scholarly journals The Problem of Smog-Particle Removal in Large Cities—Experimental Analysis of Some Filtration Materials

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (23) ◽  
pp. 8012
Author(s):  
Adam Ruciński ◽  
Andrzej Grzebielec ◽  
Maciej Jaworski ◽  
Rafał Laskowski ◽  
Grzegorz Niewiński ◽  
...  

Air pollution is a significant problem in city centers. According to public health care in Poland, there is a need for local authorities to propose good purification solutions in both outdoor and indoor conditions. The main objective of this study is the development of an appropriate filtration system for public transport, especially for buses and bus stops. Firstly, the authors justify the need for air filtration in the capital of Poland, Warsaw. The average concentration level of PM10 and PM2.5 dust particles in large Polish cities is presented. In addition, it is underlined that PM2.5 dust particles are carriers for coronavirus COVID-19 and easily inhaled by humans. In the next step, the authors introduce an experimental stand used in the examination of different filtration baffles. The filtration efficiency is defined and calculated according to experimental examinations. In these experiments, an antismog cover for air-conditioning split systems, an H13 HEPA filter and a three-stage filtration baffle (active carbon + F5 filter + EPA11 filter) were taken into consideration, and the efficiency of filtration under pressure-drop conditions and the influence of moisture were ascertained. The best filter setup was thereby determined to be the three-stage filtration baffle, being the most efficient in cleaning air on account of having the smallest mass concentration of PM2.5. This indicates that three-stage filtration is the most suitable air-filtration method for public transportation in cities where air pollution is a serious concern.

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. S. CHAUHAN ◽  
BHANUMATI SINGH ◽  
SHREE GANESH ◽  
JAMSHED ZAIDI

Studies on air pollution in large cities of India showed that ambient air pollution concentrations are at such levels where serious health effects are possible. This paper presents overview on the status of air quality index (AQI) of Jhansi city by using multivariate statistical techniques. This base line data can help governmental and non-governmental organizations for the management of air pollution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Rina Nur Chasanah ◽  
Andreas Wijaya

Public infrastructure and congestion issues become salient problems in Indonesia. According to INRIX Global Traffic Scoreboard (2018): Jakarta was ranked as twelfth worst in the world. Air quality also becoming another issues that derived from traffic congestion causing air pollution. To mitigate this issue, government has been established MRT Jakarta in 2019. This study aims to evaluate and improving service level of Moda Raya Terpadu (MRT) in order to encourage more people using public transportation, moreover altering people using public transportation would reduce the amount of fossil fuels and reducing bad air pollution for a better climate. Methodolgy of the research using service quality theory with five dimension from Parasuraman et. al, and extended in Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) method. Therefore, data was distributed using questionnaire with 18 item measurement and 102 respondents was collected. As a result, tangibility, reliability, and responsiveness dimension had been classified in quadrant one, followed assurance dimension in quadrant two, however empathy dimension had been measured in quadrant four and indicates to be improved.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 184
Author(s):  
Javier Cárcel-Carrasco ◽  
Manuel Pascual-Guillamón ◽  
Fidel Salas-Vicente

Today, the design and remodeling of urban environments is being sought in order to achieve green, healthy, and sustainable cities. The effect of air pollution in cities due to vehicle combustion gases is an important part of the problem. Due to the indirect effect caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, political powers in Europe have imposed confinement measures for citizens by imposing movement restrictions in large cities. This indirect measure has given us a laboratory to show how the reduction in vehicle circulation affects in a short time the levels of air pollution in cities. Therefore, this article analyzes the effect in different European cities such as Milan, Prague, Madrid, Paris, and London. These cities have been chosen due to their large amount of daily road traffic that generates high levels of pollution; therefore, it can clearly show the fall in these pollutants in the air in the analyzed period. The results shown through this study indicate that the reduction in combustion vehicles greatly affects the levels of pollution in different cities. In these periods of confinement, there was an improvement in air quality where pollutant values dropped to 80% compared to the previous year. This should serve to raise awareness among citizens and political powers to adopt measures that induce sustainable transport systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 4703
Author(s):  
Renato Andara ◽  
Jesús Ortego-Osa ◽  
Melva Inés Gómez-Caicedo ◽  
Rodrigo Ramírez-Pisco ◽  
Luis Manuel Navas-Gracia ◽  
...  

This comparative study analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on motorized mobility in eight large cities of five Latin American countries. Public institutions and private organizations have made public data available for a better understanding of the contagion process of the pandemic, its impact, and the effectiveness of the implemented health control measures. In this research, data from the IDB Invest Dashboard were used for traffic congestion as well as data from the Moovit© public transport platform. For the daily cases of COVID-19 contagion, those published by Johns Hopkins Hospital University were used. The analysis period corresponds from 9 March to 30 September 2020, approximately seven months. For each city, a descriptive statistical analysis of the loss and subsequent recovery of motorized mobility was carried out, evaluated in terms of traffic congestion and urban transport through the corresponding regression models. The recovery of traffic congestion occurs earlier and faster than that of urban transport since the latter depends on the control measures imposed in each city. Public transportation does not appear to have been a determining factor in the spread of the pandemic in Latin American cities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Kim ◽  
Seung-Ah Choe ◽  
Ok-Jin Kim ◽  
Sun-Young Kim ◽  
Seulgi Kim ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundMounting evidence implicates an association between ambient air pollution and impaired reproductive potential of human. Our study aimed to assess the association between air pollution and ovarian reserve in young, infertile women.MethodsOur study included 2276 Korean women who attended a single fertility center in 2016–2018. Women’s exposure to air pollution was assessed using concentrations of particulate matter (PM10and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and ozone (O3) that had been collected at 269 air quality monitoring sites. Exposure estimates were computed for 1, 3, 6, and 12 months prior to the ovarian reserve tests. Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) ratio (defined as an observed-to-expected AMH based on age) and low AMH (defined as < 0.5 ng/mL) were employed as indicators of ovarian reserve. We included a clustering effect of 177 districts in generalized estimating equations approach. A secondary analysis was conducted restricting the analyses to Seoul residents to examine the association in highly urbanized setting.ResultsThe mean age was 36.6 ± 4.2 years and AMH level was 3.3 ± 3.1 ng/mL in the study population. Average AMH ratio was 0.8 ± 0.7 and low AMH was observed in 10.3% of women (n=235). The average concentration of six air pollutants was not different between the normal ovarian reserve and low AMH groups for all averaging periods. In multivariable models, an interquartile range (IQR)-increase in 1 month-average PM10was associated with decrease in AMH ratio among total population (β= −0.06, 95% confidence interval: −0.11, 0.00). When we restrict our analysis to those living in Seoul, IQR-increases in 1 and 12 month-average PM2.5were associated with 3% (95% CI: −0.07, 0.00) and 10% (95% CI: −0.18, −0.01) decrease in AMH ratio. The ORs per IQR increase in the six air pollutants were close to null in total population and Seoul residents.ConclusionsIn a cohort of infertile Korean women, there was a suggestive evidence of the negative association between ambient PM concentration and ovarian reserve, highlighting the potential adverse impact of air pollution on women’s fertility.


Author(s):  
Karolin Kokaz ◽  
Peter Rogers

Recent economic expansion and population growth in developing countries have had a big impact on the development of large cities like Delhi, India. Accompanied by Delhi’s rapid spatial growth over the last 25 years, urban sprawl has contributed to increased travel. The vehicle fleet projected at current growth rates will result in more than 13 million vehicles in Delhi in 2020. Planning and managing such a rapidly growing transport sector will be a challenge. Choices made now will have effects lasting well into the middle of the century. With such rapid transport growth rates, automobile emissions have become the fastest increasing source of urban air pollution. In India, most urban areas, including Delhi, already have major air pollution problems that could be greatly exacerbated if growth of the transport sector is managed unwisely. The transport plans designed to meet such large increases in travel demand will have to emphasize the movement of people, not vehicles, for a sustainable transportation system. Therefore, a mathematical model was developed to estimate the optimal transportation mix to meet this projected passenger-km demand while satisfying environmental goals, reducing congestion levels, and improving system and fuel efficiencies by exploiting a variety of policy options at the minimum overall cost or maximum welfare from transport. The results suggest that buses will continue to satisfy most passenger transport in the coming decades, so planning done in accordance with improving bus operations is crucial.


Hypertension ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin C Wong ◽  
Wilson W Tam ◽  
Harry H Wang ◽  
Xiang Qian Lao ◽  
Mandy W Kwan ◽  
...  

Background: Relatively few studies have explored the relationship between air pollution and cause-specific mortality among hypertensive patients. This study evaluated whether short term exposures to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), particulate matter <10 mm in diameter (PM10) were associated with higher risk of mortality among a large hypertensive patients. Methods: A total of 223,287 hypertensive patients who attended any public health-care services in Hong Kong and prescribed at least 1 antihypertensive agent for the first time between 2001 and 2005 were followed up until 2010. A time-stratified, bi-directional case-crossover design was adopted to study the association between environmental exposures and mortality outcomes. Results: For all-cause mortality, significant positive associations were observed for NO2 and PM10 at lag 0 to 3 days per 10 MIUg/m3 increase in concentration and the excess risks ranged from 1.187%- 2.501%. Significant positive associations were found for O3 at lag 1 and 2 days and the excess risks were 1.654% (95% C.I. 0.469%, 2.852%) and 1.207% (95% C.I. 0.025%, 2.404%), respectively. We found similarly positive associations between NO2 (excess risks: 1.786%-2.798%), PM10 (1.126%-1.847%), O3 (3.035%-3.355%) and mortality due to respiratory disease. In stratified analysis, these significant results were observed amongst those aged >65 years and in cold seasons only. Conclusions: Older hypertensive patients are susceptible to all-cause and respiratory disease-specific deaths from these air pollutants in cold weather. This implies urgent need for protective air pollution standards for this susceptible population.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thanh Cong Nguyen ◽  
Hang Dieu Nguyen ◽  
Hoa Thu Le ◽  
Shinji Kaneko

PurposeThis purpose of this paper is to understand residents’ choice of preferred measures and their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the measures to improve the air quality of Hanoi city.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaire surveys were conducted to collect the opinions of 212 household representatives living in Hanoi City. The survey tools were tested and adjusted through an online survey with 191 responses. Multivariate probit and linear regression models were used to identify determinants of respondents’ choices of measures and their WTP.FindingsRespondents expressed their strong preferences for three measures for air quality improvements, including: (1) increase of green spaces; (2) use of less polluting fuels; (3) expansion of public transportation. The mean WTP for the implementation of those measures was estimated at about 148,000–282,000 Vietnamese dong, equivalent to 0.09–0.16% of household income. The respondents’ choices appear to be consistent with their characteristics and needs, such as financial affordability, time on roads and their perceived impacts of air pollution. The WTP estimates increase with perception of air pollution impacts, time on roads, education and income; but are lower for older people.Originality/valueTo gain a better understanding of public opinions, we applied multivariate probit models to check whether respondents’ choices were consistent with their characteristics and perceptions. This appears to be the first attempt to test the validity of public opinions on choices of measures for improving urban air quality in Vietnam. Our WTP estimates also contribute to the database on the values of improved air quality in the developing world.


Author(s):  
Boris N. Filatov ◽  
Natalya I. Latyshevskaya ◽  
Natalya V. Krylova ◽  
Irina K. Gorkina ◽  
Yulya I. Velikorodnaya ◽  
...  

The presence of grinding, mixing, and fractionation of solid components of formulations leads to the formation of aerosols in the air of the working area with a wide range of dispersion of the solid phase - all this characterizes the organization of technological processes for the production of energy-intensive materials. The study aims to give a qualitative assessment of possible air pollution of the working area of energy-intensive materials production by nanoscale aerosols with a solid dispersed phase. The researchers carried out the sampling of the working area air and flushes from solid horizontal surfaces to produce energy-intensive materials. We carried out the sampling by forced circulation of the test air through the absorption devices of Polezhaev. Scientists used Triton TX-114 solution with a mass concentration of 2.0 mg/dm3 as an absorption medium. The researchers performed flushing from surfaces using cloth tampons moistened with Triton TX-114 solution with a mass concentration of 2.0 mg/dm3. We determined the particle sizes in the samples using NanotracULTRA (Microtrac). Scientists found aluminum and nitrocellulose particles with sizes from 36 to 102 nm in the air of the working area and flushes from horizontal surfaces. The study of the fractional composition of RDX and aluminum powders of the ASD-1 brand showed the presence of nanoscale particles in them. Nanoscale dust particles pollute the air of the working area and solid horizontal surfaces at certain stages of the production of energy-intensive materials. There are nanoscale particles in the composition of powders of some standard components of formulations. Flushes from solid horizontal surfaces are an adequate qualitative indicator of the presence of nanoaerosols in the air of the working area.


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