Air and Solid Waste Flashcards
Principal Organic Hazardous Constituents (POHC) is regulated under?
RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)
Regulations under RCRA impose restrictions on emissions from hazardous waste incinerators. The regulations define:
POHC present in the waste feed and establish performance standards for their destruction and removal in the incineration process.
POHC performance standard is defined by a destruction removal efficiency (DRE) of:
99.99% or four nines for each POHC in the waste feed
For Dioxins and Furans - 99.9999% or six nines required
The DRE only includes the removal efficiency of the air pollution control equipment. True or false?
False. The DRE includes both the removal efficiency of the air pollution control equipment and the destruction efficiency of the incinerator.
________is heat exchanged by a thermodynamic system in which the exchange of heat changes the temperature of the system but leaves unchanged other variables of the system, such as volume or pressure.
Sensible Heat
How is the sensible heat of a thermodynamic process calculated?
It is the product of the mass flow with its specific heat capacity and the change in temperature.
What is the energy released or absorbed by a thermodynamic system during a constant-temperature process? It is calculated by mass flow times the change in enthalpy values during the phase change.
Latent Heat
What are the two forms of latent heat?
Heat of fusion - the heat that must be absorbed to melt a mole of solid.
Heat of vaporization - the heat that must be absorbed to boil a mole of a liquid.
What are condensers used for?
Pretreatment (used before other emission control processes to remove VOCs when they occur as high concentration vapors to reduce operating costs)
Condenser recovery efficiencies over 95% are possible for vapor streams containing over ______ VOCs
10,000 ppmv
Condenser recovery efficiencies fall below ____ % when vapor concentrations are near 500 ppmv.
50
What is the most common condenser?
A non-contact shell and tube surface condenser, which is essentially a heat exchanger.
First Law of Thermodynamics =
Conservation of Energy
The change in enthalpy will be _____ for exothermic reactions.
Negative
A strong acid will disociate quickly and release heat in the presence of ____
Water
What is the general equation for a complete combustion reaction?
CH4 + 2O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O
Henry’s Law is a gas law that states:
The amount of dissolved gas in liquid is proportional to its partial pressure above the liquid.
Henry’s law constant is the ____
Proportionality Factor
Chemical equilibrium is also known as _____
Dynamic Equilibrium
When the volume of an equilibrium mix of gases is reduced -
A net change will occur in the direction that produces fewer moles of gas.
A net change will occur in the direction that produces more moles of gas when -
The volume of an equilibrium mix of gases is increased.
Increasing the temperature will shift the equilibrium in the direction of the ____ reaction.
Endothermic
Decreasing the temperature will cause a shift in the direction of the _____ reaction.
Exothermic
What is the principal effect of the temperature on the equilibrium?
It changes the equilibrium constant.
What is air stripping?
It is the transferring of volatile components of a liquid into an air stream. It is only effective for volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds.
What is air stripping used to treat?
Groundwater and Wastewater
Volatile compounds have relatively high ____ and low ____
vapor pressure, aqueous solubility
This is characterized by the compound’s Henry’s Law Coefficient H’ (Ka).
Henry’s Law Coefficient H’ (Ka) is the ratio of what?
The concentration in air that is in equilibrium with its concentration in water H’=(Ca/Cw)
Pollutants with ___ Henry’s Law coefficients can be economically stripped from water. What are some examples?
Relatively High
Benzene, toluene, xylene found in gasoline, and solvents like trichloroethylene
What is the ratio of the maximum rate of flow of either gas or liquid to the minimum rate of flow?
Turndown Ratio - this is the most important concept in the design of stripping columns.
An air stripper with a turndown ratio of 3 were designed to handle contaminated groundwater at a maximum flow of 100 gal/min could not function properly if the flow dropped below ___
33 gal/min
What is the stripping factor? Values of the stripping factor must be > ___ for stripping to occur.
R = H’ (Qa/Qw)
1
Incineration with waste separation capability is known as
Resource recover plants
What are facilities with boilers called?
Waste to steam plants
Facilities with boilers and electrical generators are known as _____
Waste-to-energy plants (WTE)
What are the standards for harmful air pollutants?
U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
Who established the NAAQS? What authority are these standards under?
United States Environmental Protection Agency under the authority of the Clear Air Act. It is applied for outdoor air throughout the country.
What is the U.S. Congress’s long-term goal for radon indoors?
The U.S. Congress has set a long-term goal that indoor radon levels be no more than outdoor levels. The indoor levels are estimated to be about 1.3 pCi/L and about 0.4 pCi/L is normally found in the outside air.
The OSHA radon exposure limit for adult employees is ____ averaged over a 40-hour work week.
100 pCi/L
What does PSD stand for?
Prevention of Significant Deterioration
What are the greenhouse gases?
Carbon Dioxide (81%), Methane (CH4) (10%), Nitrous Oxide (6%), Flourinated Gases (3%)
What does GWP stand for?
Global Warming Potential
How is Nitrous Oxide emitted?
It is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste.
What are some examples of flourinated gases?
Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride
Fluorinated gases are synthetic powerful greenhouse gases. How are they emitted?
They are emitted from a variety of industrial processes. They are emitted in smaller quantities, but they are potent. So they are sometimes referred to as high GWP gases.
Two key ways in which greenhouse gases differ from each other are?
Radiative efficiency - their ability to absorb energy
Their lifetime - how long they stay in the atmosphere
Why was the Global Warming Potential developed?
To allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases.
Global Warming Potential (GWP) is a measure of how much energy the emissions of ___ of gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of ____
1 ton of gas relative to 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2)
The time period for GWPs is usually ___
100 years
The GWP for Carbon Dioxide is
1 regardless of the time period used, because it is the gas being used as the reference.
Why are flourinated gases sometimes called high GWP gases?
For a given amount of mass, they trap substantially more heat than CO2
Once a regulation is completed and has been printed in the Federal Register as a final rule, it is codified when it is added to the ____
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Almost all environmental regulations appear in ____
Title 40
Mobile sources pollute the air through ___
Combustion and fuel evaporation.
Mobile sources contribute to four significant air pollutants.
Carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter
The EPA regulates the emissions from mobile sources by setting standards for the specific pollutants being emitted and ____.
also regulates the fuels e.g., sulfur standards for gasoline/diesel fuel
What is a Certificate of Conformity for engines or vehicles sold in the US?
It provides authorization for production and sales.
All engines or vehicles sold in the US must demonstrate compliance with ____ and receive ___
the CAA/EPA regulations
a Certificate of Conformity
What is the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)?
Regulations to improve average fuel economy of cars and light trucks for sale in the US
The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) requires that the ____ establish standards separately and ____
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
enforces maximum feasible levels in each model year
DOT delegated the responsibilities from EPCA to ____
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
The CAFE achieved by a given fleet of vehicles in a given model year is the ____
production-weighted harmonic mean fuel economy (expressed in mi/gal of a manufacture’s fleet of current model year passenger cars or light trucks)
Should CAFE be calculated using harmonic mean or arithmetic mean?
Harmonic mean should be used. It captures the fuel economy of driving each car in the fleet for the same number of miles.
What would the arithmetic mean capture if used in fuel economy calculations?
The arithmetic mean captures the fuel economy of driving each car using the same amount of gas.
Air Pollution prevention and Control Applies to urban areas that are in non-attainment for one or more of the NAAQS. What can this be found under?
Title 1 of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments
What are Part A, C, and D under Title 1 of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments?
Part A: air quality and emission limits
Part C: Prevention of significant deterioration (PSDs)
Part D: requirements for nonattainment areas
What does Title II of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments cover?
Mobile Source Program
General/Air Toxics (>200 HAPs, hazardous air pollutants) are covered under ____
Title III of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments
What does Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments cover?
Acid Rain Program and Noise Pollution
What does Title V of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments cover?
Operating Permit Program
Stratospheric Ozone Protection (phase out of CFCs) is covered under ____
Title VI of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments
What does Title VII of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments do?
It makes the Clean Air Act more enforceable.
What does NESHAP stand for? What are they?
National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants - emission standards not covered by NAAQS
The hazardous air pollutants identified under NESHAP as hazardous air pollutants comprise about ____ chemicals and related groups of compounds have been identified as _____
200
potentially significant sources of health risk to humans
How is SO2 often formed as a pollutant?
Coal Combustion
The two most important constituents of acid deposition are ___ which contribute about ____ of the acid deposition
HNO3 (nitric oxide) and H2SO4 (sulfuric acid)
98%
How is H2SO4 formed in the air? What happens when H2SO4 forms?
SO2 mixes with oxygen in the air
(SO2 + O2 -> SO3,
SO3 + H2O -> H2SO4)
H2SO4 precipitates out as acid rain
Part 70 operating permits under Title V are issued by ____ and part 71 permits are issued by ___
State and local agencies
EPA
The Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permitting program is for _____ of air pollution such as power plants, manufacturing facilities, and other facilities that emit air pollution.
New and modified major sources
PSD applies to all pollutants that do not exceed the _____ in an area
NAAQS