PrakritiA PRESENTATION

ON CHANGING THE DIMENSIONS OF THE WORLD SCENARIO

BY S ABISHEK KUMAR KIIT UNIVERSITYCSE 2nd year

STAY GREENSPREAD GREEN

“I rant and rave about noise pollution”. Robert Carlyle 

IDEOLOGY

Conceive Develop Test Implement

Title:

Highlighting on the idea on how to initialize cost-effective solutions regarding air and water pollution.

Read GloballySPREAD GLOBALLY

Abstract:a. Objectives: Resisting pollution growth Startups of awareness among the people Planning up “green earth” driveb. Beneficiaries: For whole human kind c. Value of results: Use of Biomass energy storehouse in villages Use of catalytic convertors Introduction of bio-fuels Harnessing energy from renewable sources of energy Making judicious use of waste materials Setting up of more cost effective water purifier plants Awareness among the people with the help of Medical Science or any other. As already observed Govt. of India have already been doing a lot in this case ,so it’s now our time to step forward and rise.

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND

ENGINEERING

POLLUTION

INTEREST IN

REDUCTIO

N

Research in PUBLIC SECTOR

My Profile

Particle pollution (also called particulate matter or PM) is the term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particles, such as dust, dirt, soot, or smoke, are large or dark enough to be seen with the naked eye. Others are so small they can only be detected using an electron microscope.

Baiscs : Let’s see what we have to say for this

Particle pollution includes "inhalable coarse particles," with diameters larger than 2.5 micrometers and smaller than 10 micrometers and "fine particles," with diameters that are 2.5 micrometers and smaller. How small is 2.5 micrometers? Think about a single hair from your head. The average human hair is about 70 micrometers in diameter – making it 30 times larger than the largest fine particle.

These particles come in many sizes and shapes and can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals. Some particles, known as primary particles are emitted directly from a source, such as construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, smokestacks or fires. Others form in complicated reactions in the atmosphere of chemicals such as sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides that are emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles. These particles, known as secondary particles, make up most of the fine particle pollution in the country.

EPA regulates inhalable particles (fine and coarse). Particles larger than 10 micrometers (sand and large dust) are not regulated by EPA. • Health: Particle pollution contains microscopic

solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can get deep into the lungs and cause serious health problems. The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems. Small particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter pose the greatest problems, because they can get deep into your lungs, and some may even get into your bloodstream. 

• Visibility: Fine particles (PM2.5) are the main cause of reduced visibility (haze) in parts of the United States, including many of our treasured national parks and wilderness areas. 

• Reducing particle pollution: EPA’s national and regional rules to reduce emissions of pollutants that form particle pollution will help state and local governments meet the Agency’s national air quality standards.

“I would like nuclear fusion to become a practical power source. It would provide an inexhaustible supply of energy, without pollution or global warming”. Stephen Hawking 

Approximately 50% of the world’s population and the Damodar River. It had population of 492,996 in which up to 90 % of rural household use biomass fuels as a domestic source of energy in the form of wood, crop residues and animal dung (Census 2001). Average temperature during summer session is 32°C while at the cold seasons is 20°C. The maximum temperature during summer rises up to 50°C Cooking and heating with such solid fuels is the major source of indoor air pollution while minimum temperature during winter comes down to 2°C and pollution levels that exceed the allowable standard limits in developing countries. Average rain fall is 150 millimeters with the bulk of a rainfall occurring around the July-September period. Sulphur dioxide is a recognized pollutant because of its role in forming cold Various types of solid fuels like wood, dry leaf, coal, cow time smog. It is acidic, irritant gas which in high dung and carbon cake were used by the people of two concentrations can cause difficulties . People with target areas. Cooking is thus only source of biomass fuel asthma are more susceptible to the adverse effects of the pollutants exposure to the people. A a result these gases at high concentrations may result in the fail of lung function in asthmatics and may lead to tight chest, also established relationship between biomass fuel used number of room, whether kitchen room separated from and respiratory disease. bedroom etc.

air pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths each year. Emissions from road transportation are the most significant contributor, causing 53,000 premature deaths, followed closely by power generation, with 52,000.

Chulhas in villages or pollution by car exhaust or be it water contamination: What to do? Idea!! i. To make the people feel by experience and make them feel that what they are upto for a long time is not in favor of their own will by bringing to them visual means of real stories of the cases which already took place anywhere else . It will be somewhat useful because in case of Govt. of India they have been providing all facilities to get them rid of the specific type, which those people who are not able to update themselves regarding the still prevailing customs of the villages how will they accommodate to this? So, what I think should be done is to make them realize by threat of their own real life example. Frankly in cities the Drives for cleanliness may help to direct 56% along with it but not in villages. It may feel really hard of it but a trial can be entertained upon.

WE Got an IDEA

In case of cities the drives do work, hence not a big messy problem out here. But the thing why I am always focusing on the word of getting the voice to the mind of the people is because till the people understand the whole cause, the problem is solved. What we have to do- Is to get into the minds of the people by any means: May be through their children by giving them education on the best part of cleanliness. Else by taking the help of media drive as in case of repeating a news 3-4 times on the screen they can feature it on the people for minutes or two. Rather to be done by featuring these types of records in form of cartoons even. Though many ways are there to improve upon. We have still a long way to go.

Roughly 60 percent of Americans live in areas where air pollution has reached unhealthy levels that can make people sick, suggests the 2009 State of the Air report released today by the American Lung Association. The 2009 report was based on data collected at some 900 monitoring sites across the country during a three-year period from 2005 through 2007. Researchers measured the air quality of different areas using three criteria -- long-term particle pollution, short-term particle pollution and ozone concentration. All three forms of pollution have been shown to have negative health effects. And according to the report, "air pollution remains widespread and dangerous" with nearly every major city burdened by some type of pollution from either ozone or particle pollution. The rankings even included a few surprising locations that now have dirty air and were previously considered pristine.

What’s in real?

Pittsburgh and Bakersfield, Calif., had the most particle pollution -- a mix of tiny specks of soot, dust, ash, and aerosols in the air. Meanwhile, Los Angeles topped the ozone rankings-- a dubious distinction that means that it could well be the smoggiest place in the country. Cities and counties from coast to coast were ranked numerically based on their air pollution levels and these same communities were also graded A through F in a national air quality "report card." The findings suggest that despite a growing "green" movement in the United States, the air you breathe can put your health at risk. Air Not as Clean as It Seems A lot of Americans feel comfortable about air pollution, and we often think that it's a problem in a few well-known places, said Dr. Norman H. Edelman, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association. "This report suggests that some places we consider clean are not," he said.

Two locations in Utah, for example, earned listings among the top polluted cities. "Everyone assumes that Salt Lake City must be a clean place, but it's not -- it's counterintuitive," suggested Edelman. Salt Lake City ranked sixth nationwide in a listing of cities most polluted by short-term particle pollution, and its neighbor to the north, Logan, Utah, came in at the number eight spot Pittsburgh topped the list of cities most polluted by short- term exposure to particles. It's still a dangerous city for particulate pollution, pointed out Edelman. "This catches my eye because we ordinarily think they've cleaned up their act," he said. Where Pollution Is at Its Peak Three California spots -- Fresno, Bakersfield and Los Angeles -- ranked second, third and fourth in the nation for short-term particle pollution, while Birmingham, Ala., came in fifth.

Communities ranking high on this list have short-term spikes in particle pollution that can last anywhere from a few hours to several days. And it's these short-term spikes that increase the number of emergency room visits for asthma and other respiratory diseases, along with upping the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and early death among residents. The sources of particle pollution can range from woodstoves and diesel trucks to coal-fired power plants and heavy highway traffic -- to name a few. And while particle pollutants come in different sizes, the ones that do the most damage are the extremely tiny ultrafine particles.

Mercury contamination: Mining of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada took place largely between 1860 and 1895. Gold and silver were extracted from the ores using the mercury amalgamation process. Amalgamation is the alloying and collection of fine gold- silver particles in puddles, droplets, or coatings of mercury. The mercury is then collected and heated (evaporated) away from the precious metals and recondensed in a retort for reuse. Some loss of mercury (and precious metals) is attendant in the many steps in this metallurgical process. Amalgamation milling of Comstock gold-silver ores took place within the watershed of the Carson River. Approximately 15 million pounds of mercury (NBMG Bulletin 41) were lost to the Carson River drainage system in the milling of ore containing 8 million ounces of gold and 192 million ounces of silver (NBMG Bulletin 70). It is estimated that 3 million ounces of gold and 64 million ounces of silver were also lost. These tremendous amounts of mercury, gold, and silver now reside in mill tailings and the channel sediments and flood plain deposits of the Carson River, largely along the 70 mile stretch between Carson City and Fallon, Nevada. As many as 200 mills may have processed Comstock ore at one time or another within the Carson and Truckee River watersheds.

Although most milling was done in Six Mile Canyon and along the banks of the Carson River, some Comstock ore was shipped to mills in Washoe Valley. Preliminary data show some mercury contamination in Washoe Lake (now dry) and Little Washoe Lake sediments. These lakes drain into the Truckee River. Concentrations of 200-300 ppb total mercury are common in the upper 30-40 cm of lake sediments in the center of Washoe Lake. Closer to the edges of the playa 100-150 ppb total mercury is more common. At the north end of Little Washoe Lake 2-14 ppm mercury is found in the subsurface lake muds. Some mercury has been flushed out of Little Washoe Lake and into a pond located north of Washoe Hill in Pleasant Valley, and beyond. Because of the substantial amount of silver sulfide (Ag2S, the mineral acanthite) which was present in the Comstock ores a variation of the conventional amalgamation process was used. This process, called the Mexican Patio Process, included the addition of sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt) to enhance the recovery of silver. Because of the water soluble nature of HgCl2 (mercuric chloride) this addition of sodium chloride may have converted some of the elemental mercury to the water soluble form, contributing to the dispersion of mercury to the river systems. In Washoe Lake samples a general correlation of higher water soluble mercury with high chloride content suggests conversion of a portion of the original native

mercury to HgCl2. No relationship of total or leachable mercury to organic content of the samples has been observed. One method of assessing which of the many mill tailings piles contain the highest levels of mercury is to measure the relative quantity of mercury vapor being emitted by each dump. A very simple method of collecting mercury vapor above the dumps is to suspend a piece of silver foil or wire inside an inverted plastic funnel partially buried in the dump material. Soil gas is allowed to flow past the foil for a specific period of time (24 hours is sufficient); mercury vapor is alloyed to the foil and fixed for later analysis. The foils are then placed inside a graphite furnace which is attached to an atomic absorption spectrometer, the tube is heated, and the evolved mercury is quantified. The analysis takes approximately 15 seconds and results are reported as nanograms of mercury per square meter of ground per day (ng/ml/day). This type of vapor sampling probably underestimates the actual concentrations. Results of mercury vapor sampling indicate that the south end of Washoe Lake is emitting approximately twice as much mercury vapor from the playa surface as from more central areas farther to the north, possibly due to generally drier sediments to the south. Mercury vapor fluxes of 7-15 ng/ml/day have been recorded. Highest mercury vapor fluxes have been recorded from mill tailings in Six Mile Canyon (47-138 ng/ml/day) and at a contaminated site along the Carson River near Dayton (526 ng/ml/day).

The Carson River has been designated a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency because of the huge amounts of contained mercury. Possible remediation scenarios include recovery of gold and silver to help defray the cost of the mercury cleanup. Preliminary data indicate that mercury, gold, and silver are not limited to the Carson River channel but were also deposited in the overbank sediments during flooding. Ore grade concentrations of gold and silver are present in some of the mill tailings along Six Mile Canyon and the Carson River. Mercury/gold ratios are not constant in Carson River sediments; our data indicate variations from 8 to 313. Higher ratios tend to occur downstream, farther from the source mills. Mercury in samples with relatively high gold values (up to 2.7 ppm by weight) and low to moderate mercury/gold ratios is most likely contained in amalgam particles. Because various geochemical processes would be expected to preferentially dissolve mercury and silver from the amalgam particles, mercury in downstream samples with relatively high mercury/gold ratios is probably not contained primarily in amalgam particles; it may be adsorbed onto clays, iron hydroxides, or organic constituents in the sediments.

Sediments from Lahontan Reservoir have up to 100 ppm (by weight) of mercury, up to 300 ppb of gold, and up to 20 ppm of silver. Mercury vapor is being emitted from the surface of the reservoir, much of which is now dry. Concentrations in the range of 5 to 40 ng /ml/day have been detected at various localities.

“It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it”. Dan Quayle 

Wrapping up!!“There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all”. Robert Orben 

The water quality of Lake Kasumigaura had been deteriorating since 1966, in the COD (chemical oxygen demand), which was an index of pollution, it rose to 6.2-7.3mg/L for 1972-1977 years, and it rose to 10mg/L or more in 1978-1979 though they were 4-5 mg/L before 1966. COD is recovered to 6.8mg/L in 1991, but the tendency of deterioration is shown to 7.4 mg/L in 1992, and 8.2 mg/L in 1993.In this lake environment to which such eutrophication proceeded, we monthly measured the amount of total organic carbon that is index often used in recent years, and the estrogenicity of lake water from 13 sites in L. Kasumigaura (L. Nishiura) from April to October in 2001 and 2002 by using yeast Two-Hybrid Assay method. In several sites, the TOC during summer was higher than 5 mg/L, which the value was the standard of water purity, but the esterogenicity in most sites was less than the limit of detection (0.1 ng/L) throughout the survey and the highest value was 0.89 ng/L. This value was lower than the effective concentration in teleosts such as Japanese medaka (8 ng/L as E2 exposure), suggesting that the influence on the ecosystem with the estrogen-like chemicals is low in L. Kasumigaura.

Current Status

Fresh water mud snail Sinotaia quadrata histrica is one of the most dominant snails in shallow water of Lake Kasumigaura. This species is a viviparous fresh water gastropoda distributing in eutrophic environment. In 2001 and 2002, the ecological surveys were conducted in the coastal area of Lake Kasumigaura, and it was found that sex ratio is biased to female (53-60%). Especially, female proportion increased from June to August. In the result on growth, it was found that collected female is relatively larger than male. In the results of reproduction, gonad-somatic index (GSI) increased from May to June and decreased from July to August, and the appearance of blacken or spotted testis were corresponded with the decreasing period of GSI. Taken from these results, it is suggested that the larger female proportion is related to the habitat utilization such as the spawning in shallow water, and the size difference of both sex may be related with the difference of life span between female and male. Further study may be necessary so that we are doing the continuous survey of this species. 

Tokyo Bay, which is known as one of the most polluted enclosed coastal seas in the world, has area of 980km2, average water depth of 15m, residential time of 1.6 month, and population of more than 30 million in its watershed. The goals of this study are (1) to investigate the distribution, behavior, seasonal change, and historical trend of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the aquatic environment in Tokyo Bay, and (2) to evaluate the adverse effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on reproductive health of marine organisms and aquatic ecosystems in the bay. The sampling surveys started from December 2002, have been performed 4 times a year (seasonally) at 20 stations in Tokyo Bay. In the surveys, seawater (surface and bottom layer), bottom sediment, and marine organisms are collected using GO-FLO water sampler, Smith-McIntyre grab sampler, and trawl net, respectively. The estrogenic activity in water sample is estimated using recombinant yeast two-hybrid assay. Concentrations of 17β-estradiol (E2) and estrone (E1) are determined using ELISA. Some of phenolic endocrine disrupting chemicals, 4-nonylphenol (NP), 4-t-octylphenol (OP), and bisphenol A (BPA), and nonionic surfactant, nonylphenol polyethoxylates (NPEO), in seawater and sediment are analyzed by GC-ion trap-MS/MS or LC-MS/MS. The estrogenic activity in surface seawater was higher in northern part of the bay, which was detected at 19 of 20 stations in May 2003 (max 1.4 ng/L as E2 concentration at st-3). It was suggested that the contribution of steroid estrogens predominated in estrogenicity of seawater taken from Tokyo Bay, because the concentrations of estradiol detected by ELISA were closely correlated with estrogenic activity measured by yeast assay. On the other hand, concentrations of phenolic endocrine disrupting chemicals were also higher in northern part of the bay, and decreased toward the mouth of the bay. The distribution of nonylphenol in surface seawater in Tokyo Bay (May 2003). The similar trend was observed in sediment. Concentrations of nonylphenol in seawater were high in summer.

Using technologies based on photocatalytic production of hydrogen, FSEC researchers developed processes for the photocatalytic destruction of airborne pollutants. This work began when FSEC researchers showed that ultraviolet light and semiconductors in a photocatalytic process could completely mineralize pollutants to the oxides of their constitute elements, thus purifying air contaminated with hazardous chemicals. The resulting pollution control process use a FSEC patent which immobilizes a semiconductor catalyst on any surface and required specialized chemical engineering reactor designs.

In conducting this $2 million, seven-year research project, FSEC researchers conceived, tested and produced a state-of-the-art photocatalytic air pollution control technology that resulted in thirteen patents for its unique photoreactor design concepts.

Prototype formed…

The U.S. Navy, Army and Department of Defense have used the patented process to deal with toxic air pollutants (volatile organic compounds) emitted during various defense operations. The process was first applied in a Navy project located at the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), in Indian Head, MD. Following bench-scale tests at FSEC, staff constructed a bench-scale prototype air-purification system and delivered it to the NSWC for testing. FSEC then fabricated and tested a larger-scale system that treated 50 standard cubic feet per minute (SCFM) of contaminated air. These tests resulted in design parameters for a full-scale photocatalytic air-purification system installed and operated by the Navy at NSWC.

Trojan Technologies built the full-scale, 650 standard cubic foot per minute (SCFM) photoreactor according to FSEC's design. The unit employed a unique design and titanium-based photocatalytic cartridges activated by ultraviolet (UV) radiation from low-pressure mercury lamps. This photo-process featured a decoupled, single-pass flow feature, making it cost-effective and energy-efficient, while allowing it to operate at low temperatures. The full-scale unit was completed in 1999 and delivered to the Indian Head facility, where it underwent testing

Crude oil contains sulfur, typically on the order of 4% by weight, in the form of thiols, thiophenes, and other sulfur-containing organic compounds. In addition, sour gas clean-up at natural gas wells also contains sulfur. The sulfur must be removed before the oil or natural gas can be distributed throughout the petrochemical industry. By hydrotreating at the refinery, the sulfur is converted into the gaseous state as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a noxious and toxic gas. Environmental regulations require that the by-product H2S be dealt with onsite. Considerable effort must then be directed toward treatment of this by-product. Current technology typically involves a solvent absorption/stripping process to separate the acid gases and a Claus reactor to perform a partial oxidation of the sulfide to make sulfur and water. Finally, a tertiary treatment is applied to produce another hundred-fold reduction in H2S concentration.

A second technology development involved the tail gases from electric utility plants and a tail gas sulfur recovery process. In this research and resulting control process, the hydrogen sulfide is absorbed into an alkaline solution and then decomposed using a solar photochemical reaction to yield both sulfur and hydrogen. The process uses catalyst-modified semiconductor particulates to facilitate the reaction. The project was also funded by Gulf Coast Hazardous Substance Research Center and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hope you may like it…

Thank You