Air Pollution

Lecture week 9
ECH3501 Pollution Control Engineering
Micro and Macro air pollution
●  Air pollution occurs at three scales: micro, meso and macro
●  Micro-scale: covers < 1 cm to size of a house or slightly larger
●  Meso-scale: few hectares to size of city or counties
●  Macro-scale: Counties to states, nations, the globe
●  Beyond this current chapter, discussions are based on meso-scale
Micro-scale: Indoor air pollution
Micro-scale: Indoor air pollution
 Micro-scale: Indoor air pollution

DOSH: Industry Code

of Practice on Indoor
Air Quality 2010 (ICOP
IAQ 2010)
Micro-scale: Indoor Air Pollution - Pollutants
●  Carbon monoxide
○  Chronic low level of CO pollutions has been recognized more recently
○  Improper furnaces operations cause CO emission due to incomplete burning
○  Gas stoves (40-244 mg/MJ), ovens (12-19 mg/MJ), gas (14-64 mg/MJ) and kerosene space
heater (35-64 mg/MJ) are also sources of CO
○  Indoor cigarette smoke alone emits 88.43 mg/MJ of CO
●  Nitrogen oxides (NOx) and SO2
○  NO2 levels have been found from 70 microgram/m3 in AC houses (electric); 182 microgram/m3
(gas stoves)
○  SO2 levels were found to be low in all houses investigated
●  Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
○  800 VOCs have been identified in indoor air.
○  Includes aldehydes, alkenes, ethers, ketones, and PAHs; though not all exists at the same time
○  Typical sources are paints, cleaners, adhesive, combustion sources, sidestream smoke,
deodorizers, vinyl floorings, dry-cleaned clothes, synthetic carpet fiber, aerosol spray, solvents,
etc.
○  Finding shows indoor exposure supersedes those of outdoors’
Micro-scale: Indoor Air Pollution - Pollutants
●  Formaldehyde
○  More prevalent VOC as well as more toxic compound, limit of 0.1 ppm (DOSH)
○  Emitted from consumer products ad construction materials such as pressed wood products,
insulation materials, textile, and combustion sources (cigarette smokes)
○  Concentration will drop with time until new source is bring into the house
●  Heavy metals
○  Infiltration from outdoor air and soil and dust tracked into the building
○  Arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, lead and nickel has been measured indoor
○  Lead and mercury may originate from paint (latex based-paints use Hg to prevent fungus growth)
●  Bioaerosols
○  Bacteria, viruses, fungi, mites, and pollens
○  Mainly come from human and pets,
○  Some microbs and pollens that come with air through ventilation such as windows, humidifiers,
air-condition
Micro-scale: Indoor Air Pollution - Pollutants
●  Radon
○  Not regulated as ambient air pollutant but has been found at alarming concentration in houses
○  Radon is radioactive gas emanates from natural geological formations or construction materials
Sampling and Measurement
●  Standard method of sampling analysis guideline is outlined under EQ (Clean Air)
Regulation 2014
○  Accordance to Malaysian Standards MS 1596 or MS 1723 or methods published by US EPA
or other standards determined by the DG
●  Indoor air pollutant
○  Following Industry code of practice in indoor air quality 2010
○  Appendix 4: Measurement and analysis of IAQ parameters
○  List of how, time length and periods of sampling as well as the methods and analysis
○  All methods follows standard methods utilizing Malaysian standards (MS), US EPA, NIOSH, or
other equivalent methods
Sampling of Ambient Air
●  To achieve international consistency and global evaluation of AP, measurement
accuracy is required.
○  Electric flow controllers such as mass flowmeters as well as existing float flowmeters
●  General points to note when planning and carrying out sampling as followings are
outlined:
○  Survey plan - taking into consideration of fluctuations due to weather and emission
sources
○  Selection of measurement points - natural environment (tree, hills, pond) and
manmade structures (buildings, roads) and height of measurement point
○  Installation height - 1.5-2 m above ground is preferable, but point no 2 has to be
considered

Details can be found from https://www.env.go.jp/earth/coop/coop/materials/14-tbseme/14-

tbseme-22.pdf
Air Pollution Control of Stationary Sources - Gaseous pollutants
●  Three main methods: Absorption, adsorption and combustion
●  Utilization fundamental chemical engineering knowledge such as mass
transfer, reaction and heat transfer
APC Gaseous Pollutants: Absorption
●  Absorption of gaseous pollutant to liquid phase -- a mass transfer process
●  The absorption can be reactive or non-reactive process
●  The removal takes place in three steps:
○  Diffusion of the pollutant gas to the surface of the liquid
○  Transfer across the gas/liquid interface (dissolution)
○  Diffusion of the dissolved gas away from the interface into the liquid
●  Spray chambers and towers/columns are mainly used
○  Aim: solubility of pollutant in liquid must be relatively high
○  If water as solute, limits apps for inorganic gasses such as NH3, Cl2 and SO2
●  Amount of absorption for non-reactive is governed by partial pressure of the
pollutant
○  For dilute solutions, the relationship between partial pressure and concentration of gas in solution
follow Henry’s Law
●  Called wet scrubber:
○  High ability to handle high temp and moisture, smaller overall size of equipment can neutralized
corrosive gases
APC Gaseous Pollutants: Absorption - Spray tower
❏  Liquid droplets are used to absorb
pollutant gases
❏  Scrubber is a less efficient absorber
but has advantage as it can
simultaneously remove particulates
APC Gaseous Pollutants: Absorption - Absorption tower
❏  Thin film of liquid is used as absorption medium
❏  More efficient, but will be plugged by particulate
matter
❏  Normally has will be preceded by particulate
removal system first
❏  Two designs: Plate tower or packed tower
❏  Generally height, gas and liquid flow rates are
variables for its design
❏  Plate tower: multistage contact, high separation
and capacity, relatively large diameter, high
pressure drop and easy to clean
❏  Packed tower: suitable for low capacity,
suitable for corrosive applications, smaller
pressure drop, modern high capacity packings,
less weight
APC Gaseous Pollutants: Adsorption
●  Mass transfer process where gas is bonded to a solid, either physically or chemically
●  Gas (adsorbate) penetrates into pores of the solid (adsorbent)
●  Physical bond: electrostatic forces hold the pollutant gas
●  Chemical bond: reaction with the surface
●  Pressure vessel having a fixed bed are used to hold the adsorbent
●  Common adsorbent: Activated carbon (charcoal or biomass), molecular sieve, silica gel,
activated alumina
●  Adsorbents have large “active” surface area per unit volume
○  Very effective for HC pollutants
○  Can also capture H2S and SO2
○  Special molecular sieve can capture NO2
●  Drawbacks: Selective to water (water must be removed prior) and does not work at very
high temperature, diff for diff adsorbent (e.g. 150oC for AC, 600oC for molecular sieve)
●  These temperatures are also used for their regeneration
APC Gaseous Pollutants: Adsorption
APC Gaseous Pollutants: Combustion
●  Use when pollutant gas is oxidizable to an inert gas (e.g. CO, HC)
●  Two types: Direct flame combustion by afterburners and catalytic combustion
●  Direct flame combustion/incineration
○  Gas must have net heating value (NHV) > 3.7 MJ/m3 as will be autogenous (self-supporting after
ignition)
○  Gas combusted must not have toxic by-products (e.g trichloroethylene combustion produce
phosgene - even more toxic)
○  Successfully applied to varnish-cooking, meat-smokehouse and paint bake-oven emissions
●  Catalytic combustion
○  Enables oxidation for gasses < 3.7 MJ/m3
○  Conventionally, catalyst is placed similar to bed for adsorption
○  Common catalyst: platinum or palladium supported by ceramic (lattice)
○  High cost and susceptible to poisoning by trace amount of sulfur and lead compounds
○  Successful in printing-press, varnish cooking and asphalt-oxidation emissions
APC Gaseous Pollutants: Combustion
Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD)
●  Two categories: non-regenerative and regenerative
●  Non-regenerative: reagent used to remove the sulfur oxides from the gas stream is used
and discarded
●  Regenerative: reagents is recovered and reused
●  Non-regenerative installations is more in terms of number and sizes
Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) - Non-regenerative systems
●  9 commercial non-regenerative systems (1991)
●  All have reaction chemistry based on lime (CaO), caustic soda (NaOH), soda ash
(Na2CO3) or ammonia (NH3)
●  SO2 removed in lime/limestone-based FGD is converted to sulfite with part of sulfite is
oxidized with oxygen to form sulfate
●  The choice between lime and limestone, type of limestone and method of calcining and
slaking can influence the gas-liquid-solid reactions taking place
●  Wet scrubbing systems include venturi scrubber/absorber, static packed scrubbers, moving
bed absorbers, tray towers and spray tower
●  Spray-dryer FGD systems consist of one or more spray dryers and a particulate collector
Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) - Non-regenerative systems
Control technologies of nitrogen oxides - Prevention
●  NOx production prevention during combustion process
●  Reduction of peak flame temperature in the combustion zone will reduce NOx formation
●  9 operational procedures (reduction 30-60%)
○  Minimizing operating temperature - routine burner tune-up and min. T at combustion zone reduce
fuel usage
○  Fuel switching - fuel with lower nitrogen content (use petroleum coke instead of coal)
○  Lower excess air - lower oxygen concentration lower peak flame T
○  Flue gas recirculation - lower oxygen concentration lower peak flame T
○  Lean combustion - additional air is introduced to cool the flame
○  Staged combustion - initial combustion takes place in a fuel rich zone, followed by injection of air
downstream of primary combustion zone, this is completed under fuel-lean conditions at lower
temperature
○  Low NOx burners - same as staged combustion
○  Secondary combustion - same as above
○  water/steam injection - lowering fame temperature
Control technologies of nitrogen oxides - Post Combustion
●  Three processes: selective catalytic reduction (SCR); Selective non-catalytic reduction
(SNCR); Non-selective catalytic reduction (NSCR)
●  Selective catalytic reduction (e.g large boiler)
○  Uses a catalyst bed (vanadium-titanium or platinum-based and zeolite) and anhydrous NH3
○  After the combustion process, ammonia is injected upstream of the catalyst bed → NOx reacts
with ammonia in catalyst bed to form N2 and water
●  Selective non-catalytic reduction
○  Ammonia or urea is injected into the flue gas at 870-1090oC.
○  Urea is converted to ammonia → reacts with NOx to form N2 and water
●  Non-selective catalytic reduction
○  3-way catalyst similar to that in automotive applications
○  NOx, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide are simultaneously converted to N2, CO2 and water
respectively
●  Reduction of 30-50% (SNCR) and 70-90% (SCR)
Particulate Pollutants - Cyclone
●  Use for particles size of > 10 micrometers
●  Concept of removal
○  Particulate-laden gas is accelerated through a spiral motion, imparts centrifugal force to particles
○  particulates are hurdled out of the spinning gas and impacted on cylinder wall of the cyclone
○  slide to the bottom of the cone
○  removed through an airtight valving system
●  As diameter of cyclone is reduced, efficiency of collection increase
○  But pressure drop also increase which increases the power requirement
○  Using multiple cyclone in parallel (multicyclone) to counter this problem
●  Cyclone is inefficient for particles < 1 micrometer, thus only used to coarse dusts
●  Applications: wood dust, paper fibres, buffing fibres
●  Multicyclone often used as pre-cleaners for fly-ash control device in power plants
Particulate Pollutants - Cyclone
Particulate Pollutants - Filters
●  Selection for high efficiency control of particles < 5 micrometer
●  2 types of filters: deep bed filter and bag house
●  Deep bed filter
○  Resembles a furnace filter
○  Packing of fibres is used to intercept particles in the gas stream
○  Effective for relatively clean gases and low volumes applications: air conditioning
●  Bag house filter
○  Dirty industrial gas with high volumes
●  Fundamental mechanisms of collection
○  screening or sieving (where the particles are larger than opening of fibres) - dominant mechanism
once dust cake begin to form on fabric
○  Interception by fibres themselves
○  Electrostatic attraction (difference in static charge on particles and fibre)
○  Build-up of dust cake increase resistance to gas flow
Particulate Pollutants - Filters
Particulate Pollutants - Filters
●  Reduction of gas flow rate to an unacceptable level requires cleaning of the filter bag
●  Method 1: Mechanical shaking
○  shaken at periodic intervals (30 mins - 2 h). Bags are arranged in groups in separate
compartments so they can be taken off line during cleaning
●  Method 2: Reverse air flow cleaning
○  A compartment is isolated and a large volume of gas flow is forced countercurrent to normal operation
○  Dust cake collapsed or flexed inwards the beg causing the collected dust cake to fall into the hopper
below
●  Method 3: Pulse-jet baghouses
○  Designed with frame structures called cages that support the bags
○  Particulate matter collected on the outside of the bag instead of inside
○  Dust cake removal via directing a pulsed jet of compressed air into the beg causes sudden expansion of
the beg - cake removed by inertial forces as beg reaches maximum expansion
○  Short duration (2-15 mins intervals)
○  No extra bags are required as compared to the other 2 methods
Mechanical Shaker Reverse-air flow
Particulate Pollutants - Filters
●  Filter design
○  Shakers and reverse air flow baghouses diameter ranges from 15 to 45 cm; up to 12 m length
○  Pulse-jet baghouses use bags 10 - 15 cm in diameter; length < 5 m
○  Bags are made of either natural or synthetic fibres
○  Synthetic fibre is cheaper, better chemical and temperature-resistant ad small fibre diameter - so, widely
used (e.g. Cotton bags cannot work > 90oC; glass-fibre up to 260oC)
○  On woven fibre is used for shakers or reverse airflow cleansed baghouse
○  Felted fabrics are used for pulse-jet-cleaned baghouse
○  1-5 years bags’ life, normal is 2 years
○  Design parameter; ratio of volumetric flow rate of gas to the area of filter fabric (termed air-to-cloth ratio)
m3/s.m2 or m/s (Table 9-18 & 19)
Particulate Pollutants - Liquid Scrubbing
●  Use for wet, corrosive or very hot particulate matter
●  Typical scrubbing applications: control emission of talc
dust, phosphoric acid mist, foundry cupola dust and open
hearth steel furnace fumes
●  Types of liquid scrubber
○  Simple spray chamber - relatively coarse particle sizes
○  Combination of venturi scrubber followed by a cyclone - fine
particles
●  Fundamental operation
○  Differential velocity between the droplets of collecting
liquid and the particulate pollutant allow particle to
impinge onto the droplets
○  Droplet-particle is in suspended in gas stream, inertial
device is placed downstream
○  Larger droplet-particle as opposed to original particulate
size increase efficiency of collection
Particulate Pollutants - Electrostatic precipitation (ESP)
●  Highly efficient, dry collection of particles from hot gas stream
●  Construction and operation
○  Alternating plates and wires
○  Large direct current potential (30-75 kV) is established between the plates and wires, creating an
ion field
○  As particle-laden gas stream passes between wire and plates, ions attach to the particles giving
them a net negative charge
○  Particles then migrate toward the positively charged plate where they stick
○  Plates are rapped at frequent intervals and the agglomerated sheet of particles falls to a hopper
●  Cleaning
○  Gas flow is not stopped during cleaning
○  Gas velocity through through ESP is kept low (< 1.5 m/s) to allow particle migration
○  Terminal settling velocity of the sheet is sufficient to carry it to the hopper before it exits the
precipitator
●  Main application is at power
plants, cement kilns, blast
furnace gas, kiln and roasters for
metallurgical processes and mist
from acid production facilities
Air Pollution Control of Mobile Sources
●  Gasoline/petrol auto engine
●  Diesel engine
●  Jet engine
APC of Mobile Sources - The Gasoline Engine
●  The ratio of air-to-fuel - most important factor in
determining emissions from a four-stroke internal
combustion engine
●  Calculation based on stoichiometric air-to-fuel is ~
14.5
●  Most driving takes place < 15 air-to-fuel ratio,
resulted in incomplete combustion (CO, unburnt
gasoline and HC)
●  High temperature and pressures in cylinder
resulted in high amount of NOx
●  NO produced in the morning from vehicle
emission oxidized to NO2 → photolysis
decompose NO2 to NO + O → Atomic O + O2
forms O3 → O3 then can convert NO back to NO2
APC of Mobile Sources - The Diesel Engine
●  Differ from gasoline engine where air supply is
unthrottled - flow into engine is unrestricted
○  Thus, operates at higher air-to-fuel ratio
●  No spark ignition system - air is heated via
compression to about 540oC
●  Less CO and HC emission compared to
gasoline engine
●  But higher NOx due to higher operating
temperature
●  Also, during acceleration from a stop, engine is
overloaded, large quantities of CO, VOCs,
odors and PM (smoke) may be emitted
APC of Mobile Sources - Control of Automobile Emissions
●  Blowby
○  Installation of positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) valve to
eliminate blowby (crankcase) emission
○  Blowby emission = gas-air mixture, any evaporated lubricating
oil and escaped exhaust produced sent to crankcase with the
air drawn from atmosphere through a vent
●  Fuel tank evaporation losses
○  Controlled by one or two systems
○  Simplest system: Activated charcoal adsorber placed in the
tank vent line - vapor of HC trapped in the AC
○  Alternative: Vent the tank to the crankcase - less efficient than
AC system
APC of Mobile Sources - Control of Automobile Emissions
●  Engine exhaust
○  External catalytic reactor (catalytic converter) is placed in
the exhaust system to promote reactions to convert NOx to
N2, CO to CO2 and HC to CO2 and H2O.
○  3-way catalyst (TWC) - precious metal (platinum/rhodium)
on an alumina support
○  Air to fuel ratio and temperature are maintained at
optimum using computerized electronic control system
○  Catalysts are susceptible to poisoning solved by removing
lead, phosphorus and sulfur from the fuel
○  Fuel modification - lead are removed from gasoline, diesel
with less sulfur and emit 20% less VOC’s; reduce VP of
gasoline reduces HC emissions; Oxyfuel burns more
efficiently
○  Change of fuel - alcohols, LPG, NG
APC of Mobile Sources - Control of Automobile Emissions
●  Inspection/Maintenance (I/M) Programs
○  Wear and tear of the engine can cause increase emission
○  Control emission device need to be inspected and
maintained to ensure good working order
○  In Malaysia, commercial vehicles (taxi, trucks, busses) are
required to do Puspakom exhaust gas emission testings
periodically
Assignment: Group 5 (Week 10)
●  Explain EPA Emission Factor (page 600)
●  Example 9-2
●  Example 9-3
Assignment: Group 12 (Week 10)
●  Explain equations 9-64 and 9-65
●  Example 9-13
●  Example 9-14
●  Example 9-15 (+ equations)