AIR POLLUTION ENGINEERING

ENVE 556
FALL 2022

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT #2 – DUE WED. SEPT. 28, 2022

Answer the following problems. Show all work and put a box around your final answer. Your
assignment will be due at the beginning of class.

1. A smokestack (i.e., stack) is emitting a non-reactive pollutant at a rate of 189 g/s. The stack
has an effective stack height of 70 m, and the wind speed at stack height is 7.2 m/s, with Class
B stability. Calculate the ground-level concentration of the pollutant (μg/m3):
a. 1,000 m directly downwind
b. 5,000 m directly downwind
2. You are asked to determine whether concentrations of a pollutant are at or below 45 μg/m3
(20-minute averaging time) at a particular monitoring station downwind from an emitting
source. However, due to a malfunction in your equipment, you were only able to measure
the 10-minute average concentration of the pollutant, which was 60 μg/m3. What is the
expected 20-minute averaging time concentration at that point, and would it meet the
requirement to be ≤ 45 μg/m3?
3. For the stack in problem 1, estimate the maximum downwind ground-level concentration and
the distance at which it occurs. (Hint: Use Figure 20.9)
4. Check the answer to problem 3 using Equation 20.6.
5. After the pandemic is over, you get invited to a party at a 1,200 sf apartment, where there
are a total of 23 people. The apartment has ceilings that are 8 ft above the floor. Three people
begin smoking 2 cigarettes per hour each. The air handler system has a make-up air
ventilation rate of 600 cfm. Assume an overhead fan ensures the air is well-mixed. Eye
irritation from formaldehyde can start at concentrations of 0.01 ppm, with irritation of the
lungs at 5 ppm. Will the concentrations become high enough to cause eye irritation? Lung
irritation?
6. A home in Florida loses electricity when a hurricane makes landfall. The hurricane is slow-
moving and takes several days to move through the area. In order to power a fan and a
refrigerator, the homeowner starts a generator in his garage, which has a length of 6 m, a
width of 5.5 m, and a floor-to-ceiling height of 2.5 m. The garage door is closed due to the
hurricane and the ventilation rate is 0.60 air changes per hour (ach). The homeowner starts
the generator, which releases an average of 990 g carbon monoxide (CO) per hour. The initial
CO concentration in and around the garage is assumed to be zero, and no CO-based reaction
takes place (i.e., the removal reaction rate constant is assumed to be zero). Molecular
weights: C = 12; O = 16.
a) What will be the steady-state CO concentration in the garage (g/m3)?
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 b) How long (min) will it take until the garage concentration of CO reaches 12,800 ppm,
a CO concentration that can result in death within three minutes of exposure? Assume
the temperature in the garage is 30 °C (303.15 K) and the pressure is 1 atm. R =
8.2057*10-5 m3-atm/K-mol.

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