Sulfate formation in oil-fired power plant plumes. Volume 2. Plume measurements. Final report

Technical Report · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:5303526

Garber, R W; Forrest, J

Sixty-six airborne plume studies were conducted at a large oil-fired power station during a 3-1/2 year period, 1976 to 1980. These studies were conducted to determine the typical rate of formation of sulfate in the plume and the conditions which most influence these atmospheric processes. The power plant chosen for this program is located in the northeast region of the US and during the course of these studies a typical variety of meteorological conditions were encountered. The diurnal effect was also extensively studied. Plume sulfate rarely accounted for more than 5% of the total plume sulfur even for plume travel times of up to 4 hours. For most experiments more than half of the plume sulfate was that emitted from the power plant units. The rate of atmospheric oxidation of sulfur dioxide to sulfate was not readily discernible due to the low rate of conversion and the relatively high amount of the sulfate emitted. The results reported in this paper generally indicate an apparent oxidation rate of less than 1% per hour. A diurnal influence or effects due to changes in various meteorological conditions are difficult to discern. The information provided by this program has yielded recommendations for minimizing sulfate emissions and may indicate the means for more effective and economic environmental controls. 14 references, 35 figures, 16 tables.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 5303526
• Report Number(s): EPRI-EA-3231-Vol.2; ON: DE84008319
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
200200 -- Fossil-Fueled Power Plants-- Waste Management
500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AERIAL MONITORING
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMISTRY
DATA
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUE GAS
GASEOUS WASTES
INFORMATION
METEOROLOGY
MONITORING
NUMERICAL DATA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLUMES
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES
WASTES