USD Golf Carts Polluting Campus

Environmental activists can stop focusing all their attention on SUV and Hummers with a new study that has just been released from the University of San Diego. Students enrolled in the Environmental Chemistry course offered by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry conducted a mock smog test on a range of vehicles that covered simple four-door cars like a Kia Rio and larger gas-guzzlers like a Dodge Durango. The students were on the hunt for the levels of NOx and particulate pollution emitted from the exhaust pipe.

It might come as a surprise to some that big polluters come in small packages! The smallest of the vehicles tested, a USD Golf Cart, destroyed the pollution competition, beating out a 1993 Mercury Village, 1998 Dodge Durango, 2005 Kia Rio, 2007 Buick Rainier V8 CXL, and a 2010 Volkswagen Golf. The golf cart emitted 239.425 ppm of NOx after the engine was warm, which is typically when the level of pollutants in vehicular exhaust is depleted. The Dodge Durango took the silver medal with 155.410 ppm – a good 80 ppm behind the golf cart! To make matters even worse, the golf cart was also found to be producing over 16 million tiny particulates per centimeter cubed of air. That is substantially more particulates than any other vehicle analyzed.

Data collected while the car engines were cold and then after the engines warmed showed a clear decline in pollutants the longer the engine was allowed to run. This finding stresses the importance of catalytic converters as environmental housekeepers. When the engine is first ignited, the catalytic converter is not fully functional and thus, large quantities of pollutants are detectable. Once the engine has heated, the converter kicks into action, reducing toxic emissions by a noticeable amount in each vehicle. Surprisingly, it was the 2005 Kia Rio that showed the largest improvement in toxic emission concentrations, not the newest vehicle of the cars selected. That just goes to show that newer doesn't necessarily mean better.

The picture below depicts Dr. David De Haan and students Donald Millar and Hadley Krizner taking samples of the exhaust being emitted by the 1998 Dodge Durango.


Dr. David De Haan, the senior scientist on the project, remarked that he was not surprised by the results since he has had plenty of experience riding his bike through the nasty smelling exhaust of a campus golf cart. Junior chemistry major, Alyssa Navapanich, found the results from her Dodge Durango to also be expected, but found it “really shocking that all those golf carts on campus are emitting that much pollution.” She went on to say that she would have hoped her tuition would have been put to more environmentally sound vehicle purchases by the university.

The study also revealed that car pollution is not USD’s only problem. In fact, cigars and cigarettes emit nearly 100 times more NOx than even the golf cart! NOx and particulate pollution are well known causes for a variety of respiratory irritation that range from difficulty breathing to damaged lung tissue. They are also key components in photochemical smog, which Southern Californians in the Los Angeles County area are very familiar with. So, the next time you see a student smoking or pass by a golf cart rolling its way through campus, you may want to consider the health risks.

Nuclear Energy in the US

Nuclear energy is considered an alternative energy source since it produces electricity without producing any carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the process. 19% of the electricity produced in the United States comes from nuclear energy, however most of the nuclear power in use has not been updated or expanded upon in 30 years. Recently, the Obama administration has been working towards increasing nuclear power plants through loan guarantees to help finance the construction of new reactors. This article from the Washington Post details the plan and the controversies behind new nuclear reactors being built.

NEWS ALERT: OZONE!

Is the beautiful city of San Diego plagued by ozone pollution that will cause respiratory problems in many of its citizens?

The University of San Diego’s Environmental Chemistry class recently tested the ozone levels both indoors and outdoors to determine what sort of levels people are being exposed to and whether or not certain machines, such as copiers and blenders may be producing ozone in enclosed environments. The typical chemistry major spends a great deal of time not only in the Shiley Center of Science and Technology but also outside studying on beautiful, sunny San Diego afternoons. So in this experiment, the five members of the Environmental Chemistry class, Shannen Cravens, Amanda Walker, Donald Millar, Jacob Turley, and Hadley Krizner, tested the levels in these areas to see what sort of levels of ozone students are being exposed to. The picture below shows Jacob Turley and Hadley Krizner setting up the sampling apparatus to test ozone levels in the copy room.

Exposure to increased ozone levels is harmful to both humans and ecosystems. In humans, ozone causes airway irritation and difficulty breathing.¹ It can also aggravate asthma, increase susceptibility to respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and pneumonia, and cause permanent lung damage with too much exposure.¹ Ozone damages the leaves of trees and other plants, reduces forest growth and crop yields, and makes sensitive plants more susceptible to diseases, insects, and harsh weather.¹ Since ozone is so harmful to humans and the environment, many countries have established limits for maximum allowable ozone concentrations in the air. Ozone concentrations in the air are often difficult to measure because the levels change throughout the day as other pollutants released into the air break down to create ozone. An article for USA Today last March describes the harmful effects that ozone pollution can cause humans and also contains a list of the ozone levels in many major American cities.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-11-ozone-illness_N.htm

The concentrations of ozone were found to be higher outdoors than indoor, which indicates that pollution from cars and factories that produce smog are affecting the levels of ground-level ozone a great deal. However, the outdoor levels were under the United States limit of 80 ppb, at 52-56 ppb. The indoor ozone levels ranged 22-32 ppb, the highest level was in the copy room while no copies were being made. This experiment was inconclusive in finding evidence that certain machines, such as copiers and blenders, produce significant amounts of ozone. The picture below shows the testing of ozone levels in a copy room in the University of San Diego’s Shiley Center for Science and Technology.

Although the student’s testing was inconclusive in many regards, the findings of this experiment shows that pollution is causing increased levels of ground-level ozone in our atmosphere makes this experiment an important one in further understanding the levels of different pollutants, in this case ozone, that the average person is exposed to and how this might effect their health and the health of the environment.

¹"Health and Environment | Ground-level Ozone | US EPA." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 14 Feb. 2010. .

Arctic Lakes Bubbling with Methane

Researchers are studying methane emissions form arctic lakes and the effects of thawing permafrost and its correlation with climate change. One study describes the process by which organic material contained in the permafrost around a lake’s edge can enter the lake bottom when the permafrost melts. There, bacteria convert the organic material to methane, which then bubbles into the atmosphere. Although these methane hot spots can come from various sources, if large amounts of methane associated with melting permafrost are released into the atmosphere, the increase in atmospheric methane could have effects on global temperatures. Another study reiterates these concerns, stating that the Arctic’s role as a sink for carbon could be reversed due to global warming trends. Carbon from the atmosphere accumulates in the Arctic, and because of cold temperatures carbon trapped in permafrost and frozen soil does not decompose. An increase in temperature could result in exposure of more carbon to decomposition, and melting permafrost could result in the availability of more carbon to be decomposed. The temperature increase could also create a more watery environment, which would promote activity of methane producing bacteria. Because of methane’s effectiveness as a greenhouse gas, its release into the atmosphere has the potential to increase global warming.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070911092139.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091014144729.htm

Global Warming and the Winter Olympics

Here is a link to an interesting climate change blog discussing the unprecedented warm weather this month in Vancouver. Of course, the important thing is global averages, not weather in a particular city. Don't miss the 8 sec video - the real reason I want you to check it out!

A Damper on Green Technology

So, this might be slightly off topic, but an interesting Live Science article popped up on Yahoo! News about the future of technological development. The article makes the claim that many newer technologies, including green technology, rely on the use of rare earth metals that are starting to live up to their name. Most of the world's production of these metals is based in China since its government supports the mining and refining industries necessary to process the resources completely. The one big problem with this is that China's rapidly expanding economy is draining an increasing amount of the rare earth metals resource and the Chinese government has made statements that it will eventually stop exporting the precious metals.

Among the more "green" rare earth metals are Lanthanum and Neodymium. Lanthanum is a primary component in the battery of Toyota's Prius...and there's actually a good amount of neodymium used to make the car. The numbers are sited in the article. Toyota has actually begun to seek sources of rare earth metals other than China. Neodymium is also a main component of the permanent magnets used in wind turbines. As the United States makes an effort to become more environmentally conscious, it might be wise to invest in the mining and refining industries of rare earth metals that are currently at the heart of many alternative energy technologies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100216/sc_livescience/shortageofrareearthelementscouldthwartinnovation

CO2 fertilization

As described in Chapter 6, CO₂ fertilization is the process by which the growth rate of certain trees is increased due to increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the air. Some scientists believe that the increased rate of photosynthesis and the formation of greater amounts of fixed carbon represent a sink for CO₂. However, several experiments described here: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/11/co_2-fertilization/ provide a different perspective. Experiments and models have shown that although CO₂ fertilization can cause a temporary increase in biomass, it is not likely to offset increases in CO₂ from anthropogenic sources. In models where availability of carbon to plants is not constrained, other conditions, such as the availability of certain nutrients, still limit the production of biomass. The article claims that based on minimum projected emissions of 600 billion tons of carbon for the 21^st century, it is not likely that increased vegetation could account for more than a few percent of these emissions. .

Global Warming Ignorance Makes for Big Laughs

I'll try not to get too political with this blog entry, but I'm really curious how some people would interpret the portion of the chapter we just read on global warming. I found the part on the cooling of the stratosphere by increased levels of carbon dioxide to be rather interesting. A few of my friends who don't believe in global warming have used that as an argument for their beliefs. Fact Check: The temperature of the stratosphere causes carbon dioxide to emit more thermal IR into both space and the troposphere than it absorbs as photons. So, my friends were right to say that the stratosphere is cooling, but where is a portion of that thermal IR going? It's warming the troposphere! Sounds like global warming to me...

The belief that global warming is a made up phenomena is, in my opinion, a frightening display of ignorance. I will concede the point that the significance of the anthropogenic contributions to global warming are debatable, but you can't use that as a reason to believe the entire process is fake. Ask any astronomer about proof of global warming and they will point out two that are "close to home" in an astronomical sense: Venus and Mars. They are basically the "poster planets" of global warming with their atmospheres composed of mainly CO2! Stephen Hawking actually states that Venus could be our fate if global warming gets out of hand in this short video clip.

Continuing on the topic of astronomy, an argument that has always made me laugh is the one in which snow storms and cold weather are meant to be proof of the global warming hoax. Fact Check: Our weather is closely related to the level of solar activity. In general, that is based on the number of sun spots since sun spots produce solar flares. Our sun was completely sun spot-less for nearly 75% of 2009! I'll believe that to be the source of our cold weather before I call global warming a lie. Even a website dedicated to an anti-global warming campaign points out the sun spot fact...how ironic....: http://www.globalwarminghoax.com

Haze

Haze is a product of photochemical smog and is brown/yellow colored.
Its distribution ranges from urban areas to the grand canyon.

Its composition is moslty organic carbon and sulfate, there is also ammonium and nitrate, and nitric acids nuetralized to salts. the particles are sized 0.4-0.8 in diameter (about half that of the wavelegneth of light)

It affects the atmosphere by reducing visual clarity and and scattering the light able to hit the ground.

This link shows a picture of a landscape corrupt with Haze:

http://altered-dimension.deviantart.com/art/Atmospheric-Haze-129737820

Acid Rain

Acid rain is a serious environmental problem that many regions face. This genetic term covers many areas including acid, fog, snow. Each corresponds to atmospheric percipatation of heavy acidity.

Acid rain was discovered by Angus Smith in Great Britian in the mid-1800's.

The term specifically refers to percipitation that is more acidic than normal rain (or unpolluted rain)
-the mild acitidy comes from atmospheric carbon forming carbonic acid.

ex. CO2 + H20 <---> H2CO3 (partially ionizes H+, lowering pH)

This video depicts acid rains effects on east coast cities (esp wash DC) to view the upclose effects on structures such as the capitol building.

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/acid-rain-eating-washington-d-c/E72669A71943D0C51D8EE72669A71943D0C51D8E

Your Personal Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Follow this link to the EPA's personal greenhouse gas emissions calculator.

Green Dry Cleaning

The "Green Chemistry" section of this chapter that focused on -friendly dry cleaning peaked my interest as another way to cut back on the use of traditional organic solvents. The conventional solvent used in dry cleaning is perchloroetheylene (PERC) which contaminates ground water and is suspected to be carcinogenic in humans.

Joseph DeSimone developed a polymeric surfactants for carbon dioxide and founded a chain of dry cleaners that uses liquid carbon dioxide instead of PERC to clean clothes. This method not only cuts down the use of harmful organic solvents but also captures CO2 for practical purposes when it would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and cause global warming. The following website has a directory of green dry cleaners in the area :

http://www.ecovian.com/s/sandiego/green-dry-cleaners-wet-cleaning

So next time you need to get something dry cleaned, try it out!

Do you need your catalytic converter?

While reading about ground-level air pollution, I was struck by the the section on VOC and NOx reduction. The concept of reaction dependence on particular compounds based on a given set of conditions is fairly standard, but the implications of the affects of NOx reduction in certain areas were quite interesting. In NOx-limiting regions, high concentrations of VOCs produce an abundance of HOO and ROO free radicals, which react with nitric oxide to produce the hydroxyl radical and nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen dioxide then proceeds to undergo photolysis to produce atomic oxygen, which combines with molecular oxygen to form ozone. So, in this case, we see an increase in ground-level ozone due to the presence of nitric oxide molecules. Conversely, in VOC-limiting regions, the existence of NOx, specifically nitrogen dioxide, reacts with the hydroxyl radical to form nitric acid and effectively inhibits the production of ozone by decreasing the amount of OH radical available to react with VOCs. In this case, NOx actually help in the prevention of ozone formation.

VOC-limiting areas tend to be urban parts of the globe, which brings about somewhat of an environmental paradox: If reducing NOx levels in VOC-limiting regions, which tend to be urban areas, will increase the amount of ground-level ozone produced, how beneficial are catalytic converters? Do they not decrease the level of NOx produced from fuel emissions, which would imply that more of the hydroxyl radical in urban areas would be free to produce ozone by reacting with VOCs? It seems as though there is a trade off between decreasing the amount of NOx air pollution and preventing ground-level ozone production. Would it not be more beneficial to reduce VOCs in urban areas since those compounds are the ones the hydroxyl radical will react with if NOx levels are low? I found very similar postulates in a paper published in 2004 on the "weekend effect," which involves the effects of the lower levels of NOx due to decreased truck travel during weekends on ground-level ozone production.

http://www.aei.org/outlook/19746

It's an interesting topic of debate. Is our current environmental policy of NOx reduction in urban areas the best policy based on the chemistry we know occurs in VOC-limiting regions?

In performing the ozone lab I became interested in the processes by which ozone is created by electrical equipment such as a high powered blender or copy machine. Dr. Dehaan explained that the electric arc within such machines supplies the energy needed for ozone to be produced from ambient O2 molecules. 3-O2 --Electric Energy--> 2-O3. Electronic motors that are driven by an electric arc are common in many household devices such as brush vacuums and kitchen appliances. Other less common items that produce significant electric arcs are tasers and photocopiers. Though these devices are known to produce ozone, preliminary tests of a high-powered blender were lower than those recorded outside (note: the time of the blender test was shorter by 25 minutes). Some lamps which utilize a gas in a pressurized tube contain open electrical arcs that can, over time, produce dangerous amounts of ozone. In researching this subject, I came upon a patent for a device that attaches to such lamps that converts toxic ozone into oxygen. The fact that such a device exists is a testament to the ability of such electrical arcs to produce ozone in large amounts.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/3949258/description.html

In nature, electrical arcs millions of times more powerful than those found in electric appliances can be found in the form of lightning. Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is a location which has higher incidences of lightning than almost any other location on earth. These frequent lightning storms occurring many times per day produce huge amounts of ozone from oxygen in the air and according to some, this phenomenon represents the largest single contribution to ozone in the troposphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning

Green Chemistry: Harpin Technology

Harpin is a naturally occuring bacterial protein that is being used to replace the pesticide (and more specifically, soil fumigant) , methyl bromide. This protein can be isolated from proteins. When applied to plants it initiates plant defenses against bacterial, viral, and other types of diseases. The harpin initiates the plants "hypersensitive response" and physically barricades infection from spreading. Another benefit to harpin use may be that pests can not form an immunity to it because it indirectly affects them. Additionally, harpin has no effect on the plant's DNA, it is only able to activate the plant's innate defenses. The benefits of harpin technology are plentiful: it's production only produces biodegradable waste, harpin itself has low toxicity, and it can also act as a plant growth stimulant!