Pollution Chemistry Research Articles

Probing the Chemistry of Sulfurous Pollutants: Accurate Thermochemistry Determination of Extensive Sulfur-Containing Species.

Sulfur-containing fuels, such as petroleum fuels, natural gas, and biofuels, produce SO2, SO3, and other highly toxic gases upon combustion, which are harmful to human health and the environment, making it essential to understand their thermochemical properties. This study used high-level quantum chemistry calculations to determine thermodynamic parameters, including entropy, enthalpy, and specific heat capacity for an extensive set of sulfur-containing species. The B3LYP/cc-pVTZ level of theory was used for geometry optimization, vibration frequency, and dihedral scan calculations. To determine an appropriate ab initio method for energy calculation, the Bland-Altman diagram, a statistical analysis method, was employed to visualize the 298 K enthalpy value between experimental data and three sets of ab initio methods: G3, CBS-QB3, and the average of G3 plus CBS-QB3. The CBS-QB3 method exhibited the highest accuracy and was eventually selected for the energy calculation in this study. Thermochemical property parameters were then calculated with the MultiWell program suite for all these sulfur-containing species, and the results were in good agreement with the thermochemical data of organic compounds and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Chemistry WebBook databases. The thermochemical property database established in this study is essential to studying sulfur-containing species in desulfurization.

Indoor Air Pollution: A Review on the Challenges in Third World Countries

Background: The challenges of third-world countries toward curbing indoor air pollution seem insurmountable as its solution is closely linked to their economic incapacities, lifestyle, and existing outdoor air quality. The economic incapacities include types of the cookstove, fuel sources, types of insecticides and pesticides, building patterns, indoor fermentation activities (such as leaving dirty plates and biological waste in the house for a long time), and regulation on the use of deodorants. Aside from the common pollutants from these sources, the reactive chemistry of pollutants leads to other kinds of pollutants which have been reported to be short-lived but dangerous. Objectives: The objectives of the study are to: profile emerging indoor pollutants; examine the pollutant dynamics and their impact on unplanned regions of developing countries; offer solutions to curb indoor pollution in the identified region; elaborate on the cost analysis of existing solutions and how irrelevant they may be due to the rising poverty index; and project how government policies could help in reducing indoor pollution. Design: This paper is a review that wholistically examined indoor pollution. A total of fifty-six articles was reviewed in addition to the data obtained from MERRA-2. Results: The study observed that indoor air pollution dynamics are more complex—compared to outdoor air pollution. It was observed that the possibility to control indoor air pollution is based on the type of pollutants, the reactive chemistry of the pollutants, and ventilation in the building. This review shows that poverty is one of the many reasons why indoor air pollution would be a source of menace for a long time in third-world countries. Several solutions to curbing indoor air pollution were considered with a principal focus on cost and availability. Limitations: Most experimental results that were used to corroborate postulates were obtained from the literature. The accuracy of those experiments and the sensitivity of the equipment used cannot be verified. Conclusion: The plant-based technique was identified as a perfect solution to indoor air pollution control in third-world countries but the local architecture and lifestyle of most third-world countries constitute a threat to its adoption. It was observed that less than 8% of third-world countries have specific Air Quality Acts which have not been amended for decades. Most third-world countries have a general Environmental Act with air quality as a sub-section in the Act with very low fines for violators. The inclusion of indoor air quality as a vital public health issue in third-world countries is necessary for the preservation of lives and posterity.

Measuring the air pollution benefits of public transport projects

We discuss two approaches to estimating the air quality impacts of public transit projects, focusing on Metro projects in the context of developing countries: air quality modeling and reduced-form econometric methods. As we illustrate, pollution reductions due to Metro projects implied by pollutant chemistry, vehicle emissions factors, and modal shifts may differ from econometric estimates of the impact of transit projects on ambient pollution concentrations. We discuss both approaches and illustrate how economics researchers can use estimated emissions reductions associated with a transit project and pollutant chemistry as a check on their estimates of changes in ambient concentrations.

Improved Spatial Resolution in Modeling of Nitrogen Oxide Concentrations in the Los Angeles Basin.

The extent to which emission control technologies and policies have reduced anthropogenic NOx emissions from motor vehicles is large but uncertain. We evaluate a fuel-based emission inventory for southern California during the June 2021 period, coinciding with the Re-Evaluating the Chemistry of Air Pollutants in CAlifornia (RECAP-CA) field campaign. A modified version of the Fuel-based Inventory of Vehicle Emissions (FIVE) is presented, incorporating 1.3 km resolution gridding and a new light-/medium-duty diesel vehicle category. NOx concentrations and weekday-weekend differences were predicted using the WRF-Chem model and evaluated using satellite and aircraft observations. Model performance was similar on weekdays and weekends, indicating appropriate day-of-week scaling of NOx emissions and a reasonable distribution of emissions by sector. Large observed weekend decreases in NOx are mainly due to changes in on-road vehicle emissions. The inventory presented in this study suggests that on-road vehicles were responsible for 55-72% of the NOx emissions in the South Coast Air Basin, compared to the corresponding fraction (43%) in the planning inventory from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. This fuel-based inventory suggests on-road NOx emissions that are 1.5 ± 0.4, 2.8 ± 0.6, and 1.3 ± 0.7 times the reference EMFAC model estimates for on-road gasoline, light- and medium-duty diesel, and heavy-duty diesel, respectively.

Measurement report: Airborne measurements of NOx fluxes over Los Angeles during the RECAP-CA 2021 campaign

Abstract. Nitrogen oxides (NOx≡NO+NO2) are involved in most atmospheric photochemistry, including the formation of tropospheric ozone (O3). While various methods exist to accurately measure NOx concentrations, it is still a challenge to quantify the source and flux of NOx emissions. We present airborne measurements of NOx and winds used to infer the emission of NOx across Los Angeles. The measurements were obtained during the research aircraft campaign RECAP-CA (Re-Evaluating the Chemistry of Air Pollutants in CAlifornia) in June 2021. Geographic allocations of the fluxes are compared to the NOx emission inventory from the California Air Resources Board (CARB). We find that the NOx fluxes have a pronounced weekend effect and are highest in the eastern part of the San Bernardino Valley. The comparison of the RECAP-CA and the modeled CARB NOx fluxes suggests that the modeled emissions are higher than expected near the coast and in Downtown Los Angeles and lower than expected further inland in the eastern part of the San Bernardino Valley.

Direct observations of NOxemissions over the San Joaquin Valley using airborne flux measurements during RECAP-CA 2021 field campaign

Abstract. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are principle components of air pollution and serve as important ozone precursors. As the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) experiences some of the worst air quality in the United States, reducing NOx emissions is a pressing need, yet quantifying current emissions is complicated due to a mixture of mobile and agriculture sources. We performed airborne eddy covariance flux measurements during the Re-Evaluating the Chemistry of Air Pollutants in California (RECAP-CA) field campaign in June 2021. Combining footprint calculations and land cover statistics, we disaggregate the observed fluxes into component fluxes characterized by three different land cover types. On average, we find emissions of 0.95 mg N m−2 h−1 over highways, 0.43 mg N m−2 h−1 over urban areas, and 0.30 mg N m−2 h−1 over croplands. The calculated NOx emissions using flux observations are utilized to evaluate anthropogenic emissions inventories and soil NOx emissions schemes. We show that two anthropogenic inventories for mobile sources, EMFAC (EMission FACtors) and FIVE (Fuel-based Inventory for Vehicle Emissions), yield strong agreement with emissions derived from measured fluxes over urban regions. Three soil NOx schemes, including the MEGAN v3 (Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature), BEIS v3.14 (Biogenic Emission Inventory System), and BDISNP (Berkeley–Dalhousie–Iowa Soil NO Parameterization), show substantial underestimates over the study domain. Compared to the cultivated soil NOx emissions derived from measured fluxes, MEGAN and BEIS are lower by more than 1 order of magnitude, and BDISNP is lower by a factor of 2.2. Despite the low bias, observed soil NOx emissions and BDISNP present a similar spatial pattern and temperature dependence. We conclude that soil NOx is a key feature of the NOx emissions in the SJV and that a biogeochemical-process-based model of these emissions is needed to simulate emissions for modeling air quality in the region.

Integration of environmental signatures and omics-based approaches on the European flounder to assist with health assessment of estuarine ecosystems in Brittany, France

This study aimed to develop a multidisciplinary approach to assess the ecological status of six moderate-sized French estuaries. For each estuary, we gathered geographical information, hydrobiological data, chemistry of pollutants and fish biology, including integration of proteomics and transcriptomics data. This integrative study covered the entire hydrological system studied, from the watershed to the estuary, and considered all the anthropogenic factors that can impact this environment.To reach this goal, European flounder (Platichthys flesus) were collected from six estuaries in September, which ensures a minimum residence time of five months within an estuary. Geographical metrics are used to characterize land use in each watershed. The concentrations of nitrite, nitrate, organic pollutants, and trace elements were measured in water, sediments and biota. All of these environmental parameters allowed to set up a typology of estuaries.Classical fish biomarkers, coupled with molecular data from transcriptomics and shotgun proteomics, highlighted the flounder's responses to stressors in its environment. We analysed the protein abundances and gene expression levels in the liver of fish from the different estuaries. We showed clear positive deregulation of proteins associated with xenobiotic detoxification in a system characterized by a large population density and industrial activity, as well as in a predominantly agricultural catchment area (mostly cultures of vegetables and pig breeding) mainly impacted by pesticides. Fish from the latter estuary also displayed strong deregulation of the urea cycle, most probably related to high nitrogen load. Proteomic and transcriptomic data also revealed a deregulation of proteins and genes related to the response to hypoxia, and a probable endocrine disruption in some estuaries. Coupling these data allowed the precise identification of the main stressors interacting within each hydrosystem.

Chemical ionization mass spectrometry utilizing ammonium ions (NH4+ CIMS) for measurements of organic compounds in the atmosphere

Abstract. We describe the characterization and field deployment of chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) using a recently developed focusing ion-molecule reactor (FIMR) and ammonium–water cluster (NH4+⋅H2O) as the reagent ion (denoted as NH4+ CIMS). We show that NH4+⋅H2O is a highly versatile reagent ion for measurements of a wide range of oxygenated organic compounds. The major product ion is the cluster with NH4+ produced via ligand-switching reactions. Other product ions (e.g., protonated ion, cluster ion with NH4+⋅H2O, with H3O+, and with H3O+⋅H2O) are also produced, but with minor fractions for most of the oxygenated compounds studied here. The instrument sensitivities (ion counts per second per part per billion by volume, cps ppbv−1) and product distributions are strongly dependent on the instrument operating conditions, including the ratio of ammonia (NH3) and H2O flows and the drift voltages, which should be carefully selected to ensure NH4+⋅H2O as the predominant reagent ion and to optimize sensitivities. For monofunctional analytes, the NH4+⋅H2O chemistry exhibits high sensitivity (i.e., >1000 cps ppbv−1) to ketones, moderate sensitivity (i.e., between 100 and 1000 cps ppbv−1) to aldehydes, alcohols, organic acids, and monoterpenes, low sensitivity (i.e., between 10 and 100 cps ppbv−1) to isoprene and C1 and C2 organics, and negligible sensitivity (i.e., <10 cps ppbv−1) to reduced aromatics. The instrumental sensitivities of analytes depend on the binding energy of the analyte–NH4+ cluster, which can be estimated using voltage scanning. This offers the possibility to constrain the sensitivity of analytes for which no calibration standards exist. This instrument was deployed in the RECAP campaign (Re-Evaluating the Chemistry of Air Pollutants in California) in Pasadena, California, during summer 2021. Measurement comparisons against co-located mass spectrometers show that the NH4+ CIMS is capable of detecting compounds from a wide range of chemical classes. The NH4+ CIMS is valuable for quantification of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and is complementary to existing chemical ionization schemes.

A year-round study of ambient gaseous pollutants, their atmospheric chemistry and role in secondary particle formation at an urban site in Delhi

Continuous measurement of the four atmospheric gaseous pollutants (SO2, NO2, CO and O3) were made for a period of about one year (June 2019 to April 2020) at a representative urban site in Delhi. All the four pollutants were found to be elevated during the post-monsoon season (October–December) with peak values observed in the month of November. The present study explores the trends of the atmospheric gas pollutants in a highly polluted atmosphere. In addition, we have highlighted the role of these pollutants in atmospheric chemistry including particle formation and successive growth. During two short-term study periods, a distinct particle growth was observed in the night time associated with the oxidation of SO2 into sulphate particles especially during the post-monsoon season explaining the haze events observed frequently in the city with additional influence of meteorological factors. Unusual high levels of CO observed during pre-monsoon season (March–April) are likely to be associated with the elevated levels of natural biogenic emissions. The present study is one of the best examples validating the conventional secondary chemistry of gaseous pollutants in urban atmosphere.

Gas-Particle Uptake and Hygroscopic Growth by Organosulfate Particles

Organosulfate compounds make up a substantial fraction of the particle mass concentration in some regions of the Earth’s atmosphere, and organosulfate particles can have sufficiently high viscosity to limit rates of gas-particle interactions. Viscosity varies with relative humidity (RH). Herein, organosulfate particles were exposed to the gas-phase products of α-pinene photooxidation. The gas-particle partitioning of these species was studied from 15 to 70% RH and <1 to 16 ppb NO at 299 K. The uptake of the α-pinene oxidation products increased with the increase in RH, and higher gas-phase NO concentrations resulted in increased particle-phase concentrations of nitrogen compounds. Particle hygroscopicity was examined by optical microscopy. Hygroscopic growth at elevated RH was sufficient to explain the RH-dependent uptake measurements, and kinetic limitations tied to particle viscosity were not observed. The lack of kinetic limitations combined with the Stokes–Einstein equation implied a viscosity much less than 1 × 106 Pa s. This value is consistent with estimated viscosities based on literature parameterizations for water mass fractions in the particles of at least 0.05 at 15% RH. Overall, these results suggest that organosulfate hygroscopicity plays a key role in their viscosity and hence in regulating gas-particle partitioning, thereby simplifying the treatment of atmospheric chemistry and transport of pollutants in models of the Earth’s atmosphere. The role of organosulfates is expected to take on increasing importance for projected future emission trends.

The Tripod Relationship Between Local Embalmment, Environment and Human Health Implications in Cross River State, Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to assess the environmental and health implications of local embalmment in Cross River State, Nigeria. The Ex-post-facto research design was adopted for this study. Six embalmment sites from six Local Government Areas were randomly selected across the state from where water and soil samples were taken for laboratory analysis and testing. The environmental impacts, as well as the health implications of local embalmment, were investigated. Multivariate statistical analysis was applied for the physicochemical parameters using a correlation matrix to evaluate factors influencing the groundwater chemistry and sources of pollution in the aquifer of the areas. Some laboratory procedures were also adopted to test the chemistry of the adjoining soils for the impacts of these embalmment chemicals as used by these morticians. A comparative analysis was further done on the different soil samples, the ones directly affected by the immediate mortuary facilities and those away from the facilities. A structured questionnaire made up of twenty items was also administered to the mortuary attendants and residents of the communities and adjoining communities where these embalmment homes are located. Simple percentage and correlation analysis was done to examine the perceived effect of embalmment chemicals on the environment and the health of residents. The results obtained from the laboratory analyses of selected groundwater and soil samples around the mortuary sites studied indicated that formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, humectants, metals, coli forms, microorganisms, and other contaminants from the mortuary sites have impaired the soil and water quality. It was recommended among others that green embalmment procedures should be encouraged, embalmment services should be located far away from residential areas and water bodies; wastes from embalmment/mortuary services should be sustainably disposed of to avoid these chemicals from contaminating the environment.

Overview: On the transport and transformation of pollutants in the outflow of major population centres – observational data from the EMeRGe European intensive operational period in summer 2017

Abstract. Megacities and other major population centres (MPCs) worldwide are major sources of air pollution, both locally as well as downwind. The overall assessment and prediction of the impact of MPC pollution on tropospheric chemistry are challenging. The present work provides an overview of the highlights of a major new contribution to the understanding of this issue based on the data and analysis of the EMeRGe (Effect of Megacities on the transport and transformation of pollutants on the Regional to Global scales) international project. EMeRGe focuses on atmospheric chemistry, dynamics, and transport of local and regional pollution originating in MPCs. Airborne measurements, taking advantage of the long range capabilities of the High Altitude and LOng Range Research Aircraft (HALO, https://www.halo-spp.de, last access: 22 March 2022), are a central part of the project. The synergistic use and consistent interpretation of observational data sets of different spatial and temporal resolution (e.g. from ground-based networks, airborne campaigns, and satellite measurements) supported by modelling within EMeRGe provide unique insight to test the current understanding of MPC pollution outflows. In order to obtain an adequate set of measurements at different spatial scales, two field experiments were positioned in time and space to contrast situations when the photochemical transformation of plumes emerging from MPCs is large. These experiments were conducted in summer 2017 over Europe and in the inter-monsoon period over Asia in spring 2018. The intensive observational periods (IOPs) involved HALO airborne measurements of ozone and its precursors, volatile organic compounds, aerosol particles, and related species as well as coordinated ground-based ancillary observations at different sites. Perfluorocarbon (PFC) tracer releases and model forecasts supported the flight planning, the identification of pollution plumes, and the analysis of chemical transformations during transport. This paper describes the experimental deployment and scientific questions of the IOP in Europe. The MPC targets – London (United Kingdom; UK), the Benelux/Ruhr area (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany), Paris (France), Rome and the Po Valley (Italy), and Madrid and Barcelona (Spain) – were investigated during seven HALO research flights with an aircraft base in Germany for a total of 53 flight hours. An in-flight comparison of HALO with the collaborating UK-airborne platform Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) took place to assure accuracy and comparability of the instrumentation on board. Overall, EMeRGe unites measurements of near- and far-field emissions and hence deals with complex air masses of local and distant sources. Regional transport of several European MPC outflows was successfully identified and measured. Chemical processing of the MPC emissions was inferred from airborne observations of primary and secondary pollutants and the ratios between species having different chemical lifetimes. Photochemical processing of aerosol and secondary formation or organic acids was evident during the transport of MPC plumes. Urban plumes mix efficiently with natural sources as mineral dust and with biomass burning emissions from vegetation and forest fires. This confirms the importance of wildland fire emissions in Europe and indicates an important but discontinuous contribution to the European emission budget that might be of relevance in the design of efficient mitigation strategies. The present work provides an overview of the most salient results in the European context, with these being addressed in more detail within additional dedicated EMeRGe studies. The deployment and results obtained in Asia will be the subject of separate publications.

What Are the Sectors Contributing to the Exceedance of European Air Quality Standards over the Iberian Peninsula? A Source Contribution Analysis

The Iberian Peninsula, located in southwestern Europe, is exposed to frequent exceedances of different threshold and limit values of air pollution, mainly related to particulate matter, ozone, and nitrous oxide. Source apportionment modeling represents a useful modeling tool for evaluating the contribution of different emission sources or sectors and for designing useful mitigation strategies. In this sense, this work assesses the impact of various emission sectors on air pollution levels over the Iberian Peninsula using a source contribution analysis (zero-out method). The methodology includes the use of the regional WRF + CHIMERE modeling system (coupled to EMEP emissions). In order to represent the sensitivity of the chemistry and transport of gas-phase pollutants and aerosols, several emission sectors have been zeroed-out to quantify the influence of different sources in the area, such as on-road traffic or other mobile sources, combustion in energy generation, industrial emissions or agriculture, among others. The sensitivity analysis indicates that large reductions of precursor emissions (coming mainly from energy generation, road traffic, and maritime-harbor emissions) are needed for improving air quality and attaining the thresholds set in the European Directive 2008/50/EC over the Iberian Peninsula.

Mitigation and Chemistry of Indoor Air Pollutants in Urban and Rural Environments of India: A Review of Contemporary Advances

Globally people devote approximately 90% of their time indoors either in their house or office or institution, etc. Together with the dispersion of outdoor air pollutants, toxins are produced in indoor atmosphere owing to various actions such as heating, cooking, cooling and emissions from building materials. Hence, the indoor air quality (IAQ) influences human well-being and efficiency. Even though indoor air quality (IAQ) research has been done from various outlooks, there is still an absence of inclusive assessment of peer reviewed IAQ studies, which precisely covers the IAQ in rural and urban environment helping to recognize the sources and consequences in both the environment, respectively. Therefore, this review article of scientific studies offers a broad spectrum of pollutants identified in both rural and urban indoor environments in context to India, highlighting the technical interventions, modelling techniques and remedies such as HEPA filters, carbon filters, bioremediation etc. in course of improving IAQ. This review also elucidates the chemistry of pollutants along with general chemical reactions between pollutants. Thus, this review paper holds the potential to help building professionals and researchers in the field for regulating indoor air quality and generate healthy and sustainable indoor environment.

Coupled Air Quality and Boundary-Layer Meteorology in Western U.S. Basins during Winter: Design and Rationale for a Comprehensive Study.

Wintertime episodes of high aerosol concentrations occur frequently in urban and agricultural basins and valleys worldwide. These episodes often arise following development of persistent cold-air pools (PCAPs) that limit mixing and modify chemistry. While field campaigns targeting either basin meteorology or wintertime pollution chemistry have been conducted, coupling between interconnected chemical and meteorological processes remains an insufficiently studied research area. Gaps in understanding the coupled chemical-meteorological interactions that drive high pollution events make identification of the most effective air-basin specific emission control strategies challenging. To address this, a September 2019 workshop occurred with the goal of planning a future research campaign to investigate air quality in Western U.S. basins. Approximately 120 people participated, representing 50 institutions and 5 countries. Workshop participants outlined the rationale and design for a comprehensive wintertime study that would couple atmospheric chemistry and boundary-layer and complex-terrain meteorology within western U.S. basins. Participants concluded the study should focus on two regions with contrasting aerosol chemistry: three populated valleys within Utah (Salt Lake, Utah, and Cache Valleys) and the San Joaquin Valley in California. This paper describes the scientific rationale for a campaign that will acquire chemical and meteorological datasets using airborne platforms with extensive range, coupled to surface-based measurements focusing on sampling within the near-surface boundary layer, and transport and mixing processes within this layer, with high vertical resolution at a number of representative sites. No prior wintertime basin-focused campaign has provided the breadth of observations necessary to characterize the meteorological-chemical linkages outlined here, nor to validate complex processes within coupled atmosphere-chemistry models.

Environmental Behaviors and Biological Effects of Engineered Nanomaterials: Important Roles of Interfacial Interactions and Dissolved Organic Matter

AbstractWith the fast development of nanotechnology, reactive engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are increasingly discharged into the environment, where they interact with environmental components and organisms and thus pose potential risks. The interactions‐derived formation of nano‐environmental and nano‐bio interfaces determines environmental behaviors and biological effects of ENMs, and ubiquitous dissolved organic matter (DOM) is bound to impact the interfacial interactions and the resulted environmental risks. Herein, we systematically investigated adsorptive interactions between ENMs and various DOM representatives, and thereby demonstrated the effects of DOM on the aqueous suspension/aggregation, mobility in porous media, adsorption of contaminants, transformation, and biological accumulation and toxicity of ENMs. Overall, we conclude that natural DOM can in general expand environmental distribution of ENMs while limit their toxicity to organisms.What is the most favorite and original chemistry developed in your research group?Nanomaterial pollution chemistry.How do you get into this specific field? Could you please share some experiences with our readers?I started to work on nanomaterial pollution chemistry during my visiting scholar research (2006—2008) in UMass, Amherst, USA. There, I studied chemistry involved in environmental behaviors and biological effects of nanomaterials. Thereafter, this becomes the major research topic in my lab till now.How do you supervise your students?Talk and discuss with them about their research regularly. Being prepared before giving comments or suggestions on their research results to make my viewpoints helpful. Share relevant and latest references with them. Appropriately push them to read, think, and do more. Encourage them to ask more questions about experimental phenomena. Inspire their ambition to publish good papers and become good scientists.What is the most important personality for scientific research?Hungering for truth and novelty.

“Green shipping” and the problem of sustainable use of maritime transport

Green is consistently associated with the political, legal and organizational efforts of various organizations in the area of preservation and sustainable development of the environment. Having analyzes the topic, the author reflects on the legal issues of preventing marine pollution related to the introduction of the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters, the requirements to the &amp;ldquo;chemistry of pollutants&amp;rdquo;, technical regulations aimed at the expel of certain ships based on their technical characteristics. The author also attempted to formulate the key statements within the framework of the concept of ecologically sustainable development of the marine transport sector. The subject of this research is the legal relations in the area of regulation of the ecological use of maritime transport. Research methodology employs the analysis of national legal sources; formal-legal, comparative-legal and systemic-logical methods. Law of the Sea has been actively struggling against marine pollution since the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil (OILPOL) of 1954, creating and constantly improving the responsibilities within the framework of International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). The scientific novelty is defined by the absence of analogous works in the Russian literature on the subject. The relevance of this work is substantiated by the need for adoption of legal measures aimed at ensuring efforts on amending the state maritime policy, considering that the implementation of the standards of International Maritime Organization effective since 2020, will result in expel of a considerable number of ships from the maritime sector, as well as and increase the sea freight rates.

ASSESSMENT OF HYDROPHYSICAL AND HYDROCHEMICAL FEATURES OF WATER BODIES: A CASE STUDY OF LAKE IMANTAU, KAZAKHSTAN

The lakes of “Kokshetau” State National Natural Park (SNNP) are scanty and have a mosaic, fragmented character due to the present ecological state. In current work, the chemistry and degree of pollution in this lake is studied. The present research aimed to analyse the hydrophysical and hydrochemical parameters of lake Imantau of “Kokshetau” SNNP. This assessment includes dynamics of the hydrochemical water composition and benthal deposits, heavy metals content, and morphometric indicators of the lake using Earth’s remote sensing technique. This technique is based on Earth’s retrospective multichannel satellite images Landsat. Ionic water composition, total mineralization, hydrogen index, gas regime, and nutrient content (nitrates, nitrites) are determined. To assess the geochemical state of benthal deposits, the parameters like concentration coefficient (Cc), maximum allowable concentration (MAC) of pollutants in the soil, and total pollution index (Zc) are calculated. The results of this work is measured in terms of changes takes place in lake depth, water mass volume, water hardness, chemical concentrations.

Insights into air pollution chemistry and sulphate formation from nitrous acid (HONO) measurements during haze events in Beijing.

Wintertime urban air pollution in many global megacities is characterised by episodic rapid increase in particulate matter concentrations associated with elevated relative humidity - so-called haze episodes, which have become characteristic of cities such as Beijing. Atmospheric chemistry within haze combines gas- and condensed-phase chemical processes, leading to the growth in secondary species such as sulphate aerosols. Here, we integrate observations of reactive gas phase species (HONO, OH, NOx) and time-resolved aerosol composition, to explore observational constraints on the mechanisms responsible for sulphate growth during the onset of haze events. We show that HONO abundance is dominated by established fast gas-phase photochemistry, but the consideration of the additional formation potentially associated with condensed-phase oxidation of S species by aqueous NO2 leading to NO2- production and hence HONO release, improves agreement between observed and calculated gas-phase HONO levels. This conclusion is highly dependent upon aerosol pH, ionic strength and particularly the parameterisation employed for S(iv) oxidation kinetics, for which an upper limit is derived.

ASSESSMENT OF HYDROPHYSICAL AND HYDROCHEMICAL FEATURES OF WATER BODIES: A CASE STUDY OF LAKE IMANTAU, KAZAKHSTAN

The lakes of “Kokshetau” State National Natural Park (SNNP) are scanty and have a mosaic, fragmented character due to the present ecological state. In current work, the chemistry and degree of pollution in this lake is studied. The present research aimed to analyse the hydrophysical and hydrochemical parameters of lake Imantau of “Kokshetau” SNNP. This assessment includes dynamics of the hydrochemical water composition and benthal deposits, heavy metals content, and morphometric indicators of the lake using Earth’s remote sensing technique. This technique is based on Earth’s retrospective multichannel satellite images Landsat. Ionic water composition, total mineralization, hydrogen index, gas regime, and nutrient content (nitrates, nitrites) are determined. To assess the geochemical state of benthal deposits, the parameters like concentration coefficient (Cc), maximum allowable concentration (MAC) of pollutants in the soil, and total pollution index (Zc) are calculated. The results of this work is measured in terms of changes takes place in lake depth, water mass volume, water hardness, chemical concentrations.