Energy and Air Pollution

Abstract

This chapter gives a general overview of the energy and air pollution around the world, including four main sections, i.e., energy in the world, energy-related air pollution, air pollution control technology development, and new energy and low carbon energy. In Section 1, the general consumption structure of energy around the world in recent years is illustrated along with the detailed figures for some typical countries, i.e., China, the United States, EU, Japan, India, and Africa. The worldwide air pollution issues from the utilization of fossil fuels, i.e., coal, oil, and natural gas, due to different pollutants are presented and discussed. In Section 2, five common air pollutants, which are the major contributors of the air pollution issues, i.e., particulate matter (PM), SO2, NOx, heavy metal Hg, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are discussed in detail. The concept, formation procedure, and harmful effects on humans and the environment of the five air pollutants are introduced. In Section 3, various kinds of technical routes of the control technologies for PM, SO2, and NO x are presented. The three main techniques employed for PM control, i.e., fabric filter (FF), electrostatic precipitator (ESP), and wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) are explained. For SO2 control and removal, two different types of wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) technology, i.e., limestone/lime FGD and sodium-based WFGD techniques, are presented and discussed. For NO x emission, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and selective noncatalytic reduction (SNCR) are the two types of NO x removal techniques that are widely employed. Finally, new multipollution control technologies such as ozone oxidation with WFGD absorption method, which aims to simultaneously remove SO2, NO x , Hg, VOCs, etc. in a single process, are illustrated. In Section 4, the definition of new energy is given and the conversion and utilization technologies of biomass, one typical new and low carbon energy, are discussed in detail. In addition, the benefits and limitations of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is a suite of technologies including CO2 capture, transport, and storage, and which could potentially play a critical role in the mitigation of global climate change, are presented and discussed.