Chemisry Final

Chemistry Final 

The Problem: A paper mill in town generates waste and an objectionable odor. 

Idea: To uses the absorbances of the dry pulp to make it into an oil absorbing material. 

Background:  

What is it made of? The Wood mill pulp is composed up of; 

Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)---------------8-12% 

cellulose(wood pulp)--------------------50-80%

Silicon(clay)-----------------------------5-10%

Aluminum-------------------------------1-10%

This is a picture of the pulp on the strainer and the water has been poured onto it picture taken by Evan Bell

        The technology for the oil absorption was developed by the Environmental and Logistics Center in Slovenia.  The sludge was originally headed for the a landfill but they found out that the pulp makes for a great absorbent.  When the pulp is dropped in to a liquid it goes through both a physical and a chemical absorption.  The physical absorption is the actual water dispersing into the pulp.  This synergistic concept allows for pulp to be made environmentally friendly and can be made safe  The silicon in the pulp is the main absorbent, the chemical formula for the silicon which in this case is silica( the oxidized version of silicon) is SiO2.  The SiO2 reacts with the water (H2O). This reaction should not occur since silicon has four valence electrons and forms covenant bonds.The oxygen however, does combines with the silicon but the silicon must be surrounded by four oxygen atoms and each oxygen by two silicon atoms.  When this happens the hydrogen of the water molecules are in close proximity and form hydrogen bonds. Now the total complex molecule of silicon hydrate is rendered non-polar. This non-polar molecule does not react with the cellulose. The hydrogen bonds hold the water to the silica absorbing it into the pulp.  Oil is non-polar.  Water is polar, but since the water molecule combined with the silicon it was made polar.  The pulp could still not combine with the water/silicon dioxide because of unlike polarity.  Because cellulose is non-polar will combine with the oil but rather than dissolve in each other the clumps of the silicon-water hydrate separate on the surface of the oil and  can easy separate. The mesh like quality of the pulp allows for the "clumps" to be easily separated and be removed.  the process is being made in a way that will be available for not only industry to use but also the public to uses.

       The real world application for this is to clean up oil spills in a body of water.  It is very cost effective seeing how most of the chemicals are ready excusable.  This technology has been proven to work and absorb 99% of the oil that it is exposed to.  The experts say that 1kg of the pulp will absorb 4kgs of the substance and with an absorption rate of around 50% without anything added to it the possibilities are limitless on how well this could absorb substances.  This method is not only a cheep way to get rid of oil spill but it is also an environmentally friendly way because it does not use harm full chemicals it uses an organic way.  The organic way is cheep and it is a very effective way to clean up oil spills.  This is a easy way to save the wild life in the effected area because it's quick and is very easy to clean up when your done. And the pulp is non-toxic since it is 99% organic it is very safe for people to us unlike some of the other ways of clean up which most of the time use harmful chemicals to clean up and depose of the oil.

Lab Research

 Materials 
2 small beaker and 1 big beaker
1Strainer
2 peaces of weighing paper
Procedure
Step 1)place roughly 12 g of the paper mill pulp on to a piece of weighing paper and weigh it an record it in your data table.
Step 2)Slowly pour the pulp on to the stainer  then place the strainer onto the big beaker.
Step 3)Measure out 60 ml of water then slowly poor in onto the paper pulp.
Step 4)Once the water has stopped dripping out of the pulp remove the stainer and  the pulp and measure how much water has fallen through.
Step 5) repeat the steps 1-4 for one more trial then clean up lab station. 
Data:

Trials1 
Mass of the Sludge and weigh paper in grams-------- 12.588g
Amount of water in ml------------------------------------60 ml
Amount of water not Adsorbed-------------------------30 ml
Mass of weigh paper--------------------------------------1.251g
 Mass of Sludge--------------------------------------------11.337g
Percent absorption------------------------------------------ 50%

Trial2
Mass of Sludge and weigh paper in grams------------12.088g
Amount of water in ml-----------------------------------60 ml
Amount of water not absorbed--------------------------27 ml
Mass of weigh paper-------------------------------------- 1.252g
Mass of Sludge-------------------------------------------- 10.836g
Present absorption----------------------------------------45%

Analysis/Conclusion  
This was a very challenging lab to come accomplish. The most challenging part of the lab was finding out what to do with the pulp and how to test it.  Once the dissension was made it was a struggle to find out what tests will best fit your idea.  One thing i did not have the chance to do that would increase the data pool would be to see how it absorbed other substances.The data shows how well it absorbs water and only water.  12.008 grams of the pulp can absorb roughly 50% of water that is poured on it, this leads to the question if it can absorb other substances this well.  This would let us see if would absorb other substance and therefore making it easier to market.  If the pulp would absorb other substance it could be made into other useable substances like paper towels or painting paper.  One challenge I see is how do we depose of the pulp once it has absorbed the oil?  Once the oil has been absorbed you can't extract it form the, pulp it would be to time consuming and you would spend more money than you would get out of the oil.  This is the only problem I have found with this technology besides not being able to get the absorbed oil out of the pulp the technology is far a head of its time.       

Sources
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-paper-solution-oil.html
www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9602&page=39

 en. wikipedia.org/wiki/petroleum#chemistry