UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

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- Increasing energy consumption (related to issue 1 and 2)

- Environmental accidents: like for example Chernobyl, Prestige, Aznakcóllar Mines, Bhopal

INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION – ATTITUDES AND STRATEGIES

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GOALS

Sustainable development: is the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while sustaining the ability of natural systems to continue providing the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depends on. Also we need to protect the environment for future generations.

La ingeniería sustentable se define como el diseño de sistemas humanos

e industriales que aseguren que el uso que hace la humanidad de los

recursos y los ciclos naturales no lleven a disminuir la calidad de vida

por causa de la pérdida de futuras oportunidades económicas, o bien,

por el impacto adverso en las condiciones sociales, la salud humana y el

medio ambiente.

Sustainable goals:

- End poverty in all its forms everywhere

- End hunger,achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

- Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

- Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

- Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

- Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

- Promote sustained inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

- Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster (fomentar) innovation.

- Reduce inequality within and among countries

- Make cities and human settlements inclusive,safe, resilent and sustainable

- Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

- Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

- Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

- Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt (justo) and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

- Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.

- Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnerships for sustainable development.

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

The main objectives of environmental engineering are:

- Green Tecnologies: Its function is to eliminate the creation of pollutants from within the production process. The chemical reactions involved in producing the main product are modified. New routes of chemical reactions in which the formation of pollutants is prevented need to be found and then technologies which are feasible to implement them at the industrial level need to be developed.

This technology is used to breathe life back into a damaged ecosystem. The main foal is to conserve nature and to remedy the negative impact that humans have on it. This technology ensures thay the Earth remains healthy for all life to continue existing.

Benefits:

- Recycling

- Purifying of Water

- Purifying the air

- Conserving Energy

- Rejuvenating Ecosystems

- End-of-Pipe Technology: Aim at removing or transforming wastes emitted from the production process. Basically it is just added to the end of the production process and deals with with by-product without altering the main chemical reactions in the manufacturing process. Therefore, the chemical composition of the main product will not be affected.

In addition to raw materials, auxiliary materials might also be involved in the production process. These materials are not consumed in the chemical reactions (ex. Catalysts). Since auxiliary materials could be hazardous substances (ex.heavy metals) it is critical to ensure thay they are not emitted to the environment, so end-of-pipe technologies will be employed to deal with the auxiliary material. Some could be recovered and fed back into the original production process (recycle).

This kind of technology does not require any change in the production process.

Applications: air emissions and waste water (remove gaseous pollutants from effluent streams) [example of use productin of nitric acid][2]

Examples: Absorption, adsorption, condensation, incineration and selective diffusion through membrane.

Types: NSCR (non.selective catalytic reduction ) and SCR – for the production of nitric acid –

- Environmental Management: is a set of processes and practices that enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency.

This is a framework that helps an organization achieve its environmental performance.

- Reviewing the organization’ s environmental goals

- Analyzing its environmental impacts and legal requirements

- Setting environmental objectives and targets to reduce environmental impacts and comply with legal requirements

- Establishing programs to meet these