Acid rain: Effects on environment and it's solutions

 In the last post, we have seen the causes of acid rain1. Now, we will see how acid rain is harmful to human health and the environment, and we also looking for is prevention and mitigation to reduce its harmful effect.

Components of acid rain:

The major components of acid rain are sulfur dioxide/sulfur trioxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide dissolves in water drops. When these air pollutants are dissolved in water during rain it forms various acids. The chemical reactions of these pollutants are discussed as follows.

• CO2+H2O → H2CO3 (carbonic acid)
• SO2+H2O → H2SO3 (sulfurous acid)
• NO2+H2O → HNO3 (nitric acid)

Effects of acid rain on the environment:

Harmful effects on plants: 

 plants are destructed due to increased acidity in the soil, nutrients from the soil, and slowing plant growth, poisoning plants, creates brown spots in leaves of trees, impeding photosynthesis, allows organisms to infect through broken leaves.

Effects on human health: 

Due to the presence of a high concentration of air pollutants in the atmosphere, its Causes respiratory problems, asthma, dry coughs, headaches, and throat irritations; the Leeching of toxins from the soil by acidic water can be absorbed by plants and animals. When consumed these toxins by humans it affects human life severely, which causes brain damage, kidney problems, and Alzheimer's disease.

Effects on aquatic life: 

 Due to increasing the acidity in water bodies that Stops eggs of aquatic organisms (e.g. fish) to stop hatching, Changes population ratios and affects their ecosystem.

Effect on transport: 

 In present, both railway transportation and airplane transportation have to spend a lot of money to repair the corrosive damage done by acid rain. Bridges have collapsed in the past due to acid rain. Acid rain dissolves the stonework and mortar of buildings.

How can we prevent our environment from acid rain?

There are many ways used to reduce acid deposition and precipitation. Some of them are as follows:

Clean up smokestacks and exhaust pipes: 

 Most of the power plants are working on fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil. However, exhaust emission of these fuels is the main cause of acid rain released into the atmosphere. Coal fuel contains a large account of SO2 and NOx emissions. 

There are several options for reducing SO2 emissions, including using coal which containing less sulfur, washing the coal, and using SOx control devices called scrubbers to chemically remove the SO2 from the gases leaving the smokestack and recycling to use as a raw material.

Power plants can also switch fuels; for example, burning natural gas creates much less SO2 than coal. Certain approaches will also have additional benefits of reducing other air pollutants such as carbon dioxide. 

 Understanding these "co-benefits" has become important in seeking effective air pollution reduction strategies.

Use alternative energy sources: 

 There are other sources of electricity such as nuclear power, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy, and solar energy.

Of these, nuclear and hydropower are widely used; 

 Due to less power capacity; wind, solar, and geothermal energy have not yet been harnessed on a large scale.

There are also alternative energies available in the market to power automobiles, including CNG gas-powered vehicles, battery-powered cars, fuel cells, biofuels and biodiesel, and combinations of alternative and gasoline-powered vehicles. All those sources of energy have environmental costs as well as benefits. 

Environmental Technology: What is concept of Cleaner production?

Environmental Technology: What is concept of Cleaner production?: Cleaner production means the continuous implementation of an integrated preventive environmental strategy to the manufacturing process and ...

Acid rain is one of the major environmental issues1 which are human, and our environment is facing. In this blog we are get knowledge about acid rain and its causes.

Acid rain definition: The term acid rain is referred as precipitation from air pollutant like sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), etc.. are connected with water drops and fall to the ground in the form of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3).

It ceuses survey effects on plants, animals, and infrastructures.

What are the causes of acid rain?

Both natural and man-made causes are responsible for acid rain. 

 Natural causes: One of the most common natural causes of acid rain is volcanic emission. These emissions include acid-producing gases that are responsible for acid precipitation. 

Others then, decaying vegetation, wildfires and even some biological processes produce acid rain, which forms gases.

 Man-made causes: Air pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are emitted due to human activities are also considered as contributes to acid rain.

Industries, power plants, and automobiles are major sources of SO2 and NO2.

In further blogs are are try to understand its effects and some solutions to reduce acid rain.

What is concept of Cleaner production?

Cleaner production means the continuous implementation of an integrated preventive environmental strategy to the manufacturing process and products to reduce risk to Humans and The environment.

Concept of Cleaner production:

Cleaner production is a preventive process for specific Environmental protection initiatives. 

By analyzing the flow of materials and energy in an industry, one tries to waste minimization and emission.

How businesses are responsible for causing pollution?

Businesses and Companies are used resources to produce products and services to humans. for better living standards, business uses more resources and make by-products that are not useful for companies and human, is called waste. 100% of waste is discharged into different steams and land which creates pollution. It's a business responsibility to protect environmental impact and pollution.

 For any kind of business, there are four ways to create pollution.

 1. First one, By ignoring the problem. Many companies are ignor their treatment plant problems and as a result, it creates pollution. It's not only for a small scale or neighborhood, but this pollution is the effect on a large scale and creates harmful effects.

 2. Secondly, By prescribing to the doctrine. " the solution to the pollution is dilution"; for example, by diluting pollution so that it's effect less harmful to the environment.

 3. Thirdly, by treating the pollution through the end-of-pipe approach.

 4. The fourth one, by prevention of pollution and waste at the source itself.

Renewable Resources Definition - its advantages and disadvantages

Renewable Resources: The term renewable resources are referred to as natural resources and energy that can be used again and again and it has no side effects and environmentally friendly.

 For more information, you can check another article.

 Advantage of Renewable Resources:

 1. Those resources are renewable and there are no dangerous effects on the environment.

 2. Solar power plants are running at zero fuel consumption. So it's not creat any type of air pollution.

 3. Renewable Resources are used for local processing and application.

 4. Its have low energy density.

 5. Most of the devices and plants are made of local materials. So it's easy to construct and maintain.

 Disadvantages of Renewable Resources:

 1. It has a low energy density. Therefore it required a large size of devices and plants.

 2. Intermittency and lack of dependability are the main disadvantages of renewable resources.

 3. It has low efficiency.

 4. The low efficiency of these plants can result in large heat rejections and hence thermal pollution.

 5. Renewable resources plants use larger landmasses.

Introduction of Renewable Resources.

When all world is looking for development and infrastructure, They are directly or indirectly affect the environment. They use more and more natural resources and give back pollution.

 We can reduce the use of that resources by using some other resource that is again useable and don't create pollution, this type of resource is called renewable resources.

Renewable resources are those which can be used again and again.

 For example, Solar energy, wind energy, hydropower plants, etc.

 Some renewable energy sources and their technology is given below:

 Solar Energy: Solar energy is produced from the solar panel which consists of photovoltaic cells to electricity and thermal energy for heating water, and air.

 Hydropower plants: hydropower plants produce electricity from the water wave and turbine system.

 Wind Energy: Wind Energy produce from wind speed and direction and also from the turbine system.

 Biomass: Biomass and biogas are produced from the composition of food waste and wood stone and other biodegradable materials. Biogas is used for heating and electricity production.

Basic terminology used in the Treatment of Wastewater.

water pollution is one of The global Environmental issues. Water pollution is caused by different areas like, Residential areas, Industrial actions, oil leaches, landfill sites, etc.

So This wastewater should be treated before discharge in any slim. There are certain wastewater treatment plants are used to treat different type of wastewater.

Before We start treatment techniques, We need to understand the basic terminology used in the Treatment of Wastewater.

1. Characteristics: General classes of wastewater such as physical, chemical and biological.

2. Composition: The make-up of wastewater, including physical, chemical, and biological ingredients.

3. Disinfection: Reduction of disease-causing and harmful microorganisms by physical and chemical actions.

4.Effluent: wastewater discharge from unit steps.

5.Impurities: Constituents addes to the water through use.

6. Parameter: A measurable factor such as total suspended solid.

7. Pollutants: Constituents added to the water through use.

8. Recycling: The reuse of treated wastewater.

9. Reuse: Benificial use of treated water.

10. Sludge: Solid removed from wastewater treatment plants. Its also called biosolids.

Main Objective of Sewage Treatment Plant

Sewage is generated from the residential area and some kind of industry. Their sewage is contain of high organic meters and some amount of other pollutants. 

As I explain in the past blog1. Wastewater is one of the global environmental issues. It has to be treat before discharge into any water body like a lake, river, and sea.

Main objectives of sewage treatment plants are as follows:

 1) to remove organic meters from the wastewater.

 2) to reduce water parameters.

 3) to neutralize wastewater before discharge.

 4) to kill pathogens.

How Corona virus effects on the Environment?

Where the whole world is suffering from the coronavirus, people are locked in their homes. There is also a good effect of Corona, which we will know in the following article.

WHO was declared pandemic for the Coronavirus. So; around 126 countries started lockdown, people locked in their house, business and industries are closed for the last 3 months.

As a result; water and air pollution are drop-down, and the environment recovers itself.

If we are talking about India Many rivers of India like Ganga, Narmada, Saraswati, etc. Lockdown has started to purify itself.

Gujarat pollution control board (GPCB) says that at some point in the Sabarmati river is now pollution-free and people can directly use water as drinking purposes. From the last 26 year, the Narmada river's pollution level is also dropped.

India's highly polluted cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, etc are also affected by the corona virus. So; its atmosphere and environmental impact id also affected.

Particularly in Delhi, air pollution is drop-down at 79% during the lockdown period.
From 25 March to 15 Jun, Transportation is nearly zero. So; motor vehicle emission is also down.

Concussion: Corona virus is harmful to human health, but it also helps the Environment to recover its self.

Top 10 global Environmental issues in 2020

Our environment is provided us basic needs for a living being. But for increasing living standards, humans are using more natural resources and cantonment environment. As a result, water, soil, and atmosphere are going to be more polluted. Here is a list of some global environmental issues and a brief description.

1: pollution: Air, Water and soil pollution 

Air pollution is caused by industries, motor vehicle ambition, smoking, coil burning, mining, etc.

 Water pollution is caused by oil leaches, groundwater contamination, wastewater discharge from industrial areas.

 Soil pollution is caused by agricultural waste, landfilling, municipal solid waste, and polluted water discharge on the soil.

2: Climate Changes/ Global Warming
Climate changes/ global warming are the result of human activities like the emission of greenhouse gases. Global warming leads to rising temperatures of the oceans and the earth’s surface causing natural disasters like flooding, melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea levels and also unnatural patterns of precipitation such as flash floods, hurricanes, wildfires, drought, excessive snow or desertification.

3: overpopulation
The population of the earth is reached unsustainable levels as it faces a shortage of natural resources like water, fuel, and food. Population explosion in undeveloped and developing countries is straining the already scarce resources.

4: Deforestation
Forests are natural sinks of carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, as well as helps in regulating temperature and rainfall. At present, forests cover 30% of the land, but every year tree cover is lost, amounting to the country of Panama due to the growing population demand for more food, shelter. Deforestation simply means clearing of green cover and make that land available for residential, industrial or commercial purposes.

5:loss of biodiversity
The balance of natural processes is crucial to the survival of the ecosystem, and human activity threatens the same. One more example is the destruction of coral reefs in the various oceans, which support the rich marine life.

6:Natural resources depletion
crucial current environmental problem is the depletion of Natural resources. humans, use so many natural resources that it would need almost 1.5 Earths to cover all our needs.

7: ozone layer depletion
The ozone layer is an invisible layer of protection around the planet that protects us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. The depletion of the Ozone layer of the atmosphere is attributed to pollution caused by Chlorine and Bromide found in Chloro-fluoro carbons (CFCs). 

8:Acid rain
Acid rain occurs due to the presence of toxic pollutants in the atmosphere. Acid rain can be caused due to combustion of fossil fuels and erupting volcanoes or rotting vegetation which releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere.

9:waste disposal
The overconsumption of natural resources and the creation of plastics are creating a crisis of waste disposal. Developed countries are notorious for producing an excessive amount of waste or garbage and dumping their waste in the oceans and less developed countries.

10: public health issues
The current environmental problems pose a lot of risk to the health of humans, animals, and plants. Dirty water and contaminated air is the biggest health risk in the world and poses a threat to the quality of life and public health.

Basic introduction about wasterwater

water is a basic need for any living being. for the survival of animals and plants and to complete bio-diversity, water is necessary. 

due to rapid industrialization, groundwater sources like river, pond, leak, etc.. are going to contaminated. As a result, drinkable water sources are very less, and many states are facing a Lack of water.

but for change, new techniques and treatment processes are invented to reduce gound waster pollution. Which gives treated and recycled waster for residential purposes.

In further blogs, I will talk about different effects of wastewater on environments, different pollutants that are present in wastewater, and also explain the treatment process which is used to treat wastewater.