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Gaseous air pollutants
Published in Abhishek Tiwary, Ian Williams, Air Pollution, 2018
Table 2.13 provides the source-specific UK NMVOC inventory for 1970 and 2015, followed by estimates of the percentage change over this period. The major emission categories are solvent use and industrial processes (which includes paints, adhesives, aerosols, metal cleaning and printing). Substantial VOC emissions occur during processes such as painting (evaporation of solvents), oil production (flaring and venting of gas), oil refining (flaring and fugitive emissions), distribution of oil or refinery products (evaporation from storage, displacement losses when venting tanks), dry cleaning (final drying of clothes), use of aerosol sprays (both in the product and from the propellant), inefficient combustion of bituminous coal in domestic grates, production of alcoholic drinks (breweries and distilleries) and arable farming (crop growing, silage manufacture, sludge spreading). The two largest sources of UK NMVOC emissions in 2015 are industrial processes and product use, extraction and distribution of fossil fuels (respectively, 56% and 17% of the total).
Environmental Regulations and Jurisdictions
Published in Rengasamy Kasinathan, Environmental Compliance Guide for Facility Managers and Engineers, 2023
The different types of pollution impact the natural environment in a variety of ways. Air pollutants caused by industrial emissions, such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), react in the atmosphere, causing acid deposition. This deposition alters the chemistry of soil, trees, and freshwater sources, resulting in serious ecological consequences for species not able to handle these changes in the environment. Emissions of NOx and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) can also produce toxic gas ozone, which damages crops and vegetation and contributes to atmospheric warming.
LCA study of photovoltaic systems based on different technologies
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2018
Weslley M. Soares, Daniel D. Athayde, Eduardo H.M. Nunes
Figure 6 depicts the LCA results concerning the emission of several species into air, soil, and water during the production of 1 m2 PV panels. For each indicator, the maximum result was set to 100% and the results ascribed to other technologies were expressed in terms of the percentage of this maximum value. Mono-Si showed the largest emissions of CO2, nitrogen oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), particulates with sizes below 2.5 μm, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) into air. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the inhalation of particulates with sizes similar to those ones considered herein can cause serious health effects. NMVOC is associated with a large variety of chemical compounds, including benzene, ethanol, formaldehyde, cyclohexane, and trichloroethane. Mono-Si also exhibited the highest biological oxygen demand (BOD) in water (about 0.5 kg per square meter of PV panel). BOD is related to the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms to break down the organic species present in a water sample. Thus, the more organic matter the waste water contains, the higher BOD is. This behavior reveals an expressive presence of organic species in the water waste co-obtained in the fabrication of mono-Si PV panels. In fact, expressive amounts of organic chemicals are used in the CZ method (Friedrich, Von Ammon, and Müller 2015). It is worth highlighting the high release of cadmium into soil displayed by a-Si. The maximum value assessed for this technology was about 52 parts per million (ppm) per square meter of PV panel. Despite the low values of cadmium release for the technologies considered in this work, further studies are required to assess the environmental impact ascribed to this release.
Manufacturing, use phase or final disposal: where to focus the efforts to reduce the environmental impact of a food machine?
Published in Production & Manufacturing Research, 2022
Roberta Stefanini, Bricoli Barbara, Giuseppe Vignali
Data modelled on the software were finally processed to calculate the environmental impact of the machine during the considered phases. Following the suggestion of the Product Category Rule ‘Machines for filling and packaging of liquid food’, the considered environmental impact categories are those used in EPDs of the International EPD Systems (EPD, 2022): Acidification: the acidification of water, soil and air is due to acidifying substances, such as nitric acid, sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, sulfuric acid, hydrogen, phosphoric acid, etc. The unit of measurement for this impact category is the kg SO2 eq.Eutrophication: the term indicates the excessive growth of plant organisms that modify the ecological balance of the aquatic environment. The unit is kg PO4– eq.Global warming (100 years): the increase in the Earth’s average temperature due to human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, such as CO2. These gases, remaining trapped in the lowest layer of the atmosphere, act as a barrier to solar radiation reflected from the earth’s surface, whose energy is converted into heat. This causes the rise in the global average temperature. The unit is kg CO2 eq.Photochemical oxidation: this phenomenon is due to nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, which, due to the effect of the photochemical reactions induced by the sun’s rays, lead to the oxidation of nitrogen monoxide (NO), which becomes nitrogen (NO2), and the formation of ozone (O3) and other chemical compounds with toxic effects on the ecosystem and human health. The unit of measurement is the kg NMVOC (Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds).Abiotic depletion, elements: this category refers to the exhaustion of elements, such as metals. The unit of measurement is kg Sb eq.Abiotic depletion, fossil fuels: the exhaustion of fossil fuels is measured in MJ.Water scarcity, measured in m3 eq.Ozone layer depletion: even if this impact category is optional, it was considered in the analysis. The thinning of the ozone layer is measured in kg CFC−11 eq.