Mass transfer inside a flux hood for the sampling of gaseous emissions from liquid surfaces – Experimental assessment and emission rate rescaling

Publication date: April 2018
Source:Atmospheric Environment, Volume 179
Author(s): Ademir A. Prata, Federico Lucernoni, Jane M. Santos, Laura Capelli, Selena Sironi, Nhat Le-Minh, Richard M. Stuetz
This study assesses the mass transfer of compounds inside the US EPA flux hood, one of the enclosure devices most commonly employed for the direct measurement of atmospheric emissions from liquid surfaces in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Experiments comprised the evaporation of water and the volatilisation of a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Special attention was given to the evaluation of the mass transfer coefficients in the microenvironment created by the flux hood and the effects of concentration build up in the hood's headspace. The VOCs emission rates and the water evaporation rates generally increased with the sweep air flow rate, as did the mass transfer coefficients for all compounds. The emission of compounds whose volatilisation is significantly influenced by the gas phase was greatly affected by concentration build up, whereas this effect was not significant for liquid phase-controlled compounds. The gas-film mass transfer coefficient (kG) estimated inside the US EPA flux hood was of the same order as the respective kG reported in the literature for wind tunnel-type devices, but the emission rates measured by the flux hood can be expected to be lower, due to the concentration build-up. Compared against an emission model for the passive surfaces in WWTPs, the mass transfer of acetic acid (representing a gas phase-dominated compound) inside the US EPA flux hood was equivalent to conditions of wind speeds at 10 m height (U10) of 0.27, 0.51 and 0.99 m s⁻¹, respectively, for sweep air flow rates of 2, 5 and 10 L min⁻¹. On the other hand, for higher wind speeds, the emission rates of gas phase-controlled compounds obtained with the flux hood can be considerably underestimated: for instance, at U10  = 5 m s⁻¹, the emission rates of acetic acid inside the flux hood would be approximately 23, 12 and 6 times lower than the emission rates in the field, for sweep air flow rates of 2, 5 and 10 L min⁻¹, respectively. A procedure is presented in order to scale the emission rates of these compounds measured with the flux hood to field conditions of higher winds.

Graphical abstract

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