help chemistry/enviromental people :)

[sUICIDE_mONKEY]

Just started writing up my report for a design project me and some people were doing for my chemical engineering course, apparently its due tomorrow, so looks like its gonna be a long night , already done, the most of it, all the actual design of the adsorption and distillation columns, just need to do a wordy introduction .... so, do any of yee sciencey or enviromentalist people know anything about organic materials and why they're not so good to the enviroment? in particular 2-propanol (isopropanol) and propyl-ethanoate (n-propyl acetate)
Cheers

 

[Zammy-Sam]

Not an expert in that field, but many organic materials can hardly be degraded by bacteria or other (metabolic) organisms. Increasing their concentration can cause environmental changes e.g. a decrease of the pH-value. This can disturb the adaption of some organisms to that environment and cause their death which can lead to a disorder of the natural balance.
All I know about isopropanol is that it's hardly degraded and toxical.

 

[sUICIDE_mONKEY]

Cool, thanks man, that fitted in nicely in the first part of my intro! ....... u'd think in my course we'd be trained in what harmful effects our chemicals would do if they escaped, especialy with all the bad press the chemical industry gets, but no it seems to be kinda left up to whether we actually care or not
got a 3-day extension on the deadline, ,... it was pretty much ready on friday, but have been working at it all weekend, think its looking pretty good now.....