Integrated Mobile Laboratory for Air Pollution Assessment: Literature Review and cc-TrAIRer Design

Abstract

To promote research studies on air pollution and climate change, the mobile laboratory cc-TrAIRer (Climate Change—TRailer for AIR and Environmental Research) was designed and built. It consists of a trailer which affords particles, gas, meteorological and noise measurements. Thanks to its structure and its versatility, it can easily conduct field campaigns in remote areas. The literature review presented in this paper shows the main characteristics of the existing mobile laboratories. The cc-TrAIRer was built by evaluating technical aspects, instrumentations and auxiliary systems that emerged from previous studies in the literature. Some of the studies conducted in heterogeneous topography areas, such as the Po Valley and the Alps, using instruments that were chosen to be located on the mobile laboratory are here reported. The preliminary results highlight the future applications of the trailer and the importance of high temporal resolution data acquisition for the characterization of pollution phenomena. The potential applications of the cc-TrAIRer concern different fields, such as complex terrain, emergency situations, worksite and local source impacts and temporal and spatial distributions of atmospheric compounds. The integrated use of gas and particle analysers, a weather station and environment monitoring systems in a single easily transportable vehicle will contribute to research studies on global aspects of climate change.

Atomic spectrometry update – a review of advances in environmental analysis

“…A simple calibration strategy based on aqueous standards deposited on lter paper was proposed 186 for the determination of Cu and Zn in tree rings. Although most results were signicantly different statistically from those obtained for the analysis of wood digests, even when normalised using 13 C as an IS, the method was nevertheless able to reveal trends in analyte concentrations.…”

“…The "SCAMPER" (System for the Continuous Aerosol Measurement of Particle Emissions from Roads) system measured 12 road-dust resuspension values by determining the PM 10 concentrations both ahead of a vehicle, through use of an isokinetic sampling inlet attached to an OPC mounted on or near the bonnet, and in the vehicle's wake, through use of a second OPC unit mounted on a atbed trailer towed behind. The "CC-TRAIRER" (Climate Change-TRailer for AIR and Environmental Research) system 13 was a small towed-caravan with OPCs for PM 1 , PM 2.5 , PM 4 and PM 10 measurements, NO x and O 3 gas analysers and a lter sampler for gravimetric and chemical analysis. Information on power requirements, cabin climate control and data transmission systems were summarised and a useful tabulation given of mobile laboratory equipment used in 16 other air monitoring studies.…”

“…The advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of tagging for polystyrene microplastic standards were discussed. In contrast, microplastics and unicellular algae have been counted and sized 97 in seawaters by ICP-MS/MS by monitoring 12 C and 13 C. Online aerosol dilution was used to reduce dri effects and to make size calibration more repeatable. The best size-LODs were obtained using 12 C. Size calibration using polystyrene microplastic standards made it possible to calibrate cellular masses in real samples.…”

The prospected air quality measurements for further unconventional natural gas developments in China based on the United States experience

“…The mobile lab, generally converted from a van or a truck, can carry the above instruments to conduct on-road measurements using a multi-battery system or power generated from the engine (Boanini et al, 2021). The mobile lab could be used to capture the transport of air pollutant plumes, estimate the emission flux based on circle-route measurements, observe the spatial concentration distribution of air pollutants, act as a fixed site at some high concentration spots, etc (Mohr et al, 2011;von der Weiden-Reinmüller et al, 2014;Huang et al, 2020;.…”

Importance of Comprehensive Health Risk Assessment Procedures for Modern Waste-Toenergy Facilities in Complex Geographical Contexts Oriented to Circular Economy

“…The atmospheric dispersion of air pollutants emitted from ground-level human activities is particularly limited in mountainous regions. This is due to the complex morphology of mountainous areas, where valley winds (especially down-slope) induce strong local circulations that hinder the vertical air mixing normally occurring in flat areas [1]- [3]. In mountainous regions, this translates into enhanced atmospheric stability conditions, which develop especially at night and during winter, conditions that tend to trap air pollutants near the ground [4], [5].…”