The Role Of Green Chemistry In An Industrial Ecology Course

The National Academy of Engineering released the Grand Challenges facing engineering in the next century. Environmental sustainability is related to at least 5 of the fourteen challenges. To address these challenges, a multi disciplinary team of six faculty members from engineering, business, and chemistry developed a course entitled, “Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacturing”. In this course there are six distinct modules agreed upon as necessary to meet the environmental challenge of re-designing common products sustainably. The course is based upon the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (PAS) pedagogy which emphasizes active learning through “hands-on activities”. The original six modules include (1) Historical Social and Ethical Perspectives, (2) Life Cycle Analysis, (3) Material Selection, (4) Process Design, (5) End of Life Options, and (6) Environmentally Responsible Management. In addition to these original modules Green Chemistry was added as a seventh module to add an important lab component to the course. Each module was designed to become a stand alone module able to be disseminated and used in any course. In the Green Chemistry module students synthesized biodiesel and analyzed the products through chemical analysis and using it as fuel in a jet engine. The 12 principles of Green Chemistry were presented as foundational knowledge for comparing the life cycle of petroleum-based diesel to vegetable-based biodiesel. Students’ learning was assessed quantitatively for each module along with qualitative comments using the Strengths, Improvements, and Insights (SII) format. From feedback gathered in the first course offering, the Green Chemistry module was enhanced to include the use of the student-made biodiesel in a laboratory jet engine housed in the Mechanical Engineering Department. In addition to the student assessment, the role of Green Chemistry in this course was assessed by an outside advisory team composed of engineers from industry and other educational institutions.