Graduate Program in Environmental Engineering

Industrial Ecology

Students interested in studying sustainability, industrial ecology, life cycle engineering, environmentally conscious manufacturing, and/or pollution prevention can take classes and conduct their research with an interdisciplinary team of faculty at Michigan Tech. Students interested in this subject area can therefore obtain their graduate degree(s) in Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Environmental Policy.

The table below lists the participating faculty and provides a brief description of their research and teaching interests. Research is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and many industrial sponsors (e.g., Ford Motor Company, General Motors).

Sustainable Futures Institute SFI is an education and research leader on sustainability initiatives related to industrial ecology, environmentally conscious manufacturing, green engineering, sustainable development, public policy, and pre-college education

IGERT - Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship for Sustainable Futures The vision of this IGERT Project is to develop an integrated scientific and social basis for decision-making on sustainability issues and develop tools and methods that promote sustainability.

Since its establishment in 1992, CenCITT has initiated 57 projects involving 60 faculty from 16 academic units, 57 companies, and 33 governmental and other organizations (e.g., NIST, EPA, CMA, SOCMA, NPPR, and SHWEC). CenCITT has also provided support for over 200 graduate students, 106 Undergraduate Students, 11 Post Doctoral fellows, and 60 Faculty. Sixteen Academic Units have been involved and 709 research conveyances have occurred: 135 published and submitted papers, 81 proceedings, 7 patents, 347 presentations.

Another source of support is through ChemAlliance. ChemAlliance was established through a USEPA grant to Michigan Tech to establish an environmental compliance assistance center for small and medium-sized chemical companies. This project has focused on the creation of a virtual compliance assistance center through development and placement of vast, free information resources on one web-site to assist chemical companies with EPA and other major environmental regulations ChemAlliance E-mail

Some Examples of Faculty & Student Scholarship Related to this Topic

DT Allen and DR Shonnard. Green Engineering: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes, Prentice-Hall, New York, 2001.

Gorman, H. Redefining Efficiency: Pollution Concerns, Regulatory Mechanisms, and Technological Change in the U.S.Petroleum Industry, 2001.

Zhang, Q, JR Mihelcic, JC Crittenden, DR Shonnard, JW Sutherland, JK Gershenson, NJ Hutzler. “Life Cycle Assessment that Leads to Improved Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing of Automobiles,” presentation at the International Society for Industrial Ecology's first annual meeting, The Science and Culture of Industrial Ecology, 12-14 November 12-14, 2001, Netherlands.

Zhang, Q, JC Crittenden, H Chen, JR Mihelcic, D Shonnard. “Critical Evaluation of Simplified Toxicity Impact Assessment Methods,” submitted to Environmental Science & Technology, 2001.

Chen, H, DR Shonnard, BA Barna, and TN Rogers, A Screening Methodology for Improved Solvent Selection Using Economic and Environmental Assessments, submitted to Clean Products and Processes, 2001.

Sutherland, JW and KL Gunter. "Chapter 13: Environmental Attributes of Manufacturing Processes," Handbook of Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing, Ed. Christian N. Madu, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 293-316, 2001.

Shonnard, DR, TN Rogers, BA Barna, DA Crowl, EJ Oman, PP Radecki, JA Herlevich Jr., and PB Parikh, “Integrated assessment methodologies and software tools for process design: economic, environmental, safety, and decision analyses, in Process Design Tools for the Environment, ed. S.K. Sikdar and M. El-Halwagi, 2001.

Zhang, Q., JC Crittenden, and JR Mihelcic. "Does Simplifying Transport and Exposure Yield Reliable Results for Pollution Prevention Decisions? An Analysis of Four Risk Assessment Methods," Environmental Science and Technology, 35(6), pp. 1282-1288, 2001.

Solomon, BE and JR Mihelcic. “Standardized Environmental Management Codes & Continuous Environmental Improvements: Insights From the Chemical Industry,” Business Strategy & The Environment, 10(4): 215-224, 2001.

Baker, JR, JR Mihelcic, A Sabljic. “Reliable QSAR for Estimating Koc for Persistent Organic Pollutants: Correlation with Molecular Connectivity Indices,” Chemosphere, 45(2): 213-221, 2001.

Zhang , Q, JC Crittenden, DR Shonnard, JR Mihelcic. “Development and Evaluation of an Environmental Multimedia Fate Model for the Great Lakes Region (CHEMGL),” submitted to Chemosphere, May, 2001.

Solomon, B. "Emissions Trading Systems and Environmental Justice," Environment, October 2000.

Shonnard, DR and DS Hiew. “Comparative Environmental Assessments of VOC Recovery and Recycle Design Alternatives for a Gaseous Waste Stream”, Environmental Science and Technology, 34(24), 5222-5228, 2000.

Baker, JR, JR Mihelcic, E Shea. “Estimating Koc for Persistent Organic Pollutants: Limitations of Correlations with Kow,” Chemosphere, 41:813-817, 2000.

Radecki, P, JC Crittenden, DR Shonnard, and J Bulloch. Emerging Separation and Separative-Reactor Technologies for Process Waste Reduction: Adsorption and Membrane Systems”, Center for Waste Reduction Technologies, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, NY, 1999.

Mihelcic, JR. Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering, 335 pages, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, 1999 (Coauthors: MT Auer, DW Hand, RE Honrath, MR Penn, NR Urban, JA Perlinger).

Solomon, B. “New Directions in Emissions Trading: The Potential Contribution of New Institutional Economics," Ecological Economics, September 1999.

Gershenson, JK, RR Dupont, and RL Ratliff. “Selection of Industrial Coatings Based on Environmental and Societal Impact Characteristics.” Proceedings of 2000 IMECE: ASME 2000 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, November, Orlando, Florida, 2000.

Gershenson, JK, GJ Prasad, and S Allamneni. “Modular Product Design: A Life-cycle View,” Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science, Volume 3, Number 4, 1999.

Velázquez Carrillo, Marcela, JR Mihelcic, JC Crittenden. “Use of Material Selection Target Plots for Screening Chemicals based on Environmental and Health Properties,” presented at Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 14-18, 1999 (awarded best student poster award by SETAC).

Sutherland, JW, Y Yue, Y Zheng, K Gunter, T Cao, and W Zhang, "Evaluation of Environmental Effects and Process Impact of Cutting Fluids," Proc. of the 1998 NSF Design & Mfg. Grantees Conf., pp. 369-370, 1998.

Gershenson, JK and GJ Prasad. “Modularity in Product Design for Manufacturing,” International Journal of Agile Manufacturing, Volume 1, Issue 1, August, 1997.

Gershenson, JA and K Ishii. “Life-cycle Design for Serviceability.” Kusiak, A. (ed.), Concurrent Engineering: Theory and Practice, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1991.

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