News

Tower to Survey City’s Air

In February, a 150-foot Air Pollutant Monitoring tower was raised on the site of the Syracuse CoE headquarters. The tower will be used for a long-term, one-of-a-kind study that will assess Syracuse’s urban air quality, air flow, and how outside air affects air quality inside a building.

Eventually, this air quality data could lead to intelligent building management systems that will tell occupants when it is a good time to open a window and when they should close up because of air pollution.

Both the tower installation and the research are collaborative efforts involving scientists from several Members of Syracuse CoE, including Syracuse University, Clarkson University, Cornell University, and SUNY-ESF.

Prof. Myron Mitchell of SUNY-ESF, leads the team that installed the tower and fitted instruments, a project funded with part of a $380,000 New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR) grant administered through Syracuse CoE.

Leading the data monitoring team is Prof. Philip Hopke of Clarkson University. Hopke’s project, funded with a $600,000 Syracuse CoE research grant, is titled, “Characterization of the Ambient Air Quality in Syracuse and Identification of Its Origins.”

See a list of Professor Myron Mitchell’s published research.

Bringing the Sky Down to Earth

Scientific research is dependent on gathering accurate data, but when the research field is the atmosphere, gathering uncontaminated information quickly and efficiently is a challenge.

Weather balloons may be slow and U2 research aircraft too expensive, but aeronautical researchers have another choice. They can put instruments on relatively inexpensive, more easily deployed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). That’s what SyracuseCoE associate and Clarkson University Professor Suresh Dhaniyala plans to do, thanks to a $100,000 CARTI grant to produce a compact, fully instrumented UAV for real-time air quality studies in urban airsheds.

The use of small, unmanned aircraft is crucial to Dhaniyala’s research, which models how submicron aerosol and microscopic particles—abundant in urban airsheds—move in the chaotic conditions of the atmosphere.

To fit out the UAV, Dhaniyala and his team are developing several next-generation instruments for improved real-time study of microscopic air particles. Dhaniyala plans to combine these new instruments with new modeling efforts and the UAV to better understand the effect of microscopic air particles on human health and the global climate.

“The main aircraft—called VectorP—will arrive from the manufacturer in October 2007,” says Dhaniyala. “Until then, we are concentrating research on the development of instruments that will be flown in VectorP, and we have a smaller UAV that we have been outfitting with some of these for test flights.”

Indoor Air Quality Research: Clarkson Researchers to Study Impact of New Ventilator on Asthma Patients

Research Study Indicates that Indoor Air Quality Improvements with the HEPAiRx® Helps Asthmatic Children

For someone with asthma, airborne irritants can spring up practically anywhere, even inside the home. “One of the biggest culprits is the kitchen,” says Cheryl A. Gressani, Director of Business Development for Air Innovations of North Syracuse, New York.

Cooking releases tiny particles that easily migrate, she explains. Air Innovations is working on a new product to help those with respiratory problems find some relief inside their homes. With help from Clarkson University and a $150,000 grant from the SyracuseCoE Office for Industry Collaboration, the company has embarked on an 18-week research study of HEPAiRx, an air heating, cooling, and filtration unit for use in a single room, known as an “integrated energy-recovery ventilator.”

The ventilators are designed to be energy efficient as well. Air Innovations will install the units in the bedrooms of 45 asthma patients during the study and, with help from Clarkson researchers, record information on their health and the effectiveness of the system. In addition to heating, cooling, and filtering indoor air, the product brings in fresh air from outdoors. It also pressurizes the room to stop airborne irritants—such as those created during cooking—from entering.

Visit the HEPAirX®: Ventilating Room Air Purifier product page

Updates:

2008: The research study showed that the HEPAiRx® integrated energy recovery ventilator and air cleaner proved to be effective at improving indoor air quality and symptoms of asthmatic children.

2010:  Additional research studies indicate a reduction in lung inflammation and other benefits in the subjects using the HEPAiRx®.

2013: Air Purification System Researched at Clarkson University Granted FDA Clearance

 

Near Westside Initiative: Energizing a Neighborhood

On September 21, 2007 Syracuse received a double dose of good news when Syracuse University announced it will invest $13.8 million in the Near Westside neighborhood and WCNY Connected announced it plans to build a new broadcast and education center in the neighborhood.

The Near Westside Initiative (NWSI) is a collaborative effort to restore the Near Westside into a neighborhood of choice for residents of all incomes. Up to 263,000 square feet of commercial structures—including WCNY’s new building— and up to 154,000 square feet of residential space will be developed—and that’s just the beginning!

The SyracuseCoE will lead efforts to incorporate green technologies in the project. As part of this effort, the project will be used to evaluate the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-Neighborhood Development (LEEDND) system proposed by the US Green Building Council, which will bring the initiative national attention.

The initiative plans to enhance housing and economic opportunities for existing and new residents, maintain and restore the neighborhood’s historic architectural charm, and include residents in plans and discussions. Residential development will include an “artists’ quarter,” housing up to 70 artists. The NWSI will market this Arts, Design, and Technology Quarter nationally and internationally to attract prospective artists, entrepreneurs, and designers to the area, using a $485,000 grant from National Grid.

Among other groups involved in the NWSI are the City of Syracuse, Home HeadQuarters, The Gifford Foundation, Bousquet Holstein, National Grid, NYSERDA, Queri Development Corp., Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative, and Syracuse University.

Intellectual Collisions Spark Innovation

SyracuseCoE’s Collaborative Activities for Research and Technology Innovation (CARTI) Program Spur Start-up Growth

Funds from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), fuels the SyracuseCoE’s Collaborative Activities for Research and Technology Innovation (CARTI) program.

“CARTI projects represent the best in air quality and water resource management research being conducted in the US,” says Rep. James R. Walsh (R-NY). “I’m proud to have secured funding to support ongoing research and education activities at the SyracuseCoE’s partner institutions.”

“Commercializing technology developed from this research will invigorate economic and job growth in our community,” adds SyracuseCoE Board Chairman R. Leland Davis. “The CARTI program is the spark that unites our distinguished universities with Upstate industries.”

Begun in 2006, CARTI is a cornerstone of the SyracuseCoE’s “technology transfer” initiative, which encourages open exchange of ideas and “intellectual collisions” between institutions and industry. CARTI research projects link academic researchers with business leaders across New York.

Along with the SyracuseCoE Office for Industry Collaboration’s Technical Application and Demonstration (TAD) grants, Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP), and Research & Technology Forums, CARTI is vital conduit that ensures start-ups and established firms alike benefit from a well-spring of innovative research conducted at world-class Upstate New York colleges and universities.

 

 

Helping Farmers Help Watersheds

Plants and animals need phosphorus to thrive, but when farming practices cause an increase of this nutrient in streams, rivers, and lakes, aquatic algae and other plants take advantage. Blooms of algae can spoil the natural balance of aquatic ecosystems and interfere with sources of drinking water.

The process whereby increases in nutrients lead to over-abundance of algae and other plants is called “eutrophication.” In 2007, Dr. Christine Shoemaker of Cornell University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received a $100,000 Collaborative Activities for Research and Technology Innovation (CARTI) grant to improve the ability to understand and manage eutrophication in water bodies in Upstate New York due to excess phosphorus. The project is a collaboration with Cornell’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science.

Shoemaker, a SyracuseCoE associate, is a mathematician, engineer, ecologist, and water management expert, who is studying the impact of farming on phosphorus levels in watersheds that supply New York and other cities with drinking water.

A major issue is how to reduce phosphorus that enters water from cattle feed. Most of this phosphorus enters the ecosystem as cattle manure that is applied to farmland. Farmers often feed their livestock more nutrients than they need for optimal health. Research by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation shows that farm phosphorus runoff can be reduced by 30% through a “whole-farm plan.”

“Earlier work by my colleagues and I indicates that if farming best-management practices are not implemented, phosphorus levels are going to increase, because there is more phosphorus going into the watershed than is leaving it,” explains Shoemaker, who, along with her students, has developed a computer model to track water, sediment, and phosphorus in the 47-square-mile Cannonsville watershed, one of four reservoirs in the Delaware watershed system that supplies New York City.

See a list of Dr. Christine Shoemaker’s published research.

Chasing Quicksilver Through the Mountains

Professor and SyracuseCoE associate Charles Driscoll and colleagues from the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) and Clarkson University have released the results of two new landmark studies that identify five known and nine suspected biological mercury hotspots in the northeastern US.

The findings suggest that coal-fired power plants in the US are major contributors to mercury pollution. One of the mercury hotspots occurs within New York’s Adirondack Mountains.

The studies are the result of a three-year effort by Driscoll and his collaborators, including Tom Holsen of Clarkson University.

In January 2007, Driscoll and his team briefed Congress, and the studies spurred Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to announce her intention to introduce legislation creating a nationwide mercury monitoring network. Collins also intends to reintroduce legislation that would require power plants to reduce  mercury emissions by 90%.

The HBRF team of 11 scientists used a database of more than 7,300 samples to quantify mercury levels in fish, loons, and other wildlife at lakes and reservoirs from New York to Nova Scotia. “We were surprised to find that the Adirondacks had some of the highest mercury levels in fish and loons in the Northeast,” says Driscoll, Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering at the LC Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. “The average mercury levels in yellow perch were more than twice the human health criterion established by the US Environmental Protection Agency.”

Adapted from an article by Kelly Homan Rodoski in Syracuse Engineer, Spring 2007.

See a list of Professor Charles Driscoll’s published research.