woodchurch science » industrial chem

water treatment and sewage

woodchurchscience — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:50:12 +0000

a very important subject and one we take for granted. here’s a few links to get you started:
sewage treatment, water pollution (easy guide), waste water made clear.

ensure you cover the following topics in your presentation:
screening
sedimentation
biological filters
disinfection
sludge disposal
and try to find some good photographs to illustrate your work…image search

nevada copper

woodchurchscience — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:44:27 +0000

here’s a link to the copper mine that was seen in the ‘rocket science’ program. the company is called nevada copper. you can download a copy of their information booklet here.

eco-friendly cement

woodchurchscience — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:27:29 +0000

making 2bn tonnes of cement globally every year pumps out 5% of the world’s CO2 emissions – more than the entire aviation industry, so any innovations which will reduce this must be welcomed. british scientists (hooray!) have developed a new type of cement that ‘eats CO2′. you can read all about it here.

blast furnace flash revision C1a

woodchurchscience — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:22:19 +0000

try this flash for revision. it helps you understand (a) what goes in, (b) what happens inside and (c) all the equations.

stanlow refinery visit 2.11.07

woodchurchscience — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:53:26 +0000

the year 10 separate science group visited stanlow refinery today. here’s some interesting information about it, as well as some aerial photos. someone asked what will happen when all the oil runs out and stanlow has nothing to do. here’s shell’s answer – shellrenewables.com. here’s a handy flow chart showing how stanlow works.

flue gas desulphurisation

woodchurchscience — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:59:45 +0000

flue gas desulphursation systems are used to remove sulphur dioxide. “wet scrubbers” are the most widespread method and can be up to 99% effective. a mixture of limestone and water is sprayed over the flue gas and this mixture reacts with the SO2 to form gypsum (a calcium sulphate), which is removed and used in the construction industry.

greenfuels and biodiesel

woodchurchscience — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:18:09 +0000

this site gives a printable explanation of the process of converting vegetable oil into biodiesel. the printout is not that easy to find so here’s the link

extracting oil from plants

woodchurchscience — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 12:20:25 +0000

many plants produce useful oils which can be converted into consumer products including processed foods. vegetable oils can be hardened to make margarine. biodiesel fuel can be produced from vegetable oils. a printable explanation (pdf file) of the process can be downloaded from this website: greenfuels

smart materials

woodchurchscience — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:41:39 +0000

if you are studying chemistry in year 10 then you will know that oil is not just for energy. you will learn that scientists are developing new plastics and so-called ’smart’ materials.

kettles that change colour and signs that glow-in-the-dark are two recent examples of products becoming ‘smarter’ as a result of new materials. colour-changing thermochromic pigments are now routinely made as inks for paper and fabrics – and incorporated into injection moulded plastics. a new type of phosphorescent pigment, capable of emitting light for up to 10 hours, has opened up entirely new design opportunities for instrumentation, low-level lighting systems etc. more examples can be found here, here for power boots, stunners and minority report stuff and here for more news on new materials.

addicted to oil

woodchurchscience — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:11:36 +0000

the discovery channel charts the rise of the oil industry. here’s a (very brief) excerpt:

the united states has about 5 percent of the world’s population, but the 21 million barrels of crude oil that it consumes each day amounts to nearly a quarter of the world’s usage.
numbers, however, don’t convey the full magnitude of america’s dependence upon oil.

from plankton to petrol pump

woodchurchscience — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:00:51 +0000

in this radio program howard stableford discovers how jurassic plankton ends up in our petrol tanks, why oil dominates world politics and what we might do when it starts to run out. its worth getting pupils to listen to the first 10 minutes or so of the program (including the bit about using a mars bar to illustrate the formation of sedimentary basins!), then get them to, for example, produce a timeline or cartoon strip to illustrate how plankton is converted to oil.

teachers only: free video clips from channel 4

woodchurchscience — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:25:14 +0000

channel 4 have released a bank of clips for use in science lessons. you can buy a licence to access them all but there are free ones for use when taching about particle theory, energy changes in chemical reactions and crude oil etc.

extracting perfumes and making soap

woodchurchscience — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:08:32 +0000

15 y9 pupils took part in a project to prepare perfumes. fragrances were extracted from rose petals, lavender, rosemary, mint, orange peel, cloves and stock by maceration and steam distillation. after break pupils then made simple soap from vegetable oil and caustic soda.

resources for this project can be found here:
teacher guide/technician guide/soap making instructions/pupil booklet

crude oil formation animations

woodchurchscience — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 19:07:50 +0000

clip 1 dead animals fall to seabed, clip 2 plant/animal matter turns to rock, then oil, clip 3 oil rises through permeable rock, clip 4 drilling for oil

corus steels

woodchurchscience — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 15:37:25 +0000

here’s a link to some information about steelmaking. useful if you are taking separate science chemistry year 11.