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NVIRONMENTAL and HEALTH EFFECTS
MIT Energy Laboratory

Preventing environmental damage, protecting human health, and improving ecological sustainability are major motivations for much of the present research worldwide on energy technology. If not properly controlled, emissions from energy-related activities may create pollution problems on local, regional, and global scales. Energy Laboratory research on Environmental and Health Effects seeks to understand how pollutants are formed, transported, and modified in the environment, and which energy by-products are truly harmful to people and therefore deserving of technological and policy countermeasures. The health effects research is carried out in close collaboration with the MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences, which is directed by Professor William Thilly. The Energy Laboratory also actively participates in the Program for Environmental Engineering Education and Research and the multi-university Alliance for Global Sustainability, both of which are directed by Professor David Marks.

Current research relating to air quality focuses on the human and environmental health impacts of gaseous, liquid, and solid airborne emissions from energy production, conversion, and utilization. Anchoring those endeavors is the Center on Airborne Organics, a collaborative effort between MIT, the California Institute of Technology, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology that is directed by Professor Jack Howard and funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The overall goal of the center is to provide EPA with the tools--improved methodologies and predictive and interpretive models--to connect the identities and concentrations of airborne organic compounds with major pollutant emission sources arising from human activity. A key feature of the center's research program is to develop a mechanistic understanding of the factors that govern the detailed chemical compositions of the effluents from mobile and stationary combustion systems and to determine how pollutant compositions change as emissions products move through the atmosphere. Also examined are how pollutants migrate in the air and how they ultimately affect local, regional, and global environments. In addition, research seeks to define the mechanisms that lead to the formation of specific toxicants and to understand how pollutants and their transformation products degrade human health. The results of these studies will clarify how specific chemical or physical attributes of pollutants can be used to trace their origins. This information will help identify technological and policy strategies that will reduce or eliminate specific emissions that are, or will become, hazardous.


Gregory J. McRae

Other research focuses on the fate and transport of toxic chemicals in groundwater and soils. One project is demonstrating a new method for detecting groundwater contamination and identifying the source of the pollution. The method involves analyzing patterns of concentrations of trace elements that can be linked to specific pollution sources. Other field studies are developing improved instrumentation for in-situ measurement of volatile organic compounds in groundwater. Additional research is exploring the role of colloid-sized particles and macromolecules in transporting hydrophobic organic compounds--for example, polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic compounds--and trace metals in groundwater.

Selected Participants


Center on Airborne Organics

The Center on Airborne Organics, headquartered at MIT, founded by Professor Adel Sarofim, and directed by Professor Jack Howard, is one of four exploratory environmental research centers funded nationwide by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Its research focuses on sources, atmospheric transformation, monitoring, and control of organic pollutants in ambient air. To gather a strong group of experts to address these issues, the center operates as a consortium of MIT, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Professor John Seinfeld (Caltech) and Professor Richard Magee (NJIT) are associate directors. Energy production, conversion, and utilization are major potential sources of air pollution; and energy technologists and policymakers are often the sources of new ideas for controlling or eliminating toxic anthropogenic emissions. Therefore, the Energy Laboratory plays a major role in hosting this center at MIT, in collaboration with the center's co-host, the MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences.

MIT projects have included examination of fundamental chemical and physical processes of pollutant formation in automotive engines, research on the chemistry of the formation and transformation of polycyclic organic compounds in flames, fundamental studies of the detailed physical structure of soot to develop new methods for identifying emissions sources and formation processes, and fundamental studies of the effects of retrofitted burners on pollutant emissions from industrial flames.


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