Thermodynamics, Solubility and Environmental Issues

Environmental problems are becoming an important aspect of our lives as industries grow apace with populations throughout the world. Thermodynamics, Solubility and Environmental Issues highlights some of the problems and shows how chemistry can help to reduce these them. The unifying theme is Solubility – the most basic and important of thermodynamic properties. This informative book looks at the importance and applications of solubility and thermodynamics, in understanding and in reducing chemical pollution in the environment.

Written by experts in their respective fields and representing the latest findings in this very important and broad area. A collection of twenty-five chapters cover a wide range of topics including; mining, polymer manufacture and applications, radioactive wastes, industries in general, agro-chemicals, soil pollution and biology, together with the basic theory and recent developments in the modelling of environmental pollutants.

• Latest research into solving some of the most important environmental problems
• Covering new technologies, new chemicals and new processes eg, biodegradable polymers, ionic liquids and green chemistry
• Contains the basic theories and underlying importance of solubility

Professor Trevor Letcher is an Emeritus Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and living in the United Kingdom. He was previously Professor of Chemistry, and Head of Department, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Rhodes University, and Natal, in South Africa (1969-2004). He has published over 300 papers on areas such as chemical thermodynamic and waste from landfill in peer reviewed journals, and 100 papers in popular science and education journals. Prof. Letcher has edited and/or written 32 major books, of which 22 were published by Elsevier, on topics ranging from future energy, climate change, storing energy, waste, tyre waste and recycling, wind energy, solar energy, managing global warming, plastic waste, renewable energy, and environmental disasters. He has been awarded gold medals by the South African Institute of Chemistry and the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics honoured him with a Festschrift in 2018. He is a life member of both the Royal Society of Chemistry (London) and the South African Institute of Chemistry. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics, and is a Director of the Board of the International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics since 2002.