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In Chile, the concept of sacrifice zones corresponds to those land surfaces in which industrial development was prioritized over the environmental impact that it caused. A high number of industries that emit pollutants into the environment are concentrated in these zones. This paper studies the atmospheric component of the Environmental Impact Declaration and Assessment's (EID and EIA, respectively) environmental assessment instruments of the thermoelectric power plants in northern Chile, based on their consistency with current environmental quality regulations. We specify concepts on air quality, atmospheric emission regulations, and the critical parameters and factors to be considered when carrying out an environmental impact assessment. Finally, we end by presenting possible alternatives to replace the current methodologies and criteria for atmospheric regulation in areas identified as saturated or of environmental sacrifice, with an emphasis on both population health and an environmental approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal power plants (TPPs) and national industrial complexes (NICs) are widely known as being among the major causes of changes in the concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). However, little is known about the changes in PM2.5 concentration caused by the operation of these facilities in South Korea and the health burden attributable to them, including early death. There were two purposes to this study. The first was to quantitatively evaluate the changes in PM2.5 concentration caused by TPPs and NICs in Korea. The second was to estimate the number of early deaths as a health burden attributable to such changes in PM2.5 concentration. The changes in PM2.5 concentration caused by the operation of TPPs and NICs were investigated within TPPs in 2013 and within NICs in 2015. The number of early deaths in 2015 caused by changes in PM2.5 concentration was estimated using the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program (BenMAP). Nationwide, the annual average concentration of PM2.5 caused by the operation of TPPs and NICs was estimated to increase by 0.611 μg/m3 and 1.245 μg/m3, respectively, suggesting that NICs contributed about twice as much to this concentration as TPPs. The same trend was also observed regarding the number of early deaths, with TPPs and NICs accounting for 1017 and 2091 early deaths per year, respectively, indicating that the operation of NICs causes a health burden about twice as high as that caused by TPPs. However, the changes in PM2.5 concentration were found to be high near TPPs and NICs, while the health burden caused by exposure to PM2.5 varied according to the level of population distribution and mortality in each air (quality) control zone (ACZ) to which one is exposed. The findings of this study are expected to be utilized as reference data when setting goals to strengthen air quality management (AQM) in each ACZ in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heating is one of the major causes of pollution in urban areas, producing high concentrations of aero-dispersed particulate matter (PM) that can cause serious damage to the respiratory system. A possible solution is the implementation of a district heating system, which would decrease the presence of conventional heating systems, reducing PM emissions. The case study considered involves the municipality of Serra San Bruno (Italy), located near a biomass plant, which could play the role of a thermal conversion plant for a possible district heating network. To determine the heating incidence on pollution, the large users in the area were identified. The large users' consumption estimation was carried out, obtaining the thermal energy requirement linked to the residential, which is about 3.5 times that of all the large users. Through air quality measuring devices, PM concentrations were measured for the winter and the summer period. PM emissions were then estimated using emission factors and the decreases in PM concentrations were calculated if part of the domestic users were converted to district heating, compatibly with the possibility of supplying energy to the biomass power plant. The replacement of conventional plants in favor of a district heating network has a positive impact on PM pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fossil-fueled power plants are a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and the membrane process is a promising technology for CO2 removal and mitigation. This study aims to develop optimal membrane-based carbon capture systems to enhance the sustainability of fossil-fuel power plants by reducing their energy consumption and operating costs. The multi-stage membrane process is numerically modeled using Aspen Custom Modeler based on the solution-diffusion mechanism and then the effects of important operating and design parameters are investigated. Multi-objective process optimization is then carried out by linking Aspen Plus with MATLAB and using an evolutionary technique to determine optimal operating and design conditions. The results show that, as the CO2 concentration in the feed gas increases, the CO2 capture cost significantly decreases and CO2 removal is enhanced, although the process energy demand slightly increases. The best possible trade-offs between objective functions are reported and analyzed, which confirm the considerable potential for improving the sustainability of the process. The CO2 capture cost and energy penalty of the process is as low as 13.1 $/tCO2 and 10% at optimal design and operating conditions. This study provides valuable insight into membrane separation and can be used by decision-makers for the sustainable improvement of fossil-fueled power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emissions of pollutants by waste-to-energy power plants, which contain more toxic substances owing to the complicated composition of municipal solid waste (MSW), such as NOx, SO2, HCl, HF, particulate matter, and heavy metals, has attracted increasing attention worldwide. To effectively control the pollutants, a flue gas cleaning system is indispensable in the operation of MSW incineration power plants. In this study, the flue gas cleaning system in a waste-to-energy power plant with flue gas recirculation (FGR) was evaluated. The concentrations of various pollutants were measured and compared with the standards at home and abroad. The results indicated that NOx emission can be effectively reduced by FGR, and that the emission concentration of NOx may meet the national emission standards only by adopting FGR. However, the emission levels of HCl and PM exceeded the limits in legislative standards; therefore, operation optimization or retrofit of a deacidification system and bag filter were proposed to comply with the international standards and near-zero-emissions goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants in China have been regulated since 2005 by a mandatory installation of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) devices. In order to verify the effectiveness of FGD systems applied in power plants, Shanxi (a province well-known for the largest coal reserves in China) was selected, and the characteristic and evolution of SO2 densities over 22 regions with large coal-fired power plants during 2005-2012 were investigated by using the satellite remote sensing data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). A unit-based inventory was also employed to study the trend of SO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants in Shanxi. The results show that the operation of FGD systems was successful in reducing SO2 emissions from power plants during 2005-2010: the mean SO2 densities satellite-observed over those regions with power plants operated before 2005 showed a notable decrease of approximate 0.4 DU; the mean SO2 densities over other regions with power plants newly built behind 2006 did not show a statistical increasing trend overall; the mean SO2 density over the whole Shanxi also showed a moderate decline from 2008 to 2010. However, the polluted conditions over Shanxi during 2011-2012 rebounded and the declining trend in mean SO2 density over the whole Shanxi disappeared again. In comparison of unit-based emission inventory, the emissions calculated show a similar trend with SO2 densities satellite-observed during 2005-2010 and still maintain at a lower volume during 2011-2012. By investigating the developments of other emission sources in Shanxi during 2005-2012, it is considered that the rapid expansion of industries with high coal-consumption has played an important role for the increment rise of SO2 emissions. Lack of an independent air quality monitoring network and the purposeful reduced operation rate of FGD systems occurring in some coal-fired power plants have reduced the effectiveness of SO2 emission reduction policy applied in Shanxi. In view that the SO2 pollution in Shanxi has not been well ameliorated, more reasonable and mandatory policies, such as a national-wide independent monitoring network and installation of FGD systems in other large emission sources, should be pushed out in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we investigate the ability of a data assimilation technique and space-borne observations to quantify and monitor changes in nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions over Northwestern Greece for the summers of 2018 and 2019. In this region, four lignite-burning power plants are located. The data assimilation technique, based on the Ensemble Kalman Filter method, is employed to combine space-borne atmospheric observations from the high spatial resolution Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and simulations using the LOTOS-EUROS Chemical Transport model. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service-Regional European emissions (CAMS-REG, version 4.2) inventory based on the year 2015 is used as the a priori emissions in the simulations. Surface measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from air quality stations operating in the region are compared with the model surface NO2 output using either the a priori (base run) or the a posteriori (assimilated run) NOx emissions. Relative to the a priori emissions, the assimilation suggests a strong decrease in concentrations for the station located near the largest power plant, by 80% in 2019 and by 67% in 2018. Concerning the estimated annual a posteriori NOx emissions, it was found that, for the pixels hosting the two largest power plants, the assimilated run results in emissions decreased by ~40–50% for 2018 compared to 2015, whereas a larger decrease, of ~70% for both power plants, was found for 2019, after assimilating the space-born observations. For the same power plants, the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) reports decreased emissions in 2018 and 2019 compared to 2015 (−35% and −38% in 2018, −62% and −72% in 2019), in good agreement with the estimated emissions. We further compare the a posteriori emissions to the reported energy production of the power plants during the summer of 2018 and 2019. Mean decreases of about −35% and−63% in NOx emissions are estimated for the two larger power plants in summer of 2018 and 2019, respectively, which are supported by similar decreases in the reported energy production of the power plants (~−30% and −70%, respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has increased rapidly worldwide, aggravating the global greenhouse effect, and coal-fired power plants are one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions in China. However, efficient methods that can quantify CO2 emissions from individual coal-fired power plants with high accuracy are needed. In this study, we estimated the CO2 emissions of large-scale coal-fired power plants using Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite data based on remote sensing inversions and bottom-up methods. First, we mapped the distribution of coal-fired power plants, displaying the total installed capacity, and identified two appropriate targets, the Waigaoqiao and Qinbei power plants in Shanghai and Henan, respectively. Then, an improved Gaussian plume model method was applied for CO2 emission estimations, with input parameters including the geographic coordinates of point sources, wind vectors from the atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate, and OCO-2 observations. The application of the Gaussian model was improved by using wind data with higher temporal and spatial resolutions, employing the physically based unit conversion method, and interpolating OCO-2 observations into different resolutions. Consequently, CO2 emissions were estimated to be 23.06 ± 2.82 (95% CI) Mt/yr using the Gaussian model and 16.28 Mt/yr using the bottom-up method for the Waigaoqiao Power Plant, and 14.58 ± 3.37 (95% CI) and 14.08 Mt/yr for the Qinbei Power Plant, respectively. These estimates were compared with three standard databases for validation: the Carbon Monitoring for Action database, the China coal-fired Power Plant Emissions Database, and the Carbon Brief database. The comparison found that previous emission inventories spanning different time frames might have overestimated the CO2 emissions of one of two Chinese power plants on the two days that the measurements were made. Our study contributes to quantifying CO2 emissions from point sources and helps in advancing satellite-based monitoring techniques of emission sources in the future; this helps in reducing errors due to human intervention in bottom-up statistical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]