US EPA/Academia Collaboration for a Green Engineering Textbook For Chemical Engineering

Abstract

This paper describes the collaborative efforts between the Chemical Engineering Branch of the US EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) and academia to develop a textbook titled “Green Engineering: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes”. Development of the GE textbook was initiated in the Fall of 1998 as part of the Green Engineering Program. An important goal of the Green Engineering Program is to incorporate “green” or environmentally conscious thinking and approaches in the academic and industrial communities regarding the design, commercialisation, and use of processes and products. Initially, the Green Engineering Program focused on the academic community, with the aim to produce the next generation of engineers with knowledge to design environmentally beneficial processes. The flagship of the program is the Green Engineering textbook, published in the fall of 2001, that applies classroom initiatives to real world engineering problems. To date, it is estimated that up to 50 engineering departments, both domestically and abroad, are using the textbook and/or incorporating the materials into their curricula. Schools using Green Engineering are achieving Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria 2000, which includes having a working knowledge of the environment.