ABSM Capstone Projects 2024-2025
| Project Title | Project Sponsor | Project Objective |
|---|---|---|
| Quantifying the Benefits of Local Food Production | EnergiAcres | Apply life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify "food miles" of produce grown in California and compare to the same produce in a local EnergiAcres greenhouse. |
| Life Cycle Assessment of Lamb Production in Solar Energy Fields | Fieldstone Innovations | Evaluate the environmental impacts of sheep solar farm grazing (solar grazing) in Pennsylvania to Australian imports, from cradle to gate, including transportation and production. |
| Landfill Biogas Task Force | Chester County Solid Waste Authority | Methane generation analysis (energy audit) to quantify how much biogas the landfill is producing over a period of 10 years and how much of the biogas can be repurposed or, if it is emitted, measured in terms of CO2 equivalence for impact assessment. |
| Feasibility Analysis of Rooftop Solar Panel Installation for Energy Optimization | El Vista Orchards (and PennTAP) | Evaluate the feasibility and benefits of a rooftop solar installation at El Vista Orchards storage facilities. |
| Glenn Road Stormwater Mitigation | State College Borough |
Our team was tasked with addressing flooding on Glenn Road and expansion of the Radio Park sinkhole from excess stormwater. Multiple design solutions were developed for each of these issues allowing a phased approach depending upon available funding. |
| Penn Basin Redesign | College Township |
The goals of the project included updating the basin outlet structure and addressing the current erosion occurring inside the basin and downstream of the outlet. The new infiltration design of the basin with forebays increased the basin's capacity to uptake nutrients and reduce sediment in the exiting water. |
| Manure Lagoon Cover Design | Red Barn Ag Consulting |
The project focused on designing a modular manure lagoon cover made of high-density polyethylene to withstand the corrosiveness of methane. The project ultimately aims for cleaner energy practices as well as environmental protection within agricultural operations. |
| Cell Separation | GlaxoSmithKline |
Centrifugation is an expensive cell separation operation in bioprocessing. Our team explored alternative scalable technologies for cell separation that prevented cell lysis and involved easily reusable, accessible and low cost instrumentation. |
