Questions concerning Fossil Fuels, carbon compound, and corresponding products

Question for simple lab method to prepare Ethyl ethanoate.

Sulphuric acid in the condensation of ester act as dehydrating agent and catalyst.
HCL cannot be used because water presence will reverse the reaction.











Essay type question for oil spillage









Acid rain:

• Why rain is usually more acidic during water?

ANS: Decreasing temperature will increase the solubility of gases in water. Therefore more sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide would dissolve in water during winter.
Besides, more fuels is burnt to meet the greater energy demand in winter.

• Use scrubbers in industry to remove SO2.
• Use electrostatic precipitator to remove dust/particulates.
• use catalytic converter in car exhaust system.
  

Convenience of crude oil over coal:

• Crude oil is convenient because it is in liquid state so that it is easy to transport.

Method to remove excess water:

• Adding calcium oxide.

Function of reflux condenser(Leibig's condenser) in preparing ethanoic acid from ethanol.

• Due to volatile intermediate product, a reflux condenser is used.
• If the condenser is arranged in a sloping position to a receiver(the set up for distillation of sea water), the product obtain would be ethanal instead of the desired ethanoic acid.
• the first product ethanal after oxidation of ethanol is very volatile and will escape on heating. If so, there would be no chance for the ethanal to be further oxidized to ethanolic acid.
• *Please refer to the previous post for the heat under reflux set up.
• After reflux, use fractional distillation to seperate ethanoic acid from the mixture.