Exploring Opportunities in Green Chemistry and Engineering Education: A Workshop Summary to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable (2007)

In the next portion of the workshop, speakers and panel members focused on effective green chemistry and engineering educational programs, materials, and teaching tools, including computer software. The session started with talks by four main speakers, followed by four panel speakers.

The first speaker, Dr. Julie Haack from the University of Oregon, provided the audience with her presentation titled “Community-Based Approach to Educational Materials Development.” Haack explained that a community-based approach is “a community that really empowers people to participate” and should encourage increasing access to information and resources; enhancing the capabilities of the members through the exchange of knowledge and experience; and facilitating innovation.

Haack explored some examples of these community-based activities in her presentation. One example is Greener Education Materials for Chemists (GEMs),¹ a database of educational materials focused on green chemistry. This Internet-based database holds a searchable collection of green chemistry books, articles, demonstrations, courses, laboratory exercises, and other databases (see Figure 3.1). The GEMS database serves the function of increasing access to information and resources related to green chemistry, enhancing capabilities by providing quality materials, and decreasing the potential barriers to communication.

In addition to the GEMS database, Haack emphasized the importance of incorporating green chemistry through other means. The University of Oregon in collaboration with Worcester State College is in the early stages of developing a high school distance education program. The development comprises several parts: (1) modifying or coordinating existing materials; (2) designing new materials, (e.g. podcasts, games); (3) course design collaborative; and (4) information dissemination channels.

Another example Haack mentioned is the text Chemistry for Changing Times,² a chemistry textbook for nonchemistry majors. The nonchemistry major student population includes students in education, business, and health fields, such as physical therapy, art, and history. Typically these students are trying to satisfy a science requirement for the university’s core requirements and will not take any additional chemistry. The textbook has very little math and focuses on concepts. The new edition has 10-12 new educational modules that cover green chemistry.

The establishment of the Ambassador Site Project is another example of the University of Oregon’s efforts in green chemistry education. This project grew from University of Oregon’s Green Chemistry and Education Workshop. At the workshop Haack and her colleagues observed that many faculty members had modified laboratories to remove environmental hazards but were not published as green alternatives. Unfortunately, faculty members were not sharing these laboratories with students or their colleagues. This prompted collaboration between Haack, her colleagues at Oregon, as well as others who were successful in incorporating green chemistry into their curriculum, such as Liz Gron and Tom Goodwin (Hendrix College), Margaret Kerr (Worcester State College), and Irvin Levy (Gordon College). Their collaboration resulted in the development of ambassador sites that utilize a community-based approach which,

FIGURE 3.1. Example Web shot of searching the GEMS website. SOURCE: Haack, J. 2005. A Community-Based Approach to Educational Materials Development. Presentation at the National Academies Chemical Sciences Roundtable Green Chemistry and Engineering Education Workshop. November 7, 2005.

according to Haack, empowers people to participate at different levels to facilitate the incorporation of green chemistry materials into the curriculum, increases access to information and resources, and enhances the capability of the group through participation and provides a foundation or framework for innovation.

The educational ambassador sites will create new materials, write grants, offer mentoring and professional development, and distribute materials.

The next speaker in this session, Dr. David Shonnard (Michigan Technological University) began his talk by giving a definition of green engineering as “the design and commercialization and use of processes and products that are both feasible and economical, while minimizing risk to the environment and to human health and also the generation of pollution at the source.” Shonnard discussed using the “box” concept, where inputs and outputs are balanced within the context of conservation laws to develop governing equations as a teaching tool (see Figure 3.2). One could complete analyses at differing scales or levels to yield useful information using the “box” concept.

In addition to the “box” concept, Shonnard discussed computer-aided assessment and improvement tools that can be used in green engineering. According to Shonnard, “computer-aided tools can help inform process or product design early on through estimation of chemical process and environmental properties, later through process simulation and environmental fate modeling, and ultimately by using process integration and multi-objective optimization.” The tools can be used for a range of scales, including molecular, process, national, or global. Green Engineering incorporates these tools in a hierarchical design sequence (see Figure 3.3).

Some of the computer-aided tools that Shonnard highlighted in his talk included:

• Tools for early design assessment to predict environmental properties, investigate green chemistry alternatives, and design molecules with lower environmental impacts.

FIGURE 3.2 (A) Box concept at the macroscale, (B) Box concept: Exchanges within and between facilities, (C) Box concept: Beyond the plant boundary. SOURCE: Shonnard, D. 2005. Tools and Materials for Green Engineering and Green Chemistry Education. Presentation at the National Academies Chemical Sciences Roundtable Green Chemistry and Engineering Education Workshop. November 7, 2005.

• EPI Suite looks at physical and chemical properties and environmental fate estimation models developed by the EPA.³

• The Green Chemistry Expert System (GCES)⁴ can also be used to design green chemistry reactions and reaction conditions.

• The Program for Assisting the Replacement of Industrial Solvents (PARIS II)⁵ software has been created for the purpose of finding replacements for currently used solvents that have similar properties but are less harmful to the environment.

• Tools for environmental impact assessment of process designs.

  • Simultaneous Comparison on Environmental and Non-Environmental Process Criteria (SCENE).⁶

  • Waste Reduction Algorithm (WAR).⁷

  • Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts (TRACI).⁸

• Tools that aid in the estimation of pollutant release from processes to the air.

  • Air CHIEF CD⁹ for emission factors for major equipment plus fugitive sources.

  • TANKS 4.0—program from EPA¹⁰ for storage tanks.

  • WATER8—on Air CHIEF CD¹¹ or EPIWIN for wastewater treatment.

  • CHEMDAT8—on Air CHIEF CD for treatment storage and disposal facility (TSDF) processes.

Most of these software programs are available free of charge or for a very small fee.

Other educational materials Shonnard highlighted were a book and Web site. His book Green Engineering: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes, which was developed in collaboration with David Allen, contains an aggregate of green engineering Web resources, software tools, and online databases. The Web site Shonnard de-

FIGURE 3.3 Schematic of David Shonnard’s tools for environmentally conscious chemical process design and analysis. SOURCE: Shonnard, D. 2005. Tools and Materials for Green Engineering and Green Chemistry Education. Presentation at the National Academies Chemical Sciences Roundtable Green Chemistry and Engineering Education Workshop. November 7, 2005.

scribed was the Green Engineering Website for Educators and Students that was developed by Rowan University through the American Society for Engineering Education Green Engineering program. The Environmental Protection Agency and National Science Foundation provided funding for the site. This site contains a variety of resources: green engineering Web sites; announcements of green engineering journal publications, workshops, and presentations; links or references to related software; and courses or modules in green engineering for instructors. The undergraduate modules have been developed to aid instructors to integrate green engineering concepts into traditional engineering courses at all undergraduate levels.

The next speaker to discuss tools and materials for green chemistry and engineering education was Dr. John Andraos from York University. Andraos discussed his chemistry course, Industrial and Applied Green Chemistry, which is offered as an advanced course at the third-year level. Andraos stated, “I am one of the proponents who believe that it should be taught a little later so that students have acquired a real mastery of the subject.” He explained that there are two prerequisites for the class: (1) second year organic chemistry with a minimum C grade plus brush-up quiz and (2) a science library resource workshop and quiz. The course is divided into seven sections:

1. Chemistry in society gives a historical account of chemistry by showing the connections between people and ideas;

2. Survey of modern concerns in which the students gain an accurate account of current issues in the industry by surveying scholarly literature;

3. Dyestuffs;

4. Green chemistry;

5. Pharmaceutical industry;

6. Industrial feedstocks; and

7. Chemistry of everyday experience.

The course has many components, such as Chemistry and Society, Development of Industrial Chemistry, and Genealogy, to connect chemistry to history, world events, and real-case problems. Students are required to research resources such as journal articles, society news magazines, books, and patent literature to enhance skills in decision making, inter-

disciplinary problem solving, quantitative reasoning and evaluation.

Andraos explained that he wants to encourage self-discovery through this independent learning process. In the business area, topics such as economic impacts, patents, and confidentiality agreements are reviewed as further examples of how chemistry is connected to society. The course also contains a career development component as well as alumni speakers. The coursework for the class comprises biweekly quizzes, four problem sets, one written assignment, one oral assignment, and one final exam. The written assignment is a rigorous critiquing of a synthesis or manufacturing of target product or process according to green criteria written in a journalistic style. The topic is the student’s choice. Andraos commented that students come to the class thinking industry is the “bad boy” but go away with a more informed picture.

The final main speaker in this session was Dr. John Warner from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, who is the founder of the “world’s first green chemistry Ph.D. program.” In his talk Warner discussed different aspects of the Ph.D. program and how his program teaches people how to do green chemistry. Warner recited Russian poetry as the introduction to his talk. After reciting three poems in Russian, he asked the question “Can we all be Russian poets since we have seen three examples?” He used this example to demonstrate that examples are useful but do not make us experts in a subject, green chemistry in particular.

Warner explained that although he feels compelled to teach green chemistry, when he was considering how to teach the subject he did not think that integrating green chemistry into existing curricula was the best mode of action. Therefore, he created a new, independent program in green chemistry that focuses on research to avoid obstacles in integrating green chemistry into existing curricula. His program is not located in the college of sciences, the college of engineering science, or the college of health and environment. Each college has representation on the Center for Green Chemistry board of advisers, but the center and its program stand alone.

In addition to research, the program Warner described consists of core and elective courses. The students are required to complete five core chemistry courses:

1. Introduction to Green Chemistry;

2. Mechanistic Toxicology;

3. Sustainable Materials Design;

4. Environmental Law and Policy; and

5. Experimental Conceptualization.

With the addition of electives and other required courses, a total of 12 classes are required. Students take five cumulative exams throughout the program, which are written by influential leaders in green chemistry from outside the program, such as Paul Anastas and Berkeley (“Buzz”) Cue. An additional requirement in this program is that all students must defend three research proposals that must be orthogonal to their laboratory work. At this point students can opt to acquire a terminal master’s degree or become doctoral degree candidates. If the latter is chosen, candidates immediately give a dissertation seminar describing their research to the entire university’s research community. As stated by Warner, this path is chosen because too often in chemistry, we wait until the end of a student’s academic career to find out what he or she has been doing for the last three or four years in the lab.

The options for research in the program are one of the seven areas in the Center for Green Chemistry:

1. Crystal engineering;

2. Noncovalent derivitization;

3. Photo polymers;

4. Ambient metal oxide semiconductors;

5. Reaction design;

6. Medicinal chemistry; or

7. Educational research.

One interesting aspect of the program, Warner noted, is the education research requirement for the program. All Ph.D. students must participate in community outreach at the K-12 level a minimum of once per month. The students receive no compensation or credit for this community outreach, but according to Warner, “It instills in them the sense that this is what people should do and when they leave, hopefully, whether they go into industry or academia this model follows with them and they see this is a requirement in their lives to be reaching out to the community.”

The panel discussion on tools and materials for green chemistry and education began with Dr. Michael Cann from the University of Scranton. Cann presented tools and materials for infusing green chemistry into the undergraduate lecture curriculum. Cann believes there are three things needed to mainstream green chemistry: (1) insertion of green chemistry into mainstream chemistry courses; (2) faculty who teach these courses to develop modules on green chemistry related to topics already covered in their course; and (3) make it easy for other faculty to do the same by providing access to materials (e.g., place materials on the Web).

A starting point for Cann was the development of the book Real World Cases in Green Chemistry¹² with coauthor Marc Connelly. They designed the book to be used in a variety of ways. It contains descriptions of 10 projects that have won or been nominated for Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge awards. The book can also serve as a resource for

anyone wishing to be better informed about specific ways that the redesign of chemical products and processes is preventing pollution and solving environmental problems.

In his quest for mainstreaming green chemistry, Cann identified two of his objectives: to develop modules and to make green chemistry accessible to other faculty. Cann and his colleagues developed Greening Across the Chemistry Curriculum¹³ to provide “modules in green chemistry to insert into existing courses across the college chemistry curriculum.”¹⁴ The modules expose students to real-world state-of-the-art examples of green chemistry as part of the mainstream college curriculum. There is also an interest to put green chemistry into the business side of courses. Web-based modules have also been developed for the following existing chemistry courses: general, organic, inorganic, physical, environmental, industrial, and polymer chemistry, as well as toxicology and biochemistry. Each of the Web-based modules has three parts:

1. “The module”: A green chemistry topic is discussed in class, and then the instructor directs the students to visit the Web page to read and study the material.

2. “Notes to Instructors”: Suggestions are provided to aid instructors in determining where a module could be used in a particular course and other courses.

3. “PowerPoint Presentation”: Instructor can use PowerPoint presentations to present the material, and students can use them as notes.

The project had funding from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences, the ACS/EPA Green Chemistry Educational Materials Development Project, and the University of Scranton.

Lastly, Cann featured Colin Baird’s Environmental Chemistry¹⁵ as an example of a text that has green chemistry integrated throughout every chapter. In addition, the preface is an introduction to green chemistry, atom economy, and the synthesis of ibuprofen.

The next panelist, Dr. Eric Beckman from the University of Pittsburgh, focused on chemical engineering and sustainability in his presentation. Beckman began by discussing the chemical engineering community’s reluctance to incorporate green chemistry into their curriculum. He stated that most chemical engineers think that “basic fundamental chemical engineering is green engineering, end of story, on to the next thing.” To survey the reality of chemical engineering for himself, Beckman analyzed each principle of green engineering. He found some items were consistent with current processes and some were not. According to Beckman, a major deficiency with “both chemistry and chemical engineering curricula is that we don’t worry about product design very much.” He added that emphasizing product design is important in overall design paradigm. Issues with the deficit in product design include:

• “The majority of students trained in chemistry and chemical engineering who enter industry will work in product-related functions, yet few receive formal training in product design and development.”

• “It is not clear to many of our students that they will one day have customers, that this is a good thing, and that perhaps one should interact with the customers.”

• “In academia, all of our “products’ are single component and 99 percent plus pure.”

• “If we are not currently teaching product design, how then do we add sustainability as a constraint?”

Beckman emphasized that the convergence of chemistry and engineering is needed to accomplish real green design. Beckman cited an article from the Journal of Business Research¹⁶ on how to achieve sustainable product design. The article features three approaches:

1. Eco-redesign (E−) = short term, modify current design, reduce waste, preserve business as usual—the “low hanging fruit”;

2. Eco-innovation (E+) = longer term, reinvent ways and means to provide benefits to customers; and

3. Sustainable technology innovations (E++) = emerging or unproven technology to provide through inherently different mechanisms; radical technology change.

After deciding on an approach to teaching product design, metrics must be used to gauge progress.

In closing, Beckman explained what he thinks is needed to teach a chemical product design course: The course should be team taught and available to multiple disciplines, should use sustainability as a constraint, should use validation tools, and should consider the voice of the customer as well as adequate product performance and price.

The next panelist was Dr. Kathryn Parent, from the Green Chemistry Institute (GCI), who discussed American Chemical Society (ACS) resources available for green chemistry education. Parent explained that GCI’s mission is “advancing the implementation of green chemistry and engineering principles into all aspects of the chemical enterprise,” including education. In answering that charge, GCI and ACS have developed an aggregate of tools, materials,

and programs geared toward greening chemistry education. GCI is attempting to make these changes through the development of new courses or the incorporation of content into existing courses, research, and extracurricular activities, such as student affiliates, conferences, workshops, symposiums, and ACS summer schools.

According to Parent, “In 2001 there were no educational materials on green chemistry available to educators beyond technical reference books. By 2005 GCI in partnership with ACS Education had produced six green chemistry publications for chemical educators. Over 1,000 copies per year are distributed to customers. GCI receives requests for green chemistry educational materials from faculty around the world.” Parent displayed a list of available education materials:

• Chemistry in the Community—A high school textbook;

• Introduction to Green Chemistry—A high school unit text;

• Chemistry in Context—An undergraduate textbook;

• Real-World Cases in Green Chemistry—An undergraduate seminar text;

• Green Chemistry: Innovations for a Cleaner World—A companion video to Real-World Cases in Green Chemistry;

• Greener Approaches to Undergraduate Laboratory Experiments—An undergraduate laboratory experiment manual;

• Green Chemistry: Meeting Global Challenges—A DVD of conference presentations;

• Going Green: Integrating Green Chemistry into the Curriculum—A how-to resource for faculty; and

• Online resources

  • ACS Green Chemistry Institute, http://www.greenchemistryinstitute.org

  • ACS Education Division, http://www.chemistry.org/education/greenchem

  • Annotated bibliography, http://chemistry.org/greenchem/bibliography.html

In addition to the resources listed above, ACS continues to develop new resources such as new textbooks infused with green chemistry; business school case studies being conducted to emphasize the connection between green chemistry and economics; and other user driven tools. Parent concluded that students are “our greatest resource in green chemistry education and developing them should be our key goal.”

Dr. Richard Wool from the University of Delaware gave the last presentation of the panel and of the first day of the workshop. Wool discussed his senior undergraduate course “Green Engineering Out of This World.” The class typically consists of about 30 students that are split into eight to ten Web teams. The students learn the basic tools of green engineering systems and how to do the adequate analyses using sustainability issues as the subjects. The class structure is:

• Web teams—Major environmental drivers;

• Global sustainability issues—National Academy of Sciences;

• Course work—Green Engineering: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes by David Shonnard and David Allen;

• EPA Web sites;

• Individual projects;

• Peer review; and

• Unintended consequences—Green court.

Required reading for this course includes the Green Engineering Tutorial: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes by Allen and Shonnard and Bio-Based Polymers and Composites by Wool.

On the second day of the workshop, breakout sessions allowed participants to delve deeper into the issues surrounding green chemistry and engineering. Workshop participants were assigned to breakout groups, and the results of those breakout sessions that corresponded with the tools and materials for green chemistry and engineering education are summarized below.

The participants in this breakout group believed that any tools, materials, or programs for green chemistry and engineering would be most beneficial if they were targeted at the undergraduate level and possibly the industrial level. The participants identified incorporating green chemistry into mainstream textbooks as one way to overcome barriers associated with teaching green chemistry and engineering to chemistry and chemical engineering majors, as well as other science, engineering, and nonscience majors. The participants thought this technique was a reasonable way to engage students and raise awareness about green chemistry and engineering. In addition, a global motivation document could be used to attract new audiences by presenting an overarching view of the main issues in green chemistry and engineering. This technique will be beneficial only if the book is not ignored.

Other tools, materials, or programs needed to complement current green chemistry and engineering educational resources include:

• Introduction or capstone to design course for engineers and scientists;

• Integrated laboratory and lecture courses;

• Seminar courses on modern topics in green chemistry;

• Comprehensive centralized Web-based resources; and

• Assessment tools for undergraduates.

Examples of recent efforts that provide a sufficient starting point for green chemistry are the ACS efforts that Parent presented and the University of Oregon’s Greener Education Materials for Chemists (GEMs) that Haack presented. Management, coordination, and funding of efforts are required for future adequate expansion. One note of caution is that not all tools can be adapted for the targeted educational purposes. An example of this is Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES), software developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) directed to aid in selecting cost-effective, environmentally friendly building products using green principles. Unfortunately, this tool is applicable only to construction.

Barriers to using current green chemistry and engineering materials were also identified. Chemical engineering has defined a set of core principles of which green engineering is considered to be outside the scope of these core concepts. Professors are expected to achieve higher learning curves for students and have to factor in the time constraints of adding lessons to an already full course curriculum. Untested case studies and examples of green chemistry and engineering could have unintended consequences. Any unintended consequences related to green chemistry and engineering could dampen credibility, foster distrust of green chemistry and engineering, or discourage participation and support of green chemistry and engineering among professionals and students.

In general, the majority of the group participants agreed that infusing green chemistry and engineering into textbooks and improvement of textbooks by professional societies are ways of enhancing curricula. They also agreed that although it may not seem difficult to integrate green chemistry and engineering into textbooks, the efforts will not be successful without the support of textbook authors and a seal of approval from professional societies.

In this breakout session the group addressed issues regarding interdisciplinary educational approaches. Some barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration are:

• Internal issues within institutions or organizations;

• External support mechanisms; and

• Recognition of expertise.

In interdisciplinary endeavors, department chairs have a number of administrative barriers that cause them to be reluctant to engage in partnerships: (1) how to distribute expenses for necessary materials across departments; (2) how to allocate the time commitment of faculty across departments; (3) intellectual property issues; and (4) the burden of adding electives in addition to core coursework. To overcome barriers in interdisciplinary endeavors, department must see the value in collaboration. A reward system to motivate these partnerships may encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and encourage departments to see the value in collaboration outside their departments, but other value propositions must also be identified.

The presence of cultural barriers that impact interdisciplinary approaches was also discussed. The language of chemistry, corporate influence on chemistry and chemical engineering, and differences in processes and approaches in chemistry versus chemical engineering are three of the cultural barriers. Chemistry has a very unique language that other disciplines do not always easily comprehend. A concentrated effort to speak one another’s languages could diminish the language barrier. The different approaches and processes in chemistry versus chemical engineering is apparent since chemistry focuses on pure science and chemical engineering focuses on applied science. The focus on innovation in chemical engineering may allow for an easier integration of green principles.

Interdisciplinary approaches tend to be viewed differently by industry and academia. A high interest in interdisciplinary collaboration has been shown in industry. The participants believe that students may like working in teams for research purposes but dislike working in teams on graded classroom projects.

At the end of this breakout the participants agreed on the following as possible actions to address the interdisciplinary issues:

• Develop a framework for funding;

• Increase awareness and information sharing between disciplines;

• Develop a reward system to recognize good practices; and

• Develop leadership from key faculty across disciplines.