Depicting Photochemical Behaviour of Gaseous Secondary Pollutants: Environment-Specific Insights and Control Strategies from Near-Explicit Chemical Mechanism Modelling

Technical Seminar:
Depicting Photochemical Behaviour of Gaseous Secondary Pollutants: Environment-Specific Insights and Control Strategies from Near-Explicit Chemical Mechanism Modelling

Date, time & venue

26 June 2024 (Wednesday), 17:00-18:00, Seminar via Zoom Meeting

Organized by

HKIE Civil Division and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Programme Highlight

Gaseous secondary pollutants, such as ozone (O₃), peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), and aldehydes (e.g., formaldehyde), are air pollutants that form in the atmosphere through photochemical reactions involving nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as their precursors. These pollutants can adversely affect human health, ecosystems, and the environment. Due to the non-linear relationship between secondary pollutants and their precursors in various environments and the complexity of ten-thousands of photochemical reactions, the development of effective control measures for regional secondary pollution is challenging. This is particularly true for China, which has experienced a significant increase in O₃-related problems in recent years.

To address the responsible in-situ photochemistry and combat regional secondary pollution, measurements of air pollutants were conducted at multiple sites, particularly in southern China, encompassing urban, industrial, rural, mountainous and coastal environments. Additionally, photochemical box models, integrated with the near-explicit Master Chemical Mechanism, were employed to characterize the photochemical behavior of O₃, PAN, and aldehydes. This included an analysis of their chemical sources, impacts on radical chemistry, and photochemical formation in various atmospheric conditions. Moreover, potential reduction measures were assessed from a chemical formation perspective. These studies have enhanced our understanding of gaseous secondary pollutants and contributed valuable insights into control strategies.

Language

English

Fee

Free of Charge.

Speakers
Dr WANG Yu is a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. in Applied Chemistry from Sun Yat-sen University and got his PhD degree from PolyU in 2019. During 2020-2022, he worked as a joint Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Jinan University and PolyU. Dr WANG’s main research interests include: 1. Characters and formation mechanisms of photochemical air pollution in urban, rural, oceanic, mountainous and forested areas; 2. Spatiotemporal variations, photochemical behavior and long-term trend of air pollutants; 3. Chemical compositions of VOCs, source apportionment, chemical contribution to O₃ formation; 4. Evaluation on observation-oriented O₃ control strategies; 5. Improvement and application of gas phase chemical box model (i.e., PBM-MCM/CB05 and PTM-MCM); 6. Near-explicit numerical simulation of photochemistry and radical chemistry process. Dr WANG has contributed to over 20 research projects and authored more than 30 publications, with over 1,500 citations and an h-index of 21, as recorded on Google scholar.

Registration & Enquiries

Please complete the on-line registration at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vmHZqIRPS36ReIJFKTargA. The number of participants is limited to 500 on a first-come-first served basis. Priority will be given to members of the Civil Division.

Email registration will not be accepted. Successful applicants will be informed by email and provided a link to the Zoom Meeting at the designated time slot. Participants need to sign in using the membership no. and name entered at the time of registration. A CPD certificate will be issued 3 weeks after the seminar based on this membership no. and name.

For enquiries, please contact Mr. David Wong via email: davidwong@pyengineering.com.