Managing Air Quality and Energy Systems

Brian D. Fath

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781138342675
• eBook ISBN: 9781000065640
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Environmental Law
• Index: Law

Bringing together a wealth of knowledge, the Handbook of Environmental Management, Second Edition, gives a comprehensive overview of environmental problems, their sources, their assessment, and their solutions. Through in-depth entries, and a topical table of contents, readers will quickly find answers to questions about pollution and management issues. This six-volume set is a reimagining of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, published in 2013, and features insights from more than 500 contributors, all experts in their fields.

The experience, evidence, methods, and models used in studying environmental management is presented here in six stand-alone volumes, arranged along the major environmental systems.

Features of the new edition:

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• The first handbook that demonstrates the key processes and provisions for enhancing environmental management.

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• Addresses new and cutting -edge topics on ecosystem services, resilience, sustainability, food-energy-water nexus, socio-ecological systems and more.

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• Provides an excellent basic knowledge on environmental systems, explains how these systems function and offers strategies on how to best manage them.

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• Includes the most important problems and solutions facing environmental management today.

In this second volume, Managing Air Quality and Energy Systems, the reader is introduced to the general concepts and processes of the atmosphere, with its related systems. This volume explains how these systems function and provides strategies on how to best manage them. It serves as an excellent resource for finding basic knowledge on the atmosphere, and includes important problems and solutions that environmental managers face today. This book practically demonstrates the key processes, methods, and models used in studying environmental management.

V
ENT: Environmental Management Using Environmental Technologies

21
Air Pollution: Monitoring

Waldemar Wardencki

Introduction

Objectives of Air Monitoring

History of Air Pollution Legislation

Air Quality Standards

Air Quality Index

Regulated Air Pollutants

Main Sources of Air Pollutants

Characteristics of Criteria Air Pollutants

Air Quality Monitoring

Design of Monitoring Networks for Air Pollution

Types of Information Obtained from Air Monitoring

General Requirements of the Instruments Used in Monitoring

Classification of the Instruments Used for the Detection and Monitoring of Air Pollutants

General Characteristics of the Methods and Analytical Instruments for Air Monitoring

Chemiluminescence for NO EN 14211

Ultraviolet Fluorescence for SO₂ EN 14212

Non-Dispersive Infrared for CO EN 14626

Ultraviolet Photometry for O₃ EN 14625

Online Gas Chromatography for Benzene EN 14662-Part 3

Other Monitoring Approaches

Biomonitoring Using Plants

GIS in Air Quality Monitoring

Remote Monitoring Techniques

Monitoring of Flue and Exhaust Gas Emissions

Systems for Continuous Monitoring of Stack Gases

Conclusions

References

Introduction

Concern about air quality is not new. The first reports of air pollution problems appear to have been made by writers in ancient Rome who were aware of its adverse effects on human health. Air pollution and its consequences had originally been considered to be relatively local phenomena associated with urban and industrial centers. Complaints were recorded in the 13th century when coal was first used in London. Now, it has become apparent that pollutants may be transported long distances in the air, causing adverse effects in environments far removed from the source emission. Scientific research, conducted over 200 years, has evidently shown that polluted air has a negative influence on health and, in some cases, may lead to death. The World Health Organization (WHO) appraises that air pollution causes approximately 2 million premature deaths worldwide per year. The levels of pollutants, which have a negative influence on life, are nowadays well defined. Because current thresholds set by national or global air quality guideline values are frequently exceeded, further reductions of emissions are necessary.

The first essential step in controlling and mitigating air pollution is to quantify the emissions of air pollutants. Most countries entail controlling a range of key pollutants at their point of discharge. The most important tool in environmental protection is monitoring. Environmental monitoring is the general term for systematic observations of what is going on in the environment. In the broadest context, environmental monitoring is defined as a system of measurements, evaluations, and forecasts of environmental states, and the collecting, processing, and spreading of information on the environment.

Air pollution and its control are a global issue demanding international cooperation. Monitoring of air pollution is a very important source of data. However, measurement of air pollutant concentrations, in comparison to monitoring of other elements of the environment, is the most difficult. This is related to the dynamics of the atmosphere, making it the main route of pollutant transport between the remaining environmental compartments. Unlike the case of water and soil pollution, environmental pollution is not geographically restricted, as a result of which large human populations can be exposed to it. Another problem is low concentration of air pollutants and their interaction with other gases.

This entry reviews the issues in the field of air pollution monitoring. At the beginning, the general objectives of air monitoring, ambient air quality standards for so-called criteria pollutants, and their sources are presented. In the next part, both analytical methods and instruments for monitoring of ambient air and stack gases are briefly presented. Additionally, other approaches applied in air pollution monitoring, such as biomonitoring, geographical information system (GIS), or remote monitoring, are also briefly characterized.

Objectives of Air Monitoring

Collecting information on the presence and concentration of pollutants in the environment, both naturally occurring or from anthropogenic sources, may be achieved by measurements of such substances or phenomenon of interest. For realistic assessment, temporal and spatial variations of concentrations in the particular environmental compartment, repeated measurements rather than single ones, are made.

The general aim of monitoring is to provide information about the actual levels of harmful or potentially harmful pollutants to indicate areas in which the quality of air does not fulfill proper standards. The main objectives of air monitoring are as follows:

• To measure pollutant mixing ratios and their interactions, patterns, and fate in the environment.
• To carry out ecotoxicological studies and assessment of the effects of pollution on man and the environment, to identify possible cause-and-effect relationship between pollutant concentration and health effects.
• To assess emission sources and the need for legislative controls on emissions of pollutants and to ensure compliance with emission standards.
• To activate emergency procedures in areas prone to acute pollution episodes.
• To obtain a historical record of air quality to provide a database for future use.

The area of applications of air monitoring data is presented in Figure 1.

FIGURE 1 The detailed goals of activities in air monitoring.

When the objectives of monitoring are clearly defined, several decisions should be made to generate suitable data for the intended use. Decisions on what to monitor, when and where to monitor, and how to monitor are usually undertaken at the beginning. More difficult are next decisions, e.g., establishing the number and location of sampling sites, the duration of the survey, and the time resolution of sampling. All the steps in the design of a monitoring program are presented in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2 Steps in the design of a monitoring program.

History of Air Pollution Legislation

A growing concern over the influence of different air pollutants on human health was the main driving force to develop and implement air quality criteria and standards. Impetus was given to the development of air quality standards in 1958 when it was realized that photochemical problems could not be resolved without control of motor vehicle emission.

Air Quality Standards

Efforts to regulate air quality by law were discussed and undertaken in the 1960s. One of the first p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Editors
• Contributors
• Section I APC: Anthropogenic Chemicals and Activities
• Section II COV: Comparative Overviews of Important Topics for Environmental Management
• Section III CSS: Case Studies of Environmental Management
• Section IV DIA: Diagnostic Tools: Monitoring, Ecological Modeling, Ecological Indicators, and Ecological Services
• Section V ENT: Environmental Management Using Environmental Technologies
• Section VI PRO: Basic Environmental Processes
• Index