Environmental team places in top three
The Environmental Engineering Design Team with members James Fieman (leader), Bryce Rizzo, Brandon Kay, Amanda Conklin and James Mills competed in the 2014 ASCE Ohio Valley Student Conference (OVSC) held March 27-29. OVSC was hosted by Carnegie Mellon University.
A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that using wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems to control sulfur dioxide emissions has increased significantly since the last revision to the effluent limitations guidelines and standards. The objective of the environmental design competition was to design and create a small-scale treatment system that would treat a 1 gallon sample of FGD wastewater. The designs were judged on treatment performance, cost effectiveness, sustainability and creativity.
The OSU team developed a treatment process using iron oxide, activated carbon, a sand filter and a settling chamber. The team also prepared a poster that presented their final treatment system, along with associated costs and environmental impacts. There were ten (10) environmental design teams competing in the competition. The OSU team worked hard on the design and testing process in the Hitchcock laboratory during spring semester leading up to the competition. At the competition the OSU team enjoyed getting to see all of the interesting treatment methods that the other university teams had developed. The final water composition of the OSU team had low conductivity and sulfate concentration. First place in the competition was a tie of 33 pts that went to the University of Cincinnati and Ohio University, 2nd place was Cleveland State University with 32 pts, and 3rd place with 31 pts was The Ohio State University – a very close competition!
Congratulations to the team for a job well done and a special congratulations to Dr. Zuzana Bohrerova who was the faculty team advisor, leading the team to this very close finish.
