25/04/2007 INGAS 2007 1

Air Quality Improvement and Natural Gas Use in

Istanbul

Omar ALAGHA,PhDFatih University, Department of Environmental Engineering, 34500, Istanbul, Turkey

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Introduction• Air pollution “ the presence of undesirable

material in air, in quantities large enough to produce harmful effects”.

The Industrial Revolution:• Predominant air pollution problem of the 19th

century was SMOKE and ASH• Every country in Europe or USA experienced

serious air pollution problems in large cities, e.g London disaster in 1952 where 4000 died.

• Clean Air Act in 1956, the reduction of domestic heating smoke from 175 to 75 ug/m3.

• Istanbul has encountered a serious sulfur dioxide episodes in the past decades

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Environmental pollution and fuel use– Combustion products

• Natural gas compared with others

– low quality coal use:• power plants • domestic heating

– Emission control technologies

– Criteria Pollutants: SO2, NO, NO2, NOx, SPM, CO, O3, THC, CH4 and nMHC

• The principle greenhouse gases include:– water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane,

nitrogen oxides, and some engineered chemicals such as cholorofluorocarbons.

– Smog, Air Quality and Acid Rain

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Photochemical SMOG • Istanbul population 13-15 millions• population increase 3.1% per year.• In the 1992-1993 winters, there are 37 cities which

exceeded the short-term (400 g/m3) and 55 cities which exceeded the long-term (150 g/m3) SO2 limits set by Turkish Air Quality Legislation

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General Ideas in Air Pollution1. Improve dispersion:

I. Tall stacksII. Intermittent control scheme• shut down plant• temporary fuel switching (Natural Gas)• Production curtailment (reduction).

III. Relocate plant

2. Reduce emissions by process change Switching fuel: coal natural gas, improve air quality.

3. Use a down stream pollution control devices

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Fossil Fuel Emission Levels (Pounds per Billion Btu of Energy Input)

PollutantNatural

GasOil Coal

Carbon Dioxide 117,000 164,000 208,000

Carbon Monoxide 40 33 208

Nitrogen Oxides 92 448 457

Sulfur Dioxide 1 1,122 2,591

Particulates 7 84 2,744

Mercury 0.000 0.007 0.016

Source: EIA - Natural Gas Issues and Trends 1998

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Study Area and Measured Pollutants • The air pollution data used in this

study has been collected during 1996-2001 from the urban city of Istanbul (40°N, 29°E).

• The monitoring locations are: Beşiktaş, Esenler, Kartal, Saraçhane, Sarıyer, Ümraniye, Yenibosna, Üsküdar and Kadıköy

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The locations of sampling stations

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• Source: Ozturk H.K., 2005

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Yearly total natural gas consumption (m3/month) in Istanbul

0.0E+00

5.0E+06

1.0E+07

1.5E+07

2.0E+07

2.5E+07

3.0E+07

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

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Annual averages concentrations (μg/m3) of air pollutants in Istanbul air

Year SO2 PM CO NO NOX NO2 THC CH4 nMHC O3

1996 63.1 55.0 868 74.7 123.2 50.5 1844 1598 238 23.5

1997 50.1 46.2 580 60.2 105.1 45.1 1538 1366 159 22.5

1998 36.0 56.6 1084 102.1 168.0 66.0 1732 1425 328 15.1

1999 28.8 56.2 934 56.5 101.6 45.3 1787 1591 191 13.1

2000 26.5 64.0 1011 46.1 99.7 46.4 1757 1453 295 12.3

Average 43.6 57.4 895.4 70.8 122.4 53 1731 1486 242.2 20

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Average daily emission limits of some criteria pollutants

Criteria Pollutants/ Standard SO2

PM10

Turkish Environmental Standard 400 300

WHO 125 --

EPA 365 150

EU 125 50

Source: http://www.ibb.gov.tr/minisite/hava/index.htm

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Correlation table for air pollution data.

SO2 PM CO NO NOX NO2 THC CH4 nMHC O3

SO2 1 0.61 0.61 0.41 0.29 0.02 0.06 0.03 0.09 -0.33

PM 1 0.74 0.32 0.34 0.20 0.23 0.07 0.39 -0.45

CO 1 0.27 0.23 0.07 0.19 0.12 0.23 -0.49

NO 1 0.91 0.58 0.24 0.11 0.44 -0.42

NOX 1 0.79 0.22 0.11 0.42 -0.33

NO2 1 0.04 -0.005 0.23 -0.04

THC 1 0.918 0.73 -0.34

CH4 1 0.42 -0.19

nMHC 1 -0.47

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Winter time concentrations of air pollutants between 1995 and 2001

0

50

100

150

200

Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Date

g/m

3

SO2

PM

CO/10

NO

NOX

NO2

O3

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Wintertime SO2 levels distribution over Istanbul city .

SO2_1998_W Legend

SO2_98_W_contourB Legend

Istanbul_Stations Legend

Point

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Point

Region

Region

90-96

85-90

80-85

75-80

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

90-96

85-90

80-85

75-80

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

(gm-3)SO2_1998_W Legend

SO2_98_W_contourB Legend

Istanbul_Stations Legend

Point

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Point

Region

Region

90-96

85-90

80-85

75-80

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

90-96

85-90

80-85

75-80

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

SO2_1998_W Legend

SO2_98_W_contourB Legend

Istanbul_Stations Legend

Point

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Point

Region

Region

90-96

85-90

80-85

75-80

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

90-96

85-90

80-85

75-80

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

(gm-3)

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Summertime SO2 levels distribution over Istanbul city.

Istanbul_Stations Legend

SO2__contourB Legend

SO2_S_98 Legend

Point

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Point

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

38-43

33-38

28-33

25-28

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

38-43

33-38

28-33

25-28

(gm-3)Istanbul_Stations Legend

SO2__contourB Legend

SO2_S_98 Legend

Point

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Region

Point

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

38-43

33-38

28-33

25-28

69-75

64-69

59-64

54-59

49-54

43-49

38-43

33-38

28-33

25-28

(gm-3)

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Conclusions• Mounting energy consumption and

automobile ownership have increased air pollution.

• Turkey continues to develop its economy, the problem likely will intensify unless preventive actions are undertaken.

• The careful analysis of the air quality over Istanbul city during the past two decades indicates a significant decrease in some air pollutants like, SO2, and ozone.

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• The main reason of this significant decrease was that the conventional fuels (low quality coal and fuel oil), which has high sulfur contents has been slowly replaced by natural gas which has nearly no SO2 emissions.

• This may be the most significant evidence about the efforts done by İGDAŞ-IBB

• However, some other pollutants like NO, NO2, NOx, nMHC ,etc. have not changed significantly.

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Acknowledgments• Authors are gratefully acknowledged

to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) and “for providing air pollution data and for İGDAŞ for providing natural gas consumption data.

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• Thany you....