EFFECTS AND CAUSES OF POLLUTION

Air pollution is the introduction harmful materials into the Earth's atmosphere, causing disease,
death to humans and damage to other living organisms such as food crops, or the natural or built
environment. These harmful materials are most often caused by the combustion of fuels where
the fuels (heat releasing substances) produce harmful by products (impurities). There are 5 main
air pollutants:
1.

Carbon Monoxide. What is it?

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous and colourless gas which is given off

whenever fossil fuels are burnt.
It is also naturally produced from
the anaerobic decomposition of
organic matter- when methane
reacts with oxygen
(2CH4 (g)+3O2(g)->2CO(g)+4H20(l))
as well as by natural processes such
as volcanoes and forest fires.
How are they formed?
Carbon monoxide is produced when incomplete combustion occurs. Complete
combustion is when the combustion of hydrocarbons produce carbon dioxide
and water (as shown in diagram 1).
This requires access to a vast quantity of
oxygen, however if an unsufficient amount of
oxygen is present- then instead of carbon
dioxide- carbon monoxide is formed.
The amount of oxygen present strongly
correlates to the amount of carbon
monoxide produced and when there is even
less oxygen available carbon soot Is
produced.
2. Nitrogen Oxides (NO, NO2, N2O4):
How are nitrogen Oxides formed?
Nitrogen Oxides are produced as part of the combustion process. As the air
consists of almost 80% N2, the high temperatures and sparks which ignite the

fuel in external combustion engines cause the nitrogen to react with the
oxygen to produce both Nitrogen dioxide and Nitric Oxide.

N2 (g) +O2 (g) ->2NO (g)

N2 (g) +2O2 (g) -> 2NO2

Furthermore, nitrogen dioxide may also dissolve in rain and react with the
water vapour and oxygen in the air to
form a solution with a rather low pH
(acidic) this is called acid rain. They
are hence the main contributors to
acid rain as well as photochemical
smog.
3. Sulfur Dioxide:

S(s) + O2 (g) SO2 (g)

What is sulphur dioxide?
Sulfur dioxide is gas consisting of sulphur and
oxygen. About 99% of sulphur dioxide found
in the air comes from human sources, for
example, the production of electricity from
coal oil or gas
How is it formed?
When electricity is generated from coal, oil or
gas they sometimes contain sulphur, as it
combusts it reacts with oxygen to release sulphur dioxide.
Moreover, most deposits of crude oil contain the impurity sulphur. Although
much is done to reducing the percentage sulphur content, is still remains
present in most hydrocarbons thus when a fuel is burned the sulphur burns
with oxygen as a result producing sulphur dioxide.Along with Oxides of
Nitrogen, they are the largest contributers to Acid rain. Because sulphur
Dioxide reacts with water vapour in the air producing sulphuric acid as a result

S02(g)+H20(g)->H2SO4(aq)

4.

Hydrocarbo

ns
What are unburned
hydrocarbons?
These are hydrocarbons which
have not yet been burnt, they
tend to enter the atmosphere on
its own or occurs when an
unburned fuel containing
hydrocarbons is vaporised in the
engine however it avoid the flame zones (in crevices provided by the piston
ring grooves)however it escapes before it get a chance to combust. Unburnt
hydrocarbons contribute significantly to photochemical smog like nitrogen
oxides.

Carbon Dioxide
Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse
gas. It is widely considered to
be a pollutant when associated
with cars, planes and other
human activities that involve
the burning of fossil fuels such

as gasoline and natural gas. Every time

we burn fossil fuels carbon dioxide is
released into the atmosphere and in a
natural carbon cycle that co2 is reabsorbed by plants and trees. However,
the combustion of fuels have been
increasing so much that plants as well as
trees have no chance of absorbing it all
back up. This in addition to cutting down
rainforests means that there is a large

excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide traps infra-red

radiation because the suns visible rays enters the atmosphere and as it is
absorbed and re-radiated as heat it is trapped (infra-red has a longer
wavelength meaning that it cannot pass out of the atmosphere)