[Notes] Air Pollution Some Points

1.  Examples of recent incidence (Case Study):

Forest fire in Indonesia’s Sumatra Is. (June,2013)

•      Blame on land clearing operations by plantation owners & accidental peat fire

•      Residents to live indoors as haze from forest fire reach unhealthy levels

•      Cases of respiratory infection on the rise

•      Pollutant index shot up to 293

–     Above 200 is considered very unhealthy

•      Singapore & malaysia too badly affected

–     Singapore: air pollution level reached “harzardous mark” for the first time in the country’s history

–     Malaysia: haze cover in kaula Lampur

v

Intense smog in Chinese cities, Jan 2013

•      Prompted govt. to pledge fresh emission curbs

•      Suspend work in 58 factories

•      Prompted public outcry

•      Criticism of China’s growth policy

•      PM2.5

–     Air-borne particulate matter with a dia of  2.5 microns or less

–     WHO: above 100 µg/m³ is unhealthy for sensitive groups

–     993 in Beijing

•      Air Quality Index: reached 500

•      Cancer mortality rates on the rise in China

–     Lung cancer no.1 major cause

–     Lung problems related to air pollution

•      Fourth Highest Mortility rate: Respiratory disease, to a big extent related to air quality

•      Effect on Tourism:

–     One of the most visited countries in the world

–     World’s no. 3 destination for international travel after France & US

–     Sharply fewer tourist this year

–     Partly due to air pollution

–     Following January’s eye-shearing levels of smog

2.   Emissions from coal-fired power plants

·         Taking a heavy toll on human life across large parts of India

·         Premature death & asthma cases from exposure to PM10

·         2011-12: 111 coal-fired power plants with total generation capacity of 121 GWà huge quantum of PM2.5, SO2,Nox, CO, VOCs, CO2

·         Huge burden on health cost

·         Largest impact in Delhi, Harayana,Maharashtra, MP, Chattisgarh, Indo-gangetic plain, central-east India

3.  Indoor Pollution

·         Cooking & heating with solid fuels- coal, wood, dung, farm residue- continues across the globe

a.    70% people India use these fuels

b.   75% in rural

c.    22% in urban

d.   80% of household energy consumption in India

·         Inefficient burning- mix of pollutants, primarily CO & particulate matters

·         WHO,2009: 2 million death

·         Worst hit:

a.    poor—stay-at-home women & children

b.   SEA & SubSaharan Africa

·         GOI’s Action

a.    Several initiatives in the past to develop, produce & distribute improved cookstove or chulhas throughout rural India

b.   National Program on Improved Chulhas (NPIC) by the Min. of New & Renewable Energy

c.    These initiatives unable to deliver promises

4. WtE (Waste to Energy) Incineration

•      Touted as answer to municipal waste accumulation

•      Emit toxic gases-volatile organic gases & heavy metals

•      Among the top five emission of dioxins worldwide

•      incinerators in Okhla, New Delhi:

–     Air samples around : life threatening levels of particulates & toxic chemicals

–     Residents around: evidence of linking incidence of cancer & low birth-weight to incinerator emission

•      Power generation through mixed waste generation fails

–     “energy recovery from urban & industrial waste” of the MNRE’s flagship program (to generate 84MW of power from waste) fails to contribute even a single unit of power to the grid

•      For energy generation, incinerators are very expensive & inefficient

•      Not climate-friendly:

–     USEP: incinerator releases 2.5 more CO2/MW than coalfired power plants

•      Europe committed to ending of landfilling & incineration of recycleble waste by 2020

5. Dioxins

•      one of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) that causes cancer even in low dose

•      Insoluble in water

-  When settled on land/water bodies, absorbed by terrestrial & aquatic vegetation

-  Travel up the food chain to animals & fish, to man

•      Living organisms cannot metabolise them

-  Present in high conc. In milk, egg, meat

•      In humans, impairs the functioning of liver, immune & reproductive system & cause cancer

•      US Env.Protection Agency in 1994: “most poisonous substances known to man”

•      Finland: govt. shut down an incineration plant when dioxin level in surrounding vegetation was found high

•      Delhi govt. continues despite dioxin & furan levels high

6. Way out to garbage problem- Gasification

•      Incomplete combustion of organic matter with the release of CO & H₂ instead of CO₂ found in usual combustion easily synthesized into dimethyl ether, a superior diesel substitute & a complete substitute for LPG

•      Eliminates dioxin threat

–     High temperature breaks down dioxin & furan into their basic elements

•      Cities & municipal corporations around the world begun to switch to gasification

•      Prospect of Gasification in India

–     Rising no. of Indians living in citiesà growing garbage generation

–     Volume of transport fuel that can be replaced

–     Saving in foreign exchange (reducing oil import)

–     Free domestic prices from the yoke of international oil prices

–     Save fuel subsidies