EGEE 102 Lesson 4 Review
--coal and we also talked about what they are made up of-- primarily carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
sulfur, and other minerals. And we need to know what forms when these carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, sulfur, and other minerals burn. And their primary combustion products. Primary
combustion products are basically what forms when an element reacts with oxygen. So primary
products of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and water, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, and lead, when we used to use unleaded gasoline.
And you also need to know how each of these are forming. Like carbon dioxide, how does it
form? Carbon monoxide, when does it form? How does it form? And which are the sources that
emit most of these carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, et cetera, et cetera.
Secondary pollutants and difference between primary and secondary pollutants. OK, you must be
careful about that. Secondary pollutant is a pollutant that forms after primary pollutants are
released and they react amongst themselves or something in the atmosphere, and forms
secondary pollutants. And similarly, particulate matter-- what sizes they form, how they form,
when they form, et cetera.
And you also need to know the health and environmental effects of each of these pollutants like
CO2, CO, SO2, et cetera. All these pollutants, health and environmental, what concentrations-and you don't have to remember the numbers or anything, but how does it affect us? And which
are the sources that emit these things, as I said.
And particulate matter is PM, and it is classified based on size. And which size particles-- how
they're classified-- which size are most dangerous. As you can see, intermediate-sized particles
are the most dangerous one between 0.1 micron and 2.0 microns in size.
And also, the regional effects of these particles we need to concentrate on-- global and regional
effects. For example, CO2 causes global warming or sort of global climate change, and SO2 and
NOx cause acid rain, et cetera, et cetera.
All right, and greenhouse effect, what is it, basically? What is greenhouse effect-- definition or
precisely what happens? And which of the gases that contribute to greenhouse effect? These are
the gases that contribute to greenhouse effect, you need to know these. And some of these gases
are more powerful than the others, so you need to understand what is global warming potential,
or GWP.
And you need to go through the textbook or your notes about CO2 and temperature profiles-how they changed in the past 150 years and even before that. And what are the reasons for those
changes? And as we talked about in the textbook, basically what is responsible for these kinds of
changes? And preindustrial concentration and concentration right now, what it is and reasons for
concern. And you also have to think about natural causes. Some people argue that it is happening
naturally, so you need to know what are the arguments that are made for natural as well as
human-made changes.
Global warming, what is it? And difference between greenhouse effect and global warming, and
factors affecting global climate change. What happens? What happens when global climate
changes? Global temperature changes? And sea level changes? And polar ice caps melt? And
precipitation levels change? Precipitation generally increases because there's more cloud cover.
And also, what is for certain? What is not certain? And feedbacks-- feedbacks are like when lowlevel clouds form, it can reflect the sunlight, actually, increase the fraction of sunlight that can
penetrate through thick clouds. And so the planet might be cooling down. And if the higher-level
clouds form, it may be warming up. So those are the things that we don't know yet completely,
know what kind of clouds form. So uncertainties and certainties-- for example, the great ocean
belt conveyor phenomenon and so on, and so forth.
And you also need to know what you can do to reduce potential global warming-- individual
steps. When I say individual steps, you need to really know which gas, by which step which gas
is reduced-- not just list those five steps or six steps that you know of. Drive less, that's not an
answer. By driving less, I'm going to produce less CO2, because gasoline when burned produces
CO2, kind of thing. You know you have to go to the reasoning part.
And acid rain and ozone. Acid rain and ozone, how they form, basic chemistry you need to
understand. Basic You don't have to write balanced equations, but what goes into it, and under
what conditions these things form. And the gases that are responsible and conditions under
which these things form.
The difference between wet deposition, dry deposition, and how we measure acid rain on a pH
scale. What is acid? What is base-- alkaline or basic? How we measure pH? And also the effects
of these acid rain on various things. Effects on human health-- when we breathe SO2, NOx, what
happens? What happens, when acid rain falls on soils, to vegetation and aquatic life?
For example, fish cannot survive at lower pHs. And so different species. And effects of visibility,
because acid rain components can form fine particulates which can reduce visibility. And
different materials that we care about, like monuments, et cetera, statues, et cetera. You need to
understand those differences.
And ozone. Ozone-- basically two types, good ozone and bad ozone. So you need to understand
why this is called good ozone, why this is called bad ozone. This good ozone shields us from UV
light, and because it's far away in the stratosphere-- and this should be stratosphere, not
troposphere here.
And ground-level ozone. Ground-level ozone is formed by NOx and VOCs reacting in presence
of sunlight. And why we call this bad ozone, why we call this good ozone, and ozone hole, what
is it? Is this really a hole? Or what is that ozone hole? Why we call that ozone hole. When the
concentration goes down below a certain level it cannot shield us from the UV rays that are
coming from the sun, so we call that an ozone hole. And how we are destroying that ozone and
causing depletion of ozone, and causing the problem of more UV rays coming in.
And also you need to understand, at the ground level, how the ground-level ozone is forming and
turns into photochemical smog. Basic chemistry, what are the reactants that are going in. You
don't have to actually balance the reactions or anything, but you need to understand the
conditions and what are the reactants that are involved in it. And health and environmental
effects. For example, ground-level ozone can cause human health problems, and also it can
cause--