Acid rain introduction

Local air emissions, responsible for particulate matter, ozone and acid rain, as well as noise, could be significantly reduced by the introduction of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Emissions of NOx, S02 and particulates can be reduced by 70% to 80% compared to a case without hydrogen. Especially in densely populated areas this is one major benefit of hydrogen, which is often underestimated. As there are a growing... 

Acid rain has been reduced with the introduction of technologies that remove the sulfur from the smokestack gases of coal-burning power plants. However, sulfur is present in other fossil fuels, and is introduced into the atmosphere by the exhausts from cars, trucks, and buses. Acid rain is still part of the overall problem of air pollution. 

Colls, J. Air Pollution An Introduction, Chapman Hall, New York. NY, 1996 Conrad. J. A11 Acid-Rain Trilogy, American Forests. 21 (November-Decembei 1987). 

Secondly I think one has to look very carefully at transport phenomena. Several speakers in this Study Week have referred to the effect of the introduction of tall stacks which permit an increased dilution of emissions from power plants. The inclusion of a tall stack at a power plant does not cut the deposition in the vicinity of that stack — and you can use the term vicinity in any way you like — to zero and the deposition at a distance of 500 kilometers to 100%. A very substantial fraction of the deposition associated with emission from a particular source, even with the tall stack, occurs relatively near to that source and again, the question of how near is one, that is extremely difficult to get solid answers for — one simply does not have that kind of information. If you want to take an applied mathematician and send him into shock, you ask him to model the flow from a tall smokestack over a distance of about ten or twenty kilometers — that is just something that is not done. The overall transport phenomenon in acid rain is an extraordinarily complex multi-scale phenomenon. So far as the chemistry is concerned, I think that, too, varies dramatically with the climate, with the season, with the presence of oxidants of various types in the atmosphere, and I fear that there can be no single generalization concerning acid rain and the mitigation of acid deposition worldwide. This is something that has to be handled on a scale which in fact I think will be much smaller. 

Y Root, et at., cited in The Effects of Air Pollution and Acid Rain on Fish, Wildlife, and Their Habitats—Introduction. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Services Program,... 

New and exciting chapter opening introductions, accompanied by applied photos, present a relevant example of one of the chapter topics. Examples include stalagmites and stalactites as an illustration of an equilibrium process (Chapter 9), the effects of acid rain (Chapter 16), and the oxidation/reduction properties of chlorophyll (Chapter 19). 

Figure 6.1. Acid rain resulting from the introduction of sulfuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels damages buildings, statues, crops, and electrical equipment in some areas of the world, including parts of the northeastern U.S.

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