In the metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil, ozone and particulate matter (PM) are the air pollutants that pose the greatest threat to air quality, since the PM and the ozone precursors (nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds) are the main source of air pollution from vehicular emissions. Vehicular emissions can be measured inside road tunnels, and those measurements can provide information about emission factors of in-use vehicles. Emission factors are used to estimate vehicular emissions and are described as the amount of species emitted per vehicle distance driven or per volume of fuel consumed. This study presents emission factor data for fine particles, coarse particles, inhalable particulate matter and black carbon, as well as size distribution data for inhalable particulate matter, as measured in March and May of 2004, respectively, in the Jânio Quadros and Maria Maluf road tunnels, both located in São Paulo. The Jânio Quadros tunnel carries mainly light-duty vehicles, whereas the Maria Maluf tunnel carries light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles. In the Jânio Quadros tunnel, the estimated light-duty vehicle emission factors for the trace elements copper and bromine were 261 and 220 microg km(-1), respectively, and 16, 197, 127 and 92 mg km(-1), respectively, for black carbon, inhalable particulate matter, coarse particles and fine particles. The mean contribution of heavy-duty vehicles to the emissions of black carbon, inhalable particulate matter, coarse particles and fine particles was, respectively 29, 4, 6 and 6 times higher than that of light-duty vehicles. The inhalable particulate matter emission factor for heavy-duty vehicles was 1.2 times higher than that found during dynamometer testing. In general, the particle emissions in São Paulo tunnels are higher than those found in other cities of the world.

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Campus (FIOCRUZ), in a suburban region of the city of Rio de Janeiro, was selected as a case study to assess the pollution released from vehicle and industrial facilities in Basin III, the most polluted area of the city. Concentrations of particulate matter (PM10) and trace metals in airborne particles were determined in an intensive field campaign. The samplings were performed every six days for 24 h periods, using a PM10 high volume sampler, from September 2004 to August 2005. PM10 mass concentrations were determined gravimetrically and the metals by ICP-OES. For PM10, the arithmetic mean for the period is 169 +/- 42 microg m(-3) which is 3.4 times the national recommended standard of 50 microg m(-3). Additionally, 51% of the samplings exceeded the recommended 24 h limit of 150 microg m(-3). Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn and Al were the metals that presented the higher concentrations. The correlation matrix gave two main clusters and three significant principal components (PC). Both PC1 and PC2 are associated to crustal, vehicular and industrial emissions while PC3 is mainly associated to geological material. Enrichment factors for Zn, Cu, Cd and Pb indicate that for these elements, anthropic sources prevail over natural inputs. PM10 levels showed a good correlation with hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in children and elderly people.

The present work was designed to determine the potential genotoxicity at the vicinity of a solid waste incinerator in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, using the Tradescantia stamen-hair bioassay. Experiments were carried out between December 1998 and April 1999 in four regions (40 pots of plants per site) selected on the basis of their pollution levels predicted by theoretical modeling of the dispersion of the incinerator's plume. The exposure sites were defined as follows: highest level (incinerator); a high level (museum) located 1.5 km from the emission point; a moderate level (school, at a distance of 3.5 km from the incinerator); and a control (at Jaguariúna countryside). The difference in genotoxicity among the groups was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The frequency of mutations observed in the countryside was significantly lower [2.25 ± 1.55, mean ± SD (standard deviation)] than that of the sites close to the incinerator. The frequency of mutations measured at the school (3.70 ± 1.36) was significantly lower than that measured at both the museum (4.89 ± 1.12) and the incinerator (5.69 ± 1.34). In conclusion, we found a positive correlation between the spatial distribution of the emissions of the incinerator located in an urban area and the mutagenic events measured by the Tradescantia stamenhair assay. The in situ approach employed in this study was simple, efficient, and of low cost. No air or chemical extraction of pollutants was necessary for genotoxicity testing as required by other assays.

In a joint R&D project under the full sponsorship of PETROBRAS, the Brazilian National Oil Company, the first CO 2 monitoring field lab was started-up in Brazil in 2011.The site chosen, the Ressacada Farm, in the Southern region of the country, offered an excellent opportunity to run controlled CO 2 release experiments in soil and shallow subsurface (< 3 m depth). This paper focuses on the presentation and comparison of the results obtained using electrical imaging, CO 2 flux measurements and geochemical analysis of the groundwater to monitor CO 2 migration in both saturated and unsaturated sand-rich sediments and soil. In 2013 a controlled release campaign was run, covering an area of approximately 6,300 m 2 . Commercial food-grade gaseous carbon dioxide was continuously injected at 3 m depth for 12 days. The average injection rate was 90 g/day, totaling ca. 32kg of gas being released. The low injection rate avoided fracturing of the unconsolidated sediments composing the bulk of the local soil matrix. Monitoring techniques deployed during 30 consecutive days, including background characterization, injection Andresa Oliva et al. / Energy Procedia 63 ( 2014 ) 3992 -4002 3993and post-injection periods, were: (1) 3D electrical imaging using a Wenner array, (2) soil CO 2 flux measurements using accumulation chambers, (3) water sampling and analysis, (4)3D (tridimensional) and 4D (time-lapsed) electrical imaging covering depth levels to approximately 10 m below the surface. Water geochemical monitoring consisted of the analyses of several chemical parameters, as well as acidity and electrical conductivity in five multi-level wells (2m; 4m and 6 m depth) installed in the vicinity of the CO 2 injection well. Comparison of pre-and post-injection electrical imaging shows changes in resistivity values consistent with CO 2 migration pathways. A pronounced increase in resistivity values occurred, from 1,500 ohm.m to 2,000 ohm.m, in the vicinity of the injection well. The accumulation chamber assessment show significant changes in the CO 2 flux during the release experiment: maximum values detected were ca. 270 mmol/m 2 /s(during injection) as compared to background values of c.a. 34mmol/m 2 /s. The pH showed variations after CO 2 injection in two monitoring wells at 2m, 4m and 6m depth. After the CO 2 injection ceased, the lowest pH measured was 4.1, which represents a decrease of 0.5 relative to the background values. Slight variations in the oxidation-reduction potential (Eh) were observed near the CO 2 injection well. There was a decreasing trend of this potential, especially in a monitoring well at 6m depth, ranging from 308mV to 229mV, between the background and the injection scenarios. Ppb level increments were detected in the measurements carried out for the major cations (Ca, Mg, Na, and P) and trace elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Cd, Pb, Cu, Cr, Ni, Mn, S, V, and Zn). Electrical conductivity and alkalinity, however, remained constant throughout the experiment, with values around 40 μS.cm -1 and 2.5 mgCaCO 3 .L -1 , r...

Monitoring is a regulatory requirement for all carbon dioxide capture and geological storage (CCS) projects to verify containment of injected carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) within a licensed geological storage complex. Carbon markets require CO 2 storage to be verified. The public wants assurances CCS projects will not cause any harm to themselves, the environment or other natural resources. In the unlikely event that CO 2 leaks from a storage complex, and into groundwater, to the surface, atmosphere or ocean, then monitoring methods will be required to locate, assess and quantify the leak, and to inform the community about the risks and impacts on health, safety and the environment. This paper considers strategies to improve the efficiency of monitoring the large surface area overlying onshore storage complexes. We provide a synthesis of findings from monitoring for CO 2 leakage at geological storage sites both natural and engineered, and from monitoring controlled releases of CO 2 at four shallow release facilities -ZERT (USA), Ginninderra (Australia), Ressacada (Brazil) and CO 2 field lab (Norway).

As concentrações de ozônio para um área urbana, com alto fluxo veicular, no centro da cidade, foram simuladas usando um modelo cinético empírico. Foi desenhado um caso base usando dados experimentais, do mês de dezembro de 1999, para a Avenida Presidente Vargas, Rio de Janeiro. O acordo entre os resultados calculados e os dados experimentais é satisfatório. O pico de ozônio calculado acontece às 15:15 horas (23,0 ppb). Foi realizada uma análise de sensibilidade e incertezas e desenhados alguns cenários hipotéticos para ilustrar a capacidade preditiva do modelo.An empirical kinetic modeling approach is used in order to simulate ozone concentrations for an urban downtown area with high vehicular traffic. A base case was designed using experimental data for December 1999 in Presidente Vargas Avenue, Rio de Janeiro. The agreement between experimental and simulated results was quite good. The simulated ozone peak was obtained at 3:15 PM (23.0 ppb). A sensitivity-uncertainty analysis was performed and hypothetical scenarios were designed to illustrate the predictive potential of Air Quality Models.

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The first CO 2 Field Lab built in Brazil was developed at the Ressacada Farm, in Florianopolis, SC with the goal of diminishing technical gaps in CO 2 storage covering research in Measuring, Monitoring and Verification (MMV) techniques, a need identified in the PETROBRAS Strategic Plan. Through the Company R&D Center (CENPES), and the Climate Change Mitigation Technological Program (PROCLIMA), PETROBRAS is sponsoring a joint 4-year research Project, in which both company and local academia personnel are collaborating to deploy, test and assess multiple near-surface CO 2 detection technologies. Longer term objectives include the validation of accurate and efficient detection, measurement and quantification tools to be deployed in large scale commercial CGS (Carbon Geological Storage) sites scheduled to be installed in the country to assist in validating storage efficiency and minimizing risk. In September 2013, the first CO 2 injection campaign was carried out, in which small volumes of gaseous food-grade industrial CO 2 (with a delta 13 C signature of ca.-32 ppmil) were injected into the ground at shallow levels through a vertical 3 m depth well and then migrated into the atmosphere. The campaign was run over 12 days, for 24 hours a day, at injection rates low enough not to offer any risks to the formation integrity and enabled the simultaneous assessment of CO 2 behavior in the soil, in the groundwater, at the surface and in the air. This paper presents an overview of the atmospheric measurements carried out at Ressacada, covering the background, injection and post-injection scenarios.