OUTLINE OF 12-712   Fall 2004

Updated August 23, 2004

Cliff Davidson

Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy, 412-268-2951, cliff@cmu.edu

12-712 Introduction to Sustainability Engineering, First Mini, Fall Semester, 6 units

 

Catalog description:

 

Society has generally assumed that the earth’s resources are limitless and wastes can be disposed of without serious consequences, but the validity of these assumptions is now being challenged.  This course begins with a background of the concept of sustainability engineering, including changing attitudes and values toward technology and the environment through the twentieth century.  The concept of a system is explored with reference to the earth's life support systems. The potential damage of conventional engineering decisions on the earth's life support systems is discussed. Tools for sustainability engineering are then presented and used in example problems. These tools include metrics of sustainability, principles of design for the environment, methods for pollution prevention, substitution of materials, and use of mass and energy balances in the design of sustainable systems.  The concept of industrial ecology is also explored, where the flows of mass and energy through industrial systems are examined. Finally, examples of engineering decisions under the old paradigm of limitless resources and under the new paradigm of a finite earth are compared.  Prerequisite: senior standing in engineering or permission of the instructor

 

Requirements:

 

6-7 problem sets (one each week)

One written project report

Final examination

 

Topics covered in each lecture:

 

  1. INTRODUCTION: The concept of Environmental Sustainability
    1. Background to the Emerging Discipline
    2. Principles of Sustainability

 

  1. UNIT 1: Philosophical Debates
    1. Historical perspectives: Industrial Revolution in Europe, “Conquering the Wilderness” in the United States 1600’s-1800’s
    2. Modern debates: (1) Sustainability extremists, (2) Environmentalists, (3) Traditional engineers, and (4) Anti-sustainability extremists
    3. “Tragedy of the Commons” and the ethics of sustainability

 

  1. UNIT 2: Environment and Economic Development: Political and Business Perspectives
    1. Club of Rome: Limits to Growth, 1972, model of population, industrial output, food production, resources, and pollutants
    2. World Commission on Environment and Development, a.k.a. Bruntland Commission: Our Common Future, 1987, balancing economic growth and environmental preservation
    3. Business Council on Sustainable Development: Changing Course, 1992, business strategies for sustainability

 

  1. UNIT 2: Environment and Economic Development: UN Conferences
    1. First two UN Conferences on Environment and Development (UNCED): Stockholm, 1972; Rio de Janeiro, 1992
    2. Third UNCED: Johannesburg, 2002

 

  1. UNIT 3: Population Growth on a Finite Earth: Food Production
    1. Global Population Models: Thomas Malthus and exponential growth, logistic equation, birth and death rates
    2. Global Food Production: arable land, arable land per capita, organic farming and sustainable agriculture

 

  1. UNIT 3: Population Growth on a Finite Earth: Non-renewable Material Resources and Non-renewable Energy
    1. Time to depletion for three different use rate curves: static, exponential growth, and logistic growth
    2. Fossil fuels and Hubbert curves

 

  1. UNIT 4: The Earth’s Life Support Systems: Ecosystems
    1. Components of ecosystems and principles of ecology
    2. Measures of biodiversity, examples of resilience

 

  1. UNIT 4: The Earth’s Life Support Systems: Energy and mass flow
    1. Energy flow through the ecosystem: photosynthesis and its chemical reactions (CO2-to-glucose), energy transfer by ADP-to-ATP, proteins, entropy and exergy
    2. Mass flow through the ecosystem: the carbon cycle, carbon chemistry, nutrients in soil flowing through the food chain, role of decomposers

 

  1. UNIT 4: The Earth’s Life Support Systems: Production in Ecosystems
    1. Gross Primary Production, Net Primary Production
    2. Production and embodied energy in corn, wild grass, freshwater plants, herbivores, carnivores
    3. Biological mutualism

 

  1. UNIT 5: Industrial Ecology (IE): Introduction
    1. Industrial metabolism, biomimicry, analogies between biological and industrial systems
    2. Definitions and principles of Industrial Ecology
    3. The beginnings of “green” movements: Cleaner Production, Responsible Care, TQEM, Triple Bottom Line

 

  1. UNIT 5: Industrial Ecology: Principles of Green Design
    1. The design process, after Cagan and Vogel
    2. Metrics of sustainability
    3. Design for Environment as a subset of Design for X, where X = economy, durability, safety, etc.

 

  1. UNIT 5: Industrial Ecology: Symbiosis
    1. Relationships among industries
    2. Flow of energy: (1) through a power plant , (2) through a waste-to-energy plant
    3. Flow of mass: computer disposal, reuse, recycling using deterministic queueing

 

  1. UNIT 5: Industrial Ecology: Examples of Green Design – Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy
    1. Wind and solar power
    2. Alternative fuels: ethanol from switchgrass and sugarcane

 

  1. UNIT 5: Industrial Ecology: Examples of Green Design – Materials Reuse, Recovery, and Recycling
    1. Design of automobiles, computers, packaging materials
    2. Optimizing industrial processes for waste minimization

 

  1. COURSE SUMMARY