CHE-111: INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

BATCH: FA19-CHE SECTION: B

Assignment No. 1-4

Name Roll No.
MUHAMMAD ZUBAIR FA19-CHE-086
IBRAR MAZHAR FA19-CHE-081
MUHAMMAD SAAD CHAUDARY FA19-CHE-058
HUZAIFA RASHEED FA19-CHE-058

Date Assigned: December 09, 2019

Due Date: December 26, 2019

Instructor: Dr. Aqeel Ahmed Bazmi

Figure 1 shows a four steps strategy for solving problems and puzzles includes: define,
plan, carry out the plan, and look back. The key features of this strategy are the interaction among
the steps and the interplay between critical and creative thinking and Table 1 presents the
comparison of problem solving habits of an expert and a non-expert.

Fig.1. Problem Solving Plan

 Table 1
A Comparison of the Problem-Solving Habits of a Novice and an Expert
A Novice
Starts solving a problem before fully
understanding what is wanted and/or what a
good route for solution will be
Focuses only on a known problem set that he
or she has seen before and tries to match the
problem with one in the set
Chooses one procedure without exploring
alternatives
Emphasizes speed of solution, unaware of
blunders
Does not follow an organized plan of attack
such as outlined in Fig. 1, jumps about, and
mixes problem solving strategies
Is unaware of missing data, concepts, laws
Exhibits bad judgment, makes unsound
assumptions, poor approximations
Gives up solving the problem because he or
she does not know enough
Gives up solving the problem because he or
she does not have skills to branch away from a
dead-end strategy
An Expert
Reviews the entire plan outlined in Fig. 1,
mentally explores alternative strategies, and
clearly understands what result is to be
obtained
Concentrates on similarities to and differences
from known problems; uses generic principles
rather than problem matching
Examines several procedures serially or in
parallel
Emphasizes care and accuracy in the solution
Goes through the problem-solving process step
by step, checking, reevaluating, and recycling
from dead ends to another valid path
Knows what principles might be involved and
where to get missing data
Carefully evaluates the necessary assumptions
and approximations
Knows what the difficulty is and is willing to
learn more that will provide the information
needed
Aware that a dead end may exist for a strategy
and has planned alternative strategies if a dead
end is reached
 Introduction:

The brightest and largest object in our night sky, the Moon makes Earth a more livable
planet by moderating our home planet's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable
climate. It also causes tides, creating a rhythm that has guided humans for thousands of
years.Earth's only natural satellite is simply called "the Moon" because people didn't
know other moons existed until Galileo Galilei discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in
1610. In Latin, the Moon was called Luna, which is the main adjective for all things
Moon-related: lunar. [1]

Size and Distance: -

With a radius of 1,079.6 miles (1,737.5 kilometers), the Moon is less than a third
the width of Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, the Moon would be about as big as a coffee
bean.
The Moon is farther away from Earth than most people realize. The Moon is an average of
238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away. That means 30 Earth-sized planets could fit in
between Earth and the Moon.
The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth, getting about an inch farther away each year. [1]

Structure:
Earth's Moon has a core, mantle and crust.
The Moon’s core is proportionally smaller than other terrestrial bodies' cores. The solid, iron-
rich inner core is 149 miles (240 kilometers) in radius. It is surrounded by a liquid iron shell 56
miles (90 kilometers) thick. A partially molten layer with a thickness of 93 miles (150 kilometers)
surrounds the iron core.
The mantle extends from the top of the partially molten layer to the bottom of the Moon's
crust. It is most likely made of minerals like olivine and pyroxene, which are made up of
magnesium, iron, silicon and oxygen atoms.
The crust has a thickness of about 43 miles (70 kilometers) on the Moon’s near-side
hemisphere and 93 miles (150 kilometers) on the far-side. It is made of oxygen, silicon,
magnesium, iron, calcium and aluminum, with small amounts of titanium, uranium, thorium,
potassium and hydrogen.
Long ago the Moon had active volcanoes, but today they are all dormant and have not erupted
for millions of years. [1]

Atmosphere:
The Moon has a very thin and weak atmosphere, called an exosphere. It does not
provide any protection from the sun's radiation or impacts from meteoroids. [1]
On the moon, there's no air to breathe, no breezes to make the flags planted
there by the Apollo astronauts flutter. However, there is a very, very thin layer of gases on the
lunar surface that can almost be called an atmosphere. Technically, it's considered an
exosphere.
In an exosphere, the gases are so spread out that they rarely collide with one another. They are
rather like microscopic cannon balls flying unimpeded on curved, ballistic trajectories and
bouncing across the lunar surface. In the moon's atmosphere, there are only 100 molecules per
cubic centimeter. In comparison, Earth's atmosphere at sea level has about 100 billion billion
molecules per cubic centimeter. The total mass of these lunar gases is about 55,000 pounds
(25,000 kilograms), about the same weight as a loaded dump truck. Every night, the cold
temperatures mean the atmosphere falls to the ground, only to be kicked up by the solar wind
the following days.
Several elements have been detected in the lunar atmosphere. Detectors left by Apollo
astronauts have detected argon-40, helium-4, oxygen, methane, nitrogen, carbon monoxide
and carbon dioxide. Earth-based spectrometers have detected sodium and potassium, while
the Lunar Prospector orbiter found radioactive isotopes of radon and polonium. Recently,
scientists even found that water molecules less than a micrometer thick could survive on the
lunar surface. [2]

ENVIRONMENT ON MOON:
 GRAVITY: The Moon's surface gravity of 1.62 m/s² is only one-sixth the Earth's. And,
with its consequently lower escape velocity, the Moon cannot maintain a
significant atmosphere.
(Thus, the surface is directly exposed to the vacuum of space.)

 DENSITY: The moon density is 3.34 g/cm³ very less than earth’s density. It in about the
60% of the Earth’s density.
 MASS: The moon's mass is 7.35 x 1022 kg about 1.2 percent of Earth's mass.
 ATMOSTPHERIC PRESSURE: There is no atmospheric pressure on moon
because there is no atmosphere on moon . On the moon, there's no air to breathe.
  TEMPERATURE ON MOON: The moon has an general temperature of 260 degrees
Fahrenheit/127 degrees Celsius. This is the environment when the sun is down but
when the sun is up the temperature goes up to  minus 280 F (minus 173 C).
 SURFACE AREA: The moon's surface area is about 14.6 million square miles (38 million
square kilometers).
 ORBITAL SPEED: The orbital speed of Moon is 1.022 km/s. It is 29 times lesser than
Earth.
 ELEMENTS PRESENT ON MOON: The elements present on moon are silicon (Si), iron
(Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti).

Surface:
With too sparse an atmosphere to impede impacts, a steady rain of asteroids, meteoroids
and comets strikes the surface of the Moon, leaving numerous craters behind. Tycho Crater is
more than 52 miles (85 kilometers) wide.

Over billions of years, these impacts have ground up the surface of the Moon into fragments
ranging from huge boulders to powder. Nearly the entire Moon is covered by a rubble pile of
charcoal-gray, powdery dust and rocky debris called the lunar regolith. Beneath is a region of
fractured bedrock referred to as the megaregolith.

The light areas of the Moon are known as the highlands. The dark features, called maria (Latin
for seas), are impact basins that were filled with lava between 4.2 and 1.2 billion years ago.
These light and dark areas represent rocks of different composition and ages, which provide
evidence for how the early crust may have crystallized from a lunar magma ocean. The craters
themselves, which have been preserved for billions of years, provide an impact history for the
moon and other bodies in the inner solar system.

If you looked in the right places on the Moon, you would find pieces of equipment, American
flags, and even a camera left behind by astronauts. While you were there, you'd notice that the
gravity on the surface of the Moon is one-sixth of Earth's, which is why in footage of
moonwalks, astronauts appear to almost bounce across the surface.

The temperature reaches about 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius) when in full sun,
but in darkness, the temperatures plummets to about -280 degrees Fahrenheit (-173 degrees
Celsius). [1]
Rocks on The surface of Moon:
There are four types of rocks commonly found on the Moon: Basalt, Breccia, Highlands, and
Regolith (or surface soil).
The rocks on the Moon are the result of impact events, or meteoric collisions, throughout the
Moon's history. [3]

i) Basalt: The Mare Rock

Black volcanic basalts are found on 26% of the Moon's near side (and 2% of the Moon's far
side). They formed when volcanic lava bubbled up into the Moon's cavernous basins
through cracks formed by past meteoric impacts. Lunar basalts are similar to basalts found
on Earth except for minor differences in chemical composition, such as fewer iron-like
elements. [3]

ii) Breccia Shocked Rock:

Breccia are composite rocks formed from jagged
and irregularly-shaped fragments that melted and then fused together during a meteoric
collision. They are commonly found surrounding the Moon's craters. The pervasiveness of
breccia suggests how often impact events occurred throughout the Moon's history. [3]

iii) Highland Rock: Anorthosite:

Anorthosite is found across the Moon's lunar
highlands and likely formed the primitive lunar crust. These rocks can be 4.6 billion years old at
most, and their chemical composition suggests that the Moon's surface experienced frequent
melting. [3]

iv) Regolith Soil / Surface Layer:

Regolith is the loose, dusty soil that covers the
Moon's surface up to a few meters on the Mare and sometimes triple that on the Highlands. It
exists due to the Moon's constant bombardment with meteors - as the first line of defense,
what might be larger rocks are ground into a powder upon these impacts.
The composition of the Regolith mirrors that of the rocks underneath, which means the soil is
mostly basalt on the the Mare and largely Highland rock on the Highlands. Glass spherules
(small glass beads \ formed from small impacts on the Moon's surface) and orange dust from
volcanic eruptions can also be found in the Regolit. [3]

REFERENCES: -

[1] National Aeronautics and Space Administration website

(https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/earths-moon/in-depth/ )

[4] Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
2-1-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8505, Japan.
PROBLEM:
You are required to propose a scheme to produce oxygen on moon to be used to
provide life support for lunar colonies, keeping in view the climate conditions on moon
and feasible sources of energy.

LITERARY SERRWAY:
Oxygen is one of the basic chemical elements. In its most common form, oxygen is a
colorless gas found in air. It is one of the life-sustaining elements on Earth and is needed by all
animals. Oxygen is one of the most abundant chemical elements on Earth. About one-half of the
earth's crust is made up of chemical compounds containing oxygen, and a fifth of our
atmosphere is oxygen gas. The human body is about two-thirds oxygen.
Oxygen can be produced from a number of materials, using several different
methods.
 Most common natural method is photo-synthesis.
 The most common commercial method for producing oxygen
1. Cryogenic distillation process
2. Vacuum swing adsorption process
 Electrolysis process
 Chemical reactions
 Photo-synthesis:
Conditions necessary for photosynthesis:
1 Sunlight
2 Chlorophyll
3 Carbon dioxide
4 water

Raw materials for photosynthesis:
1. Carbon dioxide
2. Water

These are the necessary conditions for the completion of photosynthesis process but on the moon
due the absence of air , carbon dioxide could not be found there and water which is the basic and
essential component of life is also not available there.
 Air separation:
Dry air have 20.95 percent of oxygen.
We can separate oxygen through air by fractional distillation . Cryogenic air separation units are
build to provide nitrogen and oxygen and often co produce argon.
 Electrolysis Method:
Oxygen can as well produce by passing electric current through through water In this process
two ionic gases are formed hydrogen at positive terminal and oxygen at negative terminal
But it is not economical method for producing oxygen at a big level. Because it needs a lot of
energy and little of oxygen can be produce from pound water.

SOLUTION:
The Moon is a pretty inhospitable place for humans. It's all dry and dusty, and there's no
atmosphere for us to breathe. But there is a bunch of oxygen: The lunar regolith - the crumbly
top layer of dirt and rubble on the Moon's surface - is loaded with it. And now scientists have
figured out how to get it out.
The process also doesn't produce waste. On the one hand, you get a bunch of oxygen. On the
other, a bunch of metal alloys that it was bound up with. Both of these would be really useful
on any future lunar bases or colonies.
Thanks to regolith samples returned from previous lunar missions, we know that oxygen is
really quite abundant up there. Between 40 and 45 percent by weight of the regolith is oxygen -
by far the most abundant component by weight.
There's just one big problem.
"This oxygen is an extremely valuable resource, but it is chemically bound in the material as
oxides in the form of minerals or glass, and is therefore unavailable for immediate use," said
chemist Beth Lomax from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
Those samples are too valuable to experiment on directly, but having them means we can
precisely recreate their consistency using terrestrial materials. This 'fake' lunar dirt is called
lunar regolith simulant, and Lomax and her team used it for their research.
There have been previous attempts to extract the oxygen from lunar regolith, such as the
chemical reduction of iron oxides using hydrogen to produce water, and then electrolysis to
separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in the water; or a similar process with methane instead
of hydrogen.
But these techniques have either been low-yield, overly complicated, or too hot, requiring such
extreme temperatures that the regolith actually melts.
Lomax and colleagues have skipped the chemical reduction step and gone straight to
electrolysis of the powdered regolith.
"The processing was performed using a method called molten salt electrolysis. This is the first
example of direct powder-to-powder processing of solid lunar regolith simulant that can extract
virtually all the oxygen," Lomax explained.
"Alternative methods of lunar oxygen extraction achieve significantly lower yields, or require
the regolith to be melted with extreme temperatures of more than 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,900
F)."
First, the regolith is placed in a mesh-lined basket. Calcium chloride - the electrolyte - is added,
and the mix is heated to around 950 degrees Celsius, a temperature that doesn't melt the
material. Then, an electrical current is applied. This extracts the oxygen, and migrates the salt
to an anode, where it can be easily removed.

It took around 50 hours to extract 96 percent of the oxygen bound up in the regolith sample,
but 75 percent of the oxygen lifted in the first 15 hours. Roughly a third of the total oxygen in
the sample was detected in off-gas, and the rest was lost, but this is still a vast improvement on
the yields of previous techniques.
In addition, the metal left behind is usable - the first time a lunar regolith oxygen extraction
technique has produced this result.
"This is the first successful demonstration of solid-state powder-to-powder regolith simulant
processing that yields metal alloys as products," the researchers wrote in their paper.
"Furthermore, the clear separation of various alloy phases, and the apparent depletion of other
metallic components, introduces the exciting potential for metal/alloy separation and refining
from unbeneficiated lunar regolith."
There were three main alloy groups in the by-product, sometimes with small amounts of other
metals mixed in: iron-aluminium, iron-silicon, and calcium-silicon-aluminium.
This discovery means the technique could still be valuable even if it turns out that oxygen can
be extracted from suspected water ice reserves on the Moon.
"This process would give lunar settlers access to oxygen for fuel and life support, as well as a
wide range of metal alloys for in-situ manufacturing," said ESA lunar strategy officer James
Carpenter.

MICHELLE STARR
10 OCT 2019
REFRENCE: (https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists)