- demonstrate an understanding that the processes in the chemical industry are being reinvented to make them more sustainable (‘greener’) by:
- changing to renewable resources
- finding alternatives to very hazardous chemicals
- discovering catalysts for reactions with higher atom economies, eg the development of methods used to produce ethanoic acid based on catalysts of cobalt, rhodium and
iridium
- making more efficient use of energy, eg the use of microwave energy to heat reactions in the pharmaceutical industry
- reducing waste and preventing pollution of the environment
- discuss the relative effects of different greenhouse gases as absorbers of IR and hence on global warming
- discuss the difference between anthropogenic and natural climate change over hundreds of thousands of years
- demonstrate understanding of the terms ‘carbon neutrality’ and ‘carbon footprint’
- apply the concept of carbon neutrality to different fuels, such as petrol, bio-ethanol and hydrogen
- discuss and explain, including the mechanisms for the reactions, the science community’s reasons for recommending that CFCs are no longer used due to their damaging
effect on the ozone layer.
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