Seasonal Influence on the Ambient Air Quality in Al Jahra City for Year 2010

Raslan Alenezi, Bader Al-Anzi, Abdallah Abusam, Aamir Ashfaque

Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Technological Studies, Public Authority Applied Education and Training, Adailiya, Kuwait.
Department of Environment Technology and Management, College for Women, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
Gulf Paper Manufacturing Company, Fahaheel, Kuwait.
Water Technologies Department, Water Resources Division, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Safat, Kuwait.

DOI: 10.4236/jep.2012.312186                

Abstract

Eight primary criteria air contaminants were measured continuously for the year 2010 to evaluate ambient air quality in Al Jahra, which is one of the oldest and busiest cities in the state of Kuwait. The state of the art instrumentation was used to record the pollutants concentration to ppb levels maintaining quality control and quality assurance. Hourly base data for Non-Methane Hydrocarons (NM-HC), CH₄, CO, CO₂, O₃, SO₂, NO₂and Particulate Matter (PM₁₀) were analyzed for year 2010. Meteorological parameters contributing to air pollution, such as (temperature, solar intensity, wind speed and direction) have also been considered. The effect of winter and summer seasonal changes on pollutant concentration levels were analyzed to identify the most probable sources for the application of the futuristic mitigation methods for pollution abatement. The obtained results consistently suggest that the foregoing pollutant concentration levels are higher in winter than summer due to poor dispersion and shallow inversion layer with the exception of O₃, CO₂and PM₁₀. However, all of the pollutant concentrations are below the allowable standards limits except for NM-HC.

Keywords

Pollutants; Al Jahra; Seasonal Changes; Monitoring Station

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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