Identifying the Earth Component - Assignment Example

Wellington Boots The primary raw material utilized in the construction of Wellington boots is rubber. Natural rubber is extracted from the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) that is native to Brazil. The process of extracting the latex serum from the tree is a simple one. Veins carrying the latex are found just below the surface of the tree. These are easily scored, causing the milky white sap to drip from the tree. This is collected in a small cup or pail. The collected latex is then heated so the sap coagulates into a solid, sticky ball that can be shipped more easily than the liquid latex. Collecting latex is an arduous process for the small grower in modern-day Brazil. The sap flows most readily at night, causing the grower to spend long hours in the darkness of the forest. The grower must then spend the entire next day heating the latex into its solid, sticky shape for shipping to the purchaser (Campbell 2005). Many families in rural Brazil share in this round-the-clock extraction process to provide the rubber that becomes Wellington boots. In addition to operations conducted by families, large commercial rubber plantations have been established in several countries of Southeast Asia. Raw latex is not suitable for creating Wellington boots. The rubber must be altered using a process called vulcanization. The raw rubber is heated up in the presence of sulfur. The sulfur reacts chemically with the raw rubber, rendering it pliable and waterproof. Other chemicals, such as zinc or lead oxide are use to accelerate the process. The treated rubber is formed into boot shape by wrapping it around a mold called a "last". This is then heated again to complete the vulcanization process, binding the boots by heating instead of stitching. Medicinal Pill In addition to the active ingredients found in a medicinal pill, there are substances present that bind the active ingredients together into pill form. While the active ingredients are realized in a laboratory environment, the binding ingredients often are substances provided by the earths geosphere. One of these substances is Xanthan gum. Xanthan gum in used in many food products as a stabilizer and thickener. Xanthan gum is derived from an agricultural product, corn. Corn syrup is mixed with the bacteria Xanthomonas Campestris. The resulting product is Xanthan gum. Xanthan gum provides a stable binding mechanism for the active ingredients in the pill. The high functionality of Xanthan gum makes it a good choice for use in medicines. It remains stable in a variety of environments and is chemically less complex and easier on the digestive system than a similar widely used stabilizer called Guar gum (GFL 2007). Brick Brick has been used as a building material for millennia. The ancient Mesopotamian civilizations used sun-dried bricks to construct their homes, walls and ziggurats. Bricks are little more that clays that have been taken from the earth and heated to a very high temperature in a kiln. Most types of clay are appropriate for making bricks, but they will yield bricks of varying color, strength and quality (UCL 2005). Commercial extraction of clay is a highly mechanized affair, utilizing heavy earth moving equipment to obtain the raw material for the brick. Brick making on a small scale using wood-fired kilns or even sun-drying processes are still prevalent in many non-industrialized countries. Superheating clay in a kiln creates brick. The heating process drives all of the moisture from the clay. The heat also melts minerals such as quartz and mullite. The dehydration reaction caused by the heating, and the melting of minerals, combines to creates a hard, stable chemical structure that is strong and resistant to water. Other minerals such as potassium, calcium and sodium are often present in small quantities in clay. The ratio of these minerals will help determine the physical properties of the finished brick. Plastic CD Case Plastics were originally derived from natural resources such as insect secretions, animal horns and sap from trees. In more recent times, the vast majority of plastics are derived from petroleum. The natural processes that turn microscopic plants and sea animals into crude oil are not entirely understood (Lutgens and Tarbuck 1995). What is understood is that heat and pressure work in an anaerobic atmosphere to chemically alter the plants and animals, resulting in underground oil reserves. Because oil is less dense than water, it migrates towards the surface of earth. Often a cap rock prevents the rise of the oil, requiring wells to be drilled through the cap rock in order to extract the oil from the ground. Plastic is derived from crude oil by separating oil into many disparate petroleum products at a refinery. Two of these products are ethane and propane. These are then heated and converted to ethylene and propylene. Further processing results in a powdery form of plastic that is then heated again and formed into pellets. The pellets are then sent to manufacturers for forming into the many plastic items we use each day. Three primary manufacturing techniques are used to form the plastic. These are extrusion molding, injection molding and blow molding. In the case of a plastic CD case, injection molding would be used. This process requires the plastic pellets to be melted by the manufacturer and then forced into a molding at very high pressure. The molding then opens once the plastic item has cooled and solidified (PPC 2004). Concrete Roof Tile Concrete is a conglomeration consisting of three main parts: sand, water and cement. The most widely used type of cement is Portland cement. Portland cement is a mixture of many items taken from the geosphere. Typical ingredients needed to make Portland cement are limestone, shale, iron ore and clay (PCA 2008). The process of combining these materials involves crushing and screening the raw materials to achieve a uniform particle size. They are then mixed and baked in a cement kiln. After baking the materials are crushed and screened again, while gypsum is added to control the hardening rate of the cement when used in concrete. Concrete shingles are a popular roofing choice for modern homes. New manufacturing techniques can render attractively shaped shingles in a variety of colors. Creating the shingles involves mixing a specific ration of sand/gravel, Portland cement and water. This mixture is then processed through an extrusion machine that produces a constant stream of shingles. Extrusion processing of cement shingles has allowed them to be widely used as a roofing material today. Food Tin Food packaging can employ many elements from the earths geosphere. One of the more popular metals in recent years is aluminum. Aluminum is gotten from an ore called bauxite. Bauxite is generally 45%-60% aluminum (Fegan 2002). Extracting pure aluminum from bauxite is a multi-step process that involves baking the raw bauxite to remove impurities and water. The resulting product after this baking is called alumina. The alumina is then processed in vats subject to strong electrochemical reactions. The aluminum settles to the bottom of these vats and is recovered. This pure aluminum is then formed into rods, ingots or billets that will be reprocessed into a variety of products, including food tins, by the individual manufacturer. This description of obtaining aluminum does not account for the large percentage of aluminum recycled each year. Estimates show that globally, nearly 60% of the aluminum processed into new products such as food tins each year comes from recycled aluminum (Earth 911 2008). Toothpaste A very common, yet controversial ingredient in most toothpaste brands is fluoride. Fluorides are a naturally occurring group of elements usually bound up in rock ores. They are most often extracted as byproducts resulting from hard rock mining operations, and are sometimes captured as a waste product in the manufacture of chemical fertilizers. Fluorides are added to toothpaste at a ratio of one part per million in a effort to prevent tooth decay. The controversy surrounding fluoride doesnt center so much on toothpaste as it does on the addition of fluoride gasses to municipal water supplies. Some contend that ingesting even small amounts of fluoride is harmful, but most agree that brushing small amounts of fluoride onto the surface of the teeth and then spitting it out is a safe practice. The manufacture of toothpaste is actually a complicated chemical process (USDE 2005). In addition to the fluoride, soaps are added to clean the teeth and flavorings are added to hide the soaps flavor. Mild abrasives are added to scrub the teeth as are chemicals that produce a pleasing amount of foam to form. In general, the more features the toothpaste claims (whitening, de-sensitizing, etc.) the more complicated the chemical mix. Regardless of what may be added to the toothpaste, you can be sure that most brands will contain fluoride. Work Cited Campbell, David G. 2005, Land of Ghosts, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Earth 911 2008, Alcoa Raises Aluminum Recycling Goal to 75 Percent, Global Alerts, viewed 4 February, 2008, Fegan, B. 2002, Metals Advisor, The Heat Treat Consortium, viewed 5 February 2008, GFL - see The Gluten Free Life Lutgens, F. & Tarbuck, E. 1995, Essentials of Geology, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey. PCA- see Portland Cement Association Phillips Petroleum Company 2004, How Are Plastics Made?, Reach Out Michigan, Ann Arbor, viewed 3 February, 2008, Portland Cement Association 2008, Cement and Concrete Basics, viewed 6 February 6, 2008, < http://www.cement.org/basics/concretebasics_faqs.asp> PPC - see Phillips Petroleum Company The Gluten Free Life 2007, What is Xanthan and Guar Gum?, viewed 5 February, 2008, United States Department of Energy 2005, Toothpaste Development, Ask a Scientist: Environmental Earth Science Archive, Washington D.C., viewed 4 February, 2008, University College London 2005, Geology in the Landscape and Buildings of London, Department of Earth Sciences, London, viewed 4 February, 2008 UCL - see University College London USDE - see United States Department of Energy Read More