Environmental Engineering and Science Lab (EESL)

The Water Quality Control Research Laboratory contains a complex of several laboratories with a gross area of 14,000 square feet. These well-equipped research facilities contain the latest analytical and specialized experimental equipment.

Six environmental chambers are available in these laboratories. Microbial laboratory facilities are available equipped with autoclave, microscopes (including epifluorescence instrumentation), shakers, incubators, full-scale anaerobic glove box chambers, computerized chemostats and other necessary equipment.

Instrumentation

The laboratory offers excellent facilities for detailed analysis of trace organic contaminants, including a GC-Triple Stage Quadrapole Mass Spectrometer, six gas chromatographs (three equipped with capillary column capability), an integrated GC/MS/Data system, and two computerized high-performance liquid chromatographic systems. An LC/MS/MS system offers analytical capability for perfluorochemicals and a variety of emerging contaminants in pharmaceutical and personal care products.

Additional instrumentation includes pH-stats, automatic titrimeters, multiple circulating constant-temperature baths, several ion exchange chromatographs, and specific ion and pH meters. There is sufficient bench space and desk/study area available to accommodate approximately 40 research staff members, students and post-doctoral fellows within the Water Quality Control Research Laboratory.

Radiochemical research

Fully equipped radiochemical research and analytical laboratories are also available. These facilities are equipped with a special isolated counting room designed to house low beta and low gamma multichannel counting equipment as well as several crystal scintillation counters and a liquid scintillation counter.

Applied colloid and surface chemistry research

Laboratory facilities are available for applied colloid and surface chemistry research and include instrumentation for measurement of specific surface area, pore size distributions in the macro-, meso- and micropore size range, as well as particle size distributions. A microelectrophoresis instrument is available; in addition, special titration equipment is available for estimating surface charge density.

Teaching labs

The Environmental Engineering and Science Teaching Laboratories consist of two laboratories having a gross area of 3,000 square feet with requisite bench space, instrumentation, three environmental chambers and other specialized equipment for the four laboratory courses offered in the MS program: water chemistry, environmental microbiology, physical and chemical processes, and microbiological processes, in addition to the usual analytical equipment and bench-scale treatment systems. The teaching laboratories are equipped with two dedicated microcomputers for realtime data acquisition, data processing and report preparation. Students in the laboratory courses also have access to the research laboratory's instruments when advanced analytical techniques are required.