Things you should know but you dont

Question 1

Relative masses

Answer 1

Question 2

1) Why would a company producing Hydrogen from the following process be unconcerned by a poor atom economy?

Answer 2

because the other product is also useful and can be sold. So it isn’t actually waste.

At which point atom economy is irrelevant & the company would be much more interested in percentage yield.

Question 3

2) How to develop chemical processes with high atom economy?

Answer 3

a) Coming up with a process that only produces one product - 100% atom economy

b) Makes several useful products - 100% effective atom economy.

Question 4

Given a process that can be carried out one way with a mediocre atom economy or a second way with a better atom economy why might a company choose the first?

Answer 4

a) Method 1 produces largely harmless waste, like water, when Method 2 produces less but toxic waste

Or

b) Method 2 may have a terrible percentage yield or a bad rate of reaction or both.