5 important measures to control acid rain.
Mundal, P. (2014, February 22). Acid rain: 5 important measures to control acid rain. Your Article Library. https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/geography/acid-rain-5-important-measures-to-control-acid-rain/12370
- The reduction of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxides in the atmosphere guarantees a future that is free of acid rain. Using less energy involves actions such as sometimes choosing to walk or cycle to work instead of driving. Using cleaner fuels such as low-sulfur diesel also helps reduce air pollution levels and, subsequently, acid rain. Additionally, treating gaseous waste before releasing it into the atmosphere is an excellent approach to preventing acid rain. Some strategies used and perfected by scientists include flue gas desulphurization and catalytic conversion. While controlling acid rain measures may be expensive in the present, industry owners are looking up to technology for cheaper alternatives.
- Liming has proven to be an effective method of reducing the effects of acid rain. It involves adding powdered limestone or limewater to the soil to counter acidity. Farmers use liming to better soil quality of acid soils and to adjust pH to levels required by the crop they want to grow. They have found the method useful in increasing the availability of nutrients, rising infiltration rates, and improving soil structure. Liming is used extensively in Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden and Norway. The challenge of liming is that its an expensive and short term remedy.
- Households and industries could altogether decide to use clean energy sources, e.g., electricity, to avoid air pollution and subsequently to cause acid rain. Alternative energy sources include nuclear power, wind energy, hydroelectricity, solar energy, and geothermal energy. The world is yet to fully adopt these alternative sources of energy because of the issue of cost.
- Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a set of techniques utilized to remove sulfur oxide from waste flue gases from fossil-fuel power plants. The emissions of multiple sulfur oxide emitting processes like incineration of wastes are notorious for causing acid rain. To effectively remove sulfur oxides from flue gas (waste gases), there is a need to involve a wet scrubber. A reaction tower fitted out with a fan that extracts hot, smoky stack gases from a power plant into the tower. Limestone (Ca2Co3) or lime in slurry form is put into the tower to mix with stack gases, and present oxides of sulfur cause a reaction. The advantage of FGD is that pH-neutral calcium sulfate is its by-product; plant owners can remove the calcium sulfate (CaSO4) physically from the scrubber. Such sulfates have been found useful for multiple industrial purposes.
Grennfelt, P., Engleryd, A., Forsius, M., Hov, Ø., Rodhe, H., & Cowling, E. (2019). Acid rain and air pollution: 50 years of progress in environmental science and policy. Ambio, 49(4), 849-864. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01244-4
- New approaches are necessary for successfully combating acid rain. Global control of air pollution is deemed a success story by many individuals. Even so, the success is limited to North America, Europe, and a few more industrialized nations (inclusive of Australia and Japan), where emissions by oxides of sulfur and oxides of nitrogen have been reduced to a great extent. However, even in places where air pollution has been a top priority for several years, it remains a challenge. Ecosystem effects, that motivated the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, are reduced to some extent. Still, the acidification effects of historical emissions will remain for years to come, and emissions by nitrogen oxides have only been reduced by twenty to thirty percent in Europe and much less in North America. It is challenging to talk of success concerning health effects, when hundreds of thousands of dwellers in these continents are bound to die earlier than their time because of air pollution.
- There are plenty of solutions available to address acid rain problems; however, investments and driving forces are insufficient. In 2016, the Air Convention came up with a scientific report titled “Towards Cleaner Air,” within which patrons updated the real air pollution situation in the UNECE region. The report also highlighted future problems and ways forward to address the air pollution challenges. It also demonstrated that plenty of solutions exist for most identified pollution problems at affordable costs, below the health and ecosystem benefits from the control actions. Lack of information and resources is why many world regions encounter large problems in implementing solutions that could combat the acid rain problem.
- Globally coordinated initiatives and infrastructures are the answers for success. The outlook of global cooperation has changed. Air pollution policy development is no longer confined to long-range transport in line with that developed under the Air Convention. The listing of air pollutants as the top ten reasons why people die prematurely has prioritized the issue in fora such as the UN Environment and World Health Organization. UNEP and WHO have embraced resolutions calling for actions (UNEP 2017; WHO 2015). Other bodies have taken additional initiatives, like the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), the World Meteorological Organization, and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP).
Environmental Protection Agency. (2020, August 19). Acid rain: What is being done? US EPA. https://www3.epa.gov/acidrain/education/site_students/beingdone.html
- EPA’s Acid Rain Program is committed to ridding the environment of acid rain. It complies with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which affirmed that the EPA should begin the Acid Rain Program. The program puts a cap on, or limits, the level of sulfur dioxide power plants can release to the environment and grants allowances to such plants to cover any emissions that are laced with sulfur dioxide. Moreover, the program also limits oxides of nitrogen that power plants can release. Globally, power plants help generate the electricity that households use. Unfortunately, these plants also generate tremendous amounts of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen-the pollutants that cause acid rain. The pollutants result when fossil fuels (especially coal) are burnt to produce energy.
- Scientists have discovered multiple ways of lessening the amounts of sulfur dioxide released from power plants that burn coal for energy. One approach is to utilize coal that contains less sulfur. A different process involves washing coal to take away some of the sulfur. Power plants can also install equipment known as scrubbers, which take away oxides of sulfur from gases to leave smokestacks. Given that nitrogen oxides are formulated in the process of burning coal and other fossil fuels, many power plants are burning coal differently.
- Cars and trucks are the primary sources of air pollutants that bring about acid rain. While a single-vehicle alone does not produce much pollution, all the vehicles on the world’s roads summed together cause a lot of air pollution. Thus, motor vehicle makers need to limit the proportion of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants released by new vehicles. One technological approach used in vehicles is known as catalytic conversion. The catalytic conversion method has been in use for more than two decades to limit the proportions of nitrogen oxides released by cars. Some newer models of motor vehicles are capable of using cleaner fuels, like natural gas. Motor vehicles that produce less pollution are better suited for the environment and are many a time referred to as low emissions vehicles. The EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide gives recommendations on low emissions vehicles that Americans should buy.