3 ECTS credits
90 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 1023678BNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.
1.Introduction:
- The natural chemical composition of the main environments. The concept of enrichment relative to the natural biogeochemical composition.
- The relationship between chemistry, energy and climate change.
- The natural and disturbed cycles of biogenic elements (C, N) and toxic elements (such as Hg), and the cycles of substances that were introduced recently (the 20th century, eg CFCs) worldwide.
- The behavior of some highly toxic substances (eg dioxins, methylmercury)
2. Study of climate change through nutrients and organic substances in the aquatic environment:
- Prevention and sources of nutrients and organic matter. The natural and anthropogenic disturbed cycles
- Assimilation and fixation of inorganic nutrients in organic matter and mineralization of organic substances
- Transformation Processes: nitrogen (ammonification - nitrification - denitrification) and carbon dioxide (CO2 equilibria)
- Historical development on a global scale and impact on the environment (eg Quality Status Reports of the North Sea)
- Enrichment experiments using natural isotopes the study of productivity and decomposition of organic material
3. Pollution: organic and inorganic compounds:
- Classification based on toxicity and persistence. Risk to health.
- Origin and sources in aquatic, air, biota, soil. The natural and anthropogenic disturbed cycle.
- Historical development on a global scale: time series and natural archives.
Power point slides & articles
Environmental chemistry, a Global Perspective. G.W. vanLoon & S.J. Duffy, Oxford University Press, 515pp.
Trace Metals in the Westerschelde Estuary: A Case-Study of a Polluted, Partially Anoxic Estuary, 1998. Ed. W. Baeyens, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 167pp.
Quality Status Reports North Sea, OSPAR Commission, London. Zie hun website.
Objectives of the class:
Access natural environmental processes and determine how human activities, especially in the context of chemistry and energy have a negative impact on the environment. Studying key environmental processes, the anthropogenic (human-induced) impact on the environment, as well as formulating mitigation and remediation techniques are among the learning objectives of this course.
Specific competences with this course introduce the students
- To the main areas of chemistry and their applications;
- to gradually learn scientific results critically interpret and thence to deduce the right conclusions;
- To bring the dangers associated with the insight conducting experimental research and know and applying environmental security
.
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
A written exam is requested
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Chemistry: Default track (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Bioengineering Sciences: Cell and Gene Biotechnology: Medical Biotechnology (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Bioengineering Sciences: Cell and Gene Biotechnology: Molecular Biotechnology (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Bioengineering Sciences: Cell and Gene Biotechnology: Agrobiotechnology (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Bioengineering Sciences: Chemistry and Bioprocess Technology: Food Biotechnology (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Bioengineering Sciences: Chemistry and Bioprocess Technology: Chemical Biotechnology (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Bioengineering Sciences: Chemistry and Bioprocess Technology: Biochemical Biotechnology (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Science and Technology: chemie (120 ECTS, Etterbeek) (only offered in Dutch)