This laboratory course is jointly offered by the Departments of EEAS and Work Environment. The student gains practice in operating standard equipment for measuring air pollutants in the outdoor and indoor air. A prerequisite to this course is 85.571 Air Pollution Phenomenology. This course focuses on computer applications of dispersion models. Students are expected to exercise the Gaussian plume models developed by EPA, as well as reactive-dispersion models in which primary pollutants react with themselves, or with atmospheric species to produce secondary pollutants.
Examples are acid deposition, photo-oxidant and aerosol models.
In addition, spreadsheet calculations are used for some analyses. This course discusses the world and US primary energy resources and consumption, including fossil, nuclear and renewable energy sources. Principles of thermodynamics are reviewed, especially in regard to efficiency improvements. A significant part of the course is devoted to electricity production, including site visits to fossil and nuclear power plants. The environmental effects of energy extraction, transport, refining, and combustion are discussed, such as emissions of SOx, NOx, CO and particulate matter, acid deposition, the greenhouse effect, and radioactive waste disposal.