This work describes the pollution plumes of seven Spanish

coal power plants under the most typical meteorological conditions

that affect the Iberian Peninsula at synoptic scale. The aim is to

understand how meteorology modulates the plume dynamics (length,

altitude, orientation) and their contribution to NO2 and SO2 surface

concentration. Using the BSC-ES operational air quality forecasting

system (CALIOPE-AQFS), the behavior of the plumes is analyzed for

a representative day of each of the six most common synoptic

situations. The results show that the plumes from Atlantic facilities

are mainly driven by synoptic conditions whereas for power plants

located over the Mediterranean and on mountainous regions,

mesoscale dynamics dominate. Moreover, when the injection of the

pollutants is done within the planetary boundary layer there is an

increase in the NO2 and SO2 surface concentrations close to (<15-20

km) the sources

Baldasano Recio, José María

Pay, María Teresa

Valverde, Víctor

English

This work describes the pollution plumes of seven Spanish
coal power plants under the most typical meteorological conditions
that affect the Iberian Peninsula at synoptic scale. The aim is to
understand how meteorology modulates the plume dynamics (length,
altitude, orientation) and their contribution to NO2 and SO2 surface
concentration. Using the BSC-ES operational air quality forecasting
system (CALIOPE-AQFS), the behavior of the plumes is analyzed for
a representative day of each of the six most common synoptic
situations. The results show that the plumes from Atlantic facilities
are mainly driven by synoptic conditions whereas for power plants
located over the Mediterranean and on mountainous regions,
mesoscale dynamics dominate. Moreover, when the injection of the
pollutants is done within the planetary boundary layer there is an
increase in the NO2 and SO2 surface concentrations close to (<15-20
km) the sources

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC

    ~ 93 ~ Characterization of coal power plants plume dynamics under typical synoptic conditions over the Iberian Peninsula  Víctor Valverde, María Teresa Pay, José María Baldasano Earth Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación, Barcelona, Spain  victor.valverde@bsc.es  Abstract- This work describes the pollution plumes of seven Spanish coal power plants under the most typical meteorological conditions that affect the Iberian Peninsula at synoptic scale. The aim is to understand how meteorology modulates the plume dynamics (length, altitude, orientation) and their contribution to NO2 and SO2 surface concentration. Using the BSC-ES operational air quality forecasting system (CALIOPE-AQFS), the behavior of the plumes is analyzed for a representative day of each of the six most common synoptic situations. The results show that the plumes from Atlantic facilities are mainly driven by synoptic conditions whereas for power plants located over the Mediterranean and on mountainous regions, mesoscale dynamics dominate. Moreover, when the injection of the pollutants is done within the planetary boundary layer there is an increase in the NO2 and SO2 surface concentrations close to (<15-20 km) the sources.  I. INTRODUCTION Air pollution can be defined as a situation in which substances are present in the atmosphere at concentration sufficiently high above their normal levels to produce a measurable effect on humans, ecosystems or materials [1].  The concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere depends on interlinked processes: the emission from natural and anthropogenic sources, the transport and transformation of the pollutants, and the deposition.  The exceedances of air quality limit values in Spain are related to Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Sulphur dioxide (SO2), Ozone (O3) and particulate matter [2]. The combustion of fossil fuels for the generation of electricity is an important contributor to NO2 and SO2 emissions. In Spain, despite the increase in the wind and solar electricity production, coal power plants still contribute with ~20% of the electricity generation [3]. In 2012, the associated annual emissions were ~14% of NO2 and ~52% of SO2 total Spanish emissions [4]. TABLE I CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDIED POWER PLANTS Power plant / Acronym Installed capacity (MW) Stack height (magl) NO2 / SO2 emissions (Gg.year-1) As Pontes / ASP 1 468 356 7.46 / 4.99 Aboño / ABO   921 225 8.13 / 5.83 Compostilla / COM 1 341 290 8.38 / 3.79 Guardo-Velilla / GUA   498 176 3.07 / 0.82 Andorra / AND 1 101 343 10.00 / 11.71 Carboneras / CAR 1 159 200 9.80 / 13.99 Los Barrios / LBB   568 230 5.39 / 2.53     III. OBJECTIVE This work aims to characterize the dynamics of the plumes from coal power plants under the typical meteorological conditions affecting the Iberian Peninsula in order to better understand the role of these large point emission sources on air quality.  IV. METHODOLOGY There are currently 16 coal power plants (combustion installations with boilers > 300MWt) in Spain, seven of which have been selected in this study among those with highest electricity generation in 2012 (Table 1). The power plants have varied structural and topographical characteristics.  The present work uses a synoptic classification objectively established over the Iberian Peninsula for air quality purposes [5].  This classification identifies six typical circulation types (CTs) for the present climate (1983-2012) using a k-means clustering technique on daily sea level pressure. The six CTs consistently represent different advective patterns towards the Iberian Peninsula. The two most common CTs occur in summertime, replacing one another. NWadv (23.9% of climatic frequency) is a NW advective pattern characterized by the arrival of polar maritime air masses towards the Iberian Peninsula. IBtl (22.4%) is compatible with the development of the Iberian thermal low with net advection from North African air masses. ENEadv (21%), especially frequent in spring, is the result of a blocking anticyclone over central Europe that leads to E-NE advection towards the Iberian Peninsula. AtlHi (12%) is a winter anticyclonic situation that enables the arrival of Atlantic air masses towards the Iberian Peninsula, whereas ZonWadv (10%) is characterised by zonal Atlantic maritime advection. WNWadv (10%) is typical of transitional seasons and it presents unstable conditions over the Iberian Peninsula with W-NW advection. A representative day of each CT is objectively identified by [5] in the year 2012.  The characterization of the plume dynamics is performed on the representative day of each CT by means of the CALIOPE-AQFS (Fig. 1). Several evaluations of the modelling system give confidence to the results [6, 7]. The specific plumes are obtained following a zero-out approach The characterization comprises a comprehensive analysis of the emissions, the synoptic and mesoscale meteorology and the surface and total column mass of NO2 and SO2.      ~ 94 ~  Fig. 1.  Schematic view of the CALIOPE- air quality forecasting system www.bsc.es/caliope. The CALIOPE couples the dedicated HERMES emission model, the WRF-ARW meteorological model, the CMAQ chemical-transport model and the BSC-DREAM8b mineral dust model [6].   RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The plume dynamics are comprehensively described in [7] using hourly NO2 and SO2 surface concentration maps total column mass maps (Fig. 2), vertical cross-sections, planetary boundary layer height, wind speed and direction and, the vertical vorticity at each power plant on each representative day.  The analysis of the transport dynamics of NO2 and SO2 emissions for each CT does not show a common behavior for the seven studied power plants. It is possible to define two kinds of power plants depending on their plume dynamics. On the one hand, there are facilities whose plume dynamics are mainly driven by synoptic winds (the plume follows the characteristic advective pattern of the CT). This is the case of power plants on the Atlantic region of the Iberian Peninsula ASP, ABO and COM. On the other hand, there are facilities located over the Mediterranean and in complex topographic areas (AND, CAR, LBB and GUA) whose plumes are driven by a combination of the synoptic advection and mesoscale processes (sea-land breezes and wind-channelling by river valleys).   Fig. 2.  Daily maximum NO2 total column mass (µg) in the Iberian Peninsula associated to the emissions in the seven analyzed power plants on the representative day of each CT.  The maximum surface contribution of each power plant under the six CTs shows similar patterns for NO2 and SO2, although SO2 contributions are generally higher. However, there are significant differences between power plants (largest contributions in CAR, ABO, and LBB) and synoptic conditions (AtlHi and NWadv present higher contributions than the other CTs).  For the synoptic-dominated power plants the plume length is larger for CTs characterised by Atlantic advection (NWadv, AtlHi, WSWadv and ZonWadv) than for CTs with non-Atlantic advection (IBtl and ENEadv). For NO2, 76 km vs 24 km, respectively (Fig. 2). For SO2, 81 km vs 45 km, respectively. Furthermore, the contribution to surface NO2 concentration is lower for Atlantic advection CTs than for non-Atlantic advection CTs, 11.8 and 14.8 µg NO2.m-3, respectively.  For the power plants that are along the Mediterranean (CAR, LBB) and/or in complex topographic areas (AND, GUA) the NO2 and SO2 contributions are higher under winter/autumn CTs (on average 19.2 µg NO2.m-3 and 16.4 µg SO2.m-3), during which emissions are maximal than during the summer/spring CTs (11.6 µg NO2.m-3 and 5.6 µg SO2.m-3).  Overall to all the power plants, close to the source contributions (< 15-20 km) are larger when the injection of the emissions is done within the planetary boundary layer (PBL), usually at midday under summer CTs. On autumn/winter CTs the PBL height is lower than the injection height, favouring horizontal dispersion of the plume.  ACKNOWLEDGMENT All simulations were performed on the MareNostrum supercomputer hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. This work is partially funded by the Iberdrola Foundation.  REFERENCES [1] J.H. Seinfeld, and S.N. Pandis. Atmospheric chemistry and physics: from air pollution to climate change. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, USA, 1326 pp. 1998.  [2] European Environmental Agency. Air quality in Europe – 2013 report. 107 pp. 2013. [3] Red Eléctrica de España. Informe del Sistema Eléctrico Español. Año 2012. 140 pp. 2013. [4] Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente. Inventarios Nacionales de Emisiones a la Atmósfera 1990-2012. Volumen 2: Análisis por Actividades SNAP. 110 pp. 2014. [5] V. Valverde, M.T. Pay, and J.M. Baldasano. “Circulation-type classification derived on a climatic basis to study air quality dynamics over the Iberian Peninsula,” Int. J. Climatol. 2014. [6] J.M. Baldasano, M.T. Pay, O. Jorbá, S. Gassó, and P. Jiménez-Guerrero. “An annual assessment of air quality with the CALIOPE modeling system over Spain,” Sci. Total Environ. 2011. [7] V. Valverde, M.T. Pay, and J.M. Baldasano. “A model-based analysis of NO2 and SO2 dynamics associated to coal-fired power plants under synoptic circulation types over the Iberian Peninsula”, unpublished.  

Characterization of coal power plants plume dynamics under typical synoptic conditions over the Iberian Peninsula

UPCommons

  
 
 
~ 93 ~ 
Characterization of coal power plants plume dynamics under typical 
synoptic conditions over the Iberian Peninsula 
 
Víctor Valverde, María Teresa Pay, José María Baldasano 
Earth Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación, Barcelona, Spain  
victor.valverde@bsc.es 
 
Abstract- This work describes the pollution plumes of seven Spanish 
coal power plants under the most typical meteorological conditions 
that affect the Iberian Peninsula at synoptic scale. The aim is to 
understand how meteorology modulates the plume dynamics (length, 
altitude, orientation) and their contribution to NO2 and SO2 surface 
concentration. Using the BSC-ES operational air quality forecasting 
system (CALIOPE-AQFS), the behavior of the plumes is analyzed for 
a representative day of each of the six most common synoptic 
situations. The results show that the plumes from Atlantic facilities 
are mainly driven by synoptic conditions whereas for power plants 
located over the Mediterranean and on mountainous regions, 
mesoscale dynamics dominate. Moreover, when the injection of the 
pollutants is done within the planetary boundary layer there is an 
increase in the NO2 and SO2 surface concentrations close to (<15-20 
km) the sources. 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
Air pollution can be defined as a situation in which 
substances are present in the atmosphere at concentration 
sufficiently high above their normal levels to produce a 
measurable effect on humans, ecosystems or materials [1].  
The concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere depends on 
interlinked processes: the emission from natural and 
anthropogenic sources, the transport and transformation of the 
pollutants, and the deposition.  The exceedances of air quality 
limit values in Spain are related to Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), 
Sulphur dioxide (SO2), Ozone (O3) and particulate matter [2]. 
The combustion of fossil fuels for the generation of electricity 
is an important contributor to NO2 and SO2 emissions. In 
Spain, despite the increase in the wind and solar electricity 
production, coal power plants still contribute with ~20% of the 
electricity generation [3]. In 2012, the associated annual 
emissions were ~14% of NO2 and ~52% of SO2 total Spanish 
emissions [4]. 
TABLE I 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDIED POWER PLANTS 
Power plant / Acronym 
Installed 
capacity 
(MW) 
Stack 
height 
(magl) 
NO2 / SO2 
emissions 
(Gg.year-1) 
As Pontes / ASP 1 468 356 7.46 / 4.99 
Aboño / ABO 
  921 225 8.13 / 5.83 
Compostilla / COM 1 341 290 8.38 / 3.79 
Guardo-Velilla / GUA   498 176 3.07 / 0.82 
Andorra / AND 1 101 343 10.00 / 11.71 
Carboneras / CAR 1 159 200 9.80 / 13.99 
Los Barrios / LBB   568 230 5.39 / 2.53 
 
 
 
 
III. OBJECTIVE 
This work aims to characterize the dynamics of the plumes 
from coal power plants under the typical meteorological 
conditions affecting the Iberian Peninsula in order to better 
understand the role of these large point emission sources on air 
quality. 
 
IV. METHODOLOGY 
There are currently 16 coal power plants (combustion 
installations with boilers > 300MWt) in Spain, seven of which 
have been selected in this study among those with highest 
electricity generation in 2012 (Table 1). The power plants 
have varied structural and topographical characteristics.  
The present work uses a synoptic classification objectively 
established over the Iberian Peninsula for air quality purposes 
[5].  This classification identifies six typical circulation types 
(CTs) for the present climate (1983-2012) using a k-means 
clustering technique on daily sea level pressure. The six CTs 
consistently represent different advective patterns towards the 
Iberian Peninsula. The two most common CTs occur in 
summertime, replacing one another. NWadv (23.9% of 
climatic frequency) is a NW advective pattern characterized 
by the arrival of polar maritime air masses towards the Iberian 
Peninsula. IBtl (22.4%) is compatible with the development of 
the Iberian thermal low with net advection from North African 
air masses. ENEadv (21%), especially frequent in spring, is 
the result of a blocking anticyclone over central Europe that 
leads to E-NE advection towards the Iberian Peninsula. AtlHi 
(12%) is a winter anticyclonic situation that enables the arrival 
of Atlantic air masses towards the Iberian Peninsula, whereas 
ZonWadv (10%) is characterised by zonal Atlantic maritime 
advection. WNWadv (10%) is typical of transitional seasons 
and it presents unstable conditions over the Iberian Peninsula 
with W-NW advection. A representative day of each CT is 
objectively identified by [5] in the year 2012.  
The characterization of the plume dynamics is performed on 
the representative day of each CT by means of the CALIOPE-
AQFS (Fig. 1). Several evaluations of the modelling system 
give confidence to the results [6, 7]. The specific plumes are 
obtained following a zero-out approach The characterization 
comprises a comprehensive analysis of the emissions, the 
synoptic and mesoscale meteorology and the surface and total 
column mass of NO2 and SO2. 
 
  
 
 
~ 94 ~ 
 
Fig. 1.  Schematic view of the CALIOPE- air quality forecasting system 
www.bsc.es/caliope. The CALIOPE couples the dedicated HERMES emission 
model, the WRF-ARW meteorological model, the CMAQ chemical-transport 
model and the BSC-DREAM8b mineral dust model [6]. 
 
 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
The plume dynamics are comprehensively described in [7] 
using hourly NO2 and SO2 surface concentration maps total 
column mass maps (Fig. 2), vertical cross-sections, planetary 
boundary layer height, wind speed and direction and, the 
vertical vorticity at each power plant on each representative 
day.  
The analysis of the transport dynamics of NO2 and SO2 
emissions for each CT does not show a common behavior for 
the seven studied power plants. It is possible to define two 
kinds of power plants depending on their plume dynamics. On 
the one hand, there are facilities whose plume dynamics are 
mainly driven by synoptic winds (the plume follows the 
characteristic advective pattern of the CT). This is the case of 
power plants on the Atlantic region of the Iberian Peninsula 
ASP, ABO and COM. On the other hand, there are facilities 
located over the Mediterranean and in complex topographic 
areas (AND, CAR, LBB and GUA) whose plumes are driven 
by a combination of the synoptic advection and mesoscale 
processes (sea-land breezes and wind-channelling by river 
valleys). 
  
Fig. 2.  Daily maximum NO2 total column mass (µg) in the Iberian Peninsula 
associated to the emissions in the seven analyzed power plants on the 
representative day of each CT. 
 
The maximum surface contribution of each power plant 
under the six CTs shows similar patterns for NO2 and SO2, 
although SO2 contributions are generally higher. However, 
there are significant differences between power plants (largest 
contributions in CAR, ABO, and LBB) and synoptic 
conditions (AtlHi and NWadv present higher contributions 
than the other CTs). 
 
For the synoptic-dominated power plants the plume length 
is larger for CTs characterised by Atlantic advection (NWadv, 
AtlHi, WSWadv and ZonWadv) than for CTs with non-
Atlantic advection (IBtl and ENEadv). For NO2, 76 km vs 24 
km, respectively (Fig. 2). For SO2, 81 km vs 45 km, 
respectively. Furthermore, the contribution to surface NO2 
concentration is lower for Atlantic advection CTs than for 
non-Atlantic advection CTs, 11.8 and 14.8 µg NO2.m-3, 
respectively. 
 
For the power plants that are along the Mediterranean 
(CAR, LBB) and/or in complex topographic areas (AND, 
GUA) the NO2 and SO2 contributions are higher under 
winter/autumn CTs (on average 19.2 µg NO2.m-3 and 16.4 µg 
SO2.m-3), during which emissions are maximal than during the 
summer/spring CTs (11.6 µg NO2.m-3 and 5.6 µg SO2.m-3).  
Overall to all the power plants, close to the source 
contributions (< 15-20 km) are larger when the injection of the 
emissions is done within the planetary boundary layer (PBL), 
usually at midday under summer CTs. On autumn/winter CTs 
the PBL height is lower than the injection height, favouring 
horizontal dispersion of the plume. 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
All simulations were performed on the MareNostrum 
supercomputer hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing 
Center. This work is partially funded by the Iberdrola 
Foundation. 
 
REFERENCES 
[1] J.H. Seinfeld, and S.N. Pandis. Atmospheric chemistry and physics: from 
air pollution to climate change. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 
NY, USA, 1326 pp. 1998.  
[2] European Environmental Agency. Air quality in Europe – 2013 report. 
107 pp. 2013. 
[3] Red Eléctrica de España. Informe del Sistema Eléctrico Español. Año 
2012. 140 pp. 2013. 
[4] Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente. Inventarios 
Nacionales de Emisiones a la Atmósfera 1990-2012. Volumen 2: 
Análisis por Actividades SNAP. 110 pp. 2014. 
[5] V. Valverde, M.T. Pay, and J.M. Baldasano. “Circulation-type 
classification derived on a climatic basis to study air quality dynamics 
over the Iberian Peninsula,” Int. J. Climatol. 2014. 
[6] J.M. Baldasano, M.T. Pay, O. Jorbá, S. Gassó, and P. Jiménez-Guerrero. 
“An annual assessment of air quality with the CALIOPE modeling 
system over Spain,” Sci. Total Environ. 2011. 
[7] V. Valverde, M.T. Pay, and J.M. Baldasano. “A model-based analysis of 
NO2 and SO2 dynamics associated to coal-fired power plants under 
synoptic circulation types over the Iberian Peninsula”, unpublished. 
 


https://upcommons.upc.edu/bitstream/2099/16561/1/characterization_of_coal_DS2105-BoAv11-24.pdf

Characterization of coal power plants plume dynamics under typical synoptic conditions over the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC

UPCommons