2020 EEE Senior Design Projects

Everydrop Water Filter Lifecycle Analysis



Whirlpool Corporation is the world's largest manufacturer of home appliances. Although Whirlpool is most popularly known for its iconic brands and products such as Maytag washing machines and Kitchenaid small appliances, Whirlpool Everydrop water filtration products are lesser known but have a significant contribution to the business. Everydrop water filters are consumable water filters that are used in refrigeration. It is recommended that refrigeration drinking water filters must be replaced every 6 months.

Western Wayne Regional Sewage District (WWRSD) WWTP Expansion



Wessler Engineering is a civil and environmental engineering firm based in Indianapolis that specializes in wastewater, drinking water and stormwater projects. Western Wayne Regional Sewage District (WWRSD) has been a Wessler client for over 20 years. Wessler has worked on both the district’s collection system and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). WWRSD serves the communities of Cambridge City, Mt. Auburn and Dublin Indiana. The Sewage District’s WWTP is located in Cambridge City and is currently rated for 0.864 million gallons per day (MGD). In additional to residential and commercial waste, the WWRSD WWTP also receives flows from the Gateway Industrial Park located just south of I-70 and SR 1. The Industrial Park’s largest discharger is Sugar Creek Packing Company (SCPC), which sends over 200,000 gallons per day of pretreated waste to the WWTP via the Industrial Park Lift Station. SCPC plans to expand its facilities in the next year and Wayne County hopes to attract other businesses to the Industrial Park, which will increase the flows seen at the WWRSD WWTP. The objective of this project is to evaluate the existing WWRSD WWTP and then determine a cost effective and appropriate design to meet the current and future wastewater needs of the community.

Manufacturing Products from Recycled Plastic Using 3D Printers



The first plastic recycling mill opened in the United States in 1972 as a way to reduce the environmental impact of the use of plastic. Since then millions of tons of plastics have been recycled, but the success of plastic recycling has been highly dependent on citizen participation, the type of plastic involved and the cost of fossil fuels. New approaches to manufacturing recycled plastics and to managing the supply chain are needed to increase plastic recycling.

Glass Recycling Feasibility, Cost, and Environmental Impact Analysis



The Tippecanoe Solid Waste Management District (TSWMD) is a government entity that provides recycling and household hazardous waste disposal to Tippecanoe County households. This is done through remote drop off bins throughout the County, as well as bins at the Transfer Station located at 2770 N 9th St, Lafayette. The cost of the recycling program has increased with an increasing population in Tippecanoe and the Chinese National Sword Policy, which lowered the market value for many recyclables in the United States. The cost of transporting materials is a barrier for many municipalities in funding a recycling program.

Low Impact Development in Tippecanoe County



The Tippecanoe County Partnership for Water Quality (TCPWQ) is a coalition of local governments—Tippecanoe County, City of Lafayette, City of West Lafayette, Purdue University, Town of Dayton, Town of Battle Ground, and Ivy Tech Community College—partnering to satisfy and exceed the requirements of our National Pollution Discharge Elimination System stormwater permit. The Tippecanoe County Drainage Board has established a standard for channel protection and water quality protection (under the Comprehensive Stormwater Ordinance of Tippecanoe County 2017-04-CM), which can be satisfied though a variety of methods broadly categorized under two general approaches: conventional and low impact development (LID).

Purdue Transportation and Greenhouse Gas Emissions



Transportation is a primary source of GHG emissions. Transportation is unique in that it is one of the GHG emission sectors that can be significantly influenced by the personal choices of individuals. Transportation engineering has a long history of using combinations of infrastructure and system design and policy to influence people to make choices that achieve local objectives.

Food Waste to Energy in West Lafayette Feasibility Study



West Lafayette has been utilizing the organic digester at its wastewater treatment plant to process the food waste derived from the Purdue dining courts into energy since 2009. In recent efforts to expand the intake of food waste to the digester, the West Lafayette Go Greener Commission and Purdue University Student Sustainability Council started two food waste collection programs: 1) where residents of Tippecanoe County are now able to bring their food waste to the former recycling center on River Road, and 2) where food waste is collected from fraternity and sorority houses. That food waste is then transported and processed at the wastewater treatment plant. Though the food waste stream has been steady and abundant, outdated infrastructure and a lack of funding have prevented the program from continued expansion to curb side collection and partnerships with local school corporations.

Elimination of Detention Ponds for Water Reuse and Development Densification



Commercial Real Estate developments are generally designed to detain stormwater for a period of time before releasing it into public systems and waterways, rarely for re-use. Detention ponds have been used for decades to store stormwater on-site at commercial properties to ease flooding and the burden of additional water on the public system. These detention ponds can take up large areas of land which cannot be built upon and do very little to reclaim water for future use.

Cost Benefit Analysis for the Indiana Resilience Cohort



Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI) manages a program called the Resilience Cohort, which leads Indiana’s city, town, and county governments through the process of measuring, managing, and tracking their greenhouse gas emissions. Participants join a cohort of peers and each jurisdiction receives one-on-one guidance, attends cohort training webinars, gains the opportunity to apply for additional staff capacity by hosting a summer intern, and more.

Green Infrastructure Study



Section 502 of the Clean Water Act defines green infrastructure as "...the range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters."

Ground Water Well Optimization



Citizens Energy Group (Citizens) is a utility company serving the residents of Indianapolis and surrounding counties. Citizens supplies water, wastewater, natural gas, chilled water, and steam to more than 800,000 people. The water system serves customers in central Indiana with treated water from ten (10) water treatment plants, four (4) of which are surface water and six (6) are ground water treatment plants. The treatment facilities operated by Citizens have a combined usable capacity of 257 million gallons per day (MGD) during normal, non-drought, conditions and 247.7 MGD during moderate drought conditions. The system contains 32 finished water storage tanks capable of storing a total of 79 MG. Finished water is distributed through nearly 4,420 miles of water mains to approximately 330,000 customers within Central Indiana. Citizens Westfield is a subsidiary of Citizens Energy Group and provides treated water to 11,000 customers in the Westfield area. The Westfield system is entirely served by 15 ground water wells and interconnections to the Citizens Water System.

Chloride Variance Pollutant Minimization Program Plan Assistance



The City of Angola owns and operates two drinking water treatment plants and a wastewater treatment plant. These utilities serve a resident population of more than 8,600 and more than 4,000 students and faculty at Trine University, as well as more than 500 commercial and industrial customers in and around the city of Angola, the county seat of Steuben County in northeastern Indiana. The City’s Wastewater Utility has been located at the current site since the early 1910’s. Treated effluent is discharged to Lake Michigan via the St. Joseph River; the St. Joseph River via Pigeon River/Pigeon Creek; Pigeon River/Pigeon Creek via the H.D. Wood ditch (also known as Mud Creek) in accordance to NPDES Permit Number IN0021296.

Biological Nutrient Removal Evaluation at the Carmel WWTP




The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has been imposing total phosphorus (TP) discharge limits on Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) with a design treatment capacity of 1 MGD or above for several years. The City of Carmel WWTP, in the last NPDES permit renewal, has received a 1 mg/L TP discharge limit in their NPDES permit and the WWTP has to meet the TP discharge limit by end of 2021.
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