BEV 2036/EV 414 (Environmental Engineering Analysis and Design)

Faculty of Engineering, Technology & Built Environment (FETBE)

Chapter 1:
Introduction to
Environmental Engineering

Dr. Mohd Razman Salim

Razman@ucsiuniversity.edu.my

Block E, Level 10
 Lecture Outline

1.1 Intro to Environmental Engineering

1.1.1 Environmental Problems
1.1.2 Climate Change
1.1.3 Environmental Sustainability
1.1.4 Environmental Engineering
1.2 Environmental Management Concept
1.2.1 Pushing Factors towards Environment
Management
1.2.2 What is Environmental Law
 Lecture Outline

1.2.3 Environmental Ethics

1.2.4 Environmental Legislations
1.2.5 Environmental Policy

1.3 Environmental Systems

1.3.1 Ecosystem and Ecology
1.3.2 Energy Balance
1.3.3 Material Balance
 Environmental Problems

 Environmental problems perceived to be

major threats to human welfare has
expanded considerably over the past few
decades from pollution issues at local,
regional and then international scales, to
widespread natural depletion and
degradation, to truly global concerns such as
climate change and the ozone layer.
 Environmental Problems

 Significant environmental problems still

exist, caused by
 Industrializatiom

 Exploitation vast natural resource base

 Deforestation, depletion of fisheries, air and
water pollution and contamination by
industrial wastes become serious concerns
in Malaysia
our world is
CHANGING

rapidly
melting glaciers
deforestation
poverty
forest fire
CO²

famine oil spills

floods
tsunami water pollution

for most of these changes, we are the ones to blame....

Climate Change

•The Earth's climate has significant impact to our daily life

system.

• It determines the way we live on this planet.

• The way we live today is inadvertently changing the

climate in an unfavorable way.
 Climate Change

Long-term climate changes have been observed across the globe;

▪ global temperature increase: +0.75̊C over the past century; 2000-2009

the warmest decade on record
▪ rainfall patterns: wet regions of the world are getting wetter, dry
regions getting drier
▪ humidity: increases over the last two to three decades make extreme
rainfall and flooding more likely
▪ warming oceans: temperature increases in the last 50 years in the
oceans are not linked to natural variations
▪ sea-ice: summer Arctic sea-ice is declining by 600,000 km² per decade
(the area of Madagascar)

Changes are happening as a result of human activity, including man-

made greenhouse gas emissions
(Source: International Panel on Climate Change, IPCC)
 GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas for energy, for;

▪ heating / cooling homes and buildings

▪ growing, transporting and cooking food
▪ travelling (by car, plane, bus and train)
▪ treating water to make it drinkable
▪ manufacturing, using and transporting products

Deforestation; forests are cut down faster than they are replaced:

▪ causes 5.9 billion tones of CO² per year

▪ accounts for 20 % of the world’s carbon emissions
▪ fewer trees are left to absorb CO²
▪ the agriculture and industry that replace the forests

Growing world population:

▪ more people who need food, livestock and energy

▪ produce more waste
▪ use more natural resources
▪ leads to more emissions
Human Activities

• agricultural practices (deforestation, agricultural

chemicals, soil degradation, agricultural plastics)
• fishing (overfishing, ecological disruption, by-
catch)
• irrigation (soil salinization, reduced river
discharge, withdraw of groundwater, drainage)
• livestock production (pollution, fossil fuels,
water and land consumption)
• energy industry (climate change, biofuel use,
fossil fuel use, electricity generation, renewable
energy)
Human Activities

• manufacturing (cleaning agents,

nanotechnology, paint, pesticides,
pharmaceuticals and personal care products)
• mining (erosion, sinkholes, loss of biodiversity,
contamination of soil, contamination of
groundwater and surface water)
• transport (use of fossil fuels, air pollution,
emission of carbon dioxide, traffic congestion,
invasion of natural habitat and agricultural
lands)
So we need to prevent, control and limit this
hazardous issue
Due to human activities, biosphere natural condition
(physical, chemical, biological) has been significantly
impacted:

Depletion Increased Mass Deforestation Inadequate Unhygienic

of Natural Level of Species and Loss of Fresh Living
Resources Pollution Extinctions Ecosystems Water Conditions
 Business as usual; the world in crisis

▪ ifemissions continue to grow at present rates,

CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is likely to
reach twice by around 2050

▪ unless we limit emissions, global temperature

could rise as much as 7oC

▪ push many of the world’s great ecosystems

(coral reefs and rainforests) to irreversible decline

▪ even if global temperatures rise by only 2oC, 20–

30% of species could face extinction

▪ expect to see serious effects on our environment,

food and water supplies, and health
 Sustainability means
meeting our own needs
without compromising
the ability of future
generation to meet
their own needs. Not
only focus on
environmental aspect,
is also concern on
social equity &
economic
development.

Reduced waste, Reduced

Use of Elimination
effluent generation, impact on
renewable of toxic
emissions into human
materials substances.
environment. health.
 Go GREEN

Solution for pollution problems:

1)Pollution prevention by minimize of waste production.

2)Do LCA of our production technique to include built-in
features for extraction & re-use material.
3)Selection a long life materials & method.
4)Selection of manufacturing method & equipment that
minimize energy & water consumption.
 Move towards Sustainability

• The move towards sustainability requires top-

level commitment and a high level of engagement
from all stakeholder

• Its success depends on:

• The provision of clear policy and adequate
resources
• Strengthening of the planning system
• Capacity to make multi-sectoral
• Integrate decisions
 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Environmental Engineering is a course specialize in

civil & chemical engineering to improve the
natural environment to provide healthy water, air,
and land for human & other organism habitation, as well
as to remediate polluted sites.
 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

❖ Covers issues such as air, noise and water pollution as well as

solid, industrial and hazardous waste management, water &
wastewater treatment, soil erosion control, resources planning,
environmental management and monitoring, human safety and
health, sustainable development, emission of carbon dioxides &
other greenhouse gases, and so forth (Ngu Lock Hei 2009).
❖ Manifest by sound engineering thought and practice in the
solution of problems of environmental sanitation, notably in the
provision of public water supplies; the disposal or recycling of
wastewater and solid wastes; the drainage of urban and rural
areas for proper sanitation; and the control of water, soil,
and atmospheric pollution, and the social and
environmental impact of these solutions (Environ. Eng. Division
of the ASCE, 1977).
 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

❖Concerned with engineering problems in the field

of public health, such as control of arthropod-
borne diseases, elimination of industrial health
hazards, and the provision of adequate sanitation
in urban, rural and recreational areas, and effect
of technological advances on the environment
(ASCE, 1977).
❖3 main objectives based on ASCE:
1. Provision of safe, palatable, and ample public water supplies
2. Proper disposal of or recycling of wastewater and solid wastes
3. Control of water, soil, and atmospheric pollution (including noise
as an atmospheric pollutant)
 Pushing Factors Towards
Environmental Management

• Traditional environmental laws and regulation

aimed at commanding and controlling the
environmental loads during manufacturing stage
of product.
• Command and control were centred on the end of
pipe treatment.
• It is norm that manufacturers were responsible
for the product only during the manufacturing
stage.
• Collection, treatment & disposal of waste
products are the responsibility of the government.
 What is Environmental Law?

• Environmental
• Relating to the natural world and the impact of
human activity on its condition.
• Law
• “….the system of rues which a particular
country or community recognizes as regulating
the actions of its members and which may be
enforced by the imposition of penalties”.
• Regulation
• “….a rule or a directive made and maintained
by an authority”.
 Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics is a branch of ethics that

studies the relation of human beings and the
environment and how ethics play a role in this.
Environmental Ethics believe that human are a
part of society as well as other living creatures,
which includes plants and animals. This items
are very important part of the world and are
considered to be a functional parts of human life.
Thus it is essential that every human being
respect and honor this and use morals and ethics
when dealing with these creatures.
 Environmental Ethics

Changes in the environment cause demands for

engineers today to address environmental ethics.

“An environmental ethic concerns itself with the attitude

of people towards other living things and towards the
natural environment” (Veslind et. al, 1994).

Engineers today are increasingly

required to address and understand
environmental ethic due to negative
impacts (long term) and ecological implications
caused by engineering projects.
Environmental Code of Ethics

1)Use knowledge & skill for the enhancement &

protection of environment.
2)Hold paramount the health, safety & welfare of
environment.
3)Perform services only in area of personal
expertise.
4)Be honest & impartial in serving the public,
your employers, your clients and the
environment.
5)Issue public statements only in an objective
and truthful manner.
 Environmental Legislations

Why do we need environmental

legislations?

• To set pollution standards that describe the

safety margins or levels of exposure of pollutants
to the public
• To ensure that necessary assessments have been
conducted and integrated in any planning of
projects, i.e. implementation of Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA).
 Environmental Legislations

• The release of pollutants/waste from human

activities are inevitable. Thus, environmental
legislations can only state the allowable levels or
concentration of pollutants released to the
environment.
• Include the enforcement of EIA to be conducted.
• All to serve the purpose of protecting public health
• Not all countries abide to these legislations, and
thus standards are based on guidelines provided by
the World Health Organization (WHO) or United
Nations (UN)
Environmental Policy

What is environmental policy?

• Rectification strategy refer to human interactions with
the environment to regulate the use of resources
and/or reduce pollution

International or global environmental agreements

include:
• Law of the Sea – prevention of pollution of the sea
due to substances and ships, and marine pollution by
waste dumping and other matters.
Environmental Policy

• The Stockholm Declaration on the Human

Environment - protection on environment, including
architectural heritage, rainforest protection and
water quality in rivers, lakes and seas.
• The Montreal Protocol – elimination of CFCs
and other gases contributing to the damaging of the
ozone
• Rio Declaration – It addresses key environmental
issues, which are: climate change, biodiversity,
tropical forests and sustainable development
 Environmental Policy

International environmental policies are influenced by

these organizations:
• The United Nations – sponsor to conferences,
coordinator of treaties and publish research
• The World Bank – provides funding for dams,
irrigations, infrastructure and other development
projects
• The European Union – aims to remove trade
barriers among its members, addresses waste
management, noise pollution, water pollution, air
pollution, habitat degradation and natural hazards
through Environment Agency
 Environmental Policy

• The World Trade Organisation –

promotes free trade through interpretation of
environmental laws as unfair barriers to trade.
• Nongovernmental organisations
(NGOs) – through research, education,
lobbying or protest
• Malaysia - enforced by Department of
Environment , Ministry of Natural Resources
and Environment. (Checkout official website.)
 What is an ecosystem?
❖ Interactions between the abiotic
and biotic components. Environment
❖ An ecosystem is a community of
living (biotic) organisms (plants,
animals and microbes) in
conjunction with the non-living
Abiotic Biotic
components (abiotic) of their
environment (air, water and
mineral soil), interacting as a Atmosphere
system. Living
(air) Organisms
Atmosphere
(Air layer)

Hydrosphere Dead Organic

Biosphere (water) matter

Hydrosphere Lithosphere
(Water) (Soil/earth) Lithosphere
(solid earth,
soils)
How do they interact?
a) Energy flow (one direction flow)
b) Decomposition and nutrient recycling (recycling)
 How do they interact?

❖ Energy flow, refers to the flow of energy through a food

chain.
❖ The sun is responsible for mostly all of the Earth’ energy,
which constantly gives the planet energy in the form of light
while it is in the end used and lost in the form of heat
throughout the trophic levels of a food web.
❖ The flow of energy in an ecosystem is an open system (i.e., it
does not cycle and is converted to heat and lost for useful
purposes forever).
❖ The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies
in a food chain. Based on the way to get food, organisms are
classified as producers, consumers and decomposers.
 How do they interact?

❖ Producers (autotrophs) are typically plants or algae

that do not usually eat other organisms, but pull nutrients
from the soil and manufacture their own food using
photosynthesis powered by solar energy. Since they are at
the lowest trophic level, they are called primary
producers.
❖ Higher up on the food chain, consumers (heterotrophs)
are animals which cannot manufacture their own
food and need to consume other organisms.
❖ Decomposers (detritivores, such as bacteria and
fungi) break down dead plants, animals and their
wastes as energy and nutrients into the ecosystem
for recycling.
How do they interact?
 How do they interact?

❖ Nutrient cycle is the movement and exchange of organic and inorganic

matter back into the production of living matter.
❖ In contrast to the energy flow, the nutrient flow is a part of a closed system
and these chemicals are recycled and replenished constantly instead of
being lost.
 Energy Balance

❖First Law of Thermodynamics states that

(without nuclear reaction) energy can be neither
created nor destroyed. As with the law of
conservation of matter, it does not mean that the
form of the energy does not change. For example:
the chemical energy in coal can be changed to heat
and electrical power.
❖There are, of course, many forms of energy,
(chemical, heat, and potential energy)
❖Often the form of energy available is not the form
that is most useful, and one form of energy must
be converted to another form.
 Energy Balance

❖ For example, the water in a mountain lake has potential

energy and can be run through a turbine to convert this
potential to electrical energy that can, in turn, be
converted to heat or light, both forms of useful energy.
❖ Wind has kinetic energy, and a windmill can convert this
to mechanical energy that can, be further converted to
electrical energy to produce heat energy, which warms
your house.
❖ Energy conversion is, thus, an important and ancient
engineering process. Unfortunately, energy conversions
are always less than 100% efficient.
 Energy Balance

If we say that the first law of thermodynamics is analogous

to the law of conversation of matter, then energy is
analogous to matter because it too can be “balanced”. The
simplest form of the energy balance equation is:
Loss of enthalpy of hot body = gain of enthalpy by cold
body
 Energy Balance

❖Second Law of Thermodynamics states that

energy flows from a region of higher concentration
to one of lesser concentration, not the reverse, and
that the quality degrades as it is transformed. All
natural, spontaneous processes may be studied in
the light of the second law, and in all such cases a
particular one-sidedness is found.
❖Thus heat always flows spontaneously from a
hotter body to a colder one, gases seep through an
opening spontaneously from a region of higher
pressure to a region of lower pressure.
 Energy Balance

❖Heat can be transferred from one object to

another of different temperature by:
- Conduction
- Convection
- Radiation

❖A black box is any process or operation into

which certain flows enter and from which others
leave. If all the flows can be correctly accounted
for, then there must be a balance.
 Energy Balance

** Note that in a black box the energy in has to equal the

energy out (energy wasted in the conversion + useful energy)
plus the energy accumulated in the box. This can be expressed
as:
 Energy Balance
❖ In their steady state condition, no change occurring over time, energy systems can
also be thought of as being in steady state. Obviously, if there is no change over time,
there cannot be a continuous accumulation of energy, so the equation must read:
 Energy Balance – Exercise

Energy Fundamentals Example – Hydrologic Cycle*

1. The average global rainfall is approximately 0.85 m of water per

year across the Earth surface that has an area of 5.1 x 1014 m2.
Calculate the energy needed for the water to be completely
evaporated annually. Given that the specific heat energy for
vaporization of water is 2465 kJ/kg and the density of water is
1000 kgm-3. Calculate the power needed for evaporation.

2. A coal-fired power plant uses 1000 Mg of coal per day. (Note: 1 Mg

is 1000 kg, commonly called a metric ton or simply a tonne). The
energy value of the coal is 28,000 kJ/kg. The plant produces 2.8 ×
106 kWh of electricity each day. What is the efficiency of the power
plant? (Note: 1 kWh = 3.6 x 106 Joules)
 Materials Balance

Conservation of mass :
 In the occurrence of a chemical reaction, matter is
neither created nor destroyed.
 Allows tracking of materials with mass balance
equations:

Define a region of analysis i.e. control volume

 Quantify materials flow across the boundaries of the
control volume
 Quantify accumulation and reaction rates occurring
within the control volume
 Materials Balance

❖Reaction rate may be positive or negatives

depending on the generation and decaying
rates.

❖Simplification:
 Assume steady state/equilibrium conditions equal
to Accumulation rate is zero
 Substance is conserved within the control volume
equal to Reaction rate is zero
 Materials Balance

Steady- State
Condition
 Materials Balance – Exercise

Materials Balance Example – Two Polluted Streams

1) A stream flowing at 10.0 m3s-1 has a tributary feeding into it with a
flow of 5.0 m3s-1. The concentration of the stream of chloride
upstream of the junction is 20.0 mg/l, and the tributary chloride
concentration is 40.0 mg/l. Treating chloride as a conservative
substance and assuming complete mixing of the two streams, find
the downstream chloride concentration.
 Materials Balance – Exercise

Materials Balance Example – Two Polluted

Streams

2) A lake of 12 x 106 m3 retains water from a stream and a

sewage outfall before streaming it out. The inflow from
the stream discharges at 4.0 m3s-1 and its pollutant
concentration is 10.0 mg/l. The sewage outlet has a flow
rate of 0.5 m3s-1 with pollutant concentration of 100
mg/l. Compute the steady-state pollutant concentration
assuming that complete mixing occurs in the lake and
the decay rate coefficient of the pollutant in the stream
and the lake is 0.25/day.
THANK YOU