Environmental Engineering

Dr. Ramakrishna Bag

Dept of Civil Engineering
NIT Rourkela

Air pollution
Sampling techniques

 Sampling and measurement of air pollutants known as air quality

monitoring, is an integral component of any air pollution control
programme.
Through monitoring, the current trends in air quality can be evaluated
by comparing the data with regulated standards.
The information obtained based on regulations is helpful in
implementing control measures for reducing pollutant concentrations
to acceptable limits.
Air quality is measured either a) at ambient condition or b) stack
sampling.

Ambient air pollution sampling

Collecting genuine and representative sample is the most important
task.
Sampling should be carried out for long enough time and at a rate
that allows collection of an analytically measurable sample.
The amount of pollutant present is very small.
Sometimes air pollutants may be reactive and changes their
properties after collection. So special care must be taken in that case.
SO2 usually oxidise to SO3, therefore analysis carried out for SO2 may
be misleading.

Typical air-sampling set up

(a)

Sample collector

Flow meter

Pump

(b)
Flow meter

Sample collector

Pump

 Components of air sampling system

Sample collector To collect the sample and retain the desire pollutant either
alone or as a mixture.
Flow meter - to measure airflow through the collector
Pump To draw the air sample through the system

The choice of sample collector to be used is governed by the nature

of the pollutant and the method of analysis to be employed.
Samples collectors can collect either (a) gaseous pollutant or (b)
particulate pollutants.

Collection of gaseous air pollutants

Grab sampling: Sample is collected by filling an evacuated flask or inflatable bag.
Plastics bags are frequently used for grab sampling method.
Possibility of losing sample by moisture condensation or by diffusion through the
wall.
Losses can be minimised by performing the analysis immediately after colleting the
sample.
Rigid wall containers made of stainless steel or glass also used for grab sampling.
These containers are evacuated and then collected sample by allowing air to enter.
Alternatively, the containers are filled with water, then air sample is collected by
draining the water.
In order to reduced the condensation, containers are heated by wrapping them with
heating tapes or nichrome wires.

 Absorption of liquids: Absorption of gaseous pollutants into a liquid medium is

most commonly employed method of collecting air sample.

Absorption separates desired pollutant from air either by solubility in the

absorbing medium or by chemical reactions.
Fritted glass absorber is commonly used air sampler of this type; where the gas
stream is broken into extremely small bubbles and promote intimate contact
between liquid and gas.

Another type of collector is known as Impinger. In the impinger the gas stream is
impinged at high velocity onto a flat surface thus provide good contact between
gas and the liquid.

 Adsorption of liquids: This method is based on tendency of gases to be adsorbed

on the surface of solid materials.
The air sample is passed through a packed column containing a finely divided
adsorbent on whose surface pollutants are retained and concentrated.
Most commonly used solid adsorbents are granular porous solids such as activated
charcoal and silica gel with very large surface area.
After adsorption, sample gases are desorbed by heating or by washing in order to
analyse the sample.
Analysis is carried out by gas chromatographic technique.

 Freeze-out sampling: In this method a series of cold traps are used.

Progressively low temperatures are maintained at the traps.
The sample is collected whereby pollutants are condensed.
The traps are brought to the laboratory and sample is analysed by gas
chromatography.

Collection of particulate pollutants

Particulates are those which settle out from air by gravity and those
remain suspended are known as aerosol.
Sedimentation technique is used to collect particulates whose diameter is
more than 10 m.
For collecting aerosol following methods are used

High-volume filtration
Tape sampler
Impingement
Electrostatic precipitation
Thermal precipitation

 Sedimentation: Simplest device useful for collecting dustfall.

Typical collector consists of a plastic jar of about 20 to 35 cm height and 10
to 15 cm dia. at the base.
A slight tapered of the walls from top to bottom.
A handle is provided to ensure safe and upright positioning of the
collector.
Sample is deposited for a month.
Material is dried, weighed and reported the amount of dustfall in mg/cm2
or tons/km2.
Dust particles larger than 10 m are seldom carried for more than a
kilometre distance, therefore dustfall stations must be installed closely in
order to collect meaningful data.

 High-voltage filtration: High voltage filtration is used for measurement of mass

concentration of suspended particles smaller than 10 m.
A known volume of air is drawn by a high speed blower through a fine filter and the
increase in weight due to the trapped particles is measured.
Filter is usually made of fibrous or granular material.
The sampling time is generally 24 hours and during this time over 2000 m3 of air
passed through filter.

Tape sampler: This method is known as soil-haze particle sampler.

A known volume of air is passed through a paper tape.
Sampling time varied from 10 mins to 2 hrs.
The air is passed through a nozzle and the particulates are collected on the paper
tape forming a spot.

 Spots so obtained are evaluated by analyzing the amount of light that

can be transmitted through the spot.

The measurement is reported as COH/1000 ft where COH is known

as coefficient of optical haze, calculated as:

where T0 = Transmittance of clean tape (100%), T = percentage of light

transmitted through the spot, A = area of the spot in ft2, V = volume
of sample in ft3.

 Impingement: In an impinger the separation of particulates from air stream

takes place by collision against a flat surface.
Wet impingement is used to collect the particulates in a liquid phase.
Air stream containing particulates impinged at a flat surface immersed in a
liquid.
Dry impingers are not very efficient for collecting smaller particles.

 Electrostatic precipitation: Air sampling is also carried out by electrostatic

precipitation.
A negative charge is imparted to a wire placed axially inside a cylinder which is
positively charged.
Once airstream is passes though the cylinder, the particles acquire a negative
charge from a corona discharge occurring on the central wire.

The particles migrate toward inner surface of the cylinder and are removed for
subsequent chemical or microscopic analysis.

 Thermal precipitation: Thermal precipitators works on the principle that small

particles, under the influence of a strong temperature gradient between two
surfaces, have a tendency to move towards the lower temperature and get
deposited on the colder of two surfaces.
The temperature gradient are normally 3000 oC/cm.
Velocity of air is maintained very low.
The efficiency of thermal precipitators are very high.
The particles collected on a grid or a thin microscope cover glass for analysis.

Stack
sampling
Stack sampling is carried out when a stack of air-pollutant (e.g. smoke)
is coming out from the source.
Stack sampling provides information on the nature and quantities of
various pollutants that are emitted to the atmosphere.
Major difficulty in this process is to obtain representative sample.
Selecting proper site for sampling is the most important factor.
The gas stream in a stack is normally under turbulent flow conditions
and any flow disturbance would cause non-uniform and unstable gas
flow profile.
To avoid this problem, sampling should be done at a proper distance.

 Multiple samples are collected where uniform sample pattern is not found.
In stack sampling, a part of the gas stream is diverted through a sample
train and the representative sample is collected for analysis.
Sample train consists of a nozzle placed in the gas stream, a sampling
probe through which the sample is drawn, particulate/gas collection
device, flow meter and a pump.

Air pollution Control methods

The most effective way of dealing with air pollution is to prevent the
formation of the pollutants or minimize their emission at the source itself.
Control of the pollutants at the source can be accomplished by raw
material changes, operational changes, modification or replacement of
equipment or by more effective operation of existing equipment.
In case source correction method can not be achieved, effluent gas
cleaning technique is used.

 Source correction method

Raw material changes: Sometimes raw materials is responsible for causing air
pollution. Use of purer quality raw material would reduce the air pollution. Burning of
natural gas produces less pollution than that of coal.

Process change: This involves use of new or modified techniques for

lowering
atmospheric pollutant emission. For example, paper industries produces highly
objectionable sulphurous material. This emission can be prevented by major process
changes such as hydro-metallurgical separations of ores.

Equipment modification/ replacement: Air pollution emissions can be minimised by

suitable modification or replacement of process equipment. In petroleum refineries,
hydrocarbon vapours are released into the atmosphere from storage tank due to
temperature changes, direct evaporation and displacement during filling. This losses can
be reduced by designing the tanks with floating roof covers.

 Cleaning of Gaseous effluents: Where emission of pollutant can not be

prevented, cleaning techniques are being applied.
The equipment's are installed where the pollutants are present in smallest possible
volume with higher concentrations.
Gas cleaning technology is used alone or in conjunction with source correction method.
Gaseous pollutants are cleaned by dry absorption, wet absorption or combustion
methods.

Particulate emission control:

Particulate matter emitted in gaseous streams consists

of discrete and minute suspended particles of size varies from 100 m to 0.1 m. Choice of
particulate collection device depends on
Physical and chemical properties of particulates
Particulate size and concentration in the gas
Volume of particulates to be handled
Temperature and humidity of the gaseous medium.

 Collection efficiency: Efficiency of the collection device expressed as

T = 100* (Wt. of material collected/ Total amount of material entering
collector)
The efficiency of collection system varies with particle size.
The variation of efficiency can be expressed as fractional efficiency
i = 100* (fraction in range i collected / mi)

where, mi = amount of pollutant entering the collector in range.

 The overall efficiency (T) can then be written as

=

=1

M = total amount of particulate entering the collector.

Particulate control equipment

Basic mechanisms of removing particulate matter from gas stream are

Gravitational settling
Centrifugal impaction
Inertial impaction
Direct interception
Diffusion
Electrostatic precipitation

The various equipment's used for removing particulate matter are

Gravitational settling chambers

Cyclone separators
Fabric filters
Electrostatic precipitator
Wet collectors