Air Pollution Control - Essay Example

Topic: Teacher: AIR POLLUTION CONTROL Introduction Air is polluted when amount of certain dangerous gases in the air exceed the limits. Dust and different sort of fumes also pollute the air greatly. Increase in air pollution causes a lot of harm to humans, animals and the natural environment. Ozone acts as shield against the ultra violet rays of the sun and protects all forms of life from direct exposure to such rays. Air pollution is the major cause of depletion of ozone layer in the atmosphere. Major type of air pollution is known as “smog”. Smog is combination of smoke and fog. Smog can be seen with a human eye. It is always brownish in colour and may be seen in some areas in the shape of haze. Automobile industry has seen a lot of advancement in last few decades. Automobile and industrial fumes are the two biggest reasons for air pollution. Finally, with the integration of car emissions and industrial fumes, a new substance is created in the air, known as “Photochemical Smog”. Photochemical smog is made with the reaction between sunlight and oxides of nitrogen Air pollution has become a global problem as smoke and vehicle emissions travel very fast from one place to another. Vehicle emissions and industrial fumes are the main contributing factors towards the warming of the planet. Causes of air pollution and solutions to curtail the problem shall be discussed in the succeeding paragraphs. Vehicles and air pollution Innovations that are related to the automobile industry brought about many changes in human life and in the environment. Motor vehicle emissions are the major causes of polluting the air. Number vehicles in industrialized cities are increasing at a rapid speed, which is alarming for the future of life on the planet. Patrol vehicles mostly discharge two types of pollution. First is in the shape of exhaust emissions that includes carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen. CO2 has seen a rise of 30% in atmosphere as compare to preindustrial time. Second is evaporative emission that is result of incomplete combustion. Incomplete combustion is more dangerous as it releases more active toxic chemicals and organic compounds in the air. These chemicals produce ground level ozone that is also known as smog. Smoke coming out from the exhaust pipe of vehicle spreads incompletely burnt chemicals in the air. This causes danger to human life and rising quantity of carbon monoxide damages the plants and other vegetation. The pollution which arises from burning of gasoline in the vehicles acts as slow poison. It poisons our food and the chains of food which are related to us (Kaufman, 2004, 62,63). A research held by United States Governmental organization show that there is a much massive amount of mercury and other harmful substances present in the flesh of fish. The major cause of presence of harmful substances is the industrial pollution, which goes to air and then comes back to the streams, rivers and seas. Major causes of smoke exhaustion from a vehicle are old spark plugs, dirty air cleaner, damaged fuel filters, old piston and rings that are not working properly. Vehicles and industries produce almost 90% of world’s pollution. Therefore, vehicle pollution causes lungs cancer, respiratory problems, urban smog and acid rain. Lead is another cause of pollution when vehicles use leaded gasoline. Lead is the major cause of hypertension and cancer. These diseases are more common in urban areas as large emission from vehicles takes place in urban areas. Vehicle emissions are the main contributors of overall warming of the planet. This global warming may cause a lot of damage to food chain. Storms, floods, rising of sea levels and fluctuating weather conditions are the outcome of global warming (Davis, 2002, 74, 75). Through the last few years, there is a rise in the temperature of the earth by one degree on the Celsius scale. The rise in the temperature caused many problems to the habitat of colder areas. The glaciers all around the world are melting day by day at a much rapid rate. The geological survey of earth found that there is comparatively a dangerous amount of harmful materials are found in the flesh of polar seals and polar bear. The amount of these harmful materials worked as a destructive agent in the polar habitat. Industries and air pollution Environmental research carried by University of La plata has proved that industrial pollution is more dangerous than the vehicle pollution. Oil refineries and fuel power stations produce huge quantity of smoke through long chimneys. Main components of this smoke are sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Close locations of chimneys to each other causes more damage to the atmosphere of surrounding areas. Coal operated power plants produce extremely harmful gases in the area (Breuer, 1980, 34). Large quantity of industrial waste from different sort of industries can turn into poisonous chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and dioxins. Such chemicals contaminate the air and water and can cause health hazards. Unprotected or covered waste sites can damage the life in the area greatly. Methods of landfill and incineration must be used according to set procedures to avoid production of lethal gases (Stewart, 1979, 93). If technique of landfill is not properly used than the amount of methane and carbon dioxide gases rises rapidly in the atmosphere. Incineration technique is used to burn the waste material. Incomplete burning of the waste may result in acid rain (Christopher, et. al, 2004, 816). Other main sources of air pollution are smoking, gas heaters, volcanic eruptions and wildfire. Solution to control Air Pollution: Now everyone knows that the air pollution has destructive features. In order to solve the problems related to air pollution, a number of steps are taken toward the betterment of the society. Such as in the field of automobiles some of the companies introduced a Fuel Cell car which utilizes hydrogen gas to generate power. Some of the companies introduced electric cars which have a bulk of batteries to power a motor which runs the car. Similarly solar cars and other such technologies must be encouraged, as the technologies have no air pollution. In the field of power generation and industrial purposes, a number of technologies are present in the market and still the renewable technologies are under development. The world power needs are not more than 15 tera watts but only solar energy has a potential of 86000 tera watts , wind energy has a potential of more than 15 tera watts. So if we use only one of them our energy need can be fulfilled. Photovoltaic solar panels can be mounted on our roofs to generate enough amount of power. Another industrial technology to generate both electrical energy and thermal energy is evolved from dirty coal. The technology is named as clean coal technology. In this technology coal is chemically washed and then through the process of gasification in is decomposed into its constituents which are mainly carbon-monoxide and hydrogen the by- products are buried under the ground. Through this process coal is freed from oxides of nitrogen and sulphur which are the main reasons for smog and acid rain. Nuclear energy is also a type of energy which has no emissions but the capital cost required to build a nuclear reactor is very high. Recommendations If I have to choose the one technology for the automobiles, I will choose the technology of fuel cell because it mixes hydrogen under the process with oxygen to generate power. The system has no carbon emissions as the by-product is only vapours of water nothing else. The system can also be utilized to produce thermal or electrical energy, as the hydrogen burns with a flame producing a large amount of thermal energy. For the purpose to generate electrical power, I will choose the solar energy. The solar energy can be converted to both electrical and thermal energy. By focusing a solar beam at a point can even melt a metal down. Solar photo voltaic panels directly convert solar energy to electrical energy. The energy produced is in direct current, which is then inverted to alternating current for home or office usage. Works Cited Breuer, Georg. Air in Danger: Ecological Perspectives of the Atmosphere. New York: Cambridge University Press. (1980): 34 Christopher H. Goss, Stacey A. Newsom, Jonathan S. Schildcrout, Lianne Sheppard and Joel D. Kaufman. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine "Effect of Ambient Air Pollution on Pulmonary Exacerbations and Lung Function in Cystic Fibrosis". (2004)169: 816. Davis, Devra. When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution. New York: Basic Books. (2002): 74-75 Stewart, T. Charles. Air Pollution, Human Health and Public Policy. New York: Lexington Books. 1979: 93. Read More