Course:
Introduction to Green Engineering & Sustainable Development
TARGET AUDIENCE: Second to fourth year students.
Instructor
Course summary
The chemical industry provides a wide variety of materials and products used as intermediaries in other processes or as consumer end-products. However, these same industries are responsible for the generation of significant amounts of waste and polluting emissions. The disposal of these waste products, or even the remediation of the environment once polluted, costs billions and billions of dollars every year. These environment-related costs continue to escalate as environmental regulations become more stringent.
Green engineering is the design, commercialization, and use of processes and products that are feasible and economical, while minimizing generation of pollution at the source and risk to the environment and human health.
The environmental impact of chemical processing must also be considered beyond the chemical plant by taking into consideration the entire life-cycle of the product: transportation, use by customers, recycling, and ultimate disposal.