CEE 502: Environmental Organic Chemistry

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CEE 502 - Environmental Organic Chemistry

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Catalog Description

502 Environmental Organic Chemistry. II; 3cr. Environmental behavior of anthropogenic organic compounds. Physical-chemical properties and compound specific reativities. Environmental processes controlling transport and fate; air-water exchange, sorption, chemical and photochemical reactions and transformations. Environmental fate modeling. For graduate students in environmental science and engineering. P:Civ Engr 500, Chem 343 or equiv, or cons inst. Armstrong, Andren.

Course Prerequisite(s)

See catalog description above.

Prerequisite knowledge and/or skills

Principles of aquatic chemistry, including applications of chemical equilibria and kinetics to modeling the chemical composition of aquatic systems.
Introductory organic chemistry or biochemistry.

Textbook(s) and/or other required material

Environmental Organic Chemistry by Schwarzenbach, Gschwend, and Imboden.

Course objectives

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the processes controlling the transport and fate of organic chemicals in the environment, especially partitioning among phases (water, air, solids, biota) and reactions of organic chemicals. Students should be able to model phase partitioning of organic chemicals from basic chemical-physical properties.

Topics covered

Introduction to environmental organic chemicals.
Background thermodynamics, emphasizing phase equilibria and the use of chemical fugacity in modeling phase equilibria.
Vapor pressure of organic chemicals.
Aqueous solubility of organic chemicals and activity coefficients in water.
Air-water partitioning.
Organic solvent-water partitioning; The octanol-water partition coefficient.
Organic acids and bases and their partitioning behavior.
Air-water exchange of organic chemicals.
Sorption of organic chemicals to solids.
Chemical transformation reactions.
Photochemical transformation reactions.
Biological transformation reactions.
Modeling concepts.

Class/laboratory schedule

The class consists of three lectures (50 minutes each) per week. Problem sets illustrate use of concepts and principles covered in lectures. Students develop team projects which are presented orally and in a written report.

Contribution of course to meeting the professional component

This course contributes primarily to the students' knowledge of college-level mathematics and/or basic sciences, but does not provide experimental experience.

The following statement indicates which of the following considerations are included in this course: economic, environmental, ethical, political, societal, health and safety, manufacturability, sustainability.

Consideration of environmental systems is emphasized. The focus is on freshwater systems, especially lakes, streams, and groundwaters and their interactions with the atmosphere.

Relationship of course to undergraduate degree program objectives and outcomes

This course serves students in a variety of engineering majors. The information below describes how the course contributes to the college's educational objectives.

Students are provided comprehensive training in the fundamentals of civil and environmental engineering, specifically in the area of environmental chemistry. Students should be able to select the appropriate solution method for a defined problem, obtain and verify that the solution satisfies all conditions, and determine the response of the system from the solution and state the limits of the solution. Students should have the ability to apply knowledge of mathematics and natural science (physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science) to civil and environmental engineering problems.

Assessment of student progress toward course objectives

Progress toward meeting course objectives is measured through exams, team project reports, and homework problems.
Exams, homework problems, and project reports also provide information on whether students have attained the expected problem solving abilities.

Person(s) who prepared this description

David E. Armstrong

Copyright 2007 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Date last modified: 02-Aug-2007
Content by: cee@engr.wisc.edu
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