GOLLIS UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Engineering
Departments of Civil Engineering

Environmental Engineering

Semester 8th 2015

Lecturer : Eng.Abdifatah Omar Abdillahi

Air Pollution
 AIR POLLUTION
It is an atmospheric condition in which certain
substances are present in concentrations which can
cause undesirable effects on man and his
environment.
These substances include gases, particulate matter,
radioactive substances etc.
Gaseous pollutants include oxides of sulphur (mostly
SO2, SO3)
oxides of nitrogen (mostly NO and
NO2 or NOx), carbon monoxide(CO),
volatile organic compounds (mostly
hydrocarbons) etc.
Particulate pollutants include smoke,
dust, soot, fumes, aerosols, liquid
droplets, pollen grains etc.
Radioactive pollutants include radon-222, iodine-
131, strontium- 90, plutonium-239 etc.

Sources of Air Pollution

A. Natural Sources: The natural sources of air
pollution are volcanic eruptions, forest fires, sea
salt sprays, etc
B. Man-made: Man made sources include thermal
power plants, industrial units, vehicular
emissions, fossil fuel burning, etc.
 Indoor Air Pollution
Many houses in the under-developed and
developing countries including Somaliland use
fuels like coal, dung-cakes, wood and kerosene in
their kitchens. Complete combustion of fuel
produces carbon dioxide which may not be toxic.
However, incomplete combustion produces the
toxic gas carbon monoxide.
 Effects of air pollution
Air pollution has adverse effects on living organisms
and materials.
a) On Human Health :Years of exposure to air
pollutants (including cigarette smoke) adversely
affect these natural defenses and can result in
lung cancer, asthma, etc
b) Effects on Plants: Air pollutants affect plants by
entering through stomata (leaf pores through
which gases diffuse), destroy chlorophyll and
affect photosynthesis. Pollutants also erode
waxy coating of the leaves
c) On aquatic life : cause high acidity (lower pH) in
fresh water lakes.
d) On materials : Because of their corrosiveness,
particulates can cause damage to exposed
surfaces.
 Major Air Pollutants

1) Particulates

Classification of Particulates
• Dust
– entrained by process gases directly from the material
being handled or processed (coal, ash, cement)
– direct offspring of a parent material undergoing a
mechanical operation (sawdust from woodworking)
– entrained materials used in mechanical operation
(sand from sandblasting)
– large diameters (cement – 100 )
• Fume
– formed by the condensation of vapors by sublimation,
distillation, calcinations or chemical reaction processes
(lead oxide from condensation and oxidation of metal
volatilized in a high temperature process)
– small diameters (0.03 to 0.3 )

• Mist
– entrained liquid particle formed by the condensation
of a vapor and perhaps by chemical reaction
– large diameters (0.5 to 3.0 )
• Smoke
– entrained solid particles formed as a result of
incomplete combustion of carbonaceous materials
– small diameters (0.05 to 1 )

• Spray
– liquid particle formed by the atomization of a parent
liquid
– large diameters (10 to 1000 )
 Gaseous Pollutants

 substances that are gases at normal temperature

and pressure
 vapors of substances that liquid or solid at normal
temperature and pressure
 SIGNIFICANCE AS
NAME PROPERTIES
POLLUTANT
Sulfur dioxide, SO2 Colorless; highly Damage to property,
soluble in water health and vegetation
Sulfur trioxide, SO3 Soluble in water Highly corrosive
Hydrogen sulfide, H2S Rotten egg odor at Highly poisonous
low conc; odorless at
high conc
Nitrous oxide, N2O Colorless; used in Relatively inert; not
aerosol bottles produced in combustion
Nitric oxide, NO Colorless Produced during high
temp, high pressure
comb; oxidizes to NO2
Nitrogen dioxide, NO2 Brown to orange Major component in the
formation of
photochemical smog
Carbon monoxide, CO Colorless and odorless Product of incomplete
combustion, poisonous
Carbon dioxide, CO2 Colorless and odorless Formed during complete
combustion;
greenhouse gas
Oxone, O3 Highly reactive Damage to vegetation
and property; produced
during the formation of
photochemical smog
Hydrocarbons, HC Emitted from
automobiles and
industries; formed in
the atmosphere
Methane, CH4 Combustible; odorless Greenhouse gas
Chlorofluorocarbons, Nonreactive, excellent Dplete ozone in upper
CFC thermal properties atmosphere
 Composition of Air

GAS %VOL
N2
78.09

O2 20.94
Ar
0.93

CO2 0.03

He, Ne, Kr, Xe 0.03

CH4 0.00015

H2 0.00005
Air pollution Measurements
 Air Quality Air Quality Index Protect Your Health
Good 0-50 No health impacts are expected when
air quality is in this range.

Moderate 51-100 Unusually sensitive people should

consider limiting prolonged outdoor
exertion.

Unhealthy for 101-150 Active children and adults, and people

Sensitive Groups with respiratory disease, such as
asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor
exertion.

Unhealthy 151-200
Active children and adults, and people
with respiratory disease, such as
asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor
exertion, everyone else, especially
children should limit prolonged outdoor
excertion.

Very Unhealthy (Alert)
201-300 Active children and adults, and people
with respiratory disease, such as
asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor
exertion everyone else, especially
children, should limit outdoor exertion.
 5 Major Pollutants:
1.) Carbon Monoxide
2) Sulfur Dioxide
3) Nitrogen Dioxide
4) Particulate Matter
5) Ground Level Ozone
These 5 together form SMOG which is Combination of gases with water vapor
and dust or Combination of words smoke and fog
• Forms when heat and sunlight react gases (photochemical smog)
• Occurs often with heavy traffic, high temperatures, and calm winds
National Ambient Air Quality Standards
MEASUREMENT OF PARTICULATE MATTER
To measure the particulate matter in the air we use
high volume sampler
 high volume sampler
• It operates much like a
vacuum cleaner by pumping
air at a high rate through a
filter.
• sampling time can be cut to
between 6 hours and 24
hours
• Analysis is gravimetric: The
filter is weighed before and
after the sampling period; the
weight of particles collected is
then the difference between
these two weights.
Air flow through the filter is measured
with a flow meter, usually calibrated in
cubic feet of air per minute.
Because the filter collects dirt during its
hour of operation, less air passes through
it during the latter part of the test than in
the beginning, and the air flow must
therefore be measured at the start and the
end of the test period and the values
averaged.
 Example

Solution :
Problem 1
 Control of Particulates
Cyclones
The cyclone is a popular, economical, and effective
means of controlling particulates.
 dirty air enters the cyclone off-center at
the bottom; a violent swirl of air is thus
created in the cone and particles are
accelerated centrifugally toward the
wall.
 Friction at the wall slows the particles
and they slide to the bottom, where
they can be collected.
 and clean air exits at the center of the
top of the cone.
 Cyclones are reasonably efficient for
large particle collection and are widely
used as the first stage of dust removal.
 Fabric Filters
Fabric filters used for controlling particulate
matter operate like a vacuum cleaner.
• Dirty gas is blown or
sucked through a fabric
filter bag, which collects
the dust.
• The dust is removed
periodically when the bag
is shaken.
• Fabric filters can be very
efficient collectors for
even sub-micron-sized
particles and are widely
used in industrial
applications.
 Electrostatic Precipitators
• Electrostatic precipitators are widely used to trap
fine particulate matter in applications where a
large amount of gas needs treatment and where
a wet scrubber is not appropriate.
Effectiveness of Air Pollution Control
Devices
 MEASUREMENT OF GASES
There are methods for measuring the
concentration of gaseous air pollutants are simple
and use no power, to provide a quantitative
measure of concentration. Two of the most
ingenious devices were developed to measure
ozone (03) and SO2.
Second-generation devices are much faster,
requiring hours rather than days of sampling, and
they usually involve a gas bubbler
 GAS BUBBLER
Gas Bubbler is used to measure the Gas pollutants
• The air sample is bubbled through a
solution that reacts chemically with the
particular gaseous pollutant being
measured. The concentration is then
measured with further wet chemical
techniques. For example, SO2 may be
measured by bubbling air through
hydrogen peroxide, so that the
following reaction occurs:

The amount of sulfuric acid formed can

then be determined by titrating against
a base of known concentration
 Measurement of Gases Using Visibility
Visibility Measurement can be through :

Reduction of visibility due to water droplets

(fog), gases (NO2) and small particulates

reduction of visibility by adsorbing the light or

by scattering the light
 CONTROL OF GASEOUS POLLUTANTS

Gaseous pollutants may be removed from the

effluent stream:
 by trapping
 by chemical change,
 or by a change in the process that produces
them.
 Wet Scrubber
dissolves gaseous pollutants in water (or solution)
The wet scrubbers can remove pollutants by
dissolving them in the scrubber solution.
SO2 and NO2 in power plant off-gases are often
controlled in this way.
Wet Scrubber
 2. Incineration or flaring
Incineration or flaring is used when an organic
pollutant can be oxidized to CO2 and water, or
in oxidizing H2S to SO2
Effectiveness of Air Pollution Control
Devices
Problem 1
Problem 2