Air Pollution

Industrial pollutants and the major sources

❖ Carbon monoxide: complete combustion of fossil fuels, automobile exhausts.

❖ Sulphur compounds: fossil- fuel-based power generating plants, thermal plants, &refineries.

❖ Nitrogen oxides: automobiles, power plants and industries.

❖ Ozone: Its level may rise in astrosphere due to human activities.

❖ Fluorides: These come from industries, insecticides spray etc.

❖ Metals: These include lead, nickel arsenic, beryllium, tin, vanadium, titanium, cadmium, etc
They are produced mostly by metallurgical processes, automobiles, sea spray, etc.

❖ Particulate matter: These are fly ash, dust, grit and other suspended particulate matter
released from power plants and industries (stone crushers)
Air pollution control methods- source correction

1. Substitution of raw materials:

•If the use of a particular raw material results in air pollution, then it should be substituted
by another purer grade raw material which reduces the formation of pollutants. Thus,
•Low Sulphur fuel which has less pollution potential can be used as an alternative to high
Sulphur fuels, and Comparatively more refined liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or liquefied
natural gas (LNG) can be used instead of traditional high contaminant fuels such as coal.
2. Process Modification:
•The existing process may be changed by using modified techniques to control emission at
source. For example,
•If coal is washed before pulverization, then fly-ash emissions are considerably reduced.
•If air intake of boiler furnace is adjusted, then excess Fly-ash emissions at power plants can
be reduced.
3. Modification of Existing Equipment and maintenance
❖Air pollution can be considerably minimized by making suitable
modifications in the existing equipment:
❖For example, smoke, carbon-monoxide and fumes can be reduced if
open hearth furnaces are replaced with controlled basic oxygen furnaces
or electric furnaces.
ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATORS (ESP) ( Refer CS Rao text book for all equipment's)

•ESPs are relatively large, low velocity dust collection devices that remove particles in much the same
way that static electricity in clothing picks up small pieces of lint

•Transformers are used to develop extremely high voltage drops between charging electrodes and
collecting plates.

•The electrical field produced in the gas stream as it passes through the high voltage discharge
introduces a charge on the particles, which is then attracted to the collecting plates.

•Periodically the collected dust is removed from the collecting plates by a hammer device striking the
top of the plates (rapping) dislodging the particulate, which falls to a bottom hopper for removal.

•Electrostatic precipitators are often configured as a series of collecting plates to improve overall
collection efficiency.
• Efficiencies exceeding 99% can be achieved, and ESPs are used in many of the same
applications as bag houses, including power plants, steel and paper mills, smelters,
cement plants, and petroleum refineries.

• •In some applications water is used to remove the collected particulates.

• •ESPs using this cleaning mechanism are referred to as “wet ESPs” and are often used
to remove fumes such as sulfuric acid mist.

• efficiency (η) =1- exp {-vpmAc/Q}, vpm= particle migration velocity

Limitations / Advantages / Problems
❖Large installation space required & high initial cost
❖High efficiencies for small particles possible
❖Low pressure drops and air moving costs
❖High potential for ignition sources
❖Re-entrainment, spark-over problem
❖High temperature operation possible
❖Susceptible to changes in moisture and resistivity
❖99% efficiency obtainable
CYCLONES/Cyclone Separator
❖Dust-laden gas is whirled rapidly inside a collector shaped like a cylinder (or cyclone).

❖The swirling motion creates centrifugal forces that cause the particles to be thrown
against the walls of the cylinder and drop into a hopper below.

❖The gas left in the middle of the cylinder after the dust particles have been removed
moves upward and exits the cylinder.

❖Cyclones operate to collect relatively large size PM from a gaseous stream, and can
operate at elevated temperatures.

❖Cyclones are typically used for the removal of particles 50 microns (μm) or larger.
❖Efficiencies greater than 90% for particle sizes of 10 μm or greater are possible, and
efficiency increases exponentially with particle diameter and with increased pressure
drop through the cyclone.

❖Cyclones are widely used; they control pollutants from cotton gins, rock crushers, and
many other industrial processes that contain relatively large particulate in the gas
stream.

❖Cyclones can experience a number of problems including particles recirculating from

the hopper, and erosion and corrosion of the cyclone internals due to the nature of the
material being collected (corrosive and/or abrasive).

❖Heavy dust at the inlet of the cyclone can also lead to plugging of the cyclone hopper.
Limitations / Advantages / Problems
✓Reduces internal access needs
✓Optimal flow rate difficult to adjust
✓Prone to internal erosion / corrosion
✓Operation at elevated temperatures possible
✓Low efficiency for small diameter material
✓Hopper recirculation / flow distribution problems
✓High energy costs for volumetric flow requirements
✓Dew point agglomeration, bridging, and plugging
✓Few moving parts, few mechanical / electrical ignition sources
FABRIC FILTERS OR BAG HOUSES
•Common materials for these filters include paper, cotton, polyester, fiberglass, Teflon, and
even spun stainless steels.
•Bag houses maximize the filtration area by configuring the fabric filter media into a series of
long small-diameter fabric tubes referred to as “bags”.
•The bags are tightly packed in to one or more filter compartments with one compartment
normally off-line for cleaning.
•Most bag houses contain as many as ten or more compartments with several hundred bags
per compartment.
•Bag houses are used to control air pollutants from coal-fired power plants, steel mills,
foundries, and other industrial processes.
❖Fabric filters can collect over 99.9% of the entering particulates, even fine PM.

❖Bag houses also are sometimes used as part of multistage gas cleaning system
where they are used as a reactor as well as a particulate removal device, such as in
semi-dry flue gas desulphurization systems.

❖Recently some bag houses are being equipped with catalytic bags where they also
act as a chemical reactor while they are collecting particulate.
Limitations / Advantages / Problems
✓ High collection efficiencies
✓ Internal condensation /corrosion
✓ Over-temperature limitations
✓ Need for internal inspection access
✓ Accumulation of flammable gases/ dusts and ignition
sources
✓ Unexpected bag failure due to changes in operating
parameters
Gravity Settling chamber:
❖It is generally used to remove large, abrasive particles (usually >50 µM) from
gas stream.
❖It provides enlarged areas to minimize horizontal velocities and allow time for
the vertical velocity to carry the particle to the bottom.
❖The usual velocity through settling chamber is between 0.5 to 2.5 m/s
Advantages:
❖Low pressure drop,
❖Simplicity of design,
❖low maintenance cost,
❖can be used as pre-cleaner device ,
❖dry and continuous disposal of particles
Disadvantages:
❖Large space
❖Lower efficiency
❖Larger sized particles separation only
Packed filters:
• Collection by interception occurs when a particle follows a gas streamline that happens
to come within one particle radius of the surface of a fiber. The particle hits the fiber and
is captured because of its finite size. (less inertia)
• Inertial impaction of a particle on a fiber occurs when a particle, because of its high
inertia, is unable to adjust quickly enough to the abruptly changing streamlines in the
vicinity of a fiber and crosses those streamlines to hit the fiber.
• Diffusion deposition of a particle happens when the combined action of airflow and
Brownian motion brings a small particle into contact with a fiber. (0.001-0.05µm). Paricles
not follow the gas streamlines surrounding the fibre because of individual motion.

Gas streamline Particle Particle

trajectory
Fiber

Interception Inertial impaction Diffusion disposition

 ❖ The simple type of wet scrubber is a spray tower into which water is
Spray Towers: introduced by means of spray nozzles.
❖ The polluted gas flows upward and the particle collection results because of
inertial impaction and interception
❖ It consist of vacant cylindrical vessels containing nozzles that spray liquid
into the vessels.
❖ The inlet stream typically enters the bottom of the tower and moves
upward, while liquid is sprayed downward from one or more levels.
Counter-current flow contacts the gas with the lowest pollutant
concentration to the cleanest scrubbing liquid.
❖ Multiple nozzles are placed across the tower at selected levels to saturate
the exhaust gas as it moves up through the tower, forming large amounts of
fine droplets for impacting particles and to provide a large surface area for
absorbing gas.
Features: Chemical Applications:
✓ Flexible design ❖ Spray towers are typically used for
✓ Low system pressure drop quenching applications and easily
✓ Contains no moving parts absorbed chemicals, including:
✓ Easily accessible spray nozzles SO2 ,HCl and other strong acids
✓ Cost-effective
Centrifugal scrubbers:
❖The collection efficiency for particles smaller than those recovered in spray towers
can be increased through the use of centrifugal scrubbers.
❖The simplest type of centrifugal scrubber can be constructed by inserting banks of
nozzles inside a conventional dry cyclone.
❖The spray acts on the particles in the outer vortex and the droplets loaded with
loaded particles are thrown outwards against the wet inner wall of the cyclone.
Packed bed towers:
❖In packed-bed tower, the gas stream is forced to follow a circuitous path through the packing material, on
which much of the PM impacts.
❖The liquid on the packing material collects the PM and flows down the chamber towards the drain at the
bottom of the tower.
❖A mist eliminator is typically positioned above/after the packing and scrubbing liquid supply.
❖Any scrubbing liquid & wetted PM entrained in the exiting gas stream will be removed by the mist
eliminator & returned to drain through the packed bed.
 Meteorological Aspects of Air pollution Dispersion
(refer CSRao text book)
❖Temperature lapse rate
The lapse rate is the rate at which atmospheric temperature decreases with
an increase in altitude.
The environmental lapse rate (ELR), is the rate of decrease of temperature
with altitude in the stationary atmosphere at a given time and location.
❖Adiabatic lapse rate
The rate at which atmospheric temperature decreases with increasing
altitude in conditions of thermal equilibrium.
❖Wind velocity and turbulence
❖Plume behavior
Inversion: A reversal of the normal decrease of air temperature with altitude,
or of water temperature with depth.
Plume behavior ( refer CSRao Text book-page 87)
Looping plumes take place when there has been solar heating. The large
thermal eddies in the unstable air may bring the plume to the ground level
periodically. In general, however, the direction of the plume with the
surrounding air occurs rather rapidly.
Coning plume gets resulted in when the vertical air temperature gradient has
been between dry adiabatic and isothermal, the air being slightly unstable with
some horizontal and vertical mixing occurring. Coning is most likely to occur
during cloudy or windy periods.
Fanning plumes spread out horizontally but do not mix vertically. Fanning
plumes take place when the air temperature increases with altitude
(inversion). At night, with light winds and clear skies, fanning plumers are most
probable.
Lofting plumes diffuse upward but not downwards and occur when there is a
super-adiabatic layer above a surface inversion. A lofting plume will generally
not reach the ground surface.
Fumigation causes the high pollutant concentration plume reaching the
ground level along the length of the plume and is caused by a super-adiabatic
lapse rate beneath an inversion. The super-adiabatic lapse rate at the ground
level occurs due to the solar heating. This condition has been favored by clear
skies and light winds.