The Producing of Petroleum - Lab Report Example

Petroleum Background The day to day activities all over the world is accompanied by usage of the petroleum products at different amounts. Approximately 90% of the industries use petroleum products in their day to day activities (Gouveia and Fonseca 186).This makes the developed nations feel more of a culprit when it comes to air pollution. Another source of pollution is in- door and is very common in the developing nations like Africa and some parts of Asia. This has seen to it that the quality of air is filled with the compounds of the petroleum combustion. The main aim of my investigation is to detect to what extend petroleum influences air pollution in different parts of the world. Design Main Objective: To investigate the relationship between usage of oil and pollution in different areas. Research Question: How does the amount of petroleum consumed in different parts of the world impacts air pollution of these areas? Alternative Hypothesis: Different areas produce and use different amount of petroleum, so amount of pollution will be different in different areas depending of its oil resources and amount of population. Null hypothesis: There won’t be any differences among different regions as a result of relatively equal petroleum usage. Variables Dependent variables: Air pollution rate Pollution depends on amount and type of used petroleum. Independent variables: Geographic location Octane number of petroleum Amount of average miles driven per week Air pollution is different in different geographic locations Different types of petroleum has different pollution rate Influences amount of used petroleum as a result effects air pollution Method: 1) I created a survey, using Survey Monkey service, with a selection of possible answers. Each question has it unique answer possibilities. 2) I posted my survey online. My survey needed responses from different parts of the world, so I tried to post it in different social networks in order to collect enough information to draw definite conclusions. 3) After getting responses for my survey, I analysed data . 4) Investigate maps and data provided by the NASA . Maps and articles from that source gives supported primary information about worldwide air pollution. 5) Calculate average petroleum usage in all regions by adding all amount of petroleum and dividing it by number of people answered survey in that region. Also calculate average range driven by adding up all miles and dividing it by the number of people (who answered survey in that region) Formula for calculating mean is: 6) Compare data collected from the survey and provided by the NASA source. Find out relationship between them 7) Take in mind other aspects of the survey such as developing/developed countries, amount of cars used by the person, age group of the survey takers and usage of electricity as an alternative fuel. 8) Evaluate results with a critical analysis of the data. Also find out future possible ways to improve quality of information and correct survey results. Data Collection and Processing From the survey questions posted online, the following results were received. Forty respondents replied to the survey questions. Majority of them were from developing countries. This is represented by 68% of the total number of respondents, while the remaining 32% considered themselves staying in developed countries. North Asia had the leading respondent percentage of 30%, East Asia had 18%, Central Asia and Western Europe had the same number of 15%, North America had 8%, Eastern Europe had 5% and the least percentage of respondents was taken by Southern Asia, Southern America, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. Most people have their own cars. Very few family members share one car. According to the results from the survey, 68% of the family members have their own cars, 22% own two cars and 10% have three cars. Majority of people start to drive from the age of between 17 and 20 years. This is represented by the 65% of the result while 30% start to drive from the age of 13 and 16 years. The least number which is represented by 5% say they started to drive from between 21 to 25 years. Petroleum usage per week by each family was between 30 and 40 litters. This is according to 56% of the respondents. The usage of 18% of the families was between 40 and 50 litres. Few families use more than 60 liters of petrol. The usage of below 20 liters was 16%. A large group of people, represented by 35% use petroleum octane number 92, 22% use octane number 90, 20% use octane number 95, 10% use octane number 80, 5% use octane number 97, 5 % use diesel and only three percent use electricity. The largest number of people to undertake this survey was age between 17 and 20 years and they were 40% of the total survey population. They were closely followed by age people of between 21 and 25 who had 28%. The young generation of age bracket 13 and 16 were third of the total population with 12% while 26 years to 30 had 10%. The remaining 10% was represented by older people of above 30 years (Gouveia and Fonseca 190). Average petroleum usage per week. class x f a c.f f.x x-a 0-20 20 6 6 60 -10 30-40 10 22 10 28 220 0 40-50 10 7 35 70 0 50-60 10 2 37 20 0 60-70 10 2 39 20 0 Mean= a +)h Where; a= assumed mean fi=frequency x=arithmetic mean h=class interval ∑f=39 u=(x-a)÷h= -10/10= -1=1 Average= 10+(×10 =990 litres Conclusion and evaluation Air pollution is influenced by the type and amount of petroleum used in different regions. From the survey, a larger percentage of users of petroleum in driving come from developing countries. This is because the larger percentage of 68% has their own cars and they start to drive at a young age of between 17 and 20. When everyone drives their own vehicle in the family, then the amount of petroleum used by that family will be high. Most families use between 30 and 40 litres of petroleum per week. The combustion of these litres of petroleum by 56% of the families every week increases the amount of pollution in the air. Few families of about 16% use less than 20 litres of petrol every week.Very few people drive or even know people with electric cars. A larger percentage of these developing and developed countries have not embraced the alternative means of transportation such as the use of electric cars. This is clearly indicated by the 88% who don’t even know anyone who drives electric cars. Discussions and comparison of data from the survey and NASA source The calculation above indicates that the average amount of petroleum used by each family per week is 990 litres. This is just an average of a week’s petroleum amount by each family. This means that the larger the population the higher the amount of petroleum. In Asian countries where there are large populations, there is a high population usage and in turn high carbon dioxide released. Large number of people means a lot of transportation to and from work each and every day (Gouveia and Fonseca 188). In one day, an average of 330 litres is used by one family. This is especially applicable to those families that each member of the family has his or her own car. The percentage of about 68% possesses their own car. In places with less population, the petroleum use is small and therefore less carbon dioxide impacts. Most of the developing countries have a lot of industries which need petroleum to run their engines. The larger the number of industries also means the higher the level of carbon dioxide in the air. High petroleum usage has a major impact on air pollution. Petroleum, which is a hydrocarbon is majorly composed of hydrogen and carbon (Ezzati and Kammen 1059). The combustion of these hydrocarbons results in production of heat, carbon dioxide and water. The heat produced enables vehicles to move. During the combustion of process, hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water while carbon combines with oxygen to form carbon (iv) oxide. Water and carbon (iv) oxide are therefore the bi-products of petroleum combustion. The water will be released as water vapor and it has no negative impact in the air. Carbon dioxide on the other hand is a greenhouse gas and when it gets into the air, it causes air pollution. Some combustion may end uncompleted leading to the release of carbon monoxide as the end product (Ezzati and Kammen 1061). Air pollution is a major health problem. Burdens of diseases such as stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma are all caused by air pollution. More premature deaths occurred in most developing countries are as a result of air pollution. The largest percentage of people who answered this survey was from Asia. The larger number of premature deaths is also reported in the Asia and the Middle East. There are high levels of air pollution in the Middle East and Asian countries, according to NASA (Voiland). These high levels are majorly caused by industrialization and high transportation levels which use a lot of petroleum. Alternative energy sources such as hydroelectric power and windmill have not been fully adopted in these parts of the world. The increase in the release of carbon dioxide in the planet causes high temperatures as one of the greenhouse effects. The higher temperatures eventually increase the rate of evaporation of ocean water into water vapor. Water vapor is also a greenhouse gas. The rate of increase in dry lands and deserts will increase as the amount of ice will be evaporated. Ocean water level decrease due to evaporation also leads to reduced amount of rainfall. Limitation of Experimental Design Some of the challenges facing the experimental design, though minimal, included the scenario where the respondent decided to skip a question. The bar graphs were clearly and visible due to distinct colors, thus ease when it comes to discussion. The design might not be a full representation of the whole sample since the method of sampling was more of random. The number of respondents is also too little compared to the amount of the population that the respondents are presenting. How the result and survey can be improved From the survey, some continents of the world never took part in the survey. There is no participant from Africa, which also has a large percentage of air pollution. Some of the questions may therefore be sent to these parts of the world and other marginalized places through emails to institutions and research companies. Works Cited Ezzati, Majid and Kammen Daniel M. “The Health Impacts of Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution from Solid Fuels in Developing Countries: Knowledge, Gaps, and Data Needs.” Environmental Health Perspectives 110, no 11 (2002) 1057-1068. Gouveia, Cristina and Fonseca Alexandra. “New Approaches to Environmental monitoring: The Use of ICT to Explre Volunteered Geographic Information.” GeoJournal 72, no 4 (2008): 185-197 Steyn, Douw G, and RohitMathur. Air Pollution Modeling and Its Application Xxiii. , 2014. Internet resource. Voiland, Adam. “New Map Offers a Global View of Health- Sapping Air Pollution.” NASA. 11 March, 2015. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/health-sapping.html Read More