Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering

Cheng Chen — an associate professor and Nariman Farvardin professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering — is exploring the next frontier of renewable energy with a recent Department of Energy grant of $1,521,587 for his project, “High-Temperature Testing of Proppants for EGS and Simulation of Electromagnetic Fracture Mapping Using Electrically-Conductive Proppants.” Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy serves as prime.

With this award, Chen and his collaborators from Colorado School of Mines and University of Texas at Austin will investigate enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), or human-made geothermal energy reservoirs — a promising form of renewable energy with the potential to power 65 million American homes and businesses.

Chen’s project has two primary aims. First, the team will experimentally test the high-temperature performance of electrically-conductive (EC) proppants under EGS conditions. They will also use numerical simulation to explore how EC proppants and fluids can be used in fracture detection and mapping, as the current technologies for imaging and mapping of man-made fractures in EGS reservoirs are still in early stages.

Principal Investigator (PI) Dibyendu “Dibs” Sarkar and Co-PI Christos Christodoulatos, both professors in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, and Co-PI Zhiming Zhang, professor at Rowan University, received an award of $687,432 (plus optional funds of $208,000) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for their project, “Making SCWO Treatment of PFAS-Contaminated Water More Sustainable.”

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of emerging and persistent organic contaminants, which have come to be known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down, but rather persist in the environment indefinitely. This problem is especially pronounced in military sites; more than 700 military bases have reported PFAS contamination. There is now an urgent demand for more effective PFAS treatment methods.

One such method is supercritical water oxidation (SCWO). However, while SCWO has been effective in destroying certain PFAS species, the pressurization and preheating involved in this process is highly energy-intensive — and, hence, cost-prohibitive.

Sarkar and Christodoulatos propose concentrating the PFAS from contaminated water before treating it with SCWO. This practice will reduce the quantities of media that require treatment, which will reduce energy consumption and, in turn, cost. By implementing this PFAS preconcentration step, Sarkar’s team will improve the energy efficiency, cost effectiveness — and overall sustainability — of the use of SCWO to treat aqueous PFAS contamination.

Jon Miller, a research associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering, was awarded the Robert G. Dean Coastal Academic Award at the 2023 American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) National Coastal Conference held in Providence, Rhode Island, in October 2023.

Named after the internationally recognized coastal engineer and scientist, the award “is presented in recognition of an academic who has made significant contributions furthering the community’s understanding of coastal science or engineering and in fostering young coastal scientists or engineers,” according to ASBPA.

A member of the Davidson Lab, Miller’s research focuses on the impact of coastal hazards on developed shorelines. His Coastal Engineering Research Group uses a mix of numerical modeling and field data collection to evaluate the impact of human interventions on the resilience of built and natural systems.

Said Miller of the award, “I don’t think words can express the honor that I feel in receiving an award named after my mentor and one of the greatest coastal engineers and human beings that I’ve ever encountered.” Miller worked with Dean while a graduate student at the University of Florida.

Miller was nominated by Davidson Lab Senior Research Engineer Laura Kerr, with a number of Miller’s former students also contributing to the nomination letter. Established in 1926, ASBPA was established to preserve, protect and enhance American coastal systems through research and public policy.

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering Assistant Professor Yi Bao has been awarded a $420,000 U.S. Department of Transportation grant to develop a dual-purpose, low-cost robot for pipe inspection and cleaning tasks for operation in hazardous liquid pipelines. North Dakota State University serves as prime.

Titled “Dual Purpose PIG for Cleaning and Internal Integrity Assessment for Hazardous Liquid Pipelines,” the project will leverage advanced deep learning and computer vision techniques to develop the inspection tasks.

The mechanical behaviors of the robot will be studied and optimized to achieve high robustness and service life for the cleaning tasks.