Environmental Engineering
Texas air under the microscope
Texas air, including Houston, which just surpassed Los Angeles as the U.S. city with the poorest air quality, is the focus of Dr. David Allen’s study for the next millenium. Dr. Allen is a chemical engineering professor and director of UT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Research. He is convinced that society’s concern for air pollution currently far outweighs society’s scientific knowledge of the pollution. The studies will be a chance to base expected future regulations “more on fact,” says Allen. Allen and a team of UT researchers conducted a $10 million Texas Air Quality 2000 Study, the largest ambient air quality field study ever done in the state. It sampled gaseous, particulate and hazardous air pollutants. Measurements were made at ground stations and from multiple aircraft throughout the eastern half of Texas. The team’s intensive sampling program was coordinated with several university teams throughout the South, identified particulate matter (the visible part of air pollution) and ozone levels, determined pollution sources and how the pollution travels, and will eventually offer recommendations on potential controls.
Photo: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/action_shots/pages/allen.cfm
Cleaning contaminated groundwater successful and less expensive
Using soap and water, a group of UT petroleum engineers working with industry, have developed a method of cleaning hazardous waste sites contaminated by DNAPL. Groundwater contamination at hazardous waste sites (known as DOE superfund sites), has long posed a health hazard to surrounding communities sharing water supplies with the site. The water often carries dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL), consisting of toxic chemicals such as trichloroethylene. Using surfactant remediation, a flooding process, petroleum engineers at UT, Intera, Inc. and Radian Corp. completed a field test which removed 99 percent of the DNAPL in less than 2 weeks. The surfactant breaks down the chemicals so they can be flushed out by water and treated at the surface. Dr. Gary A. Pope, director of the Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at UT, led the research team that cleaned one of the country’s most hazardous waste sites, along with Associate Professor Daene C. McKinney and Professor Bill H. Wade in the Departments of Civil Engineering, and Chemistry and Biochemistry, respectively.