Emissions of Air Pollutants and Emission Control Technologies

Air pollution is due to emissions of pollutants in the atmosphere, which may be natural or of human origin. Thus, in order to understand air pollution, it is necessary to identify, characterize, and quantify those emissions. Furthermore, reducing air pollution requires either eliminating some of those emissions via a change in a product, process, or technology, or reducing those emissions using some control technologies. This chapter describes the main sources of air pollution and the technologies available to control those emissions. First, air pollutant sources are described. Next, the methods used to quantify the corresponding emissions and develop air pollutant emission inventories are presented. Finally, the main technologies used to control emissions of gaseous and particulate air pollutants are described.