests for biodegradable organics in water. These filters should be used with care; soaking the filters for 3 days before their use is highly recommended. Another important finding is that the microbial regrowth potential in the Moorhead and Fargo water distribution systems is high in winter.
Webster and Croll (NDSU Polymer and Coating) have investigated environmental weathering of polymer coatings and have developed approaches to stabilizing them.
Journal Articles on this Report: 14 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 15 publications | 15 publications in selected types | All 15 journal articles |
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Hinderliter B, Croll St. Monte Carlo approach to estimating the photodegradation of polymer coatings. Journal of Coatings Technology (JCT) Research 2005;2(6):483-491. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Inthorn D, Singhtho S, Thiravetyan P, Khan E. Decolorization of basic, direct and reactive dyes by pre-treated narrow-leaved cattail (Typha angustifolia Linn.). Bioresource Technology. 2004;94(3):299-306. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Iyengar A, Stockwell CA, Layfield D, Morin PA. Characterization of microsatellite markers in a threatened species, the White Sands pupfish (Cyprinodon tularosa). Molecular Ecology Notes 2004;4(2):191-193. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Khan E, Babcock RW, Jongskul S, Devadason FA, et al. Determination of biodegradable dissolved organic carbon using entrapped mixed microbial cells. Water Research 2003;37(20):4981-4991. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Khan E, Virojnagud W, Ratpukdi T. Use of biomass sorbents for oil removal from gas station runoff. Chemosphere 2004;57(7):681-689. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Lim YH, Lye LM. Wavelet analysis of tide-affected low treamflows series. Journal Of Data Science. 2004;2(2):149-163. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Lin H, Ong SL, Ng WJ, Khan E. Monitoring of bacterial morphology for controlling filamentous overgrowth in an ultracompact biofilm reactor. Water Environment Research 2004;76(5):413-424. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Lin H, Ong SL, Ng WJ, Khan E. Performance of a biofilm airlift suspension reactor for synthetic wastewater treatment. Journal of Environmental Engineering (American Society of Civil Engineers) 2004;130(1):26-36. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Lukaski AC, Muggli DS. Photocatalytic oxidation of methyl formate on TiO2:a transient DRIFTS study. Journal Of Catalysis. 2004;223(2):250-261. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Majumdar P, Webster DC. Preparation of siloxane - Urethane coatings having spontaneously formed stable biphasic microtopograpical surfaces. Macromolecules. 2005;38(14):5857-5859. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Popova IE, Beklemishev MK, Kozliak EI. Bioremediation of hydrocarbons from contaminated wood:A proof-of-concept study. Engineering In Life Sciences. 2005;5(3):223-233. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Sardesai P, Seames W, Dronen L, Kozliak E. Exploring the gas-phase anaerobic bioremoval of H2S for coal gasification fuel cell feed streams. Fuel Processing Technology, 2006; 4(87): 319-324. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Uhl FM, Davuluri SP, Wong S-C, Webster DC. Polymer films possessing nanoreinforcements via organically modified layered silicate. Chemistry of Materials 2004;16(6):1135-1142. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
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Khan E, Babcock Jr. RW, Hsu T-M, Lin H. Mineralization and biodegradability enhancement of low level p-nitrophenol in water using fenton’s reagent. Journal of Environmental Engineering 2005;131(2):327-331. |
R829415E01 (Final) |
not available |
air, atmosphere, water, drinking water, watersheds, groundwater, global climate, indoor air, exposure, risk, ecoindicator, estuarine ecoindicator, ecological effects ecological exposure, sensitive populations, animal, organism, population, susceptibility, chemicals, toxics, particulates, VOC, PAHs, heavy metals, solvents, organics, effluent, ecosystem, indicators, aquatic, habitat, green chemistry, life-cycle analysis, clean technologies, waste reduction, waste minimization, remediation, bioremediation, environmental chemistry, biology, engineering, ecology, hydrology, zoology, monitoring, analytical, surveys, upper Midwest, North Dakota, ND,
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Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Geographic Area, Scientific Discipline, RFA, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Ecological Indicators, Environmental Chemistry, Ecology and Ecosystems, State, North Dakota (ND), ecoindicator, monitoring, estuarine ecoindicator
Progress and Final Reports:
2003 Progress Report
Original Abstract