Urban Air Pollution and Control

J He, K Chen, and J Xu, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, PR China
Ó 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Adverse impacts of urban air pollution have been extensively studied and reported worldwide. They can be traced to the industrial
revolution in 18th century in England. In December 1952, the most notorious incident, the Great Smog occurred in London and
lasted for 5 days. This disaster led to over 4000 people died with tens of thousands sickened (Rodriguez, 2014). From 1940s to
1960s, people in Los Angeles breathed some of the dirtiest air in the world due to the photochemical smog. Therefore, those
countries then enacted standards and regulations in succession to deal with the air pollution. Currently, developing countries
(e.g., China, India, and countries in the Southeast Asia) have retraced the same situation of air pollution associated with rapid
urbanization, which also contributed to increasing industrial waste production and energy use. The not-well-planned urbanization
and growing population intensity have enhanced both emission and concentrations of major air pollutants in these countries.
Though various contaminants are ubiquitously available, PM, SOx, NOx, and VOCs are considered the major types of pollutants
in urban atmosphere, because they pose great threats to human being’s health, vegetation (agriculture in particular), global
atmospheric environment (e.g., climate change, photochemical smog, ozone depletion, acid rain, etc.), and human property.
The deleterious health effects of exposure to these air pollutants have been most concerning to the public. Air pollutants get
into human body mainly through breathing, which could lead to reduction in lung function, respiratory diseases (e.g., cardiovas-
cular, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc.) and cause life-expectancy shortening or even premature death by short- and long-term exposure.
Visibility impairment is another impact of air pollution, which results from light scattering and absorption of particles and gaseous
molecules suspended in the air (Friedlander, 1977). In addition, crops and fruit trees get lesser solar irradiation due to the
long-lasting haze events, which would eventually compromise photosynthesis process and result in decline of agricultural yield.
The global climate change (especially the greenhouse effect) is another environmental impact of air pollution. As greenhouse
gases (CO2 and CH4) increase in the atmosphere, the heat radiation of long wave infrared ray can be reradiated and trapped within
the atmosphere, contributing to temperature increase of earth’s surface eventually. The ozone layer, contained in stratosphere,
protects living organisms from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. However, it has reduced by 3.4% in average total
ozone over Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude since 1979 (Franek and DeRose, 2003). The thinner the ozone layer, the more UV
radiation can reach the Earth. UV radiation has suppression to immune system and causes skin cancer. Damage of human property
is another side effect of urban air pollution as the acidic aerosols/gases deposition can corrode cultural treasures of national heritage,
such as outdoor art (statues and sculptures) and historic architecture.
These air pollutants are emitted through various processes, which can be divided into stationary sources like industrial facilities,
as well as mobile sources, including road transportation. The main objective of this article is to introduce various prevention
methods as well as end-of-pipe treatments of PM, SOx, NOx, and VOCs, respectively, from different sources. A brief introduction
of aforementioned each pollutant category is followed here.

Particulate Matter
Particulate matters (PMs) are the complex mixtures that are present in solid or liquid form, which can also suspend in the atmo-
sphere. Some of them are dark or large enough to be seen, such as smoke, soot, dirt, dust, and liquid droplets, however, others are so
small that they have to be detected with electron microscope.
PM is divided into coarse and fine particles. Coarse particle refers to all the PM with their aerodynamic diameter equal or less
than 10 mm (PM10) and greater than 2.5 mm (PM2.5), while fine particle normally refers to PM2.5 only. Exposure to air with high
concentration particles, especially PM2.5, would cause severe effect on human health, as they could penetrate into our deep
respiratory system to induce physiological damage to some extent.
PM in urban areas derives from various emission sources. Fine particles originate from power plant, industrial facilities, and
vehicle exhaust of fuel combustion. Sources of coarse particles involve road fugitive, construction dust, and windblown dust.
Some of them are emitted directly into the atmosphere from their sources, such as black carbon are regarded as the primary pollut-
ants, while others, such as SO2, NOx, VOCs, can react with existing primary pollutants in the air to form fine particles that could be
categorized as secondary aerosols.

Sulfur Oxides (SOx)

SOx are a type of colorless and acid gas with pungent odor (Hickey et al., 2014). Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is the precursor of acid rain
and atmospheric PMs. It can be easily oxidized to sulfur trioxide (SO3) photo-chemically or catalytically in atmosphere when the air
becomes polluted with SO2. SO3 can then be converted into sulfuric acid mist in the condition of water vapor and form sulfate
aerosols combined with other basic oxides. Sulfates and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) containing droplets could contribute up to
5%–20% of total suspended particles in urban air. SO2 is produced mainly from combustion (burning S-containing fossil fuels),
smelting S-containing ores, sulfuric acid manufacturing, and petroleum refining. The fuel combustion in power plants, especially

Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies, Volume 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.10182-4 243

244 Urban Air Pollution and Control

firing coal, emits majority of SO2. Exposure to SO2 may cause health problems through inhalation, skin/eye contact, ingestion, etc.
as it is acidic, reactive, and irritative.

Nitric Oxides (NOx)

Nitric oxides (NOx) refer to nitrogen monoxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and other oxides of nitrogen. NO is a colorless and
free radical gas and deemed as an important intermediate in chemical industry, while NO2 is a reddish-brown toxic and highly
reactive gas with biting odor oxidized from NO. NO2 is not only considered as major air pollutant itself, but also plays a key
role in photochemical smog. NOx oxidized in the atmosphere and captured by moisture is to form acid rain and can also react
with atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of UV light to form ozone.
Combustion processes with high temperature, which occur in automobiles and industrial boilers, are the major sources of urban
NOx emissions. Moreover, indoor emissions, such as gas stoves and home heaters, also produce considerable amounts of NOx.
Besides the nitrogen contained in the fuel, N2 in the air is the main elemental nitrogen source for the formation of NOx. Exposure
to the atmospheric NOx of high concentration can damage the respiratory tract and the body’s immune system, increasing a person’s
susceptibility to infection.

Volatile Organic Compounds

VOCs refer to those organic compounds with high vapor pressure at ordinary atmospheric temperature, which could easily evap-
orate from the liquid or solid form of this compound to enter the atmosphere. VOCs including nonmethane hydrocarbons
(NMHCs) are important species present in the environment, which results in alteration of the atmospheric chemistry. On the global
scale natural emissions of VOCs exceed anthropogenic emissions, although the latter usually dominate within urban areas. Among
the natural sources, vegetation is the dominant source and the main compound is isoprene; the rest are from animals, microbes,
fungi, etc. The major anthropogenic sources for VOCs emissions are biomass burning, transportation, industrial processes, organic
solvents, and stationary sources, among which primary source of VOCs was found to be various combustions and gasoline evap-
oration as per the studies in 43 Chinese cities conducted in 2001 (Barletta et al., 2005). VOCs especially NMHCs play a significant
role in ozone (O3) production in the presence of adequate concentration of oxides of nitrogen in the atmosphere (Kansal, 2009). In
addition, many of VOCs are deemed as irritant gases, which can cause eye, nose, throat irritation, dizziness, and headaches in the
short term while cancer or some other chronic diseases in the long term.

Air Pollution Control Technologies

The atmosphere has a self-cleansing mechanism to disperse or remove pollutants once they are emitted into it. Dispersion does not
really eliminate the pollutants but it is still beneficial to improving air quality due to the concentration reduction of various pollut-
ants close to the ground level, which is generally dependent on the meteorological conditions. As for the self-cleansing, there are
mainly two processes involved in the atmosphere including natural deposition and conversion of pollutants to other forms by
natural physico-chemical reactions.
However, such a mechanism only works when the emission intensity and quantity is lower than the atmospheric self-cleansing
capacity, which is not really true in both developed and developing regions and countries. Hence, to protect the air quality, a series
of air pollution control technologies have been developed and used in industry, for which a few of the principles have been applied.
The first is basically to minimize the generation of pollutants at the beginning of industrial processes, which is also termed as pollu-
tion prevention. The second approach is chemical transformation or destruction after the pollutant species have already formed.
This process is to convert pollutants into less or nonreactive or harmless species prior to their emission. A number of methods
to control VOCs via thermal/catalytic oxidation are based on this principle. The third is capture or separation, which remove pollut-
ants from exhaust gas before being emitted into the atmosphere, such as absorption and adsorption technologies.
This section highlights and discusses key engineering control equipment and processes for mitigating primary air pollutants (e.g.,
PM, SOx, NOx, and VOCs), removal efficiency, and overall pros and cons of their performance.

Control Methods of PM
Gravity settling chambers, cyclones, wet scrubbers, fabric filters, and electrostatic precipitation are widely applied to control the PMs
emitted from stationary sources, while diesel particulate filters (DPFs) are used to control it from mobile sources.

Processes for stationary sources

Gravity settling chamber
The settling chambers are the oldest and simplest devices, which rely on gravitational settling as a mechanism to collect solid partic-
ulates from gas stream. The settling chambers are commonly constructed in the form of horizontal and long box-like chamber with
an inlet at one end and an outlet at the top or side of the opposite end as shown in Fig. 1. The carrier gas needs to pass at a sufficiently
low velocity. The solid particulates, which have higher density than the surrounding gas, settle on the base of the chamber through
 Urban Air Pollution and Control 245

Fig. 1 Schematics of gravitational settling chamber (Meikap et al., 2012).

gravity influence, and then be collected and removed by dust hoppers in the bottom. Uniform flow within the chamber should be
ensured, which can be improved by flow straighteners at the inlet to the chamber. The dust removal system must be sealed to
prevent the turbulence increasing and dust reentrainment of settled particulates caused by air leakage into the chamber (Franek
and DeRose, 2003).
The efficiency of gravity settling chambers increases with the residence time of the flow in it. Therefore, gravity settling chamber
can be operated at the possible lowest flow velocity. In reality, however, the flow velocity must be low enough to prevent dust reen-
trainment (less than approximately 3 m s
1), but not so low to make the chamber become unreasonably large (less than around
0.5 m s
1 for acceptable efficiency). An analysis of the gravity-settling chamber elucidates that the proper gas velocity of solid
particulates moving along the chamber and settlement follows the Stoke’s law.
The gravity settling chamber is most effective for collecting dense and large particle matters. Gravitational force can be applied to
settle solid particles when the settling velocity is larger than approximately 0.13 m s
1. Overall, this applies to particles larger than
50 mm when the particle density is low, down to 10 mm when the dust density is reasonably high. Therefore, gravity settling chamber
is always considered as precleaners due to its high efficiency in removing only large particles, and frequently applied in combination
with other control equipment.
The gravity settling chamber benefits from its low energy and maintenance cost, dry and continuous disposal of solid particu-
lates, and low pressure drop through devices. Whereas, it requires large physical space, and has collection efficiencies for fine
particles.

Cyclone
The cyclone is a popular and effective device for particulate removal from air, gas, or liquid stream. It is also referred to as cyclonic
separator, inertial separator, and centrifugal separator. It depends on inertia for its action to remove dust from the gas flow without
filters and is made up of the vertically placed cylinders and an inverted cone attached to its base (Fig. 2).
Cyclone creates the gas path as a double vortex in the cyclone body. The dusty gas flow is forced into a rotating motion
downward. As the particulates have relatively greater mass than air molecules, greater force is required to keep them rotating,
thus the heavy particulates without such force in the cyclonic chamber start to diverge from air flow and strike the inner surface
of cyclone walls. Then these heavy particulates slide along conical portion by gravity and are collected in dust hopper. The clean
gas flow eventually spirals upward along the center spiral of the cyclone and exits through the outlet pipe.

Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of cyclone.

246 Urban Air Pollution and Control

The collection efficiency of cyclone varies from different design factors. The smaller diameter of cyclone body, the higher
efficiency for a given pressure drop. The efficiency is higher than 90% for particulates removal with aerodynamic diameter of
10 mm, while approximately 95% for 20 mm or above. Therefore, the cyclone is mostly applied to control coarse, abrasive PMs larger
than 10 mm in aerodynamic diameter and considered as pretreatment equipment (Peng et al., 2002). The cyclone efficiency also
increases with inlet flow velocity, length of cyclone body, dust loading, number of gas revolutions in the cyclone, and smoothness
of the cyclone inner wall.
The cyclones have advantages of their low operating and maintenance costs, relatively low space requirement compared to
gravity settling chambers, low pressure drop, and no moving parts. The disadvantages, however, are the low removal efficiency
for particles with aerodynamic diameter below 10 mm and the severe abrasive deterioration of equipment.

Wet scrubber
The wet scrubber uses a down falling stream to remove solid particulates from flue gas. Since the principle of all the wet scrubbers is
similar, and the categories of them are difficult to devise due to the complexity and varied operation methods, venturi scrubber as
the most typical type of wet scrubbers will be introduced in detail. Venturi scrubber performs high collection efficiency for fine
particles smaller than 2–3 mm in aerodynamic diameter, ranging from 70% to 99%. It consists of a converging section, a throat
section, and a diverging section (Fig. 3).
Firstly, the scrubbing liquid is introduced and then atomized into small droplets at either throat section or the entrance to the
converging section. The gas flow enters the converging section, and the gradually narrowed area would contribute to producing high
gas velocity and acceleration of drop–particle interaction. The speed reaches the highest in the throat section and droplets become
targets for particle capture. After throat section, the gas velocity would eventually decreases and mixture decelerates. The particles are
captured by scrubbing liquid, and the wet PMs and liquid droplets would then be separated from gas flow by cyclonic separator.
In recent decades, venturi scrubber has been paid intensive attention to controlling fine PMs emission with the merits of higher
collection efficiency, lower initial cost, neutralization of the corrosive gas and dust, and cooling down hot gas. The simultaneous
removal of both gaseous pollutants and dusts should be deemed as the major advantage of venturi scrubber compared to other
equipment (Mi and Yu, 2012), though it produces a lot of wastewater for further treatment.

Fabric filter
Filtration is considered as one of the most efficient, reliable processes in particulate removal applied in power plant, chemical
producers, and other industrial facilities. Most common types of fabric filters are the long cylindrical bags using a filter medium
made up of woven or felted fabric (Fig. 4).
Very large particles entering through inlet pipe are removed from the gas by striking baffle plate and collected in the hopper by
gravity. Then in a fabric filter, dust-laden gas passes through a tightly woven/felted fabric, and the particles from flue gas would be
collected by sieving or some other mechanisms in the fabric, which forms the dust cake inside of the bags, so as to increase collection
efficiency significantly in further removal of the particulates. Whereas, filter bags need to be cleaned periodically by shaking,
vibration, or rapping, due to their increasing air resistance of dust accumulation.
Collection efficiency would also be influenced by other factors. The selection air-to-cloth ratio is recommended to be low for
high particulate concentration. Filter media, should be resistant to temperature, chemical attack, and abrasion, although operating
conditions are essential to fabric media determination.

Fig. 3 Venturi scrubber.

 Urban Air Pollution and Control 247

Fig. 4 Fabric filter.

Fabric filter system does not require high voltage-like electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and only needs easy maintenance due to its
simplicity of operation. Collection efficiency is high (99% or better even when PM size is very small) in removing submicron aero-
sols. Moreover, the resistivity of fabric filter seems to be a good candidate to remove fly ash from low-sulfur coals or containing
unburned carbon, which is difficult to be removed by ESPs.

Electrostatic precipitator
ESP is a PM control device that applies an induced electrical force for PM moving to collection surface. The collection efficiency of
ESP is reliable about 99% for the removal of fine particles for the all kinds of contaminated gases (Alonso et al., 2006). A general ESP
is comprised of six major parts, the inlet and outlet of gas flow, high voltage, two electrodes (discharging electrode and collecting
electrode), hopper for waste collection, the electronic cleaning system, and an outer casing for enclosing the electrodes.
In ESP, the dust-laden gas stream flows horizontally through the space between two electrodes, where a high potential difference
is retained and a powerful ionizing field is formed (Fig. 5). The entrained particles are charged when passing through the ionizing
field, where gas ionization occurs and corona is created. Then the charged particles migrate to the oppositely charged collecting
electrodes by the electrostatic effect and get neutralized when deposited to collecting plate, which could be removed by washing,
acoustic blast, or mechanical rapping to hopper.
A number of factors affect collection efficiency of this device. Specific collection area, the ratio of total collection area to total gas
flow, is one of the most important factors normally ranging from 20 to 25 m2 per 1000 m3 h
1 to achieve high collection efficiency
greater than 99.5%. Collection efficiency can also be improved when increasing electric field strength to increase particle drift
velocity. Other factors, such as dust resistivity, particulate size distribution, and gas temperature, also need to be considered
when designing such a system.
ESP has been widely applied due to its high collection efficiency of particles (as small as 0.1 m) removal, with relatively low
maintenance and operating costs. Cleaning methods are simple and pressure drop is low (0.25–1.25 cm of water) (Meikap
et al., 2012). However, large space is required to deal with dirty gas of high flow rate. Potential explosive hazard would occur in
the period of collecting flammable gases or particles.

Processes for mobile sources

Diesel particulate filter
DPF is the process designed to capture diesel PM or soot physically produced from diesel engine. It has become one of the most
effective technologies for control emissions of diesel soot with the filtration efficiency of exceeding 90%, and it shows good thermal
and mechanical durability. Particles are normally removed due to deposition mechanisms. The exhaust gas flows through filter,
which consists of a fine pore ceramic structure and porous wall inside, during which the PM and soot are then deposited and
collected.

Fig. 5 Cutaway view of large modern ESP.

248 Urban Air Pollution and Control

DPF can accumulate PM in considerable volume quickly, which would finally cause excessively high pressure drop of exhaust in
filter and may harm engine operation. Therefore, filter regeneration (remove particulates from filters) is required to provide enough
collection capacity for soot retainment. It can be performed either periodically (after PM has been accumulated in predetermined
amount), or continuously during the period of filter operation. In vehicle’s control system, it commonly performs periodically.

Control Methods of SOx

Technologies for SO2 control are concentrated on both prevention of SO2 emission and end-of-pipe treatment of flue gas. Fuel
cleaning is commonly applied as the SO2 prevention method, while wet and dry flue gas desulfurization (FGD) technologies,
lime spray drying (LSD), and fluidized bed desulfurization are end-of-pipe processes for stationary sources emission. SO2 emitted
from mobile sources is also controlled by scrubbing, fuel switching, repowering, natural gas replacement, etc.

Prevention methods
Prevention methods of SO2 emission control involve switching to low-sulfur fuels, which can reduce SO2 emission but are not
always available in many places, and desulfurizing sulfur-bearing fuels prior to firing is widely applied in natural gas and light distil-
lates while less practical for solid fuels and heavy oil. Coal gasification can also reduce SOx (and even NOx) emissions through
extracting sulfur-containing compounds.

Fuel cleaning
Desulfurizing gaseous fuels
Sulfur is present majorly in the forms of carbonyl sulfide (COS), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), or mercaptan (R–SH) in gaseous fuels,
including natural gas, refinery gas, cracking gas, liquefied petroleum gases, etc.
Inorganic sulfur such as H2S and COS are mainly cleaned by scrubbing and chemical conversion. When gaseous fuel enters the
scrubber, the sulfur-bearing compounds can be washed out through the reaction of selective liquid absorbent. Organic sulfur, like
R–SH, can be extracted, treated by hydro-desulfurization (HDS), and oxidized to relatively less harmful compounds mildly, which
will be discussed in “Desulfurizing liquid fuels” section.
The Claus process is commonly used in oil refinery for converting gaseous H2S into molten sulfur by two main steps. In the first
step of thermal oxidation, part of H2S can be oxidized to SO2 at a high temperature between 1000 C and 1400 C; then in the
second catalytic step, the rest H2S can react with SO2 at much lower temperatures ranging from 200 C to 350 C on a catalyst to
recover elemental sulfur, for which the efficiency could be up to 94%–97%.
The reaction equations are:
Step 1: 2H2 S þ 3O2 42SO2 þ 2H2 O
Step 2: 2H2 S þ SO2 43S þ 2H2 O

Desulfurizing liquid fuels

Sulfur in liquid fuels usually appears as thiophenes, thiols (R–SH), sulfides (R–S–R), disulfides (R–SS–R), and their derivatives.
These forms of sulfur commonly exist in gasoline, petrol, kerosene, diesel fuel, and fuel oils, which can be controlled by catalytic
HDS.
S-containing components can be converted into H2S by HDS based on catalytic hydrogenation. The HDS reaction, for which
a mixture of the oil-based raw material and hydrogen gas can be fed into an adiabatic fixed-bed reactor, takes place at a high temper-
ature between 300 C and 400 C and the hydrogen pressure of 1.0 MPa. The sulfur–carbon bonds would be broken as the mixed
gases pass over the catalyst, allowing the sulfur to react with hydrogen to form H2S.
The most commonly used catalyst is comprised of molybdenum sulfide (CoMo/Al2O3), which contains cobalt (Co) on an
aluminum oxides (Al2O3) base (Safa and Ma, 2016). The H2S gas flows along with excess hydrogen out of the reactor, then the
mixed gases are separated in a treatment unit, which allows the hydrogen to be recirculated back to the HDS process. To meet
the required level of S content, several circles might have to be needed. The process to produce S converted from H2S by HDS is
known as the earlier-mentioned Claus process.

Desulfurizing solid fuels

Solid fuels are commonly known as coal, peat, lignite, wood, and other forms of biomass, among which coal is the largest source of
energy for the generation of electricity worldwide. Sulfur exists in coal with considerable amounts, which can mainly lead to the
formation of SO2 through combustion. Therefore, it is essential to remove S before it goes up to a smokestack in power plant
and other industrial facilities.
One of the most often used ways is to clean the coal before combustion, which is known as beneficiation. Firstly, the raw coal is
simply crushed into small chunks and then washed. Some of the sulfur exists in the form of tiny specks in coal, which is also called
pyritic sulfur for its combination with iron (Fe) to form iron pyrite, can be removed from coal in this process. During the washing
process, the small coal chunks are introduced into a large water-filled tank for separation. The sulfur impurities can sink to bottom
and be removed due to its high density while coal floats to the surface. The efficiency of coal washing in this way can be up to 50%
for pyritic S and 20%–30% for total S.
 Urban Air Pollution and Control 249

Coal gasification
The coal gasification process converts coal into syngas, consisting mainly of hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide
(CO2), methane (CH4), or even hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, of which the composition varies depending upon the type of
feedstock and condition during gasification.
Gasifier is the core unit in a gasification-based system. In the gasifier, the amount of oxygen or air is controlled only for complete
oxidation of a small portion of coal, which is to provide heat for the most carbon-containing feedstock reaction. In a
high-temperature pressurized gasifier, the carbon-containing feedstock is then broken down and produces syngas. Sulfur-
containing compounds are usually converted into COS and hydrogen sulfide, which can be extracted and converted to valuable
byproducts, including sulfuric acid and elemental sulfur as discussed earlier. As for the nitrogen-containing compounds, the
ammonia (NH3) can be formed in the oxygen-deficient environment through nitrogen–hydrogen reactions, and it can be easily
stripped out of the gas stream.
Coal gasification gains benefit of its extremely low SOx and NOx emissions from oxidizing coal-derived gases. Gasification
process produces electricity when coupled with turbine technology, while its product (syngas) can be processed further as H2,
synthetic natural gas, liquid fuel like gasoline, and some fertilizers or high-value chemicals (sulfur, ammonium sulfate, phenol,
etc.). Also, the removal efficiency is high for pollutant-forming impurities approaching 99%, but its capital cost is very high.

End-of-pipe treatment
Stationary source emission control
SO2 emission from lean waste gases in stationary sources (e.g., power plants) can be treated by wet and dry FGD, while the
stationary source like ore-smelting plants produces rich gases containing SO2 of much higher concentration that need different
control processes.

Wet FGD technology

The wet FGD process as shown in Fig. 6 uses alkaline slurry to contact SO2 containing flue gases in an absorber to achieve SO2
dissolution and removal through scrubbing with high efficiency of 90% or more. Though there are various types of absorbers,
the most commonly used one is spray tower.
In the wet FGD process, the limestone slurry should be prepared initially in two continuous steps. At first, limestone in the crush-
ing station is crushed into fine powder with required particle size distribution (ball mill). Then the crushed powder is sent to slurry
preparation tank for dissolution with water to form limestone slurry.
In the spray tower, SO2-containing gases enter the base of tower and flow upward through the countercurrent to the limestone
slurry, which is introduced from reaction tank and downward at the top of the tower. Limestone slurry, which is recirculated from
reaction tank into absorber, is dispersed by an array of spray nozzles, which can add surface area and thus promote maximum
vapor–liquid contact (Darake et al., 2016). Then SO2 is removed by slurry due to both its sorption and reaction in the absorber.

Fig. 6 Baseline wet FGD system (Franek and DeRose, 2003).

250 Urban Air Pollution and Control

Reaction of slurry and SO2 is completed in the reaction tank, which allows the enough retention time for dissolution of fine
limestone particles and reaction with dissolved SO2. The reaction products are eventually pumped for disposal.
Reactions in absorber:
Absorption: SO2 þ H2 O/H2 SO3
Neutralization: CaCO3 þ H2 SO3 /CaSO3 þ CO2 þ H2 O
Oxidation: 2CaSO4 þ H2 O/2CaSO4

Dry FGD technology

There are various dry FGD technologies including LSD, spray dryer absorption, furnace sorbent injection, and circulating fluidized
bed. Since the principle of most dry FGD processes (the SO2 contained in flue gas mixes and reacts with lime slurry in an absorber) is
almost the same, so LSD as one of the most representative dry FGD processes is introduced in detail as it is widely known for dealing
with low-sulfur coal combustion emission.
Spray drying is an effective method of producing dry powders from slurry by rapidly drying via contact with a hot gas. For LSD,
lime slurry is prepared in a traditional lime slaker, where grit removal and lime recovery take place with high efficiency and then can
be collected in an agitated tank for later use. In the LSD FGD system (Fig. 7), the flue gas is introduced through an inlet pipe of
absorber and mixed with the lime slurry droplets, which is atomized through rotary cup spray atomizers in a spray tower. Then
SO2 from flue gas is absorbed and neutralized by the droplets, and reacts with lime in the slurry to form calcium sulfite
(CaSO3), a part of CaSO3 is oxidized to form CaSO4 with the reaction of flue gas containing oxygen (O2). Lime slurry reagent is
fed continuously to absorber for lime replenishment during the reactions of consuming lime, and the feed rate depends mainly
on the typically required removal efficiency.
Reactions in absorber:
1
SO2 þ CaO þ H2 O/2CaSO3 $H2 O
2

1
CaSO3 þ O2 þ 2H2 O/CaSO4 $2H2 O
2
Compared to the wet FGD system, the dry FGD system requires lower capital and operational cost, overall power consumption
and pumping requirement. In addition, the dry FGD system does not produce liquid waste, and the waste from such a process has
suitable properties for landfilling and can be disposed together with fly ash. However, the reagent utilization efficiency of dry FGD is
lower and more expensive than wet FGD to achieve the same SO2 removals.

Control processes for rich gases

In industry, the SO2-rich gas can be treated to form elemental sulfur (S) or sulfuric acid (H2SO4) by various methods. For the
production of elemental sulfur, SO2-rich gas is reduced to H2S in a reduction column by using a carbonaceous reduction agent.

Fig. 7 Flow chart of dry FGD process.

 Urban Air Pollution and Control 251

The reduced gas is partially oxidized to SO2 by air injected at the upper part of the reduction column and a mole ratio of H2S/SO2 is
maintained at 2.0. Then the gas mixture is converted to elemental sulfur in the Claus unit. The COS which is generated secondarily
during reduction is hydrolyzed in the Claus unit and elemental sulfur can be produced. Alternatively, after the dust and impurities
are removed from the SO2-rich gas, SO2 is oxidized in a converter to form SO3, which is then absorbed in an absorber to form 98%
H2SO4.

Mobile SOx emission control

SOx are also emitted from mobile sources through fuel combustion of vehicles’ engine. Currently, liquid fuel in service station has
been pretreated with desulfurization processed as mentioned earlier (in “Processes for stationary sources” section) before in use.
Hence the SO2 emission from road transportation is supposed to meet the emission standards in that country or region.

Control methods of NOx

Prevention methods
Nitrogen oxides are formed in combustion process through two main mechanisms: burning the nitrogen containing fuels and
oxidation of elemental N at high temperature. Therefore, appropriate fuel choice and combustion control are necessary for the
prevention or reduction of NOx formation.

Fuel choice
Choosing alternative fuels is a process change to control of emissions. Using ultra low nitrogen content fuel seems to become the
most cost-effective method in lowering NOx emissions in many circumstances. Compressed natural gas, ethanol, or propane as the
alternative fuels can greatly reduce NOx emission from vehicles’ exhaust. Natural gas applied as a home and business heating fuel
contribute to the reduction of NOx concentrations instead of coal combustion (Nevers, 2000). In addition, there is almost no sulfur
oxide or PM produced from natural gas.

Combustion control
NOx formation depends on various combustion conditions. Reducing NOx emissions can be achieved through modification of
combustion processes. There are usually three main principles to minimize NOx emissions: reducing peak temperatures, reducing
residence time within high temperature zone, and controlling the supply of oxygen in combustion zone.
It has been found that the formation of NOx increases exponentially with the increase of temperature when it is above 1200 C.
To produce lower peak temperature, stage combustion/reburning can be used in boilers with large furnace volumes, which allow air
and fuel to react in multiple zones or stages instead of at once so as to create conditions favorable for the reduction of NOx emission
by 20%–40%.
An alternative approach is to design a low NOx burner, which is more intended for gas fuel but can also burn liquid fuel. Low
excess air (15%) should be supplied and flue gas recirculation needs to be in place. The thorough mixing with excess air prevents
there ever being any fuel-rich part of the flame and the recycled flue gas simply lowers the temperature at every part of the flame,
which is possible to reduce NOx significantly.

End-of-pipe treatment
Stationary NOx emission control
Control methods for NOx emission in stationary sources including selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and selective noncatalytic
reduction (SNCR) are widely adopted in industry.

Selective catalytic reduction

SCR is an advanced active emission control approach to convert harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) to harmless nitrogen gas (N2) with
the help of reducing agents (NH3, CO (NH2)2, etc.) and catalysts. This technology can be applied for both stationary (e.g., power
plants) and mobile (e.g., vehicle engines) emission sources with high removal efficiency of NOx up to 90% (Van Caneghem et al.,
2016).
The principle of NH3-SCR and urea-SCR technology is similar, and NH3-SCR is the most typical and widely applied in industry.
An NH3-SCR system (Fig. 8) is basically consisted of a reactor with catalyst, a reductant tank for NH3 storage, and injection system.
Before entering the reactor, the reductant will get mixed with flue gas adequately. In the catalytic reactor, NH3 and NOx from flue gas
react selectively when they pass through the catalyst, and produce nitrogen gas (N2) and water. The optimum temperature for this
redox reaction ranges from 290 C to 400 C (Hao et al., 2010). Then the flue gas enters air preheater to transfer the heat to the
incoming air. Nevertheless, there may be a small amount of NH3 that exits as unreacted, which is termed ammonia slip. Normally,
high ammonia slip is regarded as an indicator of unhealthy SCR system.
Main reactions in NH3-SCR reactor:
4NO þ 4NH3 þ O2 44N2 þ 6H2 O

6NO2 þ 8NH3 47N2 þ 12H2 O

252 Urban Air Pollution and Control

Fig. 8 Schematic diagram of SCR.

If urea is the reduction agent, it decomposes to ammonia, which reacts with and covert the NOx to nitrogen. The SCR system has
higher NOx reduction efficiency with lower and broader reaction temperature range compared to the SNCR system. In addition,
there is no modification requirement to the combustion unit.

Selective noncatalytic reduction

The main difference of SNCR from SCR is that it does not use the catalyst to help convert NOx into harmless water vapor
and nitrogen gas. For SNCR technique, both ammonia (NH3) and urea-based (CO (NH2)2) processes are also widely adopted.
NOx removal efficiency by the SNCR system is between 30% and 50% while 65% and 75% can be achieved if low NOx
burner is applied upfront. The de-NOx efficiency by SNCR is also affected by temperature range and normalized stoichiometric
ratio.
A typical SNCR system is comprised of reagent storage, multilevel reagent injection equipment, and its associated control
instrument. In the SNCR system, the aqueous solution (NH3 or urea) is introduced into the postcombustion flue gas through
lances and atomized with nozzle over the surface of several levels that is located above the furnace chamber within an optimum
temperature range. The reagent can then react with plenty of components from flue gas, but in the presence of oxygen and at
a particular temperature range (930–1090 C), the NOx reduction reaction is favored over other reactions. It should be noted
that the undesirable nitrogen oxide may be produced due to NH3 combustion if the temperature is higher than this range, while
it would cause an NH3 slip when temperature is too low, leading to the formation of ammonia salt and secondary problem in the
further flue gas path.
Reactions in reactor chamber:
NH3-based: 4NH3 þ 6NO/5N2 þ 6H2 O
Urea-based: COðNH2 Þ2 þ 2NO þ 12O2 /2N2 þ CO2 þ 2H2 O
SNCR technology enjoys its merit of the lowest capital and operating costs among all NOx reduction methods. Compared to SCR
technology, which requires dioxin control in De-NOx process, SNCR is away from the formation of dioxin due to its high reaction
temperature zone. Retrofit of SNCR is relatively simple. However, the flue gas must be within a particularly high and narrow temper-
ature range, and requires extra equipment for downstream cleaning; the efficiency for NOx reductions of SNCR is lower than that of
SCR.

Mobile NOx emission control

Three-way catalytic converter
A three-way catalytic converter (Fig. 9) is widely applied on light-duty gasoline vehicles to convert harmful exhaust gases of nitrogen
oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbon (HC) simultaneously into nitrogen gas (N2), oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide
(CO2), and water (Yang et al., 2014). It reduces NOx emissions considerably, especially N2O, which is regarded as the most O3
depleting substance and a type of greenhouse gases over 300 times more potent than CO2. Besides automobiles, the three-way cata-
lytic convertor is also used on electrical generator, motocycles, etc.
In this device, two different types of catalysts need to be in place for both reduction and oxidation conversion. In the first state,
reduction catalyst, which is normally made of honeycomb or ceramic structure support coated with rhodium and/or platinum as
active phase, can convert NOx into O2 and N2 (Zeng and Hohn, 2016). Currently, honeycomb structure is more widely applied in
automobiles. During the second stage, platinum and/or palladium based catalyst then can oxidize CO and HC to CO2 and water.
Reduction of NOx: 2NOx /xO2 þ N2
Oxidation of CO: 2CO þ O2 /2CO2
Oxidation of unburned HC: CX H2xþ2 þ 3xþ1
2 O2 /xCO2 þ ðx þ 1ÞH2 O

The adverse effect of three-way catalytic converter on engine and fuel consumption can be neglected. The catalytic system is
simple with low maintenance operation cost. However, the activity of catalyst in converter would degrade resulting from poisoning
and thermal deactivation. In addition, there may be undesired reactions that produce secondary emissions formed over catalyst.
 Urban Air Pollution and Control 253

Fig. 9 Block diagram of a three-way catalytic converter.

Exhaust gas recirculation

Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) (Fig. 10) is also one of the technologies available for nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission control in
mobile sources. It achieves the reduction of NOx by reducing the amount of oxygen (O2) and quenching some of the exhaust gases
that are recirculated back into the intake air. Normally no more than 15%–20% of the exhaust gas can be recirculated. EGR can be
applied in most types of diesel engines ranging from light-duty to heavy-duty engines.
Most new EGR systems tend to use an electronic EGR valve to manage recirculation of exhaust gas. The EGR valve is closed when
the engine is idling while there is no EGR flow into the manifold. When the engine becomes warm but still under load, the EGR
valve starts to open. As the load of engine increases and temperature of combustion begins to ascend, the valve opens and begins to
leak exhaust gases back into the intake manifold. This process has cooling effect, which can lower combustion temperature and
reduce NOx formation.
The EGR process is benefited from its high efficiency of reducing NOx levels and applied commonly both in on- and off-highway
vehicles. It can extend the engine life, especially exhaust valve life due to the temperature quenching of cylinder (Saravanan, 2015).
Application of the EGR system, however, also has some disadvantages. The diesel engine equipped with EGR process leads
to consuming more fuel, and emits more PMs in the recirculated gas, which contributes to PM deposition in the engine and lubri-
cating oil pollution (Agarwal et al., 2011). Moreover, corrosion would occur as the gaseous sulfur oxide in the flue gas can form
sulfuric acid.

Fig. 10 Schematic diagram of engine setup using EGR (Agarwal et al., 2011).
254 Urban Air Pollution and Control

Control Methods of VOCs

Prevention methods
Process and raw materials modification
Selecting appropriate alternative materials is adopted to lower or prevent VOCs emissions in manufacturing processes. The replace-
ment from oil- to water-based paints, inks, and coatings normally reduce but do not totally eliminate VOCs emissions. Changes in
operation process also aim to prevent the escape of VOCs, usually substitution and process modification are indistinguishable.
Many coating and decoration processes dependent on volatile solvents have been replaced by those without VOC emission,
such as UV lithography and fluidized-bed powder. Switching from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric-powered vehicles to reduce
VOC emissions, as well as nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emissions, is a form of process modification.

Leakage control
There exist a number of types of VOCs leakage situations. Filling, breathing, and emptying losses occur in the condition of the tanks
containing liquid VOCs, and these losses can be controlled by using a pressure-vacuum valve at the vent of tanks as shown in
Fig. 11.
Breathing losses occur when gasoline being loaded, and the service station uses vapor return equipment (stage II control), which
will be introduced in “Gasoline dispensing facilities” section in detail. Breathing losses increase with the increase of vapor pressure
(Nevers, 2000). For this reason, the control method is basically to limit the allowable Reid vapor pressure of gasoline.

End-of-pipe treatment
Stationary VOC emission control
The control processes for VOCs at stationary sources could be divided into two categories: destruction and recovery. One of the most
commonly used destruction technique is to combust VOCs with low recovery value, including thermal and catalytic incineration. In
addition, adsorption and absorption processes can be applied for VOCs removal and recovery.

Thermal incineration
A thermal incinerator includes a combustion chamber and retention chamber. VOC laden gas is pumped into combustion chamber
where it is mixed and combusted with fuel (Fig. 12); afterward, the mixed gas is guided to retention chamber in order to remain for
sufficient time to complete the destruction of VOCs. Finally, the treated exhaust gas is discharged through the stack.

Catalytic incineration
This process is similar to thermal incineration in terms of operation principle, and the main difference is that the combustion of
VOCs is achieved with the help of catalysts at much lower temperature in catalytic incinerator (Fig. 13). Platinum and palladium
are the most efficient active phases for such catalysts used for VOCs incineration. In the incinerator, the flue gas is injected into a
mixing chamber and passes through the catalytic bed where VOCs and oxygen diffuse and get adsorbed onto the catalyst surface for
efficient conversion of VOCs to CO2 and water vapor.

Fig. 11 Displacement losses occur in a vented tank (Nevers, 2000).

Fig. 12 Thermal Incinerator schematic (Khan and Ghoshal, 2000).

 Urban Air Pollution and Control 255

Fig. 13 Schematic diagram of catalytic incinerator (Franek and DeRose, 2003).

Adsorber
The principle of adsorption process can be physical adsorption and/or chemisorption, dependent on the interaction between adsor-
bent and adsorbate. When VOCs are retained on the adsorbent surface and within the pores by Van der Waals force with low heat,
the process of physical adsorption occurs, and the adsorption equilibrium can be reached quickly though it is reversible. On the
other hand, chemisorption is characterized by the covalent bonding between adsorbent and adsorbate as chemical reaction should
occur. Adsorption is mostly used in air pollution control to concentrate a volatile organic pollutant present in dilute form in an air
or gas stream. For large-scale application, multiple adsorbers in series can be used to collect solvent vapors.

Absorber
Absorber is a VOCs control device to remove them from flue gas by transferring or dissolving soluble VOCs into liquid phase via the
scrubbing process. An absorption system can achieve the VOCs removal efficiency greater than 95%–98% (William and Lead,
1997). This process is efficient to recover products and clean flue gas with high concentration VOCs. Absorbers are commonly
designed to dissolve as much liquid and gas as possible. When flue gas passes through the absorber, it becomes mixed in the stirred
absorbent fluid, for which the water is the most commonly used due to its cost-effectiveness. However, the limitation of this process
is producing a large amount of wastewater which might need further treatment before discharge.

Condenser
Condenser is the equipment for reducing VOCs emission by over-saturation driving force, which creates the conditions of quench-
ing and/or pressurization in the exhaust gas. In reality, heat extraction is more commonly applied compared to pressurization. The
condensation process is that VOCs of high concentration will be condensed to liquid for recovery when the heat in exhaust gas has
been exchanged out and its temperature drops sufficiently (US EPA, 2003c). The recovered products can be regarded as wash
solvents for device cleanup, or as an alternative boiler fuel. The recovered water, however, should be treated and disposed as waste-
water. Therefore, condensation process is usually applied in combination with other control equipment during operation.

Control of mobile source emissions

On-board refueling vapor recovery
On-board refueling vapor recovery (ORVR) is a VOCs emission control system on vehicles to capture evaporated fuel during
refueling. In ORVR process, the gas tank and filling pipe are designed so that the fuel vapors can migrate to a canister, which is
packed with carbonaceous material to adsorb fuel vapors (Kim et al., 2006); and then the adsorbed fuel vapors would be desorbed
back into the engine for consumption. Approximately 98% of VOCs removal efficiency can be achieved (Yang et al., 2015). ORVR
technology benefits from its high efficiency, cost effectiveness, and little maintenance or monitoring required.

Gasoline dispensing facilities

Gasoline dispensing facilities (Fig. 14) can reduce VOCs emissions problem caused from gasoline transferring in large-scale gasoline
storage stations. Storage tanks are placed underground in crowded urban areas, not only to save valuable ground space, but also to
reduce fire hazard of a spill or leak from the tank.
In this process, the gasoline vapor transferred from the tank being filled is carried back to the tank being emptied (Nevers,
2000). There are two stages in this process, tank filling and vehicle fueling. In stage I (tank filling), vapors from underground
tank can be recirculated back to being emptied tank truck by pressure difference; in stage II (vehicle fueling), the vapors emitted
from vehicles’ tank can be forced back into underground tank due to the positive pressure created by pumping gasoline into the
vehicles’ tank. Stage I can recover approximately 95% vapors from the tanks being filled, while stage II can reduce spillage and
displacement losses by over 60%.

Conclusion and Future Outlook

This article provides a comprehensive review of various state-of-art urban air pollution control technologies. The properties and
main sources of criteria air pollutants have been introduced. In addition, both prevention and end-of-pipe treatment techniques
256 Urban Air Pollution and Control

Fig. 14 Schematic diagram of gasoline dispensing facilities (Nevers, 2000).

have also been detailed, which can be used as general guidelines for the selection of appropriate removal or mitigation technical
processes for each pollutant category.
Remarkable progress has been made in improving air quality since the 1970s in developed countries, yet much more efforts are
still needed in developing countries though all the criteria pollutants in many countries have been reduced dramatically. The science
and engineering needed to control the emission of air pollutants has steadily marched forward, but it is also accompanied by seem-
ingly intractable problems. Therefore, more advanced technologies, such as more effective pollution prevention, green
manufacturing, and energy saving processes have begun to replace old ways so as to achieve larger reduction of air pollutants at
the stack.
Besides the reliance on the advanced technologies, the ability to control air pollution in a more coordinated manner is very
essential to air quality improvement by air pollution management, which is a collection of strategies and tactics used to reduce
air pollution and better protect the public health. Cost-benefit analysis, air quality standards, emission standards, and economic
incentives are all modern air pollution management strategies. While various strategies may be effective to manage air quality to
different extent, whether or not to implement individual or multiple strategies still depend on the specific clean air objectives.
The adopted control technology or process should be technically and economically feasible and enforceable in particular region
or country in order to assure compliance. For those newly identified pollutants and standards, the development of additional
strategies and tactics will be surely required as mentioned earlier, and the innovations from every aspect of contemporary society
will underpin such a further progress.

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Further Reading

Show KY (2010) Green technology. The Encyclopedia of Life Support System. Paris: UNESCO.

Relevant Websites

https://www.dieselnet.comdDieselnet.
http://www.eolss.netdEolss.
http://mechteacher.comdMechteacher.
http://www.pcc-sterling.comdPCC.
http://nptel.ac.indNPTEL.
http://www.topsoe.comdTopsoe.
https://www3.epa.govdUS EPA.
http://www.4cleanair.orgdUS EPA.
http://www.ifc.orgdWorld Bank Group.