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.  

Adverse effects

This chart shows that not all fish, shellfish, or the insects that they eat can
tolerate the same amount of acid; for example, frogs can tolerate water that is
more acidic (i.e., has a lower pH) than trout.

Acid rain has been shown to have adverse impacts on forests, freshwaters and
soils, killing insect and aquatic life-forms as well as causing damage to buildings
and having impacts on human health.
Surface waters and aquatic animals

Both the lower pH and higher aluminium concentrations in surface water that
occur as a result of acid rain can cause damage to fish and other aquatic
animals. At pHs lower than 5 most fish eggs will not hatch and lower pHs can
kill adult fish. As lakes and rivers become more acidic biodiversity is reduced.
Acid rain has eliminated insect life and some fish species, including the brook
trout in some lakes, streams, and creeks in geographically sensitive areas, such
as the Adirondack Mountains of the United States. [27] However, the extent to
which acid rain contributes directly or indirectly via runoff from the catchment
to lake and river acidity (i.e., depending on characteristics of the surrounding
watershed) is variable. The United States Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) website states: "Of the lakes and streams surveyed, acid rain caused
acidity in 75% of the acidic lakes and about 50% of the acidic streams". [27]
Soils

Soil biology and chemistry can be seriously damaged by acid rain. Some
microbes are unable to tolerate changes to low pH and are killed.
[28]
 The enzymes of these microbes are denatured (changed in shape so they no
longer function) by the acid. The hydronium ions of acid rain also
mobilize toxins such as aluminium, and leach away essential nutrients and
minerals such as magnesium.[29]
2 H+ (aq) + Mg2+ (clay) ⇌ 2 H+ (clay) + Mg2+ (aq)
Soil chemistry can be dramatically changed when base cations, such as
calcium and magnesium, are leached by acid rain thereby affecting sensitive
species, such as sugar maple (Acer saccharum).[30][31]
Forests and other vegetation

Adverse effects may be indirectly related to acid rain, like the acid's effects on
soil (see above) or high concentration of gaseous precursors to acid rain. High
altitude forests are especially vulnerable as they are often surrounded by
clouds and fog which are more acidic than rain.
Other plants can also be damaged by acid rain, but the effect on food crops is
minimized by the application of lime and fertilizers to replace lost nutrients.
In cultivated areas, limestone may also be added to increase the ability of the
soil to keep the pH stable, but this tactic is largely unusable in the case of
wilderness lands. When calcium is leached from the needles of red spruce,
these trees become less cold tolerant and exhibit winter injury and even
death.[32][33]
Ocean acidification
Main article: Ocean acidification

This section
requires expansion.
(July 2013)

Coral's limestone skeletal is sensitive to pH drop, because the calcium

carbonate, core component of the limestone dissolves in acidic (low pH)
solutions.
Human health effects

Acid rain does not directly affect human health. The acid in the rainwater is
too dilute to have direct adverse effects. However, the particulates responsible
for acid rain (sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) do have an adverse effect.
Increased amounts of fine particulate matter in the air do contribute to heart
and lung problems including asthma and bronchitis. [34]
Other adverse effects
Acid rain and weathering

Acid rain can damage buildings, historic monuments, and statues, especially
those made of rocks, such as limestone and marble, that contain large
amounts of calcium carbonate. Acids in the rain react with the calcium
compounds in the stones to create gypsum, which then flakes off.
CaCO3 (s) + H2SO4 (aq) ⇌ CaSO4 (s) + CO2 (g) + H2O (l)
The effects of this are commonly seen on old gravestones, where acid rain
can cause the inscriptions to become completely illegible. Acid rain also
increases the corrosion rate of metals, in
particular iron, steel, copper and bronze.[35][36]
 Affected areas

Places significantly impacted by acid rain around the globe include most
of eastern Europe from Poland northward into Scandinavia, [37]the eastern
third of the United States,[38] and southeastern Canada. Other affected
areas include the southeastern coast of China andTaiwan.[citation needed]

PREVENTION METHODS

Many coal-firing power stations use flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) to remove

sulfur-containing gases from their stack gases. For a typical coal-fired power
station, FGD will remove 95% or more of the SO 2 in the flue gases. An example
of FGD is the wet scrubber which is commonly used. A wet scrubber is basically
a reaction tower equipped with a fan that extracts hot smoke stack gases from a
power plant into the tower. Lime or limestone in slurry form is also injected into
the tower to mix with the stack gases and combine with the sulfur dioxide
present. The calcium carbonate of the limestone produces pH-neutral calcium
sulfate that is physically removed from the scrubber. That is, the scrubber
turns sulfur pollution into industrial sulfates.
In some areas the sulfates are sold to chemical companies as gypsum when the
purity of calcium sulfate is high. In others, they are placed in landfill. However,
the effects of acid rain can last for generations, as the effects of pH level change
can stimulate the continued leaching of undesirable chemicals into otherwise
pristine water sources, killing off vulnerable insect and fish species and
blocking efforts to restore native life.
Fluidized bed combustion also reduces the amount of sulfur emitted by
power production.
Vehicle emissions control reduces emissions of nitrogen oxides from motor
vehicles.
Sources of Energy
There are 10 main different sources of energy that are used in the world to
generate power. While there are other sources being discovered all the time,
none of them has reached the stage where they can be used to provide the power
to help modern life go.
All of these different sources of energy are used primarily to produce electricity.
The world runs on a series of electrical reactions – whether you are talking about
the car you are driving or the light you are turning on. All of these different
sources of energy add to the store of electrical power that is then sent out to
different locations via high powered lines.
Here is an overview of each of the different sources of energy that are in use, and
what’s the potential issue for each of them.
1. Solar Energy
Solar power harvests the energy of the sun through using collector panels to
create conditions that can then be turned into a kind of power. Large solar panel
fields are often used in desert to gather enough power to charge small
substations, and many homes use solar systems to provide for hot water, cooling
and supplement their electricity. The issue with solar is that while there is
plentiful amounts of sun available, only certain geographical ranges of the world
get enough of the direct power of the sun for long enough to generate usable
power from this source.
2. Wind Energy
Wind power is becoming more and more common. The new innovations that are
allowing wind farms to appear are making them a more common sight. By using
large turbines to take available wind as the power to turn, the turbine can then
turn a generator to produce electricity. While this seemed like an ideal solution
to many, the reality of the wind farms is starting to reveal an unforeseen
ecological impact that may not make it an ideal choice.
3. Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy is the energy that is produced from beneath the earth. It is
clean, sustainable and environment friendly. High temperatures are produced
continuously inside the earth’s crust by the slow delay of radioactive particles.
Hot rocks present below the earth heats up the water that produces steam. The
steam is then captured that helps to move turbines. The rotating turbines then
power the generators.
Geothermal energy can be used by a residential unit or on a large scale by a
industrial application. It was used during ancient times for bathing and space
heating. The biggest disadvantage with geothermal energy is that it can only be
produced at selected sites throughout the world. The largest group of geothermal
power plants in the world is located at The Geysers, a geothermal field in
California, United States.

4. Hydrogen Energy
Hydrogen is available with water(H2O) and is most common element available on
earth. Water contains two-thirds of hydrogen and can be found in combination
with other elements. Once it is separated, it can be used as a fuel for generating
electricity. Hydrogen is a tremendous source of energy and can be used as a
source of fuel to power ships, vehicles, homes, industries and rockets. It is
completely renewable, can be produced on demand and does not leave any toxic
emissions in the atmosphere.

5. Tidal Energy
Tidal energy uses rise and fall of tides to convert kinetic energy of incoming and
outgoing tides into electrical energy. The generation of energy through tidal
power is mostly prevalent in coastal areas. Huge investment and limited
availability of sites are few of the drawbacks of tidal energy. When there is
increased height of water levels in the ocean, tides are produced which rush
back and forth in the ocean. Tidal energy is one of the renewable source of

energy and produce large energy even when the tides are at low speed.

6. Wave Energy
Wave energy is produced from the waves that are produced in the oceans. Wave
energy is renewable, environment friendly and causes no harm to atmosphere. It
can be harnessed along coastal regions of many countries and can help a
country to reduce its dependance on foreign countries for fuel. Producing wave
energy can damage marine ecosystem and can also be a source of disturbance to
private and commercial vessels. It is highly dependent on wavelength and can
also be a source of visual and noise pollution.
7. Hydroelectric Energy
What many people are not aware of is that most of the cities and towns in the
world rely on hydropower, and have for the past century. Every time you see a
major damn, it is providing hydropower to an electrical station somewhere. The
power of the water is used to turn generators to produce the electricity that is
then used. The problems faced with hydropower right now have to do with the
aging of the dams. Many of them need major restoration work to remain
functional and safe, and that costs enormous sums of money. The drain on the
world’s drinkable water supply is also causing issues as townships may wind up
needing to consume the water that provides them power too.
8. Biomass Energy
Biomass energy is produced from organic material and is commonly used
throughout the world. Chlorophyll present in plants captures the sun’s energy
by converting carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground into
carbohydrates through the process of photosynthesis. When the plants are
burned, the water and carbon dioxide is again released back into the
atmosphere. Biomass generally include crops, plants, trees, yard clippings, wood
chips and animal wastes. Biomass energy is used for heating and cooking in
homes and as a fuel in industrial production. This type of energy produces large
amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

IMPACT :

Anytime the natural environment is altered, there are impacts. All energy
sources have initial financial and environmental costs with setting up any type
of power generation plant. All energy sources also have continuing
environmental impacts.

Some energy sources have greater up-front costs while others have greater or
lesser continuing costs and impacts.

Fossil fuels are acquired by mining nonrenewable resources. There are usually
large exploration, mining and drilling costs and impacts. Furthermore, the
burning of fossil fuels to generate energy adds additional and very major
environmental impacts.

Using renewable energy sources generally involve much less environmental

impacts. Developing renewable resources have various up-front financial and
environmental costs. All renewable energy sources impact the environment in at
least some small way.

GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AT POWER PLANT

Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from other

sources of primary energy. The fundamental principles of electricity generation
were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist
Michael Faraday. This basic method is still used today: electricity is generated by
the movement of a loop of wire, or disc of copper between the poles of a magnet.
[1] For electric utilities, it is the first process in the delivery of electricity to
consumers. The other processes, electricity transmission, distribution, and
electrical power storage and recovery using pumped-storage methods are
normally carried out by the electric power industry. Electricity is most often
generated at a power station by electromechanical generators, primarily driven
by heat engines fueled by chemical combustion or nuclear fission but also by
other means such as the kinetic energy of flowing water and wind. Other energy
sources include solar photovoltaics and geothermal power and electrochemical
batteries.

Methods of generating electricity[edit]

U.S. 2014 Electricity Generation By Type.[4]

Sources of electricity in France in 2006; [5] nuclear power was the main source.

There are seven fundamental methods of directly transforming other forms

of energy into electrical energy:

 Static electricity, from the physical separation and transport of charge

(examples: triboelectric effect and lightning)
 Electromagnetic induction, where an electric
generator, dynamo or alternator transforms kinetic energy (energy of motion)
into electricity. This is the most used form for generating electricity and is
based on Faraday's law. It can be experimented by simply rotating a magnet
within closed loops of a conducting material (e.g. copper wire)
 Electrochemistry, the direct transformation of chemical energy into
electricity, as in a battery, fuel cell or nerve impulse
 Photovoltaic effect, the transformation of light into electrical energy, as
in solar cells
 Thermoelectric effect, the direct conversion of temperature differences to
electricity, as in thermocouples, thermopiles, and thermionic converters.
 Piezoelectric effect, from the mechanical strain of
electrically anisotropic molecules or crystals. Researchers at the US
Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley
Lab) have developed a piezoelectricgenerator sufficient to operate a liquid
crystal display using thin films of M13 bacteriophage.[6]
 Nuclear transformation, the creation and acceleration of charged particles
(examples: betavoltaics or alpha particleemission)
Static electricity was the first form discovered and investigated, and
the electrostatic generator is still used even in modern devices such as the Van
de Graaff generator and MHD generators. Charge carriers are separated and
physically transported to a position of increased electric potential. Almost all
commercial electrical generation is done using electromagnetic induction, in
which mechanical energy forces an electric generator to rotate. There are many
different methods of developing the mechanical energy, including heat engines,
hydro, wind and tidal power. The direct conversion ofnuclear potential energy to
electricity by beta decay is used only on a small scale. In a full-size nuclear
power plant, the heat of a nuclear reaction is used to run a heat engine. This
drives a generator, which converts mechanical energy into electricity by
magnetic induction. Most electric generation is driven by heat engines. The
combustion of fossil fuels supplies most of the heat to these engines, with a
significant fraction from nuclear fission and some from renewable sources. The
modern steam turbine (invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884) currently
generates about 80% of the electric power in the world using a variety of heat
sources.
Turbines

Large dams such as Three Gorges Dam in China can provide large amounts
of hydroelectric power; it has a 22.5 GW capability.

Almost all electrical power on Earth is generated with a turbine of some type.
Turbines are commonly driven by wind, water, steam or burning gas. The
turbine drives an electric generator. Power sources include:

 Steam
 Water is boiled by coal burned in a thermal power plant, about 40%
of all electricity is generated this way.[7]
 Nuclear fission heat created in a nuclear reactor creates steam. Less
than 15% of electricity is generated this way.
 Renewables. The steam is generated by:
 Biomass
  Solar thermal energy (the sun as the heat source): solar
parabolic troughs and solar power towers concentrate sunlight to heat
a heat transfer fluid, which is then used to produce steam.
 Geothermal power. Either steam under pressure emerges from
the ground and drives a turbine or hot water evaporates a low boiling
liquid to create vapor to drive a turbine.

Large dams such as Hoover Damcan provide large amounts

ofhydroelectric power; it has 2.07 GWcapability.

 Gas Natural gas is burned in a gas turbine, turbines are driven directly by

gases produced by combustion. Combined cycle are driven by both steam
and natural gas. They generate power by burning natural gas in a gas
turbine and use residual heat to generate steam. At least 20% of the worlds
electricity is generated by natural gas.
 Water Energy is captured from the movement of water. From falling water
(dam), the rise and fall of tides or ocean thermal currents. Each driving
a water turbine to produce approximately 16% of the worlds electricity.
 Wind The windmill was a very early wind turbine. In a solar updraft
tower wind is artificially produced. Before 2010 less than 2% of the worlds
electricity was produced from wind.
HEMODIALYSIS

Healthy kidneys clean your blood and remove extra fluid in the form of urine.
They also make substances that keep your body healthy. Dialysis replaces some
of these functions when your kidneys no longer work. There are two different
types of dialysis - hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. The following is about
hemodialysis. For more information on peritoneal dialysis, 

You need dialysis if your kidneys no longer remove enough wastes and fluid from
your blood to keep you healthy. This usually happens when you have only 10 to
15 percent of your kidney function left. You may have symptoms such as
nausea, vomiting, swelling and fatigue. However, even if you don't have these
symptoms yet, you can still have a high level of wastes in your blood that may be
toxic to your body. Your doctor is the best person to tell you when you should
start dialysis.

How does hemodialysis work?

In hemodialysis, a dialysis machine and a special filter called an artificial kidney,

or a dialyzer, are used to clean your blood. To get your blood into the dialyzer,
the doctor needs to make an access, or entrance, into your blood vessels. This is
done with minor surgery, usually to your arm. For more information on
hemodialysis access, click here.

How does the dialyzer clean my blood?

The dialyzer, or filter, has two parts, one for your blood and one for a washing
fluid called dialysate. A thin membrane separates these two parts. Blood cells,
protein and other important things remain in your blood because they are too
big to pass through the membrane. Smaller waste products in the blood, such as
urea, creatinine, potassium and extra fluid pass through the membrane and are
washed away.

Where is hemodialysis done?

Hemodialysis can be done in a hospital, in a dialysis center that is not part of a

hospital or at home. You and your doctor will decide which place is best, based
on your medical condition, and your wishes.
How long will each hemodialysis treatment last?

In a dialysis center, hemodialysis is usually done 3 times per week for about 4
hours at a time. People who choose to do hemodialysis at home may do dialysis
treatment more frequently, 4-7 times per week for shorter hours each time.

Your doctor will give you a prescription that tells you how much treatment you
need. Studies have shown that getting the right amount of dialysis improves
your overall health, keeps you out of the hospital and enables you to live longer.
Your dialysis care team will monitor your treatment with monthly lab tests to
ensure you are getting the right amount of dialysis. One of the measures your
dialysis care team may use is called urea reduction ratio (URR). Another
measure is called Kt/V (pronounced kay tee over vee). Ask your dialysis care
team what measure they use and what your number is. To ensure that you are
getting enough dialysis:

PH OF SALTS
Aqueous Solutions of Salts

Salts, when placed in water, will often react with the water to produce H 3O+ or
OH-. This is known as a hydrolysis reaction. Based on how strong the ion acts as
 an acid or base, it will produce varying pH levels. When water and salts react,
there are many possibilities due to the varying structures of salts. A salt can be
made of either a weak acid and strong base, strong acid and weak base, a strong
acid and strong base, or a weak acid and weak base. The reactants are
composed of the salt and the water and the products side is composed of the
conjugate base (from the acid of the reaction side) or the conjugate acid (from the
base of the reaction side). In this section of chemistry, we discuss the pH values
of salts based on several conditions.

When is a salt solution basic or acidic?

There are several guiding principles that summarize the outcome: 

1. Salts that are from strong bases and strong acids do not
hydrolyze. The pH will remain neutral at 7. Halides and alkaline metals
dissociate and do not affect the H + as the cation does not alter the H + and the
anion does not attract the H+ from water. This is why NaCl is a neutral
salt. In General: Salts containing halides (except F-) and an alkaline metal
(except Be2+) will dissociate into spectator ions.
2. Salts that are from strong bases and weak acids do hydrolyze, which
gives it a pH greater than 7. The anion in the salt is derived from a weak acid,
most likely organic, and will accept the proton from the water in the
reaction. This will have the water act as an acid that will, in this case,
leaving a hydroxide ion (OH -). The cation will be from a strong base, meaning
from either the alkaline or alkaline earth metals and, like before, it will
dissociate into an ion and not affect the H+. 
3. Salts of weak bases and strong acids do hydrolyze, which gives it a pH
less than 7. This is due to the fact that the anion will become a spectator ion
and fail to attract the H+, while the cation from the weak base will donate
a proton to the water forming a hydronium ion.
4. Salts from a weak base and weak acid also hydrolyze as the others,
but a bit more complex and will require the K a and Kb to be taken into
account.Whichever is the stronger acid or weak will be the dominate factor in
determining whether it is acidic or basic. The cation will be the acid, and the
anion will be the base and will form either form a hydronium ion or a hydroxide
ion depending on which ion reacts more readily with the water.
 PROJECT WORK
FOR FA-I

NAME : SHRUTI SHARMA

SUBJECT : SCIENCE

CLASS : 10TH D

ROLL NO. : 30

SCHOOL : KENDRIYA VIDAYALA NO.1

GANDHI NAGAR, JAMMU

TEACHER’S SIGNATURE

MR. JANAK RAJ