My research interests are in the areas of environmental transport processes, risk assessment from environmental pollution, green engineering, and environmental biotechnology.

Environment Transport Processes and Risk Assessment

Transport processes in the environment affect the manner and severity of exposure to pollutants by humans, animals and other members of the ecosystem. Previous work includes the study of diffusion and adsorption processes of organic contaminants in dry soils and the prediction of intermedia transport rates from soils to the atmosphere. The effects of soil temperature and moisture on the rates of transfer have been measured and mathematically modeled. Recent work centers on the use of multimedia compartment models of environmental transport and fate to evaluate the environmental impacts of chemical process designs.

D.R. Shonnard and D.S. Hiew, 2000, Comparative Environmental Assessments of VOC Recovery and Recycle Design Alternatives for a Gaseous Waste Stream”, Environmental Science and Technology, 34(24), 5222-5228.

D.R. Shonnard, T.N. Rogers, B.A. Barna, D.A. Crowl, E.J. Oman, P.P. Radecki, J.A. Herlevich Jr., and P.B. Parikh, Integrated assessment methodologies and software tools for process design: economic, environmental, safety, and decision analyses, in Process Design Tools for the Environment, ed. S.K. Sikdar and M. El-Halwagi, in press 2001.

H. Chen, D.R. Shonnard, B.A. Barna, and T.N. Rogers, A Screening Methodology for Improved Solvent Selection Using Economic and Environmental Assessments, submitted to Clean Products and Processes, April 2001.

D.R. Shonnard, Applications of Environmental Impact Assessment to Chemical Process Design, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, submitted January 2001.

Q. Zhang , J.C. Crittenden, D.R. Shonnard, and J.R. Mihelcic, Development and Evaluation of an Environmental Multimedia Fate Model for the Great Lakes Region, submitted to Chemosphere, April 2001.

Q. Zhang , D.R. Shonnard, J.C. Crittenden, H. Chen, and J.R. Mihelcic, Opportunities for Improving Simplified Risk Assessment Methods, for Environmental Science & Technology

D.R. Shonnard, H. Chen, and M. Waters, Uncertainty Analysis for Toxicity Assessment of Chemical Process Designs, for Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, submitted May 2001.

Environmental Biotechnology

Environmental biotechnology is the application of biochemical processes and technologies to the solution of environmental problems. Many applications involve contaminated soils and groundwater, but many other applications target the treatment of industrial waste streams. Most of my research involves the study of transport of microorganisms in subsurface environments, particularly in groundwater. We have studied the transport of bacteria in saturated porous media and observed the effects of solution chemistry (ionic strength) on the attachment of bacteria to the surfaces of soil particles, such as sand grains. Modeling efforts use multiple descriptions of the attachment step depending upon the ionic strength. For more detailed information about my research in environmental biotechnology, please see the Subsurface Research Laboratory.

Recent projects are investigating the use of biomarkers as indicators of exposure and toxic effects of hazardous chemicals. Biomarkers have the promise of providing a mechanistic understanding of toxic effects of chemical exposure and a reduced reliance on animal studies for determining toxicological properties of chemicals.

P.A. Deshpande and D.R. Shonnard, 2000, An improved spectrophotometric method for studying the effects of ionic strength on bacteria transport through porous media, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 66(2), 763-768.

P.A. Deshpande and D.R. Shonnard, 1999, Modeling the effects of systematic variation in ionic strength on the attachment kinetics of Pseudomonas fluorescens UPER-1 in saturated sand columns, Water Resources Research, Vol. 35, No. 5, 1619-1627.

J.S. Gierke, A.S. Mayer, and D.R. Shonnard, 1998, Multidisciplinary subsurface remediation courses: fundamentals, experiments, and design projects. Journal of Engineering Education, 87(5), 555-566 .

D.R. Shonnard, R.T. Taylor, C.O. Boro, M.L. Hanna, and A.G. Duba; 1994, Bacterial attachment patterns created by horizontal injection into a two-dimensional miniature aquifer-simulator: Applied to Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b, Water Resources Research 30(1), 25-35.

Green Engineering Curriculum Development

Green Engineering is the development and commercialization of industrial processes that are economically feasible and reduce the risk to human health and the environment. Recent efforts in Green Engineering involve a textbook and national/regional workshops for educating engineering faculty on these emerging design and computational tools.

D.R. Shonnard and P.A. Deshpande, Column transport experiments for dissolved pollutants and colloids, Chemical Engineering Education, accepted March 2001.

David T. Allen and David R. Shonnard, and other contributors, Green Engineering: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes, to be published by Prentice-Hall, August 2001.

Contact Information

Department of Chemical Engineering

Michigan Technological University

1400 Townsend Drive

Houghton, MI 49931-1295

Ph: 906/487-3468

Fax: 906/487-3213

E-Mail: drshonna@mtu.edu

http://www.chem.mtu.edu/chem_eng/faculty/drshonnard.html