MODULE 3

• Air – earth’s atmosphere- mixture of many gases

and tiny dust particles.
• Air Composition
• 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen and a very small
percentage of water vapor and other gases.
• The air also has another important function: it
regulates the temperature of the earth and causes
different weather pattern.
 Air Pollution
• Air pollution is contamination of the indoor or
outdoor environment by any chemical,
physical or biological agent that modifies the
natural characteristics of the atmosphere.
• Air pollutants
• A pollutant can be solid (large or sub-molecular), liquid or
gas
• It may originate from a natural or anthropogenic source
(or both).
• It is estimated that anthropogenic sources have changed
the composition of global air by less than 0.01%.
Examples of “natural” air pollution include:
• Ash
• Salt particles
• Pollen and spores
• Smoke and
• Windblown dust
 Air Pollution
CLASSIFICATION
1. According to origin
1. Primary pollutants: produces by natural events and
human activities
Eg: dust, smoke, oxides of sulphur and nitrogen,
hydrocarbons and particulate matter etc..

2. Secondary pollutants: chemical interactions between

primary pollutants and atmospheric constituents
Eg: Sulphur trioxide, ozone , ketones, sulphuric acid,
nitric acid, carbonic acid
 Air Pollution
CLASSIFICATION
2. According to state of matter
1. Gaseous air pollutants : Gaseous state Eg: carbon dioxide,
nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxides etc.
2. Particulate air pollutants: Suspended droplets, solid particles or
mixtures of the two.
3. According to sources: Pollutants originate from
3. Natural sources: volcanic eruptions, deflation from sand and dust,
sulphur springs, organic and inorganic decays, photochemical
debris etc..
4. Man made sources: human activities like industries, factories,
urban centres, agriculture, domestic burning of wood and burning
of fossil fuels, deforestation.
 Air Pollution
SOURCES
• Stationary Sources
• an emission source that does not move
• release relatively consistent qualities and quantities of pollutants.
• A facility is considered to have significant emissions if it emits about one ton or more in a
calendar year.

• Area Sources
• many smaller stationary sources located together whose individual emissions may be low but
whose collective emissions can be significant.
• those that emit < 25 tons per year of any combination of hazardous air pollutants, or < 10
tons per year of any single hazardous air pollutant.
• Eg: Multiple fuel gas stacks within a single industrial plant, Open burning and forest fires,
Evaporation losses from large spills of volatile liquids
Primary Pollutants
Factors that affect air pollution
• Emissions (traffic, industrial, domestic)
• Geography (terrain)
• Weather conditions (rain, winds, humidity)
• Season
• Time of day
• Population density
• Indoor vs outdoor
 National Ambient Air Quality Standards
(NAAQS)
• An air quality standard defines the maximum amount of a pollutant
averaged over a specified period of time that can be present in
outdoor air without harming public health and thus, it defines clean
air.
• NAAQs are the standards for air quality with reference to various
identified pollutants notifies by CPCB under the Air Act , 1981.
 National Ambient Air Quality Standards
(NAAQS)
• Objectives of NAAQs are:
(i) to indicate necessary air quality levels and appropriate
margins required to ensure the protection of vegetation,
health, and property,
(ii) to provide a uniform yardstick for the assessment of air
quality at the national level and
(iii)to indicate the extent and need of the monitoring
programme.
 National Ambient Air Quality Standards
(NAAQS)
• Annual standards are basically the annual arithmetic mean of a
minimum 104 measurements in a year, at a particular site taken twice
a week, at a uniform 24-hourly interval and at either a 24 hourly, 8
hourly, or 1 hourly monitored values, as applicable, shall be complied
with 98% of the time in a year. However, there is a 2% chance of
exceeding the limits but not on two consecutive days of monitoring.
 Air Quality Index
• The AQI is a tool for the effective communication of air quality status
to people in terms, which are easy to understand.
• It transforms complex air quality data of various pollutants into a
single number (index value), nomenclature and colour
• AQI categories: good, satisfactory, moderately polluted, poor, very
poor, and severe
• Each caterogy- based on the ambient concentration values of air
pollutants and their likely health impacts
• sub-index determines the overall AQI- Based on the measured
ambient concentrations of a pollutant
Effect of Air Pollution on human health
• Tobacco smoke
• Biological pollutants
• Volatile organic compounds
• Formaldehyde
• Lead
• Radon
• Ozone
• Oxides of nitrogen
• Carbon monoxide
• Sulphur dioxide
• SPM (Suspended Particulate Matter )
Economic Effect of Air Pollution
 Air Pollution Control Devices
• Prevent a variety of different pollutants, both gaseous and solid, from
entering the atmosphere primarily out of industrial smokestacks.

• Two broad categories -

• devices that control the amount of particulate matter escaping into the
environment
• devices that control acidic gas emissions
1. Control of Particulate Matter

• Specific machinery is used to remove particulate matter

• Uses physical means of separation and not chemical because

particulate matter is large enough to be caught in this manner.

• Particulate matter can be extracted through:

• Electrostatic precipitators
• Cyclone Separators
• Fabric Filters
1. Electrostatic precipitators
• a type of filter that uses static electricity to remove soot and ash from exhaust
fumes before they exit the smokestacks- leaving clean, hot air to escape
• Why: it can damage buildings and harm human health - especially respiratory
health.
2. Cyclone Separators
• a separation device that uses the principle of inertia to remove particulate matter
from flue gases.
• dirty flue gas enters a chamber containing a vortex
• Because of the difference in inertia of gas particles and larger particulate matter,
the gas particles move up the cylinder while larger particles hit the inside wall and
drop down
• This separates the particulate matter from the flue gas, leaving cleaned flue gas.
2. Fabric Filters
• they can also remove acidic gases if they utilize basic compounds.
• This method simply uses some sort of fabric - generally felt is used as a woven
cloth would allow dust to make its way through - is placed so that flue gasses
must pass through it before exiting the smokestacks.
• When the gas passes through, dust particles are trapped in the cloth
Gas Control (Acidic gases in flue gas contribute to acid
rain)

• some of the basic ways that gases can be extracted.

• 1. Scrubbers
• 2. Incineration
• 3. Carbon Capture
• 1. Scrubbers
• Remove harmful materials from industrial exhaust gases
• pollutants are generally gaseous, and when scrubbers are used to specifically
remove SOx it is referred to as flue gas desulfurization.
• Scrubbers: Wet scrubbers and dry scrubbers (the type of material used to
remove the gases)
• By removing acidic gases from the exhaust before it is released into the sky,
scrubbers help prevent the formation of acid rain.
• Wet scrubbing: by spraying a liquid substance through the gas
• Dry scrubbing: by introducing a solid substance to the gas - generally in
powdered form.
• 2. Incineration
• Used to convert Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) emissions into carbon dioxide
and water through combustion.
• The incineration generally takes place in a specialized piece of equipment known
as an afterburner, which is built to create the conditions necessary for complete
combustion
• Additionally, the incinerated gas must be mixed to ensure complete combustion.
• 3. Carbon Capture

• Carbon capture and storage refers to the process of capturing this carbon
dioxide and storing it below ground, pumping it into geologic layers.
• This process is rarely being used, but is talked about extensively as a way to limit
greenhouse gas emissions leading to climate change.
Ozone Depletion
• Ozone layer is an umbrella 24 km [15 miles] from earth surface, an
essential component of the stratosphere that absorbs short
wavelength ultraviolet radiation from the sun, heating the gases of
the stratosphere in the process.
• This is the reason temperatures rise with increasing altitude in the
stratosphere, and also the reason life was able to move out of the
oceans and on to the land, evolving into the diverse biosphere we
know today.
• World ozone day - Sept, 16
• Stratospheric ozone is measured in Dobson units [DU] named after
G.M.B Dobson who pioneered the study; [1 Dobson unit = 0.01 mm
thickness of stratospheric ozone],
• Average ozone thickness in stratosphere is 300 DU, & when it falls
below 200 DU, it’s considered as Ozone hole. It is thinnest around
equator and thickest near poles.
Causes of Ozone Depletion
• by the release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) and other ozone-
depleting substances (ODS), which were used widely as refrigerants,
insulating foams, and solvents.
• When CFCs reach the stratosphere, the ultraviolet radiation from the
sun causes them to break apart and release chlorine atoms which
react with ozone, starting chemical cycles of ozone destruction that
deplete the ozone layer. One chlorine atom can break apart more
than 100,000 ozone molecules.
Effects of Ozone Depletion
• cataract, genetic mutation, constriction of blood vessels, reduced crop
yield, leukemia, breast cancer, damage to crop, aqua culture, etc.,
• The higher energy UV radiation absorbed by ozone is generally
accepted to be a contributory factor to skin cancer. In addition,
increased surface UV leads to increased tropospheric ozone, which is
a health risk to humans. The increased surface UV also represents an
increase in the vitamin D synthetic capacity of the sunlight.
Effects of Ozone Depletion
• cataract, genetic mutation, constriction of blood vessels, reduced crop
yield, leukemia, breast cancer, damage to crop, aqua culture, etc.,
• The higher energy UV radiation absorbed by ozone is generally
accepted to be a contributory factor to skin cancer. In addition,
increased surface UV leads to increased tropospheric ozone, which is
a health risk to humans. The increased surface UV also represents an
increase in the vitamin D synthetic capacity of the sunlight.
• Snow Blindness [photo keratosis], i.e., inflammation of cornea (outer
coating of eyeball).
• The most common forms of skin cancer in humans, basal and
squamous cell carcinomas have been strongly linked to UVB exposure.
Another form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma, is much less
common but far more dangerous, being lethal in about 15% - 20% of
the cases diagnosed.