Mell What is formed when pollutants from burning fossil fuels combine with water vapor?
When humans burn fossil fuels, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are released into the atmosphere. Those air pollutants react with water, oxygen, and other substances to form airborne sulfuric and nitric acid.
What happens when fossil fuel plants release chemicals into the air?
When fossil fuels are burned, they release nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, which contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain.
What is the haze that is created when the chemicals in fossil fuels are released into the air?
Sulfur dioxide (SO2), a colorless, bad-smelling, toxic gas, is part of a larger group of chemicals referred to as sulfur oxides (SOx). These gases, especially SO2, are emitted by the burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil, and diesel — or other materials that contain sulfur.
What do you mean by acid rain?
Acid rain, or acid deposition, is a broad term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms. This can include rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic.
What pH is acid rain?
4.0
However, when rain combines with sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides—produced from power plants and automobiles—the rain becomes much more acidic. Typical acid rain has a pH value of 4.0. A decrease in pH values from 5.0 to 4.0 means that the acidity is 10 times greater.
How can we reduce so2 in the air?
Reducing Pollution One option is to use coal that contains less sulfur. Another option is to “wash” the coal to remove some of the sulfur. The power plant can also install equipment called scrubbers, which remove the sulfur dioxide from gases leaving the smokestack.
What Colour is acid rain?
When you add acid, bromothymol blue turns yellow; when you add a base (like sodium sulfite), it turns blue.
What are the effects of acid rain on human?
While acid rain cannot harm humans directly, the sulfur dioxide that creates it can cause health problems. Specifically, sulfur dioxide particles in the air can encourage chronic lung problems, like asthma and bronchitis.
What is the single best way to reduce acid rain?
A great way to reduce acid rain is to produce energy without using fossil fuels. Instead, people can use renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power. Renewable energy sources help reduce acid rain because they produce much less pollution.
What is formed when chemicals from burning fossil fuels?
Oxides of nitrogen, which form when gasoline is combusted at a high temperature, are one cause of acid rain. Nitrogen oxides react with water to form HNO2 and HNO3, nitrous and nitric acids. Sulfur dioxide that comes from burning coal and diesel reacts with water to produce sulfurous and sulfuric acids, H2SO3 and H2SO4.
How does burning fossil fuels affect the atmosphere?
Factories that burn fossil fuels also release sulfur and nitrogen dioxides, which combine with water in the atmosphere to make acid rain. Acid rain causes damage to natural and human-made environments.
What kind of gas is expelled during a volcanic eruption?
Water Vapor. The most abundant gas expelled during a volcanic eruption is water vapor. Water vapor is not toxic and because so much is expelled during an eruption, it can actually benefit the planet by pulling water from deep within the Earth and adding it to the water cycle.
What happens when you add more water vapor to the atmosphere?
The warming due to increasing non-condensable gases causes more water vapor to enter the atmosphere, which adds to the effect of the non-condensables. There is also a possibility that adding more water vapor to the atmosphere could produce a negative feedback effect. This could happen if more water vapor leads to more cloud formation.