Chemical Engineering Courses in Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment

In an effort to provide students with a better background in sustainability and life cycle assessment (LCA) prior to employment, two new undergraduate/graduate elective courses have been added to the Chemical Engineering curriculum at the University of Arkansas.Introduction to Sustainable Process Engineering covers foundational topics in sustainability, including the interconnectedness of the three pillars, energy sources and usage, decarbonization, waste minimization, materials and sustainable design.The course content is tied to real-world applications through industry speakers, site visits, lab experiments and case studies.Environmental Life Cycle Assessment covers LCA methodology for comparative analyses of material and energy systems and processes with the goal of achieving environmental improvements.Impactful topics in the class include the assessment of students' lifestyles and the earth's biocapacity using an ecological footprint calculator, the global impact of plastic waste pollution to the natural environment and biodiversity, and the modeling of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) production in openLCA.