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Module

CEG8115 : Remediation Technologies for Contaminated Environments

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Lucia Rodriguez Freire
  • Lecturer: Dr Shannon Flynn, Professor Adam Jarvis
  • Owning School: Engineering
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 2 Credit Value: 10
ECTS Credits: 5.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

This module will:
• provide a comprehensive understanding of the behavior of contaminants in the environment and the technologies to remediate and restore water and soil polluted with those contaminants.
• bridge academic training to real-life applications, while encouraging the students’ critical thinking to solve environmental engineering problems.
Students will describe in detail the potential implementation of the selected remedial alternative as a function of the design objectives, contaminants and site characteristics.

Outline Of Syllabus

Introduction to Site Remediation
History of Environmental Regulations
Type of Contaminants
Contaminant Fate and Transport:
-Chemical Transformations
-Biological Transformations
-Transport Processes
Environmental Site Characteristics
Environmental Remediation Technologies:
-Physical Remediation Processes
-Chemical Remediation Processes
-Biological Remediation Processes
Environmental Remediation Case Studies

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion110:0010:00Assessed design report.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture161:0016:00lectures
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture11:001:001 x 1 hour module introduction.
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion15:005:00Assessed 5 min presentation.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesPractical13:003:003 hours practical laboratory session.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching81:008:00Question and Answer sessions and Design Tutorials.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesFieldwork13:003:00Field trip to collect environmental samples from a nearby site.
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study154:0054:00Includes background reading and reading lecture notes for a full understanding of material, and preparation practicing example design problems/questions for tutorials.
Total100:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

This class will combine theoretical concepts with laboratory and field studies to integrate the basic principles of environmental engineering, chemistry and microbiology to solve practical problems of assessment and treatment of contaminated sites. In the lectures, the students will be introduced to environmental regulations, the theoretical concepts for environmental sampling design, the procedures for analytical techniques, and traditional and cutting-edge remediation approaches. These lectures will be supplemented with peer-reviewed articles, technical reports, and operational methods. The field studies will consist in sampling collection methods, where the students will participate in a one half-day sampling trip to a contaminated site to collect water, sediments, and plants samples, followed by a practical in the laboratory where the samples will be prepared for analysis for the contaminants of interest. Using this information, the students will first prepare a presentation summarizing the main characteristics of the site and contaminants, which will affect the remedial process, and then they will prepare a remediation technology report for their targeted site where they will evaluate three to five remediation strategies and will propose one final remediation design.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Report2M50Equivalent 1500 words written report
Oral Presentation2M50Equivalent 5 min oral presentation
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The coursework (presentation and design report, summative assessment) will assess both the Knowledge Outcomes and Skills Outcomes, by providing students with the technical challenge of practicing key environmental remediation technologies processes, analyzing specific site characteristics and key physical, chemical and biological processes affecting specific contaminant characteristics, and using the data generated to prove fundamental assumptions behind the environmental remediation technologies. The written report will provide further experience in presenting this information in a technical document.

Reading Lists

Timetable