PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL DR.

HERNI HALIM
ENGINEERING (BIOLOGICAL)
 TOPICS
Date Topics

13/03/2017 BK1 10 am -12 pm Introduction

The carbon cycle
15/03/2017 BK1 12 pm -1 pm The nitrogen cycle

20/03/2017 BK1 10 am -12 pm Introduction to noise pollution and

regulation
22/03/2017, BK1 12 pm -1 pm Noise measurement and control measure
INTRODUCTION
An efficient and sustainable city must be built for the environment and
climate in which it is located. Therefore, an understanding of the Earths
energy cycle and how it drives the various systems (carbon and nitrogen)
throughout the globe is vital to understanding what types and kinds of
infrastructures are needed in a city.
To understand the sources, fluxes, transformations, and fates of these
elements.
To understand how humans have affected the global cycling of these
elements
 E.G. ACIDITY IN RAINWATER
Pure water has a pH of 7.0 (neutral); however,
natural, unpolluted rainwater actually has a pH of
about 5.6 (acidic).
pH is a measure of the hydrogen ion (H+)
concentration
acidity of rainwater comes from the natural
presence of three substances (CO2, NO, and SO2)
found in the troposphere (the lowest layer of the
atmosphere).
Table I: carbon dioxide (CO2) has the greatest
concentration, thus has the most influence to the
rainwater acidity (1)
Carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid
(Equation 1). As Carbonic acid (H2CO3 ) is relatively weak
acid, the acid dissociates to give hydrogen ion (H+) and (2)
hydrogen carbonate ion (HCO3-) (Equation 2). The
H+ lowers the pH of a solution.
Nitric oxide (NO), which also contributes to the natural acidity of rainwater, is
formed during lightning storms by the reaction of nitrogen and oxygen, two common
atmospheric gases (Equation 3).
In air, NO is oxidized to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (Equation 4), which in turn reacts
with water to give nitric acid (HNO3) (Equation 5).
This acid dissociates in water to yield hydrogen ions and nitrate ions (NO3-) in a
reaction analagous to the dissociation of carbonic acid shown in Equation 2, again
lowering the pH of the solution.
(3)

(4)

(5)
 Diamonds, fossil fuels, human bodies all
consist of or contain carbon.

WHAT IS CARBON?
Carbon is a chemical element, like hydrogen, oxygen, lead or any of the
others in the periodic table.
Carbon (from Latin: carbo "coal") is a chemical element with symbol C and
atomic number 6
Carbon is a very abundant element. It exists in pure or nearly pure forms
such as diamonds and graphite but can also combine with other elements to
form molecules.
These carbon-based molecules are the basic building blocks of humans,
animals, plants, trees and soils.
Some greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and methane, also consist of carbon-
based molecules, as do fossil fuels, which are largely made up of
hydrocarbons (molecules consisting of hydrogen and carbon)
All living things on earth contain carbon. Even you contain carbon. Lots of it. If you weigh
100 pounds, 18 pounds of you is pure carbon! And plants are almost half carbon!

You are 18 percent carbon. Plants are 45 percent carbon.

THE CARBON CYCLE
The carbon cycle is the process in which carbon is emitted and recycled throughout the
hydrosphere (the oceans and the organisms living in it), biosphere (land and the organisms
living on it), lithosphere (the crust of the earth) and atmosphere.

Carbon is necessary for life, but too much carbon in the atmosphere in the form of carbon
dioxide amplifies the greenhouse effect and chemical weathering processes.
Understanding the carbon cycle allows engineers to decide where to place vegetation and
how to protect infrastructures from acid rain.
A smart city will be energy efficient and have infrastructures in place to reduce the amount
of carbon released into the air.
ACID RAIN
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it
possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH).
It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals and infrastructure.
Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with the
water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids.
In the gas phase sulfur dioxide is oxidized by reaction with the hydroxyl radical via an
intermolecular reaction:
The principal cause of acid rain is sulfur and nitrogen compounds
SO2 + OH HOSO2
from human sources, such as electricity generation, factories, and
which is followed by: motor vehicles with electrical power generation using coal being
HOSO2 + O2 HO2 + SO3 the greatest contributors

In the presence of water, sulfur trioxide (SO3) is converted rapidly to sulfuric acid:
SO3 (g) + H2O (l) H2SO4 (aq)
Nitrogen dioxide reacts with OH to form nitric acid:
NO2 + OH HNO3
The coal-fired
The chemicals in acid rain can cause paint to peel, corrosion of steel structures such as Gavin Power Plant
bridges, and weathering of stone buildings and statues. in Cheshire, Ohio
Carbonic acid formed from the reaction of water with carbon dioxide can rust and
corrode steel; therefore it is important for the structural engineer to galvanize and
paint steel to mitigate rusting.
The use of fossil fuels increasingly transfers carbon from the other spheres to the
atmosphere, and as a consequence global warming is increasing. This problem calls
for an infrastructure that is energy efficient, carbon neutral and sustainable.
Photosynthesizing organisms consume carbon from the atmosphere, while microbes
and other organisms release it into the atmosphere.
Burning fossil fuels contributes carbon to the atmosphere.
IN CLASS-EXERCISE
USING THE FOLLOWING FACTS, SKETCH A DIAGRAM TO
EXPLAIN THE CARBON CYCLE
One of the biggest reservoirs of carbon is the atmosphere, which is about 0.038%
carbon dioxide. There are two ways for carbon to be removed from the atmosphere.
The first is through photosynthesis, where plants take in CO2, water and sunlight to
create sugars for energy and oxygen gas emerges as a by-product. Once inside
plants, carbon moves through food chains, where organisms become nutrients including
herbivores, carnivores and ultimately, decomposers. Through living organisms, carbon
is either re-released back into the atmosphere through respiration (where organisms
use oxygen to generate energy from nutrients and produce carbon dioxide as waste),
released by combustion (the process of burning something) or broken down into the
soil as part of the organism's body. Once buried in the soil, carbon can be converted
into fossil fuels over long periods of time and then also reenter the atmosphere by
combustion.
If carbon from the atmosphere does not enter a terrestrial (or land) plant by
photosynthesis, it can dissolve in the ocean. Here it can be taken up by marine plants
through photosynthesis - just like in land plants - or it can be incorporated into
sediments. Marine organisms can also take up dissolved carbon molecules and use
that along with calcium in the seawater to make calcium carbonate, which is a major
component of the shells and skeletons of marine organisms.

When these organisms die, their shells and bones settle to the bottom of the ocean,
where they can be covered up and remain for long periods of time. Under great
pressure from the water and sediment, these shells break down and form limestone
rock.
Limestone is the largest storage reservoir of carbon on the earth. Once formed into
limestone, carbon usually stays locked in the rock. However, it can also dissolve very
slowly to be released as carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, or, if the
limestone is exposed to weathering and dissolved by acid rain, be released as
carbon dioxide. This completes the cycle, returning all carbon back to the
atmosphere where it began. So, following this line of thinking, the carbon molecules
that are in our body have been cycling on the earth since it was formed and will
continue to do so as we exhale each breath, returning CO2 back to the atmosphere
http://online.wvu.edu/Faculty/demo/Module_2/carbon_cycle_animation.html
WHAT IS NITROGEN
Nitrogen is a chemical element with symbol N and atomic number 7
It is the lightest chemical element in the periodic table and at room
temperature, it is a transparent, odorless diatomic* gas.
The element forms about 78% of Earth's atmosphere and is the most
abundant uncombined element.
Many industrially important compounds, such as ammonia, nitric acid, organic
nitrates (propellants and explosives), and cyanides, contain nitrogen.

*Diatomic molecules are molecules composed of only two atoms, of either the same or different chemical
elements e.g. H2, O2, CO.
Synthetically produced ammonia and nitrates are key industrial fertilizers,
and fertilizer nitrates are key pollutants in the eutrophication of water systems.
Nitrogen occurs in all organisms, primarily in amino acids (and thus proteins),
in the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and in the energy transfer
molecule adenosine triphosphate.
The human body contains about 3% by mass of nitrogen, the fourth most
abundant element in the body after oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen.
IN CLASS-EXERCISE
USING THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE, ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS:
Subtitle: A natural history of Nitrogen
1. What are the different forms of nitrogen?
2. What is the role of lightning in the nitrogen cycle?

Subtitle: Human Sources of Reactive Nitrogen

1. What human activities contributes to reactive nitrogen and by how much?
The extremely strong triple bond in elemental nitrogen (NN) dominates
nitrogen chemistry, causing difficulty for both organisms and industry in
converting the N2 into useful compounds.
Nitrogen is very unreactive with other elements, and it cannot be used
directly as a nutrient by plants and animals the way oxygen or carbon can.
However, nitrogen can be converted into forms usable by plants and animals
either by lightning or bacteria.
BIOLOGICAL CONVERSION OF AMMONIA TO NITROGEN GAS
Ammonium must first be oxidized to nitrate; called nitrification. Requires
oxygen

Nitrate is then reduced to nitrogen gas; called denitrification. No oxygen

NITROGEN CYCLE
The nitrogen cycle describes the processes by which atmospheric and environmental
nitrogen is converted into organic nitrogen, that can be used and recycled by living
organisms.
Once converted to usable forms, nitrogen is able to cycle the rest of the way
through the ecosystem.
Based on this Figure, with examples, explain the Nitrogen Cycle
Almost all of the nitrogen found in any terrestrial ecosystem originally came from
the atmosphere.
Significant amounts enter the soil in rainfall or through the effects of lightning.
Despite its abundance in the atmosphere, nitrogen is often the most limiting nutrient
for plant growth. This problem occurs because most plants can only take up nitrogen
in two solid forms: ammonium ion (NH4+ ) and the ion nitrate (NO3- ).
Most plants obtain the nitrogen they need as inorganic nitrate from the soil solution.
Ammonium is used less by plants for uptake because in large concentrations it is
extremely toxic.
Animals receive the required nitrogen they need for metabolism, growth, and
reproduction by the consumption of living or dead organic matter containing
molecules composed partially of nitrogen.
This organic nitrogen in living and dead organic matter is converted into inorganic
forms when it re-enters the biogeochemical cycle via decomposition.
Decomposers, found in the upper soil layer, chemically modify the nitrogen found in
organic matter from ammonia (NH3 ) to ammonium salts (NH4+ ).
This process is known as mineralization and it is carried out by a variety of bacteria,
actinomycetes, and fungi.
Nitrogen in the form of ammonium can be absorbed onto the surfaces of clay
particles in the soil.
The ion of ammonium has a positive molecular charge is normally held by soil
colloids. This process is sometimes called micelle fixation
Ammonium is released from the colloids by way of cation exchange. When
released, most of the ammonium is often chemically altered by a specific type of
autotrophic bacteria (bacteria that belong to the genus Nitrosomonas) into nitrite
(NO2- ).
Further modification by another type of bacteria (belonging to the genus
Nitrobacter) converts the nitrite to nitrate (NO3- ). Both of these processes involve
chemical oxidation and are known as nitrification.
However, nitrate is very soluble and it is easily lost from the soil system by leaching.
Some of this leached nitrate flows through the hydrologic system until it reaches the
oceans where it can be returned to the atmosphere by denitrification.
Denitrification is also common in anaerobic soils and is carried out by heterotrophic
bacteria. The process of denitrification involves the metabolic reduction of nitrate
(NO3- ) into nitrogen (N2) or nitrous oxide (N2O) gas. Both of these gases then
diffuse into the atmosphere.
The activities of humans have severely altered the nitrogen cycle. Some of the major processes
involved in this alteration include:
The application of nitrogen fertilizers to crops has caused increased rates of denitrification and
leaching of nitrate into groundwater. The additional nitrogen entering the groundwater system
eventually flows into streams, rivers, lakes, and estuaries. In these systems, the added nitrogen can
lead to eutrophication.

Increased deposition of nitrogen from atmospheric sources because of fossil fuel combustion and
forest burning. Both of these processes release a variety of solid forms of nitrogen through
combustion.
Livestock ranching. Livestock release a large amounts of ammonia into the environment from their
wastes. This nitrogen enters the soil system and then the hydrologic system through leaching,
groundwater flow, and runoff.
Sewage waste and septic tank leaching.
Thank you