Topic 14 - The Earth's Resources

Question 1

What are renewable resources?

Answer 1

Resources that can be re-used indefinitely.

Question 2

What are finite resources?

Answer 2

Resources that cannot be re-used forever.

Question 3

What are some examples of finite resources?

Answer 3

-Metal ores are usd to extract metals.
-Crude oil is used to make polymers and petrochemicals.
-Limestone is used to make cement and concrete.
-Crude oil is used to make petrol diesel and kerosene that we use for transport.

Question 4

What are some examples of renewable resources?

Answer 4

-Wood is used to as furniture and for house building.
-Biofuels are used to power some of the generators producing our electricity.

Question 5

What is potable water?

Answer 5

Water that is safe to drink.

Question 6

What does potable water contain?

Answer 6

-Dissolved salts
-Microbes

Question 7

What does pure water contain?

Answer 7

Only H20 atoms, without any dissolved salts.

Question 8

How do we obtain potable water?

Answer 8

Rainwater dissolves some gases from the air as it fall to the ground.
Rainwater collects:
-underground
-in lakes
-in rivers
and is called fresh water.

This needs to be filtered for solids like dirt and to remove microbes.

Question 9

How is sewage filtered?

Answer 9

Sewage and agricultural waste water requires the removal of:
-organic matter
-harmful microbes

Question 10

What processes are there in sewage treatment?

Answer 10

1) Screening and grit removal
2) Sedimentation - to produce sewage, sludge and effluent - sludge moves to the bottom of the tank.
3) Anaerobic digestion of sewage and sludge, by microbes.
4) Aerobic biological treatment of effluent, by microbes.

Question 11

Where are most metals found?

Answer 11

Underground

Question 12

What equipment is needed for the water purification practical?

Answer 12

-Water samples
-Universal indicator
-Bunsen burner
-10cm3 measuring cylinder
-Tripod
-Gauze
-Heatproof mat
-250 cm3 beaker
-Watch glass
-Tongs
-Clamp stand
-250cm3 conical flask
-Delivery tube with bung
-Ice

Question 13

How are most metals extracted from the Earth?

Answer 13

Smelting or using acid

Question 14

Why is hydrogen not generally used to extract metals?

Answer 14

Metals react with H2 to form Hydroxide.

Question 15

What is panning?

Answer 15

Separating particles of greater gravity from the soil.

Question 16

Give three factors that make it economically viable to extract metal.

Answer 16

-Metals sell for very high prices
-Extraction doesn’t cost a lot
-There is a high demand for metals.

Question 17

What factors are part of Life Cycle Assessments?

Answer 17

-Extract and process raw materials
-Manufacturing and packaging
-Use and reuse
-Dispose

Question 18

What is a Life Cycle Assessments?

Answer 18

It works out the environmental impact of each stage of a product’s life.

Question 19

What are the problems with Life Cycle Assessments?

Answer 19

Its difficult to quantify as it is mainly opinion based.

Question 20

What can wool be replaced with?

Answer 20

Acrylic fiber

Question 21

What can cotton be replaced with?

Answer 21

Polyester

Question 22

What can silk be replaced with?

Answer 22

Nylon

Question 23

What can linseed oil be replaced by?

Answer 23

acrylic resin

Question 24

What can rubber be replaced with?

Answer 24

Synthetic polymers

Question 25

What can wood be replaced by?

Answer 25

PVC, composites

Question 26

What finite resources do you need to know for GCSE?

Answer 26

Metal ores used to extract metals

Crude oil used to make polymers and petrochemicals

Limestone to make cement and concrete

Crude oil to make the petrol, diesel and kerosene that we use for transport

Question 27

What are the steps we need to take with cleaning water?

Answer 27

Passing the untreated water through filter beds made of sand and gravel to remove solid particles

The addition of chlorine or ozone to sterilise the water by killing microorganisms

Question 28

Where is desalination used? Why is this?

Answer 28

Warm and dry countries like in the Middle East as they have little fresh water and thus need to purify salt water.

Question 29

What are the steps in sewage treatment?

Answer 29

Screening

Primary sedimentation

Biological treatment

Secondary sedimentation + sludge digestion

Question 30

What can sewage sludge be used for?

Answer 30

The breakdown products include biogas or methane or used to generate electricity

Question 31

How is sludge treatment?

Answer 31

Treatment is carried out at about 55 degrees at a high or 35 degrees at a low.

Question 32

What two ways are there to obtain copper metal from its ore?

Answer 32

Using sulfuric acid to make copper sulfate before extracting copper

Smelting copper ore

Question 33

How do you extract copper from malachite?

Answer 33

Heat the copper carbonate, allowing thermal decomposition to take place.

Add sulfuric acid to copper oxide. Filter black copper oxide.

Question 34

What two low-grade ore techniques are there?

Answer 34

Bioleaching

Phytomining

Question 35

What does bioleaching involve?

Answer 35

Bacteria feed on low-grade metal ores to form copper.

Question 36

What does phytomining involve?

Answer 36

Plants are used to extract copper by absorbing compounds.

These plants are then burned and copper is extracted.

Question 37

What do LCAs assess?

Answer 37

Getting and processing raw materials

Making the product

Using, reusing and maintaining the product

Disposing of a product

Question 38

How is an LCA carried out?

Answer 38

Listing all energy and material inputs and all the outputs into the environment

Evaluating the potential environmental impacts from these inouts and outputs

Interpreting the results to help make decisions about using one material, process, product or service over another

Question 39

How can an LCA be summarised?

Answer 39

Raw material extraction –> manufacture –> Use/reuse –> Maintenance –> Recycle/Waste management

Question 40

What is the order of recycling aluminium?

Answer 40

Feed conveyor –> shredder –> decoater –> melting furnace –> tilting holding furnace –> filtration unit –> direct chill casting unit –> shredder –> ingots

Question 41

How are iron and steel recycled?

Answer 41

Using blast furnace with non-renewable fuels

Question 42

How is copper recycled?

Answer 42

High quality copper can be melted or cleaned and reused

Question 43

What environmental considerations are there for extracting metals?

Answer 43

Forests and habitats are destroyed for quarrying, which also produces noise and light pollution and release many greenhouse gases