4.1: Fossil Fuel Combustion

Using the following checklist, find out how many points you get for using each of these on a daily basis

1. When is your personal Earth Overshoot Day?

2. If everyone lived like you, we would need how many earths would we need?

3. Why can't you get your footprint score within the means of one planet?

Under the tab FACTS AND FIGURES, find the answers to these questions:

4. What is your ecological footprint?

5. What is your Carbon Footprint of CO2 emissions?

6. What is your Carbon Footprint in percent of total Ecological Footprint?

7. Under the tab SOLUTIONS, find what solutions the Global Footprint Network suggests making for each category:

   • City

   • Energy

   • Food

   • Population

   • Planet

A lot of our daily activities rely on combustion or burning of fossils fuels. This is one industry that people in our community rely on in order to support their families. 

How might supporting this industry be challenging when seeking ways to reduce emissions?

In order to make use of the stored energy in fossil fuels, combustion or burning must take place. When there is a combustion reaction, the oxygen reacts with the fossil fuel to produce carbon dioxide gas and water vapour. This is what the equation would look like.

What happens if fossil fuels do not burn completely?

These fuels undergo a chemical reaction called incomplete combustion. This happens when there is not enough oxygen. For example, in a blocked chimney, inefficient furnace, or when a car engine is running in a closed garage. 

As we wrote above, there are three products when octane and oxygen are combined. When it is incomplete combustion there are five products:

• carbon monoxide - CO(g)

• Carbon- C(s)

• Carbon dioxide - CO2(g)

• Water vapour - H2O(g) 

• energy

On your handout, try and balance the equation for complete combustion

Carbon monoxide is odourless, colourless and is extremely poisonous. When it combines with blood in the bloodstream, the body is starved for oxygen, resulting in death. 

As a result of the incomplete burn, carbon is produced and that is the black coating (soot) that you see in a fireplace. 

We have become so accustomed to using fossil fuels that it is difficult to realize or remember where these fuels are being used and what their purpose is. These fossil fuels are used to:

• heat our homes

• provide electricity for industry

• generate electric energy

• generate energy for cars and trucks

As a result of this burning or combustion, millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere. As a result of these CO2 emissions, there is an abundance in the atmosphere. Plants and living creatures produce these as well as water vapours and methane. These are part of a classification of greenhouse gases. 

What other greenhouse gases are there have you heard of?

Primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere:

• water vapour

• carbon dioxide

• methane

• nitrous oxide

• ozone

So what is the big deal with greenhouse gases?

Natural greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, preventing heat from escaping into space. This allows for earth to maintain an average global temperature of +15℃. If this natural barrier was not present, the average temperature would be much colder (approximate -18℃). 

It is easy to assume that carbon dioxide is the big contributor to air pollution, but there are many other pollutants found in the air that cause harm to living things and the environment. 

pollutants - a substance that is present in concentrations that may harm organisms (humans, plants, and animals) or exceed an environmental quality standard. 

OECD: Glossary of Statistical Terms

Those living in or around locations with higher levels of pollution may be prone to asthma, headaches, and irritations of the eyes, nose, and throat. These can aggravate heart and lung conditions, as well. 

When these air pollutants combine with each other, acid precipitation is produced, or rainwater becomes more acidic. This is known as acid deposition.

acid deposition - the accumulation of acids or acidic compounds on the surface of the Earth, in water, on objects, or on vegetation near the Earth surface. 

Cars emit exhaust that contains nitrogen oxides, which react with rainwater to form nitric acid. 

Smokestacks found in factories release sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which react with rainwater to make acid deposition. 

4.2: Acid-Base Reactions