Lecture 6 - long term resource and economic impact

Question 1

Natural Resource

Answer 1

Materials that occur and are obtained from the environment

Question 2

Why natural resources are so important

Answer 2

all man-made products are made of natural resources fundamentally

Question 3

Non renewable resources

Answer 3

resources that replenish very slowly or not at all over time, considered having a finite supply

Question 4

Factors weighing in on demands of resources

Answer 4

Availability of resource (i.e. abundance/accessibility, rate of extraction of raw resource, depletion/usage of resource), environmental pressure in extraction, processing, usage, and disposal of resource, AND trade and pricing of material + state of economy

Question 5

Reason to manage our resources

Answer 5

Growth of population, economy, and technology has lead to an increased demand of raw materials and resources

Question 6

Raw materials value chain

Answer 6

1. Exploration
2. Extraction
3. Processing and Refining
4. Recycling
5. Final consumption

Question 7

Substitute materials

Answer 7

Replace materials with comparable alternatives that are in greater supply

Question 8

Aspect of value chain nanotech can affect

Answer 8

1. Exploration (i.e. enhance diagnostics and lab-on-a-chip designs)
2. Extraction and recycling (i.e. enhance selective extraction and separation)
3. Production (i.e. sub with alternative nanomaterials, restructuring materials on nanoscale to increase performance, add secondary nanoadditive to reduce amounts of primary material)

Question 9

Future of nanotechnology

Answer 9

Largely dependent on public trust and acceptance of nanotechnology