Lecture Five

Air Pollution Control

Learning
Objectives
for Today
Educational Objectives
 Control of Motor Vehicle emissions
Fuel:Air ratio
Motor vehicle emissions
Control techniques
 Control of Stationary Sources
Control techniques
Control efficiency or Penetration rate
 Motor vehicle engines
 Otto-cycle spark ignition(SI) internal
combustion engine(ICE)
 Used in light-duty cars and trucks,
motorcycles, boats, etc.
 Diesel cycle compression ignition (CI)
internal combustion engine
 Used in trucks and utility vehicles, light-duty
vehicles in Europe
Otto cycle spark ignition engines
 Characteristics
 Four- stroke
 Light-duty cars and trucks

 Two-stroke
 Motorcycles and other small engine
vehicles/equipment
Four-stroke engines
Emissions
 Spark ignition four- stroke internal
combustion engines
 Exhaust gases
 “blow by” gases
 Evaporative losses
Exhaust emissions
 Account for 90 to 92 % of total motor
vehicle emissions
 Include unburned/partially burned HCs
 Carbon monoxide
 Nitrogen oxides
Evaporative emissions
 Diurnal emissions-fuel tank cools at
night and heats up during the day
 Hot soak-evaporation of residual fuel
on shutting the engine off
 Operating losses-when engine is
running
 Refueling losses
 Blow-by gases
 Unburned HCs move past piston rings and
accumulate in the crankcase

Crankcase
 Combustion chemistry
 CO is produced from incomplete
combustion
 HCs are produced when the flame front

approaches relatively cool walls of the

cylinder.
 NOx is produced from N2 + O2 2 NO
Air: fuel relationships
 Air : fuel ratios
 As A:F ratio increases to ~15
 Carbon monoxide decreases dramatically
 Hydrocarbon emissions decrease
 Nitrogen oxides emissions increase
dramatically
 Hydrocarbon emissions
 Affected by
 A:F ratios
 “quenching”- walls effects – walls are
colder and combustion doesn’t precede
 Crevice zones (crack)
 Crevice zones
 Confined spaces where combustion is
limited
 Located
 Near upper ring between piston and wall
 Behind rings
 Between upper rings
 Within sparkplug screw threads
 Small gaps around valves and seats
 Nitrogen oxides emissions
 Depends on combustion chamber temperature
 Peak emissions occur under stoichiometric
conditions
 Affected by
 A:F ratio
 Sparking time
 Compression ratio
 Engine speed
Solving the motor vehicle pollution problem
requires a comprehensive approach
 Emission control
techniques/systems
 Engine operation and design factors
 Engine-based control systems
 Exhaust emission systems
 Engine operation/design
 Lean burn combustion
 Electronic ignition
Lean burn is an internal combustion of lean air-
fuel mixtures. It happens at very high
air-fuel ratios (up to 65:1), so the mixture has
considerably less amount of fuel in comparison
to stoichiometric combustion ratio (14.6:1 for
petrol).
 Lean burn combustion
 Lean A:F ratios, from 15: 1 to 16:1
 Increase combustion efficiency
 Significantly decrease CO
 Reduce engine performance and
drivability
 Spark timing
 Retarded from optimum to reduce
emissions
 Exhaust temperatures are hotter and allow
HCs and CO to be oxidized in the exhaust
system
 Decreases proportion of the air to fuel
mixture in quench zones
 Spark retardation decreases engine
performance
 Compression ratios
 High compression ratios increase engine
power
 Decreased to reduce emissions of HCs
 Decrease in the ratio of
crevice/combustion zone volume
 Maintains exhaust gases at higher
temperatures
 Compression ratios
 Lower compression ratios-decreased
efficiency and power, increased fuel
consumption
 Engine-based control systems
 Crankcase ventilation
 Evaporative controls
 Exhaust gas recirculation
 Crankcase ventilation
 Used to control “blow by” gases
 Crankcase purged with air
 Crankcase gases returned to combustion
chamber
Crankcase ventilation
 Evaporative emissions
 Collect HCs on activated carbon
 Collected HCs are desorbed and burned
 Control systems are less efficient on high
volatility/low molecular weight fuels
Evaporative emissions control
 Exhaust gas recirculation
 Exhaust gases used to absorb heat and
decrease combustion chamber
temperatures
 Reduces NOx production
 Effectiveness depends on the amount of
exhaust gas used
 10 % exhaust gases -reduces NOx by 30 to
50 %
Exhaust gas recirculation
Exhaust Gas Control Systems
 Thermal Reactors
 Oxidizing catalytic systems
 Reducing catalytic systems
 Three-way catalytic systems
Catalytic converters
 Three-way catalytic systems
 Oxidation and reduction in a single unit
 All pollutants controlled in one bed
 At 0.995-1.008 φ values conversion
efficiencies of greater than 80 % for all
three pollutants
 Compression ignition engines
(Euro)
 Air inducted, intake air compressed by
exhaust-driven turbine, or intake air
compressed by mechanical pump
 Increase engine power by increasing air
and fuel flow
 Four-stroke or two-stroke cycles
 Compression ignition engines
 Fuel injected under high pressure into
combustion chamber
 Mixes with air and because of high
compression ratios (12-24:1) spontaneously
ignites
 Additional fuel mixes with air and is
combusted
 Compression ignition engines
 Hydrocarbons and CO emissions are low
because combustion is complete
 Nitrogen oxide emissions are high
because of high temperatures
 Elemental carbon produced in fuel-rich
regions
 Compression ignition engines
 Emissions control
 Focus on NOx and soot
 Nitrogen oxides - control of inlet
temperature and injection retardation
 50-65 % reduction
 Alternative fuels
 Alcohol/alcohol blends
 Liquefied natural gas (LNG)
 Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
 Control of diesel vehicle
pollution in Hong Kong
 Euro III standard for vehicles of 1995
and onwards
 Existing ones
 Taxies: LPG
 Light buses: 80% switched to LPG or
electricity
 Heavy duty: traps and/or catalytic
converters
Control of Emissions from
Stationary Sources
A Typical Air Pollution Control
System
Control efficiency, penetration
Q0 c0  Q1c1 Qc
Control efficiency     1 1 1
Q0 c0 Q0 c0

Q1c1
Penetration  p  1  efficiency 
Q0 c0

Q0, c0 Q1, c1

Control device

If we have more than one control device in series,

ηoverall = 1-(1-η1)(1-η2)(1-η3)(1-η4)
Poverall = p1p2p3p4
 Generalized fractional
collection efficiency curve
 Fractional collection
efficiencies of dust collectors
 Particle collection systems
 Cyclones
 Filtration/baghouses
 Electrostatic precipitation
 Scrubbers
Simple cyclones used on grain
elevators in Galveston, Tx
 Principle of filtration
 The basic principle of baghouse operation
involves the removal of dust from dust-laden gas
by passing the dirty gas through a filtration
medium.
 The cleaned gas emerges from one side of the
medium, while the dust is collected on the other
side. Periodically the collected dust is removed
from the fabric.
 A fabric filter “baghouse” system includes the
bag cleaning system, dust collection hoppers,
and dust removal system.
 Basic theory
An ESP controls particle emissions by
(1) Charging the particles; (2) applying an
electric field to move the particles out of
the gas steam; (3) removing the collected
dust.
Electrostatic precipitators
 Wet Scrubbers
– In wet scrubbing processes, liquid or
solid particles are removed from a gas
stream by transferring them to a liquid.
– Most wet scrubbing systems operate
with particulate collection efficiencies
over 95 percent.
– Wet scrubbing can effectively remove
fine particles in the range from 0.1 μm
to 20 μm.
 Wet scrubbers
 Several types
 Open-spray tower
 Venturi scrubber
 Fiber bed scrubber
 Packed bed scrubber
Venturi scrubber used in the
steel industry
Venturi scrubber-schematic
 Control of gas-phase emissions
 Incineration (Thermal oxidation)
 Adsorption
 Absorption
 Condensation
 Biological treatment
 Factors affect combustion
 (1) Oxygen
 (2) Temperature
 (3) Time
 (4) Turbulence
Adsorption system
 Application: Control of SOx
 Coal beneficiation – remove S prior to
combustion process.
 Fluidized bed combustion (FBC) –
remove S during the combustion process.
 Flue gas desulfurization(FGD) – remove
S after combustion and before emitted to
the atmosphere.
 Flue-gas desulfurization(FGD)
 Use to scrub SO2 by coal-burning
utilities
 Use limestone/lime scrubbers
 Achieve 90+% collection efficiency
 FGD
 Limestone scrubbing
Lime scrubbing
 Control of NOx
 Low NOx burner
 Control mixing of fuel and air
 Staged combustion
 Fuel- rich followed by fuel-lean (fuel is
combusted in a primary zone that is fuel-rich,
followed by secondary and following zones that
are fuel-lean).
 Reduce O2 or excess O2 to cool
 Catalytic reduction
 Control of NOx
Catalytic reduction –
titanium/vanadium