Past Projects

2006-2007

Understanding Historical Emission Trends

C

Clients...

Dr. Linda Chappell, US EPA

Brief Description
Air pollution is harmful to people and the environment. In order to better understand the nature of the environmental problem, emission inventories are developed for all sources in an area. They are based upon engineering estimates. They represent both gases and particles of air pollution that are emitted into the air by a variety of sources. Emission inventories (E/I) change over time and may be reduced as result of emission control programs. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) is responsible for the National Emissions Inventory (NEI). Emissions data are collected by state, local, and tribal and the federal governments. The E/I includes a number of different sources: (1) Point sources – stationary locations of pollution include factories, pulp and paper mills, petroleum refineries, electric power plants, etc.; (2) Mobile Sources - cars and trucks, airplanes, etc.; (3) Biogenic sources – natural sources of emissions – trees, animals, etc.; (4) Area Sources – small stationary source of emission such as dry cleaners and degreasing operations. Future emissions are critically important when trying to determine the impact of air quality standard regulations that are protective of human health and the environment. How will regulations impact sources in the future making changes needed to reduce emissions to achieve the air quality standards? Emissions inventories are projected for future years to conduct analyses for our rulemakings. The methods for forecasting emissions into the future are complex. The objective of this project is to improve upon the existing method to forecast future emissions. Three sectors will be examined to forecast future emissions – petroleum refineries, chemical manufacturing, and the fuel combustion industrial sector. The pollutant that will be examined is nitrogen oxides. We will try and take technological change into account using gross domestic product and other variables. The Presidents Energy Plan to reduce oil consumption by 20 percent in 10 years will be used to forecast future emissions. Different alternatives will be examined in the analysis.

Students

Joshua Warren

Data

Emissions Data- EPA

New Jersey Mercury Data
Clients
New Jersey Department of Environment