- Industry: Broadcasting & receiving
- Number of terms: 5074
- Number of blossaries: 1
- Company Profile:
The largest broadcasting organisation in the world.
Mineral wool refers to any of several lightweight, fibrous materials used as insulation and created by blowing air or steam through molten blast-furnace slag (slag wool), molten rock (rock wool) or molten glass (glass wool). Definitions vary, but fibreglass is sometimes referred to as a mineral wool.
Industry:Natural environment
Nitrogen oxides are compounds of nitrogen and oxygen, two elements that do not normally react with each other but will do so during high temperature combustion – such as in a car engine. Examples include nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which contribute to air pollution, and nitrous oxide (N2O), which is a major greenhouse gas. Although its warming effect is far less than CO2, it persists in the atmosphere for far longer, so measured over 100 years its impact is 298 times greater.
Industry:Natural environment
Oil refining is the process of taking crude oil and turning it into fuels such as petrol and diesel. Crude oil varies in its composition, consisting of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds containing nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur. Refining oil requires energy and releases air-polluting chemicals. However, the majority of the CO2 produced by oil is emitted only once it has been turned into fuel and then burnt.
Industry:Natural environment
Mercury (chemical symbol Hg) is a metal that is liquid at standard temperature and pressure. It is used in the manufacture of low-energy lightbulbs (CFLs and other fluorescent lights), and extra care must be taken in their disposal, especially when they are broken, because of mercury's toxicity.
Industry:Natural environment
A pesticide is a substance used to kill a pest, and in a farming context a pest is anything that attacks or competes with crops. Hence, there are many different types of pesticides: for example, insecticides kill insects, and herbicides kill weeds. The chemicals used in pesticides can sometimes be toxic to humans, however, so organic farming endeavours to use natural rather than synthetic substances as pesticides.
Industry:Natural environment
Photovoltaics are materials that produce electricity from sunlight. A single photovoltaic cell can be used to power small devices such as calculators; combined in solar panels they can be used to power solar water heating. Most cells are manufactured from silicon.
Industry:Natural environment
A polymer is a giant molecule made up of thousands of atoms. It can be natural or man-made (synthetic). Many plastics in everyday use are polymers, such as polythene or PVC; but then so is cellulose, which makes up wood pulp from which paper is manufactured.
Industry:Natural environment
Renewable energy comes from natural sources that can be replenished and not permanently depleted - such as biomass, hydro-power, geothermal heat, solar power, wind power, and wave and tidal power - and most of which do not produce CO2emissions. They are unlike fossil fuels, which took millennia to form and cannot be replenished.
Industry:Natural environment
A semiconductor is a solid material that is able to conduct electricity, but with conductivity less than that of a good conductor and greater than an insulator. Semiconductors include silicon, and are used in the manufacture of photovoltaic cells, as well as computer chips and other electronic devices.
Industry:Natural environment
Silicon is a chemical element known as a 'metalloid' (because it has intermediate properties between a metal and a non-metal). It is used as a semiconductor, for example in microchips in computers, and to make photovoltaic cells for solar panels.
Industry:Natural environment
