Air Quality Management

1. Air Quality Management Dr. Wesam Al Madhoun

2. Air Quality Management?

3. What is AQM, Why is Needed • Designing and implementing methods and technologies for tracking changes in pollutant emissions, pollutant concentrations, and human health and welfare outcomes to document and ultimately improve the effectiveness of air pollution mitigation activities.

4. The aforementioned contributions of science and technology are made through monitoring, analysis, research, and development. • What is air quality management? • Air quality management (AQM) refers to all the activities a regulatory authority undertakes to make sure that the air we breathe is safe, both outdoors and indoors.

5. The AQM process is the system of understanding the sources that contribute to pollution in the air and the health and environmental effects of the pollutants, and then taking steps to reduce or control the sources to reach or maintain agreed upon target pollution levels in the air. • These levels may vary from country to country, but the overall system for planning, assessing, characterizing, mitigating, and implementing control strategies is similar.

6. AQM is generally handled at the national government level, regional and local governments, industry, and thepublic, all have important roles to play in this system. • Each AQM activity is related to the others. It is also important to recognize that the entire AQM process is dynamic - there is a continuous review and assessment of standards and strategies based on their effectiveness and new research on health and environmental effects.

7. Public Involvement Air Quality Goal Settings Emission Inventory Monitoring Human & Environmental Assessment Legistlation, Regulation & Implementation Control Strategies Air Quality Modeling Compliance & Enforcement

8. Integrated Air Quality Management System • Institutional mechanism: Local, regional, national, global • Assessment of air quality Monitoring Emission inventory Source apportionment Air pollution Exposure and damage • Evaluation of control strategies. • Development of AQM integrated strategy action plan • Strong implementation

10. Goals of the Clean Air Act

11. Criteria Pollutants U.S. EPA uses six "criteria pollutants" as indicators of air quality, and has established for each of them a National Ambient Air Quality Standards: • Particulate matter • Ground-level ozone • Nitrogen dioxide • Carbon monoxide • Sulfur dioxide • Lead

12. When an area does not meet the air quality standard for one of the criteria pollutants, it may be defined as non-attainment (especially for ozone, carbon monoxide, and some particulate matter). • Non-attainment classifications may be used to specify what air pollution reduction measures an area must adopt, and when the area must reach attainment.

13. Control Strategies

14. E EE • Control strategy development - How to determine the best approach to provide the emission reductions necessary to achieve the air quality goal.  • Three primary considerations in designing an effective control strategy are: • (1) Environmental: factors such as equipment locations, ambient air quality conditions, adequate utilities (i.e., water for scrubbers), legal requirements, noise levels, and the contribution of the control system as a pollutant;

15. (2) Engineering: factors such as contaminant characteristics (abrasiveness, toxicity, etc.), gas stream characteristics, and performance characteristics of the control system; and (3) Economic: factors such as capital cost, operating costs, equipment maintenance, and the lifetime of the equipment.  Pollution prevention should also be considered (eliminating pollution emissions at the source, substituting toxic raw materials, alternative processes, …)

17. Principles of Control Strategies • Controls should cover stationary, mobile, and area sources. • Utilize reasonably available control technology.  • For mobile sources, examples include tighter emission controls for vehicles and low-sulfur fuel standards. 

18. For major stationary sources apply permits for emission limits (new vs existing(.  • The basic types of emission control technology are mechanical collectors, wet scrubbers, bag houses, electrostatic precipitators, combustion systems (thermal oxidizers), condensers, absorbers, adsorbers, and biological degradation. 

19. Selection should be based environmental, engineering, and economic considerations. • First steps in air quality management process - focus on obvious sources of air pollution and the quickest means of control. • More sophisticated innovative and comprehensive strategies (emissions trading, banking, and emissions caps) can be incorporated as a further refinement as the strategy continues. 

20. Local and regional control measures are both necessary for a successful strategy. • Successful control strategies are usually adopted into a regulatory program with implementation deadlines and mechanisms for enforcement.  • The goal for all control strategies is to achieve real and measurable emission reductions.

21. Sources of emission, represented in various emission inventories for industrial, commercial, or domestic sources and the transportation system, as well as land- use related sources (biogenic emissions of VOCs, particulate matter from soils and street surfaces). • Monitoring system observing ambient air quality and historical trends with emphasis on the peak values that may exceed regulatory standards.

22. Dispersion and transformation processes, driven by emissions, meteorology, and local topography, that translate emissions into the ambient concentrations, represented by air quality simulation models. • Impact assessment, which translates the ambient concentrations into costs in a general sense (e.g., in terms of public health and environmental damage.(

23. Control strategies which basically attempt to limit emissions, relocate them, or mitigate impacts where that is possible, with fuel quality constraints, end of pipe technologies, or temporary traffic restrictions being of the more noticeable instruments . • Communication tasks including various levels of regular reports, event driven warnings such as smog alarms, as well as the continuous information of the public on ambient air quality.

24. There Are Four Main Steps In Developing A Control Strategy • Determine priority pollutants - based on health effects and the severity of the air quality problem. • (2) Identify control measures.For specific source categories, choose the appropriate controls.

25. Incorporate the control measures into a plan - written plan with implementation dates to formalize the strategy. It is important to adopt a regulatory program and include it in the plan so that control measures will be enforceable. • (4) Involve the public. As with the other management activities related to the AQM process, it is critical to contact the regulated community and other affected parties, asthe public should be consultedas part of the strategy development process. This early consultation reduces later challenges and streamlines implementation.

26. Air Quality Modeling • Air quality modeling is the necessary substitute/supplement for air quality monitoring. • Models can be used to predict the impacts from a potential emitter. • Models can be applied for the simulation of ambient pollution concentrations under different policy options.

27. Models can be used to determine the relative contributions from different sources as a tool for tracking trends, monitoring compliance, and making policy decisions. • Modeling for air quality management purposes typically falls into two broad categories: dispersion modelingandreceptor-based modeling( • The choice of model depends on a combination of the available data and the needs of the researcher (seeU.S. EPA's detailed recommendations).

28. Human & Environmental Assessment • Determining how various pollutants may impacts human health and the environment requires input from a range of disciplines, such as toxicology, public health, health sciences and epidemiology. • Effects directly on human health can include increases in the risk of death or increases in adverse health effect. Adverse health effects: acute effects (headaches or eye irritation), and chronic effects (asthma).

29. Environmental effects, including those causing indirect damages to humans (aesthetic damages, problems of odor, noise, and poor visibility, productivity of farmland, forests, and commercial fisheries(. • Environmental effects also encompass damages associated with preserving, protecting, and improving the quality of ecological resources.

30. Another aspect of human and environmental assessment is risk assessment. • Risk assessment is the scientific process of evaluating adverse effects and is usually geographically limited, though the defined geography can vary tremendously, for example local, regional and global.

31. Legislation - legislation is established by a governing authority and in general can be enforced by the courts. Air quality legislation generally contains broad program goals and objectives as well as roles and responsibilities for achieving national air quality protection. Legislation, Regulation & Implementation

32. Regulation - regulations are developed by a governing authority and usually provide more specific information for how the broad legislative objectives will be met. Implementation - The process of developing detailed plans, procedures and mechanisms needed to ensure legislative and regulatory requirements are achieved.

33. Compliance & Enforcement • Compliance involves actions and programs designed to ensure the environmental laws of the land are followed.  • Enforcement is focused on those situations when the law is not followed to ensure a rapid return to compliance with these laws.

34. Compliance and enforcement are very complex issues, involving different aspects of a country's legal and policy framework. • As such, there is no clear cut method for establishing a program. • Compliance Inspectionsare a key element of a compliance program.

35. Ambient Air Monitoring and Emissions Measurement • Ambient Monitoring is the systematic, long-term assessment of pollutant levels by measuring the quantity and types of certain pollutants in the surrounding, outdoor air. • Emissions Measurement is the process of monitoring particulate and gaseous emissions from a specific source.

36. Ambient Air Monitoring and Emissions Measurement Air quality monitoring is carried out to: • assess the extent of pollution, • ensure compliance with national legislation, • evaluate control options, and, • provide data for air quality modeling.

37. There are a number of different methods to measure any given pollutant, varying in complexity, reliability, and detail of data. These range from: • simple passive sampling techniques, to, • highly sophisticated remote sensing devices.

38. A monitoring strategy should carefully examine the options to determine which methodology is most appropriate, taking into account initial investment costs, operating costs, reliability of systems, and ease of operation.

39. Ambient Air Monitoring and Emissions Measurement • The locations for monitoring stations depend on the purpose of the monitoring. • Most monitoring networks are designed with human health objectives in mind, and monitoring stations are therefore established in population centers.

40. Many governments (local, regional or national) give specific guidelines on where to monitor within these areas - next to busy roads, in city center locations, or at a location of particular concern (e.g., a school, hospital). • Background monitoring stations are also established, to act as a "control" when determining source apportionment.

41. Emission Measurements

42. Emissions Inventory • An emissions inventory is a database that lists, by source, the amount of air pollutants emitted into the atmosphere of a community during a given time period.

43. Emissions Inventory • Emission inventories are used to help determine significant sources of air pollutants, establish emission trends over time, target regulatory actions, and estimate air quality through computer dispersion modeling. • An emission inventory includes estimates of the emissions from various pollution sources in a specific geographical area.

44. Methods for calculating the emissions inventories may include: continuous monitoring to measure actual emissions; extrapolating the results from short-term source emissions tests; and using publishedemission factors (US AP-42).

45. Emission factors may be used to estimate emissions. In most cases, these factors are simply averages of all available data of acceptable quality, and are generally assumed to be representative of long-term averages for all facilities in the source category. • Variations in the conditions at a given facility, such as the raw materials used, temperature of combustion, and emission controls, can significantly effect the emissions at an individual location. • Whenever possible, the development of local emission factors is highly desirable.