MOOC

“Physical chemistry basis of sustainable chemistry and recycling”
without the hot air, but cold facts

Next to issues such as criticality, abundance, pollution, toxicity, etc., a major issue in recycling and refurbishment is the inevitable energetic cost and CO2 footprint. Hence, in order to judge any large-scale chemical process in terms of sustainability, a profound knowledge about fundamentals of energy and energy conversion is important. The course will start with basics of energy and explain why thermodynamics and thermochemistry is both, necessary and helpful to evaluate the energetic costs of chemical processes and goods. These concepts are scrutinized and discussed for specific mass products.

Length:


2 weeks with 5 hours each:
in total 8 lecture hours and 2 hours of exercises

Contents:


1/ Basics of energy: types of energy (chemical, mechanic, etc.), definition, units, conversion (1 h)

2/ Energetic costs and CO2 footprint of important technologies processes (everyday life, industrial processes, agriculture, transport, etc.) (2 hrs)

3/ Exercise 1 (1 h)

4/ Thermodynamics: 1st and 2nd law and their relevance for energy supply and sustainable chemistry; thermochemistry (3 hrs)

5/ Case studies: NH3, H2 for mobility, steel + paper (2 hrs)

6/ Exercise 2 (1 h)