Energy and Environmental Analysis
Fall 2009. Tuesday and Thursday, 3:00-4:30. IC 209.
Instructor
Valerie Thomas
Anderson Interface Associate Professor of Natural Systems
Prerequisites: Physics 2211, 2212
Purpose: This course will
provide undergraduate ISyE students with the quantitative engineering
and scientific foundations to describe, evaluate, design, modify,
control and improve the performance of systems that have significant
energy, environmental and human impact, viewed over time and within
their relative context.
Environmental issues are one of the major challenges facing the
engineering profession now and in the future (NAE 2004). The goal for
this course is to become a model for preparing industrial engineers to
meet the energy and environmental challenges of the 21st century.
Content: The course will focus
on environmental, energy and sustainability issues related to the use
and generation of energy. Part 1 will focus on energy and environmental
fundamentals. Part 2 will focus on analysis methods.
Part 1:
Energy: Quantitative
understanding of energy is fundamental to a addressing a wide range of
environmental, society, policy, and energy problems.
Content will include energy calculations for mass, fuel energy value,
electricity generation, energy efficiency, and applying energy
knowledge to calculate energy resources and constraints.
Water: Water can be a
significant constraint on agriculture, on siting of power plants,
industrial facilities, and human habitation, and can be one of the main
environmental constraints on industrial systems.
Content will include water mass balances, energy needed for power
plants, households, and industry, and water limitations in the US,
world regions, and Georgia.
Air Pollution: Air pollution,
especially from particulates, sulfur, nitrogen oxides, tropospheric
ozone, and carbon monoxide, has significant human health impacts which
are well quantified in terms of both human health endpoints and
economic costs. Air pollution can be a significant impact of industrial
and urban systems, and measures to reduce air pollution provide a basis
for system redesign. Calculations will include the cost impact of air
pollutant emissions.
Greenhouse gas emissions are
the leading global environmental challenge.
Content will include GHG accounting – greenhouse gases, global warming
potential calculations, and greenhouse gas emission inventories.
Part 2:
Cost and Benefits of Environmental
and Energy Impacts and Improvements. Cost of Energy –
calculations of cost of different kinds of power plants, cost and
savings of energy efficiency technologies. Cost benefit analysis of air
pollution reduction. Supply curves for global greenhouse gas reduction
measures.
Resource constraints and availability
– physical limits calculations – resources of fossil fuels, water,
solar energy, biomass potential, food production, calculations with
food yield, Human population dynamics: calculations with population,
technology, consumption and emissions.
Material flow accounting and
industrial ecology – global and national materials use, waste as
raw materials.
Environmental Lifecycle Assessment,
Green Supply Chains, Redesign of products, processes, services, and
systems. – environmental impact of a product lifecycle including
production, use, and disposal.
Reference.
National Academy of Engineering. The Engineer of 2020: Visions of
Engineering in the New Century. National Academy Press, Washington DC,
2004.