Transformation atmospheric pollution removal

As indicated in previous chapters, the atmosphere serves as the medium through which air pollutants are transported and dispersed. While being transported, the pollutants may undergo chemical reactions and, in addition to removal by chemical transformations, may be removed by physical processes such as gravitational settling, impaction, and wet removal. 

In addition to being removed from the atmosphere by physical processes, atmospheric chemicals can be removed by chemical transformations. Chemical transformations also can be sources of atmospheric pollutants a notorious example is the production of urban smog by reactions involving hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and oxygen. 

Spatial scales characteristic of various atmospheric chemical phenomena are given in Table 1.1. Many of the phenomena in Table 1.1 overlap for example, there is more or less of a continuum between (1) urban and regional air pollution, (2) the aerosol haze associated with regional air pollution and aerosol-climate interactions, (3) greenhouse gas increases and stratospheric ozone depletion, and (4) tropospheric oxidative capacity and stratospheric ozone depletion. The lifetime of a species is the average time that a molecule of that species resides in the atmosphere before removal (chemical transformation to another species counts as removal). Atmospheric lifetimes vary from less than a second for... 

For all processes that involve the adsorption step, such as physical processes of separation or catalytic transformations, the usage of solid materials with optimised activity as adsorbents and catalysts is necessary. Various solids, such as porous materials (zeolites—molecular sieves with hierarchical porosities and natural clays), activated carbons, mesoporous silica-based materials, pillared clays and metal oxides, have shown the ability to act as adsorbents or as catalysts for the conversions of previously mentioned atmospheric pollutants. Solid materials are also used for the removal of pollutants that can be found in wastewaters. The possibilities to remove polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metal particles using the adsorptive characteristics of activated carbon and porous materials from wastewaters have been proven [15-17]. The same classes of solids are used for the elimination of organic pollutants form wastewaters by heterogeneous catalytic oxidation processes one of the most important tasks is to eliminate phenolic compounds [13]. 

Figure 7-12 depicts the main physical pathways by which aerosol particles are introduced into and removed from the air. Processes that occur within the atmosphere also transform particles as they age and are transported. This form of distribution of mass with size was originally discovered in polluted air in Los Angeles, but it is now known to hold for remote unpolluted locations as well (Whitby and Sverdrup, 1980). In the latter case, the... 

The direct photolysis of compounds such as HONO, 03, HCHO, and N02 in the tropospheric gas phase is a very important source of reactive species, which are then involved in the transformation of organic compounds. Additionally, some organic molecules including organic pollutants undergo photolysis as a significant or even the main process of removal from the atmosphere. It is for instance the case for nitronaphthalenes, the atmospheric lifetime of which can be as low as a couple of hours because of direct photolysis [11, 12]. 

When widespread stagnation suppresses convective transport out of the basin, the accumulation of pollutants may proceed. The buildup of atmospheric constituents will be governed by (a) primary emissions (b) in situ transformations (production or loss terms) (c) intrabasin circulation (d) ventilation and (e) removal by... 

Table II gives typical ozone and oxides of nitrogen levels in these four regions. Urban- and regional-scale atmospheric chemistry is characterized by the definitive influence of anthropogenic emissions. The goals of a study of urban- and regional-scale atmospheric chemistry are to understand the atmospheric transformations of emitted species to be able to predict the formation of ozone and other pollutants, and to predict the pathways of removal of emitted species and their transformation products from the atmosphere.

This section deals with the chemical transformation of acid pollutants and their deposition or removal from the atmosphere. 

The reaction of NO3 radicals and NO2 in the nighttime polluted atmosphere removes NO3 to form N2O5, which is transformed into nitric acid, HONO2, by reacting with H2O. Therefore, this reaction is important as a process removing NOx from the chain reaction system and forms a HON02reservoir together with the daytime reaction of OH + NO2 + M (Sect. 5.2.4). 

---