Vocabulary

Question 1

Atom economy (atom efficiency/percentage)

Answer 1

Atom economy (atom efficiency/percentage) is the conversion efficiency of a chemical process in terms of all atoms involved and the desired products produced

Question 2

Industrial ecology (IE)

Answer 2

Industrial ecology (IE) is the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems.

Question 3

Catalysis

Answer 3

Catalysis is a term describing a process in which the rate and/or the outcome of the reaction is influenced by the presence of a substance (the catalyst) that is not consumed during the reaction and that is subsequently removed if it is not to constitute as an impurity in the final product.

Question 4

Photochemistry

Answer 4

Photochemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the chemical effects of light. Generally, this term is used to describe a chemical reaction caused by absorption of ultraviolet (wavelength from 100 to 400 nm), visible light (400–750 nm) or infrared radiation (750–2500 nm).

Question 5

Biomimetic synthesis

Answer 5

Biomimetic synthesis is an area of organic chemical synthesis that is specifically biologically inspired. The term encompasses both the testing of a “biogenetic hypothesis” (conjectured course of a biosynthesis in nature) through execution of a series of reactions designed to parallel the proposed biosynthesis, as well as programs of study where a synthetic reaction or reactions aimed at a desired synthetic goal are designed to mimic one or more known enzymic transformations of an established biosynthetic pathway.

Question 6

E factor

Answer 6

E factor (environmental factor) is another simple metric of how “green” a reaction is. It is defined as the ratio of the mass of waste per mass of product.

Question 7

Process Intensification (PI)

Answer 7

Process Intensification (PI) is defined as improvements of a process at unit operational, functional and/or phenomena levels that can be obtained by integration of unit operations, integration of functions and phenomena’s or targeted enhancement of the phenomena for a set of target operations (Lutze et al., 2013).

Question 8

Unit Operation

Answer 8

In chemical engineering and related fields, a unit operation is a basic step in a process. Unit operations involve a physical change or chemical transformation such as separation, crystallization, evaporation, filtration, polymerization, isomerization, and other reactions.

Question 9

Chemical affinity

Answer 9

In chemical physics and physical chemistry, chemical affinity is the electronic property by which dissimilar chemical species are capable of forming chemical compounds. Chemical affinity can also refer to the tendency of an atom or compound to combine by chemical reaction with atoms or compounds of unlike composition.

Question 10

Refinery

Answer 10

A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.

Question 11

Leaching

Answer 11

Leaching is the process of a solute becoming detached or extracted from its carrier substance by way of a solvent.

leaching, in geology, loss of soluble substances and colloids from the top layer of soil (topsoil) by percolating precipitation. The materials lost are carried downward (eluviated) and are generally redeposited (illuviated) in a lower layer. This transport results in a porous and open top layer and a dense, compact lower layer.

Question 12

Adsorb vs Absorb

Answer 12

Adsorption and absorption mean quite different things. Absorption is where a liquid is soaked up into something like a sponge, cloth or filter paper. The liquid is completely absorbed into the absorbent material. Adsorption refers to individual molecules, atoms or ions gathering on surfaces.

Question 13

Phytoremediation

Answer 13

Phytoremediation is a plant-based approach, which involves the use of plants to extract and remove elemental pollutants or lower their bioavailability in soil (Berti and Cunningham, 2000). Plants have the abilities to absorb ionic compounds in the soil even at low concentrations through their root system.

Question 14

Secondary fuels

Answer 14

Secondary fuels are fuels that are derived from some primary fuel or fuels through chemical or physical processes. These are fuels that are not found as a natural resource. The energy for these secondary fuels comes initially from primary energy sources.
Ex. Methane, Gasoline, water gas and LPG

Question 15

Sorption and its cases

Answer 15

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes attached to another. Specific cases of sorption are treated in the following articles:
Absorption
“the incorporation of a substance in one state into another of a different state” (e.g., liquids being absorbed by a solid or gases being absorbed by a liquid);
Adsorption
The physical adherence or bonding of ions and molecules onto the surface of another phase (e.g., reagents adsorbed to a solid catalyst surface);
Ion exchange
An exchange of ions between two electrolytes or between an electrolyte solution and a complex.
The reverse of sorption is desorption.

Question 16

Relief

Answer 16

Relief, also Terrain or Topographical Relief or the Shape of the Landscape, influences soil formation, mainly through its effect on drainage and erosion, and partly through variations in exposure to the sun and wind and in air drainage.

Question 17

Parent Material

Answer 17

Parent material is the underlying geological material (generally bedrock or a superficial or drift deposit) in which soil horizons form. Soils typically inherit a great deal of structure and minerals from their parent material, and, as such, are often classified based upon their contents of consolidated or unconsolidated mineral material that has undergone some degree of physical or chemical weathering and the mode by which the materials were most recently transported.

Question 18

Carbon-Neutral Energy

Answer 18

In the world of energy, ‘carbon neutral’ means your energy retailer or provider has ‘neutralised’ the carbon emissions that result from the production of your electricity and gas, reducing carbon emissions to net zero.

Question 19

What are the SDGs?

Answer 19

The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.

Question 20

Urban mine / Urban mining

Answer 20

An urban mine is the stockpile of rare metals in the discarded waste electrical and electronic equipment of a society. Urban mining is the process of recovering these rare metals through mechanical and chemical treatments.

Question 21

What is a shale gas?

Answer 21

Shale gas is a form of natural gas (mostly methane) found in shale deposits (clay-rich rocks), where it is trapped in microscopic or submicroscopic pores. This natural gas is a mixture of naturally occurring hydrocarbon gases produced from the decomposition of organic matter (plant and animal remains).

It is classified as ‘unconventional’ because it is found in shale , a less permeable rock formation than sandstone, siltstone or limestone in which ‘conventional’ gas is found, and it is generally distributed over a much larger area.

Shale gas is extracted from the impermeable shale through a process called hydraulic fracturing (also known as hydrofracking or fracking). A crude form of this technique, involving nitroglycerine, was used for the first time around the 1860s to explore for oil and gas.

Since the 1990s a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has made large volumes of shale gas more economical to produce, and some analysts expect that shale gas will greatly expand worldwide energy supply.

China has the biggest shale gas reserve in the world. China has 1.5 times of global shale gas reserves of the United States. America comes second in terms of shale gas reserves.

Question 22

R&D in Industry?

Answer 22

Research and development (R&D) is when businesses gather knowledge to create new products or discover new ways to improve their existing products and services.

Question 23

What are BRIC and BRICS in economy?

Answer 23

BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill coined the term BRIC (without South Africa) in 2001, claiming that the four BRIC economies would become the dominant suppliers of manufactured goods, services, and raw materials by 2050.. South Africa was added to the list in 2010.

Question 24

What is NAFTA in economy?

Answer 24

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was enacted in 1994 and created a free trade zone for Mexico, Canada, and the United States, is the most important feature in the U.S.-Mexico bilateral commercial relationship.

Question 25

What is meant by intelligent materials?

Answer 25

Intelligent materials are capable of responding to stimuli or changes in the environment and adapting their function accordingly. Piezoelectric materials, magneto- and electrostrictive materials, shape memory materials and functional fluids are all used to influence the mechanical properties of systems.

Question 26

Coal liquefaction?

Answer 26

Coal can be converted into liquid fuel using several liquefaction processes which can be divided into two general categories.
In the first stage, coal is converted into syngas (a purified mixture of CO and H2 gas; the coal is dissolved in a solvent at high temperature and pressure, followed by hydrogenation with a catalyst).
In the second stage, the syngas is converted into light hydrocarbons using one of three main processes: Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, methanol synthesis with subsequent conversion to gasoline or petrochemicals, and methanation.

Question 27

The trio of loam

Answer 27

Soil with roughly equal proportions of sand, silt, and clay.

Question 28

What is coke?

Answer 28

Coke (from German “Koks”) is manufactured by carbonizing (coking) coal at a high temperature of about 1200 ℃ in a coke oven. This heating is called “thermal distillation” or “pyrolysis”. Coke is one of the essential raw materials for iron-making in blast furnaces. In order to produce coke that will be used in blast furnaces, coal is usually thermally distilled for 15 to 18 hours, but the process can take up to 36 hours.

Question 29

Energy Recovery vs Energy Integration (to be verified)

Answer 29

Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolization, anaerobic digestion and landfill gas recovery.

Energy Systems Integration (ESI) is the process of coordinating the operation and planning of energy systems across multiple pathways and/or geographical scales to deliver reliable, cost- effective energy services with minimal impact on the environment.