Skip to main content

Environmental Chemistry

 Hello readers! 

I hope you all doing well. Today we will discuss something about environmental chemistry. 


The environment is defined as consisting of five spheres: the hydrosphere, the atmo- sphere, the geosphere, the biosphere, and the anthrosphere; that is, water, air, the Earth, life, and those parts of the environment consisting of human constructs and activities. The chemistry of the environment, environmental chemistry, may be defined as the study of the sources, reactions, trans- port, effects, and fates of chemical species in the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, the geosphere, and the anthrosphere and the effects of human activities thereon. The pollutant sulfur dioxide is generated during the combustion of sulfur in coal, transported to the atmosphere with flue gas, and oxidized by chemical and photochemical processes to sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid, in turn, falls as acidic precipitation, where it may have detrimental effects such as toxic effects on trees and other plants. Eventually, sulfuric acid is carried by stream runoff to a lake or ocean where its ultimate fate is to be stored in solution in the water or precipitated as solid sulfates.



Environmental chemistry is complicated by the continuous and variable interchange of chemical species among various environmental spheres. The sulfur in coal is taken from the geosphere, converted to gaseous sulfur dioxide by an anthrospheric process (combustion), transported and undergoes chemical reactions in the atmo- sphere, may affect plants in the biosphere, and ends up in a sink in the hydrosphere or back in the geosphere. Throughout this sequence, sulfur takes on several forms including organically bound sulfur or pyrite (FeS,) in coal, sulfur dioxide produced in the combustion of coal, sulfuric acid pro- duced by the oxidation of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere, and sulfate salts produced from sulfuric acid when it reaches the geosphere. Throughout an environmental system there are variations in temperature, mixing, intensity of solar radiation, input of materials, and various other factors that strongly influence chemical conditions and behavior. Because of its complexity, environmental chemistry must be approached with simplified models.


Green chemistry, the practice of chemical science and technology in a nonpolluting, safe, and sustainable manner, and industrial ecology, which treats industrial systems in a manner analogous to natural ecosystems. Environmental chemistry has a strong connection to both of these disciplines. A major goal of green chemistry is to avoid environmental pollution, an endeavor that requires knowledge of environmental chemistry. The design of an integrated system of industrial ecology must consider the principles and processes of environmental chemistry. Environmental chemistry must be considered in the extraction of materials from the geosphere and other environmental spheres to provide the materials required byindustrial systems in a manner consistent with minimum environmental impact. The facilities and processes of an industrial ecology system can be sited and operated for minimal adverse environmen- tal impact if environmental chemistry is considered in their planning and operation. Environmental chemistry clearly points the way to minimize the environmental impacts of the emissions and by-product of industrial systems, and is very helpful in reaching the ultimate goal of a system of industrial ecology, which is to reduce these emissions and by-products to zero.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Carbon Cycle

CARBON CYCLE: Carbon circulates through the carbon cycle. It shows that carbon may be pres- ent as gaseous atmospheric CO2 constituting a relatively small but highly significant portion of global carbon. Some of the carbon is dissolved in surface water and groundwater as HCO-3 or molecular CO2 (aq). A very large amount of carbon is present in minerals, particularly magnesium and calcium carbonates such as CaCO3. Photosynthesis fixes inorganic C as biological carbon. represented as (CH2O), which is a constituent of all life molecules. Another fraction of carbon is fixed as petroleum and natural gas, with a much larger amount as hydrocarbonaceous kerogen (the organic matter in oil shale), coal, and lignite. Manufacturing processes are used to convert hydro- carbons to xenobiotic compounds with functional groups containing halogens, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, or sulfur. Although a very small amount of total environmental carbon, these com- pounds are particularly significant because of...

Chemical species

  Hello! Welcome to my blog. Today we will discuss about chemical species. lets start. If one  molecule  is identical to another, we can say they are the same chemical species. Ion: It is an atom or group of atoms having a charge on it. The charge may be positive or negative.  There are two types of ions:       Cations: An atom or group of atoms having positive charge on it is called cation. They are formed when atoms lose electron from their valance shells. Examples:   Ca 2+   Ag +    Al 3+     H 3 O +     NH 4 +     Hg 2 +2      Fe +2     Fe  +3        Anions: An atom or group of atoms having negative charge on it is called anion. They are formed by gain or addition of electron to an atom. Examples: Cl –    OH –      I –     Cr 2 O 7 -2     O -2      SO ...

Cycles of Matter

 Very much connected with environmental chemistry, cycles of matter, often based on elemental cycles, are of utmost importance in the environment. Global geochemical cycles can be regarded from the viewpoint of various reservoirs, such as oceans, sediments, and the atmosphere, connected by conduits through which matter moves continuously among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geo- sphere, biosphere, and, increasingly, the anthrosphere. The movement of a specific kind of matter between two particular reservoirs may be reversible or irreversible. The fluxes of movement for particular kinds of matter vary greatly as do the contents of such matter in a specified reservoir. Most cycles of matter have a strong biotic component, especially through the biochemical processesof plants and microorganisms. The cycles in which organisms participate are called biogeochemical cycles, which describe the circulation of matter, particularly plant and animal nutrients, through ecosystems. Most biogeoche...