Assessment of the Annual and Seasonal Trends of Gaseous & Particulate Pollutants around a Fertilizer Plant in India: A Climatic Perspective

Abstract

Monitoring of ambient air quality parameters (NO2, SO2, NH3, PM10 and PM2.5) levels in the surrounding area of a fertilizer plant located at Aonla, (U.P.) India, was carried out using the respirable dust sampler. The specific objectives were the determination of annual and seasonal variability of levels of ambient air pollutants and their relationship with the fertilizer plant emissions. The results have shown a marked seasonal trend and temporal variability of pollutants levels in the study area, where the relative contribution of individual seasons towards variation of worst cases were computed for all the ambient air quality monitoring years and were used to quantify the most potent season in terms of having worst ambient air quality. Through the complete monitoring period, summer season (March to June) with characteristic high production rate in the fertilizer plant (especially in month of march) were found to be having the worst-case scenarios for all the selected years (2013-2015) with a frequency of 32-33%, followed by the winter season (December to February) where in about 28% of cases the prescribed limits of national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) were violated. Except summer and winter seasons, the remaining monsoon (July to September) and post-monsoon seasons (October to November) were also contributing, though less drastically.