Using Resources

What Using Resources covers

Using Resources is examined in Chemistry Paper 2. It covers using the Earth's resources and sustainable development, producing potable water in the UK, desalination, and analysing water samples, waste water treatment, alternative methods of extracting metals, life cycle assessment, ways of reducing the use of resources, corrosion and its prevention, alloys as useful materials, glass, clay ceramics and polymers, composites, and comparing materials, the Haber process and production and uses of NPK fertilisers.

The 13 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Using the Earth's resources and sustainable developmentHuman needs met by the Earth's resources, how agriculture supplements natural resources, finite and renewable resources, sustainable development and how chemistry improves agriculture and industry, natural products replaced by synthetic ones, and interpreting data in tables, frequency tables, bar charts and histograms, including orders of magnitude.Open →
• Producing potable water in the UKPotable water and why it is not chemically pure, the low levels of dissolved salts and microbes it needs, why methods vary with local supplies, fresh water from rain, and the UK method of choosing a source, passing water through filter beds and sterilising with chlorine, ozone or ultraviolet light.Open →
• Desalination, and analysing water samplesDesalination of salty water by distillation or reverse osmosis and why it is expensive, comparing the treatment of ground water and salty water, why filtering comes before sterilising, analysing water samples for pH, dissolved solids and purity, purifying a sample by distillation, and collecting representative water samples.Open →
• Waste water treatmentWhere waste water comes from and why it must be treated, what sewage and industrial waste need removed, screening, sedimentation into sludge and effluent, anaerobic and aerobic treatment, and comparing ground, salty and waste water as sources.Open →
• Alternative methods of extracting metalsMetal ores and low-grade ores, why new ways of extracting copper are needed, phytomining and bioleaching and their advantages and disadvantages, leachate, obtaining copper from its solutions by displacement with scrap iron or by electrolysis, and when traditional mining is still preferred.Open →
• Life cycle assessmentWhat a life cycle assessment is and its four stages from raw materials to disposal, what can be quantified and why value judgements make it subjective, selective assessments in advertising, and paper against plastic bags.Open →
• Ways of reducing the use of resourcesReducing, reusing and recycling to cut the use of limited resources and energy, materials made from limited raw materials such as metals, glass, clay ceramics and plastics, the impacts of quarrying and mining, the difference between reuse and recycling, and how glass, metals, steel and aluminium are recycled.Open →
• Corrosion and its preventionWhat corrosion is, why iron needs both air and water to rust, barrier coatings such as grease, paint and electroplating, aluminium's oxide layer, sacrificial protection and galvanising, why tin fails once scratched, and rusting experiments.Open →
• Alloys as useful materialsWhy most everyday metals are alloys, bronze and brass and their uses, gold alloys and carat values, high and low carbon steels, stainless steel and aluminium alloys, and matching the properties of each alloy to uses such as car panels, aircraft bodies, cutlery and silver jewellery.Open →
• Glass, clay ceramics and polymersHow soda-lime and borosilicate glass are made and why borosilicate suits laboratory beakers, making clay ceramics such as pottery and bricks, how monomers and conditions decide polymer properties, low and high density poly(ethene), and thermosoftening and thermosetting polymers, their uses and recycling.Open →
• Composites, and comparing materialsHow low and high density poly(ethene) form from ethene, the structures of thermosoftening and thermosetting polymers, composites with a matrix and reinforcement such as concrete, wood and carbon fibre, and comparing density, strength, melting point, brittleness and conductivity to choose a material for a job.Open →
• The Haber processAmmonia manufacture for fertilisers, the raw materials nitrogen and hydrogen and their sources, the iron catalyst, the compromise conditions of about 450°C and 200 atmospheres, word and symbol equations, separating ammonia and recycling unreacted gases, equilibrium in the reactor, and the trade-offs between rate, yield and energy cost.Open →
• Production and uses of NPK fertilisersNPK fertilisers and the elements they supply, why fertilisers are used, fertilisers as formulations, ammonium salts and nitric acid made from ammonia, ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate, mined potassium salts and phosphate rock, treating phosphate rock with acids to give soluble salts and superphosphates, and laboratory versus industrial production.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Using Resources further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Potable water vs Pure water

  Potable water: safe to drink, with low levels of dissolved salts and microbes. Pure water: a single substance with nothing dissolved, boiling at exactly 100 °C.

• Phytomining vs Bioleaching

  Phytomining: growing plants that absorb metal compounds, then burning them to ash. Bioleaching: using bacteria on low-grade ore to produce a leachate solution.

• Reusing vs Recycling

  Reusing: using the same product again as it is, such as a refilled bottle. Recycling: breaking a material down and making it into something new.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Name four basic human needs that are met using the Earth's resources.

   Model answer

   Warmth, shelter, food and transport.

2. 2

   Which human need is met when crude oil is separated into petrol and diesel?

   Model answer

   Transport, because these fuels are burned in vehicle engines.

3. 3

   What does agriculture add to the natural resources that provide food, timber, clothing and fuels?

   Model answer

   It supplements them, so far larger and more reliable quantities are available than nature alone would supply.

4. 4

   What is meant by a finite resource?

   Model answer

   A resource that is being used up faster than it is replaced, so supplies will eventually run out.

5. 5

   From which three places are finite resources taken before being processed into energy and materials?

   Model answer

   The Earth, the oceans and the atmosphere.

6. 6

   What is sustainable development?

   Model answer

   Development that meets the needs of people today without preventing future generations from meeting their own needs.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Using Resources revision questions

What does Using Resources cover in AQA GCSE Chemistry?

13 subtopics: using the earth's resources and sustainable development, producing potable water in the uk, desalination, and analysing water samples, waste water treatment, alternative methods of extracting metals, life cycle assessment, ways of reducing the use of resources, corrosion and its prevention, alloys as useful materials, glass, clay ceramics and polymers, composites, and comparing materials, the haber process and production and uses of npk fertilisers. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Using Resources organised?

By the AQA 8462 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.