ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

APPLICATIONS:

Solid & Hazardous Wastes

Topics covered:• Solid waste - amounts generated, disposal

options, status of recycling;• Hazardous wastes • types of wastes• environmental media • treatment options• site remediation - Gierke• Pollution prevention - Crittenden

Waste generation:U.S. 4.3 lb per person per day municipalplus 6 lb/person-day industrial = 1.9 ton/person-year

664 million tons/year = 0.12 mi3

= 21,560 blocks the size of CSE Bldg= 0.05 mm/yr across U.S. or 3.8 mm/generation

Why is this a problem?

Space (tipping fees in U.S.: $20-$200/tonLoss of resources

Groundwater contamination

U.S. Municipal Waste

Yard trimmings14%

Plastics9%

Other10%

Metals8%

Wood7%

Glass6%

Food7%

Papercardboard

39%

Industrial Solid Waste Generators

Chemical Industry

22%

Ferrous metals4%

Electric Power21%

Plastics & resins

2%

Pulp & paper6%

Food30%

Other5%

Clay, glass, concrete

6%

Nonferrous metals

4%

U.S. Solid Waste Disposal

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Year

Ref

use

Am

ou

nt

(100

0 to

ns) Composting

Recycling

Incineration

Landfill

Paper39%

Other49%

Glass 1%

Wood Pallet5% Plastics

0.5%

Tin & Aluminum 0.5%

Cardboard 5%

Glass

Paper

Tin & Aluminum

Cardboard

Plastics

Wood Pallet

Other

MTU WASTE COMPOSITION

ESE Building Waste CompositionNewsprint

2%

Office Paper32%

Glossy Paper9%

Glass0%

Other (low grade paper, mixed paper

& plastic)38%

Metal0%

Cardboard9%Styrofoam

1%

Other plastic2%

Food7%

Environmental Engineers’ Role:

• Minimize personal waste;• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle;• Pollution Prevention - prevent refuse

generation;• Design recycling systems;• Design waste-to-energy systems;• Design, manage landfills, municipal disposal

systems;

http://www.epa.gov/tri/

http://www.scorecard.org/

Toxic and hazardous substancesWhat are they?

~650 individual chemicals and classes of chemicals

Radionuclides, persistent organic pollutants, endocrinedisruptors, biocides, metals, acids, ...

Where are they?In all environmental media (air, soil, surface & ground water)

Where can you locate information on these substances?

EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory -

Where do they come from?

Where are they discharged?

Are they near me?

What do environmental engineers do about toxic & hazardous

substances?1. Design methods for clean-up and remediation;

John Gierke - Air sparging for treatment of contaminatedgroundwater;

Alex Mayer - Modeling of pump-and-treat remediationof contaminated groundwater;

John Crittenden, Dave Hand - design of photocatalyststo destroy groundwater contaminants;

What do environmental engineers do about toxic & hazardous

substances?

2. Study their fate and effects in the environment;

Judith Perlinger - study rates of natural attenuationof toxic compounds in groundwater;

Jim Mihelcic - study rates of biological transformation(breakdown) of toxic contaminants;

Visualization with Computational Chemistry

Chloroform

Perchloroethene

Bromoform

1,1,1-trichlorotrifluoroethane

LFER for Iron Porphyrin System

log(k, pred) = - 0.0777 (±0.0105) DR-X - 0.00804 (±0.00961) Go’ + 21.7 (±2.82)

Where will you learn about toxic & hazardous substances at MTU?

GE3850 GeohydrologyCE4501 Environmental ChemistryCE4506 Applications of Environmental RegulationsCE4505 Surface Water Quality EngineeringCE5503 Physical-chemical Treatment ProcessesCE5507 Biological Remediation ProcessesCE5509 Environmental Organic Chemistry