The goal of this course is for students to gain an understanding of the principles of electrochemistry along with some practical experience. Potentiometric methods will be discussed in the context of electrochemical equilibrium. Amperometric analytical methods -- chronoamperometry, chronocoulometry, stripping voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry, pulse polarography, AC impedance, and hydrodynamic methods -- will be described from the perspective of mathematical models of mass transport and electrode kinetics. As time permits, special topics and applications, such as electrochemical energy conversion, spectroelectrochemistry, photoelectrochemistry, ultramicroelectrodes, microfluidics, corrosion, electrochemical synthesis, and scanning electrochemical microscopy, will be covered. To complement and reinforce the material learned in class, students will fabricate electrodes, perform cyclic voltammetry and other experiments, and analyze electrochemical data. Equipment will be available in the instructor's research laboratory to do these experiments in small groups on students' own time outside of class. The instructor will provide out-of-class assistance to students who are not yet familiar with the use of electrochemical equipment.

Architecture and design have a vital role to play in addressing the climate crisis. Today, the built environment contributes nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. For decades, designers have focused primarily on energy efficiency and operational emissions but have spent very little time thinking about embodied emissions – those emissions associated with building materials, construction, demolition, and reuse. This course looks deeply at the topic of embodied carbon, equipping students to research material supply chains and to quantify the environmental impacts of materials, assemblies, and buildings using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Students will explore how building materials like concrete, steel, plastics, and engineered wood are made; the impact their production has on landscapes, communities, and the climate; and design strategies for reducing these impacts. Each session will be composed of a lecture, discussion, and workshop. Lectures will cover fundamental principles in carbon accounting, environmental and social impacts of building materials, climate policy in the building sector, and provide a deep dive into a series of core building materials. The workshops will cover essential LCA tools currently used in the industry, and students will have opportunities to explore them to work on assignments and the final project. Tool demos will often be pre-recorded with in-person time in class used to troubleshoot and share modeling tips and tricks. This course does not require any previous experience with LCA tools or modeling. The course will also feature a series of guest lectures from architects, engineers, policy makers, and tool developers sharing case studies of how LCA has empowered them to reduce the climate impacts of their projects and how it has affected their work as designers.

This course provides a broad introduction to the economics of climate change. The relevant theory is covered, but the emphasis throughout is empirical. Topics may include: background in geophysics and econometrics; bi-directional feedback relationships between climate change and economic activity; global warming dynamics as manifeast in temperature and sea ice dynamics; economic strategies, policies, and institutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation (including trading or taxing carbon, hedging climate risk in financial markets, and monetary and supervisory policy).

Basic principles of chemical thermodynamics as applied to macro and nano-sized materials. This course will cover the fundamentals of classical thermodynamics as applied to the calculation and prediction of phase stability, chemical reactivity and synthesis of materials systems. The size-dependent properties of nano-sized systems will be explored through the incorporation of the thermodynamic properties of surfaces. The prediction of the phase stability of two and three component systems will be illustrated through the calculation and interpretation of phase diagrams for metallic, semiconductor, inorganic systems.

The objective is to introduce students to one of the most dominating and compelling areas of human existence and endeavor: energy, with its foundations in technology, from a quantitative sustainability viewpoint with its association to economics and impacts on environment and society. This introduction is intended both for general education and awareness and for preparation for careers related to this field, with emphasis on explaining the technological foundation. The course spans from basic principles to applications. A review of energy consumption, use, and resources; environmental impacts, sustainability and design of sustainable energy systems; introductory aspects of energy economics and carbon trading; methods of energy analysis; forecasting; energy storage; electricity generation and distribution systems (steam and gas turbine based power plans, fuel cells), fossil fuel energy (gas, oil, coal) including nonconventional types (shale gas and oil, oil sands, coalbed and tight-sand gas), nuclear energy wastes: brief introduction to renewable energy use: brief introduction to solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass; energy for buildings, energy for transportation (cars, aircraft, and ships); prospects for future energy systems: fusion power, power generation in space. Students interested in specializing in one or two energy topics can do so by choosing them as their course project assignments. Prerequisite: Any University student interested in energy and its impacts, who is a Junior Senior. Students taking the course EAS 501 will be given assignments commensurate with graduate standing.

Engineers will play an essential role in redesigning systems across scales to meet energy and sustainability goals in mitigating the global climate crisis. This is a foundational course applying chemical engineering principles, in particular mass and energy balances and thermodynamics, to connect microscopic and macroscopic aspects of “energy” from fundamental considerations of heat capacity and electrochemistry to limiting conversion efficiencies of thermal engines and solar cells and planetary energy balances. We will explore technical aspects of device engineering, policy requirements for technology implementation, and societal implications of such implementations. Finally, we will analyze local systems and design and justify possible changes to improve their sustainability.

Engineers will play an essential role in redesigning systems across scales to meet energy and sustainability goals in mitigating the global climate crisis. This is a foundational course applying chemical engineering principles, in particular mass and energy balances and thermodynamics, to connect microscopic and macroscopic aspects of “energy” from fundamental considerations of heat capacity and electrochemistry to limiting conversion efficiencies of thermal engines and solar cells and planetary energy balances. We will explore technical aspects of device engineering, policy requirements for technology implementation, and societal implications of such implementations. Finally, we will analyze local systems and design and justify possible changes to improve their sustainability.

Students will learn about basic residential energy efficiency measures and practices from an established community based energy organization, the Energy Coordinating Agency of Philadelphia. Identify and understand fundamental core STEM energy concepts. Develop a short "energy efficiency" curriculum appropriate for middle or high school students. Teach three (3) sessions in a science class in the School District of Philadelphia.

Most energy consumed in the U.S. and in the world is produced using thermal-to-mechanical energy conversion. In this course, students will learn the engineering principles that govern how heat is converted to mechanical power in electric power plants, jet aircraft, and internal combustion engines. Topics covered include a review of thermodynamics and basic power cycles, supercritical, combined, and hybrid cycles, cogeneration, jet propulsion, and reciprocating internal combustion engines. A brief introduction to desalination and combustion is also included. The material in this course will provide students a foundation important for industrial and research employment in energy engineering.

The objective of this course is to provide students with detailed knowledge of corporate structures, valuation methods, project finance, risk management practices, corporate governance issues, and geo-political risks in the energy industry. In general, this course seeks to provide students with an overall context for understanding energy issues and risks, and how these might affect financing and investment decisions for both providers of energy and end-users of energy. FNCE 2030 or FNCE 2070 are recommended but not required.

“Energy issues are among some of the most important and complex issues facing the modern world. Energypractices are related intimately to climate change, national security, air and water pollution, economic stability of nations, social inequality, and poverty. This seminar-style course takes an in-depth view at the issues surrounding energy, and both the policy approaches used across the world to address such issues and the justice and equity dimensions of energy systems. Of importance to the discussions in this course is not simply a consideration of which policies have been adopted and to what ends, but rather a comprehensive evaluation of the political environment in which policies are designed and implemented, the manner in which governments can redesign their approaches to energy, and how an energy justice approach has the potential to fundamentally redesign our energy systems. This year, we will also focus quite a bit on the intersections between energy inequalities and racial inequalities, with an objective to elucidate such intersections for the energy-curious public.”

This course provides an introduction to U.S. energy law and examines policy initiatives to address the challenges of climate change, focusing on electric generation. The course begins with study of the legal framework of regulation of the U.S. electric utility industry and the evolving power and responsibilities of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, state public utility commissions, and other administrative agencies. The course then examines the emergence of climate change as an energy policy issue in this regulatory context and analyzes key federal and state initiatives (and alternatives) designed to achieve a reduction in carbon emissions, including expanded use of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and distributed generation. Class is limited to 16 students. Grading will be based on a seminar paper and class participation.

This is a survey course that will examine the current U.S. energy industry, from production to consumption, and its impacts on local, regional, and the global environment. The course will seek to provide a fuller understanding of existing energy systems, ranging from technical overviews of each, a review of industry organization, and an exploration of the well-established policy framework each operates within. Near-term demands upon each energy supply system will be discussed, with particular focus on environmental constraints. Policy options facing each energy industry will be reviewed.

The course will present a comprehensive overview of the global demand for energy, and the resource availability and technology used in its current and future supply. Through a personal energy audit, students will be made aware of the extensive role that energy plays in modern life, both directly, through electricity and transportation fuel, and indirectly in the manufacturing of goods they use. The course will cover how that energy is supplied, the anticipated global growth in energy demand, the resource availability and the role of science and technology in meeting that demand in a world concerned about climate change. The roles of conservation, improved efficiency and renewable energy in meeting future demand in a sustainable, environmentally benign way will be covered. Prerequisite: Basic understanding of chemisrty and physics

The course will examine major sources of energy on earth: sunlight, mechanical, chemical and biological, and how this energy is transformed into useful energy for humans - typically electrical energy or food. Considerable emphasis will be on forms of regenerative energy that can be used when living off-the-grid. As a case study, we will examine some approaches taken by the US military to provide energy capability for dismounted Marines operating on foot in austere environments. Faculty lectures will be supplemented by guest lectures from leaders in government and industry. No scientific knowledge is assumed beyond high school biology, chemistry and physics. Energy is necessarily a quantitative subject so students should be comfortable with quantitative approaches. A major goal of this course is for students to develop an awareness for the amounts of energy they use in their daily lives, and how they might reduce them. As an exercise, students will measure how much energy their smart phones and laptops use in a day and try to generate a comparable amount of energy through physical effort.

The aim of this course is to provide an incentive to use geochemical and mineralogical principles to address and solve major environmental problems. The students identify the problems that are associated with different types of waste. This course covers a wide range of problems associated with the waste arising from the generation of electricity. The main topics will be the uranium cycle, characterization of nuclear waste, and the containment and disposal of nuclear waste. Based on insights from the nuclear fuel cycle, solutions are presented that diminish the environmental impacts of coal and biomass combustion products, incineration of municipal solid waste, toxic waste due to refuse incineration, and landfills and landfill gases.

The developed world's dependence on fossil fuels for energy production has extremely undesirable economic, environmental, and political consequences, and is likely to be mankind's greatest challenge in the 21st century. We describe the physical principles of energy, its production and consumption, and environmental consequences, including the greenhouse effect. We will examine a number of alternative modes of energy generation - fossil fuels, biomass, wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear - and study the physical and technological aspects of each, and their societal, environmental and economic impacts over the construction and operational lifetimes. No previous study of physics is assumed.

The course will introduce emerging environmental issues, relevant engineering solutions, and problem-solving techniques to students. The case study approach will be used to assist students to develop and apply the fundamental engineering skills and scientific insights needed to recognize a variety of environmental problems that have profound impacts on all aspects of modern society

While conventional wisdom is that the world is running out of fossil fuels, technical advances such as deep water production, directional drilling, hydrofracturing, and the refining of non-conventional crude oil sources has increased the resource base significantly and there are well over 100 years of reserves of oil, natural gas and coal. The effect of technology advances has been most profound in the United States, where net energy imports are projected to fall to 12% of consumption by 2020. Excellent, highly technical careers are available in these industries, with opportunities to reduce their impact on the environment and in particular on climate change. The course will cover engineering technology in oil, natural gas and coal from production through end use. It will equip graduating students with the knowledge to contribute in these industries and to participate in informed debate about them.

Humans modify and control our environment, but are also subject to the whims of geologic forces. Earthquakes, landslides, floods and dust storms are natural hazards that, while unpredictable, may be understood from basic mechanical principles; and this understanding may be used to better prepare and adapt to a changing world. Human-induced climate change is triggering not only warming, but also "global weirding" as the climate system becomes increasingly unstable and unpredictable. This course will lead with applications related to the environment and climate change, and use simple scaling and dimensional analysis to develop physical intuition. Students will be introduced to topics such as mechanics (e.g., failure) and flow of soil and rock, river erosion, and transport and dispersion of contaminants in water and air, as well as basic phenomena of weather and climate. I will present an integrated approach to understanding these problems by applying elementary concepts of thermo-fluids and mechanics. Gravity currents make up the vast proportion of environmental flows; I will emphasize common principles, such as buoyancy and mixing. The primary objective for this course is that students discover how to apply basic engineering insight to non-engineered (i.e., natural), unconstrained systems. A secondary objective is to entice mechanical engineers to become interested in the environment.