air pollution control

air pollution control, the techniques employed to reduce or eliminate the emission into the atmosphere of substances that can harm the environment or human health. The control of air pollution is one of the principal areas of pollution control, along with wastewater treatment, solid-waste management, and hazardous-waste management.

Air is considered to be polluted when it contains certain substances in concentrations high enough and for durations long enough to cause harm or undesirable effects. These include adverse effects on human health, property, and atmospheric visibility. The atmosphere is susceptible to pollution from natural sources as well as from human activities. Some natural phenomena, such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires, may have not only local and regional effects but also long-lasting global ones. Nevertheless, only pollution caused by human activities, such as industry and transportation, is subject to mitigation and control.

Most air contaminants originate from combustion processes. During the Middle Ages the burning of coal for fuel caused recurrent air pollution problems in London and other large European cities. Beginning in the 19th century, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, increasing use of fossil fuels intensified the severity and frequency of air pollution episodes. The advent of mobile sources of air pollution—i.e., gasoline-powered highway vehicles—had a tremendous impact on air quality problems in cities. It was not until the middle of the 20th century, however, that meaningful and lasting attempts were made to regulate or limit emissions of air pollutants from stationary and mobile sources and to control air quality on both regional and local scales.

The primary focus of air pollution regulation in industrialized countries has been on protecting ambient, or outdoor, air quality. This involves the control of a small number of specific “criteria” pollutants known to contribute to urban smog and chronic public health problems. The criteria pollutants include fine particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and lead. Since the end of the 20th century, there also has been a recognition of the hazardous effects of trace amounts of many other air pollutants called “air toxics.” Most air toxics are organic chemicals, comprising molecules that contain carbon, hydrogen, and other atoms. Specific emission regulations have been implemented against those pollutants. In addition, the long-term and far-reaching effects of the “greenhouse gases” on atmospheric chemistry and climate have been observed, and cooperative international efforts have been undertaken to control those pollutants. The greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. In 2009 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled that greenhouse gases posed a threat to human health and could be subject to regulation as air pollutants.

The best way to protect air quality is to reduce the emission of pollutants by changing to cleaner fuels and processes. Pollutants not eliminated in this way must be collected or trapped by appropriate air-cleaning devices as they are generated and before they can escape into the atmosphere. These devices are described below. The emphasis of this article is air pollution control technology as it is designed to remove particulate and gaseous pollutants from the emissions of stationary sources, including power plants and industrial facilities. (The control of air pollution from mobile sources is described in emission-control system.)

Control of particulates

Airborne particles can be removed from a polluted airstream by a variety of physical processes. Common types of equipment for collecting fine particulates include cyclones, scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators, and baghouse filters. Once collected, particulates adhere to each other, forming agglomerates that can readily be removed from the equipment and disposed of, usually in a landfill.

Because each air pollution control project is unique, it is usually not possible to decide in advance what the best type of particle-collection device (or combination of devices) will be; control systems must be designed on a case-by-case basis. Important particulate characteristics that influence the selection of collection devices include corrosivity, reactivity, shape, density, and especially size and size distribution (the range of different particle sizes in the airstream). Other design factors include airstream characteristics (e.g., pressure, temperature, and viscosity), flow rate, removal efficiency requirements, and allowable resistance to airflow. In general, cyclone collectors are often used to control industrial dust emissions and as pre-cleaners for other kinds of collection devices. Wet scrubbers are usually applied in the control of flammable or explosive dusts or mists from such sources as industrial and chemical processing facilities and hazardous-waste incinerators; they can handle hot airstreams and sticky particles. Electrostatic precipitators and fabric-filter baghouses are often used at power plants.