When you burn fossil fuel, you're combining the carbon it contains with oxygen in the air to release heat. However, the process also creates byproducts that are potentially dangerous. In addition, the usual fuels used in transportation, such as gasoline or diesel, aren't a single substance, but a chemical soup of ingredients such as butane, propane, xylene and benzene.
Carbon based petrochimical products are broken up in combustion to form, among many other products, carcon dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and very fine particulates. In addition, unburned hydrocarbons, some of which evaporate directly from the gas thanks of cars and trucks, escape before and after combustion and join other VOCs in the air
When sufficient concentration of sulphur and nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons builds up in the atmosphere and is bombarded by sunlight, a complez series of chemicals, including nitrogen dioxide and ozone. Also, very fine acidic particles are formed, such as sulphates and nitrates. These fine particulates are so small they are drawn deep into our lungs, causing stress to our cardiopulmonary system.
To understand these byproducts, it is useful to consider how they're used in more concentrated form by industry. Nitrogen dioxide is a poisonous brown gas used as a catalyst and oxydizing agent. Nitric acid is a
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