Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7
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- All Subjects: Renewable Energy
- All Subjects: community
- Creators: School of Sustainability
Description
As climate change and air pollution continue to plague the world today, committed citizens are doing their part to minimize their environmental impact. However, financial limitations have hindered a majority of individuals from adopting clean, renewable energy such as rooftop photovoltaic solar systems. England Sustainability Consulting plans to reverse this limitation and increase affordability for residents across Northern California to install solar panel systems for their energy needs. The purpose of this proposal is to showcase a new approach to procuring solar panel system components while offering the same products needed by each customer. We will examine market data to further prove the feasibility of this business approach while remaining profitable and spread our company's vision across all of Northern California.
ContributorsEngland, Kaysey (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis director) / Keahey, Jennifer (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
There is an increasing need to understand and develop clean cooking technologies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The provision of clean energy where modern energy is not available is important in advancing the 17 sustainable development goals as set by the United Nations. Green charcoal is a cooking fuel technology made from ground and compressed biochar, an organic material made from heating a feedstock (biomass, forest residues, agriculture waste, invasive species, etc.) in an oxygen deprived environment to high temperatures. Green charcoal behaves similarly to wood charcoal or coal but is different from these energy products in that it is produced from biomass, not from wood or fossil fuels. Green charcoal has gained prominence as a cooking fuel technology in South-East Asia recently. Within the context of Nepal, green charcoal is currently being produced using lantana camara, an invasive species in Nepal, as a feedstock in order to commoditize the otherwise destructive plant. The purpose of this study was to understand the innovation ecosystem of green charcoal within the context of Nepal’s renewable energy sector. An innovation ecosystem is all of the actors, users and conditions that contribute to the success of a particular method of value creation. Through a series of field interviews, it was determined that the main actors of the green charcoal innovation ecosystem are forest resources governance agencies, biochar producers, boundary organizations, briquette producers, distributors/vendors, the political economy of energy, and the food culture of individuals. The end user (user segment) of this innovation ecosystem is restaurants. Each actor was further analyzed based on the Ecosystem Pie Model methodology as created by Talmar, et al. using the actor’s individual resources, activities, value addition, value capture, dependence on green charcoal and the associated risk as the building blocks for analysis. Based on ecosystem analysis, suggestions were made on how to strengthen the green charcoal innovation ecosystem in Nepal’s renewable energy sector based on actor-actor and actor-green charcoal interactions, associated risks and dependence, and existing knowledge and technology gaps. It was determined that simply deploying a clean cooking technology does not guarantee success of the technology. Rather, there are a multitude of factors that contribute to the success of the clean cooking technology that deserve equal amounts of attention in order to successfully implement the technology.
ContributorsDieu, Megan (Author) / Chhetri, Netra (Thesis director) / Henderson, Mark (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Shifting to renewable energy from fossil fuels is not occurring rapidly. Determining where to locate renewable power plants could help expedite development. The project discussed here uses a GIS ranking tool to determine potential locations for solar and wind power plants in Arizona. Criteria include renewable input (irradiance/wind class), topographic slope, and distance from transmission lines. These are ranked and summed to determine areas with the most potential. The resulting outputs show that there is much more potential land for solar development than wind development. Further analysis in this paper will focus solely on solar due to wind's lower potential. Land sensitivity and ownership are used to assess the feasibility of development. There are many groupings of highly ranked land across the state, but the largest stretch of land runs from outside of Marana (south-central Arizona) northwest to about 60 miles west of Wickenburg (central-west). This regions is mainly on BLM, state, and privately owned land. Some of this land is considered sensitive, but non-sensitive areas with high potential are frequent throughout. Renewable potential in other states could be determined using this tool as well. Variables could be weighted or added depending on each area's need.
ContributorsZeck, Kevin Michael (Author) / Fraser, Matthew (Thesis director) / Pasqualetti, Martin (Committee member) / Cowger, Lane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
"Black in Bleu" is a reflection on my life as a young, Black woman in America told through poetry, and music in conjunction with feminist activists' work as well as results from a survey amongst other young, black students. This paper is a window into Blackness reflecting my experiences as well as many others in a way to find love in that reflection. There is a playlist that goes along with the paper meant to be listened to simultaneously with the reading.
ContributorsDowning, Ciarra (Author) / Acierto, Alejandro (Thesis director) / Reyes, Ernesto (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
Fossil fuels have been the primary source of energy in the world for many decades. However, they are among the top contributors of the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The objective of this research was to produce a more environmentally friendly biofuel from Algae-Helix and Salicornia biomasses. Experiments were conducted using a hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) technique in the HTL reactor to produce biofuel that can potentially replace fossil fuel usage. Hydrothermal Liquefaction is a method used to convert the biomass into the biofuels. HTL experiments on Algae-Helix and Salicornia at 200°C-350°C and 430psi were performed to investigate the effect of temperature on the biocrude yield of the respective biomass used. The effect of the biomass mixture (co-liquefaction) of Salicornia and algae on the amount of biocrude produced was also explored. The biocrude and biochar (by-product) obtained from the hydrothermal liquefaction process were also analyzed using thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). The maximum biocrude yield for the algae-helix biomass and for the Salicornia biomass were both obtained at 300°C which were 34.63% and 7.65% respectively. The co-liquefaction of the two biomasses by 50:50 provided a maximum yield of 17.26% at 250°C. The co-liquefaction of different ratios explored at 250°C and 300°C concluded that Salicornia to algae-helix ratio of 20:80 produced the highest yields of 22.70% and 31.97%. These results showed that co-liquefaction of biomass if paired well with the optimizing temperature can produce a high biocrude yield. The TGA profiles investigated have shown that salicornia has higher levels of ash content in comparison with the algae-helix. It was then recommended that for a mixture of algae and Salicornia, large-scale biofuel production should be conducted at 250℃ in a 20:80 salicornia to algae biocrude ratio, since it lowers energy needs. The high biochar content left can be recycled to optimize biomass, and prevent wastage.
ContributorsLuboowa, Kato Muhammed (Co-author) / Laideson, Maymary (Co-author) / Deng, Shuguang (Thesis director) / Nielsen, David (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Food waste is a significant problem in many developed nations, especially the United States. Each year millions of pounds of uneaten or partially eaten food scraps are thrown into landfill, where it degrades anaerobically, producing methane gas emissions, contributing to foul odors, and contributing to an unsustainable food system. This thesis project set out to conduct a small-scale composting system that diverted would-be food waste from a local food bank to a community garden, where food scraps would decompose into compost to then be turned into a valuable, nutrient-rich amendment in that local garden. Engaging with this food bank and community garden allowed us to leverage the existing relationship between the two, and experiment and develop a framework that would demonstrate the feasibility of a long-term composting system in this community. By conducting this project throughout 2021, we saw where strategies worked well, what challenges remained, and where future opportunities could be expanded on. In the end, we diverted over 2000 lbs of uneaten food away from the food bank and into our composting system. We concluded our project report by providing a set of actionable recommendations and future framework guidelines that could be used by the local community garden in the future or be referenced to by other interested parties.
ContributorsBardon, Lee (Author) / Marshall, Meghan (Co-author) / Nelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Winburn, Morgan (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-12
Description
Food waste is a significant problem in many developed nations, especially the United States. Each year millions of pounds of uneaten or partially eaten food scraps are thrown into landfill, where it degrades anaerobically, producing methane gas emissions, contributing to foul odors, and contributing to an unsustainable food system. This thesis project set out to conduct a small-scale composting system that diverted would-be food waste from a local food bank to a community garden, where food scraps would decompose into compost to then be turned into a valuable, nutrient-rich amendment in that local garden. Engaging with this food bank and community garden allowed us to leverage the existing relationship between the two, and experiment and develop a framework that would demonstrate the feasibility of a long-term composting system in this community. By conducting this project throughout 2021, we saw where strategies worked well, what challenges remained, and where future opportunities could be expanded on. In the end, we diverted over 2000 lbs of uneaten food away from the food bank and into our composting system. We concluded our project report by providing a set of actionable recommendations and future framework guidelines that could be used by the local community garden in the future or be referenced to by other interested parties.
ContributorsMarshall, Meghan (Author) / Bardon, Lee (Co-author) / Nelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Winburn, Morgan (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-12