STE: The Built World notes
(Mostly asynchronous)
Lecture #2: 5/20:
(Notes from powerpoints)
● Chapter1 powerpoint:
○ Mining: placer, underground, surface
○ Mines waste both solid and liquid
● Raw materials usually refer to unprocessed materials that will be turned into a product
● Mineable resources:
○ Ores - mineral and metal. Contains rock that further requires processing
○ Stones: minerals used directly
● A resource is considered: “mineable,” if it can be taken out of the ground using some
method
● Mineable resources include:
○ Ores
○ Groundwater
○ Petroleum and natural gas
○ Mineable resources are often non-reusable
● Placer mining: separation of desired materials from streambed deposits
○ Panning: The use of a pan to sift through sand, rocks and other substances
○ Hydraulicking: Using a high-pressure water stream to wash streambed gravel
into a box, so that metals can be separated from other substances
● Topside activities: Below surface activities:
○ Drill - Blast - Remove Debris
○ Drilling uses pneumatic debris
○ Blasting using explosive debris removal
○ Using roof bolts - shores walls, in order to help walls from getting slabbed
● Certain mines in South Africa are 13,000 feet below sea level
● There are multiple levels needed in order to use hoists, worker transport, water
pumping
● Temperature rises 1 degree F, for every 300 feet of depth
● There are 2 main types of surface mines:
○ Open pit- Helpful for deep mineral veins, such as Iron (Fe), or Copper (Cu)
○ Open cast (also called strip mining)- Useful for bedded sedimentary pieces
such as coal
● Open pit mining: Open pit mines have terraced designs to prevent wall collapses
● Drill - blast-remove debris
● For open pit mining: it is bigger and deeper holes for explosives: foot in diameter, and
60 feet deep. There will also be bigger blasts, and larger debris loads. Mine trucks can
carry a load of 400,000 pounds
● Open cast (strip) mining:
, ○ Uses vast tracts of land
○ Basic process: Grubbing (remove vegetation and top-soil), Layer by layer
stripping of overburden, Perform reclamation of previous strips, Replace spoil
and lay topsoil
● Surface mining equipment:
○ Draglines: largest self-propelled devices on land (30 million pounds)
○ Shovels: Smaller excavation units that work toward excavating while digging
○ Bucket wheel excavators: continuous excavating tool used as a rotating bucket
wheel (usually can carve 20-40 feet in diameter, largest can carve out 10,000
cubic yards/hour)
○ Buckets with capacities as large as 220 cubic yards collect rocks
● Mine Wastes, Solid Waste - Gangue:
○ Gob piles or culm banks: all the slate and rock that is not coal
○ Chat: dark, sandy material left after lead and zinc have been removed
○ Slag: glassy or cindery waste from metal smelters
○ Gyp stacks: Gray or white powdery materials called gypsum
● Chapter 1: Out of the earth Ore milling and smelting Iron and steel
○ Metals need to be recovered from Ore’s that they are found in
○ Metals are usually combined with Sulfur or Oxygen, when in rock
● Smelting: Chemical process to “cook” the metal out of the milled one
● Grinding: Make ore lumps into the correct size for smelting
● Smelting process:
○ Ore is roasted to remove S
○ Ore is heated above melting point with a flux
○ Conversion: air is blown through matte to burn away from remaining S
● SOx + water vapor = H2SO4
● Iron is a common metal in earth's crust
● Steel is processed iron
● Different forms of Iron: Taconite, Pig Iron, Cast Iron, Wrought Iron, Steel, Stainless
Steel
● Iron has to be processed in order to be able to be turned into steel
● Processed steel is sent to casting machines, and then to rolling mills, in order to be
made into sheets, wires, and bars
● Steel production primarily started around 1880, and it was first mass produced when
making the Eiffel Tower in 1889, 1000 feet of it was made
● In order to get aluminum, there is a 3 step phase to transfer metals to get there. It
begins with Bauxite, which gets transformed to Alumina, which then gets transferred
to Aluminum
Lecture #3: 5/22:
, ● Most info will be in powerpoints. Not as much in the textbook. Regardless, I still need
to read it and take notes
● Cannot submit any homework through email. It will have to be submitted through
blackboard when its due
● 15 weeks of work, in 7 weeks, so just make sure I pay attention
● Over the weekend, the next quiz and video lectures will be posted. Work on that
● Team project: Team will be posted on Monday (probably on blackboard)
● Oil and gas and power plants will be open next week
● Monday, team will be posted
● 1 week to post first project milestone
● We need to come up with a team agreement of how we are going to/what our roles are
going to be
● We need a topic/team name for first project milestone
Lecture #4: 5/27:
(Part 1)
● Drilling rigs: temporary and portable. Comprised of a support structure, a drilling
assembly, and a lubrication system
● Drill bit - does drilling
● Drill string - a pipe connecting drill to surface
● Rotary table - motor driven springing platter that turns the kelly
● Kelly - special length of pipe gripped by rotary table
● Drill collar - weights on the drill bit
● Drill assembly fully together will be about 200,000 pounds
● Top drives: alternative to rotary table, uses an electric motor
● Oil and gas in the environment turn into fossil fuels
● Fuels formed eons ago, from decaying plants and animals
● Coal, natural gas, and petroleum are all fossil fuels
● Fossil fuels are considered “non-renewable,” because we use them faster than they
can naturally be produced
● U.S. population is about 5% of the world’s, but the country uses approximately 25%
of the world's commercial energy
● Methane+oxygen, will react to carbon dioxide and water vapor
● Particles from combustion: mostly fine particles and soots
● Chemicals can also absorb in soots
(Part 2)
● Motor is the turbine that used mud to move the drill bit
● Only the drill bit moves, not entire shaft
● Allows for non-vertical drilling
● A mud motor (or drilling motor) is a progressibe cavity positive, displacement
(PCPD), pump, placed in the drill string to provide additional power to the bit while
drilling
(Mostly asynchronous)
Lecture #2: 5/20:
(Notes from powerpoints)
● Chapter1 powerpoint:
○ Mining: placer, underground, surface
○ Mines waste both solid and liquid
● Raw materials usually refer to unprocessed materials that will be turned into a product
● Mineable resources:
○ Ores - mineral and metal. Contains rock that further requires processing
○ Stones: minerals used directly
● A resource is considered: “mineable,” if it can be taken out of the ground using some
method
● Mineable resources include:
○ Ores
○ Groundwater
○ Petroleum and natural gas
○ Mineable resources are often non-reusable
● Placer mining: separation of desired materials from streambed deposits
○ Panning: The use of a pan to sift through sand, rocks and other substances
○ Hydraulicking: Using a high-pressure water stream to wash streambed gravel
into a box, so that metals can be separated from other substances
● Topside activities: Below surface activities:
○ Drill - Blast - Remove Debris
○ Drilling uses pneumatic debris
○ Blasting using explosive debris removal
○ Using roof bolts - shores walls, in order to help walls from getting slabbed
● Certain mines in South Africa are 13,000 feet below sea level
● There are multiple levels needed in order to use hoists, worker transport, water
pumping
● Temperature rises 1 degree F, for every 300 feet of depth
● There are 2 main types of surface mines:
○ Open pit- Helpful for deep mineral veins, such as Iron (Fe), or Copper (Cu)
○ Open cast (also called strip mining)- Useful for bedded sedimentary pieces
such as coal
● Open pit mining: Open pit mines have terraced designs to prevent wall collapses
● Drill - blast-remove debris
● For open pit mining: it is bigger and deeper holes for explosives: foot in diameter, and
60 feet deep. There will also be bigger blasts, and larger debris loads. Mine trucks can
carry a load of 400,000 pounds
● Open cast (strip) mining:
, ○ Uses vast tracts of land
○ Basic process: Grubbing (remove vegetation and top-soil), Layer by layer
stripping of overburden, Perform reclamation of previous strips, Replace spoil
and lay topsoil
● Surface mining equipment:
○ Draglines: largest self-propelled devices on land (30 million pounds)
○ Shovels: Smaller excavation units that work toward excavating while digging
○ Bucket wheel excavators: continuous excavating tool used as a rotating bucket
wheel (usually can carve 20-40 feet in diameter, largest can carve out 10,000
cubic yards/hour)
○ Buckets with capacities as large as 220 cubic yards collect rocks
● Mine Wastes, Solid Waste - Gangue:
○ Gob piles or culm banks: all the slate and rock that is not coal
○ Chat: dark, sandy material left after lead and zinc have been removed
○ Slag: glassy or cindery waste from metal smelters
○ Gyp stacks: Gray or white powdery materials called gypsum
● Chapter 1: Out of the earth Ore milling and smelting Iron and steel
○ Metals need to be recovered from Ore’s that they are found in
○ Metals are usually combined with Sulfur or Oxygen, when in rock
● Smelting: Chemical process to “cook” the metal out of the milled one
● Grinding: Make ore lumps into the correct size for smelting
● Smelting process:
○ Ore is roasted to remove S
○ Ore is heated above melting point with a flux
○ Conversion: air is blown through matte to burn away from remaining S
● SOx + water vapor = H2SO4
● Iron is a common metal in earth's crust
● Steel is processed iron
● Different forms of Iron: Taconite, Pig Iron, Cast Iron, Wrought Iron, Steel, Stainless
Steel
● Iron has to be processed in order to be able to be turned into steel
● Processed steel is sent to casting machines, and then to rolling mills, in order to be
made into sheets, wires, and bars
● Steel production primarily started around 1880, and it was first mass produced when
making the Eiffel Tower in 1889, 1000 feet of it was made
● In order to get aluminum, there is a 3 step phase to transfer metals to get there. It
begins with Bauxite, which gets transformed to Alumina, which then gets transferred
to Aluminum
Lecture #3: 5/22:
, ● Most info will be in powerpoints. Not as much in the textbook. Regardless, I still need
to read it and take notes
● Cannot submit any homework through email. It will have to be submitted through
blackboard when its due
● 15 weeks of work, in 7 weeks, so just make sure I pay attention
● Over the weekend, the next quiz and video lectures will be posted. Work on that
● Team project: Team will be posted on Monday (probably on blackboard)
● Oil and gas and power plants will be open next week
● Monday, team will be posted
● 1 week to post first project milestone
● We need to come up with a team agreement of how we are going to/what our roles are
going to be
● We need a topic/team name for first project milestone
Lecture #4: 5/27:
(Part 1)
● Drilling rigs: temporary and portable. Comprised of a support structure, a drilling
assembly, and a lubrication system
● Drill bit - does drilling
● Drill string - a pipe connecting drill to surface
● Rotary table - motor driven springing platter that turns the kelly
● Kelly - special length of pipe gripped by rotary table
● Drill collar - weights on the drill bit
● Drill assembly fully together will be about 200,000 pounds
● Top drives: alternative to rotary table, uses an electric motor
● Oil and gas in the environment turn into fossil fuels
● Fuels formed eons ago, from decaying plants and animals
● Coal, natural gas, and petroleum are all fossil fuels
● Fossil fuels are considered “non-renewable,” because we use them faster than they
can naturally be produced
● U.S. population is about 5% of the world’s, but the country uses approximately 25%
of the world's commercial energy
● Methane+oxygen, will react to carbon dioxide and water vapor
● Particles from combustion: mostly fine particles and soots
● Chemicals can also absorb in soots
(Part 2)
● Motor is the turbine that used mud to move the drill bit
● Only the drill bit moves, not entire shaft
● Allows for non-vertical drilling
● A mud motor (or drilling motor) is a progressibe cavity positive, displacement
(PCPD), pump, placed in the drill string to provide additional power to the bit while
drilling
