WATER:

In its purest form, it's odorless, nearly colorless and

tasteless. It's in your body, the food you eat and the beverages
you drink. You use it to clean yourself, your clothes, your dishes,
your car and everything else around you. You can travel on it or
jump in it to cool off on hot summer days. Many of the products
that you use every day contain it or were manufactured using it.
All forms of life need it, and if they don't get enough of it, they
die. Political disputes have centered around it. In some places, it's
treasured and incredibly difficult to get. In others, it's incredibly
easy to get and then squandered. What substance is more
necessary to our existence than any other? Water.
At its most basic, water is a molecule with one oxygen atom
and two hydrogen atoms, bonded together by shared electrons.
It is a V-shaped polar molecule, which means that it's charged
positively near the hydrogen atoms and negatively near the
oxygen atom. Water molecules are naturally attracted and stick to
each other because of this polarity, forming a hydrogen bond.
This hydrogen bond is the reason behind many of water's special
properties, such as the fact that it's denser in its liquid state than
in its solid state (ice floats on water).
Water is the only substance that occurs naturally as a solid
(ice), a liquid and a gas (water vapor). It covers about 70 percent
of the Earth for a total of approximately 332.5 million cubic miles
(1,386 million cubic kilometers]. Only 3 percent of the world's
water supply is freshwater, and 77 percent of that is frozen. Of
the 23 percent that is not frozen, only a half a percent is available
to supply every plant, animal and person on Earth with all the
water they need to survive.

GLUCOSE:
Moorish writings (in the 1100s) revealed that glocuse or
grape sugar has existed. In the year 1747, a pharmacist from
Germany named Andreas Marggraf was able to isolate the glucose
found in raisins. However, Marggraf called it as eine Art Zucke. In
1811, sugar syrup was produced by Constantine Kirchoff with the
use of isolated glucose.It was only in 1838 when the term
glucose was introduced and this was done by Jean Baptiste
Andre Dumas. The word was derived from a Greek word glycos
that means sweet.
Glucose (C6H12O6) is important to the human body because
it is an excellent source of energy. Even animals and plants need
glucose. It is vital that a person monitors glucose in order to avoid
a condition called diabetes. Glucose interacts with the endocrine
and digestive systems. To ensure optimal health, the blood sugar
levels must be regulated at all times.

What foods contain glucose?

Almost all foods contain glucose like processed sweets,
potatoes, grain, pasta, and rice. These foods contain
carbohydrates which are converted into glucose once it reaches
the digestive system. Enzymes and bile are able to break down
sugar and starch into glucose. Glucose is absorbed in the small
intestines and is delivered into the bloodstream. When this
happens, a person will have enough energy to perform the daily
activities.
Benefits and risks of glucose
Glucose has benefits as well as potential risks. Without
glucose, a person will feel weak because of lack of energy. It is
also aids in cellular respiration. It can be said that humans need
glucose but it is equally significant that you regulate its levels in
the body.
A blood glucose test can measure the blood glucose and
determine if a person has diabetes.In the food industry, glucose is
widely used in the production of table syrups, jellies, jams,
chewing gums, and candies. In comparison to sucrose, glucose is
not that sweet. Grapes and other fruits also contain glucose.
Beans, rice, and bleached flour also has glucose content.
It is really hard to find foods that do not have glucose. To
make sure that you remain healthy, you have to monitor the
sugar content of the foods youre eating. Instead of buying unnatural sugar types, it is better to natural sugars contained in
fruits and other healthy foods.
Carbohydrate-rich foods contain glucose. However, digestion
has to take place so that the body can start using the energy
sources. For the glucose to enter the cells, insulin is needed. If
you are fatigued and weak, it could be that the glucose stays in
the blood because there isnt enough insulin. This usually
happens among individuals with Type 1 diabetes.

Glucose is also called dextrose which gives the body enough

energy.

AMMONIA:
Ammonia has been known to mankind since ancient times.
Historians believe Romans named the ammonium chloride that
was collected around the temple of Ammon, situated in Libya, as
sal ammoniacus or Salt of Ammon due to the approximity of the
important temple. In 8th 15th Century, Muslim alchemists used
this compound and named it nushadir (which was ammonium
chloride). In addition, Arab chemists were also familiar with
ammonia, which was originally mentioned by Jabir ibn Hayyan.
However, it wasnt until the 13 th century that this chemical was
described by the European chemists, namely Albertus Magnus. In
the Middle Ages, fermented urine (containing ammonia) was
commonly added to vegetable dyes to alter their colour. Basilius
Valentinus, in the 15th century, demonstrated for the first time
that ammonia could be generated from sal-ammoniac
(ammonium chloride) in the presence of an alkali.

1774-1785- Later, a new method to obtain ammonia was

developed through distillation of cow horns and hooves,
generating ammonium carbonate, which was followed by a
neutralization reaction with hydrochloric acid to produce
ammonia. This product was commonly called spririt of hartshorn.
Finally, in 1774, Joseph Priestley isolated gaseous ammonia,
which he called alkaline air, but only 11 years later, in 1785, its
composition was determined by Claude Louis Berthollet.
1909-1931- however, industrial uses of this compound
would have to wait until 1909 for Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch to
develop the first large-scale process to synthesize ammonia
capturing the nitrogen in the air. In 1918, Haber won a Nobel Prize
for the development of this process and a few years later, in
1931, Bosch, won the same accolade for perfecting a more
economic and effective process. This process was first used
during WWI by the Germans, after the Allied Forces blocked the
supply of nitrates from Chile. They converted many fertilizer
manufacturing plants to produce explosives using this compound.
1909-Present Day- When the war was over, BASF built a
high-pressure reactor in Ludwigshafen in 1921, which is still the
largest production site for this company. Since then, ammonia
production has been steadily increasing, and recently, BASF
announced a 30% increase in the production of ammonium
carbonate at their Ludwigshafen plant. This is designed to supply
increasing demand for high quality food additives.

METHANE:
Methane is a simple chemical molecule, having the
formula CH4. It is the the principal component of natural gas.
Complete combustion of methane in the presence of oxygen
produces carbon dioxide and water. The relative abundance of the
alkane hydrocarbon methane makes it a widely used fuel, but,
being a gas at typical ambient temperatures, methane is
challenging to transport. Consequently, dedicated pipelines are
often constructed for its long distance movement.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas produced both
naturally and through human activities. It was first discovered
by Alessandro Volta in 1776 who noticed bubbles rising from a
pond and found that these bubbles could be ignited with a naked
flame. Methane has a relatively short lifetime in the atmosphere,

most molecules having been destroyed within 10 years of their

release. However, the concentration of methane actually affects
its own atmospheric lifetime. The primary mechanism for its
destruction is by reaction with hydroxyl radicals (OH-), the greater
the concentration of methane the more the reductive power of
the atmosphere (the supply of hydroxyl radicals) is reduced. If this
feedback is included, then the true atmospheric lifetime of
methane extends to about 12 years.
Methane is synthesized commercially by the distillation of
bituminous coal and by heating a mixture of carbon and
hydrogen. It can be produced in the laboratory by heating sodium
acetate with sodium hydroxide and by the reaction of aluminum
carbide (Al4C3) with water.
In the chemical industry, methane is a raw material for the
manufacture of methanol (CH3OH), formaldehyde (CH2O),
nitromethane (CH3NO2), chloroform (CH3Cl), carbon tetrachloride
(CCl4), and some freons (compounds containing carbon and
fluorine, and perhaps chlorine and hydrogen). The reactions of
methane with chlorine and fluorine are triggered by light. When
exposed to bright visible light, mixtures of methane with chlorine
or fluorine react explosively.

PROPANE:
In 1910, a Pittsburgh motor car owner walked into chemist
Dr. Walter Snelling's office, complaining that the gallon of gasoline
he had purchased was half a gallon by the time he got home. He
thought the government should look into why consumers were
being cheated because the gasoline was evaporating at a rapid
and expensive rate. Dr. Snelling took up the challenge and
discovered the evaporating gases were propane, butane and
other hydrocarbons. Using coils from an old hot water heater and
other miscellaneous pieces of laboratory equipment he could find,
Dr. Snelling built a still that could separate the gasoline into its
liquid and gaseous components.
By 1912, propane gas was cooking food in the home. The
first car powered by propane ran in 1913, and 1915 were using
propane in torches to cut through metal. Propane was marketed
for flame cutting and cooking applications by 1920.In 1927, the
total sales of propane in the U. S. were more than one million
gallons, and after World War II the propane gas annual sales
increased to more than 15 billion gallons. By the 1930s, the
Compressed Gas Association (CGA) established and proposed a
set of recommendations to the National Fire Protection

Association (NFPA). In 1932, the first pamphlet of standards (No.

58) was adopted for publication. When Dr. Snelling sold his
propane patent to Frank Phillips, the founder of Phillips Petroleum
Company, his price was $50,000. Today, propane gas is an $8
billion industry in the United States alone and it is still growing.

OCTANE:
The name "octane" comes from the following fact: When you
take crude oil and "crack" it in a refinery, you end up
getting hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. These different
chain lengths can then be separated from each other and blended
to form different fuels. For example, you may have heard of
methane,
propane
and
butane.
All
three
of
them
are hydrocarbons. Methane has just a single carbon atom.
Propane has three carbon atoms chained together. Butane has
four carbon atoms chained together. Pentane has five, hexane has
six, heptane has seven and octane has eight carbons chained
together.
It turns out that heptane handles compression very poorly.
Compress it just a little and it ignites spontaneously. Octane
handles compression very well -- you can compress it a lot and
nothing happens. Eighty-seven-octane gasoline is gasoline that
contains 87-percent octane and 13-percent heptane (or some
other combination of fuels that has the same performance of the
87/13 combination of octane/heptane). It spontaneously ignites at
a given compression level, and can only be used in engines that
do not exceed that compression ratio.
During WWI, it was discovered that you can add a chemical
called tetraethyl lead (TEL) to gasoline and significantly improve
its octane rating above the octane/heptane combination. Cheaper
grades of gasoline could be made usable by adding TEL. This led
to the widespread use of "ethyl" or "leaded" gasoline.
Unfortunately, the side effects of adding lead to gasoline are:

Lead clogs a catalytic

inoperable within minutes.

converter and

renders

it


The Earth became covered in a thin layer of lead, and
lead is toxic to many living things (including humans).
When lead was banned, gasoline got more expensive
because refineries could not boost the octane ratings of cheaper
grades any more. Airplanes are still allowed to use leaded
gasoline (known as AvGas), and octane ratings of 100 or more are
commonly used in super-high-performance piston airplane
engines. In the case of AvGas, 100 is the gasoline's performance
rating, not the percentage of actual octane in the gas. The
addition of TEL boosts the compression level of the gasoline -- it
doesn't add more octane.