Picture smog filled cities being pollution free, while producing clean biofuel and oxygen. Highly polluted areas, such as the Los Angeles area, pose a threat to the elderly, children, and people suffering with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) (“People at Risk,” 2013). Algae can be used to harness the carbon dioxide, nitrogen, make oxygen and be refined for biofuel. Cyanobacteria is the most common type of microalgae used for biofuel (“Massachusetts company making,” 2011) The biofuel from algae can be cost effective, only costing ten to twenty dollars a barrel to produce. However, there are still financial set-backs to the algae biofuel market (Pienkos, P., Laurens, L., & Aden, A., 2011). A french scientist has even invented a lamp of algae, which runs off carbon dioxide and produces oxygen (“Large scale Algae Street Lamps to clean the air off its CO2 content,” 2012). A few companies are researching microalgae biofuel production: Joule Unlimited and the Natural Resource Energy Lab. Methods for finding other strands of microalgae biofuel include natural trial and error testing and genetic engineering (Pienkos, P., et al., 2011). “Algae lamps” and microalgae biofuel are some tools Los Angeles can use to clean their air.
Over a hundred and thirty milling people live in areas where the quality of air is unhealthy (“Key Findings,” 2013). Smog is characterized into two types: Inversion and photochemical. Inversion smog happens when the air becomes unmoving, which makes the smog into a poisonous, deadly cloud. Photochemical smog is a chemical reaction between car exhaust, ozone and sunlight, turning the car exhaust into “formaldehyde” (“Air pollution and pollutants: anthropogenic,” 2010, p. 24). The American ...
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...ssociation. Retrieved from http://www.stateoftheair.org/2013/key-findings/ Large scale street lamps to clean the air off its CO2 content. (2012, April 12). Ecofriend. Retrieved from http://www.ecofriend.com/large-scale-algae-street-lamps-clean-air-its-co2-content.html
Massachusetts company making diesel with sun, water, CO2. (2011, February 27). The Gainesville Sun. n.d.
Pienkos, P., Laurens, L., Aden, A. (2011, November 11). Making biofuel from microalgae. American Scientist. 474 (6).
Randakovits, R., Jinkerson, R., Fuerstenberg, S., Tae, H., Settlage, R., Boore, J., Posewitz, M. (2012, February 21). Draft genome sequence and genetic transformation of the of the oleaginous alga nannochloropis gaditana. National Communication. 686 (3), doi: 10.1038/ncomms1688
Rodgers, B. (2010, August 12). Algae presents danger to animals. The Jamestown Sun.
New York City, itself, is the most populous city in the United States and with such a large number of people condensed into such a small area, the pollution is more concentrated. Pollution in the form of smog, photochemical smog, fine particulate matter, and ground level ozone is the outcome from human activity in the region (NYSDEC, 2015). The biggest problem caused by ground level smog and/or ozone is its effects on our lungs. It is especially detrimental when someone already has a respiratory illness, like allergies or asthma, which makes it an even larger struggle to breathe. Heating fuels also contribute greatly towards the area’s air pollution (Kheirbek, 2014). The primary the primary types of fuels used for heating are “liquid fuel oils and natural gas” (Kheirbek, 2014). Burning such fuels releases fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, into the air, which causes adverse health effects like, “increased air way inflammation, reduced lung function, and changes in heart rhythm and blood pressure” (Kheirbek, 2014). These symptoms lead to more hospital visits and even premature death (Kheirbek,
Gulbinas, Vilija. “On the Road to Recovery: an Angelino’s Guide to Smog”. Los Angeles, CA: US. 1998. www.ben2.ucla.edu/~vgulbina
Biofuels, fuels that provide energy using relatively recent organic sources, have been around just as long as cars have. In fact, the first cars ran on peanut oil. Henry Ford, founder of a multimillion dollar American car company, planned to fuel his massively successful Model T’s with ethanol (National Geographic 2013.) However, this revolutionary idea was swept under the rug when the discovery of massive petroleum deposits kept gasoline and diesel cheap and affordable. As 2014 rolls around, consumers are starting see that the amount of petroleum in the Earth is shrinking and the same story goes for their wallets (Avro 2012.) Not only does burning gas and diesel empty out the wallet, it is also slowly covering the Earth with a warm carbon dioxide blanket that causes global warming. Transportation, which is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses (Biofuel Association of Australia 2013), is dependent on finite amounts of gas and diesel for its energy needs so it is very important we move towards a more renewable and sustainable fuel source. Biofuels, both ethanol and biodiesel, have the potential to fuel transportation efficiently and drastically reduce the carbon footprint, thus reducing the warm blanket of carbon dioxide on the Earth.
When we think of air pollution we think of the refineries in our cities and the exhaust coming from our cars mostly. In reality there are many more pollutants that we don't think about every day. The six most common air pollutants are; “Carbon monoxide, Nitrogen oxides, Sulphur oxides, Particulate matter, Volatile organic compounds, and Ground-level ozone (nitrogen oxide and Volatile organic compounds reaction)”(David Suzuki Foundation). The fact is people are dying from air pollution and we are doing nothing to make it better, in fact air pollution is getting worse.
Smog looks and smells bad. The word itself sounds bad. In the short term, living with smog-filled air causes burning eyes, throat irritation and difficulty breathing. Over the long term it can lead to chronic lung disease, asthma attacks, debilitation, even d...
Bio Fuels are clearly the most suitable alternative energy of the future as oil and coal are both rapidly vanishing and increasingly out of interest for nations wishing to avoid terrorist nations. Recently, algae has been discovered as an extremely suitable bio fuel because of its surprisingly high ratio of yield to area required for growth.
It is believed that the world's supply of oil will last until about 2040. If you think about it, that’s not too far in the distance future. Oil is running out fast and we need to think of an alternate energy source. When we burn oil, we release carbon dioxide into the air which causes the earth’s climate to warm; a temperature rise of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit could have serious if not devastating consequences. In the United States alone 60 percent of each person’s carbon footprint comes from the goods they buy, while the other 40 percent comes from their energy use at home, driving, and flying. That totals out to be about 10 billion tons a year. There are other energy sources but let’s think about the environmental and energy benefits of algae biofuel. Algae was first explored as a fuel alternative in 1978. Gas prices had skyrocketed, and the government was looking to help ease the crisis. The Aquatic Species Program run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, researched high oil-output algae for biofuel. After testing 3,000 types of algae, the program concluded that the algae, if...
We need to be concerned about the condition of the air that we breathe daily, because there has always been a problem with having fresh unpolluted air to breathe,dating back unto the Industrial Revolution the concern of polluted air has raised eyebrows whether it was scientists, government officials, or the general public the complaint of not pollutants in the air was a major health issue since the being of time. The reports of nineteen deaths in 1948, in the city of Denora, Pennsylvania was an eyeopener to the Washington groups, just because they were suppose to regulate industrial emissions made up of a combination of combustion products and thermal inversion these people still died.(Fleming and Knorr , 2009) So therefore it shows how very important it is to have clean fresh air versus polluted hazardous air that has an affects on Americans physically,economically, and socially.
Pollution occurs in many different forms such as, air, water, soil, radioactive, noise, heat/thermal and light. People from all around the world experience different levels and effects of air pollution. Millions of Americans live in areas where urban smog, particle pollution, and toxic pollutants are serious health concerns. If exposed to high enough levels of certain air pollutants one can experience irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and breathing difficulties are other fatal effects caused from air pollution. Air pollution is a problem for everyone and can only be fixed if everyone were to work together to help prevent it as much as
Photochemical Smog is a major contributor of air pollution. Photochemical Smog has been linked to many negative health conditions; in particular respiratory conditions. These health conditions aren’t only linked to humans but also plants and animals.
Photochemical smog is an environmental problem that develops when primary pollutants interact under the presence of sunlight to produce a mixture of many different and hazardous chemicals known as secondary pollutants. Photochemical smog is formed by the reactions of automobile exhaust in the presence of sunlight. The term “smog” is derived from the words smoke and fog. It is also known as Los Angeles smog.
Air pollution, the contamination of air through pollutants and gases (The American Heritage Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, n.d.) is an issue greatly impacting New Zealand’s citizen’s health and in Christchurch, can account for up to 9.1% of all deaths (Palmer & Mann, 2011). More prevalent in winter, when the mountainous terrain, calm winter weather and the warm air layer allow for the emissions to become trapped in a cold air blanket, locking them in at street level, thus creating a temperature inversion; (University of Waikato, 2009), the recommended exposure to PM10, a pollutant with particles that have a diameter smaller than 10 microns (Ministry for the Environment, 2003) in Christchurch is often surpassed (Palmer and Mann, 2011). Additionally, Palmer and Mann (2011) report that the majority of these particles originate from human activity, such as wood burning stoves, which account for up to 80% of all PM10 particles released (Moller, 2011), hydrocarbon-burning traffic and industrial wastes, which account for the remainder.
Factories and transportation depend on huge amounts of fuel--billions of tons of coal and oil are consumed around the world every year. When these fuels burn they introduce smoke and other, less visible, by-products into the atmosphere.
“Smog hanging over cities is the most familiar and obvious form of air pollution. But there are different kinds of pollution—some visible, some invisible—that contribute to global warming. Generally, any substance that people introduce into the atmosphere that has damaging effects on living things and the environment is considered air pollution” (“Air Pollution”). Even though some of these dangers are known to most humans, they still have not changed their behavior. “Huge buildings in cities are still being built. More cars are made and sold every day. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is widely considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past 150 years, such activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years” (“Air Pollution”). “Even more is along with harming human health, air pollution can cause a variety of environmental effects. One of these are Acid rain is precipitation containing harmful amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. These acids are formed primarily by nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides released into the atmosphere when fossil
Air pollution is a type of pollution that can severely damage our environment as well as the earth’s atmosphere. Air pollution occurs all the time when the air contains many substances ...