Abstract
The development of a natural gas-fired tri-generation power plant (520 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbines + 58 MW Tri-generation) in the Republic of San Marino, a small independent country in Northern Italy, is under assessment. This work investigates the impact of atmospheric emissions of NOx by the plant, under the Italian and European regulatory framework. The impact assessment was performed by the means of the Aria Industry package, including the 3D Lagrangian stochastic particle dispersion model SPRAY, the diagnostic meteorological model SWIFT, and the turbulence model SURFPRO (Aria Technologies, France, and Arianet, Italy). The Republic of San Marino is almost completely mountainous, 10 km west of the Adriatic Sea and affected by land-sea breeze circulation. SPRAY is suitable for simulations under non-homogenous and non-stationary conditions, over a complex topography. The emission scenario included both a worst-case meteorological condition and three 10-day periods representative of typical atmospheric conditions for 2014. The simulated NOx concentrations were compared with the regulatory air quality limits. Notwithstanding the high emission rate, the simulation showed a spatially confined environmental impact, with only a single NOx peak at ground where the plume hits the hillside of the Mount Titano (749 m a.s.l.), 5 km west of the future power plant.
Highlights
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set the ultimate objective to prevent hazardous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.To meet this goal, the European Commission promotes and supports the reduction in energy consumption, the increase in energy efficiency, the increase in energy production from renewable sources and the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; these commitments were set out in the Directive 2009/29/EC [1], and commonly called European 20-20-20 targets.To fulfill the purposes of the Directive 2009/29/EC, the European Commission planned preliminary actions, including the promotion of the “cogeneration” [2]
Combined heat and power (CHP) helps to reduce the environmental impact of power generation, because its self-production of electric power reduces the needs of electricity supply from the electric energy network with respect to a traditional power plant
The present work investigated the impact assessment of the NOx atmospheric emissions from a cogeneration plant, which will be installed in the area of Republic of San Marino, considering the regulatory limits for the combustion plants set by the Italian law
Summary
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set the ultimate objective to prevent hazardous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.To meet this goal, the European Commission promotes and supports the reduction in energy consumption, the increase in energy efficiency, the increase in energy production from renewable sources and the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; these commitments were set out in the Directive 2009/29/EC [1], and commonly called European 20-20-20 targets.To fulfill the purposes of the Directive 2009/29/EC, the European Commission planned preliminary actions, including the promotion of the “cogeneration” [2]. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set the ultimate objective to prevent hazardous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. To meet this goal, the European Commission promotes and supports the reduction in energy consumption, the increase in energy efficiency, the increase in energy production from renewable sources and the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; these commitments were set out in the Directive 2009/29/EC [1], and commonly called European 20-20-20 targets. Estimates by the European Environmental Agency [6] of the avoided CO2 emissions by the use of CHP led to the classification of cogeneration as a low carbon technology
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
