A course in environmentally conscious chemical process engineering

To uniquely equip students with the active knowledge and the ability to implement pollution prevention technology, we have developed a design-oriented, senior-level elective course on minimizing the environmental impact of chemical manufacturing processes. The objectives of the course are to educate students on the real costs of operating processes that release pollutants to the environment, to provide them with strategies to minimize or reduce the environmental impact of a given chemical process, and to examine the design of processes using new technologies that totally eliminate pollutants at the source. Design-oriented projects form the core of the course, and bring together the students ’ skills in design, analysis and decision-making in the face of multiple and sometimes competing objectives. We believe this course contributes to the development of our graduates into chemical engineering professionals who are equipped with the awareness, knowledge, and ability to minimize the environmental impact of the chemical manufacturing processes that they oversee. According to Anastas (1994) the chemical industry is the major source of toxic pollutan