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Flare emissions, especially start-up flare emissions, during chemical plant operations generate large amounts of ozone precursors that may cause highly localized and transient ground-level ozone increment. Such an adverse ozone impact could be aggravated by the synergies of multiple plant start-ups in an industrial zone. In this paper, a systematic study on ozone increment superposition due to chemical plant start-up emissions has been performed. It employs dynamic flaring profiles of two olefin plants’ start-ups to investigate the superposition of the regional 1-hr ozone increment. It also summaries the superposition trend by manipulating the starting time (00:00–10:00) of plant start-up operations and the plant distance (4–32 km). The study indicates that the ozone increment induced by simultaneous start-up emissions from multiple chemical plants generally does not follow the linear superposition of the ozone increment induced by individual plant start-ups. Meanwhile, the trend of such nonlinear superposition related to the temporal (starting time and operating hours of plant start-ups) and spatial (plant distance) factors is also disclosed. This paper couples dynamic simulations of chemical plant start-up operations with air-quality modeling and statistical methods to examine the regional ozone impact. It could be helpful for technical decision support for cost-effective air-quality and industrial flare emission controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite that Heavy-Duty Vehicles (HDVs) represent a small part of the overall vehicle population they have been identified as one of the most important contributors to air pollution. This is one of the reasons why HDV emissions regulations are becoming more and more stringent worldwide. Following this trend, Europe introduced the Euro VI standard which includes more stringent emission limits for hydrocarbons, PM and NO x , while for the first time a limit for solid PN emissions was set. At the same time increased concern regarding greenhouse gas emissions led to a series of initiatives including HDVs CO 2 certification and monitoring with the latest being the submission of a proposal for CO 2 emission targets for 2025 and 2030. Despite the general concern, published data regarding Euro VI HDV emissions are scarce, while real-world emission factor measurements of regulated and unregulated pollutants are even more difficult to find. The main objective of this paper is to present real-world diesel Euro VI HDVs emissions of both gaseous pollutants and solid PN. For that reason five HDVs, including four trucks and one bus, were tested on-road under typical driving conditions. A breakdown of the emissions to low, medium, and high speed conditions was also performed with the aim investigating the performance of aftertreatment systems under different speed conditions. All tested vehicles performed better compared to older technology diesel HDVs, thus reflecting the technological improvements introduced over the last years. However, relatively high emissions were observed for some of the pollutants over low speed phases due to reduced effectiveness of the corresponding emission control systems. Calculated emission factors were also compared to existing emission inventories and good correlation was found for NO x , CO 2 and solid PN emissions. Highlights • Five Euro VI HDVs were tested on-road under typical driving conditions. • The vehicles demonstrated overall lower emissions compared to older technology HDVs. • Relatively high emissions were observed for some pollutants over low speed phases. • Emission inventories succeed in calculating real world EFs of Euro VI HDVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both meteorological changes and emission control have significant impacts on PM 2.5 concentration and regional transport contribution, where it is important to clarify the relationship among them for air pollution control. In this paper, the WRF-CAMx coupled with a set of simulation scenarios was employed for decomposing the contributions of meteorological conditions, emission, and regional transport considering transport matrix to PM 2.5 concentration in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) and Yangtze River Delta (YRD) regions during 2013–2017. The results show that the local contributions occupied the primary position in PM 2.5 concentrations in the BTH and YRD regions, reaching 57.9% and 58.1% in 2017, respectively. In terms of regional transports, they were mainly from Shandong Peninsula (SP) and Fen Nutrient Plain (FNP) for BTH, while Central triangle Region (CTR) and SP for YRD. Analysis of typical representative months suggested that in January, the concentration of local contribution reached peak. In addition, the results also show that when the intensity of emission reduction increased, the proportion of local contribution increased significantly while the local absolute contribution concentration decreased correspondingly. The meteorological conditions had little impact on transport matrix dominated by local contribution, whereas, the more favorable the meteorological diffusion conditions, the lower the contribution ratio of the out-of-region transport and the lower the contribution concentration. Moreover, the variation of meteorological conditions was more significant to the transport contribution outside the region. These findings can be helpful for formulating reasonable strategies of regional joint prevention and control and providing a valuable preference for other areas of China. [Display omitted] • The transport matrix of PM 2.5 was established using the WRF-CAMx model. • Emission reduction dominated the total decrease in PM 2.5. • Local emissions contributed 57.9% and 58.1% of PM 2.5 in BTH and YRD. • Meteorological conditions had a significant impact on the regional transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution episodes of unknown origins are often detected by online equipment for air quality monitoring in industrial parks in China. The number of monitors available to provide observation data, as well as the source information, is often very limited. In such case, the identification of a potential source area is more practical than the precise back-calculation of the real source. The potential source area which can be deduced from the observation data from limited monitors was concerned in this paper. In order to do the source area identification, two inverse methods, a direct method and a statistical sampling method, were applied with a Gaussian puff model as the forward modeling method. The characteristic of the potential source area was illustrated by case studies. Both synthetic and real cases were presented. The distribution of the source locations and its variation with the other unknown source parameters were mainly focused in the case study. As a screening method, source area identification can be applied not only when the number of effective monitors is limited but also when an ideal number of monitors are available as long as the source information is almost uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global burden of disease study estimated 695,000 premature deaths in 2010 due to continued exposure to outdoor particulate matter and ozone pollution for India. By 2030, the expected growth in many of the sectors (industries, residential, transportation, power generation, and construction) will result in an increase in pollution related health impacts for most cities. The available information on urban air pollution, their sources, and the potential of various interventions to control pollution, should help us propose a cleaner path to 2030. In this paper, we present an overview of the emission sources and control options for better air quality in Indian cities, with a particular focus on interventions like urban public transportation facilities; travel demand management; emission regulations for power plants; clean technology for brick kilns; management of road dust; and waste management to control open waste burning. Also included is a broader discussion on key institutional measures, like public awareness and scientific studies, necessary for building an effective air quality management plan in Indian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is a high interest in quantifying temporal trends of air pollutant concentrations as they serve to assess the effects of emission control strategies. In this paper temporal trends (1997–2012) in air pollutant concentrations in the City of Makkah, near the Holy Mosque, have been assessed with the help of Theil–Sen approach and changepoint analysis, which are applicable to both normal and non-normal distributed data and are therefore preferred over classic parametric statistics. Trend analysis of nitrogen oxides (NO x ), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter of 10 micron or less (PM10) and ozone (O3) was performed, not only at mean concentrations but also at several selected quantiles (minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile and maximum). Trends were positive in SO2, NO2, PM10 and ozone and negative in CO and NO concentrations. NO x (negative) and NO2 (positive) trends were predominantly non-significant, however other pollutants showed mostly significant trends. Trends vary at various metrics suggesting different behaviour of air pollutants at various quantiles of the distributions. Changepoint analysis was performed, which provides further insight into the temporal trends and highlights the points when the trends have changed significantly. Potential factors responsible for the observed temporal trends are discussed. Further work on source apportionment of various emission sources and spatial variability of air pollutants is required to provide further insight into the causes behind the trends of air pollutants and help better manage air pollutant levels in Makkah and elsewhere in the country. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyzes PM10 concentration data collected at 10 stations for the period of 2005–2009 by Air Quality Section of Istanbul Municipality. The analysis has been focused on spatial and temporal variations of the pollutants and their possible sources in the urban zones of the city. PM10 concentrations in Istanbul show significant variations across the city, with current PM10 levels at several traffic hot points and industrial zones which exceed EC air quality limit. The general temporal pattern is characterized by high concentrations in winter and low in summer. The number of exceedences allowed by the EU was surpassed at all monitoring sites during the analyzed years which reflect the serious pollution problem in the city. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: VOC pollution in indoor air has become a serious problem in urban areas of China. Building materials and furniture used indoors are the main sources of such pollution. How to determine the VOC emission characteristics of furniture rapidly and conveniently is an important but difficult problem. In this paper, we extend the C-history method for determining the VOC emission characteristic parameters (i.e., the initial emittable VOC concentration, C 0, the partition coefficient, K, and the diffusion coefficient, D) of homogeneous building materials developed by to measure the parameters of VOC emissions from wood-based furniture in a 30m3 full-scale chamber. The conditions under which there are three equivalent parameters, C 0,equ, K equ and D equ for multi-layer board and wood-based furniture is analyzed and presented. A series of tests were performed to determine the three parameters of some commonly used wood-based furniture in China. A run of independent ventilated chamber experiments were carried out to validate the method. The results show that: (1) The agreement of the formaldehyde and six VOCs concentrations between the ventilated experiment and the simulated results based on the determined parameters is very good; (2) The method could be used in testing multi-layer board and wood-based furniture. The testing time is usually less than 3 days as compared with the furniture testing method typically performed under ventilated chamber conditions and take 5,7,14 or 28 days. The possibilities and limitations of applying the method to the existing furniture labeling schemes are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Numerous epidemiological studies have shown health effects related to short- and long-term exposure to elevated levels of ambient particulate matter (PM). It is not clear however which specific characteristics (e.g., size, components) or sources of PM are responsible for the observed effects. The aim of RAPTES (Risk of Airborne Particles: a Toxicological–Epidemiological hybrid Study) was to investigate which specific physical, chemical or oxidative characteristics of ambient PM are associated with adverse effects of PM on health. This was done by performing experimental exposure of human volunteers to air pollution at several real-world settings that had high contrast and low correlation between several PM characteristics. For this goal, eight sites in the Netherlands that differed in local PM emission sources were chosen for extensive air pollution characterization. Measurement sites included an underground train station, three different road traffic sites, an animal farm, a sea harbor, a site located in the vicinity of steelworks, and an urban background site. Five- to six-hours average concentration measurements at each site were made between June 2007 and October 2009. We measured PM10, PM2.5, particle number concentration (PNC), oxidative potential of PM, absorbance, endotoxin content, as well as elemental and chemical composition of PM, and gaseous pollutants concentrations. This paper presents a detailed characterization of particulate air pollution at the sampling sites. We found significant differences in all PM characteristics between the sites. The underground train station, compared to each outdoor location, had substantially higher concentrations of nearly all PM characteristics. The average PM10 and PM2.5 mass concentrations at the underground train station were 394 μg m−3 and 137 μg m−3, respectively, which was 14.1 and 7.6 times higher than the urban background. The sum of the concentrations of trace metals in fine and coarse PM was nearly 20 times above the outdoor levels. Elemental carbon (EC) was elevated at the underground site in the fine but also in the coarse mode, in contrast to the traffic sites where EC was predominantly found in fine PM. The highest concentrations and contrasts in PNC were at the traffic sites (between 45,000 and 80,000 particles cm−3), which was several times higher than measured at any other site. Correlations of PNC with metals, PM10, PM2.5 and absorbance were low to moderate, while correlations between PM10, PM2.5 and the metals Cu and Fe were high. After excluding the underground train station data, correlations between PM10, EC and metals decreased whereas the correlation between PNC and EC increased. We conclude that we were able to successfully identify and characterize real-world situations with very different particle characteristics. High contrast and low correlations between PM characteristics, as well as consistency of these differences across sampling campaigns, provide a good basis for identifying health relevant PM characteristics in the upcoming analysis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Managing urban air pollution necessitates a feasible and efficient abatement strategy which is characterised as a defined set of specific control measures. In practice, hard budget constraints are present in any decision-making process and therefore available alternatives need to be hierarchised in a fast but still reliable manner. Moreover, realistic strategies require adequate information on the available control measures, taking also into account the area’s special characteristics. The selection of the most applicable bundle of measures rests in achieving stakeholders’ consensus, while taking into consideration mutually conflicting views and criteria. A preliminary qualitative comparison of alternative control measures would be most handy for decision-makers, forming the grounds for an in-depth analysis of the most promising ones. This paper presents an easy-to-follow multicriteria methodological approach in order to include and synthesise multi-disciplinary knowledge from various stakeholders so as to result into a priority list of abatement options, achieve consensus and secure the adoption of the resulting optimal solution. The approach relies on the active involvement of public authorities and local stakeholders in order to incorporate their environmental, economic and social preferences. The methodological scheme is implemented for the case of Thessaloniki, Greece, an area considered among the most polluted cities within Europe, especially with respect to airborne particles. Intense police control, natural gas penetration in buildings and metro construction equally result into the most “promising” alternatives in order to control air pollution in the GTA. The three optimal alternatives belong to different thematic areas, namely road transport, thermal heating and infrastructure. Thus, it is obvious that efforts should spread throughout all thematic areas. Natural gas penetration in industrial units, intense monitoring of environmental standards and regular maintenance of heavy oil burners are ranked as 4th, 5th and 6th optimal alternatives, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The rapid growth of energy consumption in conjunction with economic development during past decades in East Asia, especially China, caused severe air pollution problems at local and regional scales. Understanding of the meteorological conditions for air pollution is essential to the understanding of the formation mechanism of air pollutants and the development of effective emission control strategies to reduce air pollution. In this paper, the Fifth Generation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)/Pennsylvania State University (PSU) Mesoscale Model (MM5) modeling system is applied to simulate meteorological fields during selected six 1-month periods in 2007/2008 over a triple-nested modeling domain covering East Asia, the eastern China, and Shandong Province at horizontal grid resolutions of 36-, 12-, and 4-km, respectively. MM5 generally reproduces well the observations in the eastern China but performs worse in the western China and northeastern China. Largest biases occur in 2-m temperatures (T2) and wind speed and wind direction at 10-m in haze months (i.e., winter) and daily mean precipitation (Precip) in non-haze months (i.e., summer), due to limitations of the model in simulating snow cover and convective precipitation. Meteorological predictions agree more closely with observations at urban sites than those at the coastal and mountain sites where the model performance deteriorates because of complex terrains, influences of urban heat island effect and land/sea breezes, and higher elevations. Model results at 12-km in Shandong Province show an overall better performance than those at 4- or 36-km while the results at 4-km show worst performance due to inaccurate land use and the model’s incapability in simulating meteorological processes at a fine scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In recent decades, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region located in south China has been experiencing severe air pollution, arising from the rapid increase in industry and motor vehicles. As a major contributing source to VOCs and NOx emissions, control of vehicular emissions plays a very important role in improving regional air quality. By taking 2015 as a target year, this paper assessed the impacts of five possible motor vehicle emission control measures and a combined policy scenario on ambient air quality in the PRD region, with the use of the Model-3/CMAQ (Community Multi-scale Air Quality) model. The results show: (1) an overall decreasing pattern in SO2, NO2 and PM10 concentrations was found in central-south metropolitan areas of the PRD region for all measures, but increased O3 concentrations may occur in these areas as well. The exception to this is that a slight decrease was observed for the cases of motorcycle restriction and introduction of HEV; (2) upgrading to National IV emission standards is the most effective individual measure and can reduce daily averaged NO2 and PM10 concentrations by 11.7ppbV and 21.3μgm−3, respectively; but involves an increase (at maximum) of 10.3ppbV in O3 concentration. Evaluation of the combined scenario indicates that solely controlling motor vehicle emissions is not sufficient to improve PRD regional air quality significantly. O3 and PM10 concentrations under the same VOC/NOx reduction ratios exhibit differently at different locations, suggesting that integrated and location-specific pollution control strategies, considering co-control of multi-pollutants, are needed in this region in order to decrease primary and secondary pollutant concentrations simultaneously. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Valuation of health effects of air pollution is becoming a critical component of the performance of cost–benefit analysis of pollution control measures, which provides a basis for setting priorities for action. Beijing has focused on control of transport emission as vehicular emissions have recently become an important source of air pollution, particularly during Olympic games and Post-games. In this paper, we conducted an estimation of health effects and economic cost caused by road transport-related air pollution using an integrated assessment approach which utilizes air quality model, engineering, epidemiology, and economics. The results show that the total economic cost of health impacts due to air pollution contributed from transport in Beijing during 2004–2008 was 272, 297, 310, 323, 298 million US$ (mean value), respectively. The economic costs of road transport accounted for 0.52, 0.57, 0.60, 0.62, and 0.58% of annual Beijing GDP from 2004 to 2008. Average cost per vehicle and per ton of PM10 emission from road transport can also be estimated as 106 US $/number and 3584 US $ t−1, respectively. These findings illustrate that the impact of road transport contributed particulate air pollution on human health could be substantial in Beijing, whether in physical and economic terms. Therefore, some control measures to reduce transport emissions could lead to considerable economic benefit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aggressive traffic interventions and emission control measures implemented to improve air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games created a valuable case study to evaluate the effectiveness of these measures on mitigating air pollution and protecting public health. In this paper, we report the results from our field campaign in summer 2008 on the on-road emission factors of carbon monoxide, black carbon (BC) and ultrafine particles (UFP) as well as the ambient BC concentrations. The fleet average emission factors for light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGV) showed considerable reduction in the Olympic year (2008) compared to the pre-Olympic year (2007). Our measurement of Black Carbon (BC), a primary pollutant, at different elevations at the ambient site suggests consistent decrease in BC concentrations as the height increased near the ground level, which indicates that the nearby ground level sources, probably dominated by traffic, contributed to a large portion of BC concentrations in the lower atmospheric layer in Beijing during summertime. These observations indicate that people living in near ground levels experience higher exposures than those living in higher floors in Beijing. The BC diurnal patterns on days when traffic control were in place during the Olympic Games were compared to those on non-traffic-control days in both 2007 and in 2008. These patterns strongly suggest that diesel trucks are a major source of summertime BC in Beijing. The median BC concentration on Olympic days was 3.7 μg m−3, which was dramatically lower than the value on non-traffic-control days, indicating the effectiveness of traffic control regulations in BC reduction in Beijing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper evaluates the ranking of 21 priority air pollutants with three indicator schemes: environmental pressure indicator (EPI), environmental quality indicator (EQI), and human health effect indicator (HEI). The EPI and EQI compare the emissions and concentrations with the target emissions and target concentrations, respectively. The HEI comprehends the steps from cause (i.e. national emissions) to effect (i.e. human health effects), and is the total human health burden, expressed in Disability Adjusted Life Years per year of exposure (DALYsyear−1). We estimated a health burden in the Netherlands of 41×103 DALYsyear−1 caused by Dutch air emissions of PM10 and its precursors in the year 2003. The burden due to 17 carcinogenic substances emitted to air, was much lower (140DALYsyear−1). In contrast, when the same substances were evaluated regarding environmental pressure and environmental quality, carbon tetrachloride (pressure) and benzo[a]pyrene (quality) were of highest importance, whereas the importance of PM10 was substantially lower. This result is remarkable, because for the majority of substances evaluated, the target concentrations and target emissions are based on preventing human health damage. The differences in relevance are explained by the different weighting of interests in the indicators. The HEI is based on concentration–response relations, whereas the EPI and EQI also depend on other, policy-based, principles and on technical feasibility. Therefore, to effectively prioritize emission reduction measures in policy-making, substances should not only be evaluated as to whether emission targets and environmental quality targets are reached, but they should be evaluated regarding their human health impact as well. In this context, the HEI is a suitable indicator to evaluate the human health impact. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We have used a global version of the Regional Air Pollution Information and Simulation (RAINS) model to estimate anthropogenic emissions of the air pollution precursors sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NO x ), carbon monoxide (CO), primary carbonaceous particles of black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC) and methane (CH4). We developed two scenarios to constrain the possible range of future emissions. As a baseline, we investigated the future emission levels that would result from the implementation of the already adopted emission control legislation in each country, based on the current national expectations of economic development. Alternatively, we explored the lowest emission levels that could be achieved with the most advanced emission control technologies that are on the market today. This paper describes data sources and our assumptions on activity data, emission factors and the penetration of pollution control measures. We estimate that, with current expectations on future economic development and with the present air quality legislation, global anthropogenic emissions of SO2 and NO x would slightly decrease between 2000 and 2030. For carbonaceous particles and CO, reductions between 20% and 35% are computed, while for CH4 an increase of about 50% is calculated. Full application of currently available emission control technologies, however, could achieve substantially lower emissions levels, with decreases up to 30% for CH4, 40% for CO and BC, and nearly 80% for SO2. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A cost effective measure to reduce particulate matter (PM) emissions of city buses is retrofitting with a continuous regenerating trap (CRT). In this paper, the performance of the CRT is evaluated in real life conditions using an on-the-road emission and energy measurement system developed previously in our laboratory. The CRT is found to reduce PM emissions to over 90% thereby also reducing CO and THC to at least 65%. No significant NO x change is detected. The raise in fuel consumption is not significant. The exhaust gas temperature at the CRT is over 250°C for 70% of the time thus easily fulfilling the manufacturer''s demand. The demand for a NO x /PM ratio of 15 is at least realised during 70% of the time. Follow-up measurements after 1 year showed no deterioration of the CRT. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Current modeling methods are inadequate for producing gridded mobile source inventories suitable for simulating fine-scale changes in emissions for transportation planning or regulatory control purposes. In this paper, we present a new model that more precisely simulates small-scale emission changes that can arise from, for example, implementation of traffic control measures in transportation networks. The new model, UCDrive, directly interfaces with most travel demand models and with California''s regulatory emission factor model EMFAC2001/2002. The model improves the sensitivity of emission estimates to variations in vehicle speeds and uses a theoretically consistent approach to spatially disaggregating mobile emissions. To demonstrate application of the model we use the Sacramento area network to perform a comparison study. We show that regional emissions with the new model replicate regulatory inventories, which is critical for using the model for regulatory purposes. We also show that the new model''s results better replicate regulatory totals than those derived with a frequently used gridded emissions inventory model. The new model should improve the ability to better simulate changes in mobile emissions from transportation projects and help to bridge the gap between gridded mobile emission inventories and regional mobile emission inventories. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Using data from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) program, report that average fine particulate light absorbing carbon (LAC) concentrations in California decreased by about 50% from 0.46 μg m-3 in 1989 to 0.24 μg m-3 in 2008. They attribute most of the LAC decline in California to reductions in the state’s diesel emissions. These findings are encouraging, but in this comment we call attention to a significant methodological issue that can arise in any long-term trends analysis using IMPROVE data. In the Bahadur et al. analysis, LAC data from eighteen remote monitoring sites were aggregated with data from three urban sites that only operated for 1–8 years. The large absolute decrease of 0.22 μg m-3 they reported in the statewide California average was largely driven by one urban site, South Lake Tahoe (Tahoe), which was dropped from the network in mid-1997. LAC concentrations at Tahoe were an order of magnitude higher than those at nearby Bliss State Park indicative of large local source contributions. The exclusion of the three locally influenced urban sites substantially reduces the magnitude of the decreasing LAC trends shown in Bahadur et al., though this does not necessarily invalidate the paper’s conclusion that LAC is broadly decreasing and diesel emission controls are likely to be responsible for part of this decrease. Control of emissions from wood-burning stoves may also have contributed to decreases in LAC and other particulate compounds; like diesel emission controls, this too is an important regulatory success. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]