NPRE Undergraduate Seminar Series - Spring 2025
Senior Design Presentations
Tuesday, May 6 | 12:00 - 12:50 pm
4039 Campus Instructional Facility (CIF)
Part of a series of design presentations showcasing the culmination of students' work in capstone course NPRE 458 - Design in NPRE. Open for all interested students, faculty, and staff to attend.
Carbon-Capture Assisted Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor for U.S. Deployment
Sam McDonald, Nitika Purohit, Krystian Szeliga
Abstract: Fossil fuels have long powered the nation’s grid, though they emit toxic pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2) - one of the main contributors to global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control indicates to limit global warming up to 2॰C, there must be 290 Gt of carbon removal by the year 2100. These challenges are addressed within this project by coupling a direct air capture (DAC) system with an Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR), actively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while providing electricity for the grid. Successful integration is hypothesized because the high temperature capabilities of an AGR most effectively support the extensive thermal demands required for DAC operations. The specific integration between the systems is studied through a thermal analysis constructed about the system, determining efficiency at various placements in the AGR’s Rankine cycle. Additionally, a python-based Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) analysis highlights the total cost of the design. A carbon study analyzes where to store captured carbon and a comprehensive risk assessment ensures operation will fall within regulatory guidelines. The results of the thermodynamic analysis concludes that 10% of the entire AGR steam volume could be extracted prior to the low-pressure turbine, with an efficiency loss of 1%. Annually, the AGR-DAC system can support the capture of one million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, while supplying roughly 6000MWth to the grid. LCOE analysis and the carbon study suggest using captured carbon for enhanced oil recovery provides the best means to store carbon while minimizing costs. Overall, this AGR-DAC system can successfully capture carbon and provide sufficient electricity to the grid while keeping costs at a minimum.
Plasma Water Treatment of PFAS
Colman Flynn, Richard He
Abstract: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of chemicals that are resistant to degradation and have the potential to accumulate in biological systems. Years of improper PFAS use have led to a buildup in PFAS concentrations in drinking water, which causes a multitude of negative health effects such as decreased fertility, developmental delays in children, and increased risk of cancer. Current methods of PFAS removal, ozofractionation, granular activated carbon, and sonolysis, are either ineffective at removing PFAS from water or leave behind PFAS-rich waste. To address these problems, we propose a new method for removing PFAS from wastewater — plasma treatment utilizing a plasma reactor coupled with ozofractionation. By coupling ozfractionation's high efficiency in PFAS removal with plasma treatment, PFAS can be safely removed from wastewater and destroyed during treatment through the physical breakdown of PFAS molecules using high-energy electrons and radicals. Plasma treatment has been shown to remove PFAS from water with similar efficiency to ozofractionation, and is capable of degrading PFAS down to EPA limits consistently. The proposed reactor will aim to treat 100,000 gallons of wastewater per day while maintaining a competitive daily operating cost.