Environmental Engineering Laboratories

Environmental Engineering Laboratories are one of the most important laboratories of the Civil Engineering Department, where bachelor and graduate students perform experiments and lab work required by environmental engineering courses, and research work of their final projects. The labs also serve the faculty members of the environmental engineering specialty to carry out their research projects.  In addition, the labs provide societal services by conducting technical studies and laboratories analyses acquired by both private and public sectors in the fields of water, wastewater, air, and solid-waste engineering.

The laboratories compose modern and technically advanced instruments needed for water, wastewater and air quality, and noise level analyses. The labs have also many in-situ devices and equipments to perform different types of measurements and to take grab and composite water, wastewater, soil and air samples.  Moreover, the labs are equipped with batch and pilot scale experimental units that are designed, constructed and operated by the environmental-engineering faculty staff and engineers specialized in the field of environmental engineering.  The Environmental Engineering Research Station, adjacent to the University Wastewater Treatment Plant, is associated with these labs, and contains several pilot-scale water and wastewater treatment units supplied directly with wastewater from different stages of the treatment plants. 

Some of the most important instruments the labs have are:

·         An Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) spectrometer

·         An Atomic Absorption spectrometer

·         A Gas Chromatograph (GC)

·         UV-Vis Spectrophotometers

·         A Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analyzer

·          Turbidimeters

·         Conductivity meters

·         Light microscopes

·         CO, NOx, SOx, H2S, hydrocarbons, NH3, and ozone meters

·         Noise Level Meters

·         Composite samplers for water and wastewater, and High Volume Samplers for suspended solids in air

·         Reflux apparatuses (for COD analysis)

·         Drying ovens (103 oC), Muffle furnaces (550 oC), and Sterilizers (autoclaves)

·         Incubators [for BOD (20 oC), coliforms (35 oC), and fecal coliforms (44 oC)]