Friday, September 20

How gasoline affects the environment


Cómo la gasolina afecta al medio ambiente
Gasoline is one of the compounds that generates the most polluting emissions.

Photo: Artem Podrez / Pexels

According to Rastreator, during its combustion in a vehicle, gasoline produces several types of highly polluting components : carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and unburned hydrocarbons. The former are closely related to global warming, but the others are associated with respiratory and skin diseases due to their corrosive effect, the consequences of which end up being seen in the long term.

The gasoline we currently use is derived from oil and is obtained from its refining. According to ABC, it is a fuel composed of carbon and hydrogen molecules and represents only one of the different compounds that can be extracted in said refining process. From Its first uses at the end of the 19th century, this substance took center stage because it represented, by itself, the beginning of a new era. It was responsible for the revolution generated by the internal combustion engine, which was quite unstable in its beginnings due to the premature state of this fuel to which, later, additives would be added to control its detonation capacity.

However, gasoline, which for that historical moment was a revolutionary fuel associated with progress, today represents one of the most polluting compounds , but also one of the most harmful to public health. Despite the fact that in the past the sale of this compound with lead-based additives was prohibited, that was not enough to stop the destructive power that this fuel exerts. in exchange for offering energy .

In recent years, vehicles Electric vehicles are no longer an alternative to become the future . This phenomenon was much more accentuated with the COVID pandemic than, despite generating several problems in the automotive industry such as the shortage of chips , ended up accelerating the energy transformation process that had been taking place slowly for some years. Several are the companies that have committed to electrify their production in the near future, but amid all this promising outlook there is one truth: there is a long way to go before this complete transformation takes place and fossil fuels are abandoned as an energy source. . Meanwhile, internal combustion vehicles that work with gasoline and other fluids continue to exist and continue to generate tons of emissions per year.

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