Urban Air Pollution
The transportation sector is responsible for a large majority of air
pollutants in our urban areas, including carbon monoxide and nitrogen
oxides, which form ground-level ozone. Tens of millions of Americans
live in areas not meeting at least one federal air quality standard.
In 1990, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments to combat high
emission levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and the creation
of ground-level ozone by petroleum-based transportation fuels. This
Act specifically required the production and distribution of
cleaner-burning gasoline, containing oxygenates such as ethanol, in
America’s most polluted cities. Tougher emissions standards are also
causing diesel engine users to find cleaner-air fuel options. Both
ethanol and bio diesel have been proven to reduce emissions that are
contributing to urban air pollution.
When ethanol is added to gasoline, it displaces gasoline components,
which generally reduces all pollutants. And because ethanol causes
fuels to burn more completely, it further reduces emissions of carbon
monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and toxic air emissions.
Bio diesel in a 20 percent blend with petroleum diesel reduces visible
The Essay on The heat of combustion of ethanol
EXPERIMENT AIM: To determine the experimental heat of combustion of methanol (CH3OH) and ethanol (CH3CH2OH). To decide which would be a better choice to take on a camping trip. MATERIALS: 1 Copper container 1 Clamp 1 Spirit Lamp with Wick Ethanol 1 Retort Stand Methanol 1 Box of Matches Water 1 Electronic Balance Thermometer PROCEDURE: Firstly, Measure the weight of the empty Copper container on ...
smoke and odour, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, total
hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide and lead. And when the blend is used
with an oxidation catalyst, particulate matter is reduced even more.
Water Pollution
water pollution associated with gasoline includes marine oil spills,
groundwater contamination from underground gasoline storage tanks and
runoff of vehicle engine oil and fuel.
Marine oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez Spill in Alaska in
1989-cause considerable environmental damage. Acute oil spills such as
the Valdez spill can damage individual organisms and wipe out entire
populations of marine and coastal species. They also require
large-scale, costly clean-up operations. Even more alarming, however,
is that marine oil spills such as the Valdez spill are not nearly as
damaging to the environment as the thousands of smaller spills that
are reported annually. Pipeline spills reported to the U.S. Department
of Transportation average 12 million gallons of petroleum products per
year. The Exxon Valdez Spill, by comparison, spewed out 11 million
gallons. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, an average
of 16,000 small oil spills seep into waterways each year and estimates
that in recent years more than 46 million gallons have spilled per
year.
Another source of water pollution from gasoline is groundwater
pollution. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more
than a quarter of the nation’s one million underground gasoline and
oil tanks leak, causing considerable groundwater contamination.
Besides direct oil spills and leakage, secondary water pollution from
petroleum is also a problem. Oil and gas leakage from cars and trucks
is collected on pavement and is carried to streams and lakes whenever
the pavement is wet and water drains across it, causing environmental
damage to aquatic plant and animal life.
Ethanol can replace the most toxic parts of gasoline with a fuel that
The Essay on Exxon Valdez Oil Water Ship
The Exxon Valdez oil tanker left the Trans Alaska Pipeline terminal at 9: 12 PM March 23, 1989. The Exxon Valdez was the companies second newest tanker, it was 987 feet long and was carrying 53, 094, 510 gallons of crude oil. It's destination, Long Beach California. William Murphy, an expert ship's pilot had been hired to steer the ship through the Valdez Narrows. Joe Hazelwood, the captain, and ...
quickly biodegrades in water, reducing the threat that gasoline poses
to waterways and groundwater. Ethanol spills or leaks are not an
environmental hazard.
Bio diesel is also biodegradable in water and is becoming an
attractive alternative to using petroleum diesel for boating to
protect and improve water quality.
Global Climate Change
The U.S. transportation sector is responsible for one third of our
country’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. CO2 is considered to be a
greenhouse gas, the build-up of which may lead to global climate
change. These emissions result from combusting fossil fuels, which
releases the carbon content of the fuels into the atmosphere.
Producing and using bio fuels for transportation can help reduce CO2
build up in two important ways: by displacing the use of fossil fuels,
and by recycling the CO2 that is released when it is combusted as
fuel. By using bio fuels instead of fossil fuels, the emissions
resulting from fossil fuel use are avoided, and CO2 content of fossil
fuels is allowed to remain in storage. Further CO2 reductions occur
because the plants and trees that serve as feedstocks for bio fuels
require CO2 to grow, and they absorb what they need from the
atmosphere. Thus, much or all of the CO2 released when biomass is
converted into a bio fuel and burned in automobile engines is
recaptured when new biomass is grown to produce more bio fuels.
Waste disposal
Almost half the existing landfills in the U.S. are close to capacity
and are expected to close in the near future, and the rate at which we
produce waste continues to increase. Disposal costs are increasing as
available landfill space decreases. This is especially problematic for
some segments of the agricultural and forest products industries,
which produce huge amounts of waste each year.
Bio fuels essay. Biofuels are Fuels made from Biomass
Biofuels are made from plants,animals, or their waste products. Here I have listed three examples of biofuels beneath. 1 Micro-organisms decompose waste materials to produce biogas. 2 Biogas is usually about 70% methane and somewhere between 20 and 30 % carbon dioxide 3 the way we use it to generate energy is to burn it to heat up water which will then turn a turbine to produce electricity. It is ...
A sound solution to many of these waste problems is to convert the
waste into ethanol. The National Bio fuels Program is working to
decrease the cost of the technology to convert waste to ethanol so
that it can be commercialised. Then private industry will lead this
effort to solve some of our waste problems. One U.S. Company has taken
strides toward this. Masada, Incorporated, has plans to build an
ethanol plant in Middletown, New York, that will convert the celluloid
materials in municipal solid waste to ethanol.
Ozone Formation
Tropospheric Ozone Formation
Smog is made up, in large part, of ozone gas. When most people think
of ozone, they think of the protective layer of ozone in the earth’s
upper atmosphere that protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays. At
the ground level, however, ozone is a toxic gas and a powerful
oxidizing agent. While “ground-level ozone” does occur naturally, it
only does so in small quantities.
When fossil fuels are burned, a variety of pollutants are emitted into
the earth’s troposphere, or the region of the atmosphere where humans
live. Among these pollutants, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and
carbon monoxide are all ozone precursors. A variety of complex
chemical reactions occur between these, some resulting in the
formation of nitrogen dioxide, which gives the distinctive brown haze
to our air, which we know as smog. Nitrogen dioxide also can react
photo chemically to form ozone, which is a known health hazard.
Bio fuels help combat ground-level ozone formation because they emit
fewer of the ozone-forming pollutants than petroleum fuels.
Acid Rain
Fossil fuels contain sulphur, and depending on the blending process,
different blends of gasoline and diesel contain varying amounts of
sulphur. When these fuels are combusted the sulphur in the fuel is
emitted into the atmosphere as sulphur dioxide (SO2).
In the
atmosphere, SO2 is oxidized into an aerosol of sulphuric acid that is
The Essay on Production of Ethanol
According to the world journal of biotechnology and microbiology rapid ethanol fermentation can be achieved by fermenting the sugars with zymomonas mobilis. Ethanol is also called ethyl alcohol . Brewing is the process of culturing yeast to obtain alcohol. As ethanol is produced from grains it is also called grain alcohol. Ethanol is a mild toxic chemical, colorless and flammable in nature. In ...
deposited in tiny droplets on the earth’s surface when it rains. This
type of rainfall is commonly known as acid rain. When the SO2
concentrations are very high in rainfall, they can cause severe
respiratory damage to humans and substantial damage to buildings.
Fortunately for humans, most of the sulphur sprayed back onto the
earth falls in unpopulated regions. When that happens, our
agricultural crops, forests and lakes suffer tremendous damage. Acidic
rain damages an estimated $2 to $3 billion annually of agricultural
crops in the United States each year. Natural forests die from the
acid rain, along with their biological diversity of species. Metal
deposits in soil from acidic rain are later released back into lakes
and streams and are toxic to fish. Thousands of lakes in the U.S. and
Canada have suffered serious losses of aquatic life due to acidic
rain.
Replacing petroleum fuels with bio fuels can dramatically reduce the
amount of sulphur dioxide emissions from the transportation sector.
Using any amount of ethanol or bio diesel in blends displaces the
corresponding amount of sulphur in petroleum, thereby decreasing
sulphur emissions. .
Urban Air Pollution
The transportation sector is responsible for a large majority of air
pollutants in our urban areas, including carbon monoxide and nitrogen
oxides, which form ground-level ozone. Tens of millions of Americans
live in areas not meeting at least one federal air quality standard.
In 1990, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments to combat high
emission levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and the creation
of ground-level ozone by petroleum-based transportation fuels. This
Act specifically required the production and distribution of
cleaner-burning gasoline, containing oxygenates such as ethanol, in
America’s most polluted cities. Tougher emissions standards are also
causing diesel engine users to find cleaner-air fuel options. Both
ethanol and bio diesel have been proven to reduce emissions that are
contributing to urban air pollution.
The Term Paper on Bio Ethanol Fuel Out Of Fermented Banana
Bio-ethanol fuel has been used through these times and produced in many places specifically in Brazil and United States which contributes to the 87.1% bio-ethanol production in the world. Besides from being eco-friendly, inexpensive and less toxic, it is more preferred as a fuel for the materials used are the ones easy to find. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio_ethanol) As different from other ...
When ethanol is added to gasoline, it displaces gasoline components,
which generally reduces all pollutants. And because ethanol causes
fuels to burn more completely, it further reduces emissions of carbon
monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and toxic air emissions.
Bio diesel in a 20 percent blend with petroleum diesel reduces visible
smoke and odour, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, total
hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide and lead. And when the blend is used
with an oxidation catalyst, particulate matter is reduced even more.
Water Pollution
Water pollution associated with gasoline includes marine oil spills,
groundwater contamination from underground gasoline storage tanks and
runoff of vehicle engine oil and fuel.
Marine oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez Spill in Alaska in
1989-cause considerable environmental damage. Acute oil spills such as
the Valdez spill can damage individual organisms and wipe out entire
populations of marine and coastal species. They also require
large-scale, costly clean-up operations. Even more alarming, however,
is that marine oil spills such as the Valdez spill are not nearly as
damaging to the environment as the thousands of smaller spills that
are reported annually. Pipeline spills reported to the U.S. Department
of Transportation average 12 million gallons of petroleum products per
year. The Exxon Valdez Spill, by comparison, spewed out 11 million
gallons. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, an average
of 16,000 small oil spills seep into waterways each year and estimates
that in recent years more than 46 million gallons have spilled per
year.
Another source of water pollution from gasoline is groundwater
pollution. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more
than a quarter of the nation’s one million underground gasoline and
oil tanks leak, causing considerable groundwater contamination.
Besides direct oil spills and leakage, secondary water pollution from
petroleum is also a problem. Oil and gas leakage from cars and trucks
The Dissertation on Fuel: the Need of an Hour
Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air. Other processes used to convert fuel into energy include various other exothermic chemical reactionsand nuclear ...
is collected on pavement and is carried to streams and lakes whenever
the pavement is wet and water drains across it, causing environmental
damage to aquatic plant and animal life.
Ethanol can replace the most toxic parts of gasoline with a fuel that
quickly biodegrades in water, reducing the threat that gasoline poses
to waterways and groundwater. Ethanol spills or leaks are not an
environmental hazard.
Bio diesel is also biodegradable in water and is becoming an
attractive alternative to using petroleum diesel for boating to
protect and improve water quality.
Global Climate Change
The U.S. transportation sector is responsible for one third of our
country’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. CO2 is considered to be a
greenhouse gas, the build-up of which may lead to global climate
change. These emissions result from combusting fossil fuels, which
releases the carbon content of the fuels into the atmosphere.
Producing and using bio fuels for transportation can help reduce CO2
build up in two important ways: by displacing the use of fossil fuels,
and by recycling the CO2 that is released when it is combusted as
fuel. By using bio fuels instead of fossil fuels, the emissions
resulting from fossil fuel use are avoided, and CO2 content of fossil
fuels is allowed to remain in storage. Further CO2 reductions occur
because the plants and trees that serve as feedstocks for bio fuels
require CO2 to grow, and they absorb what they need from the
atmosphere. Thus, much or all of the CO2 released when biomass is
converted into a bio fuel and burned in automobile engines is
recaptured when new biomass is grown to produce more bio fuels.
Waste disposal
Almost half the existing landfills in the U.S. are close to capacity
and are expected to close in the near future, and the rate at which we
produce waste continues to increase. Disposal costs are increasing as
available landfill space decreases. This is especially problematic for
some segments of the agricultural and forest products industries,
which produce huge amounts of waste each year.
A sound solution to many of these waste problems is to convert the
waste into ethanol. The National Bio fuels Program is working to
decrease the cost of the technology to convert waste to ethanol so
that it can be commercialised. Then private industry will lead this
effort to solve some of our waste problems. One U.S. Company has taken
strides toward this. Masada, Incorporated, has plans to build an
ethanol plant in Middletown, New York, that will convert the celluloid
materials in municipal solid waste to ethanol.
Ozone Formation
Tropospheric Ozone Formation
Smog is made up, in large part, of ozone gas. When most people think
of ozone, they think of the protective layer of ozone in the earth’s
upper atmosphere that protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays. At
the ground level, however, ozone is a toxic gas and a powerful
oxidizing agent. While “ground-level ozone” does occur naturally, it
only does so in small quantities.
When fossil fuels are burned, a variety of pollutants are emitted into
the earth’s troposphere, or the region of the atmosphere where humans
live. Among these pollutants, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and
carbon monoxide are all ozone precursors. A variety of complex
chemical reactions occur between these, some resulting in the
formation of nitrogen dioxide, which gives the distinctive brown haze
to our air, which we know as smog. Nitrogen dioxide also can react
photo chemically to form ozone, which is a known health hazard.
Bio fuels help combat ground-level ozone formation because they emit
fewer of the ozone-forming pollutants than petroleum fuels.
Acid Rain
Fossil fuels contain sulphur, and depending on the blending process,
different blends of gasoline and diesel contain varying amounts of
sulphur. When these fuels are combusted the sulphur in the fuel is
emitted into the atmosphere as sulphur dioxide (SO2).
In the
atmosphere, SO2 is oxidized into an aerosol of sulphuric acid that is
deposited in tiny droplets on the earth’s surface when it rains. This
type of rainfall is commonly known as acid rain. When the SO2
concentrations are very high in rainfall, they can cause severe
respiratory damage to humans and substantial damage to buildings.
Fortunately for humans, most of the sulphur sprayed back onto the
earth falls in unpopulated regions. When that happens, our
agricultural crops, forests and lakes suffer tremendous damage. Acidic
rain damages an estimated $2 to $3 billion annually of agricultural
crops in the United States each year. Natural forests die from the
acid rain, along with their biological diversity of species. Metal
deposits in soil from acidic rain are later released back into lakes
and streams and are toxic to fish. Thousands of lakes in the U.S. and
Canada have suffered serious losses of aquatic life due to acidic
rain.
Replacing petroleum fuels with bio fuels can dramatically reduce the
amount of sulphur dioxide emissions from the transportation sector.
Using any amount of ethanol or bio diesel in blends displaces the
corresponding amount of sulphur in petroleum, thereby decreasing
sulphur emissions. .
Urban Air Pollution
The transportation sector is responsible for a large majority of air
pollutants in our urban areas, including carbon monoxide and nitrogen
oxides, which form ground-level ozone. Tens of millions of Americans
live in areas not meeting at least one federal air quality standard.
In 1990, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments to combat high
emission levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and the creation
of ground-level ozone by petroleum-based transportation fuels. This
Act specifically required the production and distribution of
cleaner-burning gasoline, containing oxygenates such as ethanol, in
America’s most polluted cities. Tougher emissions standards are also
causing diesel engine users to find cleaner-air fuel options. Both
ethanol and bio diesel have been proven to reduce emissions that are
contributing to urban air pollution.
When ethanol is added to gasoline, it displaces gasoline components,
which generally reduces all pollutants. And because ethanol causes
fuels to burn more completely, it further reduces emissions of carbon
monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and toxic air emissions.
Bio diesel in a 20 percent blend with petroleum diesel reduces visible
smoke and odour, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, total
hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide and lead. And when the blend is used
with an oxidation catalyst, particulate matter is reduced even more.
Water Pollution
Water pollution associated with gasoline includes marine oil spills,
groundwater contamination from underground gasoline storage tanks and
runoff of vehicle engine oil and fuel.
Marine oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez Spill in Alaska in
1989-cause considerable environmental damage. Acute oil spills such as
the Valdez spill can damage individual organisms and wipe out entire
populations of marine and coastal species. They also require
large-scale, costly clean-up operations. Even more alarming, however,
is that marine oil spills such as the Valdez spill are not nearly as
damaging to the environment as the thousands of smaller spills that
are reported annually. Pipeline spills reported to the U.S. Department
of Transportation average 12 million gallons of petroleum products per
year. The Exxon Valdez Spill, by comparison, spewed out 11 million
gallons. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, an average
of 16,000 small oil spills seep into waterways each year and estimates
that in recent years more than 46 million gallons have spilled per
year.
Another source of water pollution from gasoline is groundwater
pollution. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more
than a quarter of the nation’s one million underground gasoline and
oil tanks leak, causing considerable groundwater contamination.
Besides direct oil spills and leakage, secondary water pollution from
petroleum is also a problem. Oil and gas leakage from cars and trucks
is collected on pavement and is carried to streams and lakes whenever
the pavement is wet and water drains across it, causing environmental
damage to aquatic plant and animal life.
Ethanol can replace the most toxic parts of gasoline with a fuel that
quickly biodegrades in water, reducing the threat that gasoline poses
to waterways and groundwater. Ethanol spills or leaks are not an
environmental hazard.
Bio diesel is also biodegradable in water and is becoming an
attractive alternative to using petroleum diesel for boating to
protect and improve water quality.
Global Climate Change
The U.S. transportation sector is responsible for one third of our
country’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. CO2 is considered to be a
greenhouse gas, the build-up of which may lead to global climate
change. These emissions result from combusting fossil fuels, which
releases the carbon content of the fuels into the atmosphere.
Producing and using bio fuels for transportation can help reduce CO2
build up in two important ways: by displacing the use of fossil fuels,
and by recycling the CO2 that is released when it is combusted as
fuel. By using bio fuels instead of fossil fuels, the emissions
resulting from fossil fuel use are avoided, and CO2 content of fossil
fuels is allowed to remain in storage. Further CO2 reductions occur
because the plants and trees that serve as feedstocks for bio fuels
require CO2 to grow, and they absorb what they need from the
atmosphere. Thus, much or all of the CO2 released when biomass is
converted into a bio fuel and burned in automobile engines is
recaptured when new biomass is grown to produce more bio fuels.
Waste disposal
Almost half the existing landfills in the U.S. are close to capacity
and are expected to close in the near future, and the rate at which we
produce waste continues to increase. Disposal costs are increasing as
available landfill space decreases. This is especially problematic for
some segments of the agricultural and forest products industries,
which produce huge amounts of waste each year.
A sound solution to many of these waste problems is to convert the
waste into ethanol. The National Bio fuels Program is working to
decrease the cost of the technology to convert waste to ethanol so
that it can be commercialised. Then private industry will lead this
effort to solve some of our waste problems. One U.S. Company has taken
strides toward this. Masada, Incorporated, has plans to build an
ethanol plant in Middletown, New York, that will convert the celluloid
materials in municipal solid waste to ethanol.
Ozone Formation
Tropospheric Ozone Formation
Smog is made up, in large part, of ozone gas. When most people think
of ozone, they think of the protective layer of ozone in the earth’s
upper atmosphere that protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays. At
the ground level, however, ozone is a toxic gas and a powerful
oxidizing agent. While “ground-level ozone” does occur naturally, it
only does so in small quantities.
When fossil fuels are burned, a variety of pollutants are emitted into
the earth’s troposphere, or the region of the atmosphere where humans
live. Among these pollutants, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and
carbon monoxide are all ozone precursors. A variety of complex
chemical reactions occur between these, some resulting in the
formation of nitrogen dioxide, which gives the distinctive brown haze
to our air, which we know as smog. Nitrogen dioxide also can react
photo chemically to form ozone, which is a known health hazard.
Bio fuels help combat ground-level ozone formation because they emit
fewer of the ozone-forming pollutants than petroleum fuels.
Acid Rain
Fossil fuels contain sulphur, and depending on the blending process,
different blends of gasoline and diesel contain varying amounts of
sulphur. When these fuels are combusted the sulphur in the fuel is
emitted into the atmosphere as sulphur dioxide (SO2).
In the
atmosphere, SO2 is oxidized into an aerosol of sulphuric acid that is
deposited in tiny droplets on the earth’s surface when it rains. This
type of rainfall is commonly known as acid rain. When the SO2
concentrations are very high in rainfall, they can cause severe
respiratory damage to humans and substantial damage to buildings.
Fortunately for humans, most of the sulphur sprayed back onto the
earth falls in unpopulated regions. When that happens, our
agricultural crops, forests and lakes suffer tremendous damage. Acidic
rain damages an estimated $2 to $3 billion annually of agricultural
crops in the United States each year. Natural forests die from the
acid rain, along with their biological diversity of species. Metal
deposits in soil from acidic rain are later released back into lakes
and streams and are toxic to fish. Thousands of lakes in the U.S. and
Canada have suffered serious losses of aquatic life due to acidic
rain.
Replacing petroleum fuels with bio fuels can dramatically reduce the
amount of sulphur dioxide emissions from the transportation sector.
Using any amount of ethanol or bio diesel in blends displaces the
corresponding amount of sulphur in petroleum, thereby decreasing
sulphur emissions. .
Urban Air Pollution
The transportation sector is responsible for a large majority of air
pollutants in our urban areas, including carbon monoxide and nitrogen
oxides, which form ground-level ozone. Tens of millions of Americans
live in areas not meeting at least one federal air quality standard.
In 1990, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments to combat high
emission levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and the creation
of ground-level ozone by petroleum-based transportation fuels. This
Act specifically required the production and distribution of
cleaner-burning gasoline, containing oxygenates such as ethanol, in
America’s most polluted cities. Tougher emissions standards are also
causing diesel engine users to find cleaner-air fuel options. Both
ethanol and bio diesel have been proven to reduce emissions that are
contributing to urban air pollution.
When ethanol is added to gasoline, it displaces gasoline components,
which generally reduces all pollutants. And because ethanol causes
fuels to burn more completely, it further reduces emissions of carbon
monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and toxic air emissions.
Bio diesel in a 20 percent blend with petroleum diesel reduces visible
smoke and odour, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, total
hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide and lead. And when the blend is used
with an oxidation catalyst, particulate matter is reduced even more.
Water Pollution
Water pollution associated with gasoline includes marine oil spills,
groundwater contamination from underground gasoline storage tanks and
runoff of vehicle engine oil and fuel.
Marine oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez Spill in Alaska in
1989-cause considerable environmental damage. Acute oil spills such as
the Valdez spill can damage individual organisms and wipe out entire
populations of marine and coastal species. They also require
large-scale, costly clean-up operations. Even more alarming, however,
is that marine oil spills such as the Valdez spill are not nearly as
damaging to the environment as the thousands of smaller spills that
are reported annually. Pipeline spills reported to the U.S. Department
of Transportation average 12 million gallons of petroleum products per
year. The Exxon Valdez Spill, by comparison, spewed out 11 million
gallons. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, an average
of 16,000 small oil spills seep into waterways each year and estimates
that in recent years more than 46 million gallons have spilled per
year.
Another source of water pollution from gasoline is groundwater
pollution. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more
than a quarter of the nation’s one million underground gasoline and
oil tanks leak, causing considerable groundwater contamination.
Besides direct oil spills and leakage, secondary water pollution from
petroleum is also a problem. Oil and gas leakage from cars and trucks
is collected on pavement and is carried to streams and lakes whenever
the pavement is wet and water drains across it, causing environmental
damage to aquatic plant and animal life.
Ethanol can replace the most toxic parts of gasoline with a fuel that
quickly biodegrades in water, reducing the threat that gasoline poses
to waterways and groundwater. Ethanol spills or leaks are not an
environmental hazard.
Bio diesel is also biodegradable in water and is becoming an
attractive alternative to using petroleum diesel for boating to
protect and improve water quality.
Global Climate Change
The U.S. transportation sector is responsible for one third of our
country’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. CO2 is considered to be a
greenhouse gas, the build-up of which may lead to global climate
change. These emissions result from combusting fossil fuels, which
releases the carbon content of the fuels into the atmosphere.
Producing and using bio fuels for transportation can help reduce CO2
build up in two important ways: by displacing the use of fossil fuels,
and by recycling the CO2 that is released when it is combusted as
fuel. By using bio fuels instead of fossil fuels, the emissions
resulting from fossil fuel use are avoided, and CO2 content of fossil
fuels is allowed to remain in storage. Further CO2 reductions occur
because the plants and trees that serve as feedstocks for bio fuels
require CO2 to grow, and they absorb what they need from the
atmosphere. Thus, much or all of the CO2 released when biomass is
converted into a bio fuel and burned in automobile engines is
recaptured when new biomass is grown to produce more bio fuels.
Waste disposal
Almost half the existing landfills in the U.S. are close to capacity
and are expected to close in the near future, and the rate at which we
produce waste continues to increase. Disposal costs are increasing as
available landfill space decreases. This is especially problematic for
some segments of the agricultural and forest products industries,
which produce huge amounts of waste each year.
A sound solution to many of these waste problems is to convert the
waste into ethanol. The National Bio fuels Program is working to
decrease the cost of the technology to convert waste to ethanol so
that it can be commercialised. Then private industry will lead this
effort to solve some of our waste problems. One U.S. Company has taken
strides toward this. Masada, Incorporated, has plans to build an
ethanol plant in Middletown, New York, that will convert the celluloid
materials in municipal solid waste to ethanol.
Ozone Formation
Tropospheric Ozone Formation
Smog is made up, in large part, of ozone gas. When most people think
of ozone, they think of the protective layer of ozone in the earth’s
upper atmosphere that protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays. At
the ground level, however, ozone is a toxic gas and a powerful
oxidizing agent. While “ground-level ozone” does occur naturally, it
only does so in small quantities.
When fossil fuels are burned, a variety of pollutants are emitted into
the earth’s troposphere, or the region of the atmosphere where humans
live. Among these pollutants, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and
carbon monoxide are all ozone precursors. A variety of complex
chemical reactions occur between these, some resulting in the
formation of nitrogen dioxide, which gives the distinctive brown haze
to our air, which we know as smog. Nitrogen dioxide also can react
photo chemically to form ozone, which is a known health hazard.
Bio fuels help combat ground-level ozone formation because they emit
fewer of the ozone-forming pollutants than petroleum fuels.
Acid Rain
Fossil fuels contain sulphur, and depending on the blending process,
different blends of gasoline and diesel contain varying amounts of
sulphur. When these fuels are combusted the sulphur in the fuel is
emitted into the atmosphere as sulphur dioxide (SO2).
In the
atmosphere, SO2 is oxidized into an aerosol of sulphuric acid that is
deposited in tiny droplets on the earth’s surface when it rains. This
type of rainfall is commonly known as acid rain. When the SO2
concentrations are very high in rainfall, they can cause severe
respiratory damage to humans and substantial damage to buildings.
Fortunately for humans, most of the sulphur sprayed back onto the
earth falls in unpopulated regions. When that happens, our
agricultural crops, forests and lakes suffer tremendous damage. Acidic
rain damages an estimated $2 to $3 billion annually of agricultural
crops in the United States each year. Natural forests die from the
acid rain, along with their biological diversity of species. Metal
deposits in soil from acidic rain are later released back into lakes
and streams and are toxic to fish. Thousands of lakes in the U.S. and
Canada have suffered serious losses of aquatic life due to acidic
rain.
Replacing petroleum fuels with bio fuels can dramatically reduce the
amount of sulphur dioxide emissions from the transportation sector.
Using any amount of ethanol or bio diesel in blends displaces the
corresponding amount of sulphur in petroleum, thereby decreasing
sulphur emissions. .