What are PCB’s and are they bad? Polychlorinated biphenyls, PCB’s, are a class of 209 molecules widely used in industry as coolants, plasticizers, waterproofing materials, and other uses. Producing PCB’s entailed reacting biphenyl in the presence of chlorine, so the Continue reading
Polluting Planet Earth Back in 2017, the tropical Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, TX with so much rain that it flooded one of the Superfund sites, an area designated by the Environmental Protection Agency that requires action to remove health/environmental hazards. The Continue reading
Each group at the University of San Diego’s Chem 355 laboratory performed a lab where bio diesel was synthesized and and glycerol was obtained as a waste product. The glycerol could have been discarded but what is the fun in Continue reading
When we were synthesizing biodiesel using the waste oil from our school cafeteria, glycerol is the by-product. Since we did not want to dump this by-product into the waste bottle. We decided to use glycerol to make glycerin soap! Glycerin Continue reading
The combustion of petroleum accounts for almost half of the CO2 emissions in the U.S. Many alternative energy sources can help reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions such as solar energy, wind energy, wave, energy, nuclear energy, but these Continue reading
With the growth of industrialization and increased need for energy, there has been major reliance on the burning of fossil fuels, resulting in a multitude of environmental issues. Determining alternatives to fossil fuel sources is essential to limit pollutants into Continue reading
Although it may seem like a complicated process, making biodiesel is actually not too difficult a task to accomplish, and can actually be produced from common cooking oils and grease waste! In an experiment conducted by our Environmental Chemistry class, Continue reading
In the article, “Pesticides are Polluting Our Waters, and We Often Don’t Know It“, authors describe how pesticides have redefined modern agriculture, allowing for extremely high crop yields. Pesticides work to increase crop yields by preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating Continue reading
In the past one of the biggest barriers for the advancement of renewable energy was its high cost. Solar energy is particularly more expensive when in comparison to the low cost for fossil fuel energy. However, in recent years the Continue reading
There has been a lot of focus lately on global climate change and global warming. While global climate change is a large, complex problem, it can be broken down into many subsections. In order to better understand some of global Continue reading
