ENSC 4450 - p. 1
EXAMPLE SYLLABUS (BOOK USED AS PRIMARY TEXT)
HAZARDOUS W ASTE ENGINEERING
OR
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY (CHANGES SHOWN IN PARENTHESES)
Instructors:
Location:
Phone/Fax:
Lecture Time:
Course Description and Credit Hours:
Hazardous waste engineering is an increasingly important discipline of environmental
engineering. (Environmental Chemistry is the science of chemical phenomena in the
environment.) An understanding of hazardous wastes (environmental contaminants) must
include the study of the sources, reactions, transport, and fate of chemicals in environmental
media. The goal of this course is to provide an understanding of the forms of chemicals
released into the environment, how they move through the environment in space and time, how
they change while being transported, and how the compounds and their degradation products
may affect humans and ecosystems that are exposed. Emphasis will be placed on quantifying
the composition of and reactions of chemicals in environmental media. The course addresses
the environmental risks of chemicals, including “real world” case studies of toxic substances,
pesticides, and hazardous wastes. By considering each of the chemical mechanisms and
processes, information can be entered into mathematical models to evaluate and to predict the
fate of chemicals in the environment. This is a three credit hour course.
The course will be taught at the senior level. Knowledge of general and organic chemistry is
required, although students will be introduced to some of the more important risk-related
aspects of the physical sciences at the outset. Students must also be able to apply scientific
knowledge of inorganic and organic compounds as well as equilibrium, kinetics and
thermodynamics.
Required Text:
The required textbook is D.A. Vallero, Engineering the Risks of Hazardous Wastes, ButterworthHeinemann, Boston, 2002. Copies of additional reference materials will be placed on reserve in
the library. There will also be guest lectureships by experts on various topics in environmental
chemistry. Required reading materials for these guest lectures will also be placed on reserve.
Common Themes:
Common themes for the course are: 1) chemical reactions in environmental media, 2)
environmental fate and transport; and 3) qualitative and quantitative measurement and
modeling of chemicals and their intermediates.
Course Competencies and Objectives/Course Outcomes:
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At the end of the course, the student will demonstrate: a) an understanding of processes which
determine the distribution of chemicals in the environment; b) the ability to deduce the
chemical’s physical properties and reactivity on the basis of the chemical structure;
c) an understanding of techniques and methods to measure chemicals and chemical processes
in environmental media; and d) an understanding of mathematical models to characterize and
evaluate the fate of chemicals in the environment.
Topical Outline:
Date
Topic
PART 1: Concepts in Environmental Chemistry
January 7
January 9
January 14, 16,
21, 23
January 28, 30
Why study environmental chemistry?
Scope of the challenge
History
Terminology
Case Study: Love Canal, New York
Paradigms of science
Kuhn, et al.
Ways of knowing
Basic chemical concepts of environmental science
Examples of industrially produced chemicals
Chemical structures and reactivity
Organic compounds
Aromatic and aliphatic
Substitution
Halogenation
Metals and inorganic compounds
Importance of oxidation states
Ionization
Chemical processes in the environment
Classification of environmental chemicals
Organic acids and bases
Functional groups
Thermodynamics
Chemical potential
Fugacity
Thermodynamics
Phase transfer
Chemical reactions
Physicochemical processes of transport and fate
Vapor pressure
Solubility and activity coefficient in water
Temperature effects
Air-water partitioning: Henry’s Law
Diffusion
Review of Part 1 Material
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Readings
Foreword,
Preface, 1-22
Appendix 1
Handout 1
63-102
Handout 2
Appendix 5
Handout 3
103-115
Handout 4
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February 4
EXAM 1
PART 2: Chemical Transformation and Fate
February 6
February 11,13
February 18
February 20
February 25
February 27
Introduction to environmental risk assessment
Handout 5
Human health risk
Ecological risk assessment
Statistics of environmental risk
Handout 6
Data
Probability
Randomness
Distributions
Variability
Confidence intervals
Hypothesis testing
Populations
Experimental design
Regression
Uncertainty and error
Population versus individual risk
Introduction to fate, transformation, and transport
63-115
Physicochemical properties of chemicals
Environmental conditions
Case Study: Mixed Inorganic and Organic
Hazardous Wastes: The Double Eagle Refinery,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Introduction to biogeochemistry
Handout 7
Global fluxes
Global mass balances
Radiant gases
Sinks and sources
Persistence and bioaccumulation
Chemical persistence
Environmental persistence
Uptake mechanisms
Bioconcentration versus biomagnification
Pesticide structures and chemistry
Handouts 8 and 9
Organochlorines
Case Study: Rachel Carson and Theo Colburn,
from cancer to endocrine disruption
Carbamates
Organophosphates
Pyrethroids
Case Study: DDT in North America
Physical transport mechanisms
103-115
Compartmental modeling
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March 4
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Case Study in Predicting Transport:
Use “Rules of Thumb” with Caution
Degradation mechanisms in the environment
92-102
Abiotic hydrolysis in solution
Surface-mediated hydrolysis
Photolysis
Case Study: Hexachlorocyclohexanes
Microbially-Mediated Hydrolysis
Case Study: Dicarboximide fungicide degradation
Physical Transport Mechanisms
Review of Part 2 Material
PART 3: Risks, Remediation, and Other Engineering Considerations
(Environmental Chemistry Applications)
March 6
EXAM 2
March 18
Introduction to soil chemistry and physics
Ion exchange processes
Soil characteristics and taxonomy
Porosity and permeability
Potentials
Introduction to hydrogeology and hydrologic modeling
Case study: Duke Forest Gate 11 Site
Applying transport models to remediation
Introduction to atmospheric chemistry
Gases and particles
March 20
March 25
March 27
April 1
Phase distribution and partitioning
Case study: Chemistry of polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their derivatives
Introduction to atmospheric chemistry modeling
Deterministic versus stochastic
Lagrangian versus eularian
Forward versus inverse
Calculation of chemical toxicity with applications
to risk assessment
Chemistry of Type 1 and Type 2 metabolism
Lethal dose, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity,
teratogenicity, endocrine disruption,
neurotoxicity, reproductive and
developmental effects
Toxicity Testing
Thresholds
Comparison Values
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Handout 10
103-120
Handout 11
Bob Seila and Ron
Williams are guest
lecturers on March 26
115-121
Handout 12
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ENSC 4450 - p. 5
April 3
April 8
April 10, 15
Reference Dose
Minimal Risk Levels
The Hazard Index
The Cancer Slope Factor
Cancer Classifications
Assessing exposures to chemicals
Pharmacokinetics
Principles
Modeling
Exposure routes
Inhalation
Ingestion
Dermal
Environmental media and exposure pathways
Air
Water
Soil
Biota
Exposure equations (Derelenko and U.S. EPA)
Case Study: Time Is Of the Essence!
Pollution prevention and cleanup
Intervention at the source
Intervention at the point of release
Intervention during transport
Intervention at the receptor
Intervention to control the dose
Environmental engineering to control risks
Thermal Processing
Rotary kiln
Multiple hearth
Liquid injection
Fluidized bed
Multiple chamber
Microbiological processing
Trickling filter
Case Study: Metal detoxification by microbes
Activated sludge
Aeration ponds
Case Study: PCB cleanup
Chemical waste Storage Landfills
Siting
Design
Operation
Post Closure Management
Case Study in Environmental Monitoring of
Chemical and Radioactive Contaminants
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23-61
Handout 12
121-127
127-151
Handout 13 and CD
April 17, 22
April 24
April 26
Environmental monitoring and analysis
Measuring contamination
Chemoluninescence
Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization (FISH )
Extraction techniques
Spectroscopy
Beers-Lambert Law
Separation science
Detection approaches
Quantitation
Revisiting environmental statistics
Environmental chemistry: The human enterprise
Risk perception
Values and ethics
Environmental justice
Review of Part 3 Material
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151-158, 45-50
Handout 14
191-224
EXAM 3
Course Requirements and Expectations:
1) Each student is expected to complete each examination at the scheduled time. However, in
the cases of illness, emergencies, etc., with an appropriate excuse, a student may be allowed to
reschedule one of the first two exams. Excuses must be given before rather than after an
exam. There will be NO re-exams. No exams grades will be dropped.
2) Field visits to a Durham neighborhood being studied by NCCU researchers, and laboratories
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or other institutions in the Triangle will introduce
students to the latest research in environmental chemistry. Students are expected to participate
in these activities; advance notice of the trip will be provided.
3) The instructor reserves the right to give quizzes (announced and unannounced) and takehome assignments, to evaluate student progress.
4) The University policy regarding class absences will be followed.
Course Assignments:
Problem sets will be assigned to assist the students with preparing for the examinations. The
assignments must be turned in on the date established when the assignment is given.
There is also a possibility of guest lectureships by experts on various topics in environmental
chemistry. Required reading associated with these lectures must be completed before class.
Course Evaluations:
There will be three exams, each worth 100 points and each graded on the 10 point scale. That
is to say: 91-100 will be an A, 81-90 will be a B, etc. Two exams will be in-class exams; one will
be a take home exam. The third exam will serve as the final exam for the course; it will not be
cumulative. Each exam will be equally weighted. There will be NO re-exams. No exam grades
will be dropped.
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Homework, quizzes, and other assignments will also be part of the student’s final grade. These
assignments must be completed by the date and time assigned by the instructor. The total
percentage of the student’s grade for the assignments will range between 10 and 20 per cent of
the student’s final grade.
Grading Scale:
A = 91 -100
B = 81 - 90
C = 71 - 80
D = 61 - 70
F = 69 or below
References in Addition to Assigned Text:
R.P. Schwartzenbach, P.M. Gschwend, and D.M. Imboden, Environmental Organic Chemistry,
John Wiley and Sons, NY, 1993.
M.J. Derelanko and M.A. Hollinger (eds), CRC Handbook of Toxicology, CRC Press, Boca
Raton, FL, 1995.
E. A. McBean and F.A. Rovers, Statistical Procedures for Analysis of Environmental Monitoring
Data and Risk Assessment, Prentice Hall, Saddle River, NJ, 1998.
Articles from the journals: Environmental Science and Technology (American Chemical
Society); Journal of Environmental Engineering (American Society of Civil Engineers);
Environmental Health Perspectives (National Institutes of Health); Journal of Air and Waste
Management (Air and Waste Management Association); and Hydrological Science and
Technology (American Institute of Hydrology).
Methods and other analytical references from the U.S. EPA, CDCP, FDA, OSHA, FEMA, DOE,
and DOD.
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