Past Projects | Capstone BBE

Thanks to our Project Sponsors for the investment of time in educating the next generation of engineers!

2025 Projects and Sponsors

Stantec: Design a cost-effective system to remove PFAS from landfill leachate.
HBW Solutions: Design a system to manage a chemical reaction to convert bauxite ore to aluminum sulfate.
SSR Solutions: Reduce the cost of blood disposal and transportation from a slaughterhouse.
Puris Foods: Design a system to condition and reuse process water from a pea protein manufacturing plant.

2023 Projects and Sponsors

HBW Solutions and Oobli . There are seven sweet proteins known to occur in nature; Brazzein, Thaumatin, Monellin, Curculin, Mabinlin, Miraculin and Pentadin. While these are all naturally found in plants, what if we were able to express these proteins using modern fermentations for commercial production? HBW and Oobli are partnering to do this exact thing using Pichia pastoris. This team designed a chromatography system to separate the Brazzein protein from fermentation broth. The separation system was designed to handle 50,000 L of broth and achieve a 75% protein separation.
Liberty Paper Inc. Liberty Paper Incorporated (LPI) fresh water supply comes from three wells located on-site. Approximately 260,000,000 gallons of water per year is treated to use in the papermaking process. The State of MN applies freshwater limits to businesses to control the amount removed from groundwater aquifers. Students designed a 350 gpm tertiary wastewater treatment system to meet water reuse requirements at LPI.
ISG Inc. The SWCD has completed Multipurpose Drainage Management (MDM) Plans to identify BMPs for implementation to improve water quality of water entering Green Lake, a high priority area within the Rum River Watershed. One particular area, the Tiger Wetland, was identified for a wetland enhancement. This team designed an enhanced wetland system to provide additional storage and water quality treatment, and increase wildlife habitat all with goals of improving water quality to Green Lake.
Saysa Bio. Sasya uses an engineered microbe to produce isoamyl alcohol using a fermentation process. While many aspects of the process need to be optimized, the specific focus of this project is to separate isoamyl alcohol from spent fermentation broth. This team developed an ASPEN model using multiple unit operations that will optimize the purification of the broth into isoamyl alcohol.
Puris Foods. PURIS pea protein production facility in Dawson, MN has its own wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to treat all process waste streams. All floor drains go directly to the WWTP which is then discharged to the river. Student engineers redesigned the wastewater plumbing system from the current treatment plant and designed additional treatment steps for optimizing the wastewater treatment system to meet Puris goals.
ISG Inc.Watonwan County Judicial Ditch Number 26 (JD 26) is a 1,193 acre public tile drainage system located near St. James Minnesota. It provides drainage to agricultural lands to remove excess water and to prevent areas from drowning out and causing crop loss. The public tile system is over 80 years old, is undersized for today’s drainage and climate standards, and is nearing the end of its service life. Petitioners have asked to improve the drainage system to accommodate drainage demands for today’s climate. With an outlet directly into St. James Creek, water quality and quantity is a major concern to not decrease downstream water resources. In this project students designed a drainage system for CD101 that meets today’s drainage and water quality standards while following State Statutes for drainage and water resources. The system includes xyz.
OhlyOhly processes a cayenne pepper product in their spray dryers. The spray dryer exhaust air is cleaned using a wet scrubber. This cayenne pepper product plugs and fouls the wet scrubber packing after a certain amount of run time, resulting in downtime, extra cleaning and chemical use including confined space entry (a safety risk to ideally be eliminated) and environmental concerns. In this project students designed a completely new wet scrubber that won’t clog but still meets environmental regulations and effectively removes particulate matter.
UMN Raptor Center In addition to maintaining birds and space for education, the University of Minnesota Raptor Center rehabilitates injured wild raptors. For each rehabilitation patient, quarantine is necessary to prevent the introduction of avian diseases into the center. The need for quarantine is heightened during periods of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) transmission in the region, as there is shared airspace between the rehabilitation and education areas in the Raptor Center.
MNDOTRoads around construction sites can become a hazard because of the soil being dragged onto the road by truck and equipment tires leaving the job site. MNDOT has specified 9 acceptable truck and equipment exit control strategies, but the data to support these strategies is very limited. Students developed and tested an experimental method to evaluate and compare trackout control technologies. Students also drafted an ASTM procedure that can be used to evaluate variables associated with track out. Students designed a raptor quarantine wing within the existing hospital facility to house incoming patients and prevent the transmission of pathogens to the other birds in the facility.

2022 Projects and Sponsors

Liberty Paper Inc. Liberty Paper is one of the largest recyclers of corrugated material in the Midwest. Their state-of-the-art mill creates new linerboard (paper) for packaging by recycling old corrugated containers. This project involves a re-design of the top ply cleaners and how stock should be sent through the system. The top ply cleaners are used to clean the recycled fibers (1% solids) more so the side of the linerboard a customer sees is cleaner. It is thought the redesigned cleaning system could be used better elsewhere in the plant. This project involves the re-designing of piping, valves, rerouting some water, and analysis of mass balances for several flows with the challenge of gaining more throughput and efficiency.
Michael Foods Inc. Michael Foods Inc. (MFI) is a supplier of foodservice, food ingredient and retail offerings that help meet the dietary and ideological needs of all consumers. MFI produces a variety of precooked egg patty products. Liquid egg is injected into preformed mold oven pans and conveyed through the oven to be cooked. The depositors that add ingredients to the pans often have poor weight control, temperature restrictions, or challenges incorporating particulates (small pieces of diced veggies, meat crumbles, shredded cheese, etc.). MFI would like to design the perfect depositor for its precooked egg production line. The depositor would have exceptional weight control, reasonable temperature restrictions, easy operation, variable depositing weights, and be able to incorporate particulates into the liquid egg stream just prior to depositing liquid egg.
HBW Solutions / Impossible Foods. HBW Solutions, Inc. does process design work for the pharmaceutical and food industries. For this project the team will work on a protein filtration. Team members will need to learn how filtration is used in industry, how to select the type of filter used, and how to size a filter for protein filtration. The team will size the filter and ancillary equipment around the filter and utility loading calculations. The team may need to develop a hydraulic model of the filter system. This project is expected to involve hard core engineering.
Land O'Lakes. Land O'Lakes produces spray dried cheese-based powders for topical coating on Snack foods (ex. Potato Chips). These cheese powders present several challenges during the manufacturing process to produce cheese coated snack foods. Powders can clump, dust, or stick to and coat processing equipment and the environment. Spray dried cheese powders typically are combinations of cheese, dairy powders, starches / maltodextrins, salt, flow agent (silicon dioxide) we will provide a range for typical attributes including moisture, fat, salt, and particle size. Land O’Lakes is interested in either a recommendation on testing methods to predict powder behavior or engineering solutions (equipment / powder handling) to help minimize issues with dried cheese powders.
Minnesota Department of Transportation. A TH10 bridge over the Rum River must be replaced. The single mass span bridge is relatively low over the water. The riverbed is dominated by rock over hard pan. Both factors prevent typical sheet pile installation for sequential bridge removal and new construction when traffic must be maintained. The team is expected to determine options for working within a water-free riverbed, allow river flow and recreational use during all (or at least most of the time when safe) bridge construction staged operations. The team must develop a cost effective climate resilient temporary in-water isolation design for each operation from demolition of the existing bridge to construction of two new bridges, calculate water bearing loads of the water isolation techniques to points of failure, write example construction specifications, develop example details (hand or CAD) suitable for communication of means and methods, estimate costs of various isolation options, and design a contingency plan for a flood condition (or safety criteria for when to vacate the work area). The team will be provided access to DOT stormwater and bridge design professionals, dewatering company, and a bridge contractor to aid in design contract delivery.
Emmons and Olivier Resources. Emmons and Olivier Resources is a water-centric engineering and environmental consulting firm. They are working with two non-profits, Coulee River Trails and Freedom Park. The two non-profits secured a National Park Service (NPS) technical assistance grant for rivers, trails and conservation (NPS-RTCA) and the assistance of a professional trail designer, Tim Wegner. The NPS is currently working with Coulee River Trails and Prescott’s Parks and Public Property Committee to amend the Prescott, WI comprehensive plan to include the proposed trail system. Once the plan for the trail system has been approved, Coulee River Trails will begin to seek grant funding to implement the trail plan. Apart from the proposed trail alignment, little engineering work has been completed for the proposed trail system to date. The team is expected to complete a feasibility study for the portion of the proposed Coulee River Trail System contained within the Magee Park Wilderness Area in Prescott, WI. The feasibility study will include a desktop assessment of existing site conditions, preliminary hydrologic and earthwork calculations, and preliminary sizing and design of stormwater BMPs and slope stabilization practices necessary to implement the trail project. The results of this study will provide valuable estimates and information that will be used by the Coulee River Trails and Friends of Freedom Park organizations to seek and apply for grant funding for the implementation phase of the trail project.
Anishinaabe Agricultural Institute and BBE. Intensive agriculture production practices continue to move north with the warming climate and with it there will likely be changes in both surface and groundwater quality and quantity. This project will evaluate the impact of intensive agriculture on the Crow Wing River watershed in North Central MN. Impacts include water table changes due to irrigation and nitrate concentrations from fertilizer application on surface waters, groundwater quality (nitrate contamination), and aquatic ecosystems. The project will involve a general assessment of land use options in the region, how land uses are changing, water availability to support agricultural production and ecosystems. The project will use outputs from the groundwater model MODFLOW and the surface water/groundwater model SWAT in assessing land use change impacts on water quantity and water quality. Students working on the project will not be developing the MODFLOW or SWAT models as these are being developed by a graduate student involved in an ongoing study of the region. The assessments will allow students to provide engineering solutions that could potentially minimize the impacts of the intensive agricultural practices. Multi-objective planning within the framework of this project will be one of the outcomes provided by the students.
Mississippi Watershed Management Organization and BBE. Faculty in the BBE department at the University of Minnesota are involved in a research project to develop a sensor suite for monitoring stormwater flow in real-time. The team will be required to design a monitoring system to measure flow rate and water quality sampler for a watershed managed by the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. The monitoring systems needs to measure a range of flow rates and corresponding water quality data from rainfall and snowmelt events. The system will be constructed using tools available in the Maker Space. The design needs to be evaluated using the hydraulic flume in the BAE laboratory before installation. After testing, the system will be installed in the field. This will require the design of a supporting structure.

2021 Projects and Sponsors

Agricultural Utilization Research Institute: Design and analyze a system to produce protein isolates from oil seeds. In addition, identify key coproducts and potential value added end uses.
Bolton & Menk and Minnesota Department of Health, Design of a sustainable stormwater reuse system for an 80 acre mixed use site in Brooklyn Center MN.
Constellation Brands: Design and analysis of a 3-million gallon per year process for removing odors (e.g.. phenols) from wine based using a combination of treatment and filtration technologies.
Emmons and Olivier Resources (EOR). Design a riverbank stabilization system for a eroded section of the Little Sioux River.
HBW Solutions. Design a bioreactor for growing CHO cells and a control system that monitors and controls temperature, pH, agitation and perfusion filtration to optimize production.
Liberty Paper Inc.: Design of a 50 gpd water treatment system for removing calcium and COD from paper process wastewater in a closed loop system.
Michael Foods Inc.: Design an ingredient feed and blending system that will integrate into an existing food production line.
Minnesota Department of Transportation: Design and analysis of a a water conveyance system for a highway project.
MSE Tech LLC: Design and analyze separation system, conduct process modeling, and determine key equipment specifications for MSE system. Compare the results to the existing separation system.
Simply Shrimp: Design a nutrient removal system for saltwater shrimp wastewater.