Calcium sediments

By experimentally determining the ratio of abundances of C and isotope peaks for CO2 dissolved in sea water at various temperatures, a graph can be drawn relating the solubility of CO2 compared with that of CO2 (the ratio described above). On extracting the CO2 from sediment containing the shells (calcium carbonate) of dead sea creatures by addition of acid, a ratio (R) of abundances of CO2 to CO2 can be measured. If this value is read from the graph, a temperature T is extrapolated, indicating the temperature of the sea at the time the sediment was laid down. Such experiments have shown that 10,000 years ago the temperature of the Mediterranean was much as it is now. 

One method for measuring the temperature of the sea is to measure this ratio. Of course, if you were to do it now, you would take a thermometer and not a mass spectrometer. But how do you determine the temperature of the sea as it was 10,000 years ago The answer lies with tiny sea creatures called diatoms. These have shells made from calcium carbonate, itself derived from carbon dioxide in sea water. As the diatoms die, they fall to the sea floor and build a sediment of calcium carbonate. If a sample is taken from a layer of sediment 10,000 years old, the carbon dioxide can be released by addition of acid. If this carbon dioxide is put into a suitable mass spectrometer, the ratio of carbon isotopes can be measured accurately. From this value and the graph of solubilities of isotopic forms of carbon dioxide with temperature (Figure 46.5), a temperature can be extrapolated. This is the temperature of the sea during the time the diatoms were alive. To conduct such experiments in a significant manner, it is essential that the isotope abundance ratios be measured very accurately. 

Biogenic Ma.teria.ls, Deep ocean calcareous or siUceous oo2es are sediments containing >30% of biogenic material. Foraminifera, the skeletal remains of calcareous plankton, are found extensively in deep equatorial waters above the calcium carbonate compensation depth of 4000 to 5000 m. 

Tricalcium Phosphate. Commercial tricalcium phosphate (TCP) is actually an amorphous basic calcium phosphate close to hydroxyapatite in composition. Because of its extremely low solubiUty in water, TCP is precipitated almost quantitatively from dilute phosphate solutions with a slurry of hydrated lime. TCP is separated by dmm-, spray-, or flash-drying the TCP slurry, with or without intermediate sedimentation or filtration steps. It is used as an industrial-grade flow conditioner and parting agent. 

Makeup. Makeup treatment depends extensively on the source water. Some steam systems use municipal water as a source. These systems may require dechlorination followed by reverse osmosis (qv) and ion exchange. Other systems use weUwater. In hard water areas, these systems include softening before further purification. Surface waters may require removal of suspended soHds by sedimentation (qv), coagulation, flocculation, and filtration. Calcium may be reduced by precipitation softening or lime softening. Organic contaminants can be removed by absorption on activated carbon. Details of makeup water treatment may be found in many handbooks (22—24) as well as in technical Hterature from water treatment chemical suppHers. 

Tyj)e of dryer Applicable with dry-product recirculation True and colloidal solutions emulsions. Examples inorganic salt solutions, extracts, milk, blood, waste liquors, rubber latex, etc. Pumpable suspensions. Examples pigment slurries, soap and detergents, calcium carbonate, bentonite, clay sbp, lead concentrates, etc. does not dust. Recirculation of product may prevent sticking Examples filter-press cakes, sedimentation sludges, centrifuged sobds, starch, etc. 

Lime Soda. If carbon dioxide is in solution in water and calcium hydroxide is added, the resulting precipitation product is CaCO this can be removed by sedimentation. 

If the water is permanently hard due to MgS04, and lime is added, the precipitates calcium sulfate, CaS04, and magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)4, result, which are removed by sedimentation. 

Permanent hardness can also be due to the presence of CaS04, in which case the addition of soda (sodium carbonate), NaiC03, produces sodium sulfate, Na2S04, and calcium carbonate, CaCO, this precipitate once again is removed by sedimentation. 

Figure 2.8 Particle mass flux during slurry sedimentation of precipitated calcium carbonate (Coulson and Richardson, 1991)...

In the North American market, water heaters are almost always made with the cold water inlet and hot water outlet lines coming out of the top of the tank. The hot water outlet opens right into the top of the tank and so draws off the hottest water. The hot water has risen to the top of the tank because of its lower density. The cold water on the inlet side is directed to the bottom of the tank by a plastic dip-tube. In some models the dip-tube is curved or bent at the end to increase the turbulence at the bottom of the tank. This is to keep any sediment from settling on the bottom of the tank. As sediment— usually calcium carbonate or lime—precipitated out of the water by the increased temperature builds up, it will increase the thermal stress on the bottom of a gas-fired water heater and increase the likelihood of tank failure. On electric water heaters the sediment builds up on the surface of the elements, especially if the elements are high-density elements. Low-density elements spread the same amount of power over a larger surface of the element so the temperatures are not as high and lime doesn t build up as quickly. If the lower elements get completely buried in the sediment, the element will likely overheat and burn out. 

The solubility of calcite and aragonite increases with increasing pressure and decreasing temperature in such a way that deep waters are undersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate, while surface waters are supersaturated. The level at which the effects of dissolution are first seen on carbonate shells in the sediments is termed the lysocline and coincides fairly well with the depth of the carbonate saturation horizon. The lysocline commonly lies between 3 and 4 km depth in today s oceans. Below the lysocline is the level where no carbonate remains in the sediment this level is termed the carbonate compensation depth. 

Russell AD, Emerson S, Mix AC, Peterson LC (1996) The use of foraminiferal U/Ca as an indicator of changes in seawater uranium content. Paleoceanography 11 649-663 Rutherford E, Soddy F (1902) The cause and nature of radioactivity Part 11. Phil Mag Ser 6 4 569-585 Sacked WM (1960) Protactnium-231 content of ocean water and sediments. Science 132 1761-1762 Sacked WM (1958) Ionium-uranium ratios in marine deposited calcium carbonates and related materials. 

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