Green Engineering Education through a U.S. EPA/Academia Collaboration (original) (raw)
Related papers
Expanding The Frontiers In Green Engineering Education
2005 Annual Conference Proceedings
Greening" the engineering curriculum is an important consideration for sustainable engineering education from fundamentals to design in the 21 st century. This paper describes the latest advances in an educational project sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to integrate green engineering principles into the chemical engineering curriculum. This project has engaged faculty from engineering schools across the country to develop web-based instructional modules to allow for the seamless integration for green engineering principles such as risk concepts, green chemistry, mass and energy integration, life-cycle assessment into chemical engineering courses. Currently, faculty have contributed to chemical engineering core courses from material and energy balances to plant design. In addition, faculty have developed modules for multidisciplinary offerings such as freshman-level introduction to engineering and upper-level system dynamics and control. This paper will review some of the innovative modules developed and show how they can be used in the chemical engineering curriculum. This educational project's goal is to integrate green engineering concepts horizontally and vertically into the curriculum by taking existing courses and integrating topics as appropriate through examples, problems and case studies. Using green engineering principles at the start of the design process can lead to processes and products of a sustainable future. Support for this project is funded by the US
Incorporating green engineering in the chemical engineering curriculum
2003
Introducing green engineering concepts to undergraduate students is recognized as increasingly important by industry and the general populace. Implementing green engineering principles at the start of the design process can lead to substantial environmental benefits and cost savings in the pursuit of more sustainable processes and products. The most common method to introduce environmental engineering is through a senior/graduate level elective course on environmental engineering; however, green engineering concepts can be incorporated in core engineering courses.
Incorporating Green Engineering Principles into Chemical Process Design
2004
Green engineering is fast becoming a focal point throughout chemical engineering education. The value of instructing undergraduate engineering students in the application of green engineering principles to chemical process design is obvious if these principles are to migrate to industrial practice. Additionally the incorporation of these principles into the established process design curriculum allow for simultaneous learning of process design and green engineering techniques. This paper relates the course structure and methods for instructing honors undergraduate chemical engineers in the application of green engineering practice to an authentic process design problem. Students utilized the fundamental process synthesis techniques from Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes, by Douglas (1988) and the economic and environmental criteria from Green Engineering-Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes, by Allen and Shonnard (2002). The project required the students to analyze the problem, determine the path-forward, and devise a preliminary process design. The students are then expected to select an alternative based on a battery of screening matrices such as economic potential, environmental persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. The purpose of this paper is to provide a successful example of the application of green engineering principles to a traditional process design course. It is the hope of the authors that other chemical engineering departments and faculty could utilize the methods presented in any attempts to incorporate green engineering more extensively into their curriculum.
Applying Green Engineering Throughout The Curriculum
2001 Annual Conference Proceedings
Green engineering embraces the concept that decisions to protect human health and the environment can have the greatest impact-and provide the most cost savings-when applied in the design and development of a process or product, before any waste is generated. Specifically, green engineering is the design, commercialization and use of processes and products that are feasible and economical while minimizing 1) generation of pollution at the source and 2) risk to human health and the environment. This paper presents tools and methods to incorporate green engineering throughout the curriculum.
A Program To Help University Professors Teach Green Engineering Subjects In Their Courses
2002 Annual Conference Proceedings
The need to introduce green engineering concepts to undergraduate students has become recognized to be increasingly important by industry and the general populace. The most common method to introduce environmental engineering is through a senior/graduate level elective course on environmental engineering. We believe that green engineering should be taught in a range of courses within an engineering discipline. In 1998 the Environmental Protection Agency initiated a program in green engineering to develop a text book on green engineering; disseminate these materials and assist university professors in using these materials through national and regional workshops. The textbook is titled, "Green Engineering: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes," and the major authors are David Allen and David Shonnard. The textbook is designed for a senior and graduate chemical engineering course in this subject. Through a program funded by the EPA the use of this text can be incorporated throughout the curriculum. In this program we have developed teaching aides that include: MS PowerPoint presentations, lecture notes, example problems, homework problems, case studies and experiments. In this program we have tailored these tools to fit specific engineering classes such as freshmen and sophomore engineering, mass & energy balances, materials, thermodynamics and upper level chemical engineering courses. We believe that using green engineering principles at the start of the design process will lead to processes and products of a sustainable future. Main Menu Main Menu
Incorporating GREEN ENGINEERING Into a Material and Energy Balance Course
Chemical Engineering Education
ChE class and home problems The object of this column is to enhance our readers' collections of interesting and novel problems in chemical engineering. Problems of the type that can be used to motivate the student by presenting a particular principle in class, or in a new light, or that can be assigned as a novel home problem, are requested, as well as those that are more traditional in nature and that elucidate difficult concepts. Manuscripts should not exceed ten double-spaced pages if possible and should be accompanied by the originals of any figures or photographs.
Education Journal
The green engineering education plays an important role in sustainable development. Motivated by government, industry, and missions of university, the concept of green engineering has been introduced and then gradually enhanced in chemical engineering program at East China University of Science and Technology over these years. Now it becomes an essential part in the curriculum. The green engineering education has been presented in a number of ways including standalone courses, integration into the courses, and modules in experimental, design and practice. There are 5 required standalone courses and 1 elective related to the green engineering in chemical engineering program, and also a series of electives for general education on a green engineering platform at the university level. In the meanwhile, the 12 principles of green engineering have been analyzed and presented by the core courses such as transfer process, separation process, chemical reaction engineering, chemical engineering technology, and chemical engineering design in chemical engineering program. In addition, the green engineering education has been presented by some modules in different kinds of practice, which include experimental, design and practice in the field. All the specified principles have been matched with specific courses. The ability related to green engineering education has been analyzed and assessed by course assessment records and survey from alumni (or senior students), teachers and employers. Both of them indicate that the ability can meet the criteria. This curriculum can be a prototype, for those programs in the developing process of green engineering education within a global, environmental, economic, and societal context.
A program to help in designing courses to integrate green engineering subjects
International Journal …, 2004
The need to introduce green engineering concepts to undergraduate students has become recognized to be increasingly important by industry and the general populace. Green engineering can be considered as the way engineering should be done, in that it results in products and processes that have a reduced risk of harm to both the environment and to humans. The use of green engineering practices is a method to reach sustainable development. In many engineering disciplines, aspects of environmental engineering are only taught in an optional senior year course. By placing this subject at the end of their university preparation, this tends to leave an impression with students that environmental concepts are added on after the engineering work is completed. Since one of the precepts of green engineering is that it should be conducted at all levels of engineering practice and design, we believe that it should be taught at all levels. Instead of having only an optional course in environmental or green engineering, we believe that it is more appropriate to integrate green engineering concepts in a range of courses within an engineering discipline. In 1998 the US Environmental Protection Agency initiated a program in green engineering to develop a text book on green engineering, to disseminate these materials and assist university faculties in using these materials through national and regional workshops. This program has developed teaching aides that include: presentation graphics, lecture notes, example problems, homework problems, case studies and experiments. These tools have been tailored to fit specific engineering classes, such as freshmen and sophomore engineering, mass and energy balances, separations, reaction engineering, process design. Using green engineering principles at the start of the design process can lead to processes and products of a sustainable future.