Sensitivity of nitrogen dioxide concentrations to oxides of nitrogen controls in the United Kingdom

There is a possibility of further controls on emissions to the atmosphere of nitrogen oxides to meet air quality objectives in the UK. Data in the National Air Quality Archive were used to calculate the likely sensitivity of hourly concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in ambient urban air to changes in the total oxides of nitrogen. Since the role of atmospheric chemical reactions is to make the response non-linearly dependent on the emissions control, we seek to establish the magnitude and sign of the effects that this non-linearity might cause. We develop a quantitative approach to analysing the non-linearity in the data. Polynomial curve fits have been developed for the empirical ratio NO₂ : NO_x (the ‘yield’). They describe nitrogen dioxide concentrations using total oxides of nitrogen. The new functions have the important feature of increased yield in winter episodes. Simpler functions tend to omit this feature of the yields at the highest hourly concentrations. Based on this study, the hourly nitrogen dioxide objective in the UK may require emissions control of no more than ≈50% on total oxides of nitrogen at the most polluted sites: other sites require less or even no control.     

Monte Carlo simulation of nitrogen oxides dispersion from a vehicular exhaust plume and its sensitivity studies

The pollutant dispersion behavior from the vehicular exhaust plume has a direct impact on human health, particularly to the drivers, bicyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians, people working nearby and vehicle passengers. A two-dimensional pollutant dispersion numerical model was developed based on the joint-scalar probability density function (PDF) approach coupled with a k–ε turbulence model to simulate the initial dispersion process of nitrogen oxides, temperature and flow velocity distributions from a vehicular exhaust plume. A Monte Carlo algorithm was used to solve the PDF transport equations in order to obtain the dispersion distribution of nitrogen oxides concentration. The model was then validated by a series of sensitivity experimental studies in order to assess the effects of vehicular exhaust tailpipe velocities, wind speeds and chemistry on the initial dispersion of NO and NO₂ mass concentrations from the vehicular exhaust plume. The results show that the mass concentrations of nitrogen oxides decrease along the centerline of the vehicular exhaust plume in the downstream distance. The dispersion process can be enhanced when the vehicular exhaust tailpipe velocity is much larger than the wind speed. The oxidation reaction of NO plays an important role when the wind speed is large and the vehicular exhaust exit velocity is small, which leads to chemical reduction of NO, and the formation and accumulation of NO₂ in the exhaust plume. It is also found that the effect of vehicular exhaust-induced turbulence in the vicinity of the exhaust tailpipe exit is more dominant than the effect of wind turbulence, while the wind turbulence gradually shows a significant role for the dispersion of nitrogen oxides along with the development of exhaust plume. The range of dispersion of nitrogen oxides in the radial direction is increased along with the development of vehicular exhaust plume.     

工业废气中氮氧化物的治理研究

对碱液吸收和活性炭吸附两级联合治理氮氧化物废气进行了实验研究,结果表明:对于氮氧化物进口浓度为7000～10 000 mg/m3的氮氧化物废气,氮氧化物的平均脱除率可以达到99%,出口浓度低于99 mg/m3;还进行了以硝酸溶液、双氧水溶液和高锰酸钾溶液为氧化剂湿法氧化碱吸收的实验研究,结果显示3种氧化剂都能显著提高氮氧化物的脱除率,其中以高锰酸钾溶液作氧化剂的脱除效果最好,其次是双氧水溶液.     

固定源氮氧化物排放及控制技术应用

固定源是氮氧化物排放的一个主要来源.通过对主要固定源氮氧化物生成机理及现有的排放控制技术进行论述,分析我国固定源氮氧化物排放的实际情况,提出我国固定源氮氧化物排放控制还处于起步阶段,氮氧化物排放标准相对宽松,氮氧化物排放控制技术有待进一步普及,并提出固定源氮氧化物排放治理的一些建议.     

固定源氮氧化物排放及控制技术应用

固定源是氮氧化物排放的一个主要来源。通过对主要固定源氮氧化物生成机理及现有的排放控制技术进行论述，分析我国固定源氮氧化物排放的实际情况，提出我国固定源氮氧化物排放控制还处于起步阶段，氮氧化物排放标准相对宽松，氮氧化物排放控制技术有待进一步普及，并提出固定源氮氧化物排放治理的一些建议。     

富氧尾气中NOx催化净化的研究进展

本文对富氧条件下NOx 催化净化的研究现状进行了综述 ,并对其存在的问题进行了探讨     

A synoptic climatological approach to forecast concentrations of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in Hong Kong

The objective of this study is to develop an automated synoptic climatological procedure to forecast high air pollution concentrations in the most polluted synoptic categories. The procedure is able to identify air masses historically associated with high air pollution concentrations. The arrival of air mass can be predicted 24 or 48 h in advance with the use of the weather forecast data. The development and statistical basis of the procedure are discussed, and an analysis of the procedure's ability to forecast weather conditions associated with high air pollution concentrations is presented. In addition, the dataset of 24 weather variables from 1993 to 1995 is used to validate the procedure. The procedure predicts that 70.3 and 83.3% of total high and severe SO2 concentration days fall into the identified most polluted categories, and the corresponding figures for NOx are 47.8 and 73.7%. The agreement between observed and predicted values is generally good. The prediction models can explain about 58 and 45% of total variance for NOx and SO2 with RMSEs of 42.5 and 16.5 microg m(-3), respectively. They are smaller than 1 SD of the observations.     

Mass balances of sulphur and nitrogen oxides over Great Britain

From aircraft measurements in air entering and leaving Great Britain conclusions about the cycles of nitrogen and sulphur oxides on a regional scale are drawn. Using a tracer it is possible to follow the dispersion of plumes over distances of hundreds of km. For sulphur oxides, in the absence of precipitation, overall removal is shown not to be very efficient with 70 % of the emitted SO₂ still airborne over the coast. Estimates are made of the deposition velocity of SO₂ and its rate of oxidation to sulphate. For nitrogen oxides the removal mechanisms in dry conditions appear to be of similar magnitude, though individual loss mechanisms are less certain. The importance of background levels in air entering the country is assessed. The roles of other airborne materials, such as O₃ and ammonium (of which observations were made) are related to the S and NO_x cycles in the atmosphere. It is argued that they and their degree of mixing with polluted air may have a strong influence on removal in rain.     

Conversion of nitrogen oxides on commercial photocatalytic dispersion paints

In the present study, photocatalytic reactions of nitrogen oxides (NO_x = NO + NO₂) were studied on commercial TiO₂ doped facade paints in a flow tube photoreactor under simulated atmospheric conditions. Fast photocatalytic conversion of NO and NO₂ was observed only for the photocatalytic paints and not for non-catalytic reference paints. Nitrous acid (HONO) was formed in the dark on all paints studied, however, it efficiently decomposes under irradiation only on the photocatalytic samples. Thus, it is concluded that photocatalytic paint surfaces do not represent a daytime source of HONO, in contrast to other recent studies on pure TiO₂ surfaces. As main final product, the formation of adsorbed nitric acid/nitrate anion (HNO₃/NO₃^?) was observed with near to unity yield. In addition, traces of H₂O₂ were observed in the gas phase only in the presence of O₂. Formation of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N₂O) could be excluded. The uptake kinetics of NO, NO₂ and HONO was very fast under atmospheric conditions (e.g. γ(NO + TiO₂) > 10^?5). Thus, the uptake on urban surfaces (painted houses, etc.) will be limited by transport. For a hypothetically painted street canyon, an average reduction of nitrogen oxide levels of ca. 5% is estimated. Since the harmful HNO₃/NO₃^? is formed on the surface of the photoactive paints, whereas it is formed in the gas phase in the atmosphere, the use of photocatalytic paints may also help to reduce acid deposition, e.g. on plants, or nitric acid related health issues.     

Technology innovations and experience curves for nitrogen oxides control technologies

This paper reviews the regulatory history for nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollutant emissions from stationary sources, primarily in coal-fired power plants. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the six criteria pollutants regulated by the 1970 Clean Air Act where National Ambient Air Quality Standards were established to protect public health and welfare. We use patent data to show that in the cases of Japan, Germany, and the United States, innovations in NOx control technologies did not occur until stringent government regulations were in place, thus "forcing" innovation. We also demonstrate that reductions in the capital and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of new generations of high-efficiency NOx control technologies, selective catalytic reduction (SCR), are consistently associated with the increasing adoption of the control technology: the so-called learning-by-doing phenomena. The results show that as cumulative world coal-fired SCR capacity doubles, capital costs decline to approximately 86% and O&M costs to 58% of their original values. The observed changes in SCR technology reflect the impact of technological advance as well as other factors, such as market competition and economies of scale.