Air Pollution

Shibnath Chakrabarty
Professor, Environmental Engineering Division,
Department of Civil Engineering
Jadavpur University

1. Air Pollution and Air Pollutants

Air pollution is the presence in the atmosphere of some substances added directly or
indirectly generally by an anthropogenic activity, in such quantity and of such duration so as to affect
or try to affect human beings, animals, vegetations, materials, climates etc adversely.
The atmosphere is made up almost entirely of nitrogen and oxygen. Other gases and
particulates exist in very small concentrations. The other gases are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide,
methane, ozone, inert gases and also some manmade gases called halocarbons that include CFCs,
HCFCs, HFCs, halons etc.
Air pollutants are those substances that cause air pollution. These may be primary pollutants
(directly added to atmosphere) or secondary pollutants (generated within the atmosphere usually
from some primary pollutants). Example of primary air pollutants are: CO; SO2; NOx; Primary
particulates etc. Examples of secondary pollutants are O3, NO2, H2SO4, HNO3, etc. So, to control
acid rain problem, causing by acids like H2SO4 or HNO3, primary pollutants like SO2 and NOx are to
be minimized.
Sources of air pollutants can be classified on the basis of mode of generation (natural sources
and man made or anthropogenic sources) and also on the basis of shape or geometry of source
(point, line or area sources). Example of point source may be a single stack, and a road with a
number of vehicles may be a line source. Where as an industrial belt with number of stacks is to be
treated as an area source. Pollutants generated from area sources are the most difficult to control.
Sources, properties and effects of main criteria pollutants are shown in the tabulated form in
Table 1.

Prof. Shibnath Chakrabarty 1

2. Sources, Properties and Effects of Main Criteria Pollutants

Table-1: Sources, Properties and Effects of Main Criteria Pollutants

Name of the Sources Properties Most relevant effects

pollutant
Carbon monoxide Mainly from mobile Colourless, odourless, Asphyxiation,
(CO) sources (due to tasteless, poisonous, Aggravation of angina
incomplete haemoglobin has more pectoris; decreased
combustion) affinity towards CO exercise tolerance;
than oxygen. possible risk to fetuses;
Nitrogen dioxide(NO2) NO is produced in Brown coloured, only Formation of O3,
combustion with high air pollutant which is aggravation of
temperature.NO2 is photolytically respiratory disease;
produced generally dissociable. atmospheric
from oxidation of NO discolouration
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) Static sources like Odorous, water soluble Wheezing, shortness of
thermal power plants. breath, chest tightness;
plant damage and
odour, synergy with
particulate.
PM10 Static sources like Aerodynamic diameter Exacerbation of
thermal power plants. 10m, respirable respiratory mean
disease symptoms;
excess death; visibility
O3 (tropospheric) NO-NO2-O3 Oxidant Decreased pulmonary
photolytic cycle function; surrogate for
eye irritation; materials
and vegetation
damages
Lead TEL used as additives Heavy metal Impaired blood
in petrol/gasoline formation; infant
development.
Ammonia Industrial processes. Odorous, form Generation of
secondary fine secondary fine
particulate, water particulates, odour
soluble

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 CO generates for incomplete combustion of carbon in suboxic condition. It causes
asphyxiation. Automobiles are the most common sources of CO. NOx is mainly emitted as NO
form automobiles for combustion with high temperature, and further oxidized to NO2. NOx is
responsible for formation of O3, aggravation of respiratory disease; atmospheric discolouration. The
most common source of Pb was Tetra Ethyl Lead, which was used as additive in gasoline. Lead may
be responsible for impaired blood formation; infant development problems. Atmospheric particulate
matters consist of any dispersed matter, solid, or liquid. These are characterized by their
aerodynamic diameter (i.e. diameter of aerodynamically equivalent spherical particle). Particulates
can be classified as Fig-1.

Particulates

Suspended Settleable

RPM/P.M10 NRPM

Fine particulate Coarse Particulate

(.M2.5) (>P.M2.5)

Fig 1: Classification of particulates.

Respirable particulates are responsible mainly for respiratory track related problems. Sources of SO2
are mainly stationary fossil-fuel combusting units like thermal power plants. This is responsible for
wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness; plant damage and capable to show synergistic health
effect in presence of particulates. NH3 being the pollutant that is the primary source of various
secondary fine particulates.
In order to establish the need of monitoring and also uniform air strips, providing sufficient
health safety, air quality standards are prescribed, based on pollutant criteria and depending on the
best available technology (BAT) of the country. Pollutant criteria are the scientific information of
any pollutant from dose response relationships of different epidemiological and toxicological
studies. Air quality standards can be classified as Fig 2.

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 Air quality standards

Ambient standards Emission standards

(Change in decades) (Change with BAT)

Primary standards Secondary standards

(developed based on (developed based on
human health aspect) human welfare aspect

Fig 2: Classification of Air Quality Standards.

The air quality standard of any country is commonly known as National Ambient Air Quality
Standards (NAAQS). NAAQS in the context of Indian air quality for different pollutants, including
their averaging times and methods of measurements are given in the following table.
Table 2: National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

Pollutants Averaging time Concentration in ambient air

Land use

Industrial Areas Residential, Rural & Sensitive Areas

other Areas
Sulphur Dioxide Annual 80 g/m3 60 g/m3 15 g/m3
(SO2) Average

24 hours 120 g/m3 80 g/m3 30 g/m3

Oxides of Annual 80 g/m3 60 g/m3 15 g/m3
Nitrogen as Average
(NO2) 24 hours 120 g/m3 80 g/m3 30 g/m3
3 3
Suspended Particulate Annual 360 g/m 140 g/m 70 g/m3
Matter (SPM) Average
24 hours 500 g/m3 200 g/m3 100 g/m3
RespirableParticulate Annual 120 g/m3 60 g/m3 50 g/m3
Matter (RPM) (size Average
less than 10 microns) 24 hours 150 g/m3 100 g/m3 75 g/m3
Lead (Pb) Annual 1.0 g/m3 0.75 g/m3 0.50 g/m3
Average
24 hours 1.5 g/m3 1.00 g/m3 0.75 g/m3
Ammonia1 Annual 0.1 mg/ m3 0.1 mg/ m3 0.1 mg/m3
Average
24 hours 0.4 mg/ m3 0.4 mg/m3 0.4 mg/m3
Carbon Monoxide 81 hours
hour 10.0 mg/m33
5.0 mg/m 4.0
2.0 mg/m
3
2.0 mg/
1.0 mg/m 3
m3
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Note: 1. Annual average is annual Arithmetic mean of minimum 104 measurements in a year taken twice a week 24
hourly at uniform interval
2. Daily average is 24 hourly/8 hourly values should be met 98% of the time in a year. However, 2% of
the time, it may exceed but not on two consecutive days.
3. Most of the pollutants can be measures with high volume sampler (flow rate 1.1m3/min)

3. Control of Air Pollution

Nature has certain mechanisms to clean itself: natural cleansing mechanisms, which involve
natural phenomena like spatial redistribution of pollutants, gravitational settling, rain out, wash out
etc. Another very important mechanism is absorption of settled particulates by greenbelts to prevent
re-entrainment to the atmosphere. The particulate matters settled by different forces are captured by
leaves and other parts of trees, plants and grasses, which could have otherwise re-enter the
atmosphere. Apart from this, artificial techniques are also employed. Out of those, the most
significant one is waste minimization and comprises two basic steps: namely before and after the
generation of wastes. Regarding sustainability of development and carrying capacity from the view
of recurring accumulation of wastes, these steps are very much important. The first one can be
achieved by changing process (e.g. converting coal fired thermal power plants to oil fired), changing
raw materials(e.g. using unleaded petrol in place of leaded petrol) or by treating raw materials prior
to use (e.g. coal washing, desulphurization), while the second one takes into account recycle, reuse or
recovery of wastes. Apart from these downstream air pollution controlling equipments like
gravitational settling chamber, cyclone, bughouse, ESP (for particulate control), scrubbers (for
particulate and gaseous pollutants) can be installed to meet the standards. A brief description of
some widely used air pollution controlling equipments
is given below.

Settling chamber
A settling chamber consists of a large box installed in
the ductwork. The sudden expansion of size at the
chamber reduces the speed of the dust-filled
airstreams and heavier particles settle out by
gravitational force. Settling chambers are simple in
design and can be manufactured from almost any
material.

Cyclone separator
A cyclone separator is an apparatus for the separation,
of fine particles suspended in air or gas by centrifugal means. In
a typical cyclone, the dust gas stream enters at an angle and is
spun rapidly. The centrifugal force created by the circular flow
throws the dust particles toward the wall of the cyclone. After
striking the wall, these particles fall into a hopper located
underneath.

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 Cyclone separator

Baghouse
A baghouse is an air pollution abatement device used to
trap particulate by filtering gas streams through large
fabric bags. They are typically made of glass fibers or
fabric.

Baghouse

Scrubbers (wet scrubbers)

Dust collectors that use liquid are commonly known as
scrubber (wet scrubbers). In these systems, the scrubbing
liquid (usually (usually water) comes into contact with a gas
stream containing dust particles. The greater the contact of
the gas and liquid streams, the higher the removal efficiency

Wet scrubber

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Electrostatic
Precipitators (ESP)
Electrostatic precipitators
use electrostatic forces to
separate dust particles
from exhaust gases. A
number of high-voltage,
direct-current discharge
electrodes are placed
between grounded
collecting electrodes. The
contaminated gases flow
through the passage
formed by the discharge
and collecting electrodes.

Electrostatic precipitators

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