From past few years, atmospheric acidity is increasing rapidly. There are many factors that influence it including climate change in different regions of the globe. Emission of CO2 is on the rise and due to this, the organic acid converts into formic acid.
The fuel burning is one of the root cause for it as it goes into the clouds through which acid rains comes out and can harm individuals, monuments and other things severely. This growth of PH level in rain can be optimized but it needs a lot of research, analysis and study. Even though the formation of formic acid is not well understood, we can easily fill this gap if we can understand the process and its mechanism.
In Germany, we know acid rain, especially from our experience in the 1980s, the cause of which was that nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides released by humans into the atmosphere reacted with water droplets in clouds to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Acid rain has a pH of around 4.2-4.8, which is lower than that of pure rainwater (5.5-5.7), which is a result of the natural carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. However, the chemical process that forms most of the formic acid present in the atmosphere was previously unknown, according to Dr. Bruno Franco and Dr.Domenico taraborrelli from the Jülich Institute for Energy and Climate Research.
The troposphere has now found out Formaldehyde is created naturally through photo oxidation of volatile organic compounds. Formaldehyde reacts in cloud droplets with water molecules to form methanediol. It reacts with OH radicals, sometimes referred to as “atmospheric detergents” in a photochemical process to produce formic acid. A smaller part reacts with the liquid phase of the water droplets to form formic acid, which is scattered by the rain. According to our calculations, the oxidation of methanediol in the gas phase produces up to four times more formic acid than other known chemical processes in the atmosphere. Additionally, the high level of PH in rain can ruin the soil fertility, causing a great harm to farmers’ community because every soil has its certain limit, PH wise. It can destroy the rate of crop growth and reduce the production level.
