GreenTechnology Flashcards
1
Q
Dominant landscape of Canada
A
- Forest
2
Q
How much of the world’s forests does Canada have?
A
- 9% of worlds forests
- 24% of world’s boreal forests
- Highest forest area per capita
3
Q
How many trees are there in the world?
A
- Latest estimate: 3.04 trillion
4
Q
What is the current turnover of trees each year?
A
- 15 billion cut, 5 billion replanted = 10 billion loss/year
5
Q
How much carbon does the forest store? How much goes to other sources?
A
- Absorb and store approx. 25% of carbon emitted by burning fossil fuel
- Same amount as into the ocean, 50% to the atm
6
Q
How does the forest store carbon?
A
- Much stored in forest soils
- Carbon is released when trees decompose (from burning, insect infestation)
- Idea: Store carbon by using more wood structures (lumber as storage)
7
Q
Phytoremediation
A
- Use of plants to decontaminate polluted sites
- plants have extensive roots for absorbing substances
- Can transport material to shoots and store elemental pollutants (mercury, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, zinc)
- Some plants hyper-accumulators
- engineering of fast-growing plants (poplars, grasses)
8
Q
Phytoremediation of chemical pollutants
A
- PCB, polychlorinated biphenyls
- TCE, trichloroethylene (dry cleaning)
- TNT, trinitrotoluene (dynamite)
- Microbial enzymes that degrade these can be engineered into plants
9
Q
What are the fossils in fossil fuels?
A
- Dead organisms, mostly plants
- especially coal (oil more from marine sources)
10
Q
What is the world’s most abundant fossil fuel? What period is most of this from in North American reserves?
A
- Coal
- Canada exports coal
- North American coal mostly from Carboniferous period 300-350mya, known for swamp forests
11
Q
Plant gum in petroleum industry
A
- Polysaccharide salts of sugar units other than glucose (glucose polysaccharide make starch and cellulose)
- Presence of salts (calcium, magnesium, potassium) makes them interact with water to make gels
12
Q
Human uses of plant gum
A
- Filler, emulsifier, texturizer
- Found in dairy, lotions, soaps (similar to carageenan)
- For stickiness in glues, dental adhesive, hair gel
13
Q
Guar gum and petroleum industry
A
- Cyamopsis tetragonobulus, fabaceae, legume family, extracted from seeds
- Fracking: mixture of water, sand and chemicals injected into shale rock layers at high pressure to release natural gas
- Guar gum is best additive to suspend the components which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well
14
Q
Making plastic from plants (vs. from fossil fuels)
A
- plastics are also polymers of mostly carbon and hydrogen (Think about what is plastic)
- Plant-derived bioplastics: polymers can be produced from the fermentation of sugar and starch by bacteria and fungi
- Plastic polymers can also be made from cellulose and soy protein
15
Q
PET
A
- Polyethylene terephthalate
- From Brazilian sugarcane
- 50 million tons produced annually from fossil fuel, also high CO2 output
- Starch to make polylactide PLA (corn, heavily fertilized) could substitute PET (tried in sun chip bags)
