In the United States, coal is a fossil fuel, used mainly to fuel the energy needed for electric power plants to manufacture electricity. The air pollution caused by burning coal has been linked to health problems and concerns for the general population. Mobile phones and portable electronic devices are rechargeable and mainly use lithium batteries as a power source. These devices must be regularly charged on a continuing basis, depending upon their frequency of use. They are often charged using the electricity generated from coal fired electric power plants. In this exercise, we will discuss the relationship between portable electronic device use, and the amount of mercury produced from burning coal to make the electricity associated with running these portable devices on a regular basis.
For your final group presentation as a group online assignment through Blackboard, you are to submit a 20 slide powerpoint presentation that includes the following things.
Find a relationship between electricity produced from a coal fired electric power plant and the amount of coal that must be burned to produce this electricity.
Discuss the Lithium battery used to power these portable electronic devices.
Discuss how recharging works
From your group, pick 3 mobile phones, and/or portable devices that are rechargeable. Estimate (using resources and available data), how much electricity that is used to charge them on a weekly basis
From the above information, determine how much electricity is used towards powering and maintaining these devices for an average month.
Estimate how much coal must be burned to produce this monthly amount of electricity
Write the formula for the combustion of coal and its toxic components (namely mercury). From the coal estimated that is needed to power these devices for a month, calculate the total amount of mercury that will be produced from this reaction
Discuss the link between mercury contamination of the atmosphere and portable electronic device use
Discuss the impact of mercury and its toxic side effects on our environmental health (see the attached for a rubric of the requirements for this assignment)