1. ME 449 Sustainable Air Quality Class Report, Spring 2001 Sources and Emissions Particulate Matter Instructor:Rudolf B. Husar Students:Kristin Burford Kurt Fisher Sean King Sean Raffuse Robert Surrago Megan Yu

2. Class Project Background The class was loosely structured around the the theme ‘Sustainable Air Quality’ with special emphasis on particulate matter, PM. For this class, sustainability was defined as the ability to maintain a desired level of air quality using a feedback system with sensory-motor functionality. The three components of sustainable AQ management were identified as: (1) sensing the current level of AQ; (2) comparing it to the desired level; (3) acting to remedy the ‘exceedances’. Sustainable management of PM is made difficult by the poor understanding of emissions, particularly for windblown dust and biomass smoke PM emissions are highly uncertain, they are caused by largely uncontrollable factors and they are frequently out of jurisdiction of management agencies. For these reasons, significant effort was invested in a class project “Sources and Emissions of PM”

3. Example: Dynamic Aerosol Pattern at Big Bend, TX The chemical mass balance of PM2.5 aerosols at Big Bend National Park shows a dynamic seasonal pattern. Sulfate from SOx emissions is the major contributor through most of the year. The peak concentration in May is primarily due to organics, smoke organics and light absorbing carbon, most probably caused by springtime agricultural and wild fires in Mexico. During the spring and summer seasons, uncontrollable windblown dust from Sahara and local sources are a significant portion of the PM2.5 mass. The figure illustrates that uncontrollable factors (dust) and out of jurisdiction events (Mexican smoke) may be significant contributors to PM2.5.

4. The Class Product and the Class Process The product of the class is a set of PowerPoint presentations by each student and this overview by the instructor. The brief presentations (8-10 slides each) were developed over a period of a month. The feedback from several class rehearsals was used to polish the presentations. Interaction & collaboration and learning (copying) from each other was encouraged. To reinforce general awareness, during one session students were asked to present one of their randomly chosen peer's presentation. The class grade was based on the overall participation in class work and the PowerPoint presentation of the chosen topic.

5. Student Reports (will be linked) M. Yu:US 1996 Emission Inventory for SOx, NOx and PM County-by-county mapping of the official EPA emission inventory. K. Burford:Emissions of SOx Emission factors for the major SOx sources. R. Fowler:Emissions of NOx Emission factors for the major NOx sources. R. Surrago:Emissions of Dust Emission factors for the major dust sources. S. King:The Dust Bowl Data and reports from the ‘dust bowl’ in the 1930s. K. Fisher:Satellite Fire Detection The physics of satellite fire detection S. Raffuse:Fire Climatology The pattern of fire frequency and the applied QC algorithms.

6. Student Feedback on the Class (Anonymous) Give it to me! Be constructive.