DISPERSION OF POLLUTANTS FROM A

THERMAL POWER PLANT – A CASE

STUDY WITH TWO DISPERSION MODELS
By
R KRISHNA
CHAITHANYA
(132103)
M.Tech Environmental
Engineering

Under the supervision of

Smt.N.Munilakshmi, Asst.professor
Department of Civil Engineering
SV University, Tirupati - 517502
 CONTENTS

Introduction

Study Area

Objectives of the Present Study

Tools to be used
 INTRODUCTION

 “Air pollutant" means any solid, liquid or gaseous substance

present in the atmosphere injurious to human beings or other
living creatures or plants or property or environment.

 “Air pollution" means the presence of any air pollutant in the

atmosphere
 Pollutants are classified as primary or secondary.

 Primary air pollutants = chemicals that enter directly into

the atmosphere. E.g carbon oxides, nitrogen oxides, sulfur
oxides, particulate matter, hydrocarbons

 Secondary air pollutants = chemicals that form from other

already present in the atmosphere. E.g ozone, sulfurous acid,
PAN
Major Sources of air pollution:

 The sources can be classified in to two major categories.

1) Anthropogenic(man made) sources : These are mostly
related to the burning of multiple types of fuels.
Stationary sources: includes smoke stacks of power plants,
manufacturing facilities (factories) and waste incinerators.

Mobile sources: includes motor vehicles, marine vessels,

aircraft.

Fumes : from paints ,hair spray, varnish, aerosol sprays and

other solvents.
2) Natural sources : The natural sources of air pollution
emissions include:

Volcanoes: volcanic activity produces smoke, ash, carbon

dioxide, sulphur dioxide and other air pollutants.

Gleysers: The air pollutants emitted by gleysers include

hydrogen sulphide, arsenic and other heavy metals .

Oceans, Rivers and Estuaries: These are sources of methane

emissions.
 Pollutants- Sources & Effects
Pollutant Natural Sources Anthropogenic Effects
Sources

Nitrogen Oxides Bacterial Fuel combustion, Acid rain,Aerosols, PAN,

(NO, N20) activity, Chemical process ozone, smog
Lightning lung damage, leaf
damage,carcinogen
Sulphur dioxide Volcano, forest Fuel combustion, Forms H2SO3 aerosols-
fires, bacterial Chemical process smog, burning sensation,
activity @ 20ppm-lung, eye
damage

Carbon Oxidation of Combustion carboxyhaemoglobin

monoxide hydrocarbons (incomplete), (HbCO), smog formation
by bact, plants, chemical reaction
ocean

Hydrocarbons, Decomposition, Fuel combustion Particles, smog,

Volatile Organic plants,soil (incomplete), respiratory damage,
Carbons (VOC) evaporation, carcinogens, global
chemical processes warming, ozone damage.
 Pollution due to power plants in India
 Power plants are the major source of air pollution.
 Coal is the primary fuel for electricity generation in India and
its usage is continuously increasing to meet the growing
energy demands of the country.
 Emissions of greenhouse gases and other criteria pollutants are
increasing in India in parallel to the increasing demands for
electricity.
 Implications of power plant emissions on environment are
depending on the concentrations of pollutants.
 It is necessary to predict the concentrations of pollutants for
impact assessment.
Air Quality Management
Air Quality Management - Components
Monthly variation PM10 levels
800

700

600

500

Level ug/m3
Sw argate
400 Nalstop
Bhosari
300

200

100

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month

Air Quality Monitoring

GIS based Emission
Source Apportionment
gridding

Emission Inventory

Meteorological
Data

Strategies, Planning, Development

Air Pollution Modeling

Impacts Assessment
 STUDY AREA
 The site selected for the present study is Kakatiya Thermal
Power Plant , located at Chelpur village of Warangal district,
Telangana.
 Location :
 latitude 18°2’15“ N
 longitude 79°50'22“ E
 Generating capacity - Phase I-500 MW running.
-Phase II- 600MW under implementation.
 The power plant is one of the coal based power plants of
Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TSGENCO).
 Coal source-Tadicherla mines of singareni
It has set up a 500 MW (and another unit of 1x600MW unit
is under construction, thus the total capacity will become
1100MW) super thermal power plant in the Chelpur/
Bhupalpally area.
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited is having a
630MVA, 400/220KV Substation in the Oglapur village in
Atmakur mandal.Warangal.

Stage II scheduled to complete in june 2014

 OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY
 To study dispersion of SPM, SO2,Nox using two dispersion
models.

 Prediction of ground level concentration of primary pollutants

such as SPM, SO2, and NOx using the Gaussian formulae.

 Validation of model performance with the monitored values.

 Meteorological Data

The data includes:

 Wind Speed
 Wind Direction
 Ambient Atmospheric Temperature
Softwares to be used
 AERMOD
 CALPUFF
 CALPUFF

 CALPUFF is an advanced, integrated Gaussian

puff modeling system for the simulation of atmospheric
pollution.

 The model has been adopted by the United States

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Guideline on
Air Quality Models as a preferred model for assessing long
range transport of pollutants and their impacts.
 The integrated modeling system consists of three main
components and a set of preprocessing and post processing
programs.

 The main components of the modeling system are CALMET

(a diagnostic 3-dimensional meteorological model),
CALPUFF (an air quality dispersion model), and CALPOST (a
post processing package).

 Each of these programs has a graphical user interface(GUI).

 The CALPUFF model is designed to simulate the dispersion

of buoyant, puff or continuous point and area pollution
sources as well as the dispersion of buoyant, continuous
line sources.
History of Calpuff

 The CALPUFF model was originally developed by the Sigma Research Corporation
(SRC) in the late 1980s under contract with the California Air Resources
Board (CARB) and it was first issued in about 1990.

 The Sigma Research Corporation subsequently became part of Earth Tech, Inc.
After the US EPA designated CALPUFF as a preferred model in their Guideline on
Air Quality Models, Earth Tech served as the designated distributor of the model.

 In April 2006, ownership of the model switched from Earth Tech to the TRC
Environmental Corporation, who are currently (August 2013) responsible for
maintaining and distributing the model.
Technical Background

 The model is programmed to simulate continuous puffs of pollutants

being emitted from a source into the ambient wind flow.

 As the wind flow changes from hour to hour, the path each puff takes
changes to the new wind flow direction.

 Puff diffusion is Gaussian and concentrations are based on the

contributions of each puff as it passes over or near a receptor point.

 For these tests, CALPUFF was set to emit 99 puffs per hour(default).

 A sufficiently large number of puffs is necessary to adequately

reproduce the plume solution at near-field receptors.
Merits
 CALPUFF explicitly treats virtually all of the important physical
processes affecting transport ,diffusion, deposition, and
transformation.

 The three most important areas of improvement are:

a) the wind field representation provided by CALMET and the explicit

integration of mesoscale model outputs,

b) the explicit treatment of terrain effects, both in the wind-field model

and the dispersion model, and

c) a comprehensive treatment of near-field effects, including building

effects.

 It provides users with a more powerful, flexible, and realistic

simulation tool.
 Merits

 In cases of emission events or complaints (peak or

stagnation periods) Calpuff gives a more detailed output.

 Better handling of low wind speed cases, stagnation,

coastal, complex terrain and flow reversals.
Demerits

 The disadvantages of CALPUFF are primarily its increased

complexity.

 More data, decisions, and calculation are required.

 At times, a less realistic assessment of impacts within short

distances (<50km)than that of models such as AERMOD.
AERMOD

 AERMOD stands for American Meteorological Society/

Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model

 Formally Proposed as replacement for ISC in 2000

 Adopted as Preferred Model November 9, 2005

ABOUT…
- 1994 – 2001 first version
- Steady-state Gaussian Plume Dispersion Model
-Improvements over traditional Gaussian Models
Pune City(ISC)


- Computes turbulence before dispersion

- Separate schemes for Convective & Stable condititions
- Inbuilt computation of vertical profiles (PDF)
- Urban handling- nighttime boundary layer

- Specified as Preferred Regulatory Model by USEPA in 2006

AERMOD COMPONENTS

 3 COMPONENTS

 AERMET – THE METEOROLOGICAL PREPROCESOR

 AERMAP – THE TERRAIN DATA PREPROCESSOR

 AERMOD – THE DISPERSION MODEL

 2 SUPPORT TOOLS

 AERSURFACE – PROCESSES SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS DATA

 AERSCREEN – PROVIDES A SCREENING TOOL

AERMOD

 AERMOD IS SIMILAR TO ISC IN SETUP

 THE CONTROL FILE STRUCTURE IS THE SAME

 VIRTUALLY ALL THE CONTROL KEYWORDS AND OPTIONS ARE THE SAME
AERMOD

 AERMOD IS DIFFERENT FROM ISC

 REQUIRES SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS (ALBEDO, BOWEN

RATIO, SURFACE ROUGHNESS) IN AERMET

 HAS PRIME FOR BUILDING DOWNWASH AND THE BUILDING

PARAMETERS ARE MORE EXTENSIVE

 REQUIRES LONGER COMPUTER RUN TIMES (up to 5 times

longer!)