ABSTRACT
The evolution of human societies has led to increase in pollution. Regardless of how the issue of energy consumption is attempted to be solved, pollution generation persists, giving rise to the need to estimate and quantify the extent of the pollution and determine the effectiveness of waste reduction measures. National regulatory agencies, such as the EPA in the United States, have brought awareness to the growing problem and have aided in putting regulations in place to ensure that individuals, companies, and governments are reducing, if not eliminating, the release of toxic chemicals into the environment. The need to reduce pollution in the environment has given rise to the profession of environmental engineering. Environmental engineering is the study of the fate, transport, and effects of chemicals in the natural and engineered environments and includes the formulation of options for treatment, mitigation, and prevention of pollution in both natural and engineered systems. Chemical thermodynamics and kinetics help to determine the fate and reaction of chemicals in environmental systems as well as aid in predicting and modeling natural environmental phenomena.
