TMA04

Question 1

In TMA02 I asked my tutor to give me specific feedback on the learning outcome Ky1. I was advised that I should take a little more care with significant figures and scientific notation. There has not been much emphasis on significant figures and scientific notation in TMA04. However I have taken the advice given by my tutor and broadened it to include attention to detail in all areas dealing with numbers within this assignment especially in questions 2 ai) 2ci) & 3bi).

Question 2

a) i & ii)

b)
i)

The chemical formula of the compound containing only K+ and SO42- is K2SO4.

ii)

The formula of the simplest possible compound containing only C and I atoms is CI4.

iii)

K2SO4 was formed by ionic …show more content…

These were known as petrochemicals, and could be found in crude oil deposits within the ground.

As time progressed through the 20th century crude oil extraction increased exponentially, leaving people wondering when this finite quantity of fossil fuel was due to run out. This led the creation of the “biofuel industry” which sort to create a unlimited amount of fuel from renewable sources such a plants.

The golden age for the biofuel industry however, due in part to its sucess. first-generation crops (soya, rape, corn) being mass-produced for biofuel caused food prices to skyrocket, and among controversy and protests the biofuel industry was forced to shift production focus from first generation crops to so called “second-generation” crops such as grass, wood, paper and inedible waste from production of food crops.

One of the leading biofuels is bioethonal which can replace gasoline in automobiles. Washington DC estimates “second-generation biofuels could reduce annual US petroleum imports by nearly $70 billion by 2022”*. Although possible to create biofuels from second-generation materials, the process is complex. It requires sophisticated techniques such as those employed by AFEX by breaking down the cellulose in the cell wall of inedible green plants into a form that can be easy to digest by enzymes and thus converted into sugars. Cellulose is composed of many (up to 12,000) glucose chains linked end-to-end by hydrogen bonds by the functional OH group. The