User-Centered Design and Construction of a Modular Biofilter System for Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Open Access
- Author:
- Suresh, Shakthi
- Graduate Program:
- Engineering Design
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- June 28, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Mariantonieta Gutierrez Soto, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Juliana Vasco-Correa, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Nicholas Meisel, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies - Keywords:
- User-centered design
biofilter
methanotrophs
system design
Design
Manufacturing - Abstract:
- Methane is one of the more harmful greenhouse gases produced at livestock farms by animals and their byproducts. Being 80 times more harmful than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years, livestock farms are contributors the acceleration of climate change. Research in the field of microbiology and agricultural sciences is looking into using a specific group of microbes, called methanotrophs that metabolize methane, to reduce the carbon footprint of dairy farms produced from sources such as livestock. The methanotrophs process the polluted gas and output the treated gas into the atmosphere. This research explores the lab-scale design of a biofilter system with principles of user-centered design. The outline of this design allows for the users (researchers) to conduct the experiment to verify the viability of the methanotrophs to metabolize methane. A system of mixing chamber, humidifier, and biofilter is designed and fabricated to test a pilot-scale unit for efficacy, the details of which are explored in this research. The scope of the experimental setup, and thus the biofilter, extends into a possible scaled-up concept that can help farmers offset the carbon footprint by capturing the methane and filtering it into less harmful greenhouse gases. The effect of this research, thus, shows the plausibility of such product or device with focus on user-centered design to aid in the easy adaptation and implementation. The research explored here makes the design and manufacturing of a lab-scale biofilter more accessible to researchers in the field of microbiology and agriculture, helping them to replicate, modify or iterate a biofilter system for their own experimental research that furthers the knowledge scope of this potential, game-changing method of methane mitigation.