Introduction - Elements of Environmental Engineering: Thermodynamics and Kinetics - page 3

the technologies better, so that we can improve their effectiveness and reduce their
costs. These activities are within the discipline of environmental engineering.
Environmental engineering is the study of the fate, transport, and effects of
chemicals in the natural and engineered environments and includes the formulation
of options for treatment, mitigation, and prevention of pollution in both natural and
engineered systems.
It has only been in the latter half of the twentieth century that environmental engi-
neering grew to a mature field with depth and focus. Environmental engineering is
an interdisciplinary field. It involves the applications of fundamental sciences, that
is, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and biology, to waste treatment, environmental
fate and transport of chemicals, and pollution prevention. The main pillars that
support an environmental engineering curriculum are physics (statics and fluids),
chemistry(organic,inorganic,kinetics,thermodynamics,andmaterialandenergybal-
ances), mathematics (calculus and algebra), and biology (toxicology, microbiology,
and biochemistry)—see Figure 1.1. Statics, fluids, and energy and material balances
are prerequisites for several engineering disciplines (chemical, civil, petroleum, and
biological). For environmental engineering, two main pillars are from chemistry
(chemical thermodynamics and kinetics). Chemical thermodynamics is that branch of
chemistry that deals with the study of the physico-chemical properties of a compound
in the three states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas). It also describes the potential for
a compound to move between the various phases and the final equilibrium distribu-
tion in the different phases. Chemical kinetics, on the other hand, describes the rate
of movement between phases and also the rate at which a compound reacts within
a phase.

Environmental engineering practice
(Process design, chemical fate modeling, risk analysis, economics)

Water treatment, air pollution, hazardous waste
treatment, environmental fate and transport,
hydrology, geosciences, ecology, microbiology

Organic,
kinetics,
thermodynamics

Toxicology,
microbiology,
biochemistry

Statics,
fluids

Calculus

Chemistry Physics Mathematics Biology

FIGURE 1.1 Pillars of environmental engineering.