Environmental Issues

[danz90]

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Can someone please post what they're environmental issues are for each of the industrial processes:

-Sulfuric Acid (Contact Process) - Frasch process issues also?
-Chlor-Alkali (Electrolysis of NaCl)
-Saponification
-Solvay Process

Cheers

[JasonNg1025]

Frash process:

Dust from drilling, also leaked out sulfur can react with O₂ creating SO₂ which causes acid rain.

Contact process - essentially, same as above. Harmful gases can be leaked out.

Electrolysis of NaCl, currently there are no environmental issues because they now use the Membrane Process. The first one used was mercury cell - mercury was leaked out and went into the food chain, which affected aquatic organisms and from the food chain, human health. Diaphragm process - used asbestos which caused lung cancer :O

Saponification - not much that I of :P

Solvay process - CaCl₂. There's heaps of it and it's terribly useless. It can melt ice on roads. WOWWW.. so they gotta put it somewhere, but can't put it in water (Cl ions). They're trying to mix it into concrete, but there's still too much. For this reason, the Solvay process is being phased out in many areas.

Solid waste from crushed limestone is not toxic but is sometimes disposed of in waterways. This, although not toxic, irritates boaters as it can block boat passageway. It is also visually very unattractive. It is now being used in landfill and brick manufacture.

Dust is a problem for people near by. It is being improved by trick loading facilities, upgrading dust suppression systems, keeping vehicles on asphalt roadways and using a wetting solution to suppress dust.

Noise is another problem. It can be reduced by enclosure of noisy areas, using silencers and monitoring to identify sources.

Heat is yet another problem. This is being solved by the use of cooling pools to decrease the temperature. Water must also be cooled before discharge into water bodies so as to not increase temperature.

[danz90]

Cheers Jason, you've pretty much got the same ones as in my notes. Just wanted to clarify them all.

Thanks

[JasonNg1025]

So you got nothing for saponification? I haven't seen environmental issues asked for saponification either.

[danz90]

Originally Posted by JasonNg1025

So you got nothing for saponification? I haven't seen environmental issues asked for saponification either.

Well, for the actual process, maybe we could mention:

- Any excess alkaline solutions used in alkaline hydrolysis must be disposed of responsibly, since bases are corrosive and would greatly increase the pH of waterways, affecting aquatic life, as well as growth of plants

- High energy is used - this could contribute to global warming.

The environmental issues I reckon are more for the actual products, and also detergents.

[JasonNg1025]

Oh yeah phosphates and eutrophication and all that

[kangms]

THERMAL POLLUTION for all of them. They release huge amount of heat that affects the environment.

[JasonNg1025]

I think I mentioned that.. not for all of them though D:

[melissaLOL]

thermal pollution - kills fish and other aquatic things when heat is dissipated into lakes etc

[melissaLOL]

oh i see thermal already mentioned... yeah... what hesaid

[TCCPICHAMP]

For Frasch:
- water may contain dissolved minerals (arsenic etc), therefore must be recycled i.e. contamination avoidance
- SO2 as above
- Once sulfur is extracted, caverns remain, can lead to ground subsidence