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63235 Environmental Chemistry
Danish title: Miljøkemi
Language: Danish Credit points: 5
Type: Open University
Language: Danish

Previous course: C6335
No credit points with: C6335
Prerequisite: 63130
Recommended semester: 5th - 8th semester
Examination: Written exam (13-scale)
Contact person: Niels Nyholm, Building 113, Tel. +45 4525 1471, email nn@imt.dtu.dk

Department: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering
Aim: To provide a general basic knowledge of environmental chemistry as a discipline in its own; as a fundamental basis for understanding chemical pollution problems; and as a tool for environmental management and risk assessment. The latter subjects are taught with a view also to introducing the students to policy and regulatory aspects of chemical pollution control.
Contents: About half the course is basics on environmental chemical fate - degradation, transport, and intermedia transfer and partitioning of organic chemicals present in different environmental compartments - e.g., water, aquatic sediments, aquatic biota, soil and air. The following processes are covered: biodegradation, hydrolysis, photodegradation, sorption, volatilization and bioaccumulation. The processes are evaluated related to physical-chemical and chemical structural properties and to characteristics of the environmental compartments in question. The knowledge acquired on chemical fate is used for quantifying exposure in chemical risk assessments, which are introduced at the course in an EU conceptual and legislative framework.

Remaining topics include a brief overview of heavy metals chemistry and heavy metals pollution management, and an outline of those basic characteristics of the atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere that are important for the fate of chemicals. The general theory is exemplified through specific lectures on 1) important groups of environmental chemicals, including surfactants, pesticides, chlorinated compounds, PAH's, and 2) on chemical pollution resulting from agriculture and from industrial activities. Previous lectures on natural cycles of elements are now included in 63190 Ecology. Regulations and policies for preventing and mitigating chemical pollution are presented where necessary and include criteria values for chemicals and metals.