The students who are accepted to the doctoral program with MS degree should take at least 7 credit courses to satisfy minimum a total of 21 credits. The students who are accepted to the doctoral program with undergraduate program are required to take at least 14 courses and seminar courses to provide minimum a total of 42 credits. Students must be successful in the qualifying examination, thesis proposal and dissertation preparation. PhD thesis must meet one of the attributes: science innovation, development of a new scientific method or application of a known method to a new field.

Applicants must hold an engineering undergraduate degree, such as in Environmental, Chemical, and Civil Engineering. A thesis is required for the Master of Science degree. Continuous registration is necessary for all graduate students until the thesis has been approved unless special permission from the Graduate School of Engineering and Sciences is obtained. The emphasis of the program is on Environmental Pollution and Control. Several departments at the Institute contribute to the program. The required course load is 21 credits. Core and elective courses of the program are catalogued under the contributing departments’ pages. Students are to take at least three core courses, one from each of the three groups. Remaining credit requirements may be met by taking related courses offered in other departments and other interdisciplinary graduate programs. The core courses and offering departments are as follows.

ECTS forms of the courses may be viewed on the Office of International Relations website.

Core Courses

 

Code	Course Name	Credit	ECTS
ENV 501	Environmental Chemodynamics	(3-0)3	8
ENV 602	Advanced Environmental Chemistry	(3-0)3	8
ENV 591*	Technical Writing, Research Methods, and Ethics	(0-2)NC	7
ENV 600	Ph.D.Thesis	(0-1) NC	26
ENV 698	Seminar	(0-2) NC	7
ENV 8	Special Studies	(8-0) NC	4

*Mandatory for students who have not successfully completed this or an equivalent course for masters degree.

 

Total credit (min.) : 21 (for students with M.S. degree)

Number of credited courses (min.) : 7 (for students with M.S. degree)

Total credit (min.) : 42 (for students with B.S. degree)

Number of credited courses (min.) : 14 (for students with B.S. degree)

 

Elective Courses

 

Code	Course Name	Credit	ECTS
ENV 580	Special Topics in Environmental Engineering	(3-0)3	7
ENV 603	Environmental Statistics	(3-0)3	8
ENV 502	Environmental Biotechnology	(3-0)3	7
ENV 503	Sustainable Energy and Environment	(3-0)3	7
ENV 504	Bioenergy Technologies	(3-0)3	7
ENV 505	Microalgal Biotechnology	(3-0)3	7
ENV 506	Environmental Exposure and Risk Assessment	(3-0)3	7
ENV 507	Indoor Air Pollution	(3-0)3	7
ENV 508	Air Pollution Control I	(3-0)3	7
ENV 509	Air Pollution Control II	(3-0)3	7
ENV 510	Remediation of Contaminated Sites	(3-0)3	7
ENV 511	Micropollutants in the Environment	(3-0)3	7
ENV 512	Advanced Water Chemistry	(3-0)3	7
ENV 513	Molecular Techniques in Microbial Ecology	(3-0)3	7
ENV 514	Circular Economy Tools and Instruments	(3-0)3	7
ENV 515	Waste Resources Management	(3-0)3	7
ENV 516	Anaerobic Biotechnology	(3-0)3	7
ENV 517	Advanced Biological Nutrient Removal	(3-0)3	7
ENV 518	Surface Water Quality Modeling	(3-0)3	7
ENV 519	Hazardous Waste Management	(3-0)3	7
ENV 520	Resource Recovery Systems	(3-0)3	7

 

In addition to ENV coded courses, elective courses are selected from related courses in other departments and other interdisciplinary graduate programs.

 

İZMİR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

CURRICULUM OF THE Ph.D. PROGRAM IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

 

Course Descriptions

 

ENV 600 Ph.D. Thesis (0-1)NC [26]

Original research work done by the student under supervision of an advisor and written in the graduate thesis format.

 

ENV 501 Environmental Chemodynamics (3-0)3 [8]

When a pollutant enters the environment, it will be distributed among the environmental media-air, water and soil- depending on its physical-chemical properties. Within the scope of this course, the principles of mass transport processes in the environment will be introduced, governing equations of mass transport and transfer will be examined for quantification of pollutants, and the concepts affecting the fate of pollutants in the environment will be explained.

 

ENV 602 Advanced Environmental Chemistry (3-0)3 [8]       

Chemical processes in environmental systems, equilibrium conditions in aquatic systems and atmospheric reactions.  Acid-base, dissolution-precipitation, air-water exchange, and oxidation-reduction reactions.

 

ENV 603 Environmental Statistics (3-0)3 [8]       

Numerical-Graphical Data Representation-Summary, Random Variables-Probability Distributions, Hypothesis Testing, Simple and Multiple Linear Regression, Nonparametric Tests, QA/QC Measures, Data Censoring.

 

ENV 502 Environmental Biotechnology (3-0)3 [7]

Microorganisms in the nature readily conduct many different types of conversion processes that are vital in the operation of biosphere. Environmental biotechnology is a rather new and very dynamic domain that aims at utilizing microbial processes for treatment purposes. In order to understand the microbial processes, one needs to deconstruct the microbial ecology responsible for those processes. At this point, the relationship between phylogeny and function within microbial community should be elucidated through employing recent advances in molecular techniques such as FISH, MAR, SIP, metagenomics, and proteomics. Moreover the means to manipulate microbial communities and pure cultures in order to conduct desired process (treatment, energy production) will be discussed.

 

ENV 503 Sustainable Energy and Environment (3-0)3 [7]

Estimation and evaluation of energy resources will be covered following the relationship between sustainable energy and sustainable development. Local, regional and global environmental effects of energy and sustainability metrics for energy systems will be investigated. Fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewable energy resources will be addressed in terms of developed technology and sustainability metrics. Sustainability model applications will be discussed over current scientific literature.

 

ENV 504 Bioenergy Technologies (3-0)3 [7]

Bioenergy is the energy derived from non-fossilized biomass. Compared to consumption of fossil fuels, bioenergy offers advantages in environmental and economic sustainability thus is expected to be one of the primary alternative energy sources of the future. This course will instruct the students on (i) current conventional energy sources and their environmental impacts, (ii) major feedstocks that are being cultivated, researched and developed for the generation of biodiesel, bioethanol, and biogas, and (iii) biochemical and thermochemical conversion technologies used for biofuel generation. In addition, promising technologies such as microbial fuel cells and photosynthetic microorganism based systems will be presented. Environmental impacts of bioenergy technologies will be discussed.

 

ENV 505 Microalgal Biotechnology (3-0)3 [7]

Microalgae are photosynthetic single cellular microorganisms. The growth rate of these microorganisms can exceed those of most productive terrestrial plants by more than an order of magnitude with readily available inputs and without the requirement of critical resources such as cropping area and freshwater. More importantly, they can combine this fast-paced growth with wastewater treatment, CO2 capture and biosynthesis of high value metabolites. These unique features created such an interest in microalgae that they are referred to as “green gold”. The main goals of this course will be to (i) explain the reasons behind the “green gold rush”, (ii) point out opportunities offered by microalgae for solving today’s world problems as well as their intrinsic limitations, (iii) present current cultivation systems and (iv) explain how these cultivation systems are designed and operated.

 

ENV 506 Environmental Exposure and Risk Assessment (3-0)3 [7]

Evaluation of toxicological data, Human exposure assessment, Carcinogenic risk Chronic-toxic risk, Human health risk characterization, Risk communication, Risk Management, Ecological risk assessment.

 

ENV 507 Indoor Air Pollution (3-0)3 [7]

Indoor air quality, Problem identification techniques, Sources of pollution indoors, Sampling and analysis methods, Control systems and mitigation techniques, Health effects of indoor air pollution

 

ENV 508 Air Pollution Control I (3-0)3 [7]

Principles and modern practices employed in the design of engineering systems for the removal of particulate matter in environmental engineering. Design of control devices based on particulate matter and waste gas stream characteristics. Properties of particles, particle behavior in fluids, theory of particle control mechanisms, cyclones, fabric filters, electrostatic precipitators, wet scrubbers, auxiliary equipment for the removal of particulate matter from waste streams.

 

ENV 509 Air Pollution Control II (3-0)3 [7]

Principles and modern practices employed in the design of environmental engineering systems for the removal of gaseous pollutants from waste streams. The course content consists of properties of gases and vapors, Incineration, Absorption, Adsorption, Control of VOCs, Control of SOx, Control of NOx, Control of gaseous motor vehicle emissions.

 

ENV 510 Remediation of Contaminated Sites (3-0)3 [7]

Release of chemicals produced and consumed due to industrial needs results in contamination of natural resources. This has led the contaminated sites to become a global environmental problem. Various techniques have been developed for the remediation of such sites and research on this topic is ongoing. Within the scope of this course, sampling, application and monitoring stages of traditional and innovative techniques that can be applied for characterization and remediation of soil, groundwater and sediments contaminated with various groups of pollutants will be examined.

 

ENV 511 Micropollutants in the Environment (3-0)3 [7]

Once micropollutants, formed as a result of human activities, are released to the environment, they are distributed within environmental compartments via various transport and transformation processes depending on their physico-chemical properties and environmental conditions, and may pose a risk to the environment and human health. Within the scope of this course, various micropollutant groups will be introduced together with their physico-chemical properties, the transformation processes that play an important role in the fate of these pollutants will be examined in detail by using the knowledge on fundamentals of mass transport, and modeling applications will be explained.

 

ENV 512 Advanced Water Chemistry (3-0)3 [7]

Chemical potential, equilibrium, activity coefficients; Acids and Bases, speciation, logC-pH diagrams; Titrations and Buffers, equivalence points, alkalinity; Chemistry of metals in aqueous solutions, dissolution, complexation, precipitation; Redox chemistry, Nernst equation, logC-pe diagrams; Adsorption reactions, isotherms, ionic adsorption.

 

ENV 513 Molecular Techniques in Microbial Ecology (3-0)3 [7]

DNA and RNA; Cell cultures, enrichment and isolation; Polymerase Chain Reaction; FISH, sensitivity, specificity, probe design, full-Cycle rRNA approach; Cloning; Sequencing (Sanger, NGS); Microarrays; Metagenomics; Proteomics; Transcriptomics; Metabolomics.

 

ENV 514 Circular Economy Tools and Instruments (3-0)3 [7]

It decouples economic growth from resource consumption. Therefore, this course involves the circular economy philosophy which is an emerging field of study, promoting a systemic, cross-disciplinary approach such as environmental friendly “take, make, recovery” model.

 

ENV 515 Waste Resources Management (3-0)3 [7]

Within the scope of this course, landfill and other waste disposal methods will be discussed. General information will be given on the management of special wastes such as biological wastes, hazardous wastes, batteries, electrical and electronic equipment wastes, used oil, end-of-life vehicles, scrap tires, construction and demolition wastes.

 

ENV 516 Anaerobic Biotechnology (3-0)3 [7]                   

Within the scope of this course, the basic concepts of anaerobic biotechnology for organic waste and wastewater will be evaluated, the metabolic pathways of anaerobic fermentation will be explained, inhibitory conditions in the anaerobic digestion process will be discussed, and the topics for the design of anaerobic treatment processes will be explained.

 

ENV 517 Advanced Biological Nutrient Removal (3-0)3 [7]                   

Within the scope of this course, the source of nutrients in drinking water will be explained. Novel biological nutrient removal technologies will be discussed.

 

ENV 518 Surface Water Quality Modeling (3-0)3 [7]                   

The behavior of a pollutant in the surface water environment is described by mass transport principles. The equations defining the fate and transport of pollutants are solved by numerical and analytical methods for different situations and conditions. In this course, the formulation of the equations that describe the fate and transport of a pollutant in different environments will be made and their solution with various analytical and numerical methods will be demonstrated.

 

ENV 519 Hazardous Waste Management (3-0)3 [7]                   

This course covers management, planning, regulatory, and engineering aspects of hazardous waste handling, treatment, and disposal. The course will evaluate engineering process design and the analysis of important unit operations and processes in different treatment technologies for hazardous wastes. It will also familiarize students with issues, problems, and processes involved in hazardous waste management and treatment systems.

 

ENV 520 Resource Recovery Systems (3-0)3 [7]                   

This course deals with technologies for solid waste management and recycling with a focus on resource recovery from waste systems. It considers a range of material- and product-related waste streams including municipal/industrial wastewater sludge, municipal solid waste, agricultural and forestry residues, plastic wastes, construction and demolition wastes and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The fundamentals of various processes and techniques for utilization of wastes as resources for multiple high value-added products will be introduced. This will include mechanical, biological and thermal treatment methods, and solutions for specific waste types. Life cycle assessment of waste systems will also be discussed.

 

ENV 580 Special Topics in Environmental Engineering (3-0)3 [7]

Directed group study of special topics in environmental engineering

 

ENV 591 Technical Writing, Research Methods, and Ethics (0-2)NC [7]

Literature survey, critical review, research study design, conveying results of a study, research publication system, manuscript preparation, seminar preparation, ethical issues in research, ethical issues in publishing.

 

ENV 698 Research Seminar (0-2)NC [7]

Literature survey, critical review, research study proposal, oral presentation.

 

ENV 8XX Special Studies (8-0)NC [4]

Graduate students supervised by the same faculty member study advanced topics under the guidance of their advisor.