AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Airborne Measurements of Particle Size Distribution in Coal Power Plant Emissions Exhausted through Cooling Towers
JAN HOVORKA, Jaroslav Schwarz, Miroslav Klán, Filip Kobrzek, Petr Marecek, Charles University
Abstract Number: 350 Working Group: Control and Mitigation Technology
Abstract At nowadays, majority of coal-fired power plants in the EU pipe flue gas directly into natural-draft cooling towers to disperse particulate and gaseous pollutants. In cooling towers, the emissions are mixed with hot air and water vapor, receive intensified lift and also interact with droplets of large vapour plumes formed above the towers. While interaction between the plume droplets and SO2 is well described, there was a very limited information on plume droplets-particulate matter interaction though the imminent importance of such a strong anthropogenic aerosol source. Therefore, airborne aerosol measurements were conducted in-and-off the vapour plumes above cooling towers of the Chvaletice coal-fired power station in Czechia. Spatial distribution and aerosol size spectras were determined by optical and aerodynamic particle sizers and a nanoscan spectrometer carried by an unmanned airship. An effective updraft of primary aerosol particles to the heights of 600m was confirmed. Measurement of mass and size distributions of supermicrone particles reveals horizontally narrow pollutant plumes enriched with PM2.5 up to 300 micrograms per cubic meter. Measurements of submicrone and ultrafine size spectra reveals dominant mode in 65 nm, reaching maximum number concertation about 105 per cubic centimeter. Both findings indicate intensive post-injection cloud-processing of primary aerosol particles. The study is supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TH02030238), the Czech Science Foundation (P503/12/G147) and the Sev.en Energy AG.