The SEAS Environmental Engineering Program
The SEAS environmental engineering program is growing in breadth and strength, developing research and graduates who are making contributions to some of the vexing environmental issues that our world faces.
In research on water purification, wastewater treatment, and management of bio-solids, the faculty and students are looking for solutions that will help address problems associated with water scarcity, environmental pollution and sustainability, and energy use.
Professor Rumana Riffat of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering leads the environmental engineering program and the research program on wastewater and bio-solids treatment. With funding from the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority, she and her students conduct research for the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant to lower the level of nitrogen in the discharge from the wastewater that goes into the Chesapeake Bay. "We're looking at ways of helping them reduce their nitrogen discharge to very low concentrations. As the regulations become tighter and tighter, they will need to meet these lower level concentrations," she explains.
Riffat's team is also working on another project related to bio-solids. "There are various classes of bio-solids that can be treated and processed to be applied on land for various purposes, for example to be used as fertilizer, soil conditioners, or in other ways. We are studying production of Class A bio-solids - basically sludge - that have been treated and processed so that they can be applied on land, and we are trying to reduce the pathogens in the sludge to a very, very low level so that they can be applied on land for agricultural and other purposes," states Riffat.
Professor Baoxia Mi, who came to SEAS last year after finishing a postdoctoral research position at Yale University, also conducts research on water purification and taking pollutants out of the water; however, her focus is on a treatment process that uses membranes with nano-size pores to filter water and separate particles, pathogens, bacteria, and even salt from the water. The process is called forward osmosis, and according to Mi, it is a novel process that holds a great deal of promise.
"There are two advantages to this process," Mi says. "One is that it uses less energy than the more traditional reverse osmosis process. Another advantage of this process is that it can use renewable energy sources like waste heat from power plants, solar energy, and geo-thermal energy, unlike reverse osmosis which must be driven by electricity." In addition, forward osmosis can actually be used to generate energy. "By mixing sea water and fresh water, we are able to extract energy. There is actually energy stored in the solution," Mi explains.
With the addition of Mi, the program has expanded not only its research areas but also research opportunities for students, both graduate and undergraduate. One of the strengths of the program, in fact, is its ability to offer research opportunities to its undergraduate students. "Both Professor Mi and I have undergraduate students involved in our research," says Riffat. "This really helps to motivate the students; it gives them a hands-on laboratory experience that provides them with good exposure to research. This is not something that many environmental engineering programs are able to make available to their undergraduates."
Perhaps one the greatest sources of pride in the program is its record of preparing students for further study and careers in environmental engineering. "Students who graduate from our program have had excellent job offers or are now graduate students at UC Berkeley, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and other well-regarded schools. We prepare our students to gain admission into highly competitive schools. Our graduate students are also very well-placed. Currently, three of them are at Aecom Water, one of the largest environmental companies in the world; others are at HDR, Dewberry, and Michael Baker, among other places" beams Riffat.