DEN 320/420 (ADVANCED) ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AIR POLLUTION STRATEGIES OF CONTROL Two strategies of control have developed: i) Limiting

ng airborne concentrations: These are limited to levels where no adverse health effects are expected and are subject to routine monitoring. This approach is currently applied to the criteria pollutants which have been selected since a) they are very common in the environment and b) they can be very harmful. The six criteria pollutants are: Ozone (O3), Carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Sulphur dioxide (SO2), Lead (Pb), and Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5). ii) Limiting emissions at source: This strategy is applied to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). These pollutants tend not to be uniformly present in the atmosphere, so they are not covered by routine ambient air quality monitoring. Instead polluters are required to use the best available control technology to keep HAP levels as low as possible at source. Typical HAPs are Dioxins, heavy metals (Cr, Cd, Ni), Benzene, Chloroform, Asbestos etc. The Criteria Pollutants i) Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2): This is produced by the combustion of fuels in air which produces initially nitric oxide (NO). The NO is then oxidised in the atmosphere to form NO2. The combined amount of NO and NO2 in the atmosphere is often referred to as NOx. NO2 absorbs light in the blue end of the spectrum and so can give a red-brown haze to the atmosphere. It can react with water to form nitric acid and hence acid rain. It can be a respiratory irritant to some people. In certain conditions of high concentration, intense sunlight and in the presence of catalysts ozone can be formed. This can cause smog conditions. The outline reactions are: 2NO + O2 2NO2 NO2 + h NO + O O + O2 + X O3 + X

h represents the input of short-wave radiative energy. X is a molecule that acts somewhat like a catalyst; some hydrocarbons (HC) or volatile organic compounds (VOC) are very effective in doing this. ii) Ozone (O3): A secondary pollutant; created largely by NO2 reactions described above. It is generally stronger towards the end of the day and reduces at night. It is a strong respiratory irritant; can lead to smogs. It can damage ecosystems; decreases biodiversity; a number of susceptible plants (e.g. wheat) and insects. iii) Carbon Monoxide (CO): It is produced by the incomplete combustion of carbonaceous fuels; mainly from car-exhausts but also power plants. CO combines very readily with haemoglobin in the blood; raised levels reduce visual perception, dexterity and ability to perform tasks; high levels (rarely found in the atmosphere but sometimes indoors) can be fatal. iv) Lead (Pb) Pb is regulated as both a criteria pollutant and a hazardous air pollutant. Historically caused mainly by motor vehicle fuels, this has been reduced with the introduction of lead free fuels, but still a problem in developing countries. Industrial processes can cause lead pollution e.g. lead battery production, waste incinerators and lead smelters. Pb accumulates in the body can cause problems with the nervous system and developmental problems with children. v) Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) Created by the burning of fuels containing sulphur e.g. oil coal: also from processing sulphur containing ores e.g. aluminium, copper, iron. SO2 is a respiratory irritant. SO2 can dissolve in water vapour to create sulphuric acid: can cause acid rain, damage to buildings, crops etc.

vi) Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5) All particles less than 10m diameter are PM10 and particles less than 2.5m diameter are PM2.5. PM is a mixture of small airborne solids and liquids: it consists of a combination of compounds e.g. soils, acids, organics and metals. Primary particles are generated directly at source e.g. industrial emissions, dust from roads construction and agriculture. Secondary particles are mostly fine (PM2.5) created by reactions of gasses (SO2, NO2) oxidation of hydrocarbons to form aerosols of low-vapour pressure organics. Can cause problems with respiratory system. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) These are organic substances, mainly carbohydrates, that have a high enough vapour pressure to vapourize in air under normal atmospheric conditions. There are many VOCs in the atmosphere for e.g. Benzene, Formaldehyde, Toluene, Propane, Ethane, Ethylene. These can produce photochemical reactions with NOx in sunlight which can produce ozone.

International Air Quality Standards for Criteria Pollutants EU1 (m/m3) 200 40

Pollutant NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide) O3 (Ozone) CO (Carbon Monoxide)

Average Time 1 hour 1 year 1 hour 8 hour 15 min 30 min 1 hour 8 hours 3 months 1 year 10 mins 1 hour 3 hours 1 day 1 year 1 day 1 year 1 day 1 year 1 day 1 year

WHO (m/m3) 200 40 100 100000 60000 30000 10000 0.5 1 500 20 40 - 60 50 20 25 10 60 - 90

USEPA (m/m3) 100 235

10000 0.5 350 125 80 - 120 50 40 202 100 150 40 - 60

Pb (Lead) SO2 (Sulphur Dioxide)

40000 10000 1.5

PM10 (Respirable) PM2.5 (Fine) PM10 + SO2

1300 365 80 150 50 35 15

1 EC Directive 2008/50/EC on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe. 2 Limit value to be achieved by 2015: Target value of 25mg/m3 set for 2010. The EU also sets the annual limit for Benzene as 5g/m3. Benzene is a carcinogen that used to be added to petrol although this is now limited.

DEN 320/420 (ADVANCED) ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AIR POLLUTION - METEOROLOGY Ambient and Adiabatic Lapse Rates In the lower troposphere the air temperature will usually decrease with altitude during the day. However there are conditions in which the temperature might increase with altitude, this might be typically at night when the ground temperature may fall quicker than the air temperature (see Fig.1). The rate at which the air temperature changes with altitude is defined as the ambient lapse rate (ALR). The rate at which a pocket of air may rise adiabatically (i.e. without loss or gain of heat) is known as the adiabatic lapse rate (). This is approximately equal to a colling rate of 9.80C/km or ~10C/100m.

Figure 1 - Typical Day and Night Lapse Rate Curves The relationship between ALR and DALR determines the stability of the air. If ALR> then as a pocket of air rises it will cool adiabatically () at a rate less than the surrounding air (ALR), thus it will become cooler than the surrounding air and so will tend to sink again. The reverse will happen to a falling pocket of air. Therefor such an atmosphere will tend to resist vertical mixing and it will be stable.

If ALR< then a rising pocket of air will be warmer than the surrounding air and will want to continue rising. This atmosphere will be unstable. Pasquill classified the atmospheric stability criteria depending upon the value of ALR relative to . These classes are illustrated in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2 - The Pasquill Stability Classes The occurrence of the Pasquill stability classes depends upon both solar radiation and wind speed. Typical conditions and their associated Pasquill stability classes are given in table 1 below: Wind Speed (m/s) <2 2-3 3-5 5-6 >6 Daytime : Solar Radiation Strong Moderate Slight A A-B B A-B B C B B-C C C C-D D C D D Night Time: Cloud Cover 4/8 of sky 3/8 of sky E F D E D D D D

Table 1 - The Pasquill Stability Classes An atmospheric inversion occurs when the ambient lapse rate shows an increase of temperature with height. This can occur overnight if the winds are weak and the sky is clear (i.e. ground temperature falls due to infrared radiation - little or no greenhouse effect!). A ground inversion is shown in Fig.1; as the ground heats up in the early morning this may lift as shown in Figure 3. Atmospheric inversions are extremely stable and restrict the vertical flow of air and/or pollutants. Thus they can act to contain pollutants and cause high levels of pollutant concentrations below them.

Figure 3 - Atmospheric Inversions

Effect of Atmospheric Conditions on Dispersal of Chimney Plumes

Figure 4 - Effect of Atmospheric Conditions on the Dispersal of Chimney Plumes Figure 4 shows how chimney plumes vary with the ambient atmospheric conditions.

In Fig.4a ALR < G and the atmosphere is unstable, this results in a looping plume which is driven upwards or downwards by atmospheric thermal turbulence. Figs.4b and 4c show that as the atmosphere becomes more stable the spread of the plume is reduced. Figs 4d and 4e show how a plume will be bounded by an atmospheric inversion either above or below.

DEN 320/420 (ADVANCED) ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AIR POLLUTION GAUSSIAN PLUME DISPERSAL Transport Modelling of Pollutants in Air There are four main mechanisms of pollutant transport: Advection due to mass movement of the air e.g. winds Diffusion due to molecular movements. This mechanism is generally much slower than advection although where advection is limited, i.e. in boundary layers, it may become more important. Gravity due to the weight of the pollutant. Buoyancy due to the weight of the air displaced by the pollutant. In many cases the weight of the pollutant is very similar to the surrounding air and so the gravity and buoyancy forces will cancel out. This will be assumed in the following discussion.

A Simple One-Dimensional Transport Model The rate of diffusion in the x-direction (moles /X-area) is given by Ficks Law as C where D is the molecular diffusion coefficient in the x-direction. J Diff = D x In real air flow the velocities vary with time and distance - the flow is turbulent. We will observe a mixing due to this turbulence which is similar in character to the molecular mixing of diffusion. This turbulent mixing is called turbulent diffusion. We can use an equation similar to Ficks Law to describe turbulent diffusion, thus:
J = x C x

J is the diffusive flux density and x is the turbulent diffusion coefficient in the xdirection. Consider flows of pollutant in the x-direction through the element xxz shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: X-Component Fluxes through an Element The mass balance for flows in the x-direction may be written

xyz

UC C C C C x yz + x x + x = UC UC + yz x x x x t x

This equation can be simplified to: C UC C + x =0 t x x x If we assume both that the wind speed, U, and the dispersion coefficient, x, do not vary with x and that the flow is steady then we get: C 2C U x 2 = 0 x x Plume Flow from a Chimney We wish to consider the transport of pollutant from the chimney stack shown in Figure 2 below under steady flow conditions. (1

Figure 2: Plume Coordinate System Here we have advection of the flow in the x (downwind) direction only. There will be dispersion in all three directions, however the dispersion in the x-direction will be much smaller than the advection in that direction and so can be ignored. Thus generalising Eq.1 to three dimensions we get: U 2C C 2C y 2 z 2 x z y (2

where y and z are the turbulent diffusion coefficients in the y and z directions respectively. In our problem the boundary conditions are: C 0 as y or z . (3a m C (0, y, z ) = ( y ) ( z ) where m is the mass flow rate (kg/s) from the chimney. (3b U

Note: (y) and (z) are the Dirac delta functions such that:

( y ) ( z ) = 0 for all y 0 or z 0 and

Here A is an element of X-area in the y-z plane at x=0. This definition ensures that at x = 0 the total mass flow rate, m, passes through the point x = y = z = 0 with a velocity of U in the x-direction.
Eqn.2 with boundary conditions in Eqn.3 can be solved to give the following relationship for the concentration at any point downwind of the chimney.

UA ( y) ( z )dydz = C (0, y, z )

m C( x , y , z ) = 4x y z

1 2

2 2 exp U y + z 4 x y z

(4 In the above derivation we have assumed that the mean wind speed and the turbulent diffusion coefficients are constant which is not true in reality. Also the turbulent diffusion coefficients are extremely difficult to measure directly. This difficulty is sidestepped by writing Eqn.4 in terms of dispersal coefficients, y and x, such that;

j = 2 j

x U

(5

These dispersal coefficients are functions of i) distance downwind of the source, x and ii) atmospheric stability. In Eq.4 the level z = 0 is the top of the chimney (i.e. the source of the pollution). However it would be more convenient to have the origin (i.e. z = 0) at ground level This can be achieved by substituting z-H for z in Eq.4 where H is the height of the chimney. Substituting Eqn.5 into Eqn.4 and transposing the z coordinate as above gives:

m C ( x, y , z ) = 2U y z

2 2 exp 1 y + {z H } 2 2 2 z y

(6

The Principle of Superposition

Figure 3: Superposition of Plumes to Model a Solid Reflecting Ground Surface

The main interest in pollution modelling is to predict concentrations at ground level i.e. C(x,y,0). As can be seen from Fig.2 there is no solid boundary assumed at ground level and so the solution assumes that the flow of the pollutant is unaffected by the solid surface until it hits the ground whereupon it stays there. In reality, however, the turbulent mixing is assumed constant and so the pollutant hitting the ground will in effect be reflected back and re-mixed as shown in Fig.3a. This can be modelled by superimposing a negative reflected solution on to Eqn.6 as illustrated in Fig.3b. This reflected solution assumes a source of the same strength as Eqn.6 but located at point (0,0,-H) instead of (0,0,H). Thus the combined concentration distribution is given by:
m C ( x, y , z ) = 2U y z 2 2 1 y 2 {z H }2 + exp 1 y + {z + H } exp + 2 2 2 2 2 2 z z y y (7

If we require the values at ground level (z = 0) then the above equation can be simplified to:

 m C ( x, y , z ) = U y z

2 2 exp y exp H 2 2 2 y 2 z

(8

Pollutant Concentration Downwind of a Line Source (A Road)

We will consider the line source to extend infinitely in the y-direction and that it will consist of a series of small increments, dy, that can be treated as point sources. From equation 7 we can write: m L dy dC = 2U y z y2 {z H }2 {z + H }2 exp + exp exp 2 2 2 z2 2 z2 y

Thus for the length of the source: C= mL dC = 2U y z

y2 {z H }2 {z + H }2 dy exp + exp exp 2 2 z2 2 z2 2 y we get:

Noting that exp s 2 ds = and letting s = y

( )

2 y

mL C = 2 U z

{z H }2 {z + H }2 exp + exp 2 z2 2 z2

(9

The Atmospheric Dispersion Parameters

The atmospheric dispersion parameters, y and z, depend upon the distance downwind, x, and the Pasquill stability class. They may be obtained either from charts or analytically from the formulae below:

y = ax b + c ln x and z = dx e + f
In Equn.10 x has units of km and y and z have units of m.

ln x

(10

The values of the variables a,b,c,d,e and f can be found from Table 1 below: Stability Class Variable Values c d

Aa Ab B C D E F

209.6 209.6 154.7 103.3 68.28 51.05 33.96

0.8804 0.8804 0.8932 0.9112 0.9112 0.9112 0.9112

-0.006902 -0.006902 -0.006271 -0.004845 -0.004845 -0.004845 -0.004845

310.4 453.9 109.8 61.14 30.38 21.14 13.72

1.773 2.117 1.064 0.9147 0.7309 0.6802 0.6584

0.1879 0.0 0.01163 0.0 -0.032 -0.04522 -0.05367

d, e and f values for Aa are applicable in the range 0.1<x<0.45km and for Ab in the range 0.45<x<3.1 km.
Table 1: Variables used to Determine the Atmospheric Dispersion Parameters in Eqn.10.

DEN 320/420 (ADVANCED) ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING Gaussian Plume Dispersal Modelling - Examples Example 1:

A nonreactive air pollutant is released from a chimney at an effective height of 65m and at a rate of 15g/s. The mean wind speed is 2m/s. Calculate the direct downwind ground level pollution values 0.8km away for the two Pasquill classes B and E. For Pasquill class B: From Table 1 and Eq.10: y = 154.7 x 0.8(0.8932 - 0.006271 ln {0.8}) = 126.7m z = 109.8 x 0.8(1.064 + 0.01163 ln {0.8}) = 86.64m For values directly downwind then y = 0 in Eqn.8 which reduces to: m C ( x, y , z ) = U y z Thus we get: Concentration 0.8 km downwind = 15 65 2 exp 2 86.64 2 2.0 126.7 86.64
2 exp H 2 2 z

(E1

= 1.641 x 10-4 g/m3 = 164.1 g/m3 For Pasquill class E: From Table 1 and Eq.10:

y = 51.05 x 0.8(0.9112 - 0.004845 ln {0.8}) = 41.65 m z = 21.14 x 0.8(0.6802-0.04522 ln {0.8}) = 18.12 m

For values directly downwind then y = 0 in Eqn.8 which reduces to: 15 65 2 exp 2.0 41.65 18.12 2 18.12 2

Concentration 0.8 km downwind =

= 5.080 x 10-6 g/m3 = 5.080 g/m3

Ground Level Concentrations Downwind of Chimney

300 250 Concentration (ug/m3) 200 Class B Class E

150 100 50 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Distance Downwind (km)

The figure above shows the ground level concentrations of the pollutant downwind of the chimney.

Example 2

The wind in Example 2 above is blowing in an Easterly direction. Calculate the ground concentration under Pasquill class B conditions at a point 1.2 km from the chimney that is on a bearing of 800 from North. x-distance = 1.2 sin 800 = 1.18 km y-distance = 1.2 cos 800 = 0.208 km = 208 m

y = 154.7 x 1.18(0.8932 - 0.006271 ln {1.18}) = 179.3 m z = 109.8 x 1.18(1.064 + 0.01163 ln {1.18}) = 131.0 m
15 208 2 65 2 In Eqn 8 = Conc = exp exp 2.0 179.3 131.0 2 131.0 2 2 179.3 2 = 4.585 x 10-5 g/m3 = 45.85 g/m3

Example 3

A motorway carries an average of 8000 vehicles per hour in each direction travelling at 62 miles per hour. The average CO emission factor for these vehicles is 15 g/mile. Assume a cross-wind of 1.5 m/s and unstable Pasquill class C conditions. Calculate the CO concentration 0.2 km from the motorway and at the same level. If H = 0 and z = 0 then Eqn.9 reduces to:
2m L C = 2 U z

(E2

From the Pasquill tables:

z = 61.14 x 0.20.9147 = 14.03 m

Determine mL: Consider a 100m length of motorway. The average vehicle speed is (62 x 1609)/3600 = 27.71 m/s The number of vehicles per second is 8000/3600 = 2.22 The mean distance between vehicles is 27.71/2.22 = 12.48 m The number of vehicles in 100m in each carriageway is 100/12.48 = 8.01 The rate of emission from each vehicle is (15 x 62)/3600 = 0.258 g/s The total emission from each carriageway over 100 m is 8.01 x 0.258 = 2.07 g/s The total emission per unit length of each carriageway is thus 2.07/100 = 0.0207 g s-1 m-1 Thus the total emission per unit length of motorway = mL = 2 x 0.0207 = 0.0414 g s-1 m-1 From Equ.E2 the concentration 0.2km from the motorway is thus: C=
2 0.0414 2 1.5 14.03

=0.00157 g/m3 = 1.57 mg/m3

DEN 320/420 (ADVANCED) ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AIR POLLUTION AIR EMISSIONS CONTROL TECHNOLOGY PARTICULATE CONTROL

There are basically three broad types of particular control i) force-field settlers, ii) baghouse filters and iii) scrubbers. Force-field settlers may be classified as gravitational, centrifugal and electro-static.
Gravitational Settlers

Here the air is moved slowly through a tank and the particles will settle to the bottom by gravity. The smallest particle that can be removed by gravitational settling is around 50mm. The air velocity should be maintained at less than 3m/s. The terminal velocity, Vs, of settling particle of diameter, d, can be derived as:

Vs =

4( P A )gd 4 P gd 3C D A 3C D A

(1

Where P and A are respectively the particle and air densities and CD is the particle drag coefficient. If the treatment tank has a width, W, a depth, H, and a length, L, and the volume flow rate of air is Q then the horizontal velocity of the air is vh = Q/WH. The time taken to flow through the tank is WHL/Q. For complete removal of a particular particle size this must be equal to the time it takes to settle from the top of the tank to the bottom which is H/VP. Therefore:
H WLH = VP Q

Substituting from Eq1. and rearranging this gives:

d100 =

0.75C D AQ 2 g (LW ) P
2

Smaller diameters of particle will be partially removed.

The Cyclone

Particulates are generally considerably denser than air and so can often be settled and separated by gravity as described above. However, this process can be accelerated by introducing the air tangentially into a cylindrical chamber thus creating a vortex. The particles are centrifugally flung outwards and will adhere to the sides of the separator;

they then fall by gravity down the sides into a bottom hopper where they can be collected. The size of particles of which 50% are collected by the cyclone, d50, is given by the formula: d 50 = 9W 2NVi ( P g ) (2

Where is the dynamic viscosity of the gas (kg/ms), W is the width of the cyclone inlet (m), N is the effective number of revolutions in the cyclone, Vi is the inlet gas velocity (m/s), and P and g are the densities of the particles and the gas respectively (kg/m3). The collection efficiency for particles with diameter d is given by:

d =

1 d 1 + 50 d
2

(3

Consider a cyclone where the entrance width is 0.25m.The air enters at 12 m/s and undergoes 15 effective turns in the cyclone. The particles have a density of 1500 kg/m2. The air viscosity can be taken as 1.8 x 10-5 kg/ms and its density as 1.25 kg/m2. From equation 2 the value of d50 is 4.9 x 10-6 m = 4.9 m. From equation 3 the collection efficiency for particles of diameter 2m is 14.3%, for diameter 10 m it is 80.6% and for diameter 100 m it is 99.8%. In order to increase the removal the cyclone may be constructed with a number of smaller vortices in parallel. This increases the curvature of each vortex and hence the centrifugal force. It can however be costly and the pressure drop caused by the smaller vortices can lead to increased operating costs due to pumping.
Electrostatic Precipitators

The other methods described are not very effective for particles below about 1 m. However electrostatic precipitation (ESP) can effectively remove ultra-fine particles. ESP works by creating a high voltage corona field (so called because it glows in the dark) between a series of negatively charged wires dangled between earthed parallel plates or tubular electrodes through which the air flows. The particles passing through the field are ionised and receive an electric charge opposite to the plates. They are therefore attracted to the plates or tubes. The particles collected on the plates or tubes can slide off by gravity and be collected in a hopper; this can be helped by rapping them periodically or spraying them with water.

Control of the removal efficiency can be maintained by altering the corona power (voltage x current).
Baghouse Filters

This is essentially a process of filtration through a porous media. In most cases the filter material is formed into bags (rather like in a vacuum cleaner) but cartridges can also be used. The filter material can be: woven fabric (cotton, nylon, wool) needle felt, fibre glass, paper, plastic or ceramics (cartridges used for high temperatures). Larger particles will be trapped by the mesh size of the filter media and smaller particles may be intercepted by it. Gradually a layer of trapped particles will form which will improve the efficiency of the filters, but also lead to an increase in pressure across the filter. Thus the filter will eventually need to be cleaned. Baghouse filters can be classified by their cleaning method. There are shaker, reverse air flow or pulse jet types. In both the shaker and the reverse air flow types the dirty air enters the inside of the bags and flows outwards. The filter cake therefore forms on the inside of the bags. It is removed either by shaking the bags or by blowing in clean air from the outside of the bags. In the pulse jet type the clean air flows from the outside inwards and the bags are mounted on frames to prevent them from collapsing. Cleaning is achieved by blowing a pulsed high pressure (~700 kPa) air jet from the inside of the bag. This means that the bags can be cleaned without being taken out of operation. In designing a filter the selection of the type and mesh size of the filter material will depend upon the properties of the air stream ( temperature, flow rate and composition). This will also affect the design of the size of the plant (total filter area) and the pump needed in order to provide a reasonable operating cycle (typically run times of ~1 hour and cleaning times of ~2-3 minutes). Problems with filters are that they can take up a lot of space. Hot or corrosive air streams can require quite expensive filter material. Also wet airstreams can affect the performance of the filter bags particularly in the cleaning stage. They can also be a problem if the particulates are inflammable. However if properly designed and operated the plant can achieve very high removal efficiencies over a wide range of particlesizes greater than 1m.
Scrubbers

These work by the particles impacting fine water droplets. There are a number of different types: Spray Scrubbers: The gas is passed through spray produced by nozzles within the treatment chamber. In the counter-current scrubber the flow of the gas is vertically upwards and the spray is produced by nozzles pointing vertically downwards. In the

cross-flow scrubber the flow of the gas is horizontal and the spray droplets move vertically downwards across the flow. Venturi Scrubber: The inlet gas passes through a venturi before introduction into the chamber. Water is introduced at the low pressure throat of the venturi and droplets form which impact with the particulates. These are removed in a settling tank or a cyclone spray chamber. Here the gas + droplets are introduced tangentially into the chamber causing a vortex type of flow. Water is also fed in from a central spray and flows radially outwards across the flow. The dirty water leaves from the bottom of the tank and the clean gas from the top. Packed-Bed Scrubber: The air flows through a layer of packing media and the particulates are retained in a water layer on the surface of the media, which is then drained away.

GASEOUS POLLUTANT CONTROL

The main pollutants are CO, SOx, NOx, hydrocarbons and other organic and inorganic gases.
Condenser

The principle is that the gas is cooled causing the pollutant to condense from vapour to liquid form. Most modern condensers are of the indirect type where the coolant flows through tubes around which the gas flows (i.e. the gas and coolant do not directly come into contact). The equation of heat transfer is: Q = UAT (4

Where Q is the heat transferred (kW), A is the heat transfer area (m2), T is the temperature difference between hot and cold fluid (0C) and U is the heat transfer coefficient (kW/m2 0C). The value of the heat transfer coefficient is a complex function of the design of the condenser and is also affected by the flow regime which may change as condensate appears on the tubes. However in operation, assuming constant U, it can be seen that doubling the temperature difference will double the heat transferred as well as doubling the coolant flow rate.
Absorbtion (Scrubbers)

In an absorber the pollutant in the gas is absorbed by a liquid. The gas enters the bottom of a tall tower through which liquid is sprayed - cleaned gas leaves the top of the tower and polluted liquid leaves the bottom. The tower may contain trays or packed surfaces to improve contact and aid absorbtion.

In a more advanced and environmentally acceptable system the polluted liquid itself is recycled into another tower called a desorber where the absorbed chemical is removed by either steam or vacuum. These plants can be quite effective at removing sulphur dioxide and ammonia as well as other acids with high enough transfer speeds. Due to cost water is generally used as the absorbtion (scrubber) liquid although for SO2 removal from coal-fired power plants limestone (CaCO3) or lime (Ca(OH)2) are often added: 2SO2 + 2CaCO3 + O2 2CaSO4 + 2CO2 2SO2 + 2Ca(OH)2 + O2 2CaSO4 + 2H2O The CaSO4 precipitates out and can cause scaling of the holding tank. However it can be recovered and sold as gypsum.
Adsorbtion

(5

Adsorbtion is the condensing of a substance to form a thin film on a surface. It is used in the recovery of pollutants from gasses, particularly if they are dilute. The most common system involves passing the gas through a fixed bed of the adsorbent. Activated carbon is effective in adsorbing VOC's from gasses.
Thermal Oxidisers (Incinerators)

The pollutants are oxidised in a high temperature zone. The processes which convert VOC's into carbon dioxide and water vapour are given below:
x y y C x H y + + O 2 (x )CO + H 2 O 2 4 2

(6

(x )CO + x O 2 (x )CO 2
2

Incinerators may be direct-flame or thermal. In the former case the waste gas will have sufficient heating value that it will burn by itself in the combustor. In the latter, more usual case, the waste gas will need the addition of a fuel in order to burn. Generally the inflowing waste gas will be pre-heated by the incinerated waste stream in a heat exchanger. Sometimes a catalyst (often heavy metal particles) is used to speed up the reaction and lower the auto-ignition temperature of the VOCs.

The controlling factors in the design of thermal oxidisers are often referred to as the three Ts; temperature, time and turbulence. Temperature should be sufficiently high to reduce the levels of undesirable products (e.g. NOx, CO) - 650 0C 1100 0C. Time of the combustion process should be 0.2 s 2 s in order to complete the conversion of the VOSs this can be controlled by altering the residence time of the air through the size of the plant. Sufficient turbulence should be maintained by rapid air speed (6 12 m/s : maybe using blowers) and the use of baffles.
Biofilters

The waste gasses are introduced to the bottom of a layer of biologically active material and passed slowly through it. The material is a bed of a medium that supports biological activity on its surfaces this may be porous stones/rock, plastic shapes or woodchips and compost. The harmful gasses are biologically broken down in passing through the filter by micro-organisms. Water is sprayed intermittently on to the surface of the medium in order to provide an environment which encourages the growth of the micro-organisms and allows pollutant to transfer from the gas to the water making it more readily available to the micro-organisms. The removal efficiency of the plant can be increased by reducing the contact time (i.e. the flow-rate) but this would require a greater surface area for the filters; alternatively the filers can be made deeper but this might then mean a pressure drop which would increase operating (pumping) costs.