using resources Flashcards
Why do we use the Earth’s resources?
- We use them to provide warmth, shelter, food and transport
What do natural resources provide?
- Natural resources, supplemented by agriculture, provide food, timber, clothing and fuels
Define a natural resource
- Anything that comes from the earth, sea or air formed without human input
What can natural products be replaced by?
- Synthetic products or improved upon by man-made processe
Explain the importance of chemistry in improving agricultural and industrial processes
- To provide new products
- Promote sustainable development
Define sustainable development
- Development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
How can we apply sustainable development?
- Reduce the use of a finite resource so it is more likely to last longer
- Develop and adapt processes to use lower amounts of finite resources and reduce damage to the environment
- e.g. catalysts that reduce the amount of energy required for certain industrial processes
Define renewable energy resources
- Sources of power that quickly replenish
themselves and can be used again - (only includes plants/wood if they continue to be re-planted)
Define finite resources
- Have a limited supply that will eventually run out
Define potable water
- Potable water= water that is safe to drink
Explain why potable water is not pure
- Potable water is not ‘pure’ because it contains dissolved substances
Describe what makes potable water safe
- It must have sufficiently low levels of dissolved salts and microbes
Name the factors that affect the methods used to produce potable water
- Available supplies of water
- Local conditions.
Explain the production of potable water in the UK
- An appropriate source of fresh water is selected (rain provides water with low levels of dissolved substances and this collects in the ground/rivers/lakes)
- When it rains, water can be collected as surface water or groundwater
- The water is passed through filter beds to remove different sized insoluble solids
- The water is then sterilised, to kill microbes
Name the sterilizing agents used to sterilize water
- Ozone, UV light or chlorine
Describe how potable water can be obtained from sea/salty water
- If only salty/sea water is available, desalination is required
- can be done by distillation
- or can be done using processes with membranes (e.g. reverse osmosis)
Explain how potable water is obtained by using distillation
Explain how potable water is obtained by using membranes
- Reverse osmosis, membrane only allows water molecules to pass through
- Ions and larger molecules are trapped by the membrane
What are the disadvantages of using desalinization to obtain potable water?
- BOTH are very expensive
- Not practical for producing large quantities of fresh water
- Requires lots of energy
Describe the characteristics of water of the correct quality
- Essential for life
- It must be free of poisonous salts and harmful microbes.
Where can waste water come from?
- Flush water down the drain, go towards sewers
- Agricultural systems produce waste water including nutrient run off from fields and slurry from animal farms
What must be done to waste water?
- Treated to remove organic matter and harmful microbes otherwise they would be very polluted and pose health risks
Explain how correct quality water is produced through waste water treatment
- Water is passed through a mesh screen
to remove large solid particles e.g. twigs or grit - Chemicals are added to make solids and
microbes stick together to form sediment and sink (sedimentation) - heavier suspended solids sink to bottom - When the sediment sinks to the bottom of the tank it forms sewage sludge while the lighter liquid (effluent) remains above
- The sewage sludge is dried and is then anaerobically digested by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen (releases methane gas)
- The effluent is removed and is aerobically digested by microorganisms in the presence of oxygen to remove organic matter and harmful microbes. (air is pumped through the water)
- The water is then sterilized with chlorine to kill any microbes left.
- Addition stages of treatment may involve adding chemicals, UV radiation or using membranes
What can the dried sludge be used as?
- Dried sludge can be used as fertiliser
- The digestion of sewage sludge removes organic matter and produces biogas used to make electricity
Compare waste water treatment and desalinisatoin
- It is relatively cheaper and easier to obtain potable water from groundwater and wastewater than salt water, although seawater is a plentiful raw material, so is
good for countries with little fresh water
Describe the Earth’s resources of metal ores
- Earth’s resources of metal ores are limited
How are scientists extracting copper?
- Copper ores are becoming scarce
- Scientists have developed new ways of extracting copper from low-grade ores
- These methods avoid traditional mining methods of digging, moving and disposing of large amounts of rock
Name the alternative methods used to extract copper
- Smelting and electrolysis
- Electrolysis of copper salt solutions
- Displacement of copper salt solutions w/ scrap iron
- Bioleaching to make solution + electrolysis or displacement
- Phytomining
Explain how smelting + electrolysis is used to extract copper
- Heat (roast) copper ore very strongly in a furnace with air to produce crude (impure) copper.
- The copper compound reacts with the O2 gas in air
- copper (I) sulfide + oxygen → copper + sulfur dioxide
- Electrolysis is used to purify the impure copper extracted by smelting.
Explain how electrolysis of copper salt solutions is used to extract copper
- Add sulfuric acid to copper ore to get copper sulfate
Explain how displacement of copper salt solutinos w/ iron is used to extract copper
- Place iron nail in blue copper sulphate solution
- Leave for one week to allow the reaction to take place
- Solution turns into green iron sulphate solution
- Copper metal forms on iron nail
Explain how phytomining is used to extract copper
- Phytomining uses plants to absorb metal compounds from low-grade ores as they grow ( soils that contain copper which build up in the leaves)
- Plants are harvested and then burned to produce ash that contains metal compounds which can be extracted
- Copper irons are leached (dissolved) from ash by adding sulfuric acid to copper sulfate solution
- Then electrolysis or displacement of copper salt solutions is used to extract pure copper
Explain how bioleaching is used to extract copper
- Bioleaching uses bacteria to produce leachate solutions that contain metal compounds
- Leachate contains copper ions which can be extracted by electrolysis or displacement
- Converts copper compounds in the ore into soluble copper compounds, separating copper ore in the process
Explain how processing metal compounds is used to extract copper
- The metal compounds can be processed to obtain the metal
*For example, copper can be obtained from solutions of copper compounds by displacement using scrap iron or by electrolysis
What is the purpose of the life cycle assessment?
- These are carried out to assess the environmental impact of products in different stages
What are the stages in the LCA?
- Extracting and processing raw materials
- Manufacturing and packaging
- Use and operation during its lifetime
- Disposal at the end of its useful life, including transport and distribution
at each stage
What is the problem with using the LAC?
- Use of water, resources, energy sources and production of some wastes can be
fairly easily quantified - Allocating numerical values to pollutant effects is less straightforward and
requires value judgements, so LCA (life cycle assessment) is not a purely
objective process - Selective or abbreviated LCAs can be devised to evaluate a product but these can
be misused e.g. in support of claims for advertising purposes
How can we reduce our use of resources?
- Reduction in use
- Reusing
- Recycling
What are the benefits of reducing our use of resources?
- Reduces the use of limited resources, use of energy sources, waste and environmental impacts
What are metals, glass, building materials, clay ceramics and most plastics produced from and what is its effect?
- Metals, glass, building materials, clay ceramics and most plastics are produced
from limited raw materials. - Much of the energy for the processes comes from limited resources
- Obtaining raw materials from the Earth by quarrying and mining causes
environmental impacts
Define ceramics
- Non metal solids with high melting points that aren’t made from carbon-based compounds