Air quality modeling of geothermal power plants in complex terrain

Journal Article · Fri Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1982 · IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5284380

Tesche, T W

Commercial energy development at the Geysers KGRA, California--the world's largest producing geothermal field--is confronted with increasingly more stringent air quality impact assessment requirements for not only regulated pollutants (e.g., hydrogen sulfide and primary particulates) but also unregulated species including benzene, ammonia, arsenic, Radon/sup 222/, boron, and mercury. An integrated program of ambient aerometric monitoring, tracer diffusion experiments, cooling tower plume rise studies, and numerical air quality simulation modeling was conducted for this mountainous region to provide estimates of potential short term (i.e., about 1 hour) impacts attributable to development of the Geysers steam resource. A series of atmospheric tracer diffusion experiments, focusing on aerodynamic downwash, nocturnal drainage, fumigation, and limited vertical mixing were conducted to provide a basis for air quality model performance evaluation. Upper air meteorological measurements and cooling tower plume rise studies were performed to develop data useful in evaluating windfield and plume rise submodels.

• Research Organization: Systems Applications, Inc., San Rafael, California
• OSTI ID: 5284380
• Journal Information: IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens.; (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens.; (United States) Vol. 6; ISSN IGRSD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
150600* -- Geothermal Energy-- Environmental Aspects
AIR POLLUTION
AIR POLLUTION MONITORS
AIR QUALITY
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
AMMONIA
AROMATICS
ARSENIC
BENZENE
BORON
CALIFORNIA
CHALCOGENIDES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
ELEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FEDERAL REGION IX
GEOTHERMAL FIELDS
GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANTS
GEYSERS GEOTHERMAL FIELD
HEAVY NUCLEI
HYDRIDES
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN SULFIDES
ISOTOPES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MERCURY
METALS
MONITORS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN HYDRIDES
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARTICLES
PARTICULATES
POLLUTION
POWER PLANTS
RADIOISOTOPES
RADON 222
RADON ISOTOPES
SEMIMETALS
SIMULATION
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
USA