BEE 2220

Sustainable Engineering Thermodynamics

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

The laws of thermodynamics are elegant statements about the conservation, nature, and behavior of energy in the universe. They also provide a roadmap to designing and evaluating sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, from climate change to food insecurity to the energy crisis. This course examines how fundamental thermodynamic concepts characterize both natural and technological systems. We'll use the concept of exergy to benchmark forms of energy and their potential to do work, enabling us to evaluate the sustainability of energy and transportation sectors. Through exploring complex concepts like Gibbs Free Energy and Chemical Potential, we'll understand pollutant transport in environmental mixtures and analyze how human activities contribute to sea level rise. Students will connect thermodynamic theory to real-world sustainability challenges.

Prerequisites MATH 2930; CHEM 2070 or 2090 or 2150; BEE 2510 or BEE 2600.

Distribution Requirements (PSC-AG)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2025SP, 2024SP, 2022SP, 2021SP

Learning Outcomes

• Identify, formulate, and solve quantitative thermodynamic relationships for complex systems integrating knowledge from chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and prior mass & energy balance courses.
• Understand the complex, interdisciplinary nature of sustainable engineering problems, and the challenges faced by those who seek to address them.
• Propose and evaluate technical and non-technical aspects of sustainable engineering design solutions using thermodynamic and kinetic fundamentals.
• Identify needs for new information, define a process to find information, and develop the ability gauge the reliability of information.

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