Aquatic and Organic Chemistry for Environmental Engineering

Description

Engineers use the principles of biology and chemistry to develop solutions to environmental challenges, including waste water, air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal, and public health issues. This course begins with a review of the key chemistry concepts needed to understand environmental interactions and then dives into some of the more complex properties, processes, and reactions that occur in the environment. Students will learn strategies for modeling and quantitative analysis to solve complex environmental issues. This course is an upper-level undergraduate course designed to satisfy the aquatic and organic chemistry pre-requisite for the Stanford MS program in environmental engineering.

Please note this course is cross-listed with CEE170

Recommended for CEE MS Programs: Environmental Engineering (ENV)

What you will learn

Which principles of organic chemistry are relevant to environmental engineering
Ways to predict the behavior of organic compounds in air, water, and soil
Applications of chemical reactions including acid rain, metals in wastewater, sediment, and limestone scaling

Prerequisites

College-level general chemistry class. Only a fraction of general chemistry is useful for environmental engineering.

Topics include

Chemical kinetics and equilibrium
Mass balance modeling
Acid-base speciation
Buffering and alkalinity in natural waters
Metal speciation
Precipitation reactions
Oxidation-reduction reactions
Hydrolysis and biomolecules