Chem321:Term paper

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Term paper on an environmentally benign product or process

Manufacturing industry has in many cases acquired a reputation as a polluting industry. In order to stay in business, industry is being forced to find ways to manufacture products more cleanly. One way is by "tailpipe treatment"- treat the waste to make it safer- but this merely adds cost without providing any benefit. A much more fruitful approach has been that of "Waste Reduction at Source," the approach used in green chemistry and green engineering, where processes are “benign by design.” The beauty of this approach is that the resultant clean processes are often more efficient than the original (efficiency and waste are related), and they can sometimes be more profitable than the dirty processes they replace. Another related approach is the design of environmentally benign products to replace harmful ones.

You will need to write a paper on one such “green” process or product. You should show the uses for the basic process or product, describe the original “dirty” process or product and all of its pros and cons, then show the green replacement along with an explanation of its benefits. Discuss how viable you believe the product to be - can we expect the technology to have a serious impact on the world? You may select a process or product of your own choosing, if you have a particular interest. Alternatively, I can supply a selection of possible subjects for you. Look at some of the past papers (linked below) to see the type of topic you can choose; I prefer that your topic be fairly specific in nature (e.g, bioethanol from cane sugar, rather than biofuels in general). Throughout the semester I will be available to discuss progress on the papers with each of you individually via email. I will also assist in your library searches, and Carol Franck in the library will be able to give you a great amount of help (more than me!).

The paper should be around 2000 words and include at least five citations, of which no more than two can be from non-governmental websites. Primary literature references such as patents or journal articles will typically receive more credit than vague book references or commercial websites. There will be a first draft due July 31, 2015 and the final draft due by Aug 4, 2015. I will comment quickly so you can respond to my corrections. The first draft should not just be an outline, it should contain the full text and only require rewriting or copyediting for the final draft.

The paper should be written on the wiki, and formatted correctly. I will create the page for you once I have your topic. It will almost certainly be made public in the future, released under a Creative Commons license.

If you need other help in writing the paper, or you would like some independent critique, contact the College Writing Center.

Grading

This paper is worth a total 150 points, or 15% of your total grade. Out of these, 50 points are attached to your first draft. I will try to balance out for differences in subject difficulty.

Uploading your paper into the wiki

To upload your paper from Microsoft Word or similar program:

  1. YGo to the web page created for you by Dr. Walker
  2. Assuming you're logged in, you then click on the "Edit" tab. Remove any words you don't want in your final paper.
  3. Open your paper in MS Word.
  4. Type CTRL-A (Select All) then CTRL-C (Copy) in Word
  5. Go back to the wikichem edit window and type CTRL-V (Paste)
  6. Put blank lines between paragraphs.
  7. Click "Save"

Student papers

Please click on the link below to go to your term paper page, then copy & paste your paper into the wiki. Don't forget to add an extra line between every paragraph!

2015 papers

For general interest, I'm also posting a paper from our "Chemistry Topics" course, with the student's permission. PDF only, for copyright reasons, since some figures are fair use only.

2013 papers

2012 papers

Useful resources

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