Catherine Peters
- Environmental and Water Resources Engineering
Environmental chemistry and environmental risk assessment; reactions kinetics; reaction rates for a variety of environmental systems; geochemical reactions important for storage of CO2 in deep saline aquifers; time-scales operative for CO2 storage; contamination of water and soils with organic pollutants; non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Personal Webpage: http://www.princeton.edu/~cap/
Education
Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University, 1992
Research Interests
Dr. Peters works in the areas of environmental chemistry and environmental risk assessment. She is particularly interested in reaction kinetics, and her work typically combines laboratory experimentation with mathematical modeling to infer reaction rates for a variety of environmental systems. She and her research group are currently studying the geochemical reactions that are important for geologic sequestration of CO2 in deep saline aquifers. She is particularly interested in the kinetics of these reactions and determining which reactions are likely to be important on the time-scales operative for CO2 storage. She has also addressed research problems involving contamination of water and soils with organic pollutants, particularly non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. She is a member of the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board and past President of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors.
Courses
EGR250/350/450 EPICS: Engineering Projects in Community Services
CEE303 Introduction to Environmental Engineering
CEE599 Special Topics in EEWR: Carbon Capture and Geologic Sequestration
Updated: May 5, 2009
Recent Publications
1. Peters, C. A. 2009. "Accessibilities of reactive minerals in consolidated sedimentary rock: An imaging study of three sandstones." Chemical Geology, doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2008.11.014.
2. Ray, S. and C. A. Peters. 2008. "Changes in Microbiological Metabolism under Chemical Stress." Chemosphere 71(3):474-483. doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere. 2007.10.026.
3. Li, L., C. A. Peters, M. A. Celia. 2007. "Applicability of Averaged Concentrations in Determining Geochemical Reaction Rates in Heterogeneous Porous Media." American Journal of Science 307(10): 1146-1166. DOI 10.2475/10.2007.02.
4. Knightes, C. D. and C. A. Peters. 2006. "Multisubstrate Biodegradation Kinetics for Binary and Complex Mixtures of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons." Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 25(7): 1746-1756.
5. Giammar, D. E., R. G. Bruant, Jr., and C. A. Peters. 2005. "Forsterite Dissolution and Magnesite Precipitation at Conditions Relevant for Deep Saline Aquifer Storage and Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide." Chemical Geology, 217(3-4):257-276.

