Air Pollution in Kazakhstan

Two Major Cities of KazakhstanAlmaty, Kazakhstan

(ALA)Old Capital City of KazakhstanPopulation (People): 1,477,564Area (km2): 324.8 km2

Time Zone: UTC +6Astana, Kazakhstan (AST)Capital City of Kaza-khstanPopulation (People): 814,401Area (km2): 722 km2

Time Zone: UTC +6

Problem of KazakhstanAir Pollution

Q. What is the reason of air pollution in Kazakhstan?1.Geography of the country

Tien Shan Mountain blocks polluted air in Almaty, so the air cannot escape.

2.Diesel or Petrol-powered mo-tor vehicles

Most of taxis and buses in Kazakhstan are diesel-powered vehicles and diesel causes pollution.

3.Coal usage during Winter time

Many houses in Kazakhstan still use coal during Winter time and coal usuage cause pollution.

However 85% of air pollutants (160,000 tons) are from motor vehicle emissions.

Solution

CNG (Compressed Natural Gas)-powered vehicles produce much less pollutants than

Diesel or Petrol-powered vehicles.Replacing vehicles’ engines to CNG engines will help decreasing pollu-

tants.

By looking at these two graphs, you can see Petrol-powered vehicles produce about two times more pollutants than CNG-powered vehicles. Also, difference between emissions of Diesel-powered vehicles and CNG-powered vehicles are even larger.

If you look at the graphs, you can there isn’t much difference of CO2. How-ever you can see large gap at the NOx and PM. NOx is type of nitrogen oxide. It can cause human problem in breathing. PM are tiny solid matters associ-ated with the Earth’s atmosphere. This can also cause problem in breathing.

If we say pollutants from Petrol and Diesel is 900.100 * 9 = 900

Then pollutants from CNG is 367.85 + 15 + 50 + 15 + 2 + 75 + 45 + 45 + 35 = 367

So by replacing Petrol and Diesel-powered cars to CNG-powered car, we can reduce about 59% of pollutants.

367 / 900 = 0.41, 41%100% – 41% = 59%

Lets apply to Kazakhstan!!

*Information in 2011.

There are 3,000,000 non-residential cars in Kazakhstan and none of them are CNG-powered vehicles. We don’t know how many cars among 3,000,000 cars are diesel-powered or petrol powered. So let’s say half of cars are diesel-powered and other half is petrol-powered.

• Diesel-powered vehicles (1,500,000 cars)By replacing diesel-powered engines to CNG-powered engines, we

can reduce 67% of pollutants.1 - (85 + 15 + 50 + 15 + 2) / (5 * 100) = 1 – 167 / 500 = 1 - 0.33 = 0.67

• Petrol-powered vehicles (1,500,000 cars)By replacing petrol-powered engines to CNG-powered engines, we

can reduce 50% of pollutants.1 – (75 + 45 + 45 + 35) / (4 * 100) = 1 – 200 / 400 = 1- 0.5 = 0.5

About 160,000 tons of pollutants produce each year from non CNG-powered vehicles. Let’s say half of pollutants come from diesel-powered ve-hicles and other half come from petrol-powered vehicles. If we replace en-gines to CNG engines, we can reduce about 58% (93,600 tons) of pollution in Kazakhstan from vehicles.

160,000 - 80,000 * 0.33 + 80,000 * 0.5 = 160,000 - 66,400 = 93,60093,600 / 160,000 = 0. 58 58%

ConclusionSo by replacing Kazakhstan’s motor vehi-

cles (non-residential)’ engines to CNG-pow-ered engines, Kazakhstan’s air quality can be

much better than now.As we found out already, 58% (93,600

tons) of pollutants from vehicles can be gone.It means 49% of total pollution can be

gone by one change.