About

Deborah Lynne Sills is a visiting scientist at the R.F. Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. The page does not provide specific details about her research focus, background, or key contributions.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Environmental science
• Computer Science
• Pathology
• Engineering
• Chromatography
• Process management
• Environmental resource management
• Nursing
• Chemistry
• Environmental engineering
• Psychology
• Telecommunications
• Biology
• Engineering ethics
• Environmental planning
• Geography

Selected publications

• Passive sampling to scale wastewater surveillance of infectious disease: Lessons learned from COVID-19

  UNC Libraries · 2025-04-18

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Carbon utilization efficiency in marine algae biofuel production systems through loss minimization and carbonate chemistry modification

  2025-06-30

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  Final technical report for US Department of Energy Award DE-EE0008518 "Carbon utilization efficiency in marine algae biofuel production systems through loss minimization and carbonate chemistry modification"

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hydrothermal Processing of Multilayer Plastic Film for Cascaded Valorization of Nonrecyclable Waste

  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · 2023-12-11 · 14 citations

  article

  Mixed polymer plastics cannot undergo mechanical recycling, resulting in heterogeneous low-quality recycled products. Multilayered mulch film, used in agriculture, is an example of mixed polymeric product, as it usually contains a gas barrier polymer layer, which is different in composition compared to the outer layers. Thus, multilayered mulch films are considered nonrecyclable and landfilled. Hydrothermal processing (HTP) is an alternative solution for mixed plastic waste management. HTP is used here as a combined separation and treatment of a multilayer film. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film with a 20–25 wt % barrier layer of polyamide (PA) was treated with HTP, and analyses were performed for products in all phases (solid, liquid, and gas). After HTP, the inner PA layer had decomposed, and 22 ± 3 wt % of the original film was recovered as caprolactam monomer and similar compounds in the liquid phase. The remaining solid product, 80 ± 2 wt % of the original film, mainly comprises the LDPE fraction. Evaluation of its suitability for subsequent processing with pyrolysis and mechanical recycling was also demonstrated. This work indicates that HTP can valorize landfill-designated mixed polymer plastics and should be considered as a beneficial alternative for a circular plastic economy.

  PublisherDOI

• Structured Ethical Review for Wastewater-Based Testing in Support of Public Health

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2023 · 58 citations

  • Medicine
  • Process management
  • Psychology

  = 53)). Of note, 43% of answers highlight a lack of reported information to assess. Therefore, a systematic framework would at a minimum structure the communication of ethical considerations for applications of WBT. Consistent application of an ethical review will also assist in developing a practice of updating approaches and techniques to reflect the concerns held by both those practicing and those being monitored by WBT supported programs.

  PublisherDOI

• Structured Ethical Review for Wastewater-Based Testing

  medRxiv · 2023-06-14 · 4 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Wastewater-based testing (WBT) for SARS-CoV-2 has rapidly expanded over the past three years due to its ability to provide a comprehensive measurement of disease prevalence independent of clinical testing. The development and simultaneous application of the field blurred the boundary between measuring biomarkers for research activities and for pursuit of public health goals, both areas with well-established ethical frameworks. Currently, WBT practitioners do not employ a standardized ethical review process (or associated data management safeguards), introducing the potential for adverse outcomes for WBT professionals and community members. To address this deficiency, an interdisciplinary group developed a framework for a structured ethical review of WBT. The workshop employed a consensus approach to create this framework as a set of 11-questions derived from primarily public health guidance because of the common exemption of wastewater samples to human subject research considerations. This study retrospectively applied the set of questions to peer- reviewed published reports on SARS-CoV-2 monitoring campaigns covering the emergent phase of the pandemic from March 2020 to February 2022 (n=53). Overall, 43% of the responses to the questions were unable to be assessed because of lack of reported information. It is therefore hypothesized that a systematic framework would at a minimum improve the communication of key ethical considerations for the application of WBT. Consistent application of a standardized ethical review will also assist in developing an engaged practice of critically applying and updating approaches and techniques to reflect the concerns held by both those practicing and being monitored by WBT supported campaigns. Synopsis: Development of a structured ethical review facilitates retrospective analysis of published studies and drafted scenarios in the context of wastewater-based testing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Passive sampling to scale wastewater surveillance of infectious disease: Lessons learned from COVID-19

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2022 · 98 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Environmental science
  • Computer Science

  = 0.76). Among passive sampler materials, electronegative membranes have shown great promise with linear uptake of SARS-CoV-2 RNA observed for exposure durations of 24 to 48 h and in several cases RNA positivity on par with composite samples. Continuing development of passive sampling methods for the surveillance of infectious diseases via diverse forms of fecal waste should focus on optimizing sampler materials for the efficient uptake and recovery of biological analytes, kit-free extraction, and resource-efficient testing methods capable of rapidly producing qualitative or quantitative data. With such refinements passive sampling could prove to be a fundamental tool for scaling wastewater surveillance of infectious disease, especially among the 1.8 billion persons living in low-resource settings served by non-traditional wastewater collection infrastructure.

  PublisherDOI

• Coupling a rotating biological contactor with an anaerobic baffled reactor for sustainable energy recovery from domestic wastewater

  Environmental Science Water Research & Technology · 2022-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  A rotating biological contactor oxidized dissolved methane in effluent from an anaerobic baffled reactor, reducing life cycle environmental impacts on climate change.

  PublisherDOI

• Teaching sustainability: does style matter?

  International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education · 2022-05-28 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  Purpose: This paper aims to analyze how a tangram activity improved students' abilities to explain sustainability, articulate a positive perception of sustainable design and relate sustainability with innovation in engineering design. Design/methodology/approach: The concept of paradigm shift was introduced in the classroom by using a tangram activity to help students understand that sustainable design requires out-of-the-box thinking. Instructors from three institutions teaching various levels of sustainability courses to engineering majors used the activity to introduce sustainable design, then measured the understanding and appreciation of the concepts introduced through the tangram activity with pre- and post-activity surveys. Findings: Findings from the study indicate that students' perceptions of sustainability significantly improved due to the activity, without regard to the institution. The activity also significantly improved students understanding of the connection between sustainability and innovation, across all three institutions, across all majors and across all years of study except second-year students. Improving engineering students' views on sustainability may lead, over time, to changes in the industry, in which environmental performance is incorporated into the engineering design process. Originality/value: Active learning approaches are needed for affective-domain learning objectives in the sustainability field for students to learn the necessary attitudes, values and motivations to implement sustainability in engineering design. Simple, easily implemented active learning techniques, such as the tangram activity presented here, can be implemented across the curriculum or to the public to introduce the paradigm shift necessary with sustainable design.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Techno-economic Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of an Integrated Wastewater-Derived Duckweed Biorefinery

  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · 2021-07-07 · 60 citations

  article

  Duckweeds are efficient aquatic plants for wastewater treatment due to their high nutrient uptake capabilities, growth rates, and resilience to severe environmental conditions. The high starch and cellulose contents of duckweed species make them an attractive feedstock for biofuels and biochemicals. Experimental studies have shown that sequential anaerobic bioprocessing of duckweed into ethanol, carboxylates, methane, and soil amendment in a biorefinery system is technically feasible. This study aims to identify challenges and opportunities for large-scale wastewater-derived duckweed biorefineries as a way to promote a circular bioeconomy. The most suitable end products from wastewater-derived duckweed biomass, determined in a series of previously reported laboratory batch experiments, were used to estimate the bioproduct yields during the hypothetical operation of a large-scale biorefinery. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) revealed a minimum duckweed selling price of $7.69 Mg–1 dry matter and a minimum ethanol selling price of $2.17/L or $8.23 gal–1. Duckweed pond construction and duckweed harvesting accounted for the largest share of capital (55.6%) and operating expenses (90.4%), respectively. A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) revealed that duckweed pond construction led to increased land use change impacts, but water-quality and eutrophication impacts could be significantly reduced with this integrated system through efficient nutrient upcycling.

  PublisherDOI

• Work in Progress: Global Engineering Perspectives Scholars Program

  2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings · 2020-09-08

  articleOpen access

  Beal's teaching interests include system dynamics and control, mechanical design, mechatronics and robotics, and first year introductory engineering. His research is focused on the application of control systems to vehicle dynamics to improve safety, stability, and performance of vehicles on roads with uncertain friction conditions

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Mark Huntley

  Luxel (United States)

  22 shared

• Amal Kabalan

  Bucknell University

  16 shared

• Margot Vigeant

  16 shared

• L. Felipe Perrone

  Memorial

  16 shared

• Donna M. Ebenstein

  Bucknell University

  16 shared

• Colin M. Beal

  Servy Institute for Reproductive Endocrinology

  14 shared

• Jefferson W. Tester

  Cornell University

  13 shared

• Léda Gerber

  University of Hawaii at Hilo

  12 shared

Labs

• Duffield EngineeringPI

Education

• PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Cornell University

  2011

• M.S., Civil and Environmental Engienering

  Cornell University

  2005

• B.S., Civil Engineering

  Montana State University Bozeman

  2001

Awards & honors

• SPROUT Awards
• EPICC Awards
• Distinguished Alumni Award