Dan F. Smith Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

College of Engineering

Proactive and Cost-effective Regional Air-Quality and Industrial Emission Controls

Qiang Xu, Ph.D.
Professor

Qiang Xu, Ph.D.

Proactive and Cost-effective Regional Air-Quality and Industrial Emission Controls Proactive and Cost-effective Regional Air-Quality and Industrial Emission Controls

​​Many industrial regions will continue facing ground-level ozone pollution issues. This leads to an urgent need to continue researches in improving scientific understanding of the mechanisms of ozone formation and transportation, as well as developing cost-effective air-quality control strategies. Our research group has developed multiple proactive and cost-effective air-quality control methodologies by coupling emission source reduction and air quality modeling studies. In this research area, the best air-quality control strategies are achieved at two different levels. In the chemical process level, in-plant optimization controls for emission source minimization will be explored to reduce total amount of emission, duration of intensive emission, as well as the number of instances potentially causing significant emissions. These could be accomplished with the help of plant-wide dynamic simulation and optimization. Based on the validated large-scale process models, various optimization activities can be virtually carried out and studied, such as optimal start-up and shutdown operations, smart process upset handling, and process design retrofit for flare gas recovery. These in-plant controls target on emission minimization within the plant; meanwhile, the associated dynamic simulations help to obtain hourly dynamic emission data, which can be used to update TCEQ emission inventories for air quality modeling. Based on the acquired VOCs and NOx emissions from the chemical process level, CAMx based air-quality modeling, simulation, and optimization will be conducted. The modeling activities will not only predict plant emission effects on regional air quality (e.g., ozone concentration increment due to a plant start-up), but also minimize regional air quality impacts of those planned emission events through optimization of available out-plant control factors, such as selections of date and starting time for plant start-up/shutdown operations, air-quality conscious scheduling for multi-plant turnaround operations, as well as new plant site determination.

Selected References

  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, Ho, T. C., “CAMx Simulations of the Control of Anthropogenic Emissions on the Reduction of Ozone Formation in Southeast Texas of USA”, Atmospheric Pollution Research, 12, 101114, 2021.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “Effect of Dynamic Low DREs from Flare Combustion on Regional Ozone Pollution during A Chemical Plant Shutdown”, Atmospheric Environment, 254, 118399, 2021.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “Source Apportionment Simulations of Ground-Level Ozone in Southeast Texas Employing OSAT/APCA in CAMx”, Atmospheric Environment, 253, 118370, 2021.
  • Ge, S. J., Xu, Y. L.,Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, Ho, T. C., “A Win-win Strategy for Simultaneous Air-quality Benign and Profitable Emission Reduction during Chemical Plant Shutdown Operations”, Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 147, 1185-1192, 2021.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, Ho, T. C., “Characterization and Sensitivity Analysis on Ozone Pollution over the Beaumont-Port Arthur Area in Texas of USA through Source Apportionment Technologies”, Atmospheric Research, 247, 105249, 2021.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, Ho, T. C., “Ozone Pollution Control Strategies Examined by Empirical Kinetics Modeling Approach over the Beaumont-Port Arthur Region in Texas of USA”, Atmospheric Pollution Research, 12, 403-414, 2021.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, Ho, T. C., “Ozone Pollution Control Strategies Examined by Empirical Kinetics Modeling Approach over the Beaumont-Port Arthur Region in Texas of USA”, Atmospheric Pollution Research, accepted, 2020.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, Ho, T. C., “Characterization and Sensitivity Analysis on Ozone Pollution over the Beaumont-Port Arthur Area in Texas of USA through Source Apportionment Technologies”, Atmospheric Research, accepted, 2020.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, Ho, T. C., “Effect of Industrial Flare DREs Derived by CFD and WERF on Ozone Pollution through CAMx Simulation”, Atmospheric Environment, 238, 117723, 2020.
  • Ge, S. J., Zhang, J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “New Insight of Ozone Pollution Impact from Flare Emissions of Chemical Plant Start-up Operations”, Environmental Pollution, 245, 873-882, 2019.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “Study on Regional Air Quality Impact from A Chemical Plant Emergency Shutdown”, Chemosphere, 201, 655-666, 2018.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Zhang, J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “Modeling and Simulation for Regional Ozone Impact by Flaring Destruction and Removal Efficiency of Oil & Gas Industries”, Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 44, 2185-2190, 2018.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “Ozone Impact Minimization through Coordinated Scheduling of Turnaround Operations from Multiple Olefin Plants in An Ozone Nonattainment Area”, Atmospheric Environment, 176, 47-53, 2018.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “Impact of Chemical Plant Start-Up Emissions on Ambient Ozone Concentration”, Atmospheric Environment, 164, 20-30, 2017 (2017 Best Paper Award of AIChE Environmental Division).
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “Air-quality Conscious Scheduling for Multi-Plant Turnaround Operations”, Proceedings of FOCAPO/CPC 2017, paper #47, Tucson, Arizona, USA, 2017.
  • Ge, S. J., Wang, S. J., Xu, Q.*, T. C. Ho, “Air-quality Conscious Scheduling for Multiple Ethylene Plant Start-ups”, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 55 (36), 9698-9710, 2016.
  • Wang, Z. Y., Wang S., Xu, Q.*, Ho, T. C., “Impacts of flare emissions from an ethylene plant shutdown to regional air quality”, Atmospheric Environment, 138, 22-41, 2016 2016 (2016 Best Paper Award of AIChE Environmental Division).
  • Cai, T. X., Wang, S. J.*, Xu, Q.*, “Monte Carlo Optimization for Site Selection of New Chemical Plants”, Journal of Environmental Management, 163, 28-38, 2015.
  • Chen, M., Wang, S. J.*, Xu, Q.*, “Multi-objective Optimization for Air-quality Monitoring Network Design”, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 54 (31), 7743-7750, 2015.
  • Cai, T. X., Wang, S. J. Xu, Q*, “Scheduling of Multiple Chemical Plant Start-ups to Minimize Regional Air Quality Impacts”, Computers & Chemical Engineering, 54, 68-78, 2013. (2013 Best paper award of AIChE Environmental Division)
  • Cai, T. X., Wang, S. J. Xu, Q.*, Ho, T.C., “Proactive Abnormal Emission Identification via Air-quality Monitoring Network”, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 52(26), 9189-9202, 2013.