Major Air Quality Concerns

in Europe

Peter BuiltjesTNO, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands and Free Univ. Berlin, Germany

Zagreb, May 24-26, 2007

AMGI/EURASAP Workshop

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 20072

I)General Aspects

II)Possible air quality concerns in Croatia

III)Some remarks about Waste-to-Energy

Installations

IV)Conclusions

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 20073

General Aspects

The Clean Air For Europe-CAFE- program:

Objectives for Air Pollution:

• Achieving levels of air quality that do not give rise to significant

negative impacts on and risks to human health and the

environment

• No exceedence of the critical loads and levels for acidification or

eutrophication

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 20074

• Health:

Components of concern: PM10 and 2.5, NO2, O3

• Eco-system:

Components of concern: N- and S-, and groundlevel O3

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 20075

Current limit-values, health

PM10:

• Annual average: 40 gr/m3

• Daily average: 50 gr/m3, not to be exceeded more than 35 days

• In force 1-1-2005

NO2: Annual average: 40 gr/m3

• Houry mean: 200 ugr/m3, not to be exceeded more than 18 times

per year

• In force 1-1-2010

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 20076

Target value, health

O3: 8-hour running mean: 120 gr/m3, not to be exceeded more

than 25 days (average over 3 years)

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 20077

Still not formally decided

PM 2.5: Annual mean: 25 gr/m3

+ Reduction of 20 % of urban background between 2010 and 2020

when PM 2.5 above 7 gr/m3

(US: 15 gr/m3,WHO: 10 gr/m3 annual mean, 25 gr/m3 daily

average)

All these limit values hold “everywhere were people can come”

example: the sea between Greek Islands

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 20078

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 20079

Eco-system

N-deposition, S-deposition

Groundlevel O3: AOT40 vegetation May-July, 5 ppm.hours

averaged over 5 years

AOT= Accumulated O3 over Threshold 40 ppb

(for health also SOMO: O3 8-hour running mean over 35 ppb)

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200710

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200711

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200712

Possible air quality concerns in Croatia

• PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 for health might be the biggest problem

• PM2.5 has a large component by long range transport

• PM10 has a substantial component by long range transport

• NO2 has a rather small component by long range transport

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200713

Determination of the regional background ofPM10/2.5 by modelling and observations

By observation:

Problem is spatial representativeness and “double counting”

By modelling:

Problem is underestimation of PM10, and to some extent also

PM2.5

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200714

Solution: data assimilation:combining modelling and observations

Example: TNO’s 3-D Eulerian Grid Model LOTOS-EUROS with

Ensemble

Kalman Filter as Data-assimilation

Essential: Reliable Emission Data

See also www.air4eu.nl

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200715

Anthropogenic PM2.5 emissions over Europein 2000 including shipping

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200716

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200717

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200718

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200719

Some remarks about Waste-to-Energy Installations

Municipal Waste: 1) Avoiding

2) Burning

3) Dumping

Most municipal waste burning installations about upto 10 % of the

capacity of powerstations (amount of waste about 300.000 ton/year)

So, normal emissions like SOx, NOx in the order of 10 % of

powerstations

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200720

In the EU: Municipal Waste Burning Directive, Directive 2000/76/EU

Largest problem with waste burning: HeavyMetals: Cd, Hg, Pb

Dioxines

Key-aspect: Monitoring of the installations by responsible

authorities

Ambient dioxine monitoring for example by content in grass

Major Air Quality Concerns in EuropeAMGI/EURASAP Workshop, Zagreb, May 24-26, 200721

Conclusions and Recommendations

“A private opinion”

PM10 and PM2.5 might well be the largest air quality problem for

Croatia

Dioxines might well be the largest problem concerning municipal

waste burning

It is in general recommended to integrate climate and air quality

policy