ME 449 Sustainable Air Quality Class Report, Spring 2001 Sources and Emissions Particulate Matter

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ME 449 Sustainable Air Quality Class Report,
Spring 2001Sources and Emissions Particulate
Matter

• Instructor Rudolf B. Husar
• Students Kristin Burford
• Kurt Fisher
• Sean King
• Sean Raffuse
• Robert Surrago
• Megan Yu

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Class Project Background

• The class was loosely structured around the the
  theme Sustainable Air Quality with special
  emphasis on particulate matter, PM.
• For this class, sustainability was defined as the
  ability to maintain a desired level of air
  quality using a feedback system with
  sensory-motor functionality.
• The three components of sustainable AQ management
  were identified as (1) sensing the current level
  of AQ (2) comparing it to the desired level (3)
  acting to remedy the exceedances.
• Sustainable management of PM is made difficult by
  the poor understanding of emissions, particularly
  for windblown dust and biomass smoke
• PM emissions are highly uncertain, they are
  caused by largely uncontrollable factors and they
  are frequently out of jurisdiction of management
  agencies.
• For these reasons, significant effort was
  invested in a class project Sources and
  Emissions of PM

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Example Dynamic Aerosol Pattern at Big Bend, TX

• The chemical mass balance of PM2.5 aerosols at
  Big Bend National Park shows a dynamic seasonal
  pattern.
• Sulfate from SOx emissions is the major
  contributor through most of the year.
• The peak concentration in May is primarily due to
  organics, smoke organics and light absorbing
  carbon, most probably caused by springtime
  agricultural and wild fires in Mexico.
• During the spring and summer seasons,
  uncontrollable windblown dust from Sahara and
  local sources are a significant portion of the
  PM2.5 mass.
• The figure illustrates that uncontrollable
  factors (dust) and out of jurisdiction events
  (Mexican smoke) may be significant contributors
  to PM2.5.

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The Class Product and the Class Process

• The product of the class is a set of PowerPoint
  presentations by each student and this overview
  by the instructor.
• The brief presentations (8-10 slides each) were
  developed over a period of a month.
• The feedback from several class rehearsals was
  used to polish the presentations.
• Interaction collaboration and learning
  (copying) from each other was encouraged.
• To reinforce general awareness, during one
  session students were asked to present one of
  their randomly chosen peer's presentation.
• The class grade was based on the overall
  participation in class work and the PowerPoint
  presentation of the chosen topic.

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Student Reports (will be linked)

• M. Yu US 1996 Emission Inventory for SOx, NOx
  and PM
• County-by-county mapping of the official EPA
  emission inventory.
• K. Burford Emissions of SOx
• Emission factors for the major SOx sources.
• R. Fowler Emissions of NOx
• Emission factors for the major NOx sources.
• R. Surrago Emissions of Dust
• Emission factors for the major dust sources.
• S. King The Dust Bowl
• Data and reports from the dust bowl in the
  1930s.
• K. Fisher Satellite Fire Detection
• The physics of satellite fire detection
• S. Raffuse Fire Climatology

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Student Feedback on the Class (Anonymous)

• Give it to me! Be constructive.