AE 5: Water for Life

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1. How can you purify when you are hiking? Name two or three possibilities. Compare these methods in terms of cost and effectiveness. Are any of these methods similar to those used to purify municipal water supplies? Explain.

The possibilities are chlorine tablets, heating and filter paper. These are inter-related to each other and could purify water during hiking. The methods mentioned are cheap but time inefficient as it takes a very long time to purify a certain amount of water using the methods above. 

The methods are similar to a certain extent as those used to purify municipal water supplies also use filtration and chlorination.

2. Explain why desalination techniques, despite proven technological effectiveness, are not used more widely to produce portable drinking water.

Desalination has been proven to be an effective , workable and trustworthy method for producing portable drinking water. However, there are disadvantages to this method.

Firstly, it comes at an opportunity cost of land space. This could impinge upon the natural habitats of wildlife and thereby disrupt the ecosystem. Farming and agricultural practices would be affected as these are subsistence require large land area in order to be produced. 

Secondly, it is very cost ineffective. Besides the equipment itself being expensive to assemble, a large amount of energy has to be input into the system across a long period of time. Yet, the yield of the portable drinking water from desalination is very low and thereby cannot offset the capital invested in these plants and hence it is not monetarily worthwhile in the long run.

Lastly, desalination entails environmental repercussions. Chemicals such as Hydrogen peroxide and chlorine are added as part of the treatment process, only to be disposed of thoughtlessly afterwards into water bodies, causing an accumulation of harmful substances that could very well enter our food chain in time.

3. Water quality in a chemical engineering building on campus was continuously monitored because testing indicated water from drinking fountains in the building had dissolved lead levels above those established by NEA. 

a. What is the likely major source of the lead in the drinking water? 

The most likely major source of the lead in the drinking water is probably from the corrosion from the pipelines. 

b. Do the research activities carried out in this chemistry building account for the elevated lead levels found in the drinking water? Explain. 

No. This is because the pipes connecting and chemistry lab and those connecting to the drinking water source are not interconnected. Especially when it is a chemical engineering plant where there is a proper disposal of chemicals from any research or experiment.

4. Some vitamins are water-soluble, whereas others are fat-soluble. Would you expect either or both to be polar compounds? Explain. 

Water-soluble vitamins are polar whereas fat-soluble vitamins are non-polar.

Water-soluble vitamins are highly polar due to the presence of many hydroxyl (OH-) groups which can form hydrogen bonds with water.

Fat-soluble vitamins are non-polar due to the absence of polar groups and the long hydrocarbon chain (C-H) makes it insoluble in water as it is unable to form hydrogen bonds.