Sunday, March 16, 2008
Is chlorination or ultra-violet radiation the preferred option for treating water for a large city?
Discuss the processes that are used in a water treatment plant to produce water that is suitable for drinking. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of chlorination and UV as the final stage in the treatment process.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
I looked up "dimer" on wikipedia and it says that a dimer is a molecule of two identicle subunits or monomers linked together. How does this cause the contaminating organism to mutate?
Isabelle
I suspect that if they are linked together then enzymes may not be able to recognise them or separate them during DNA replication. This will cause an inaccurate replication which is what a mutation is.
For this question, we need to examine water treatment as well as chlorination and ultra-violet radiation. Should we provide a chemical analysis of all these three aspects? Or should we focus more on the latter two and just give a brief overview of the former?
Also, can we post questions on this blogsite over the holidays?
Hi Hannah,
I think you will find the action of UV and chlorination is biological however the chlorination aspect needs to identify what molecular form of chlorine is delivered and what does it do. The majority of the chemistry including a focus on IM forces etc is related to water treatment.
1. Most of my sources contain only general information about water treatment. Do we need to deduce the chemical processes involved by ourselves if the sources don't go into that much detail?
2. Also, how much of the essay is meant to be taken up on the first part of the question as opposed to the second part? Should it be split equally?
3. When we discuss whether chlorination or ultra-violet radiation is more suitable for the water supply of a large city, do we just need to explain the chemistry involved, e.g. efficiency and effectiveness of certain reactions, and not mention the things like cost management and convenience?
Thanks
You need to focus on the chemistry so you will need to deduce the chemistry if you cannot find a direct quote. References are there to provide supporting evidence for your essay. They shouldn't be the centrepiece of your essay. Write your essay and then find supporting evidence to add justification for your statements. Only use direct quotes for statistics or opinions. The rest can be and should be paraphrased. In your essay the UV and Chlorination need a compare and contrast in the context of a large water supply - you do need to make a choice with justification. The chemistry is only obvious for chlorination so keep to the context here. The water treatment process requires a strong committment to chemistry explanations.
In our assignment do we need to explain what intermolecular forces are and the different types of bonds that can occur?
Louise
Do I need to include information on membrane technology as an alternative to chlorination or should I stick to UV radiation? Because I'm having trouble sticking to the word limit!!
Membrane technology is not necessary for your topic but a sentence or two won't go astray and will show your teacher that you are well researched.
Hi Louise,
You should assume that your readers are other members of the class so they should know what intermolecular forces are without requiring furter explanation.
I read your comment in which we have to discuss chlorination in terms of chemistry concepts. Since the coagulation process in water treatment is a chemical process, should we discuss it in terms of chemistry concepts as well?
Most definitely
Hi Mr Haliczer, I have a few last-minute questions:
1. Do we need to mention ozone?
2. Do we need to mention that the water needs to be aesthetically desirable for consumers (and therefore must not contain turbidity?) I thought this might have been irrelevant
3. Our conclusion needs to be coherent with the body - at the moment, my conclusion just covers aspects of chlorination and UV radiation. Do we need to mention other water treatment processes as well in our conclusion?
4. Do we need to specifically mention Brisbane as the city we are modelling our argument on?
Thanks
Hi Hannah,
I am not able to prescribe content. Decide based on its importance and relevance to the industry. I would be modelling your response on Brisbane and your conclusion should be directed towards the whole essay.
I was looking up the formation of DBPs and it said that hypochlorous acid reacts with bromide and natural organic matter to form mixed chloro-bromo materials or halogenated DBPs. What are they? I have tried to find them on the internet but didn't get anything!
Louise
Dibromo phenols? I am not sure myself.
Post a Comment