Comparative Analysis of Air Quality Around Gas Flaring Sites in Etche And Ikwerre Local Government Areas, Rivers State, Nigeria.

Abstract

This paper examined air quality around gas flaring sites in Etche and Ikwerre Local Government Areas of Rivers State, Nigeria. Experimental research design was adopted, imploring the use of primary and secondary data. Primary data were generated through field measurements. Air quality parameters of CO, SO2, NO2, SPM2.5, SPM10 and H2S were measured using an ELE Analox Sensor Gas Monitor Model GC 401, multi–RAE PLUS (PGM-50), programmable Multi Gas Monitor and Multi Gas Detector (Defender ®) Model D2-2000 respectively. While Met One Instrument, Inc Aerosol Mass Monitor was used to measure Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) of PM2.5 and PM10 in the study area. Hand-held digital thermometer, logger (Testo 450), and digital anemometer were used to determined micro-climatic parameters of atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, and wind velocity respectively. Air quality measurements were collected around 12 randomly selected flare locations of Etche and Ikwerre gas flared sites. The study was anchored on the Concept of Environmental Quality, Air pollution dispersion and System theories. Inferential statistics was used to analyse the data and hypothesis was tested using two sample t-test. Findings showed that the mean concentration of NO2, SO2, H2S and CO ranged from 1245.69mg/m3 -1555.09 mg/m3, 138.43 mg/m3 - 202.65 mg/m3, 60.43 mg/m3 - 65.24 mg/m3, and 750.0 mg/m3 - 985.7 mg/m3 respectively. PM2.5 concentration ranged from 0.0237mg/m3 -14.42 while PM10 concentration ranged from 0.0848 mg/m3 - 0.094 mg/m3. The study concluded that the concentration of most of the pollutants in the selected flared locations exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) stipulated limits while a few others remained within acceptable limits. Thus, the study recommended amongst others installation or optimization of pollution control equipment (e.g., scrubbers, flare optimization) to reduce CO, NO₂, SO₂, and particulate emissions, well-planned sustainable afforestation programme along these flare locations should be encouraged as these trees will act as a sink to these atmospheric pollutants.