Facilities
Below describe some of the facilities and equipment used by
Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. This can also
be viewed in our facilities slideshow.
Du
Pont Hall
Du Pont Hall, the headquarters of the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, is located on the University of
Delaware Green. To keep up with expanding research and
education programs, major renovations to Du Pont Hall were
completed in 2002, providing laboratory and office space for
the Department. In addition to Environmental and Water
Resources Engineering, the Department has three other areas:
Geotechnical Engineering and Structural Engineering, Coastal
and Ocean Engineering, and Transportation Engineering.
Inductively
Coupled Plasma Spectrometer
Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometers can measure
the concentrations of metals, including nickel, lead,
cadmium, aluminum, iron, magnesium, and sodium, in water
samples.
High
Performance Liquid Chromatograph
High performance liquid
chromatograph (HPLC) equipment analyzes extracts of soil
samples. Membrane filtration of the soil extracts is
necessary prior to the HPLC analysis. This equipment
has been used in research to develop a new remediation
technology involving advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to
treat soils contaminated with organic pollutants, such as
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Gas
Chromatography
A Hewlett Packard 6890 GC/ECD/FID
is shown analyzing trichloroethene (TCE) and its
dechlorination products. In the experiment, TCE is
reductively transformed via dichloroethenes and vinyl
chloride to ethene and ethane by an anaerobic mixed culture
that grow on zero-valent iron. The GC is supported by
three zero-grade gas generators (H2, N2, and air) and
controlled by a PC equipped with HP ChemStation software.
Portable
Reverse Osmosis
A portable reverse osmosis (RO)
system collects water samples from a Delaware swamp to
concentrate the dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the
samples. The samples are used to study the effect of
kinetics of copper complexation with DOM on the
toxicity of copper to Ceriodaphnia dubia.
Microscope
Microscope are commonly used to
quantify the microbial populations present in mixed cultures,
such as identifying the bacteria present in a sample from a
water treatment plant.
Anaerobic
Glove Box
Anaerobic glove boxes are used to
prepare chemical media for experiments such as studying the
reductive degradation of chlorinated solvents. The
chemicals and the microorganisms involved in the experiment
are oxygen-sensitive and need to be handled under strictly
anaerobic conditions.
Environmental
Chambers
Environmental chambers provide precise climate control for temperature-sensitive experiments and for sample incubation and storage. The one on the right is a "hot" room which can go up to 40°C. The one on the left is a "cold" room which has a cryogenic unit and can maintain as low as -10°C.