Modeling nitric oxide emissions from biosolid amended soils

Abstract

Utilizing a state-of-the-art mobile laboratory in conjunction with a dynamic flow-through chamber system, nitric oxide concentrations [NO] were measured and NO fluxes were calculated during the summer, winter and spring of 1999/2000. The field site where these measurements were conducted was an agricultural soil amended with biosolids from a municipal wastewater treatment facility. These NO flux values were then used to assess the impact of including biosolid amended soils as a land-use class in an air quality model. The average NO flux from this biosolid amended soil was found to be exponentially dependent on soil temperature [NO Flux ( ng N m −2 s −1)=1.07 exp(0.14 T soil ) ; R 2=0.81—NO Flux=71.3 ng N m −2 s −1 at 30°C]. Comparing this relationship to results of the widely applied biogenic emissions inventory system (BEIS2) model revealed that for this field site, if the BEIS2 model was used, the NO emissions would have been underestimated by a factor of 26. Using this newly developed NO flux algorithm, combined with North Carolina Division of Water Quality statistics on how many biosolid amended acres are permitted per county, county-based NO inventories from these biosolid amended soils were calculated. Results from this study indicate that county-level biogenic NO emissions can increase by as much as 18% when biosolid amended soils are included as a land-use class. The multiscale air quality simulation platform (MAQSIP) was then used to determine differences in ozone (O 3) and odd-reactive nitrogen compounds (NO y ) between models run with and without the biosolid amended acreages included in the inventory. Results showed that during the daytime, when atmospheric mixing heights are typically at their greatest, any increase in O 3 or NO y concentrations predicted by the model were small (<3%). In some locations during late evening/early morning hours, ozone was found to be consumed by as much as 11%.