Water provides us with many things including warmth from the Sun, shelter from the trees, food from plants and animals, and transport along rivers and seas
We would not survive very long without water, but only a small scent of the water on Earth is suitable for drinking
Desalination
The process of removing salts from water to make it safe to drink or portable water
Steps to make water safe to drink
1. Remove any dirt, mud, and large solids
2. Remove bacteria
3. Remove any nasty or unwanted mineral ions
Additives in water
Chlorine to kill things
Fluoride for tooth and bone protection
Bioleaching
The process of using bacteria to extract metals from water or soil
Phytomining
The process of using plants to absorb metals from soil, then extracting the metals from the plants
The disadvantages of phytomining are that plants grow very slowly
Life cycle assessment of an object
Examine the environmental impacts of the energy, materials, production, use, and disposal
For rusting to take place, we need iron, oxygen, and water, which results in iron oxide
Galvanization
A process to prevent rusting by coating iron with a layer of zinc
Alloy
A material made by combining and melting two or more metals, resulting in disrupted layers that cannot slide and making the material very hard
The majority of glassware is made up of silicon dioxide
Thermosetting polymers
Polymers with cross-linked chains that cannot slide past each other, so they burn rather than melt when heated
Thermoplastic polymers
Polymers without cross-linked chains, so their chains can slide past each other, allowing them to melt when heated
Haber process
1. Produces ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen gas
2. Nitrogen gas is obtained from air
3. Hydrogen gas is obtained from the electrolysis of water
4. Reaction occurs at 450°C and 200 atm with an iron catalyst
The Haber process is a compromise between the forward reaction being exothermic (favoring low temperature) and the need for a high reaction rate (favoring high temperature)
High pressure is used in the Haber process to drive the forward reaction, but too high a pressure increases the risk of explosion
