Acid Rain (3062 words) Essay Example For Students

Acid Rain (3062 words) Essay Acid RainAcid RainIntroductionAcid rain has become an environmental concern of global importance within the last decade. With the increasing environmental awareness of the unhealthy condition of our planet earth the concern about acid rain has not lessened. In brief, acid rain is rain with pH values of less than 5.6. When dealing with acid rain one must study and understand the process of making Sulfuric acid. In this project we will take an in depth look into the production of sulfuric acid, some of its uses and the effects of it as a pollutant in our environment. Sulfuric Acid Industry in OntarioAmong the many plants in Ontario where sulfuric acid is produced, there are three major plant locations that should be noted on account of their greater size. These are: Inco. Sudbury Noranda Mines Ltd. Welland Sulfide OntarioThere are a number of factors which govern the location of each manufacturing plant. Some of these factors that have to be considered when deciding the location of a Sulfuric Acid plant are:a. Whether there is ready access to raw materials;b. Whether the location is close to major transportation routes;c. Whether there is a suitable work force in the area for plant construction and operation;d. Whether there is sufficient energy resources readily available;e. Whether or not the chemical plant can carry out its operation without any unacceptable damage to the environment. Listed above are the basic deciding factors that govern the location of a plant. The following will explain in greater detail why these factors should be considered. 1) Raw Materials The plant needs to be close to the raw materials that are involved in the production of sulfuric acid such as sulfur, lead, copper, zinc sulfides, etc.. 2) Transportation A manufacturer must consider proximity to transpor-tation routes and the location of both the source of raw materials and the market for the product. The raw materials have to be transported to the plant, and the final product must be transported to the customer or distributor. Economic pros and cons must also be thought about. For example, must sulfuric plants are located near the market because it costs more to transport sulfuric acid than the main raw materials, sulfur. Elaborate commission proof container are required for the transportation of sulfuric acid while sulfur can be much more easily transported by truck or railway car. 3) Human Resources For a sulfuric acid plant to operate, a large work force will obviously be required. The plant must employ chemists, technicians, administrators, computer operators, and people in sales and marketing. A large number of workers will also be required for the daily operation of the plant. A work force of this diversity is therefore likely to be found only near major centres of population. 4) Energy Demands Large amounts of energy will also be required for the production of many industrial chemicals. Thus, proximity to a plentiful supply of energy is often a determining factor in deciding the plants location. 5) Environmental Concerns Most importantly, however, concerns about the environment must be carefully taken into consideration. The chemical reaction of changing sulfur and other substances to sulfuric acid results in the formation of other substances like sulfur dioxide. This causes acid rain. Therefore, there is a big problem about sulfuric plants causing damage to our environment as the plant is a source of sulfur emission leading to that of acid rain. 6) Water Supplies Still another factor is the closeness of the location of the plants to water supplies as many manufacturing plants use water for cooling purposes. In addition to these factors, these questions must also be answered: Is land available near the proposed site at a reasonable cost? Is the climate of the area suitable? Are the general living conditions in the area suitable for the people involved who will be relocating in the area? Is there any suggestions offered by governments to locate in a particular region?The final decision on where the sulfuric acid plant really involves a careful examination and a compromise among all of the factors that have been discussed above. Producing Sulfuric AcidSulfuric acid is produced by two principal processes-the chamber process and the contact process. The contact process is the current process being used to produce sulfuric acid. In the contact process, a purified dry gas mixture containing 7-10% sulfur dioxide and 11-14% oxygen is passed through a preheater to a steel reactor containing a platinum or vanadium peroxide catalyst. The catalyst promotes the oxidation of sulfur dioxide to trioxide. This then reacts with water to produce sulfuric acid. In practice, sulfur trioxide reacts not with pure water but with recycled sulfuric acid.The reactions are:2SO2 + O2 * 2SO3SO3 + H2O * H2SO4The product of the contact plants is 98-100% acid. This can either be diluted to lower concentrations or made stronger with sulfur trioxide to yield oleums. For the process, the sources of sulfur dioxide may be produced from pure sulfur, from pyrite, recovered from smelter operations or by oxidation of hydrogen sulfide recovered from the purification of water gas, refinery gas, natural gas and other fuels. Battery Acid IndustryMany industries depend on sulfuric acid. Among these industries is the battery acid industry. The electric battery or cell produces power by means of a chemical reaction. A battery can be primary or secondary. All batteries, primary or secondary, work as a result of a chemical reaction. This reaction produces an electric current because the atoms of which chemical elements are made, are held together by electrical forces when they react to form compounds. A battery cell consists of three basic parts; a positively charged electrode, called the cathode, a negatively charged electrode, called the anode, and a chemical substance, called an electrolyte, in which the electrodes are immersed. In either a wet or dry cell, sufficient liquid must be present to allow the chemical reactions to take place. Electricity is generated in cells because when any of these chemical substances is dissolved in water , its molecules break up and become electrically charged ions. Sulfuric acid is a good example. Sulfuric acid, H2SO4, has molecules of which consist of two atoms of hydrogen, one of sulfur and four oxygen. When dissolved in water, the molecules split into three parts, the two atoms of hydrogen separate and in the process each loses an electron, becoming a positively charged ion (H+). The sulfur atom and the four atoms of oxygen remain together as a sulfate group (SO4), and acquire the two electrons lost by the hydrogen atoms, thus becoming negatively charged (SO4). These groups can combine with others of opposite charge to form other compounds. My Last Duchess, By Robert Browning, Is An Example Of A Dramatic Monol EssayAdditional Commentsa) The situation of pollution in the Great Lakes and process being used to start cleaning it up-comments: Everyday, roughly 3630 kilograms of toxic chemicals enter the lakes, nearby land and air. Pollution of the Great Lakes has become an increasingly serious problem. Just in Lake Ontario, hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminants have been deposited over the years. These include DDT, PCBs, mercury, dioxins and mirex, a pesticide. About 4.6 million people depend on Lake Ontario alone for drinking water. The environmental problem of greatest concern to Lake Ontario neighbours is water-discharged toxic chemicals and industrial air pollutants. Not only is this occurring in Lake Ontario but the other Great Lakes as well. The lakes probably have all these poisonous chemicals in them: salts drained from urban streets, coliform bacteria from the sewage civilization plus a selection of substa nces such as phosphorus, polychlorinated biphenyls and heavy metals. It is reported that the toxic chemicals in the Great Lakes basin are a health risk linked to brain damage, birth defects and cancer. All the predator species at the top of the food chain have shown health problems as a result of toxic chemicals building up in their bodies. Chemicals that exist in low levels in the air and water accumulate as they move up through the food chain. At present 35 million humans who live around the horridly polluted five Great Lakes face increasing health risks from environmental contaminants. Millions of people in the Great Lakes are exposed to hazardous chemicals. They drink them in the contaminated water, eat them concentrated in the flesh of the fish and breathe them in the air. Mulroney said that the risks are too high and that we cannot afford any more risks. He said pollution problems could be fought under a three-stage plan over the next decade:1) A toxic freeze banning new polluters from putting up pipes or smokestacks in the region2) An attack on non-point sources of pollution, such as run-off from streets and farms where groundwater is loaded with pesticides. 3) A crackdown on existing polluters when their smoke and sewer-discharge permits come up for renewal, requiring them to scale down their pollution. Consumers can also help by demanding pesticide-free food. International agreements have been made to clean up the Great Lakes. Canadas federal Conservative government has announced in 1989 to spend $125 million over five years on Great Lakes cleanup. By one estimate, it may cost as much as $100 billion to retrieve the purity of the Great Lakes once had. b) The treatment of water for drinking and water purifiers one can purchase-comments: As the peoples uncertainty to the quality of our drinking water increases, many more people are buying water treatment devices and purifiers. Even though most treated tap water is fit to drink, people are losing faith in the government to keep it that way. therefore purifier leave become increasingly popular among consumers. However each of the most popular cleansing methods has some disadvantages. Many filters use some form of activate carbon. However, few carbon filters alone do a very good job of reducing heavy metals such as lead even though the smallest sink-tap charcoal strainer will make cloudy water look and taste a bit better. Distillation units turn water to steam and recondense it to a cleaner state. This process has its disadvantages, too for they can also pass along harmful chemicals with low boiling points into the water. Another water treatment device is the reverse-osmosis device whi ch uses sophisticate membranes to separate pure water from impure. Even though this is effective, three gallons of water for every good one produced is generally wasted. Some machines zap germs with lethal doses of ultraviolet light. A specific example of a water filter is the NSA 3000HM high density filter. This filtration unit is designed to remove lead, iron, sulfur and manganese from your drinking water supply. Still another example is a water treatment system called the NSA Bateriostatic water treatment system. This system removes chlorine, bad taste and odours, reduces undissolved particles (sediment, discolouration, etc.) and inhibits bacteria growth. Each of these processes can reduce impurities in your water supply and many machines as suggested by the above examples combine several approaches. c) BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE KEY EVENTS IN THE U.S.-CANADARELATIONS WITH RESPECT TO CLEANING UP THE GREAT LAKES:1972: the U.S. chairman of the International Joint Commission, announced to study to determine the polluting effects on the Great Lakes urban development and agricultural land use, find remedies and estimate cleanup costs; Canada and the United States signed a Great Lakes Quality Agreement. 1974: Canadians say the cleanup financed by Washington is already running far behind the schedule envisaged when the agreement was signed. 1978: Canada and the United States agreed to the goal of zero discharge of pollution. 1987: the goal made in 1978 is made again, this means both countries agreed to work toward completely eliminating persistent toxic pollutants, not just the amount being discharged by industry; Mulroney also proposed that the U.S. slash industrial sulfide and nitrogen oxide emissions by half before 1994. The Canada-U.S. International Joint Commission meets every two years to discuss pollution and other issues concerning the Great Lakes, At present, they are making a ten-year headline for the Great Lakes to be cleaned up. Science