Environmental Organic Chemistry

Oil spills, wastewater discharges, and dry cleaning: discover how human activities impact the environment through the power of organic chemistry.

What happened to all of that spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010? Why are we still trying to clean up chemical spills that happened more than 50 years ago? How is it that you are allowed to drink the water from Lake Superior, but not eat the fish?

The answers can be found using organic chemistry. At its core, organic chemistry is about learning how organic chemicals “behave” based on their structure. The course will begin by teaching the universally applicable basics of chemical partitioning and reactions. Emphasis will be placed on developing an intuitive understanding of molecular behavior. That intuition will be immediately implemented using environmental examples, such as how chemicals move between the air, the water, the land, and organisms. We’ll also learn about the reactions that a chemical may undergo in the environment including hydrolysis, photodegradation, and bacteria-catalyzed transformations. The course will culminate in a series of exercises to determine the final fate of chemicals released to the environment based on case studies of real-world scenarios. There will also be a field trip to collect data from a local contaminated water body.

Organic chemistry is notorious for its supposed difficulty. However, by applying its concepts to problems in the environment, you will develop both the rigor and the intuition needed to master the material, and gain a new perspective on the natural world we all live in.

For the application...

Prerequisites

Knowledge of chemistry equivalent to 1 year of a high school course.

Relevant experience

Please list and briefly describe any courses, activities, or programs related to chemistry or environmental science you have participated in.

Application Question (Core-specific free response)

1) In 2010, approximately 5,000,000 barrels of crude oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from a broken oil well on the sea floor. It’s estimated that only 25% of that volume was burned or recovered from the wellhead, sea surface, or shoreline.

Postulate and discuss the possible “fate” of the remaining fraction, that is, where is the rest of the oil now, and how did it get there? Please be thorough, but don't worry about being correct. You should not need to look up any information beyond what is in the question; we just want to see your thought process.

2) Benzo(a)pyrene (structure below) is a very toxic component of the spilled oil. However, it can be degraded by waterborne bacteria into harmless substances using oxygen. Assuming 5.00 kg of benzo(a)pyrene (C₂₀H₁₂) was released and completely degraded into carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water (H₂O) by bacteria, what mass of oxygen (O₂) was consumed in this process? Please show all of your work, and use proper units and significant figures.