Our featured Scoping Study this month is from the team led by Dr Lekan Popoola, examining the relationship between ammonia (NH3) and particulate matter (PM).

The Clean Air Strategy (Defra, 2019) sets out an ambitious, stringent target to cut emission of major air pollutants by 2020 and 2030. A significant air pollution challenge is the shift in the relative importance from a relatively small number of major emission sources to many minor sources (such as intensive agriculture, wood burning from homes and smaller industrial sites). The impact of COVID-19 restrictions and various lockdowns have created changes in mobility behaviour, with increasing importance of residential emissions as many of us work from home. Evaluation of the impact of these emission sources requires evidence-based scientific methods and data.

During the recent SAQN collaboration building workshop, research scientists from STFC-RAL Space (Thomas Wall), Cranfield University (Zaheer Nasar), and the University of Cambridge (Lekan Popoola) were successful in getting funding from SAQN to develop a proof-of-concept for a cost-effective Modular Relaxed Eddy Covariance (MOREC-AQ) measurement approach to fluxes/source characterisation and a miniaturised cost-effective NH3 instrument to incorporate into MOREC-AQ (see schematics below).

The specific objectives include: (1) feasibility studies for a portable high-resolution NH3 sensor; (2) design and characterisation of a prototype MOREC-AQ unit; (3) explore additional funding opportunities to further develop and optimise the prototype MOREC-AQ unit.

Monitoring and quantifying atmospheric emissions and their drivers is important to investigate the interplay between gaseous pollutants and PM, informing and evaluating the impacts of air quality interventions. This proof of concept study will allow scoping out the development of cost-effective, reliable emission monitoring solutions for air quality management, particularly in the context of the NH3/PM relationship.

System schematics for the MOREC-AQ

If you have comments or questions about this project, you can share them on our discussion board.