REGULATED AIR POLLUTANT EMISSIONS FROM HIGHER EMITTERS STATIONARY SOURCES IN BELO HORIZONTE, MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL

Fábio S Santos,Gisele A Miranda,Amanda N M Carvalho,Vanessa S B Carvalho,Taciana T De A Albuquerque

doi:10.1590/0104-6632.20190362s20180352

Abstract

Abstract Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais state, is a highly urbanized city located in the third largest metropolitan area of Brazil, being one of the most important cities in the country. There are several potential air pollutant emission sources in the studied area, such as industry and the vehicular fleet (1,669,884 vehicles in 2015). These can affect the air quality, which can have an impact on population health. Despite this critical scenario, few studies have been developed with the objective of evaluating the air quality in this city, especially regarding the identification of pollutant emission sources. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify and quantify atmospheric emissions by stationary sources of significant environmental impact in Belo Horizonte. The quantification of emissions was preferably performed based on chimneys monitoring data. However, in the absence of these data, estimates were made based on AP-42 guidelines. As a result, 75 chimneys were identified, belonging to 28 companies. Pollutant emission rates of 305, 235, 234, 224, 206, 180 and 63 t year-1 were observed for NOX, CO, TSP, PM10, PM2.5, SO2 and VOC, respectively. The results obtained can contribute to the diagnosis, modeling and management of air quality in Belo Horizonte.

Highlights

Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais state, is a highly urbanized city located in the third largest metropolitan area of Brazil, which receives the city’s name
Selection of companies and data acquisition The first stage to identify and quantify atmospheric emissions from stationary sources consisted in the selection of companies with significant potential air pollution impact, which are licensed and located in Belo Horizonte and whose environmental licenses were granted by the municipality or by the state
There are 21 boiler chimneys supplied with low flash point fuel oil (BPF A1 oil) (9), firewood (5), natural gas (3) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (1), and 36 chimneys from a single steel industry

Summary

Introduction

Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais state, is a highly urbanized city located in the third largest metropolitan area of Brazil, which receives the city’s name. The only atmospheric emission inventory for Belo Horizonte (Table 1) was published by the state environmental agency (Fundação Estadual de Meio Ambiente) in 2003 (FEAM, 2003), but the aspect of emissions distribution over time was not considered. This scenario is very common in other Brazilian areas, where few studies have reported atmospheric emissions and there is a lack of data updating (Table 1)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion