Smog
and precipitation
Major
topics:
-
Types
of smog
-
Photochemical
Reactions
-
Oxidation
in atmosphere
-
Effects
of internal combustion engines
-
Precipitation
composition
-
production
of acid in atmosphere
-
nitrogen
and sulfur in the atmosphere
Chemical
topics
-
oxidation
and reduction
-
gas
laws
-
rates
of reactons
-
acid-base
chemistry
Homework
assignment: Chapter 4: Questions 1, 4, 8, 10, Chapter 5: 1, 4, 6
Discussion
Question:
Internal
combustion engines produce many of the contaminants which are involved in smog
production, as well as increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Several alternative
fuels have been proposed. Ethanol from corn is now added to gasoline both to be
an oxygenated fuel component, and to provide some fuel which is from a renewable
resource. In our text there is an energy balance for the efficiency of production
of corn ethanol(pg. 90). Unfortunately, the details of which energy inputs are
included in the calculation are not given. What energy inputs do you think should
be included, and can you find other estimates of the energy balance for this process,
which give different results?