UNIT 11 BLOG
Vocabulary
Primary pollutant: air pollution directly emitted form a known source.
ex: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides
Secondary pollutant: not directly emitted by a certain source, but created when other sources react in the atmosphere. Primary pollutants that underwent transformation under sunlight, water, oxygen, etc.
ex: ozone (caused by primary pollutant nitrogen oxides and VOCs), sulfate and nitrate (acid deposition)
Thermal inversion: warm layer of air at mid altitude covers a layer of cold air below. The warm inversion layer traps emissions underneath and this trapped emissions cause severe air pollution.
Scrubber: removes sulfur dioxide and PM. Mists of water vapor traps them and turn them in to a sludge which is disposed to landfills.
Sick building syndrome: sickness caused by indoor pollution usually due to paints and other building materials.
Pollutants
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2):
- Corrosive gas that comes from combustion of fuels such as coal and oil.
- Respiratory irritant, can affect plant tissue
- Fossil fuels contain sulfur. When burnt, it creates SO2
- One of the primary pollutant
- Primary pollutant that is responsible of causing acid deposition
- Mainly caused by electricity generation
Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)
Nitrogen Oxide - colorless, odorless
Nitrogen Dioxide- Pungent, reddish brown.
- Atmosphere 78% Nitrogen gas (N2)
- all combustion in the atmosphere leads to the formation of nitrogen oxides
- Due to fossil fuel, wood, and biomass combustion
- Causes respiratory irritation
Carbon Monoxide (CO)
- Colorless, odorless
- formed during incomplete combustion of most matter (most commonly vehicle exhaust)
- can also be an indoor pollutant. Natural gas heaters malfunction and poor ventilation.
- travels to blood stream with oxygen, causes headaches and low concentration
Particulate Matter (PM)
- solid or liquid particles suspended in air
- combustion of wood, manure, biofuels, coal, oil, and gasoline
- exacerbate respiratory, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer
Lead (Pb)
- Gasoline additive, oil and gasoline, coal and old paint
- can effect learning ability
- attacks central nerve system
Ozone (O3)
- secondary pollutant
- most abundant and most frequently measured photochemical oxidant in the troposphere
- one in the stratosphere is good, troposphere is bad.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
-hydrocarbons.
- gasoline, dry cleaning fluids, oil based paints, and perfumes
- not yet proven to be harmful
Mercury (Hg)
- Coal, oil, gold mining
- bioaccumulates in to food chain
- attacks central nerve system
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
- most common green house gas today
- mainly caused by vehicle exhaust
- colorless, odorless
- formed during complete combustion- fossil fuels and biomass
- absorbed by plant during photosynthesis
Smog (sulfurous and photochemical)
- mix between smoke and fog
- when ozone and photchemical oxidants meet it creates photochemical smog
Indoor Pollutants
Asbestos- long thing mineral with insulating properties. Can cause respiratory diseases and lung cancer. Usually become harmful when insulating materials become old and danged and the particles are airborne so they can travel through respiratory systems. U.S. no longer allows asbestos as an insulating system.
Radon- Radon-222
from decayed uranium. It is a radioactive gas. Radon can seep in to people's house and particles can be attached to air and inhaled by humans. Causes lung cancer.
Greenhouse Gases
Water Vapor
- about 66% of the greenhouse gas is water vapor
- controlled by temperature
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
- chlorine in tje stratosphere
- anthropogenic compound
- ideal for refrigeration and air conditioning
- released to air by escaping leaky appliances.
Connections Discussions
Both Salmon and Coral Reefs are being hugely impacted by the increase in Ocean temperature. Coral reef is suffering from bleaching, which is caused by higher water temperature and carbon dioxide which stresses the corals to release the color pigment it has and later causes corals to die. Death of corals not only effect the population of the corals themselves but the entire ecosystem which they inhabit because many animals live off of corals. Salmons are also victims of high water temperature. Higher temperature makes salmons more susceptible to predators and diseases which caused massive killing of salmons. More carbon dioxide not only mean higher water temperature but also means acidic Ocean water. When Ocean water becomes acidic, salmons lose their main food source due to the destroyed shells of mollusks.
Ozone Discussion
Ozone is usually harmless and actually beneficial to humans in stratosphere. It blocks all the harmful UV rays that can cause skin cancer and other harmful results to earth. But when ozone is located in troposphere, it traps all the heat and is categorized as one of the greenhouse gasses. UV rays that does not make in to the earth, thanks to stratosphere ozone, it bounces off as infrared and be trapped by the troposphere ozone. Also, ozone in troposphere harms plants. It affects their tissue sells, causing them to have diseases like stomata. And being one of the greenhouse gasses, it is responsible for raise in Ocean temperature. Like discussed before, raised water temperature in coral reef area will cause corals to die out which will virtually destroy the entire coral reef ecosystems.
Big Discussion
Some greenhouse gasses are naturally produced but most of the harmful air pollutants that adds on to the greenhouse gasses and more are created by human activities. Almost everything humans do requires energy and most of them creates air pollutant. Carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas is mainly from vehicle exhaust. Also factories where they burn oil, coal, and fossil fuels to generate electricity and energy release nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and other harmful pollutants that threatens human health. Lung cancer and respiratory diseases are the main result from smogs and other air pollutants.
These air pollutants are causing global warming also. And global warming throws off everything in our environment. For example, coral reefs need to be kept under a certain temperature but due to global warming and raised Ocean temperature, coral bleaching is taking place which ends up killing all the corals and other species in that ecosystem due to the loss of corals. Salmons are also a prime example of global warming victims. Higher temperature means that salmons are more prone to diseases and predators. And loss of salmons and coral reefs will do a huge economic damage. So many fishermen, stores, markets, and restaurants are dependent on salmons and other fish. If they were to decrease in number, many people will run out of business either by shortage of product or by serving low quality product.
Clean Air Act plays a huge role in air pollutant in U.S. Many greenhouse gasses were publicized to people and educated the public how they can be harmful to human health and the environment.
landscape
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Unit 10 Blog
Vocabulary
Nuclear Fuels: Production of electricity from uranium in nuclear power reactors.
Efficiency: Delivering same services with less energy input.
Cogeneration: Use of fuel to generate electricity and produce heat
Oil Sands: Slow flwoing, viscous deposits of bitumen mixed with sand, water, and clay.
Bitumen: (tar) Degraded type of petroleum that forms when a petroleum deposit is not capped with nonporous rack.
CTL: Coal- to liquid. Solid Coal to liquid fuel
Modern Carbon: Carbon in the biomass
Fossil Carbon: Carbon in fossil fuels.
Carbon Neutral: an activity that does not change atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.
-CO2 concentrations return to air
-Vegetation grow back where biomass recently harvested
-New vegetation will take up amount of CO2 equal to the amount that was released.
Fuel Cell- Operates like a common battery, but in battery, electricity is generated by a reaction between two chemical reactants, nickel and cadmium and no additional materials can be added. But in a fuel cell, reactants are added continuously to the cell, so the cell produces electricity for as long as it is supplied with fuel.
- Basic process forces protons from hydrogen gas through a membrane, while the electrons take a different pathway. Movement of protons in one direction and electrons in another direction generates an electric current.
-Usually hydrogen from nature is explosive so commonly used hydrogen is produced by an energy intensive process of burning natural gas in order to extract its hydrogen and carbon dioxide is a waste product of this combustion.
Electrolysis- Electric current in applied to water to split it into hydrogen and oxygen.
-Hydrogen can act as an energy carrier.
Important Units
1 BTUs = 1055. 05585 Joules
kW = 1000W = 1000J /s = 1000000 mW
1W = 1000mW
1mW = 0.001W
1kWh = 3.6 x 10^6
ppm = Parts Per Million
1 ppm = 1000 ppb
GJ = Giga Joule = 1 billion (1 x 10^9 J) = 30 L (8 gallons) of gasoline
EJ = Exa Joule = 1 billion (1 x 10^9) giga joules
Primary Source Ranking
List #1
Solar
Wind
Hydroelectricity - rotting trees= emission of greenhouse gas
Geothermal - Natural hot springs, mud pools, and other areas can be damaged
Biomass - burning biomass can impact the air quality
Natural Gas - human health impacts as well as surrounding environment impact
Coal- burning coal is a major source of ozone layer
Oil- may lead to oil spill which completely destroys the marine environment
Nuclear- if exposed to humans and natural environment, can lead to serious consequences that may be hard to get rid of for several decades.
List #2
Oil
Coal
Natural gas
Nuclear
Biomass
Hydroelectric
Wind
Geothermal
Solar
List #3
Oil
Coal
Natural gas
Hydroelectric
Solar
Wind
Geothermal
List #4
Coal
Oil
Natural gas
Nuclear
Biomass
Geothermal
Wind
Solar
Biofules vs Fossil fuels
Biofuel - liquid version of biomass ex: diesel and ethanol
Burning this fuel causes air pollutant, releasing carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gasses. There are 4 generations of biofuels
1st generation is made out of sugar,starches, and oil
2nd generation is made out of non food crops or waste
3rd generation is made out of algae
4th generation is made out of specially engineered plants
Biofuels' availability is far greater than fossil fuels because these materials that are mentioned will be produced continuously unlike fossils which have only so much to provide until it is depleted.
Fossil fuels - fuels made out of fossilized animals and plants that were dead millions of years ago.
Burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of excessive carbon dioxide emissions to the air, releasing other greenhouse gasses to our environment.
Nuclear Disasters
Human impact the incident at Chernobyl had were Leukemia, and various cancers and severe illness from radiation. And this disaster took everyone's home away within 36 hours and desolated that area ever since. Not only did it have human health and economic impact but it also had and still has a huge impact on environment near Chernobyl as well. Like seen on the video, a mice living in Chernobyl is x 10,000 more exposed to radiation that a mice living in a clean area. That means that other animals that live there are the same as well. And the soil and plants are also probably highly exposed to radiation which makes that entire area a "hell" or a ghost town that no one can live probably forever.
ANWR is a artic coastal tundra that is untouched by humans. Large amount of species live there and are flourishing under the absence of human impact. When the graduate student took photos at the exact same spot as other explorers and professor did hundred years and fifty years ago, the photograph looked pretty much same, meaning that the environment was well kept away from large human impact. But humans are considering of fracking in ANWR in order to decrease the rate of U.S. dependence on foreign oil. If that happens, then those wild animals that were under strict protection will be extinct within few decades and the environment that has been kept the same for centuries will be changed and disturbed in few years. Like the biologist said in the video, some part of the world should be kept away from human greed and consumption for the future generation.
Reducing Consumption
In the beginning of Chapter 13, tidal, or moon power was mentioned. With windmill type of underwater turbine, people are able to get energy and electricity for the majority of the island. When the tide comes in and out, the strong wave and movements underwater causes the turbines to move which can generate in to an efficient energy. Although we lack technology and practices on this fairly new source of energy, if scientist develop farther on the tidal power, it will be able to reduce the consumption of oil for transportation and everyday use. With electricity made out of the tidal power, people can run on electrical car which will definitely decrease the amount of oil used.
Another source of energy that can reduce the oil consumption is the solar energy. Just like the tidal power, solar energy is a source of energy that we do not know every thing about yet. The technology and methods are not fully explored and developed yet. However, if we can come up with the solution to all the questions we currently have over solar energy, we will definitely be able to use it as one of our main source of energy that will replace oil or reduce oil consumption.
Big Picture Discussion
Humans discovered and developed all these different kinds of energy sources for their own benefit. But it is us humans that gets backfired by our own greed. Most of the energies we are using today causes greenhouse gasses to be released to the air, causing various respiratory diseases and severe diseases like cancer and Leukemia.
But the economic benefits that some people get from these energy sources are immense. Some of the most successful and rich people in the world were able to earn their money through oil and other popular energy sources with peak demand. Because none of us can stop using coal, oil, and natural gas, those who are involved in the business continues to earn a lot of money.
Like mentioned before, these economic benefits are all just human greed and not only humans but the environment which provides us these materials are being harmed as well. From the Chernobyl video, the catastrophic effect the nuclear radioactive energy had on the area was very well explained. That soil, trees, plants, and animals that live there will never be cleaned again and people will never be able to live there forever.
Clean Air Act obviously plays a roll in this one because all most all of the energy sources go through burning or heating which releases methane and carbon dioxides, also known as the greenhouse gasses. Also ANWR and what President Obama is trying to do can be a government effort to preserve what little nature we have left in this Earth.
Vocabulary
Nuclear Fuels: Production of electricity from uranium in nuclear power reactors.
Efficiency: Delivering same services with less energy input.
Cogeneration: Use of fuel to generate electricity and produce heat
Oil Sands: Slow flwoing, viscous deposits of bitumen mixed with sand, water, and clay.
Bitumen: (tar) Degraded type of petroleum that forms when a petroleum deposit is not capped with nonporous rack.
CTL: Coal- to liquid. Solid Coal to liquid fuel
Modern Carbon: Carbon in the biomass
Fossil Carbon: Carbon in fossil fuels.
Carbon Neutral: an activity that does not change atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.
-CO2 concentrations return to air
-Vegetation grow back where biomass recently harvested
-New vegetation will take up amount of CO2 equal to the amount that was released.
Fuel Cell- Operates like a common battery, but in battery, electricity is generated by a reaction between two chemical reactants, nickel and cadmium and no additional materials can be added. But in a fuel cell, reactants are added continuously to the cell, so the cell produces electricity for as long as it is supplied with fuel.
- Basic process forces protons from hydrogen gas through a membrane, while the electrons take a different pathway. Movement of protons in one direction and electrons in another direction generates an electric current.
-Usually hydrogen from nature is explosive so commonly used hydrogen is produced by an energy intensive process of burning natural gas in order to extract its hydrogen and carbon dioxide is a waste product of this combustion.
Electrolysis- Electric current in applied to water to split it into hydrogen and oxygen.
-Hydrogen can act as an energy carrier.
Important Units
1 BTUs = 1055. 05585 Joules
kW = 1000W = 1000J /s = 1000000 mW
1W = 1000mW
1mW = 0.001W
1kWh = 3.6 x 10^6
ppm = Parts Per Million
1 ppm = 1000 ppb
GJ = Giga Joule = 1 billion (1 x 10^9 J) = 30 L (8 gallons) of gasoline
EJ = Exa Joule = 1 billion (1 x 10^9) giga joules
Primary Source Ranking
List #1
Solar
Wind
Hydroelectricity - rotting trees= emission of greenhouse gas
Geothermal - Natural hot springs, mud pools, and other areas can be damaged
Biomass - burning biomass can impact the air quality
Natural Gas - human health impacts as well as surrounding environment impact
Coal- burning coal is a major source of ozone layer
Oil- may lead to oil spill which completely destroys the marine environment
Nuclear- if exposed to humans and natural environment, can lead to serious consequences that may be hard to get rid of for several decades.
List #2
Oil
Coal
Natural gas
Nuclear
Biomass
Hydroelectric
Wind
Geothermal
Solar
List #3
Oil
Coal
Natural gas
Hydroelectric
Solar
Wind
Geothermal
List #4
Coal
Oil
Natural gas
Nuclear
Biomass
Geothermal
Wind
Solar
Biofules vs Fossil fuels
Biofuel - liquid version of biomass ex: diesel and ethanol
Burning this fuel causes air pollutant, releasing carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gasses. There are 4 generations of biofuels
1st generation is made out of sugar,starches, and oil
2nd generation is made out of non food crops or waste
3rd generation is made out of algae
4th generation is made out of specially engineered plants
Biofuels' availability is far greater than fossil fuels because these materials that are mentioned will be produced continuously unlike fossils which have only so much to provide until it is depleted.
Fossil fuels - fuels made out of fossilized animals and plants that were dead millions of years ago.
Burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of excessive carbon dioxide emissions to the air, releasing other greenhouse gasses to our environment.
Nuclear Disasters
Human impact the incident at Chernobyl had were Leukemia, and various cancers and severe illness from radiation. And this disaster took everyone's home away within 36 hours and desolated that area ever since. Not only did it have human health and economic impact but it also had and still has a huge impact on environment near Chernobyl as well. Like seen on the video, a mice living in Chernobyl is x 10,000 more exposed to radiation that a mice living in a clean area. That means that other animals that live there are the same as well. And the soil and plants are also probably highly exposed to radiation which makes that entire area a "hell" or a ghost town that no one can live probably forever.
ANWR is a artic coastal tundra that is untouched by humans. Large amount of species live there and are flourishing under the absence of human impact. When the graduate student took photos at the exact same spot as other explorers and professor did hundred years and fifty years ago, the photograph looked pretty much same, meaning that the environment was well kept away from large human impact. But humans are considering of fracking in ANWR in order to decrease the rate of U.S. dependence on foreign oil. If that happens, then those wild animals that were under strict protection will be extinct within few decades and the environment that has been kept the same for centuries will be changed and disturbed in few years. Like the biologist said in the video, some part of the world should be kept away from human greed and consumption for the future generation.
Reducing Consumption
In the beginning of Chapter 13, tidal, or moon power was mentioned. With windmill type of underwater turbine, people are able to get energy and electricity for the majority of the island. When the tide comes in and out, the strong wave and movements underwater causes the turbines to move which can generate in to an efficient energy. Although we lack technology and practices on this fairly new source of energy, if scientist develop farther on the tidal power, it will be able to reduce the consumption of oil for transportation and everyday use. With electricity made out of the tidal power, people can run on electrical car which will definitely decrease the amount of oil used.
Another source of energy that can reduce the oil consumption is the solar energy. Just like the tidal power, solar energy is a source of energy that we do not know every thing about yet. The technology and methods are not fully explored and developed yet. However, if we can come up with the solution to all the questions we currently have over solar energy, we will definitely be able to use it as one of our main source of energy that will replace oil or reduce oil consumption.
Big Picture Discussion
Humans discovered and developed all these different kinds of energy sources for their own benefit. But it is us humans that gets backfired by our own greed. Most of the energies we are using today causes greenhouse gasses to be released to the air, causing various respiratory diseases and severe diseases like cancer and Leukemia.
But the economic benefits that some people get from these energy sources are immense. Some of the most successful and rich people in the world were able to earn their money through oil and other popular energy sources with peak demand. Because none of us can stop using coal, oil, and natural gas, those who are involved in the business continues to earn a lot of money.
Like mentioned before, these economic benefits are all just human greed and not only humans but the environment which provides us these materials are being harmed as well. From the Chernobyl video, the catastrophic effect the nuclear radioactive energy had on the area was very well explained. That soil, trees, plants, and animals that live there will never be cleaned again and people will never be able to live there forever.
Clean Air Act obviously plays a roll in this one because all most all of the energy sources go through burning or heating which releases methane and carbon dioxides, also known as the greenhouse gasses. Also ANWR and what President Obama is trying to do can be a government effort to preserve what little nature we have left in this Earth.
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