ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Khairina Abdul Ilah 17004242

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Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

The World Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations, 1987

It is a warning of the negative environmental consequences of economic growth and globalization, which tried to find possible solutions to the problems caused by industrialization and population growth.

How to achieve sustainable development?

The United Nations has adopted the 2030 Agenda, which incorporates the Sustainable Development Goals, which is a call for action to protect the earth and promote the global well-being of people. These universal objectives include the active engagement of individuals, organisations, governments and countries across the globe. 

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Pillars of Sustainability

Environmental stewardship: At environmental level, sustainability prevents nature from being used as an inexhaustible source of resources and ensures its protection and rational use. Aspects such as environmental conservation, investment in renewable energies, saving water and etc.

Social growth: at social level, sustainability can foster the development of people, communities and cultures to help achieve reasonable and fairly distributed quality of life, healthcare and education across the world.

Economic growth: Sustainability focuses on equal economic growth that generates wealth for all, without harming the environment. Investment and an equal distribution of economic resources will strengthen the other pillars of sustainability of a complete development.

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Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

Should I have bought the tomatoes from Thailand or from Indonesia?

Raw Materials: Soil, seeds, fertilizer?

Production: Heating, Water, Ventilation?

Transportation: Trucks, Rails or Airplane?

This is why the Life Cycle Assessment provides a framework for measuring the impact of, for example, a product. LCA is a decision making tool to identify and analyse the environmental burden of a product throughout its life cycle.

The goal of an LCA is to not only create data but also to facilitate decisions to make product more sustainable.

With LCA, you can evaluate the environmental impacts of your product or service from the very first to the very last or from cradle to grave.

LCA PROCESS:

Raw material: product downsizing and extensive recycling

Manufacturing: Energy conservation, recycling raw material, measures to prevent air, water pollution

Distribution: Simplified packaging, efficient distribution, use of low pollution delivery vehicles

Consumer use: Products that consume less power, product that require less use of water, detergent and other materials

Waste: Product designed for easy recycling, lower amount of harmful substances environmentally.

Benefits of LCA:

Save Money In A Long Run

LCA will help you reduce the expenses and bring the conscience about the environment in general. According to studies, when you create a low environmental impact that will result in saving money.

Handle Environmental Claims

You will not be able to create an environmental claim about packaging and product without creating an analysis that will help you reach the results. The idea is to create the one, which will relate to Advertising Standards Authority, and LCA will improve the formulation so that you can defend your practice and provide arguments that you are not affecting it with your industrial processes.

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The waste hierarchy consists of 3 R’s as follows:

Reduce (1st)

Reuse (2nd)

Recycle (3rd)

Reduce: The logic behind it is simple to understand – if there is less waste, then there is less to recycle or reuse.

Example:

source: bambooherb.com

Reuse: You may find bargains on old furniture or go trash picking and get things that you can refinish – in either case you are working towards reusing the item. Learning to reuse items, or repurpose them for use different from what they are intended for is essential in the waste hierarchy.

Example:

1. Old jars and pots: Old jars and pots can be used to store items in the kitchen. They can also be used to store loose items together, such as computer wires.

2. Tyres: Old tyres can either be sent to the recycling station or can be used to make tyre-swing.

3. Used wood: Used wood can be used as firewood or can be used as woodcraft.

Recycle: To recycle something means that it will be transformed again into a raw material that can be shaped into a new item. However, there are very few materials on the earth that cannot be recycled. That is why recycle is at the bottom of the hierarchy because some waste are not biodegradable and cannot be recycled which can pollute the environment.

Example:

1. Buy products that can be recycled like paper, glass, aluminum, plastic, etc. used in the house, school or office. Aluminum can be recycled multiple times.

2. Buy products that have been made from recycled materials.

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Renewable energy

1.      Wind power: Turbines use wind to generate electricity without creating pollutants. Currently, this is one of the least expensive alternative fuel sources available.

2.      Solar energy: The current technology to capture this energy includes photovoltaic panels, solar collectors and thin film solar sheeting. The solar cells turn sunlight into electricity directly, so there is no need for a generator.

3.      Geothermal energy: This is the use of heated water and steam from earth to run power stations, which turn steam into electricity.

4.      Biomass: This is the use of plant matter and animal waste to create electricity. When converted properly, it is a low carbon source of energy with little pollution.

5.      Hydroelectric power: This uses flowing water to move turbines which generates electricity. Hydropower provides 20% of the worlds energy needs.

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Strategies for green cities

1.  Plentiful bike routes and walking paths near green spaces, along with roads that feature natural settings; thus increasing the aesthetics and viability of transportation alternatives.

2.  City plans with green spaces, wide sidewalks, and car-free or low-emissions zones in city centers (or at least timed road closures to cars in order to encourage walking, biking, and mass transit).

3.  Increasing the number of trees and green spaces within urban areas.

4. Sustainable mass public transit networks (bus rapid transit, commuter rail,  light rail- trams, trolleys, street cars, etc…) reduce CO2/ other GHG emissions; improving air quality in cities, increasing the energy efficiency of travel by vehicle, decreasing the amount of energy needed for transportation, helping to produce numerous financial benefits in cities, creating urban centers of productivity,  reducing dependence on foreign oil, and helping to decrease the quantity of vehicles (esp. cars) in cities.

5. Urban farms and gardens: New communities and developments take advantage of advanced hydroponic technology for urban farming.

6. Green roofs: Solar panels and roof gardens are common atop buildings, encouraging sustainable energy and small-scale farming.

7. Green streets: Water filtration, environ­mental monitoring, and native landscaping are part of the streetscape.

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WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS

1. Screening (pre-treatment): Removes suspended large solids from wastewater stream. (leaves, branches, rocks, cans etc.)

2. Communitor: Shred bigger solids into smaller parts.

3. Grit chamber: In this step, heavy but fine material such as sand and gravel is removed from the wastewater. This material is also disposed of in a landfill.

4. Primary clarifier: The material, which will settle, but at a slower rate than step two, is taken out using large circular tanks called clarifiers. The settled material, called primary sludge, is pumped off the bottom and the wastewater exits the tank from the top. Floating debris such as grease is skimmed off the top and sent with the settled material to digesters.

5. Aeration/ activated sludge: Through biological degradation, the pollutants are consumed by microorganisms and transformed into cell tissue, water, and nitrogen.

6. Secondary sludge: Secondary clarifiers allow the treated wastewater to separate from the biology from the aeration tanks at this step, yielding an effluent, which is now over 90% treated. The biology (activated sludge) is continuously pumped from the bottom of the clarifiers and returned to the aeration tanks in step five.

7. Rotary biological filter: The clarified effluent is polished in this step by filtering through 10 micron polyester media. The material captured on the surface of the disc filters is periodically backwashed and returned to the head of the plant for treatment.

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who is responsible for the most carbon emission?

Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years. The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in Malaysia is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.

Studies found that the world’s richest 10% of people have carbon footprints that are 60 times higher as the poorest 10%. The emissions of the world’s richest 1% create an even larger emissions gap: the 1% could emit 30 times more than the poorest 50% and 175 times more than the poorest 10%. On the other hand, middle class communities are responsible for 37% of CO2 emission primarily smoke from vehicles, open burning, air conditions and etc.

In my opinion, it doesn’t make sense that poor communities have to face the forefront of climate change that are caused & made worse by the luxurious lifestyle of only 630 million rich people. Rich, high emitters should be held accountable for their emissions, no matter where they live. Especially, billionaires running the oil and gas companies. The burning of fossil fuels contributes the most greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. 

“We could have one livable planet or 2,604 billionaires”

As we turn towards recovery from the pandemic, governments must act to cut the emissions of the richest and increase support to the poorest. Four ways to do this are:

Tax the richest more, to help curb spiralling inequality.

Introduce an added cost to luxury emissions such as multiple flights and SUVs. Use the extra cash to fund universal social protection, health and care.

Invest more in low-carbon projects like public transport and energy efficiency, and guarantee decent jobs.

Ban advertising in public spaces, especially for high-carbon luxury products.

Ten Simple Things You Can Do to Help Protect the Earth

source: https://www.theguardian.com/

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Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring that all people can enjoy peace and prosperity. These 17 goals build on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals while including new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace, and justice among other priorities. The goals are interconnected – often, the key to success for one also involves tackling issues more commonly associated with others.

Herein, I will list out SDG related to environmental protection:

SDG-3 Good Health and Wellbeing

SDG-6 Clean Water and Sanitation

SDG-7 Clean Energy

SDG-11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

SDG-12 Responsible Consumption

SDG-13 Protect the Planet

SDG-14 Live Below Water

SDG-15 Life on Land. 

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Environmental Regulations and Standards

The main environmental law in Malaysia is Environmental Quality Act, 1974 (EQA 1974). It is a malaysian legislation gazetted on 14 March 1974. It is administered and enforced by DOE under Ministry of Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment. This law helps to control and regulate EIA requirement, air and noise emissions, waste from industries, industrial effluents and sewage and etc. 

One example of international legislation is Solid Waste Disposal Act, 1965.

Solid Waste Disposal Act Overview:

In 1965 the Solid Waste Disposal Act [Public Law (Pub. L.) 89-72] was enacted to improve solid waste disposal methods. It was amended in 1970 by the Resource Recovery Act (Pub. L. 91-512), which provided the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with funding for resource recovery programs. However, that Act had little impact on the management and ultimate disposal of hazardous waste.

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Designing green cities

1. Sky gardens: Interspersed green spaces promote natural airflow in buildings while providing shade and social areas.

2. Solar walls and windows: Solar panels incorporated into all surfaces of the building’s facade during construction capture the sun’s energy.

3. The low glow: Low-rise buildings allow more light and air to reach the ground, promoting health and well-being.

4. Room to breathe: With fewer cars outside and more plants inside, air quality is improved and airborne particulates are reduced.

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evidence of climate change

The figure above indicates a clear warming trend spanning the entire 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. In fact, the 20th century was the warmest of the past 10 centuries, and the decade 2001–10 was the warmest decade since the beginning of modern instrumental record keeping.

Also, CO2 production has surpassed 300 ppm in 1950 and continues to increase until today.

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urbanization

Urbanization is the process of human relocation from rural areas to urban areas.   

Rapid urbanization has caused the environmental state of Shenzhen town in China to deteriorate. The previously constructed drainage system has been hampered and the rivers are compromised, interfering with the ecological system in China. China has been listed as the most populated country in the world. Therefore, this has the country’s resources strained and environmental degradation.

Urbanization also has exposed women to education opportunities and has also created middle class society. Also, standard of living has definitely improved and there are better housing conditions than those in the rural areas.

Urbanization also leads to urban heat island. Urban areas, where these structures are highly concentrated and greenery is limited, become “islands” of higher temperatures relative to outlying areas.

Vehicles, air-conditioning units, buildings, and industrial facilities all emit heat into the urban environment. These sources of human-generated, and waste heat can contribute to heat island effects.

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climate change

During the past century, human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Most of the gases come from burning fossil fuels to produce energy. Greenhouse gases are like a blanket around the Earth, trapping energy in the atmosphere and causing it to warm. This is called the greenhouse effect and it is natural and necessary to support life on earth. However, while greenhouse gases buildup, the climate changes and result in dangerous effects to human health and ecosystems.

A warmer climate can bring changes that can affect our water supplies, agriculture, power and transportation systems, the natural environment, and even our own health and safety.

Natural causes have influenced the earth’s climates such as volcanic eruptions, ocean current, the earth’s orbital changes and solar variations. The eruptions of volcanoes cause a cooling effect on the earth.

Natural resources are being used extensively for construction, industries, transport, and consumption. All this has contributed to the rises of greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere. Human is generating industries factories and houses, and running the vehicles that used many fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gases. These uses of fossil fuel will leads to climate changes.

Climate changes will also affect the biodiversity. Biodiversity is very important for the plants and animals to maintain their habitat and ecosystem. The climate changes have impacted the loss of biodiversity.

Climate change in the world will affects human health and producing diseases. For example, high levels of surface ozone and particles have been implicated in many diseases involving the cardiac and respiratory systems. 

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global warming

Now that we have discussed about water and air pollution, there is no doubt that these environmental issues are polluting the earth day by day. We all aware that these pollutions are leading to global warming and eventually climate change. 

Global warming is a rise in the surface temperature of the earth that has changed various life forms on the earth. The issues that cause global warming are divided into two categories include “natural” and “human influences” of global warming. Another cause of global warming is greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide it trap the solar heats rays and prevent it from escaping from the surface of the earth. This has cause the temperature of the earth increase. 

Methane is more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere that carbon dioxide by 20 times. Usually methane gas can release from many areas. For instance, it can be from cattle, landfill, natural gas, petroleum systems, coal mining, mobile explosion, or industrial waste process.

There are many effects that will happen in the future if global warming continues. That includes polar ice caps melting, economic consequences, warmer waters and more hurricanes, spread of diseases and earthquake.  Another effect is the species loss of habitat. Species that include polar bears and tropical frogs will be extinct due to climate change.

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major sources of water

two main sources of water: groundwater and surface water

Surface water is any body of water above ground, including streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, reservoirs, and creeks. The ocean, despite being saltwater, is also considered surface water.

Groundwater originates from rain and from melting snow and ice and is the source of water for aquifers, springs, and wells. Groundwater is part of the hydrologic cycle, originating when part of the precipitation that falls on the Earth's surface sinks (infiltrates) through the soil and percolates (seeps) downward to become groundwater. Groundwater will eventually come back to the surface, discharging to streams, springs, lakes, or the oceans, to complete the hydrologic cycle.

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why circular economy is important?

In my opinion, circular economy is important because it could deliver benefits such as reducing pressure on the environment, improving the security of the supply of raw materials, increasing competitiveness, stimulating innovation, boosting economic growth, creating jobs.

Now, more companies are striving towards sustainability and circular economy. For example, Enerkem. This Canadian firm Enerkem has invented the system of using trash to run your car. Their technology extracts the carbon from trash that can’t be recycled. It then takes five minutes to turn the carbon into a gas that can be used to make biofuels like methanol and ethanol, as well as chemicals which can be used in thousands of everyday products. The city of Edmonton, for example, now reuses 90% of its waste, saving more than 100,000 metric tons of landfill every year.