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Contaminants and their behavior in the environment

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Course Unit Code546-0852/01
Number of ECTS Credits Allocated5 ECTS credits
Type of Course Unit *Compulsory
Level of Course Unit *First Cycle
Year of Study *First Year
Semester when the Course Unit is deliveredSummer Semester
Mode of DeliveryFace-to-face
Language of InstructionCzech
Prerequisites and Co-Requisites Course succeeds to compulsory courses of previous semester
Name of Lecturer(s)Personal IDName
PER34doc. Mgr. Eva Pertile, Ph.D.
Summary
A large number of different chemical substances, mainly of anthropogenic origin, are released into the environment. Understanding the fate of contaminants in the environment is a prerequisite for assessing the environmental risks associated with them. Learning outcomes of the course unit The course will provide students with knowledge and experience with the evaluation of the behaviour of contaminants in individual components of the environment. The course focuses on the transformation and transport of significant environmental contaminants, with a particular focus on air, soil, water and sediments.
Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit
The graduate will be able to characterize the properties of individual components of the environment (atmosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, biosphere) and combine this knowledge with the occurrence and fate of chemical substances in these components. They will understand the links between the structure of chemical substances, their physicochemical properties and their fate in the environment and the environmental impact on this fate. They will also be able to explain the connection between the sources of pollution and the primary and secondary pollution of individual components of the environment.

Characteristics of knowledge and skills to be acquired: Students will be able to interpret the fate of chemicals in the environment, their transport in the environment, interphase transitions, equilibrium in the environment and transformation of chemicals in abiotic and biotic components of the environment.
Course Contents
1. Introduction. Basic terms and definitions.
2. Origin and fate of pollutants in the environment I - general introduction. Environmental interface and chemical equilibrium. Relationship
between chemical structure and reactivity.
3. Origin and fate of pollutants in environment II - Classes of compounds included in the list of priority pollutants. New environmental
pollutants.
4. The fate of chemicals in the environment - transport, transformation - basic concepts and relations.
5. Biogeochemical cycles of macrobiotic and microbiogenic elements and important pollutants.
6. Atmospheric pollution and its consequences. Sources and transformation. Smog and its types. PMx. Acidic/dry deposition.
7. Organic compounds in the troposphere: Occurrence of organic compounds in the troposphere. Volatile organic compounds in the troposphere -
environmental characteristics of group representatives; degradation processes in the troposphere of selected pollutants.
8. Persistent organic compounds in the troposphere - environmental characteristics of group representatives. Global importance of POPs
occurrence in the environment, fate and transport in the environment, deposition of POPs. International Conventions. Inventory POPs
9. Potentially toxic metals in the air: environmental characteristics of PTK and their entry into the environment. Transformation processes of
metals in the environment.
10. Organochlorinated pesticides in the troposphere: introduction, environmental characteristics of some important organochlorinated
pesticides.
11. Pollution of the pedosphere. Main pollutants occurring in soil and their environmental characteristics. Interaction of pollutants with
soil component. Transformation of pollutants in the pedosphere. Distribution of chemicals in soil - diffusion and leaching. Primary and
secondary soil pollution.
12. Pollution of the hydrosphere. Chemical reactions in waters, hydrolytic reactions, equilibria in waters (protolytic, complex-forming,
precipitation, dissolution, redox). The most common pollutants involved in hydrosphere pollution. Bottom sediments, origin, water-sediment equilibrium, sorption on the sediment surface.
13. Landfills as possible sources of contamination of environmental components.
Recommended or Required Reading
Required Reading:
HITES, R. A. Elements of environmental chemistry. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Intersicence, 2007. xiii, 204. ISBN 9780471998150.
IBÁŃEZ, Jorge Guillermo. Environmental chemistry: fundamentals. New York, NY: Springer, 2007. xviii, 334. ISBN 9780387260617.
MANAHAN, Stanley E. Environmental chemistry. 9th ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press, c2010. ISBN 1420059203.
BLEAM, W. F. Soil and environmental chemistry. Second edition. Boston: Elsevier/AP, Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier, 2017. ISBN 978-0-12-804178-9.
KURFÜRST, Jiří, ed. Kompendium ochrany kvality ovzduší. Chrudim: Vodní zdroje Ekomonitor, 2008. ISBN 978-80-86832-38-8.
PITTER, Pavel. Hydrochemie. 5. aktualizované a doplněné vydání. Praha: Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze, 2015. ISBN isbn978-80-7080-928-0.
PERTILE E., SUROVKA D.: Kontaminanty a jejich chování v ŽP, 2018, 173 s. E-lerningová podpora.
RODRÍGUEZ-EUGENIO, N., Mc LAUGHLIN, M. and PENNOCK, D. Soil Pollution: a hidden reality. Rome, FAO 2018. 142 pp. ISBN 978-92-5-130505-8: Dostupné z: http://www.fao.org/3/I9183EN/i9183en.pdf.
Recommended Reading:
PERTILE, Eva, Dalibor SUROVKA a Aleš BOŽOŇ. The Study of Occurrences of Selected PAHs Adsorbed on PM10 Particles in Coal Mine Waste Dumps Heřmanice and Hrabůvka (Czech Republic). In: 16th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference: SGEM 2016: energy and clean technologies: conference proceedings: 2-5 November, 2016, Extended Scientific Sessions Vienna, Austria, HOFBURG Congress Centre. Volume III. Sofia: STEF92 Technology Ltd., 2016. s. 161-168. ISBN 978-619-7105-82-7.
MOLINOVÁ, Barbora, Eva PERTILE a Martina NOVÁČKOVÁ. Water and Sediment Quality Assessment in the Wetland Pateria de Fermentelos (Portugal). Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences. BAIA MARE: North University of BAIA MARE, 2013, 8(2, 2013), s. 133-142. ISSN 1842-4090.
PERTILE, Eva, Dalibor SUROVKA, Eliška SARCAKOVA a Aleš BOŽON. Monitoring of Pollutants in an Active Mining Dump Ema, Czech Republic. Inžynieria Mineralna. Kraków: Polskie towarzystwo przeróbki kopalin, 2017, 39(1), s. 45-50. ISSN 1640-4920.
LICHTFOUSE, E., J. SCHWARZBAUER a D. ROBERT. Pollutant diseases, remediation, and recycling. Cham: Springer, 2013. Environmental chemistry for a sustainable world, v. 4.
PERTILE, Eva, Lucie NEZVALOVÁ, Vladimír ČABLÍK a Peter FEČKO. Sledování obsahu PAU v sedimentech zvodnělých poklesových kotlin na Karvinsku. Odpadové fórum: sborník přednášek. Praha: PCHE – PetroChemEng, 2010, 2010(3), s. 24-25. ISBN 978-80-02-02108-7.
PERTILE, Eva, Peter FEČKO, Lucie NEZVALOVÁ, Michal GUZIUREK a Radka WOLFOVÁ. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Content in the Sediments of Water-bearing Subsidence Throughs in the Karviná Region. Journal of Mining and Metallurgy, An international journal for theory and practice of mining and metallurgy, Section A: Mining, Bor: Technical Faculty and Copper Institute Bor, 2009, 45(1), s. 88-95. ISSN 1450-5959.
NEZVALOVÁ, Lucie, Eva PERTILE, Peter FEČKO a Vladimír ČABLÍK. Biodegradace polycyklických aromatických uhlovodíků v sedimentech. Zpravodaj Hnědé uhlí. Most: Výzkumný ústav pro hnědé uhlí a.s., 2010, 2010(1), s. 10-12. ISSN 1213-1660.
BRANIŠ, Martin a Iva HŮNOVÁ, ed. Atmosféra a klima: aktuální otázky ochrany ovzduší. V Praze: Karolinum, 2009. ISBN isbn9788024615981.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Lectures, Experimental work in labs
Assesment methods and criteria
Task TitleTask TypeMaximum Number of Points
(Act. for Subtasks)
Minimum Number of Points for Task Passing
Credit and ExaminationCredit and Examination100 (100)51
        CreditCredit33 (33)13
                Závěrečný zápočtový testWritten test13 5
                Semestrální projektSemestral project20 8
        ExaminationExamination67 27