A Program To Help University Professors Teach Green Engineering Subjects In Their Courses

Abstract

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.