Near-road multipollutant profiles: associations between volatile organic compounds and a tracer gas surrogate near a busy highway.

This research characterizes associations between multiple pollutants in the near-road environment attributed to a roadway line source. It also examines the use of a tracer gas as a surrogate of mobile source pollutants. Air samples were collected in summa canisters along a 300 m transect normal to a highway in Raleigh, North Carolina for five sampling periods spanning four days. Samples were subsequently measured for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using an electron capture gas chromatograph. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) was released from a finite line source adjacent to the roadway for two of the sampling periods, collected in the canisters and measured with the VOCs. Associations between each VOC, and between VOCs and the tracer, were quantified with Pearson correlation coefficients to assess the consistency of the multi-pollutant dispersion profiles, and assess the tracer as a potential surrogate for mobile source pollutants. As expected, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and m,p- and o-xylenes (collectively, BTEX) show strong correlations between each other; further BTEX shows a strong correlation to SF6. Between 26 VOCs, correlation coefficients were greater than 0.8, and 14 VOCs had coefficients greater than 0.6 with the tracer gas. Even under non-downwind conditions, chemical concentrations had significant correlations with distance. Results indicate that certain VOCs are representative of a larger multi-pollutant mixture, and many VOCs are well-correlated with the tracer gas.

Separating the air quality impact of a major highway and nearby sources by nonparametric trajectory analysis.

Nonparametric Trajectory Analysis (NTA), a receptor-oriented model, was used to assess the impact of local sources of air pollution at monitoring sites located adjacent to highway I-15 in Las Vegas, NV. Measurements of black carbon, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide concentrations were collected from December 2008 to December 2009. The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of the highway at three downwind monitoring stations using an upwind station to measure background concentrations. NTA was used to precisely determine the contribution of the highway to the average concentrations measured at the monitoring stations accounting for the spatially heterogeneous contributions of other local urban sources. NTA uses short time average concentrations, 5 min in this case, and constructed local back-trajectories from similarly short time average wind speed and direction to locate and quantify contributions from local source regions. Averaged over an entire year, the decrease of concentrations with distance from the highway was found to be consistent with previous studies. For this study, the NTA model is shown to be a reliable approach to quantify the impact of the highway on local air quality in an urban area with other local sources.

Ammonia emissions from a U.S. broiler house--comparison of concurrent measurements using three different technologies.

There is a need for robust and accurate techniques for the measurement of ammonia (NH3) and other atmospheric pollutant emissions from poultry production facilities. Reasonable estimates of NH3 emission rate (ER) from poultry facilities are needed to guide discussions about the industry's impact on local and regional air quality. The design of these facilities features numerous emission points and results in emission characteristics of relatively low concentrations and exhaust flow rates that vary diurnally, seasonally, and with bird age over a considerable range. These factors combine to render conventional emissions monitoring approaches difficult to apply. Access to these facilities is also often restricted for biosecurity reasons. The three objectives of this study were (1) to compare three methods for measuring exhaust NH3 concentrations and thus ERs, (2) to compare ventilation rates using in situ measured fan characteristics versus using manufacturer sourced fan curves, and (3) to examine limitations of the alternative measurement technologies. In this study, two open-path monitoring systems operating outside of the buildings were compared with a portable monitoring system sampling upstream of a primary exhaust fan. The position of the open-path systems relative to the exhaust fans, measurement strategy adopted, and weather conditions significantly influenced the quality of data collected when compared with the internally located, portable monitoring system. Calculation of exhaust airflow from the facility had a large effect on calculated emissions and assuming that the installed fans performed as per published performance characteristics potentially overestimated emissions by 13.6-26.8%. The open-path measurement systems showed promise for being able to obtain ER measurements with minimal access to the house, although the availability of individual fan characteristics markedly improved the calculated ER accuracy. However, substantial operator skill and experience and favorable weather conditions were required to obtain good quality results.

Characterization of near-road pollutant gradients using path-integrated optical remote sensing.

Understanding motor vehicle emissions, near-roadway pollutant dispersion, and their potential impact to near-roadway populations is an area of growing environmental interest. As part of ongoing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research in this area, a field study was conducted near Interstate 440 (I-440) in Raleigh, NC, in July and August of 2006. This paper presents a subset of measurements from the study focusing on nitric oxide (NO) concentrations near the roadway. Measurements of NO in this study were facilitated by the use of a novel path-integrated optical remote sensing technique called deep ultraviolet differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DUV-DOAS). This paper reviews the development and application of this measurement system. Time-resolved near-road NO concentrations are analyzed in conjunction with wind and traffic data to provide a picture of emissions and near-road dispersion for the study. Results show peak NO concentrations in the 150 ppb range during weekday morning rush hours with winds from the road accompanied by significantly lower afternoon and weekend concentrations. Traffic volume and wind direction are shown to be primary determinants of NO concentrations with turbulent diffusion and meandering accounting for significant near-road concentrations in off-wind conditions. The enhanced source capture performance of the open-path configuration allowed for robust comparisons of measured concentrations with a composite variable of traffic intensity coupled with wind transport (R2 = 0.84) as well as investigations on the influence of wind direction on NO dilution near the roadway. The benefits of path-integrated measurements for assessing line source impacts and evaluating models is presented. The advantages of NO as a tracer compound, compared with nitrogen dioxide, for investigations of mobile source emissions and initial dispersion under crosswind conditions are also discussed.

Probing emissions of military cargo aircraft: description of a joint field measurement Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.

To develop effective air quality control strategies for military air bases, there is a need to accurately quantify these emissions. In support of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program project, the particulate matter (PM) and gaseous emissions from two T56 engines on a parked C-130 aircraft were characterized at the Kentucky Air National Guard base in Louisville, KY. Conventional and research-grade instrumentation and methodology were used in the field campaign during the first week of October 2005. Particulate emissions were sampled at the engine exit plane and at 15 m downstream. In addition, remote sensing of the gaseous species was performed via spectroscopic techniques at 5 and 15 m downstream of the engine exit. It was found that PM mass and number concentrations measured at 15-m downstream locations, after dilution-correction generally agreed well with those measured at the engine exhaust plane; however, higher variations were observed in the far-field after natural dilution of the downstream measurements was accounted for. Using carbon dioxide-normalized data we demonstrated that gas species measurements by extractive and remote sensing techniques agreed reasonably well.

Open-path tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy for acquisition of fugitive emission flux data.

Air pollutant emission from unconfined sources is an increasingly important environmental issue. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a ground-based optical remote-sensing method that enables direct measurement of fugitive emission flux from large area sources. Open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR) has been the primary technique for acquisition of pollutant concentration data used in this emission measurement method. For a number of environmentally important compounds, such as ammonia and methane, open-path tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (OP-TDLAS) is shown to be a viable alternative to Fourier transform spectroscopy for pollutant concentration measurements. Near-IR diode laser spectroscopy systems offer significant operational and cost advantages over Fourier transform instruments enabling more efficient implementation of the measurement strategy. This article reviews the EPA's fugitive emission measurement method and describes its multipath tunable diode laser instrument. Validation testing of the system is discussed. OP-TDLAS versus OP-FTIR correlation testing results for ammonia (R2 = 0.980) and methane (R2 = 0.991) are reported. Two example applications of tunable diode laser-based fugitive emission measurements are presented.