Lignite Power Plant’s Contribution to the Particulate Pollution in the Grater Western Macedonia Area, Greece

Abstract

Quantifying the contribution of individual sources to air pollution in one area is the first essential step in managing air quality in this region. The area of Western Macedonia is a very complex in terms of air quality management problem because of large and complex pollution sources operating in the region. The emissions from five lignite power plants (LPP) operating in this region, the corresponding opencast lignite mining, as well as the urban activities in the industrial axis, is a complex problem to quantify the contribution of these sources in a spatial and temporal scale in the region. This paper attempts to quantify the contribution of LPP to the particulate pollution of this region, using PM10 concentrations measurements and simulations. Specifically were used: (a) suspended particulate PM10 concentration measurements for a 4 years period (2007–2010) at various locations in the region and (b) simulations of atmospheric dispersion.KeywordsPM10 ConcentrationPM10 EmissionFractional BiasHigh PM10 ConcentrationSource Apportionment StudyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.