SYLLABUS

 

CE 532 – Advanced Physical-Chemical Treatment Processes

 

Spring Semester, 2009

 

 

General Information

Time and location:

4:00-5:15 pm MW in CENT 1030

 

 

Instructor:

Dr. Kerry J. Howe, P.E.

 

Office:  CENT 3050

 

Office phone:  277-2702

 

Home phone:  821-9787

 

Email address:  howe@unm.edu

 

Office hours:  I am frequently in my office or the Environmental Engineering Laboratories on the second floor.  Call or email to make an appointment, or stop by anytime my door is open.  If my door is closed, please do not disturb me.

 

 

Textbook:

Water Treatment Principles and Design, 2nd ed.

by Montgomery Watson Harza

         (errata  for the textbook are available on the course website)

 

Course Objectives

This course provides an understanding of the theory and mechanisms governing advanced physical and chemical treatment processes.  These processes are used in a variety of environmental engineering situations, including water treatment, wastewater treatment, groundwater remediation, air pollution control, etc.  Basic design features of the processes are presented, but the emphasis is on the underlying principles, including why a process works, what the significant variables are, how a process can be described mathematically, and what the limitations of the models are.  Problem solving skills and technical communication skills will be emphasized.

 

The topics covered are:

1.   Mass transfer (Chapter 7)

2.   Air stripping and aeration (Chapter 14)

3.   Adsorption (Chapter 15)

4.   Ion exchange (Chapter 16)

5.   Reverse osmosis (Chapter 17)

6.   Chemical oxidation and reduction (Chapter 8)

7.   Oxidation byproducts (Chapter 18)

8.   Case studies

 

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

 

  • Understand and apply the theory underlying each process listed above.

 

  • Understand how the governing equations for each process were developed from the underlying theory.

 

  • Evaluate the design or operation of advanced physical and chemical treatment processes and assess how performance will be affected by changes in design or operating parameters due to the effect these parameters have on the underlying mechanisms.

 

Grading

Homework                   15%

Journal reviews 15%

Midterm #1                  20%

Midterm #2                  20%

Final exam                    30%     (Monday, May 11, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm)

 

Course Website

Students are expected to have access to a computer and a UNM NetID for this course.  Course materials, including the syllabus, handouts, and homework solutions will be posted on a course website.  You can access the website at http://vista.unm.edu by clicking the Login icon, and entering your UNM Net ID and password.  You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader to read PDF files posted on the course website.

 

Prerequisites

Students are expected to be proficient with the following:

 

1.   Math - Students should be comfortable with algebraic manipulations and be able to identify the dependent and independent variables in equations.  Students should be comfortable with calculus, including integration (know common forms and be able to look up more complicated forms in a table of integrals), differentiation (know common forms, be able to look up more complicated forms, and be able to apply the chain rule and the product rule), and differential equations (be able to solve first and second order linear differential equations and apply boundary conditions).

 

2.   Freshman level chemistry (reaction kinetics) and physics (vectors, Newton’s laws, momentum, etc.).

 

3.   Students will be expected to have access to and use the internet and a UNM email account.  Access to the internet will be necessary for obtaining some of the assigned reading materials.

 

4.   Use of a spreadsheet or other computational software (e.g. Excel or Matlab) will be necessary for some homework assignments.

 

Academic Integrity

The University expects all students to maintain the highest level of integrity.  Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated.  University policies regarding academic integrity are available in the UNM Student Handbook (Pathfinder) and online at http://www.unm.edu/~sac/policies.html.

 

FIELD TRIP

We will take field trip to High Purity Water production facility at Intel about midway through the semester.  This field trip provides context to the material learned in the classroom and is a required part of the course.  The time will be arranged after the semester begins.

 

News Lists

Students should subscribe to Water Tech e-News daily, which provides current information on the water industry:            http://www.informz.net/ntp_wt/profile.asp

 

Homework Policy

The homework is intended to help you learn the material.  All students should make an effort to solve every problem on their own and should not work together in groups, splitting the homework problems between the students.  If you have put forth a sincere effort but cannot solve a problem on your own, it is OK (even desirable) to have another student teach you how to solve the problem, but it is not acceptable for you to just use another student’s paper as a guide.

 

All homework must be done in pencil using the standard format for the Civil Engineering department.  A spreadsheet should be used where appropriate.  When a spreadsheet is used, the homework assignment must include the spreadsheet input and output, and must identify the equation for each column or row in the spreadsheet.  Graphs should be done by spreadsheet.  If a graph is drawn by hand, it must be done with a straight edge on graph paper and be properly scaled and labeled.  A word processor should be used for all writing assignments.  All homework must be neat and legible or it will not be graded.

 

Homework must be turned in at the beginning of class on the day it is due, with no exceptions.  No credit will be given for any homework once a solution has been distributed or discussed in class.  The lowest homework assignment grade will be dropped when your grade is calculated.

 

Journal review assignments

One component of the grade for this class is to complete a 4 to 6 page (typed, double-spaced) critical review of each of three journal articles.  The critical review should include (1) a summary of the article to show that you understood it, and (2) your own critical comments, including what was particularly insightful about the article, what was bad about it, how the equations were derived, whether the analysis in the article was done correctly or whether there were any serious omissions or shortcomings, how important the results presented in the article are to the field of environmental engineering, etc.  Grading will be based on the clarity of your writing as well as the content; i.e., not only what you write, but also how you write it.  The critical review is the most important part of the assignment.  An excellent summary with no critical analysis of your own will result in a “C” grade.  The summary part can be omitted entirely if you have sufficient critical remarks to make it obvious that you understood what the authors said.

 

Additional detail about the expectations for the journal review assignments will be handed out in class.

 

Exam policy

The exams will be closed book.  A one-page “cheat sheet” will be allowed on each exam (i.e., 1 page for the first midterm, that plus a second sheet on the second midterm, and those 2 plus a third for the final).  The cheat sheets may have writing on front and back but all material on the sheets must be hand written.

 

Five minutes before the end of an exam, the time remaining will be announced.  You should be prepared to submit your exam paper at the end of that time.  At the end of the exam period, the instructor or proctor will leave the room with all submitted exam material.  No exam material of any kind will be accepted by the instructor or proctor after leaving the exam room.  Medical illness or other exceptional circumstances will be the only excuse for missing an exam, and you will be expected to provide definitive evidence of the circumstances or illness.  You must inform the instructor in advance if you must miss an exam, unless there are compelling reasons why you cannot do so.  If you miss an exam for a medical reason or other exceptional circumstance, either a make-up exam will be given or the other exams will be weighted heavier, at the instructor’s discretion.  If you miss an exam for other reasons, you will be assigned a grade of zero.