Coal pollution mitigation Since air is mostly nitrogen, combustion of coal often leads to production of nitrogen oxides. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are primary causes of acid rain. For many years--before greenhouse gasses were widely understood to be a threat-- it was thought that these by-products were the only drawback to using coal. These by-products are still a problem, but they have been greatly diminished in most advanced countries due to clean air regulations. It is possible to remove most of the sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen oxides (NO), and particulate matter (PM) emissions from the coal-burning process. For example, various techniques are
Titanium dioxide nitrogen oxides. A cement that uses titanium dioxide as a photocatalytic component, produced by Italcementi Group, was included in Time Magazine's Top 50 Inventions of 2008. Attempts have been made to photocatalytically mineralize pollutants (to convert into CO and HO) in waste water. TiO offers great potential as an industrial technology for detoxification or remediation of wastewater due to several factors: The photocatalytic destruction of organic matter is also exploited in photocatalytic antimicrobial coatings, which are typically thin films applied to furniture in hospitals and other surfaces susceptible to be contaminated with bacteria, fungi and viruses. Although TiO pigment does