Mitigating ammonia emission from agriculture reduces PM2.5 pollution in the Hai River Basin in China

Abstract

The Hai River Basin (HRB), one of the most populated areas in China, is experiencing high NH emissions, mostly from agricultural sources, and suffering from strongly enhanced PM concentrations in all urban areas. Further population growth and urbanization projected until 2030 may exacerbate this situation. Here, the NUFER (NUtrient flows in Food chains, Environment and Resources use) and GAINS (Greenhouse gas - Air pollution Interactions and Synergies) models have been coupled for the first time to understand possible changes of agricultural NH emission between 2012 and 2030 and their impacts on ambient PM concentrations, and to explore options to improve this situation. Results show that agricultural ammonia emissions in the HRB were 1179kt NH in 2012, 45% of which was from the hotspots at or near conurbation areas, including Beijing-Tianjin, Tangshan-Qinhuangdao, Shijiazhuang-Baoding, Dezhou, Handan-Liaocheng, and Xinxiang. Without intervention, agricultural ammonia emissions will further increase by 33% by 2030. The impacts of several scenarios were tested with respect to air pollution. Compared to the business-as-usual scenario, a scenario of improved technology and management combined with human diet optimization could greatly reduce emission (by 60%), and lead to 22-43% and 9-24% decrease of the secondary inorganic aerosols and PM concentrations, respectively, in the hotspots of NH emissions. Our results further confirmed that ammonia control is needed for air pollution abatement strategies (SO, NO and primary PM reduction) to be effective in terms of PM.

Treatment of Gaseous Ammonia Emissions Using Date Palm Pits Based Granular Activated Carbon

“…Consequently several stringent environmental regulations have been promulgated, which do require an appropriate treatment of gaseous emissions, including ammonia (NH 3 ), considering the respective toxicity and environmental concerns [1][2][3]. Gaseous ammonia is typically emitted from several sources including fertilizer industry [4], wastewater treatment plants [2,5], agricultural practices [6], animal feeding setups [7,8], dairy/poultry industries [9,10], composting facilities [11,12], fishmeal plants [13], gasoline vehicles [14], and from specific chemical industries [15]. Considering the respective toxicity and health concerns, various technologies have been employed for the removal of gaseous ammonia including bio-filters [3,13,16,17], catalytic systems [18] biological treatment [11], scrubbers [5] and other specific technologies such as nano-particles applications [4].…”

Mitigation strategies for reducing air pollution

“…There are many specific changes to mitigate NH 3 emissions in agriculture (Giannadaki et al 2018). These imply the improvement of the technology and the management of agricultural productions, but also include the reduction of food wastes combined with human diet optimization (Zhao et al 2017). In fact, the NH 3 emission levels depend on the animal typology, with higher amounts for beef and sheep, and a lower amount for pigs and poultry.…”

Future Developments Without Targeted Policies

“…Reducing methane emissions also has positive implications for air quality, as it is a precursor to ozone pollution. Reduction in nitrogen fertilizer use associated with changes in diet has the co-benefit of improving air quality and health by reducing emissions of ammonia and the subsequent formation of fine particulate matter (Zhao et al 2017;Giannadaki et al 2018). Reductions in nitrogen fertilizer use associated with changes in diet also have positive implications for water quality.…”