Air Pollution Research the air pollutants produced by...

Name: Problem 116, Chapter 11: Chemistry Matter and Change
Uploaded: 2021-04-11T13:27:04-08:00
Duration: 4 min 41 s
Channel: Noah Boudrie
Description: Air Pollution Research the air pollutants produced by combustion of gasoline in internal combustion engines. Discuss the common pollutants and the reaction that produces them. Show, through the use of stoichiometry, how each pollutant could be reduced if more people used mass transit.

Air Pollution Research the air pollutants produced by combustion of gasoline in internal combustion engines. Discuss the common pollutants and the reaction that produces them. Show, through the use of stoichiometry, how each pollutant could be reduced if more people used mass transit.

Key Concepts

Emission Reduction Strategies and the Impact of Mass Transit

This concept explores how reducing the number of vehicles on roads—by encouraging mass transit usage—can lower overall emissions from internal combustion engines. By performing stoichiometric calculations, one can estimate how decreases in motor vehicle use can lead to proportional reductions in the production of pollutants. This approach emphasizes the importance of alternative transportation methods in mitigating air pollution and improving urban air quality over time.

Combustion Chemistry

This concept involves understanding the chemical reactions that occur when gasoline combusts in internal combustion engines. The process usually involves the reaction of hydrocarbons with oxygen to produce energy, carbon dioxide, and water, among other byproducts. Understanding combustion chemistry is crucial to identifying how different conditions (such as temperature and oxygen availability) can lead to complete or incomplete combustion, which in turn influences the types and amounts of pollutants produced.

Air Pollutants from Gasoline Combustion

When gasoline combusts, it produces a variety of air pollutants, including carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and unburned hydrocarbons. Each of these pollutants results from specific reaction pathways during combustion. For example, incomplete combustion can lead to the production of CO and unburnt hydrocarbons, while high-temperature conditions favor the formation of NOx through the reaction of nitrogen and oxygen in the air.

Stoichiometry in Combustion Reactions

Stoichiometry involves using balanced chemical equations to quantitatively analyze the reactants and products in a chemical reaction. In the context of combustion, stoichiometric calculations help determine the ratios of fuel and oxygen needed for complete combustion and allow for the quantification of pollutants formed when the reaction does not proceed ideally. This is essential for evaluating how changes in combustion conditions or fuel composition might impact pollutant outputs.

Transcript

00:01 So for this problem, we are taking a little bit of some chemistry and balancing equations, stoichiometry, these concepts, and we're applying them to real -world concepts.

00:09 So for this particular problem, we are looking and identifying air pollutants that are produced through combustion reactions.

00:20 So air pollutants.

00:22 And when we think about air pollutants, we can think about global warming, greenhouse gases, these sort of things, just so that.

00:30 We know our minds are in the right place.

00:33 And this is a combustion reaction that takes place in an engine when gasoline is used for fuel.

00:41 So when you're just running a car, it could be potentially a bus, even maybe a plane, although i'm sure that the fuels are different.

00:52 This is the sort of chemistry that's taking place.

00:55 So i'll just write out the reaction, which you can look up online if you would like to verify too, but we have octane.

01:05 That's what we can use.

01:07 Of course, sometimes we might have methane as a gas in other contexts, but here we're just looking at octane, which if we hear the prefix means 8, and it's referring to carbon.

01:19 So we have 2c8, h18.

01:22 And then we need oxygen, of course, for a combustion reaction.

01:25 And the coefficient we have here is 25 -02 for oxygen gas, of course, biatomic.

01:35 And then through this reaction, we are forming water.

01:41 And if we have the equation balanced, it's etienne water.

01:47 Co2, which we would expect, right? because we know that cars are bad from the environment because co2 is released, which makes the world hotter.

01:57 It's greenhouse gas.

01:59 And then we have energy, which, of course, is the whole purpose of this reaction.

02:02 So we have energy in order to make a car move.

02:05 So this is the reaction...

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