Sample Quiz Questions from lecture 15B
Environmental Studies 126
Integrated Liberal Studies 126
Questions on the final quiz of the semester will relate to the trash audit lab (spans
two weeks) and to topics discussed in lectures 14B, 15B, and 16A.
Here are the sample questions from Lecture 15B.
1.
MRFs! This is short for Materials Recovery Facility, such as the one you saw
in the video “Saving Little Pieces of the Earth” (Pelliteri Waste Systems) that
you saw in lecture last Thursday
(http://pellitteri.com/articles.jsp?id=662&sectionid=541)
a. Gravity (= heavy things fall) helps to sort recyclables at a MRF.
According to the video (screen capture shown in lecture), which two
items drop out of the waste stream to a lower conveyer belt?
b. Air jets (= lighter things get blown upward) helps to sort recyclables at a
MRF. According to the video, which item “flies” to a conveyer belt at a
higher level?
c. Polystyrene foam doesn’t sort well
at MRF. Why not?
d. What does this photo (from video)
depict? What is the intended use?
2. “If you change the monomer, you change the properties of the polymer.”
Let’s say you have propylene as a monomer:
a. Below is a long string of carbons and hydrogens. What does it
represent?
b. Circle the atoms in this structure that would be different if
propylene were the monomer (instead of ethylene).
c. Name one property (= how it behaves) of polypropylene that is
different from that of polyethylene.
d. OK, let’s say you have styrene as a monomer. Name one
property of polystyrene that is different from polyethylene.
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3. Styrofoam today
a. OK, those foam cups, eggshell cartons and shipping containers aren’t
really “Styrofoam.” Rather, Styrofoam is a trade name for XPS,
“expanded polystyrene.” Dow Chemical makes Styrofoam. For what
purpose?
b. Give three uses for EPS, “expanded polystyrene.”
c. Pentane is a chemical cousin of methane. Explain the relationship, that
is, how are pentane and methane alike? Now explain how they are
different.
d. What purpose does pentane serve in the manufacture of EPS?
4.
Styrofoam in the past
a. Before pentane was used as an “expanding agent“(or sometimes
called a “blowing agent”), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were used.
CFCs are chemical cousins of methane too, but in a different sense
than pentane. Using a chemical formula or a picture of the molecule,
explain the connection between methane and CFC-12 (CCl2F2).
b. CFCs have different chemical properties (= how they behave) than
methane. Name the one chemical property that made them ideal as
an expanding agent in polystyrene.
c. CFCs have two HUGE environmental impacts. Name them.
d. Rank CFCs, methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide in terms of their
global warming potential.
5. REVIEW: Charter Street Heating and Cooling Plant (CSHP)
a. During heating season, what does the CSHP send to campus to keep
buildings warm? What fuel is burned to do this?
b. During cooling season, what is sent to cool buildings? FYI, the same fuel
is burned to run the refrigerators.
c. Here are two photos from
CSHP. Match them with
the heating and cooling
described in parts a & b.
Which fuel is carried by
the yellow pipes in the
second one?
d. CSHP does not use CFCs
as the refrigerant gas in its
chillers. Again, what are
the two environmental
impacts of a CFC?
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Styrocycle!
a. What is the purpose of these white
“boxes” shown in the photo?
What are these boxes made of?
Why are they now being collected at
15 sites on the UW-Madison campus?
b. What did Emily, Katelyn and others do that resulted in a $90,000 award
from the EPA?
c. Once you are a certain distance out from Madison, it makes more
sense to send the EPS box to the landfill than to reuse it. WHY?
d. Once you are a certain distance out from Madison (smaller than in the
case of part c), it makes sense to reuse the box, but not to recycle it.
WHY?
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