Fossil fuels environmental problems from

The two most important environmental hazards faced by humankind today are air pollution and global warming. Both have a direct link with our current overdependence on fossil fuels. Pollutants produced from combustion of hydrocarbons now cause even more health problems due to the urbanization of world population. The net increase in environmental carbon dioxide from combustion is a suspect cause for global warming, which is endangering the Earth—the only known place to support human life. In addition, the import of expensive hydrocarbon fuel has become a heavy burden on many countries, causing political and economic unrest. 

Acid rain is the popular term for a very complex environmental problem. Over the past 25 years, evidence has accumulated on changes in aquatic life and soil pH in Scandinavia, Canada, and the northeastern United States. Many believe that these changes are caused by acidic deposition traceable to pollutant acid precursors that result from the burning of fossil fuels. Acid rain is only one component of acidic deposition, a more appropriate description of this phenomenon. Acidic deposition is the combined total of wet and dry deposition, with wet acidic deposition being commonly referred to as acid rain. 

The increasing number of atomic reactors used for power generation has been questioned from several environmental points of view. A modern atomic plant, as shown in Fig. 28-3, appears to be relatively pollution free compared to the more familiar fossil fuel-fired plant, which emits carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, hydrocarbons, and fly ash. However, waste and spent-fuel disposal problems may offset the apparent advantages. These problems (along with steam generator leaks) caused the plant shown in Fig. 28-3 to close permanently in 199T. 

Hydrocarbons are required in our modern-day life not only as energy sources, including convenient transportation fuels for our cars, tracks, airplanes (see Section 1.8.2) but also to produce commonly used products ranging from polymers to textiles to pharmaceuticals. At the beginning of the twenty-first century we can look back with substantial satisfaction at our technological and scientific achievements. We should, however, also realize that we continue to deplete the nonrenewable resources of our planet, particularly fossil fuels and hydrocarbons and at the same time create ecological and environmental problems. As mentioned earlier, dire predictions of the early exhaustion of our natural hydrocarbon sources by the... 

Often, many simultaneously occurring pollutants or contaminants determine an environmental problem. In industry, agriculture, and households, products are often mixtures of many compounds. The process of production and consumption is accompanied by emissions and consequently by contamination. One example is the use of toxaphene in the past, a very complex mixture of polychlorinated camphenes, as a pesticide. Technical toxaphene consists of more than 175 individual compounds. A second example is industrial and domestic emissions resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels. The emissions contain both a mixture of gases (SO2, NOx, CO2, etc.) and airborne particulate matter which itself contains a broad range of heavy metals and also polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). 

A positive result of TDF use in waste wood boilers is that facilities are able to bum sludge and waste wood more successfully, decreasing the likelihood of solid waste disposal problems. Results from a series of waste wood boiler performance tests using ASMS codes concluded that use of TDF supplementally in hog-fuel boilers enhances combustion of wood waste, and enables disposal of biological sludge in conjunction with wood waste without necessitating use of other fossil fuels such as coal.2 No applicable environmental limits were exceeded during these tests.2... 

Concerns about the environmental effects of emissions resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels, particularly coal, continue to increase as the utilization of these fuels grows. The large amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emitted into the atmosphere and the attempts to tie these fossil-fuel-derived pollutants directly to the undeniably difficult problem of acid rain have caused heated debates, numerous research studies, government actions, and serious efforts to reduce pollution. The issues are extremely complex, and our understanding of the origin, properties, behavior, and effects of these pollutants is incomplete. Often, theories are contradictory. 

When the question of environmental pollution comes up, the focus is first on the effects of the combustion of fossil fuels used in transportation and the S02 emitted from coal-buming electricity plants. However, although these important matters fill about half of the picture of environmental damage, there are many other areas of concern. An early discussion on how electrochemical technology could solve some of these other problems was published in 1972 under the title The Electrochemistry of Cleaner Environments (J. O M. Bockris, ed.). 

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