C1 Air Quality

Revision Notes
1) The Atmosphere
The atmosphere is made up of a mixture of gases which are small molecules with large spaces between
them. The main gases are:

 Nitrogen 78%
 Oxygen 21%
 Argon 1%
 Small amounts of other gases e.g. carbon dioxide (0.037%) and water
vapour

2) Evolution of the Atmosphere

The early atmosphere would have been made of mainly carbon dioxide and water vapour released by
volcanic eruptions and volcanic activity. As the earth cooled the water vapour condensed and formed the
oceans. The evolution of photosynthesising organisms caused the production of oxygen and the reduction
of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide also dissolved in the oceans, which was used by organisms in the sea to
create their shells. These shells were converted into sedimentary rock over millions of years and eventually
turned into fossil fuels. These processes produced the atmosphere as we know it today.

3) Air Pollutants
The major air pollutants are:

Pollutant Formula Particle diagram Produced by… Problem

Carbon dioxide CO2 The combustion of coal Causes global
and fuels (i.e. warming
hydrocarbons)

Carbon CO Incomplete combustion of Poisonous to

monoxide coal and fuels humans by stopping
the red blood cells
carrying oxygen
Carbon C Incomplete combustion of Linked to asthma
particulates coals and fuels and global dimming.
Cover buildings with
soot
Sulfur dioxide SO2 Combustion of coal and Causes acid rain by
fuel containing impurities dissolving in rain
of sulfur clouds

Nitrogen dioxide NO2 Combustion of nitrogen in Causes acid rain by

car engines produces dissolving in rain
nitrogen monoxide which clouds
is oxidised in the
atmosphere to form
nitrogen dioxide

4) Combustion of Coal:
Coal is made up mainly of carbon. Coal is often burnt in power stations and the energy given off is used to
make electricity. When coal burns (combusts) it reacts with oxygen in the air to produce carbon dioxide.
The chemical equation for this is:

Carbon + Oxygen  Carbon dioxide

The substances reacting together are the reactants (i.e. carbon and oxygen) and the substance produced is
the product (i.e. carbon dioxide). A chemical reaction where a substance combines with oxygen is called
oxidation. Combustion is an example of oxidation. Coal burns more rapidly in pure oxygen than in the air.

If there isn’t enough oxygen present incomplete combustion occurs. The products of incomplete
combustion are carbon monoxide or carbon particulates:

Notice that the number of atoms of each element on the left hand side of the reaction (the reactants) is
the same as the number of atoms of each element on the right-hand side of the reaction (the products).
This is called conserving mass.

5) Combustion of Hydrocarbon fuels

Most fuels are made up of hydrocarbons, for example petrol, natural gas (methane) and diesel.
Hydrocarbons are compounds containing only hydrogen and carbon atoms. When hydrocarbons combust
(i.e. react with oxygen in the air) carbon dioxide and water are produced. The carbon in the hydrocarbon
fuel reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and the hydrogen in the hydrocarbon fuel reacts with
oxygen to form water. The chemical equation for the combustion of methane would be:

+ +
Notice that the number of atoms of each element is that same on both sides of the equation (conserving
mass). If there wasn’t enough oxygen present carbon monoxide or carbon particulates could be formed
instead of carbon dioxide (incomplete combustion).

6) Production of other pollutants

Sulfur is found as an impurity in coal and hydrocarbon fuels. When coal and other fuels are burnt, sulfur is
able to react with oxygen forming sulfur dioxide. The chemical equation is:

In car engines, air is drawn in from the atmosphere which provides oxygen for the combustion of petrol or
diesel. At the high temperatures found in car engines nitrogen from the air is able to react with oxygen to
form nitrogen oxide. Nitrogen oxide is released into the atmosphere which is oxidised. This means it reacts
with oxygen in the air to form nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen dioxide is able to react with water and oxygen to
form acid rain which damages trees and crops.

7) Reducing Air Pollution

a) Reducing pollution from burning coal
The amount of polluting gases produced by power stations that burn fossil fuels can be reduced by:

 Using less electricity so that less fossil fuels are burnt and therefore less carbon dioxide and other
harmful gases are produced.
 Removing sulfur from natural gas and fuel oil which prevents sulfur dioxide being produced when
they are burnt
 Removing sulfur dioxide from flue gases by wet scrubbing: an alkaline slurry (made of calcium
oxide and water) or sea water is sprayed onto the waste gases causing the sulfur dioxide to be
neutralised and preventing the release of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere
 Removing carbon particulate from flue gases preventing the release of carbon particulate which
land on surfaces (e.g. of buildings) making them dirty

b) Reducing pollution from car exhausts

Various pollutants are produced from the combustion of fuels in cars (carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and
nitrogen oxide). There are a number of ways of reducing these emissions:

 Having more efficient engines which burn less fuels

 Using low sulfur fuels
 Using more public transport, or walking and cycling instead of driving
 Having legal limits on exhaust emissions (tested during the MOT of cars)
 Using biofuels or electric vehicles (you should be aware there are benefits and problems to using
alternative fuels. For example biofuels are produced by growing large amounts of crops which
means the land is not able to be used to grow food, however they are carbon neutral. Electric
vehicles still produce emissions as the majority of electricity is produce from fossil-fuel burning
power stations).
 Using catalytic convertors: catalytic convertors are found in car exhausts. They convert carbon
monoxide into carbon dioxide by reacting the carbon monoxide with oxygen (oxidation). They also
reduce nitrogen monoxide by converting it into nitrogen and oxygen.

The only way of reducing carbon dioxide from both cars and power stations is to burn less fossil fuels.

8) Analysing data about air pollution

You must be able to (the bold lettering summaries what you need to know, the lettering in italics gives
examples and further explanation):

 Use data to back up (justify) an explanation: E.g. “I know that Car A is better for the environment
because the data shows that it produces less carbon dioxide emissions that car B”.
 Explain why it is important to repeat results (reproducibility (you can repeat your own results in
multiple tests) and repeatability (that someone else can repeat your results) and give reasons
why, if you were to perform only 1 test, the results may not be the true value: E.g. You perform a
test by a busy main road to measure air pollution in one area by collecting soot particles on a square
of sticky paper. You find that you do not collect any air pollution which seems strange as it is next to
a busy road. You repeat the test using multiple squares of paper and find that on average 20 carbon
particulates are found in each square. You discover that the first time you performed the test water
had dropped onto the sticky paper washing the pollution away.
  Calculate the mean of a set of data and state that the mean is the best estimate of the true value.
 Understand that by repeating a test you can identify the range of your data and explain that the
true value is likely to fall within that range. E.g. The emissions of nitrogen oxide from a car exhaust
is measured 5 times. The mean is found to be 33ppm and the range 30-35ppm. The actual amount
of nitrogen oxide released from the car (the true value) is very likely to be within your range and
your best estimate of the actual amount is your calculated mean. The reason you cannot measure
the exact amount every time will be due to errors in your measuring equipment and because of the
procedure itself (i.e. the way go about measuring them).
 Identify outliers and explain your decision to discard them from your results: you should recognise
that an outlier lies well outside your range and is very different to the other results. You may be
asked to explain why an outlier for a particular set of data has occurred.
 Discuss if there is a real difference between 2 sets of data: there is only a real difference if the
ranges do not overlap

9) Correlation and cause

You need to recognise that there may be a correlation between 2 sets of data. For example during the
summer ice cream sales increase and hayfever cases increase. However, one does not necessarily cause
the other. This means that whilst there may be a correlation between 2 sets of data (e.g. hayfever and ice
cream sales), one may not cause the other (i.e. eating ice cream does not cause hayfever). When looking at
correlations you need to try and find out if there is a link between the two, for example if you look at the
graph you will see there is a correlation between smoking and getting lung cancer. This correlation was
spotted in the 1975, however it wasn’t until years later that the link between the two was found and a
mechanism was determined to explain how smoking causes lung cancer.