Abstract
Large industrial plants, power plants, and combined heat and power plants are popularly believed to be the main sources of point emissions, affecting both local and global air quality. This is because these installations emit significant amounts of pollutants at high altitudes every year. In this study, we investigate the impact of two solid fuel (hard coal)-fired CHP plants located within the urban agglomeration on the air quality of the city of Lodz in Poland (Europe). We used an OPA03 computer software to model the spatial distribution of pollutants. The results show that the annual average concentrations of pollutants were highest at an altitude of 25 m above ground level and decreased at lower measurement heights. The concentrations did not exceed permissible levels, reaching only 4% of national and international regulatory limits. We also made field measurements during the winter heating period, using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with sensors to map the distributions of dust and gas pollutants in the areas with the highest concentrations of emissions from the two heat and power plants. Overall, the field measurements confirmed that it is not high-altitude emissions that have the greatest impact on local air quality.
Highlights
Air pollution is caused by the emission of gaseous, liquid, and solid substances in amounts that cause environmental damage, adversely affecting flora and fauna, water, soil, and human health [1]
Particulate matter pollutants have a negative impact on human health, both directly, by penetrating the body causing allergies and lung diseases, and indirectly, by acting as a carrier for heavy metals, microorganisms, and bacteria [2,3,4]
Despite the comparable power of the two heat and power plants, “EC-4” emitted higher total emissions of pollutants than “EC-3”. This was probably caused by the higher fuel consumption of the EC-4 CHP plant, due to the greater demand for power in this area of the city of Lodz
Summary
Air pollution is caused by the emission of gaseous, liquid, and solid substances in amounts that cause environmental damage, adversely affecting flora and fauna, water, soil, and human health [1]. The main air pollutants include nitrogen compounds (NO, NO2 ), carbon compounds (CO, CO2 ), sulfur dioxide (SO2 ), heavy metals (mercury, nickel, lead, arsenic, cadmium), hydrocarbons, and their derivatives, as well as particulate matter pollutants PM10 , PM2.5 , and PM1.0. Particulate matter pollutants have a negative impact on human health, both directly, by penetrating the body causing allergies and lung diseases, and indirectly, by acting as a carrier for heavy metals, microorganisms, and bacteria [2,3,4]. The permissible level of PM10 is 50 μg/m3 for the daily average and 40 μg/m3 for the annual average. For PM2.5, the maximum limit is 25 μg/m3 (annual average)
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