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Air pollution in India is a serious issue with the major sources being followed and biomass burning, fuel adulteration, vehicle emission and traffic congestion. [l India has a low per capita emissions of greenhouse gases but the country as a whole is the third largest after China and the United States. [3] A 2013 study on non-smokers has found that Indians have 30% lower lung function compared to Europeans. [J The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act was passed in 1981 to regulate air pollution and there have been some measurable improvements.
However, the 201 2 Environmental Performance Index ranked India as having the poorest elated air quality out of 132 countries. [5] Fuel wood and biomass burning:Cooking fuel in rural India is prepared from a wet mix of dried grass, followed pieces, hay, leaves and mostly cow/livestock dung. This mix is patted down into disc-shaped cakes, dried, and then used as fuel in Stoves. When it burns, it produces smoke and numerous indoor air pollutants at concentrations 5 times higher than coal.
A rural stove using biomass cakes, followed and trash as cooking fuel. Surveys suggest over 1 00 million households in India use such stoves (Chula) every day, 2-3 times a day. Clean burning fuels and electricity are unavailable in rural parts and small towns of India because of poor rural highways and limited energy generation infrastructure. Followed and biomass burning is the primary reason for near- permanent haze and smoke observed above rural and urban India, and in satellite pictures of the country.
Followed and biomass cakes are used for cooking and general heating needs. These are burnt in cook stoves known Schaller or Chula in some parts of India. These cook stoves are present in over 1 00 million Indian households, and are used two to three times a day, daily. As of 2009, majority of Indians still use traditional fuels such as dried cow dung, agricultural wastes, and firewood as cooking fuel. L] This form of fuel is inefficient source of energy, its burning releases high levels of smoke, IMO particulate matter, Knox, SOX, Pass, polychromatic, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and other air Some reports, including one by the World Health Organization, claim 300,000 to 400,000 people die of indoor air pollution and carbon monoxide poisoning in India because of biomass burning and use of caliphs. [10] Burning of biomass and firewood will not stop, unless electricity or clean burning fuel and combustion cosmologies become reliably available and widely adopted in rural and urban India.
India is the world’s largest consumer of followed, agricultural waste and biomass for energy purposes. From the most recent available nationwide study, India used 148. 7 million tones coal replacement worth of followed and biomass annually for domestic energy use. Indian’s national average annual per capita consumption of fuel wood, agro watt and biomass cakes was 206 kilogram coal equivalent. [1 1] In 2010 terms, with Indian’s population increased to about 1. 2 billion, the country burns over 200 million tones of AOL replacement worth of fuel wood and biomass every year to meet its energy need for cooking and other domestic use.
The study found that the households consumed around 95 million tones of followed, one-third of which was logs and the rest was twigs. Twigs were mostly consumed in the villages, and logs were more popular in cities of India. [1 1] The overall contribution of followed, including sawdust and wood waste, was about 46% of the total, the rest being agro waste and biomass dung cakes. Traditional fuel (followed, crop residue and dung cake) dominates domestic energy use in rural India and accounts for about 90% of the total. In urban areas, this traditional fuel constitutes about 24% of the total. 1 1] Fuel wood, agro waste and biomass cake burning releases over 1 65 million tones of combustion products into Indian’s indoor and outdoor air every year. To place this volume of emission in context, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States estimates that fire wood smoke contributes over 420,000 tones of fine particles throughout the Ignited States – mostly during the winter months. United States consumes about one-tenth of followed consumed by India, and mostly for fireplace and home heating purposes.
EPA estimates that residential wood combustion in the USA accounts for 44 percent of total organic matter emissions and 62 percent of the PAP, which are probable human carcinogens and are of great concern to EPA. The followed sourced residential wood smoke makes up over 50 percent of the wintertime particle pollution problem in California. [1 2] In 2010, the state of California had about the same number of vehicles as all of India. India burns tenfold more followed every year than the Ignited States, the followed quality in India is different than the dry firewood of the United States, and the
Indian stoves in use are less efficient thereby producing more smoke and air pollutants per kilogram equivalent. India has less land area and less emission air space than the United States. In summary, the impact on indoor and outdoor air pollution by followed and biomass cake burning is far worse in India. A United Nations study[1 3] finds firewood and biomass stoves can be made more efficient in India. Animal dung, now used in inefficient stoves, could be used to produce biogas, a cleaner fuel with higher utilization efficiency.
In addition, an excellent fertilizer can be produced from the slurry room biogas plants. Switching to gaseous fuels would bring the greatest gains in terms of both thermal efficiency and reduction in air pollution, but would require more investment. A combination of technologies may be the best way forward. Between 2001 and 201 0, India has made progress in adding electrical power generation capacity, bringing electricity to rural areas, and reforming market to improve availability and distribution of liquefied cleaner burning fuels in urban and rural area.
Over the same period, scientific data collection and analysis show improvement in Indian’s air quality, with some sessions witnessing 30 to 65% reduction in Knox, SOX and suspended particulate matter. Even at these lower levels, the emissions are higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization. Continued progress is necessary. Scientific studies conclude biomass combustion in India is the country’s dominant source of carbonaceous aerosols, emitting 0. 25 trigram per year of black carbon into air, 0. 94 trigram per year of organic matter, and 2. 4 trigram per year of small particulates with diameter less than 2. 5 GM. Biomass burning, as domestic fuel in India, accounts for about 3 mimes as much black carbon air pollution as all other sources combined, including vehicles and industrial sources. [14] Emissions standards:Many two wheel, three wheel and four wheel vehicles lacked catalytic converters. Per vehicle emissions were amongst the highest in the world. The refining of oil and supply of fuel was owned, regulated and run by the government; the fuel quality was lax.
In 2005, India adopted emission standard of Brat Stage IV for vehicles, which is equivalent to Euro IV European standards for vehicle emissions. Nevertheless, the old pre-2005 vehicles, and even pre-1992 icicles are still on Indian streets. Fuel adulteration:Some Indian taxis and auto-rickshaws run on adulterated fuel blends. Adulteration of gasoline and diesel with lower-priced fuels is common in South Asia, including India. [2] Some adulterants increase emissions Of harmful pollutants from vehicles, worsening urban air pollution.
Financial incentives arising from differential taxes are generally the primary cause of fuel adulteration. In India and other developing countries, gasoline carries a much higher tax than diesel, which in turn is taxed more than kerosene meant as a cooking fuel, while some solvents and lubricants carry little or no tax. As fuel prices rise, the public transport driver cuts costs by blending the cheaper hydrocarbon into highly taxed hydrocarbon. The blending may be as much as 20-30 percent.
For a low wage driver, the adulteration can yield short term savings that are significant over the month. The consequences to long term air pollution, quality of life and effect on health are simply ignored. Also ignored are the reduced life of vehicle engine and higher maintenance costs, particularly if the taxi, auto-rickshaw or truck is being rented for a daily fee. Adulterated fuel increases tailpipe emissions of hydrocarbons (HCI), carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (Knox) and particulate matter (PM).
Air toxin emissions ?? which fall into the category of unregulated emissions ?? of primary concern are benzene and polychromatic hydrocarbons (Pass), both well known carcinogens. Kerosene is more difficult to burn than gasoline; its addition results in higher levels of HCI, CO and PM emissions even from catalyst-equipped cars. The higher sulfur level of kerosene is another issue. The permissible level of fuel sulfur in India, in 2002, was 0. 25 percent by eight as against 0. 10 percent for gasoline. The higher levels of sulfur can deactivate the catalyst.
Once the catalyst becomes deactivated, the amount of pollution from the vehicle dramatically increases. Fuel adulteration is essentially an unintended consequence Of tax policies and the attempt to control fuel prices, in the name of fairness. Air pollution is the ultimate result. This problem is not unique to India, but prevalent in many developing countries including those outside of south Asia. This problem is largely absent in economies that do not regulate the ability of fuel producers to innovate or rice based on market demand. Traffic congestion:Traffic congestion is severe in Indian’s cities and towns.
Traffic congestion is caused for several reasons, some of which are: increase in number of vehicles per kilometer of available road, a lack of intra-city divided-lane highways and intra-city expressways networks, lack of inter-city expressways, traffic accidents and chaos from poor enforcement of traffic laws. Traffic congestion reduces average traffic speed. At low speeds, scientific studies reveal, vehicles burn fuel inefficiently and pollute more per trip. For example, a study in the United States found that for the same trip, cars consumed more fuel and polluted more if the traffic was congested, than when traffic flowed freely.
At average trip speeds between 20 to 40 kilometers per hour, the cars pollutant emission was twice as much as when the average speed was 55 to 75 kilometers per hour. At average trip speeds between 5 to 20 kilometers per hour, the cars pollutant emissions were 4 to 8 times as much as when the average speed Was 55 to 70 kilometers per hour. [15] Fuel efficiencies similarly Were much worse with traffic congestion. Traffic gridlock in Delhi and other India cities is extreme. [16] The average trip speed on many Indian city roads is less than 20 kilometers per hour; a 10 kilometer trip can take 30 minutes, or more.
At such speeds, vehicles in India emit air pollutants 4 to 8 times more than they would with less traffic congestion; Indian vehicles also consume a lot more carbon footprint fuel per trip, than they would if the traffic congestion was less. Len cities like Bangor, around 50% of children suffer from asthma. [1 7] Greenhouse gas emissions:Linda was the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2009 at 1. 65 Get per year, after China (6. 9 Get per year) and the United States (5. 2 Get per year). With 17 percent of world population, India contributed some 5 percent of human-sourced carbon dioxide emission; compared to China’s 24 percent share.
On per capita basis, India emitted about 1. 4 tons of carbon dioxide per person, in comparison to the United States’ 17 tons per person, and a world average of 5. 3 tons per person. About 65 percent of Indian’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2009 was from heating, domestic uses and power sector. About 9 percent of Indian’s emissions were from transportation (cars, trains, two wheelers, airplanes, others). Indian’s coal- aired, oil-fired and natural gas-fired thermal power plants are inefficient and offer significant potential for ICC emission reduction through better technology.
Compared to the average emissions from coal-fired, oil-fired and natural gas-fired thermal power plants in European Union (EX.-27) countries, Indian’s thermal power plants emit 50 to 120 percent more ICC per kHz produced. [3] This is in significant part to inefficient thermal power plants installed in India prior to its economic liberalizing in the 1 9905. Between 1990 and 2009, Indian’s carbon dioxide emissions per GAP purchasing power rarity basis have decreased by over 10 percent, a trend similar to China.
Meanwhile, between 1990 and 2009, Russian’s carbon dioxide emissions per GAP purchasing power parity basis have increased by 40 percent. India has one of the better records in the world, of an economy that is growing efficiently on ICC emissions basis. In other words, over the last 20 years, India has reduced ICC emissions with each unit of GAP increase. [3] per Copenhagen Accord, India aims to further reduce emissions intensity of its growing GAP by 20 to 25 percent before 2020, with technology transfer and international cooperation.
Nevertheless, it is expected, that like China, Indian’s absolute carbon dioxide emissions will rise in years ahead, even as International Energy Agency’s Annex countries expect their absolute ICC emissions to drop. A significant source of greenhouse gas emissions from India is from black carbon, Knox, methane and other air pollutants. These pollutants are emitted in large quantities in India every day from incomplete and inefficient combustion of biomass (fuel wood, crop waste and cattle dung).
A majority of Indian population lacks access to clean burning fuels, and uses biomass combustion as cooking fuel. Indian’s poorly managed solid Wastes, inadequate sewage treatment plants, Water pollution and agriculture are other sources of greenhouse gas Luau has proposed that as the aerosol particles rise on the warm, connecting air, they produce more rain over northern India and the Himalayan foothill, which further warms the atmosphere and fuels a ‘I heat pump” that draws yet more warm air to the region.
This phenomenon, Luau believes, changes the timing and intensity of the monsoon, effectively transferring heat from the low-lying lands over the subcontinent to the atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau, which in turn warms the high-altitude land surface and hastens glacial retreat. His modeling shows that aerosols??particularly black carbon and dust??likely cause as much of the glacial retreat in the region as greenhouse gases via this “heat pump” effect. [20] Recent trends in air quality:With the last 15 years of economic development and regulatory reforms, India has made progress in improving its air quality.
The table presents the average emissions sampled at many locations, over time, and data analyzed by scientific methods, by multiple agencies, including The World Bank. For context and comparison, the table also includes average values for Sweden in 2008, observed and analyzed by same methods. Over 1995-2008, average nationwide levels of major air pollutants have dropped by between 25-45 percent in India. 1995 2005 2008 Pollutant, IMO (micrograms per cubic meter) 109 67 59 11 Pollutant, ICC emissions (keg per 2005 APP$ of GAP) 0. 7 0. 6 0. 5 0. Health, mortality rate (under 5, per 1000) 100 73 3 Pollutant, methane, Agriculture emissions (% total) 68. 8 64. 4 28. 1 Pollutant, nitrous oxide, Agriculture emissions (% total) 75. 2 73. 4 60. 2 Indian’s Central Pollution Control Board now routinely monitors four air pollutants namely sulfur dioxide (502), oxides of nitrogen (Knox), suspended particulate matter (SUMP) and resalable particulate matter (PM O). These are target air pollutants for regular monitoring at 308 operating stations in 115 cities/towns in 25 states and 4 union Territories of India.
The monitoring of meteorological parameters such as wind speed and direction, relative humidity and temperature has also been integrated with the monitoring of air quality. The monitoring of these pollutants is carried out for 24 hours (4- rural sampling for gaseous pollutants and 8-hourly sampling for particulate matter) with a frequency of twice a week, to yield 104 observations in a year. For 201 0, the key findings of Indian’s central pollution control board Most Indian cities continue to violate Indian’s and world air quality IMO targets.
Resalable particulate matter pollution remains a key challenge for India. Despite the general non-attainment, some cities showed far more improvement than others. A decreasing trend has been observed in PM O levels in cities like Solar and Mohammedan over the last few years. This improvement may be due to local measures taken to reduce sulfur in diesel and stringent enforcement by Gujarat government. A decreasing trend has been observed in sulfur dioxide levels in residential areas of many cities such as Delhi, Iambi, Locknut, Opal during last few years.
The decreasing trend in sulfur dioxide levels may be due to recently introduced clean fuel standards, and the increasing use of ALP as domestic fuel instead of coal or followed, and the use of ALP instead of diesel in certain vehicles. A decreasing trend has been observed in nitrogen dioxide levels in residential areas of some cities such as Opal and Solar during last few years. The vehicle emission standards, and the increasing use of ALP as domestic fuel instead of coal or followed.
Most Indian cities greatly exceed accept able levels of suspended particulate matter. This may be because of refuse and biomass burning, vehicles, power plant emissions, industrial sources. The Indian air quality monitoring stations reported lower levels of IMO and suspended particulate matter during monsoon months possibly due to wet deposition and air scrubbing by rainfall. Higher levels of particulates were observed during winter months possibly due to lower mixing heights and more calm conditions.
In other words, Indian’s air quality worsens in winter months, and improves with the Onset of monsoon season. The average annual SOX and Knox emissions level and periodic violations in industrial areas of India were significantly and surprisingly lower than the emission and violations in residential areas of India Of the four major Indian cities, air pollution was consistently worst in Delhi, every year over 5 year period (2004-2008). Kola was a close second, followed by Iambi. Achaean air pollution was least of the four.