Quantifying air quality co-benefits to industrial decarbonization: the local Air Emissions Tracking Atlas

Front Public Health. 2024 May 24:12:1394678. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1394678. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Introduction: Many decarbonization technologies have the added co-benefit of reducing short-lived climate pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur dioxide (SO2), creating a unique opportunity for identifying strategies that promote both climate change solutions and opportunities for air quality improvement. However, stakeholders and decision-makers may struggle to quantify how these co-benefits will impact public health for the communities most affected by industrial air pollution.

Methods: To address this problem, the LOCal Air Emissions Tracking Atlas (LOCAETA) fills a data availability and analysis gap by providing estimated air quality benefits from industrial decarbonization options, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). These co-benefits are calculated using an algorithm that connects disparate datasets that separately report greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants at U.S. industrial facilities.

Results: Version 1.0 of LOCAETA displays the estimated primary PM2.5 emission reduction co-benefits from additional pretreatment equipment for CCS on industrial and power facilities across the state of Louisiana, as well as the potential for VOC and NH3 generation. The emission reductions are presented in the tool alongside facility pollutant emissions information and relevant air quality, environmental, demographic, and public health datasets, such as air toxics cancer risk, satellite and in situ pollutant measurements, and population vulnerability metrics.

Discussion: LOCAETA enables regulators, policymakers, environmental justice communities, and industrial and commercial users to compare and contrast quantifiable public health benefits due to air quality impacts from various climate change mitigation strategies using a free and publicly-available tool. Additional pollutant reductions can be calculated using the same methodology and will be available in future versions of the tool.

Keywords: air quality; carbon capture; co-benefits; decarbonization; industrial emissions; particulate matter; public health.

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollutants* / analysis
  • Air Pollution* / analysis
  • Climate Change
  • Environmental Monitoring*
  • Humans
  • Industry
  • Louisiana
  • Nitrogen Oxides / analysis
  • Particulate Matter* / analysis
  • Sulfur Dioxide / analysis

Substances

  • Air Pollutants
  • Particulate Matter
  • Sulfur Dioxide
  • Nitrogen Oxides

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award number DE-SC0023562.