Combining innovative science and policy to improve air quality in cities with refining and chemicals manufacturing: The case study of Houston, Texas, USA

doi:10.1007/s11705-017-1660-0

Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.

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Issue () : 293-304 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-017-1660-0

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Combining innovative science and policy to improve air quality in cities with refining and chemicals manufacturing: The case study of Houston, Texas, USA

David T. Allen(

)

University of Texas Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering and Center for Energy and Environmental Resources, Austin, TX 78759, USA

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Abstract

In Houston, a combination of urban emissions from a city of 4 million people, coupled with emissions from extensive petroleum refining and chemical manufacturing, leads to conditions for photochemistry that are unique in the United States, and historically, the city had experienced some of the highest ozone concentrations recorded in the United States. Large air quality field studies (the Texas Air Quality Studies or TexAQS I and II) were conducted to determine root causes of the high ozone concentrations. Hundreds of air quality investigators, from around the world, deployed instruments on aircraft, on ships, and at fixed ground sites to make extensive air quality measurements; detailed photochemical modeling was used to interpret and assess the implications of the measurements. The Texas Air Quality Studies revealed that both continuous and episodic emissions of light alkenes, which came to be called highly reactive volatile organic compounds, played a critical role in the formation of ozone and other photochemical oxidants in the region. Understanding and quantifying the role of these emissions in regional air quality required innovations in characterizing emissions and in photochemical modeling. Reducing emissions required innovative policy approaches. These coupled scientific and policy innovations are described, and the result, substantially cleaner air for Houston, is documented. The lessons learned from the Houston air quality experience are relevant to cities with similar population and industrial profiles around the world.

Keywords ozone air quality highly reactive volatile organic compounds Houston

Corresponding Author(s): David T. Allen

Just Accepted Date: 10 May 2017 Online First Date: 14 July 2017 Issue Date: 23 August 2017

Cite this article:

David T. Allen. Combining innovative science and policy to improve air quality in cities with refining and chemicals manufacturing: The case study of Houston, Texas, USA[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 0, (): 293-304.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-017-1660-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y0/V/I/293

Fig.1 Ground monitoring stations for air pollutants (red squares with yellow highlights). (a) Houston (upper red square) and Texas City/Galveston (lower red square), in southeast Texas; (b) Dallas-Fort Worth, in north-central Texas (data and detailed site identifiers at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) [1])

Fig.2 Ozone concentrations recorded by multiple ground monitors during a high ozone day (Oct. 23, 2003) in (a) Houston, and (b) Dallas-Fort Worth (Aug. 7, 2003). Each line represents data from a continuous air monitoring station, identified by number; site numbers are available at the TCEQ [1]

Fig.3 Ozone concentrations recorded by multiple ground monitors during a high ozone day (Oct. 23, 2003) in Houston. Ozone concentrations are shown for 4 times of day and concentrations between monitoring sites are interpolated. (pink region corresponds to O₃>180 ppb; red>150 ppb; detailed data are available in Fig. 2)

Tab.1 Days during the TexAQS 1 sampling period when ground monitors recorded rapid ozone increases and decreases [2]

Fig.4 Rapid ozone formation (P(O₃)>50 ppb/h) observed in the Houston area during TexAQS I, particularly in the industrial corridor north and northwest of Galveston Bay (blue outline) [3]

Fig.5 Comparison of ozone productivities from data taken in power plant, urban and petrochemical plumes. The co-location of anthropogenic reactive volatile organic compounds (VOC) with NO_x in the Ship Channel plume leads to rapid ozone formation in very high yield [4]

Fig.6 VOC and highly reactive volatile organic compounds (HRVOC) emission events in the Houston-Galveston region; data are shown for the first year of emission event reporting by hour (8760 h in a year); the horizontal red line in each time series shows the level of the annual average VOC or HRVOC emissions from all industrial sources in the Houston-Galveston region; multiple hours during the year include emission events where releases from a single facility exceed annual average emissions from all facilities in the region [11]

Fig.7 3-D photochemical grid model simulation of an ozone episode on 30 August 2000, performed using the comprehensive air quality model with extensions at a 1-km grid resolution; the upper plot (a) shows the base case simulation (peak ozone concentration of 150 ppb) with no emission event; the lower plot (b) shows the ozone concentrations predicted if a 10000 lb/h, 2 h reactive olefin release is added to the base case. The peak ozone concentration in the simulation with the release is in excess of 200 ppb, more than 50 ppb higher than in the base case [11]

Fig.8 Monte Carlo simulation of ozone impacts of 763 emission events in Houston, showing that only a subset of emission events lead to large changes in ozone concentrations, however, some events can have ozone impacts in excess of 50 ppb [12]

Fig.9 Distributions of ethylene concentrations measured at two closely located sites in 2000 (LaPorte sampling site) and 2006 (Barbour’s Cut (BC) sampling site). Mean concentrations of ethylene were reduced by 60%, however, more significantly, the very highest concentrations were reduced by more than an order of magnitude [19]

Fig.10 Trends in population and ozone design values in Houston over the past 25 years [20]. Ozone design values decreased, despite increases in population; two ozone design values are shown: design values based on eight hour averages of ozone concentrations, which are the design values used in the most recent NAAQS, and design values based on one hour averages of ozone concentrations, which were the design values used in standards prior to 1997

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23	Turner J R, Allen D T. Transport of atmospheric fine particulate matter: Part 2. Findings from recent field programs on the intraurban variability in fine particulate matter. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2008, 58(2): 196–215 https://doi.org/10.3155/1047-3289.58.2.196

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