Environmental Pollution Control

(ET ZC362 – WILP Course)

BITS Pilani Lakshmi Sirisha

Department of Chemical Engineering
Hyderabad Campus
 Session 2
28th July, 2018
Topics to be covered:
Chapter 1 : Impact of Man on Earth
- Nutrient cycles:
- Phosphorus cycle
- Sulphur cycles

- Population growth
- Exponential Growth
- Energy Consumption and Demand
- Impact of coal mining
- Pollution of air, water and soil

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 BITS Pilani
Pilani|Dubai|Goa|Hyderabad

Nutrients cycles and population

growth
12/2/2018 ET ZC362 Environmental Pollution Control 3
Phosphorus cycle

Source: Wikipedia

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Phosphorus cycle

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Phosphorus cycle

The atmosphere does not play a significant role in the

movement of phosphorus, because phosphorus and
phosphorus-based compounds are usually solids.
Land plant takes up inorganic phosphate salts from the soil
and convert them into ATP and ADP
These are then transferred to consumers and
decomposers.
Subsequently bacterial decomposition makes inorganic
phosphates available in soil.

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Sulphur cycle

•Source: Wikipedia

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Sulphur cycle

Steps of the sulfur cycle are:

• Mineralization of organic sulfur into inorganic forms, such as

hydrogen sulfide (H2S), elemental sulfur, as well as sulfide
minerals.
• Oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, sulfide, and elemental sulfur
(S) to sulfate (SO4).
• Reduction of sulfate to sulfide.
• Incorporation of sulfide into organic compounds (including
metal-containing derivatives).

• Source: Wikipedia

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Population Growth
• One of the factor that effect the degradation of the
environment is population growth
• Advance food production, industrial revolution, &
sophisticated medical facility lowered the death rate
• Population growth rates are commonly expressed as
percent Td = 69.3/r , where r is percent growth per year
• Rate of growth (r) of population of a region can be predicted
by r = birth – death + migration
• Av. Growth rate is ~ 1.2 percent in 2011
• World population is ~ 7.6 billion as on 2018
• China & India contributes ~ 19 & 17 % respectively

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Population Growth

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Population Growth :
Problem 1
The population of India in the year 2000 was one billion
and it increased in an exponential manner at a rate of
1.6 percent per year. If the growth rate is maintained,
what will be the population in the year 2020?

If the growth rate is decreased to 1.2 percent per year from

2020 onwards and is maintained at that level, what will
be the population in the year 2050?

Ans: 1.377 billion and 1.973 billion

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Population Growth
Consequences
• Forest cover has reduced by 24% in 1990 and further
reduced by 7% by 2010. Per capita change is a
reduction by 30%.
• Cropland area has increased by 5% from 1990 to
2010.However cropland area per person has decreased
by 30% and will continue.
• Pasture lands have decreased by 20% per capita
• An accelerated loss in earth’s biodiversity due to human
activities. Nearly 1/5th of plant and animal species have
disappeared during the past two decades.
• Huge depletion of underground water due to
deforestation, overgrazing, urban development

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 BITS Pilani
Pilani|Dubai|Goa|Hyderabad

Energy consumption and demand

12/2/2018 ET ZC362 Environmental Pollution Control 13

Energy Consumption
• Before nineteenth century, man’s major energy sources
were animal power, wind power, wood and vegetable
oils and there was no large perturbations on
environment

• With industrial civilization & advanced urbanization,

energy consumption increased a lot

• Two major reasons for the growth of energy

consumption are
- exponential growth of population
- exponential growth of per capita energy
consumption rate

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Energy Consumption

Source: Wikipedia, World energy consumption

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Energy sources
Oil: First major source of energy.
• It is estimated that between 100 and 135 billion tonnes of the world's
oil reserves have been used between 1850 and the present.
• As per the summary of Proven Reserve Data as of 2012 the total of
the global top 17 oil reserves is 1324 barrels of oil. (Venezuela,
Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iran and Iraq)

Coal:
• Second largest source supplying 30% of the energy.
• Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of
electricity worldwide.
• As of 2011, top producer is China (3520 million tons of coal).
• Others: large producers were United States (993 million tonnes),
India (589), European Union (576) and Australia (416).

All the data has been taken from wikipedia and text book
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Energy sources

Natural gas:
• It is relatively abundant world wide.
• Main ingredient is methane. Also contains significant amounts
of ethane, propane, butane, and pentane.
• Natural gas can be "associated" (found in oil fields), or "non-
associated" (isolated in natural gas fields), and is also found in coal
beds.
• Major proven resources (in billion cubic meters) are world 187,300
(2013), Iran 33,600 (2013), Russia 32,900 (2013), Qatar 25,100
(2013), Turkmenistan 17,500 (2013) and the United States 8,500
(2013).

All the data has been taken from wikipedia and text book
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Energy consumption and
demand
Exponential population growth is represented by,
𝑃 = 𝑃0 exp(𝑘 𝑡 − 𝑡0 )

Similarly, total consumption of energy in the world can be

represented by,
𝐸 = 𝐸0 exp(𝑗(𝑡 − 𝑡0 ))

𝑗 is energy consumption growth rate and 𝐸0 is energy

consumption (kwh/yr) at time to

Additionally, per capita energy consumption which is also

growing exponentially can be given by,
𝐸
𝐸𝑃 = = 𝐸𝑃0 exp(𝑙(𝑡 − 𝑡0 ))
𝑃

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Energy consumption and
demand
𝐸
Per capita energy consumption,𝐸𝑃 = = 𝐸𝑃0 exp(𝑙(𝑡 − 𝑡0 ))
𝑃
Exponential population growth, 𝑃 = 𝑃0 exp(𝑘 𝑡 − 𝑡0 )
Total consumption of energy, 𝐸 = 𝐸0 exp(𝑗(𝑡 − 𝑡0 ))

𝐸0
From above equations, 𝐸𝑃0 = 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙 = (𝑗 − 𝑘)
𝑃0

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India’s Energy requirements/
Generation

Total installed Power generation Capacity (June 2014) (Source: Wikipedia)

Source Total Capacity (MW) Percentage

Coal 148,478.39 59.51
Hydroelectricity 40,730.09 16.33
Renewable energy source 31,692.14 12.70
Natural Gas 22,607.95 9.06
Nuclear 4,780.00 1.92
Oil 1,199.75 0.48
Total 249,488.32

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India’s Energy requirements/
Generation
India imports nearly 75% of its 4.3 million barrels per day crude oil needs
but exports nearly 1.25 million barrels per day of refined petroleum
products which is nearly 30% of its total production of refined oil
products.
India has the world's 4th largest coal reserves. Coal is the primary energy
contributor with 54.5% share out of the total 595 Mtoe in the year 2013.
India ranks fifth in global coal production at 228 mtoe (5.9%) in the year
2013 when its inferior quality coal tonnage is converted in to tons of oil
equivalent.
Coal-fired power plants account for 59% of India's installed electricity
capacity.
It is expected to have 20 GW of nuclear capacity by 2020, though they
currently stand as the 9th in the world in terms of nuclear capacity.

Source: Wikipedia

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Pollution of Air, Water, Soil-
Impact of coal mining, fossil fuel combustion

Coal mining requires lot of land (mined on surface or

underground)
Has a huge impact on aquatic ecosystems due to runoff of mince
drainage containing toxic soluble metal salts and sediments.
Underground mining affect the health and safety of miners due
to explosions, inhalation of coal dust etc.
Burning of fossil fuels releases particulates, trace elements,
hydrocarbons, sulphur and nitrogen compounds to air causing
huge air pollution.
Most important pollutant caused by coal combustion is SO2. SO2
gets oxidized to H2SO4. H2SO4 reacts with trace elements to
form small particle metallic sulphates.
Acid rain is another problem caused due to sulphur. pH values of
2.5 to 4 recorded. Acid rain kills fish, causes increased
leaching of nutrients, corrosion of basic materials like lime
stone, marble.

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Pollution of Air, Water, Soil-
Carbon emissions
Increases green house gas emissions have magnified the natural
greenhouse effect causing global warming.
Energy and related activities contribute to 50% global warming (table).
Increased temperatures will cause melting of ice caps, rise in sea water
with disastrous consequences. It can cause rainfall alterations,
saltwater intrusion into freshwater bodies, extinction of species.

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Impact of coal mining:
Summary

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Impact of coal mining:
Problem 2
A power plant burns 3600 kg of coal containing 4.0 %
sulphur per hour. Assuming 5.0% of the sulphur in the
coal ends up in ash, what is the annual rate of emission
of SO2

Ans: 2.396 * 10^6 kg/yr

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Pollution of Air, Water, Soil-
Impact of Hydroelectric and nuclear energy

Total hydroelectric potential of India is 41,000 MW and more than 50% has
been realized so far.
Although the hydroelectric plants are clean and harm less, large dam
construction hugely affects the hydrology (downstream of the dam),
terrestrial and aquatic systems. Salinity of water increases, seismic
movements can be triggered, growth of weeds, depletion of fisheries.
Radio active substances used in nuclear energy have huge environmental
threats, and can cause radiation hazards, genetic damages, cancers etc.
Nuclear power plants also create more thermal pollution.

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Pollution of Air, Water, Soil-
Ozone depletion
Ozone layer protects earth’s surface from harmful UV radiations from sun.

Chlorofluro carbons used in ACcs and refrigerators are stable compunds

which pass through the lower troposhere to statosphere where they are
impacted with UV rays to release Chlorine atoms

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Pollution of Air, Water, Soil-
Ozone depletion
The chlorine atoms react quickly with ozone layer.

Chlorine monoxide (ClO) reacts with oxygen radical to form more chlorine
atoms that can react with more ozone

As can be seen there is not net consumption of Cl atoms and can convert
many ozone molecules to ordinary O2
Use of CFCs is banned. We have new technologies( refrigerators without
CFCs) and new substitutes for CFCs (HFCs and HCFCs)

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Municipal Solid Waste
Management
Solid waste disposal in urban areas is a serous problem
Rapid urban population growth has caused management
problems to civic authorities in terms of regular
collection, transportation and disposal.
Due to inadequate resources, about of half of the solid
waste generated remains unattended leading to
unsanitary conditions.
A safe and effective solid waste management is very
challenging

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Closure

Unchecked growth in human population is the most

important cause of all environmental problems.
World population is nearly 7.6 billion.
Most of the pollution problems can be solved with available
technologies. More concerted efforts from the
government (as well as people) is needed.
Most of the pollution problems in real situations are
integrated and hence a systems approach to
environmental control is needed.

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 End

Any Questions?

mail to
sirisha@hyderabad.bits.pilani.ac.in

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