Topic 9 – Air Pollution

Spring 2012
 Fundamentals of Air Pollution

 Ideal gas law PV = nRT

 R = universal gas constant = 8.314 J/K.mole
 V = volume occupied by 1 mole of gas = 44.414L
 Temperature = 273.15K and Pressure = 101.325Pa
 Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressure – the total pressure
exerted by a mixture of gas is equal to the sum of
the pressures that each type of gas would exert if it
alone occupied the container
 In mathematical terms:
Pt = P1 + P2 + P3 = n1RT/V + n2RT/V + n3RT/V
P1,P2,P3 are the partial pressures
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 Natural Sources of Pollution

 Particle sources  Gaseous sources

 Pollen grains  Pine tree emission
 Fungal spores  Bacterial sulfur
 Salt spray emission
 Forest fire smoke  Nitrogen oxides
 Volcano emission  Methane
 Wind in dusty areas

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 Sources of Air Pollution
 Carbon Monoxide
 Fossil fuel burning, industrial processes and solid waste
 Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs)
 EPA identified a long list of sources of HAPs
 Lead
 Volcanic activity and airborne soil activity
 Nitrogen Dioxide
 Combustion process contributes
 Photochemical Oxidants
 Sulfur Oxides
 Coal based power plants
 Particulates
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 Pollution Sources

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 Air Quality Standards

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 Anthropogenic Air Pollution

 Stationary Combustion  Transportation

 Electricity generation Combustion
 Home heating  Cars
 Energy sources  Internal combustion very
 Natural gas inefficient – heavy
pollution loads
 Coal
 Fuel oil
 Trains
 Electricity can be used,
 Wood
mostly rely on diesel
 Pollution types  Boats
 CO2
 Diesel, turbines, nuclear
 Sulfur
 Particulates
 Airplanes
 Location (upper
 Hydrocarbons
atmosphere) especially
 Nitrogen oxides harmful

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 Effect on Vegetation
 Cell and leaf anatomy
 The effect of vegetation can
be through the implication on
leafs
 Pollutant damage
 Specific pollutants can cause
damage to specific types of
trees
 Problems of diagnosis
 It is typically very difficult to
diagnose air pollution effect
on vegetation
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 Effects of Air Pollution
Material Human Health
 Mechanisms of  Threshold: some pollutants
Deterioration have no effect until a
 Abrasion certain limit is reached
 Sand, firearm lead  Total body burden: some
 Deposition and removal air pollutants enter humans
 Particulates settling on by other routes as well
buildings  Synergism: the combined
 Direct chemical attack effect is greater than the
 Solubilization and sum of the individual parts
oxidation alone
 Indirect chemical attack  Time versus Dosage: the
 Pollutant is absorbed, effects of concentration and
combines with adsorbent
to become destructive time

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 Acid Rain
 Unpolluted rain is normally acidic with pH around 5.6
 Due to pollution (SOx, NOx, COx, VOCs), rainwater can
have pH as low as 3.0
 Consequence – negative effects on aquatic life, damage to
crops and forests, damage to building materials

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 Ozone Depletion
 Ozone helps in keeping the planet cool by providing a barrier
to UV rays of the sun
 Too much O3 can cause skin cancer
 Ban the use of chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs)
 The OZONE HOLE

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 Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)

 The GHGs absorb the sun heat and act like the glass
in a greenhouse
 Typical GHGs – CO2, methane, nitrous oxide
(N2O), CFCs, water vapor

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 Trends of Major GHGs

Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Major_greenhouse_gas_trends.png

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 Inversion

 When temperature
increases with
elevation, the
condition is called
an inversion
 It is the most severe
form of stable
temperature profile

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 Fate of Air Pollution
 Air pollution can be
 Minimized: process reductions or improved efficiency
in the cause of pollution
 Example: cleaner-burning gasoline engines, or switching
from sludge incineration to land application
 Removed: using additional technology to clean the
pollutant from emission gases
 An electrostatic precipitator for the vent gases
 Emitted and dispersed: allowing pollution to enter the
atmosphere, where it’ll spread out over a wider area,
gradually decreasing in concentration
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 Dispersion of Air Pollution
 The spread of pollution is horizontal and vertical
 The concentration at any point is related to the probability

that a particle will disperse there

 Follows Gaussian Dispersion

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 Stability Categories

 Conditions affect the

atmospheric stability
 Wind
 Day/night thermal
effects (solar radiation)
 Stability categories
 A=very unstable
atmospheric conditions
 F=very stable
atmospheric conditions

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 Gaussian Dispersion Model

H =effective stack height (m)

ΔH = plume rise (m)
h = physical stack height (m)
vs = stack velocity (m/s)
d = stack diameter (m)
u = wind speed (m/s)
Ts = stack temperature (K)
Ta = air temperature (K)
P = pressure (kPa)

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 Gaussian Dispersion Model

x = ground level concentration of

pollutant at a point (x,y) downwind
from stack (g/m3)
E = emission rate of pollutant (g/s)
sy and sz = plume standard deviations
(m)
u = wind speed (m/s)
x,y,z,H = distances, m

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Stability Categories

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 Graphical Representation of Dispersion Coefficient

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 Example
 It has been estimated that  Stack parameters
the emission of SO2 from a  Height = 120 m
coal-fired power plant is
 Diameter = 1.20 m
1656.2 g/s. At 3 km
downwind on an overcast  Exit velocity = 10 m/s
summer afternoon, what is  Temperature = 3150C
the centerline concentration  Atmospheric
of SO2 if the wind speed is
conditions
4.5 m/s? (Note:
“centerline” implies y=0.)  Pressure = 95 kPa
 Temperature = 250C

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 Indoor Air Pollution

 People in extreme climates may spend 70-90% of

their time indoors
 Sources of air pollution
 Heating furnace (Carbon monoxide)
 Gas stoves (nitrogen oxides)
 Earth gas seepage (radon)
 Glues, paints, solvents (VOCs)
 Cigarette smoke

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 Indoor Air Quality Model
Rate of Rate of Rate of Rate of
Rate of
increase = entry from + indoor - discharge/ -
decay
in box outside production leakage to
outside

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 Indoor Air Quality Model..contd

Steady State (rates constant with to

time)

Conservative Pollutant

Q = ventilation flow rate, m3/s

C = concentration in room, g/m3
Ca =concentration in ventilation air, g/m3
E = pollutant emission, g/s
k = decay constant, s-1
V = room volume, m3

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 Indoor Air Quality: Example
 The emission rate of radon into a 4m x 8m x 4m basement is 38
mg/s. Concentration in the ventilation air is 85 mg/m3 and the
ventilation rate is 100 L/min. k (radon) = 2.11E-6 s-1
 What is the concentration of radon in the basement when

conditions reach steady state?

 What ventilation rate is required to get the conc. below 500

μg/m3?

  4m  8m  4m  128m 3
Q  100 L / min  0.1m 3 / s  0.001667 m 3 / s
E  38g / s
Ca  85g / m 3
k  2.11 10 6 / s

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 Problem Solution
Part1
QC a  E
C
Q  k

C
0.001667m / s 85g / m   38g / s
3 3

0.001667 m / s  2.11 10 / s 128m 

3 6 3

 19835g / m 3

Part 2
QC a  E
C
Q  k

500g / m 
3  
Q 85g / m3  38g / s

Q  2.1110 6 / s 128m3 
Q  5474 L / min

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 Air Pollution Control

 Eliminating the source of pollution is often the

easiest way to control the pollution itself
 This can be cheaper than removing the polluting
compounds
 example: decommissioning sludge incineration in favor
of land application
 Removal efficiency:
 Separation of pollutant from air

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 Air Pollution Control: Absorption

 Diffusion of the
pollutant gas to the
surface of the liquid
 Transfer across the
gas/liquid interface
 Diffusion of the
dissolved gas away
from the interface into
the liquid
 Ex: spray chamber

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 Air Pollution Control: Adsorption

 Same concept as water

treatment
 Activated carbon is
used as adsorbent
 Fixed bed columns are
used
 Systems become
ineffective once it
reach breakthrough

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 Combustion

 If contaminant gas is
oxidizable to an inert
gas, combustion is a
method of control
 CO and hydrocarbons
 Catalytic materials
are used for oxidation
 Direct flame
incineration

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 Control Technologies for Nitrogen Oxides

 Prevention
 Reducing the temperature during combustion process
helps keeping the formation at a low level
 Post combustion
 Selective catalytic reduction
 Selective noncatalytic reduction
 Nonselective catalytic reduction

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 Other Technologies

 Cyclones
 Remove large particulates
 Filters
 Remove small particles
 Liquid scrubbing
 Helpful for corrosive and
hot particulates

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 Other Technologies

 Electrostatic
precipitation
 High efficiency, dry
collection of particles
from hot gas streams
can be obtained by
electrostatic
precipitation of the
particles

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 Air Pollution Control of Mobile Sources
 Blowby
 The flow of air is directed in order to rid it of any gas-air

mixture that has blown past the pistons, any evaporated

lubricating oil, and any escaped exhaust products.
 Fuel tank evaporation losses
 Using adsorber

 Engine exhaust
 An external catalytic reactor is placed in the exhaust

system
 Inspection/Maintenance Programs

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