Chapter One: Introduction

1. In one page, describe the role and scope of environmental engineering in your
own profession (e.g., Electrical engineering, Computer Science, Computer
Engineering).

2. In one page, mention a real example of interdisciplinary application of

environmental engineering in your own profession. Mention the citation of the
reference, such as journal paper, news article, webpage article, etc.

3. Write your own definition of sustainable development as it applies to your

engineering profession. Explain its appropriateness and applicability.

4. “The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks how well countries

perform on high-priority environmental issues in two broad policy areas:
protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of
ecosystems. Within these two policy objectives the EPI scores country
performance in nine issue areas comprised of 20 indicators
(http://www.epi.yale.edu).” Research the current environmental problems in
Nepal using information from http://epi.yale.edu/epi/country-profile/nepal.
Observe the following indicators for Nepal: health impacts, air quality, water
and sanitation, water resources, agriculture, and forests. Then answer the
following:

1. Compare the performance of Nepal with the other countries in the

region.

2. Which indicators have improved in the last ten years? Give some
possible reasons.

3. Which indicators have worsened in the last ten years? Give some
possible reasons.

Chapter Two: Environmental Engineering Calculations

1. A quantity 𝑘 depends on the temperature 𝑇:
𝑚𝑜𝑙 20000
𝑘 ( 3 ) = 1.2 × 105 𝑒𝑥𝑝 (− )
𝑐𝑚 ⋅ 𝑠 1.987𝑇
2. The units of the quantity 20000 are cal/mol, and T is in K (kelvin). What are the
units of 1.2× 105 and 1.987?

3. How many significant figures are present in the following?

1. 12200

2. 12200.0
 3. 0.003040

4. 1.34× 105

4. Find the equivalent of 1 mg/L in (a) kg/m 3

(b) kg/L.

5. A resident in Kathmandu produces 0.5 kg of solid waste. If the volume of this

waste is 1.5 L. Determine the density of the solid wastes in (i) kg/L and (ii)
ton/m 3 . Based on this information, determine the volume (in m 3 ) and
weight (in tons) of the solid wastes generated in Kathmandu Valley assuming
the population to be 9 million.

6. Colloids are particles of size 10 −7 cm to 10 −8 cm in size. Give these sizes in

nm. Compare the sizes with the size of a bacteria (1 𝜇m).

7. Convert the following concentration in to g/m 3 (a) 500 ppm (b) 0.08 ppm.
Assume that the density of the solution is 1 kg/L.

8. Per capita water consumption in Kathmandu Valley is 180 liters per day.
Estimate the quantity of wastewater being discharged to Bagmati river in (a)
MLD and (b) m 3 /s (c) crore lpd, assuming 25% of the wastewater is lost by
evaporation and population of Kathmandu to be 9 million.

9. Estimate the volume of snow in the Mountains of Nepal. Assume that 17% of
the surface area of Nepal is covered by snow and average depth of snow is 1 m.
Report the figure in appropriate unit.

10. Estimate the rural and urban water demand in your home district. Assume that
the rural and urban water demands are: 45 lpcd and 120 lpcd.

11. Dhulikhel campus of Kathmandu University has about 1800 undergraduate

students and 450 students graduate every year. Supposing that everyone
enrolled at the university graduates eventually. What is the approximate
retention time (the time the students spend) of the students at Dhulikhel
campus?

12. A power plant emits 80 kg of flyash per hour up the stack. The flow rate of the
hot gases in the stack is 850 L/s. What is the concentration of the flyash in
𝜇g/m 3 ?

13. (a) How much milk is consumed in Nepal everyday? (Make reasonable
assumptions). (b) One gram of table salt is put into a glass of 400 mL. What is
the concentration of salt in mg/L ?

14. What is the concentration in (a) ppm 𝑣 and (b) percent by volume of carbon
monoxide with a concentration of 103 𝜇g/m 3 ? Assume a temperature of 25
∘
C and pressure of 1 atm.
15. Formaldehyde is commonly found in the indoor air of improperly designed and
constructed buildings. If the concentration of formaldehyde in a home is 0.7
ppm 𝑣 and the inside volume is 800 m 3 , what mass (in grams) of
formaldehyde vapor is inside the home? Assume 𝑇 = 298 K and 𝑃 = 1 atm. The
molecular weight of formaldehyde is 30.

16. Mobile combustion of N 2O in 2004 emitted 42.8 Tg CO 2 e. How many Gg of

N 2 O was this?

Chapter Three: Basic Environmental Engineering Principles

1. A household needs 50 kg of consumer goods (food, magazines, newspapers,
appliances, furniture and associated packaging). Of this amount, 60 percent is
consumed as food. Half of the food is used for biological maintenance and
ultimately released as CO 2 ; the remainder is discharged to the sewer system.
Approximately 1 kg accumulates in the house. The household recycles 30 % of
the solid wastes generated. Estimate the amount of solid waste they place at the
curb each week.

2. A sewage lagoon that has a surface area of 10 ha and a depth of 1 m is receiving

8640 m 3 /d of sewage containing 100 mg/L of biodegradable contaminant. At
steady state, the effluent from the lagoon must not exceed 40 mg/L of
biodegradable contaminant. Assuming the lagoon is well mixed and that there
are no losses or gains of water in the lagoon other than the sewage input, what
biodegradation reaction rate coefficient (d −1 ) must be achieved for a first
order reaction?

3. The Bagmati river has a discharge of 500 million m 3 at Chobhar. Assuming

that all the wastewaters generated in Kathmandu is discharged to Bagmati at
Chobhar after collection, determine the DO of river water after mixing. Assume
DO of Bagmati at Chobhar as 4 mg/L and DO of wastewater as 0.5 mg/L. Take
the wastewater generation rate of 100 lpcd for 1.5 million population in
Kathmandu.

4. A stream flowing at 10.0 m 3 /s has a tributary feeding into it with a flow 5.0
m 3 /s. The stream’s concentration of chlorides upstream of the junction is
10.0 mg/L and the tributary chloride concentration is 40.0 mg/L. Treating
chlorides as a conservative substance, and assuming completely mixing of the
two streams, find the downstream chloride concentration.

5. 5. A wastewater treatment plant with an output of 38400 m 3 /day discharges

the liquid effluent with a BOD of 20 mg/L into a river. If the BOD of the river
upstream of the discharge point is 0.2 mg/L, at a maximum flow of 20 m 3 /s,
compute the BOD of the river downstream of the discharge, assuming complete
mixing.
6. Each day 3780 m 3 of wastewater is treated at a municipal wastewater
treatment plant. The influent contains 220 mg/L of suspended solids. The
clarified water has a suspended, solids concentration of 5 mg/L. Determine the
mass of sludge produced daily from the clarifier.

7. A Sanitary landfill has available space of 16.2 ha at an average depth of 10 m.

Seven hundred sixty-five (765) cubic meters of solid waste are dumped at the
site 5 days per week. This waste is compacted to twice its delivered density.
Draw a mass-balance diagram and estimate the expected life of the landfill in
years.

8. A stream, (shown in the following figure) flowing at 150 L/s and 20 mg/L
suspended solids, receives wastewater from three separate sources:

What are the flow and suspended solids concentration downstream at the
sampling point?

9. Newsprint appears to be an especially good candidate for recycling. Yet, the

price of old newspapers has historically not been very high. One reason for the
low price of old newsprint is the economics of converting a paper mill from
processing trees to processing old newsprint. This is illustrated by the
following situation. The Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press and
Dispatch represented 75% of the newspaper circulation in Minnesota. The Star
Tribune had a circulation of 2973100/d and weighed about 0.5 kg/issue, while
the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch had a circulation of 1229500/d and
weighed 0.4 kg/issue. Of course, not all of what the consumer receives is
recyclable newsprint; 17% of the weight is nonnewsprint material for glossy
advertisements and magazines, and 1% is ink. Also, 5% of what is printed is
overissues and never reaches the consumer, while 3% of the newsprint
delivered to the press becomes newsroom scrap and is not printed.

1. Draw a mass balance diagram for this system.

2. Find the mass of newspaper that reached consumers in Minnesota each

day. How much of this was recyclable newsprint, including ink but
excluding glossy pages?

10. For the following conditions, determine whether a CMFR or a PFR is more
efficient in removing a reactive compound from the waste stream under steady-
state conditions with a first-order reaction: reaction volume = 280 m 3 , flow
rate = 14 m 3 /d, and reaction rate coefficient = 0.05 d −1 .