Using Resources Flashcards
How is water made potable?
Fresh water is taken and passed through a filter.
Chlorine gas is added to kill any harmful microorganisms.
Fluoride is added to reduce tooth decay.
What can be used to sterilise water?
Ozone, ultraviolet.
What is desalination?
Removing salt from sea water.
What processes are used in desalination?
Distillation, reverse osmosis.
What does sewage treatment include?
Screening and grit removal.
Sedimentation to produce sewage sludge and effluent.
Anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge.
Aerobic biological treatment of effluent.
What is the process of smelting?
When copper is extracted from copper-rich ores by heating the ores with carbon in furnace.
What is the process of phytomining?
Plants are used to absorb copper, which are then burnt. The ash produced contains copper in relatively high quantities.
What is the process of bioleaching?
Uses bacteria to extract metals from low-grade ores, where a solution containing bacteria is mixed with ow-grade copper ore. The bacteria converts the copper into a solution (leachate solution), from which copper can easily be extracted.
What is a life cycle assessment used to asses?
The environmental impact a product has over its whole lifetime.
In LCAs (life cycle assessments), what do scientists measure?
Extracting raw materials. Processing raw materials. Manufacturing the product. How the product is transported. How the product is disposed of at the end of its life.
How can waste glass be recycled?
It is crushed, melted and reused.
How use can waste plastic have?
Once recycled, it can be used to make fleece material.
How can metals be recycled?
They are melted down and then made into new objects.
Why is recycling useful?
It generally uses for less energy than the initial extraction and production process.
It has less of a negative impact on the environment.
It preserve reserves of raw materials for the future.
