Jeramy Jasmann
CV – please click here
Contact Info
Cell phone: (916) 804-3698
Email: jeramy.jasmann at colostate.edu
Room number/Building:
Engineering Research Center Building, Office B07, Center for Contaminant Hydrology, Colorado State University – Foothills Campus, 4451 Laporte Ave. Fort Collins, CO 80521
http://projects-web.engr.colostate.edu/CCH/index.shtml
Linked In Account: www.linkedin.com/in/jeramyjasmann
Biography
A Strong Land Ethic and a Passion for Outdoor Recreation
I moved from California with my wife to the beautiful university town of Fort Collins, Colorado to enjoy the quality of life that comes from what we characterize as an “active, outdoorsy, bicycle-friendly community”. I am blessed to have two sons, Carson (age 6) and Bryce (age 4) and a daughter Addison (4 months) who are already shredding single track on their mountain bikes and carving S turns in the groomers at Winter Park (well Addison is just doing visualization of it at this point). When I am not at work, I love building things around the house (bike skills obstacles, benches, raised garden beds, etc.) or getting away to enjoy the great outdoors.
I have always respected the importance of maintaining healthy interactions between human progress and environmental health. I also love chemistry because I believe it has been a critical discipline allowing many of our technological advances as well as increasing our understanding important ecosystem services like decomposing waste and some pollutants and providing fresh O2 to breathe. These are provided “free of charge” as long as we don’t overburden the environment with too many toxins or inadequate nutrients. I have always been committed to being in a career that is emotionally satisfying, and I have a great ability to learn quickly and intelligently share that knowledge with others, so taught high school for 12 years as my first career. I taught Chemistry and A.P. Environmental Science and enjoyed engaging my students in how relevant science was to the ongoing social, economic and environmental concerns of our time. My interest to learn more about how to actively participate in engineering solutions to manage these important environmental concerns is what ignited my interest in pursuing graduate work in Environmental Chemistry.
Career Choice: Environmental/ Aqueous Contaminants Research or Management
A few years ago, I decided to pursue a PhD in Environmental Chemistry at Colorado State University and investigate emerging contaminants and develop strategies/technologies to improve water quality and water use efficiency. My current research on catalyzed electrochemical degradation (via permeable electrochemical barriers) of the emerging contaminant 1,4-dioxane has provided me a solid foundation in fate and transport of chemical contaminants in surface and groundwater, while also allowing me to develop a green water treatment technology with exciting possibilities for future applications. We are moving forward with a field scale application of this permeable electrochemical behavior technology to treat a site overseas that is contaminated with 1,4-dioxane.
After graduation, I hope to continue solving important problems related to contaminants and nutrients in the aqueous environment, either through ongoing research efforts or by taking remediation/treatment technologies to the field.
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
~Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac
Project Summary
Electrochemical degradation of aqueous contaminants catalyzed by novel titanium dioxide pellets in the absence of light
BACKGROUND. 1,4-dioxane, C4H8O2, is a toxic chemical, a class 2B carcinogen, and an emerging contaminant currently being reviewed by the EPA for possible MCL regulations. It was widely used as a stabilizer in commonly used chlorinated solvents also used in the production of many pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Several studies have detected 1,4-dioxane in surface water, groundwater and wastewater in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Germany, and probably will be found in many other industrialized countries as well. It is resistant to many of the traditional water treatment technologies such as biological degradation, sorption to activated carbon, and air stripping, making sufficient 1,4-dioxane removal difficult and/or expensive. State-of-the art technologies for the removal of 1,4-dioxane usually apply advanced oxidation approaches using strong oxidants in combination with UV photocatalysis. These approaches can require large amounts of expensive reagents and energy inputs to power the UV light source, as well as extensive pre-treatment of the water.
MY RESEARCH FOCUS is on the development of permeable electrochemical barriers, which utilize dimensionally stable mesh electrodes embedded into groundwater plumes tranverse to groundwater flow direction. I design and build continuous flow permeable electrochemical reactor columns (PERCs) that simulate groundwater flow and water quality conditions to test the feasibility of this treatment on recalcitrant pollutants. Electrolytic degradation occurs via direct electron transfer at the surface of the electrodes, but additional oxidation reactions can occur in the bulk water by reactive radical species (e.g. ·OH radicals) formed from the electrolytic breakdown of water at the anode. So we also fabricated, characterized and tested the catalytic activity of novel interelectrode titanium dioxide (TiO2) pellets that enhance degradation rates by catalyzing organic oxidation reactions with these reactive radical species.
BENEFITS OF CATALYZED ELECTROCHEMICAL DEGRADATION as a green remediation technology are that (a) it does not require the addition of chemicals during treatment, (b) it has low energy requirements that can be met through the use of solar photovoltaic modules, and (c) it is very versatile in that it could be applied in situ for contaminated groundwater sites or installed in-line with current wastewater treatment plants to improve water quality for water reuse scenarios.
INTERDISCIPLINARY SOLUTIONS AND DIVERSE TRAINING IN ANALYTICAL TOOLS. I am fortunate in that I work within an interdisciplinary team comprised of chemists, engineering and hydrologists within my two research groups: Borch Research Group (Analytical Chemistry and Soil Science) and the Center for Contaminant Hydrology (Environmental Engineering). My coursework and research problems have exposed me to many of the pressing issues of aqueous pollutants in surface and groundwater, including fate/transport, potentially hazardous transformation products, effective modeling parameters for contaminated sites, and traditional and emerging remediation treatment technologies. I have researched and analyzed the electrochemical treatments of 1,4-dioxane (hydrophilic ring structure), chlorinated solvents like TCE and PCB (hydrophobic, alkenes or aromatic), and lamotrigine antiepileptic drug (hydrophilic, chlorine and amine groups, heteroatomic ring structure). The chemical diversity of these parent compounds and their transformation products have allowed me to learn, use and trouble shoot a variety of analytical techniques and software, some listed below:
Gas (GC), Liquid (LC) and Ion (IC) Chromatograph instruments for analyte separation with different detectors:
GC/MS (mass spectrometer), GC/MS-MS, GC/ECD (electron-capture detector),
GC/FID (flame ionization detector), TOC Analyzer (total organic carbon)
LC/UV, LC/ToF-MS (time of flight mass spectrometer), IC/ToF-MS, Anionic IC
I also performed solid phase characterization of different TiO2 pellets made and tested along the way, allowing me to learn, use and trouble shoot other instruments such as:
Potentiostat (Cyclic Voltammetry), Electrochemical Cell Reactors (batch reaction studies), Synchrotron-source XRD (X-ray Diffractometer), Cu-Kα source XRD,
BET Surface Area and Porosity Analyzer, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)
UV-Vis Spectrophotometer (diffuse reflectance analysis and ferrozine assay)
PROJECT GOALS:
(1) Fabricate and characterize the relevant properties of novel TiO2 inter-electrode material (a catalyst in the absence of light)
(2) Build continuous flow permeable electrolytic column reactors to accomodate this catalytic material and test degradation performance on 1,4-dioxane and other persistent aqueous pollutants
(3) Develop analytical methods to investigate degradation outcomes and transformation products
(4) Elucidate preliminary mechanisms for this non-photocatalytic mechanism for our TiO2 catalyst
(5) Determine parameters that effect the catalytic activity of the TiO2 pellets and optimize system toward high degradation efficiency of 1,4-dioxane (and other recalcitrant pollutants)
(6) Investigate the potential of combining electrochemical with biological remediation specifically for 1,4-dioxane
(7) Pilot test one of our electrochemical technologies in a field-based application
MY RESULTS demonstrate that electrolytic treatment, when used in combination with this catalytically active inter-electrode TiO2 material, can efficiently and economically degrade 1,4-dioxane. With 1,4-dioxane being so difficult to treat, this could be a transformative technology in the management of this pollutant and others.
For more details about the research conducted in the Borch group please click here.
Recent Publications
Jasmann, J.; Borch, T.; Sale, T.C.; Blotevogel, J. Electrolytic degradation of 1,4-dioxane catalyzed by titanium dioxide pellets in the absence of light. In preparation.
Lenker, C.; Harclerode, M.; Aragona, K.; Fisher, A.; Jasmann, J.; Hadley, P. Integrating groundwater conservation and reuse into remediation projects. Remediation Journal. Spring 2014. DOI: 10.1002/rem.21389
Hadley, P.; Keddington, P.; Jasmann, J., et al. Groundwater Conservation and Reuse at Remediation Sites. Sustainable Remediation Forum (SURF). January 2014. http://www.sustainableremediation.org
Jasmann, J. Application and chemical properties of polymers. Teach Engineering. August 2012. www.teachengineering.org
For more publications in the Borch group please click here.
Collaborators
Shaily Mahendra, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles. Civil and Environmental Engineering http://www.cee.ucla.edu/faculty/mahendra
Paul Hadley, Senior Hazardous Substance Engineer. California Department of Toxic Substances Control. Paul.Hadley@dtsc.ca.gov
Previous Institutions
PhD Environmental Chemistry (emerging contaminants research) ~ Dec. 2015 Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO
Teaching License in both Life Science and Physical Science 2001 California State University Sacramento, summa cum laude
B.S. in Biochemistry, Psychology Minor 1997 University of California at Davis, cum laude