ITAC Student Research Awards

A Study on Compressed Air System Performance: Evaluating the Role of Master Controllers in Energy Efficiency and Cost Reduction

Students: Sumedh Shukla & Joseph Elliott

Director: Dr. Patrick Phelan

Staff Advisors: Dr. Ryan Milcarek

Noninvasive Water Flow Measurement in Industrial Cooling Towers

Students: Ramon Peruchi, Pacheco da Silva, Riley Marchand & Stella Day

Director: Joseph Carpenter

Staff Advisors: Dr. Forooza Samadi

Harnessing Organic Waste Streams for Efficient Hydrogen Production and Water Treatment

Students: Walaa Saadeh, Cheikh Kada & Mohammad Maache

Director: Ryo Amano

Energy Impact on Manufacturing Aggregate Planning for SME under Conditions of Dynamic Pricing of Utilities

Students: Roseline Mostafa

Director: Dr. Bhaskaran Gopalakrishnan

Planning and Operation Co-Optimization of PV-battery System in Manufacturing Facilities

Students: Sharon (Jingwen) Wang & Lucia Valenzuela

Director: Lin Li

Development of a Machine-Learning Basis for Assessment of Compressed Air System Performance Conditions

Students: Sean Kapp

Director: Dr. Jun-Ki Choi

Application of the cold stream of a Ranque-Hilsch vortex flow for Nox reduction while using the hot air stream to enhance combustion efficiency

Students: Edgar Diaz

Director: Dr. Asfaw Beyene

Staff Advisors: Dr. Joaquin Camacho

Increasing the Accessibility of Industrial Electric Load Profile Data: Tools for Organization and Benchmarking

Students: Blake Billings, Lesslie Moposita & Sovit Bhetwal

Director: Dr. Kody Powell

Staff Advisors: Dr. Julie Sieving

Solar Powered Membrane Distillation for Desalination Applications.

Students: Abhinay Soanker and Justin Casper

Director: Dr. Alparslan Oztekin

Impact Analysis on Implementation of Electric and Thermal Energy Storage Systems at Industrial and Commercial Facilities.

Students: McKenna Patterson

Director: Wil Whittington

Staff Advisors: Dr. Heejin Cho

Photovoltaic Cover for Treatment Tanks in Wastewater Treatment Plants.

Students: Ahmad Abdel Hadi and Omar Habash

Director: Ryo Amano

Field Validation Study of an In-house Developed Cooling Tower Efficiency Model.

Students: Spencer Jones

Director: Dr. Ethan Languri, PE, CEM, CBEP

Decarbonization and Energy-Saving Potential of Pure Oxygen Aeration for Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Students: Scott Eardly

Director: Dr. Jun-Ki Choi

Automated Fault Detection and Diagnostics (AFDD) for Packaged Rooftop Units Using Data-Driven Approach and Impact of Fault Elimination on Energy and Cost Savings.

Students: Md Rasel Uddin

Director: David Yuill

Developing a Virtual Assessment Process for More Efficient Student Training and Post-Assessment Analysis.

Students: Behlul Kula

Director: Kristen Cetin

Mixing Hydrogen with Natural Gas as an Alternative for Fuel Switching in Manufacturing for Decarbonization/Reducing GHG Emission.

Students: Meraf Amare, Jasmine Glover, and Jason Kim

Director: G.P. Li

Design of Latent Thermal Energy Storage Heat Exchangers for Combined Heat and Power Plants

Students: Kedar Prashant

Director: Dr. Beka Kosanovic

Improving the Economics of Industrial Battery Storage: A Proactive Policy and Management Approach.

Students: Anne Dougherty, Blake Billings and Nestor Camacho

Director: Dr. Kody Powell

Staff Advisors: Dr. Julie Sieving

The Power Reclamation of Utilizing Micro-hydro Turbines in the Aeration Basins of Wastewater Treatment Plants.

Students: Alaa Hasan, Abdel Rahman Salem and Ahmad Abdel Hadi

Director: Ryo Amano

Peak Electrical Demand Reduction in Fluid Distribution Systems through Load-shifting using Model Predictive Control.

Students: Rafael J. Dugarte

Director: Bryan Rasmussen

Framework for Net-Zero Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Students: Xochitl Menchaca

Director: Lin Li

Staff Advisors: Dr. Patrick Brown

Improving Pump Efficiency through Combination of Impeller Redesign and Hydrophobic Coating.

Students: Piyush Basnet and Anson Lunstrum

Director: Krishna Pakala

Staff Advisors: Dr. Dev Shrestha and Dr. Steven Beyerlein

Confined Tube Aeration – Increasing Efficiency of U.S. Wastewater Treatment

Students: Roohany Mahmud

Director: Joseph Carpenter

Staff Advisors: Dr. David MacPhee

Implementation of Machine-Learning-Based Optimization of Industrial Cooling Towers

Students: Landen Blackburn, Micale Ward, Derek Machalek, Christopher Hillam and Jake Tuttle

Director: Dr. Kody Powell

Staff Advisors: Dr. Julie Sieving

Solar Energy / Energy Storage Discharge Models and Analysis of Regional Electricity Utility Usage Based on Interval Data in West IAC Region

Students: Andrew Benedict-Phillip and Daniela Cantor

Director: Dr. Asfaw Beyene

Staff Advisors: Dr. Joaquin Camacho

Energy Efficiency Evaluation of Twin Tower Regenerative Desiccant Dryers

Students: Alexandra Davis

Director: Dr. Bhaskaran Gopalakrishnan

Staff Advisors: Dr. Ashish Nimbarte

A Novel Method for Non-Intrusive Measurement of Compressed Air Leakage Flow Rates

Students: Patricio Ramirez, Matthew Krebs, David Saltzman, Brian Hinkel, Crystal Torres

Director: Bryan Rasmussen

Impact of Hydrophobic Impeller Surface Coatings on Pump Efficiency

Students: Sean Rosin, Dennis Twitty, Michael Armstrong, and Vitor Da Silva Santos

Director: Krishna Pakala

Are Variable-Frequency Pumping Applications Delivering the Predicted Savings?

Students: Vijay Gopalakrishnan, Alex Brogan, Rohan Das

Director: Dr. Jun-Ki Choi

Staff Advisors: Dr. Donald Chase

Substitution of Electricity with Natural Gas Burners for Industrial Dryers to Reduce Cost and Pollutant

Students: Kumar Aanjaneya, Hayden Youngs, Danielle Kyser and Karl Stimmel

Director: Arvind Atreya

Efficiently Reducing Thermal Stratification at Small and Medium-Scale Industrial Facilities

Students: Jillian Burgoyne, Enrica Galasso, Mark Seibel

Director: Dr. Jackie Anderson

Radiation Enhancement to Increase Efficiency and Reduce Pollutants

Students: Weiyu Cao, Nicholas Montes

Director: Arvind Atreya

Staff Advisors: Pawel Olszewski

Miscellaneous IAC Efficiency Projects

Students: Franco Morelli

Director: Bryan Rasmussen

Ultra-Low Grade Thermal Energy Recovery with Storage, Using Organic Rankine Cycle

Students: Michael Soda

Director: Dr. Asfaw Beyene

Compressed Air Systems Assessment: Effect of Inlet Air Temperatures

Students: Hamid Najafi

Director: Joseph Carpenter

Energy Efficient Humidity Control in Manufacturing

Students: Dustin Pohlman, Abdul Qayyum Mohammed

Director: Dr. Jun-Ki Choi

Possibility of Combustion Furnace Operation with Oxygen-Enriched Gas from Nitrogen Generator

Students: Dan Borgnakke

Director: Arvind Atreya