Physico/Chemical Processes of Environmental Engineering

This course is a part of Water and Wastewater Treatment, a 3-course MicroMasters series from edX.

Physico/chemical processes are central to many Environmental Engineering applications, but also are broadly applied in other engineering disciplines. This course is designed to present fundamental principles of physico/chemical processes that are commonly used in Environmental Engineering (and other disciplines). The course is divided into three modules. Module I addresses transport phenomena and reactor theory. The tools presented in Module I are central to the descriptions of processes that are presented in the remainder of the class. Module II addresses physical separation processes ( i.e. , processes for separation of particles from fluids). Module 3 addresses processes that are used to bring about non-microbially-mediated) transformations. The processes that are described are particularly relevant to water treatment, and many examples presented in the class are from the water treatment domain. But opportunities to apply these principles in other settings are also pursued in this class. Specifically, principles taught in this class are relevant to air pollution dynamics and control, flow through porous media, and transformations of non-aqueous media (food products, air, surfaces).

What you'll learn

• Fundamental transport phenomena (advection, diffusion, dispersion)
• Dynamics of interphase transport processes
• Reaction kinetics
• Fundamental reactor models
• Residence time distribution functions
• Reactor simulation methods
• Gravity-based separations
• Centrifugation
• Physics, chemistry, and process behavior of coagulation/flocculation
• Filtration theory and behavior
• Adsorption equilibria and dynamics
• Ion exchange equilibria and dynamics
• Physical chemistry of halogens
• Chemical disinfection kinetics
• Process behavior of disinfection systems
• Principles of photochemistry and photochemical reactors
• UV disinfection kinetics
• Gas: liquid equilibria
• Gas: liquid transfer dynamics