Environmental Engineering - Air Pollution Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes covering atmospheric composition, air pollution sources, pollutants, smog, and global environmental issues.

Troposphere

The layer of the atmosphere where weather occurs due to convection.

Stratosphere

The layer of the atmosphere where temperature increases with altitude.

Mesosphere

Layer of the atmosphere with decreasing temperature as altitude increases and low air density

Exosphere

The outermost layer of the atmosphere, gradually thinning out.

Thermosphere

Layer of the atmosphere where temperature increases with altitude and Aurora occurs.

Nitrogen

The most abundant gas in the atmosphere.

Convection

A process where air molecules absorb heat, expand, rise, release heat, cool, and are pulled by gravity.

Amihan

Weather pattern in the Philippines: Northeast monsoon.

Habagat

Weather pattern in the Philippines: Southwest monsoon.

Air Pollution

Alteration of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the atmospheric air.

RA 8749

Philippine Clean Air Act.

Stationary Source

Air pollution source: Any building or immobile structure that emits air pollutants.

Point Source

Air pollution source: From the stack (pipes) mostly industrial plants.

Area Source

Air pollution source: Relatively large areas of specific activities that generate significant amounts of air pollutants.

Mobile Source

Air pollution source: Vehicle propelled by combustion for conveyance of persons or transportation of goods.

Air Pollutant

Any matter in the atmosphere other than oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and inert gases in normal concentrations, that is detrimental to health or the environment.

Primary Pollutant

Pollutant emitted directly from a source in the same form as it exists.

Secondary Pollutant

Pollutant formed in the atmosphere as a result of chemical reactions.

Photochemical Smog

Sunlight driven mix of pollutants.

PM

Particulate Matter: Primary source is combustion.

TSP

Total Suspended Particulate: concentration of particulate matter suspended in air.

Primary Particles

Sources of particulate matter: Construction sites, Agricultural fields, Unpaved roads, Fires, Smokestacks

Secondary Particles

Sources of particulate matter: Power plants, Industry Vehicles

Dusts

Solid particles entrained by process gases or direct offspring of a parent material undergoing a mechanical operation or materials used in mechanical operation

Fumes

Solid particles formed by the condensation of vapors by sublimation, distillation, calcination, or chemical processes.

Mists

Entrained liquid particle formed by the condensation of a vapor and by chemical reaction, 0.5 to 3.0 micrometer.

Smoke

Entrained solid particles formed as a result of incomplete combustion of carbonaceous materials, 0.05 to 1 micrometer.

Sprays

Liquid particle formed by the atomization of a parent liquid and settle under gravity.

Nitrogen Oxides

An important precursor both to smog and acid rain, and may affect both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

NO

Nitric Oxide: Produced whenever air is heated to high temperature such as in automobile cylinders or high temperature furnaces of power plants and industrial boilers.

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)

A brownish, highly reactive gas that is present in all urban atmospheres. Can irritate the lungs, cause bronchitis and pneumonia, and lower resistance to respiratory infections.

NO2 Formation

The major mechanism for the formation of NO2 in the atmosphere is the oxidation of the primary air pollutant nitric oxide (NO).

Sulfur Dioxide

A colorless gas that is toxic and irritating to the respiratory system

Sulfur Dioxide

A primary contributor to acid deposition, or acid rain, which causes acidification of lakes and streams and can damage trees, crops, historic buildings and statues.

Sulfur Dioxide

Combines with water vapor in the air forming sulfuric acid & sulfates.

Sulfur Dioxide Contributors

Industry Sector 90%, Transport 9%, Open Burning 1%

Sulfur Dioxide Source

Usually emitted from the burning of coal and oil in electrical energy generation or heating or from internal combustion engines.

Carbon Monoxide

A colorless, odorless and poisonous gas produced by incomplete burning of carbon in fuels, primarily by vehicles and with the incomplete burning of fossil fuels.

Carbon Monoxide Effect

When CO enters the bloodstream, it reduces the delivery of oxygen to the body's organs and tissues.

Hydrocarbons

Diverse group of organic compounds that contain only hydrogen and carbon (ex: CH4-methane).

Stratospheric Ozone

Essential component that screens out UV radiation in the upper atmosphere.

Ground Level (Tropospheric) Ozone

Man-made pollutant in the lower atmosphere, a secondary air pollutant.

Particulate Matter

Pollutant: Variable, state: Solid Particles.

Lead

Pollutant: Pb, state: Solid Particles.

Sulfuric Acid

Pollutant: H₂SO4, state: Liquid Droplets.

Nitrogen Dioxide

Pollutant: NO₂, state: Reddish-brown gas.

Sulfur Dioxide

Pollutant: SO₂, state: Colorless gas with strong odor.

Carbon Monoxide

Pollutant: CO, state: Colorless, odorless gas.

Carbon Dioxide

Pollutant: CO₂, state: Colorless, odorless gas.

Methane

Pollutant: CH4, state: Colorless, odorless gas.

Benzene

Pollutant: C6H6, state: Liquid with sweet smell.

Ozone

Pollutant: 03, state: Pale blue gas with acrid odor.

Chlorine

Pollutant: Cl₂, state: Yellow-green gas.

Secondary Air Pollutant Formation

Not emitted directly into the air but is formed through complex chemical reactions between precursor emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in the presence of sunlight.

Criteria Air Pollutants

Affects human health and environment.

Air Ouality regulation

National Ambient Air Quality Guidelines Valves (RA 8749)

Lead(Pb) toxicity

Causes learning disabilities in children, toxic to liver, kidney, blood forming organs

Sulfur Dioxide

Precursor to acid rain along with NOx

Air Quality standard

Ambient Air Quality Guideline Values: Concentration of air over specified periods classified as short-term and/or long-term which are intended to serve as goals or objectives for the protection of health and/or public welfare.

Ambient Air Quality

The general amount of pollution present in a broad area.

Ambient Air Quality Monitoring

The measurement of a representative sample and is indicative of a portion of the atmosphere.

High Volume-Gravimetric

USEPA method for TSP measurement.

Gas Bubbler and Pararosaniline Method

USEPA method for Sulfur Dioxide measurement.

Gas Bubbler Griess-Saltzman, or Chemiluminescence Method

USEPA method for Nitrogen Dioxide measurement.

Neutral Buffer Potassium Iodide (NBKI), or Chemiluminescence Method

USEPA method for Ozone measurement.

Non-dispersive Infra-red Spectrophotometry (NDIR).

USEPA method for Carbon Monoxide measurement.

Measurement Method Standard

Is based on 3 EPA for measurement of ambient and air quality

PM10

Particulate matter with a diameter of 10 microns or less.

μg/Nm³

Microgram per Normal cubic meter.

Airshed

Refers to areas with common weather or meteorological conditions and sources of air pollution which affect the interchange and diffusion of pollution in the surrounding atmosphere.

NCR, Region 3 (except Nueva Ecija), Region 4A (except Quezon)

Metro Manila Airshed includes _.

Air Quality Index (AQI)

Index for reporting daily air quality based on health effects.

Good

Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.

Moderate (Fair)

Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people.

Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups

People with lung disease, older adults and children are at a greater risk from exposure to ozone, whereas persons with heart and lung disease, older adults and children are at greater risk from the presence of particles in the air.

Unhealthy

Everyone may begin to experience some adverse health effects, and members of the sensitive groups may experience more serious effects.

Very Unhealthy

This would trigger a health alert signifying that everyone may experience more serious health effects.

Hazardous

This would trigger a health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.

smog los angeles

Vehicles emit nitrogen oxide

Photochemical Smog

A mixture of pollutants that are formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react to sunlight, creating a brown haze above cities. -EPA

Photochemical Smog

The secondary pollutant that causes the most concern is the ozone that forms at ground level.

Smog formation

Morning rush-hour traffic results in the production of large amounts of NO.

Thermal Inversion

A condition when warm air becomes trapped between two layers of cold air and acts like a lid on the valley.

Global Warming

Increase in temperature of earth due to greenhouse effect of gases

Greenhouse Effect

The warming thought to occur from the increase of greenhouse gases.

Climate Change

A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.

Greenhouse Gases Regulatory act

Philippine Clean Air Act (RA 8749)

Methane (CH4)

A greenhouse gas, emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil.

Fluorinated gases

Sometimes used as substitutes for stratospheric ODS.

Nitrogen trifluoride

High Global Warming Potential gases.

Kyoto Protocol

A protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aimed at fighting global warming.

Ozone

Occurs both in the Earth's upper atmosphere and at ground level.

Ozone Layer

Layer found in the stratosphere with high concentration of ozone molecules.

Ozone Layer

Acts as a shield that envelops the entire earth and protects all life forms on earth from the harmful UV radiation emitted by the sun.

Ozone layer thinning

Discovered a significant thinning of the ozone layer over the Antarctic occurred during the Southern Hemisphere spring.

Arctic

arctic - region around the earth's north pole.

Ozone Depleting Substances

Those substances that significantly deplete or otherwise modify the ozone layer in a manner that is likely to result in adverse effects of human health and the environment such as, but not limited to, chloroflourocarbons, halons and the like.

Class I

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Commonly known as freon.

Effects of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Thinning of the ozone layer resulting to the loss of the blocking effect of the ozone layer against the UV radiation