Resources Flashcards
State what humans use the Earth’s resources for:
x4
- Warmth
- Shelter
- Food
- Transport
What are natural resources of the Earth supplemented by?
What do natural resources provide?
- They are supplemented by agriculture.
Natural resources provide:
- Food
- Timber
- Clothing
- Fuels
eg cotton and fossil fuels.
True or false, chemistry plays an important role in:
- Improving agricultural and industrial processes to provide new products in sustainable development?
True.
What is meant by sustainable development?
Development that meets the needs of our current generations without compromising the ability of our future generations to meet their needs.
Finite resource:
- state two examples
A resource that runs out because they cannot be replaced as quickly as they are used
EXAMPLES
- Metal
- Fossil fuels
Renewable resource:
A resource that don’t run out because they can be replaced as quickly as they are used.
State an example of a natural product that has been replaced by a synthetic one:
Natural rubber from tree sap being replaced with synthetic rubber from crude oil.
Where does synthetic rubber come from?
Crude oil!
What is the difference between potable water and pure water?
- Potable water is water that contains low levels of dissolved salts and low levels of microbes.
- Pure water contains no dissolved chemicals.
- So potable water isn’t pure as it contains dissolved chemicals.
Water that is safe for humans to drink must have:
Low levels of dissolved salts and microbes. This is called potable water.
What do the methods used to provide potable water in an area depend on?
x2
- Water supplies in that area.
- The local conditions of that area.
Describe how potable water is produced in the UK:
DO NOT MIX UP SEWAGE WATER CLEANING AND POTABLE WATER PRODUCTION!
In the UK rain water provides water with low levels of dissolved substances. This rain water collects in the ground and in lakes in rivers.
Potable water is produced from this rain water by:
- Selecting an appropriate source of water eg rivers
- Passing the water through filter beds to remove suspended particles and materials
- Sterilising the water to kill microbes.
selection, filtration and sterilisation
3 ways of sterilising potable water:
- Using chlorine
- Using Ozone
- Using ultraviolet light
What is fresh water?
Water that has low levels of dissolved minerals.
In countries where freshwater supplies are limited, how is potable water produced?
State a disadvantage of using these methods?
By desalination of salty water or sea water.
How does desalination occur?
- By distillation
OR
- By using processes that include membranes such as reverse osmosis.
DISADVANTAGE:
They require a lot of energy.
Describe the differences in the treatment of groundwater and salty water:
Salty - desalination by distillation or processes that include membranes.
Ground water - filtration, sterilisation
These are how we produce water, not clean it!
Cleaning - sewage and sludge
Production - potable water, desalination, ground water etc
True or false, urban lifestyles and industrial processes produce large amounts of waste water?
True.
EG showering and car washes.
What happens to this waste water before it is released back into the environment?
It is treated.
What may industrial waste water be require the removal of?
Organic matter and harmful chemicals.
What may sewage and agricultural waste water require the removal of?
Organic matter and harmful microbes.
Describe the process at which waste water is treated:
- The sewage water is screened by being passed through a mesh in order to remove solids such as grit.
- The sewage is left to settle in sedimentation camps and this produces liquid effluent and sludge which sinks.
- The sludge is digested by anaerobic bacteria.
- Air is bubbled through the liquid effluent to allow aerobic bacteria to multiply and these digest harmful microorganisms and organic molecules.
- Now liquid effluent is safely discharged into nearby rivers or sea.
When sludge is digested by anaerobic bacteria what is produced, and what can this be used for?
The bacteria produces biogas, this can be burnt to produce electricity.
What can the digested sludge be used for?
Fertilisers for farming.
How is potable water easily produced with respect to:
- Ground water
- Waste water
- Salt water
The easiest way to produce potable water is from ground water/aquifers (these can be treated using chlorine, but the water is often polluted w fertilisers from farms so these need to be tested carefully).
Water from waste water eg sewages: many purification steps so is only done in places when water is scarce.
Water fro salt water needs to be desalinated to produce potable water. Desalination requires a lot of energy so is expensive.
ORDER (easiest, to hardest).
- Ground
- Waste - many steps only where scarce
- Salt - requires alot of energy so expensive
Copper ores are becoming scarce so methods are being used to extract copper from low grade ores.
State two of these methods.
Also what is a low grade ore?
- Phytomining
- Bioleaching
^These methods don’t include the traditional methods of mining, digging, moving rocks and disposing large amounts of rocks.
^Low grade ores are ores that contain only a small amount of a particular metal.
What is a metal ore?
An ore that contains enough metal that makes it economical to extract the metal.
Describe what occurs during phytomining to extract a metal:
- Plants are grown on land containing the desired metal compound.
- The plants absorb the metal compound and concentrate it in their tissue.
- The plants are now harvested and burned.
- This ash now contains a relatively high concentration of the metal compound.
- The metal compound is now processed to obtain the metal.
Describe what occurs during bioleaching to extract a metal.
- Bacteria are mixed with a low grade ore.
- The bacteria carry out chemical reactions to produce a solution called a leachate.
- This leachate solution contains the desired metal compound.
- Metal compound is now processed to obtain the metal.
After phytomining and bioleaching the metal is still in the metal compound, true or false?
What can we do to solve this
- 2 methods.
True.
- We can carry out displacement reactions. eg with copper we can displace the copper from its compound using iron (typically scrap iron) because iron is cheap.
- Electrolysis.
Advantages of phytomining and bioleaching:
- They don’t involve the digging, mining and disposing of rocks.
- They allow us to economically extract metals from low grade ores.
How can copper be extracted from solutions of copper compounds?
x2
- Electrolysis
- Displacement reactions using scrap iron.
What are life cycle assessments (LCAs)?
Assessments carried out to assess the environmental impacts of products in the following stages:
- Extracting and processing raw materials use to make the product.
- Manufacturing and packaging of that product.
- Use and operation of the product during its lifetime
- Disposal of the product at the end of its life time including the transport and the distribution at each stage.
^^These stages require energy and may produce harmful waste products which affect the environment.
Comparative LCA for shopping bags made from plastic and paper:
- Production and extraction, manufacturing, operation and disposal P.E.M.O.D
production:
- Paper bags from wood and trees (Renewable), plastic bags from chemicals in crude oil (non-renewable).
extraction:
- extraction of crude oil to make plastic bags can be harmful to habitats if there’s an oil leak, cutting down trees to make paper bags can destroy habitats.
manufacturing and processing:
- they both need to be chemically processed which requires a lot of energy and releases waste and making paper releases a lot of water.
operation:
- plastic bags = strong and reused, paper bags agents and are typically reused just once and tend to tear.
disposal:
- at the end of their lives they have to be transported either for recycling or to landfills, transporting emits GHG and plastic bags are often heavier than paper bags so requires more energy for transport.
- plastic bags are non BD so stay in the environment for a long time so are a major form of litter and also fill up land fills.
Issues with LCAs
- Though we can measure the use of water and energy we cannot be certain of how damaging the effects of these are, so we have to make estimates or value judgements during LCAs and these aren’t always accurate.
- They can be biased to support claims by advertisers.
How can we limit resources we use to:
- Reduce the amount of use of limited resources
- Reduce waste
- Reduce energy use
^And the impact these have on the environment.
- Recycling products we use.
- Reusing products we use.
Obtaining raw materials from the Earth by processes such as quarrying and mining causes environmental impacts, true or false?
True.
Give examples of how certain materials can be recycled and reused.
Glass bottles:
- Simply reused
- Crushed and melted to make different glass products.
Metals:
- Can be recycled by melting and recasting.