AIR POLLUTION AND CONTROL

Meteorology and Air Pollution

As a parcel of air in the earth's atmosphere rises through the atmosphere, it experiences
decreasing pressure and thus expands. This expansion lowers the temperature of the air
parcel, and therefore the air cools as it rises.
The rate at which dry air cools as it rises is called the dry adiabatic lapse rate and is
independent of the ambient air temperature. The term "adiabatic" means that there is no
heat exchange between the rising parcel of air under consideration and the surrounding
air. The dry adiabatic lapse rate may be calculated from basic physical principles.

1st law of thermodynamics and the ideal gas law

dQ = Cpdt VdP

Assume change in parcel is adiabatic no heat is transferred across boundary

(dQ = 0)

Need to relate temperature change to elevation, not pressure

A slice of air that is dz thick and has area A and weight of gAdz
g = acceleration due to gravity
= density of air

Therefore we can write

The actual measured rate at which air cools as it rises is called the ambient or prevailing
lapse rate.
The relationships between the ambient lapse rate and the dry adiabatic lapse rate
essentially determine the stability of the air and the speed with which pollutants will
disperse

When the ambient lapse rate is exactly the same as the dry adiabatic lapse rate, the
atmosphere has neutral stability.

Superadiabatic conditions prevail when the air temperature drops more than 9.8C/Km
(lC/100m).

Subadiabatic conditions prevail when the air temperature drops at a rate less than
9.8C/Km.

Gaussian Model

Consider a point source somewhere in the air where a pollutant is released at a constant
rate Q (kg/s).The wind is blowing continuously in a direction x (measured in metres from
the source) with a speed U (m/s). The plume spreads as it moves in the x direction such
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that the local concentrations C(x,y,z) (kg/m ) at any point in space form distributions which
have shapes that are Gaussian or normal in planes normal to the x direction.
The concentration at any point is given by

This distribution measures y and z normally from the x-axis (the x-axis may also be
considered to be the direction of the centre-line of the plume. In practice, the source will
usually be raised above the ground (for example the exit of a chimney). Hence we need
to modify the z coordinate so that it is measured from the ground.
H = effective height of plume centre-line (m)
hs = height of source above ground (m)
h = initial plume rise (m)
z = coordinate measured vertically from the ground to a point in the plume (m)

Hence, relative to the plume axis the new vertical coordinate is (z-H) giving

As the plume spreads downwards (as well as upwards) as it moves downwind from the
source, it will eventually hit the ground. Clearly, the plume cannot continue to spread
into the ground! Instead, it is reflected back into the air above the ground. The effect of
the ground boundary is included in the concentration equation mathematically by using a
fictitious mirror-image source (Si = S) of the same strength (Qi = Q) placed at the same
distance from the ground (hs) but on the other side of the boundary
Hence total concentration at P is

Effective stack height determination

The effective stack height is the height above ground at which the plume begins to travel
downwind the effective release point of the pollutant and the origin of its dispersion.

For superadiabatic conditions

for neutral stability

for subadiabatic conditions

Where

V, = stack gas exit speed (in m/s ) ,

d = stack diameter (in m), and
Qh = heat emission rate from the stack (in kJ/s).