Extended Abstract of a Presentation on Place Affect Acid Rain
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Extended Abstract of a Presentation on Place Affect Acid Rain
Place affect acid rain
A place affects acid rain formation because of the presence or absence of industrial processes and fossils fuel burning such as the power plants, automobiles and volcanic eruptions. In this paper, the place chosen is the United States of America specifically the New York State. This place experiences acid rain mainly due to the presence of factories and power processing plants as discussed below.
Acid Rain in New York State
Acid rain is formed because of the industrial actions in New York State. Industrial emissions pollute the air in that they mix with the atmospheric moisture and then fall to the earth as the acid rain. The return of the air pollutants to the ground is also referred to as acid deposition. Some parts of New York State for example The Hudson Highlands and Long Island do not experience effects of acidic rain because of the presence of basic soils and deposits that bring the acidity to a neutral position. These particular places have soils and limestone deposits that neutralize acidity to reduce or eliminate the effect of the acid rain (Martin 3).
The Major Sources of Acid Rain in New York State
The major sources of acid rain formation in New York State are the industrial emissions of sulphur (IV) oxide and nitrogen oxides. These compounds are formed due to the burning of fuels like coal and natural gases. These compounds combine with water in the atmosphere to form sulphuric (VI) and nitric (V) acids, which then precipitates to form the acid rain.
Other sources of such emissions leading to atmospheric deposition include the fuels burnt to act as a source of electricity, fuels burnt to drive the vehicles engines and the airplanes. A lot of research is being done to reduce or eliminate such harmful emissions to the air (Martin 1).
H2O(l) + SO2(g) → H2SO3(aq) sulphuric (IV) acid−intermediate product
H2SO3(aq) + H2O(l) →2H2SO4(aq) sulphuric (VI) acid−Final product
H2O(l) + 2NO2(l) →2HNO3(aq) Nitric (V) Acid
Hence, the two main sources of acid rain formation are the sulphur (IV) oxide and nitrogen oxides in New York as discussed in the section below.
Sulphur (IV) oxide, all the nitrogen oxides and ozone form the main causes of acid rain. Burning of wastes and the fossil fuels in power plants and the motor vehicles causes these pollutions (Madhoolika & Singh 2). The presence of industries and the burning of fossil fuels produce sulphur (IV) oxide) from the power generators driven by coal. In the year 2000, the New York State’s factories and power stations emitted sulphur dioxide approximated as fifteen million tones slightly higher than those in Canada did. Canada’s emissions were sixty-eight percent mainly from the industries and twenty-seven percent from the electricity while in the United States sixty seven percent of the emissions arose from the electric utilities (Silver 1).
The table below compares sources of emissions of sulphur (IV) oxide at the New York State (Babcock 17).
|
Sulphur (IV) oxide |
|
|
Burning of high sulfur containing fuels by large ships |
5% |
|
Industrial facilities |
20% |
|
Fuel Combustion at power plants |
73% |
|
Others |
2% |
In New York, acid rain is formed because of precipitation as shown in the pie chart below.
A pie chart showing percentage of sources of sulphur dioxide emissions in New York State in the year 2000 (Babcock 17)
Motor vehicles emit burned oil and gas in form of an exhaust gas. These emissions place many nitrogen oxides (NOX) into the air. Nitrogen Oxides are mainly sourced from the burning of fuels in vehicles, smokes from the industries and residential places, boilers and engines emissions among other fuel burning equipment. Most Nitrogen oxides are sourced from the combustion process. This is achieved in two oxidation processes. Thermal Nox (contributes 25% of the total NOx) is formed when nitrogen in the air reacts with oxygen at higher temperatures while fuel Nox (contributes 75% of the total NOx) is formed when nitrogen reacts with oxygen chemically bound in coal. In New York State, this forms the second major source of acid rain because of precipitation as shown in the pie chart below.
A pie chart showing percentage of sources of nitogen oxides in New York State (Babcock 10)
Reasons Why a Place Affects Acid Rain
The urban areas and places with industries in New York are worst hit by the acid rain. In urban areas, there are higher number of people driving motor vehicles that burn diesel and gasoline. Such exhausts release sulphur (IV) oxide to the air. Several New York plants at the Midwest emit the coal pollutants to the East Coast.
These show that places with factories, power stations and other processing plants mostly experience acid rain. The reason to this is due to the emissions to the air from the burning of fossil fuels. At the power station, chemicals such as the oil, gases and coal release sulphur (IV) oxide gas to the air. These chemicals emitted mix with the atmospheric moisture to form weak sulphuric (IV) acid. Acid rain forms when precipitation occurs.
The places with power plants experience acid rain mainly because most power plants use coal as a fuel to drive their engines. The burning of these fuels causes the emission of sulphur dioxide. Power plants, which burn the fossil fuels, emit nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere also. The places with the automobiles also receive acid rain due to the emissions of nitrogen oxides, which is another major source of acid rain. An increase in the number of the automobiles in the world means an increase in the amounts of acid rain formation. Places that experience fires, explosions, volcanic eruptions add the nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere.
Acid Rain Measurement of A Place
Despite the pure water being neutral at a PH of seven, rainwater is a bit acidic since carbon (IV) oxide dissolves in water producing a weak carbonic acid as shown in the following equation (Putatunda 3).
CO2(S) + H2O(l) → H2CO3(aq)
Carbonic acid formed stands at a PH of 6.5.
In the year 2000, United States of America experienced the most acidic rainwater that stood at PH value of 4.3. Environmental Protection Agency in the United States supports networks that monitor the PH value of the rainwater and substances behind acid rain formation. The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) measures the wet deposition and PH values of the acid rain in the United States. Another network is the Clean Air Status and Trends Network that shows dry deposition. The US Environmental Program Agency collects many data on the environmental concerns at different places in the US using varied types of equipment.
The amount of precipitation and the pollutants in a given place at a particular period in time affect the amounts of wet and dry deposition. The climatic condition in a given region affects the relative proportions of the two extremes. For example, the wet deposition of a place constitutes twenty percent in dry areas and eighty percent in rainy areas. The unit measurement of the deposition of a place either wet or dry is the multiyear averages including the normal years because of the lack of statistical tools that differentiates the statistical significance of deposition for periods less than a year. This poses a great challenge when the deposition changes are low. In the United States today, acid deposition trend focuses on wet deposition because it is the easiest and the common form of deposition to analyze and due to the complexities in dry deposition (McLean 13.)