Air-land concerns

Environmental. The growth in the population of the world has been accompanied by increases in consumption and the production of waste. Environmental engineering is concerned with the reduction of existing pollution in the air, in the water, and on land, and the prevention of future harm to the environment. Issues addressed include pollution from manufecturing and other sources, the transportation of clean water, and the disposal of nonbiodegradable materials and hazardous and nuclear waste. Because pollution of the air, land, and water crosses national borders, environmental engineers need a broad, global perspective. 

The third component of sustainable manufacturing processes is the reduction in pollution of air, land, and water. The pollution component can be defined in LCAs as creation of chemicals that cause eutrophication, acidification, and human health concerns. 

In the past four decades, there has been an increased awareness of a wide range of environmental issues covering all resources air, land, and water. More and more people are becoming aware of these environmental concerns, and it is important that professional people, many of whom do not possess an understanding of environmental problems, have the proper information available when involved with environmental issues. All professionals should have a basic understanding of the technical and scientific terms related to these issues. In addition to serving the needs of the professional, this chapter examines how one can increase his or her awareness of and help solve the environmental problems facing both industry and society. 

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive (96/61/EC) must be implemented in all Member States by 31 October 1999. It is being introduced across Europe to improve the standard of environmental protection. The purpose of the Directive is to achieve prevention and control of pollution arising from the range of activities listed in Annex 1 of the Directive. It lays down measures designed to prevent, or where that is not practicable, to reduce emissions to air, land and water from these activities, including measures concerning waste. 

Considerable work has been done on the behavior of pollutant species at air-water and air-soil interfaces. For example, wet and diy deposition measurements of various gaseous and particulate species have been made over a wide range of atmospheric and land-cover conditions. Still, the problem is of such complexity that species-dependent and particle-size-dependent rates of transfer from the atmosphere to water and soil surfaces are not completely understood. There is much to be learned about pollutant transfer at water-soil interfaces. Concern about groundwater contamination by mineral... 

Although the major concern about the fate of organic pollntants in soil has been about pesticides in agricultural soils, other scenarios are also important. The disposal of wastes on land (e.g., at landfill sites) has raised questions about movement of pollutants contained in them into the air or neighboring rivers or water conrses. The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or PAHs in snch wastes can be a significant source of pollution. Likewise, the disposal of some industrial wastes in landfill sites (e.g., by the chemical industry) raises questions about movement into air or water and needs to be carefully controlled and monitored. 

Biomass sequestration, which has been embraced by coal companies as the least expensive way to start carbon management, relies on capture from air. Cofiring with biomass followed by sequestration also would lead to a net C02 reduction in the atmosphere (Keith, 2001). On a per ton basis, this option is quite cost effective, but the amount of land area that would be required is extremely large to be practical. Consequently, it is worthwhile to consider other options. Currently, studies that consider capture of C02 directly from the air by chemical means are under way. These processes will require good chemical sorbents that do not pose any environmental concerns in their own right and can be regenerated cost effectively. 

In recent years, concern for the environmental impact of discharges from industrial and energy processes to air, water, and land receptors has expanded far beyond the traditional lists of a few selected pollutants. This has given rise to the concept of a comprehensive characterization of all materials released to the environment, and the phrase environmental assessment has been added to the vocabulary of many organizations. The four major components of an environmental assessment, as used by our group, are as follows [1]... 

Concerns for the VOC loss from water samples during transportation by air have been raised on occasion. Laboratory studies, however, have demonstrated that there is no discernable difference between VOC data obtained from analysis of water samples shipped by land and by air (Craven, 1998). The notion of unsuitability of air transportation for air samples collected in Tedlar bags is also common. However, if Tedlar bags are filled to 2/3 of their capacity, they survive air travel without leaking or bursting. 

Multimedia Analysis In order to properly design and then implement a pollution prevention program, sources of all wastes must be fully understood and evaluated. A multimedia analysis involves a multifaceted approach. It must not only consider one waste stream but all potentially contaminated media (e.g., air, water, land). Past waste-management practices have been concerned primarily with treatment. All too often, such methods solve one waste problem by transferring a contaminant from one medium to another (e.g., air stripping) such waste shifting is not pollution prevention or waste reduction. 

The past three decades have seen an increased social awareness of the impact of modern-day lifestyles on the environment. Public environmental concerns include issues such as waste disposal hazardous-material regulations depletion of natural resources and air, water, and land pollution. Nevertheless, roughly one-half of the total quantity of waste generated each year can be attributed to domestic sources ... 

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