Undergrad Thesis-1 - Advection Dispersion, Deposition and Rain Scavenging of Chemical Constituents NLC

Analytical Modelling of the Advection, Dispersion, Deposition and Rain
Scavenging of Chemical Constituents emitted from the Stacks of NLC

Thermal Power Plant
A Project funded by NLC-CARD
(Grant No: CARD/ENVT/MAP/Project/1218/2009)

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of
Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering

By
Jason Ryan Picardo (07BCH008)

Chemical Engineering Division
School Of Mechanical and Building Sciences

November 2010

2

School Of Mechanical and Building Sciences
Chemical Engineering Division
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the thesis entitled Analytical Modelling of the Advection, Dispersion,
Deposition and Rain Scavenging of Chemical Constituents emitted from the Stacks of NLC
Thermal Power Plant being submitted by Mr. Jason Ryan Picardo, in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering, to the School
of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University is a record of bonafide work done under
my guidance. The contents of this project work, in full or in part, have neither been taken from
any other source nor have been submitted to any other institute or university for the award of a
degree or diploma and the same is certified.

Dr. S. Ghosh (Sr. Prof) Dr. Anand Gurumoorthy
Project Guide Internal Guide

Dr. L. N. Muruganandam
Division Leader Chemical Engineering

School Seal

Internal Examiner External Examiner
3

Contents

Page No.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5
ABSTRACT 6
NOMENCLATURE 8
LIST OF FIGURES 10
LIST OF TABLES 11
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 12
Chapter 2 DISPERSION OF GASEOUS POLLUTANT FROM
MULTIPLE ELEVATED STACKS AT NLC
14
2.1 Atmospheric Diffusion Equation 14
2.2 Gaussian Plume Solution 14
2.3 Dispersion Parameters and Atmospheric Stability 16
2.4 Plume Rise and Effective Wind Speed 17
2.5 Adapting the Gaussian model for multiple point
emission sources- generation of monthly average
contours
20
2.6 Simulation for SO
2
, April 2009- Results and
Discussions
21
Chapter 3 ESTABLISHING THE EFFICACY OF THE
CLEANSING ACTION OF TROPICAL
EVERGREENS
23
3.1 Deposition Velocity- Theory of Resistances 23
3.2 Aerodynamic Resistance 25
3.3 Quasilaminar Resistance 28
3.4 Surface or Canopy Resistance 29
4

3.5 Deposition Velocity for SO
2
, April 2009 33
3.6 Removal from a continuous plume 35
3.7 Deposition of polluting species onto the canopy 36
3.8 Removal of residual pollution- Cleansing action of trees 37
3.9 Cleansing of Air by trees on 30th April 2009 39
3.10 Conclusions 40
Chapter 4 SCAVENGING EFFICACY OF THE NORTH EAST
MONSOONS
41
4.1 Mass Transfer of SO
2
into a falling rain drop 41
4.2 pH of a drop when it reaches ground level 44
4.3 Quantification of Plume Washout - Scavenging
Coefficient
45
4.4 Investigation of Wet Scavenging and Rainfall Acidity at
NLC
48
4.5 Conclusions 50
Chapter 5 OVERALL CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK 51
REFERENCES 53

5

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to thank our honourable Chancellor Dr. G. Viswanathan and the
administration of VIT University for providing excellent academic facilities and for the
opportunity to carry out this work at VIT University.
I owe not only the success of this project work but also a great deal of personal advancement,
academic and otherwise, to my project guide Dr. S Ghosh, Senior Professor, SMBS. This work
rode on his vision. His mentorship enriched and refined my work and his encouragement gave
me the strength to believe that our goals will be accomplished.
Dr. Anand Gurumoorthy, my internal department guide was supportive and encouraging. The
many discussions we had during the course of the semester have broadened my vision with
respect to research in general and chemical engineering research in particular.
I thank the Division Leader of the Chemical Engineering Division, Prof. Muruganandam for his
enthusiastic support during the course of this work.
I am extremely grateful to Dr. Jayasankar Variyar, Prof. VIT University-Chennai who ensured
that I would be able to work on this interdisciplinary project with Prof. Ghosh. His mentorship
and friendship remain invaluable to me.
During the course of this work a large number of research papers were referenced. Access to
these papers was kindly provided by the Library. In particular I thank Dr. Adhinarayanan,
Deputy Librarian, for his efforts in this regard. I extend my gratitude to Mr. Ankit Rai for his
help and cooperation during certain parts of this work.
Ultimately I extend a prayer of thanksgiving to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, My Lord
for blessing me with this project, with wonderful professors and for essentially every element of
my life.

6

ABSTRACT
In this work we develop an analytical model, with codes for its simulation in FORTRAN 90,
which is capable of modelling three processes that are central to any environmental-air pollution
study:
1. Dispersion of gaseous pollutants emitted continuously from multiple elevated point
sources. In our study these sources are the elevated stack of the power plants at the
Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC).
2. Deposition of gaseous pollutants onto a forest canopy and the subsequent reduction in
pollution levels. This includes removal from plumes as well as scavenging of residual
pollution from the atmosphere.
3. Washout of pollution from the atmosphere during the heavy showers of the North East
Monsoons, which lash the coast of South East India from October to December, and the
resultant acidity of the rainfall.
The atmospheric dispersion model is a Gaussian based model which makes use of
meteorological inputs provided by NLC, namely the solar radiation, wind speed and wind
direction. The model considers the various stability states of the atmosphere via the Pasquil
Stability Classes (Turner 1969). Region specific calculations of plume rise and wind speed at
stack height are incorporated. The model is simulated for the case of SO
2
and contours for the
monthly mean concentrations around NLC are obtained. This required a transformation of map
coordinates into a form suitable for the simple Gaussian equation of dispersion and a
superposition of the emission from the multiple sources as well as averaging over the entire
month.
Apart from the development of a dispersion model the other major aim of the NLC funded
project was to quantify the effect of the extensive evergreen tree cover at NLC. Towards this
objective, the dry deposition of gaseous pollutants is quantified in terms of the universal
deposition velocity parameterization via inferential modelling of the transport pathways. The
deposition to vegetation was given prime attention and the the methods of Wesely (1989) were
adopted to account for canopy resistance. The deposition velocity is incorporated into the
dispersion model to investigate the role of trees in abating air pollution. It was found that while
they do not affect ambient concentrations at locations directly in the path of a continuously
emitted plume, they do have a cleansing effect on the atmosphere under conditions of no-
replenishment. Such a case can occur when a moderate wind is followed by a low speed wind in
a different direction or when a moderate wind is followed by a period of calms. Both cases will
results in large regions where the residual pollution which is not being replenished is taken up by
the vegetative canopy, in the absence of which it would remain in the atmosphere till a
sufficiently strong wind advects it away.
7

In addition to the above two studies a detailed investigation of the mass transfer of gaseous
pollutants (SO
2
) into falling rain drops is presented with the aim of quantifying the wet
scavenging of pollutants during the NE Monsoons. We first analyse the interface mass transfer
phenomena occurring at the surface of a falling rain drop. We demonstrate that moderate to large
sized drops can fall through considerable distances without saturating with SO
2
. Recent studies
on the Drop Size Distribution of the NE Monsoonal rain over South India (SS Roy et al 2005,
Konwar et al 2006) describe the rain drop size spectrum as a modified gamma distribution.
Armed with this information we determine the scavenging coefficient- a parameterization
accounting for the spectrum of drop sizes and the mass transfer into these drops, for various rain
rates and then fit the results to a linear regression line. Coupling this information with our
dispersion model we demonstrate the scavenging efficacy of a typical NE Monsoonal shower
over NLC and determine the pH of the rain water in the surrounding area, which is home to
128,133 people.
This work apart from achieving the objectives of NLC will prove to be useful to EIA specialists,
policy planners at the decision making level, as well as by other power plants in the making.

8

NOMENCLATURE
C
l
Concentration of dissolved gas in the liquid drop (molL
-1
)
C
g
Concentration of the gas species in the air surrounding the drop (molL
-1
)
C
L
Concentration of HSO
3
in the drop (mol L

-1
)
C
Lsat
Concentration of HSO
3
in the drop at saturation (mol L

-1
)
C
T
Vertically integrated concentration of gas over a unit area (m. mol L
-1
)
C
g
*
Concentration predicted by Gaussian Dispersion Model (g m
-3
)
W Flux of gas species to the ground per unit height (mol L
-1
s
-1
)
F Net Flux of gas species to the ground (m.mol L
-1
s
-1
)
h Height above the ground (m)
T Temperature of ambient air (K)
f
g
Ventilation Coefficient (dimensionless)
K
H
Henrys Law Constant (mol L
-1
atm
-1
)
D
g
Gas Phase Diffusivity of gas species (SO
2
) (mm
2
s
-1
)
D
g
*
Modified Gas Phase Diffusivity of gas species (SO
2
) (mm
2
s
-1
)
D Diameter of the rain drop (mm)
R Universal Gas Constant
Mass accommodation coefficient (dimensionless)
V
G
Molecular Thermal Velocity (m/s)

K
1
Dissociation Constant for dissociation of SO2 to HSO
3
(mol L
-1
)
MM Molecular Mass of SO
2
(g/mol)
k Average Mass Transfer Coefficient (s
-1
)
K
c
Empirical Mass transfer coefficient (mm s
-1
)
Re Reynolds No. (dimensionless)
Sc Schmidt No. (dimensionless)
U
t
Terminal Velocity of a falling drop (mm s
-1
)
kinematic viscosity of air (mm
2
s
-1
)
Q Empirical Constant to determine U
t
(s
-1
)
[H
+
]
ini
H
+
ion concentration in a drop leaving the cloud base (mol L
-1
)
[H
+
]
abs
H
+
concentration in a drop due to dissociation of absorbed SO
2
(mol L
-1
)
pH
ini
pH of a drop leaving the cloud base (dimensionless)
pH
ground
pH of a drop at the ground (dimensionless)
[HSO
3
]
abs
HSO
3
ion concentration due to dissociation of absorbed SO

2
(mol L
-1
)
Scavenging Coefficient (s
-1
)
N(D) Rain Drop Size Distribution function
N
0
Parameter of the Modified Gamma distribution (m
-3
mm
-1
)
Parameter of the Modified Gamma distribution (mm
-1
)
Parameter of the Modified Gamma distribution (dimensionless)
p Precipitation intensity/ rain rate (mmhr
-1
)
q Source Strength (g s
-1
)
9

u Horizontal wind velocity (m/s)
H Effective Height of the stack in the Gaussian Plume Equation (m)
y
,
z

Dispersion Parameters of the Gaussian Plume Equation (m)

h Plume rise
W
0
Velocity with which the effluent exits the stack upwards
D
s
The Stack diameter at the exit
x
g
, y
g
, z
g
Coordinates to be inputted to the Gaussian plume Equation

10

LIST OF FIGURES
Page no.
Figure 2.1: Gaussian Plume Model 15
Figure 2.2: Variation of p with surface roughness and 19
Monin Obhukov Length for ref. height of 10m
Figure 2.3: Transformation of Coordinates 20
Figure 2.4: Average contours SO
2
for 08:30, April 2009 21
Figure 2.5: Average contours SO2 for 14:30, April 2009 22
Figure 3.1: Process of Dry Deposition [16] 24
Figure 3.2 Resistance Schematic for Dry Deposition
Model of Wesely (1989) 30
Figure 3.3: Vd calculation April 2009 08:30 33
Figure 3.6: Vd at different times during the month of April 2009 34
Figure 3.7: April 2009 14:30 Without Dry Deposition 36
Figure 3.8: April 2009 14:30 With Dry Depsition; Vd=0.006m/s 36
Figure 3.9: Amount of SO2 deposited; entire map vegetated 37
Figure 3.10: Amount of SO2 deposited; half map vegetated 37
Figure 3.11: Relatively higher concentrations of SO2 at 08:30
as compared with 14:30 38
Figure 3.12: Concentrations of SO2 after zero and two hours 39
Figure 3.13: Concentrations of SO2 after fours and eight hours 39
Figure 4.1: Concentration of bisulphite in a falling drop 44
Figure 4.1: pH of drops of various sizes at the ground level 45
Figure 4.3: Rain drop size spectrum for various
rain rates over Cuddalore [6] 47
Figure 4.4: Scavenging coefficient for various rain rates 47
Figure 4.5: Contours of SO2 with and without the shower 49
Figure 4.6: Contours of pH of rain water around NLC 49

11

LIST OF TABLES
Page No.
Table 2.1: Pasquill Stability Classes 16
Table 2.2: Briggs formula for dispersion parameters 17
Table 2.3: Surface Roughness 19
Table 2.4: Monin Obhukov Length and Atmospheric Stability 19
Table 3.1: Correlation parameters for the determination of
Monin Obhukov length from (3.7) 28
Table 3.2: Input Resistances (s m-1) for Computations of
Surface Resistances ( r
c
) [19] 31
Table 3.3: Relevant Properties of Gases for Dry Deposition Calculations [2] 31
Table 4.1: Parameters for use in Equation (4.2) 43
Table 4.2: Details of the stacks emitting SO2 and the plume rise 49

12

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Neyveli is located 160 km from Chennai in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. Neyveli
Lignite Corporation (NLC) is a company promoted by the government of India under the
Ministry of Coals. Neyveli Thermal Power Stations are South Asia's first and only lignite fired
Thermal Power Stations and also the first pit-head power stations in India. NLC covers an area
of about fifty-four square km, which includes Neyveli Township and temporary colonies such as
Mandarakuppam, Thedirkuppam, Thandavankuppam, and Block-21. It mines twenty-four
million metric tones per annum (MTPA) of lignite, and produces 2,490 megawatts per annum
(MW/year) of electricity from three open cast mines.
NLC operates the largest open-cast lignite mine in India and is listed on the Bombay Stock
Exchange and National Stock Exchange. The origin state Tamil Nadu gets 1,167 MW, while the
rest is distributed to other states namely, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and the union
territory of Puducherry. NLC's Power Stations maintain a very high Plant Load Factor (PLF)
when compared to the National average. In this study we will be focusing on the two thermal
Power Stations, namely TPS1 and TPS2. TPS 1 has four stacks each emitting between 150-300
g/s of SO
2
. TPS2 has seven stacks with emissions of SO
2
at around 300 g/s.
The Neyveli town ship is home to 128,133 people and naturally air quality is an important
environmental factor which must be monitored and controlled. With such large amounts of
emissions it is necessary to have continuous monitoring of ambient air pollution levels to ensure
that the norms of the Pollution Control Board are met. NLC has 13 monitoring stations located at
various points across the township which fulfil this requirement. However this data is discrete by
nature and cannot give a complete picture of the air quality, especially at intermediate locations.
This requires a detailed atmospheric dispersion modelling study which can provide a picture of
the spatially distributed concentrations of air pollutants.
The founding fathers of NLC began a massive afforestation program which has now resulted in
an extensive tree cover. Neyveli has a variety of species- many of them evergreens which
amount to 17 million in total. It is common belief that trees help reduce pollution and keep the
air cleaner. Naturally it was felt that these trees must be playing an important role and no doubt
similar thoughts were in the minds of the founding fathers. However, to quantify the role of this
huge canopy of trees a detailed modelling exercise is called for.
It was with these objectives that a joint project was initiated between NLC and VIT University in
2009 with Dr. S. Ghosh (Sr. Prof. SMBS) as the Principle Investigator. The funding agency is
the Centre for Applied Research and Development (CARD) which is the In-house Research and
Development Centre of NLC. It has been recognized by the Department of Science and
Technology since 1975. The work described in this thesis was done towards achieving the goals
of this project and was funded under the same.
13

There are three major sections in this work aimed at answering three important questions. What
are the ambient air concentrations around NLC? What is the role of the trees if any? What is the
extent of washout of pollutants during precipitation events and is the rain water acidic? The latter
question was asked primarily by the researchers since the NE Monsoon lashes the coast of Tamil
Nadu from October to December and understanding precipitation effects on air pollution will be
important during these months.
In the second chapter we focus on the development of the atmospheric dispersion model. This
model, apart from answering the primary question of this study, is an essential tool in the
research of the following sections. Next we present the quantification of dry deposition of
gaseous pollutants onto vegetative canopies. This process is responsible for the cleansing action
of the trees and is quantified in terms of a deposition velocity parameter. The calculation of the
same and its incorporation into a model, to answer our second question, is the subject of the third
chapter. The processes modeled make this Asia based study unique- the year round high solar
insolation, high temperatures, the convective nature of the atmospheric boundary layer, the Leaf
Area Indices, the leaf morphology and the overall robustness of these trees. The fourth chapter
presents a detailed investigation into the scavenging of gaseous pollutants by rain. The mass
transfer into falling rain drops and the drop size spectra of different rain rates are considered and
a parameterization in terms of a scavenging coefficient is achieved. This information when
coupled with our dispersion model can demonstrate the removal of air pollution by a shower as
well as predict the pH of the rain water due to the absorbed gas.
Codes for simulating the model for different situations and calculating various parameters were
written in FORTRAN 90. Visualizations of results were obtained using the plotting tools of
MATLAB
. The end result is a model which is portable and can serve as a decision making tool
in the screening, scoping and baseline analyses of Environmental Impact Assessment studies.
Finally we present the overall conclusions which can be drawn from the application of this
model to NLC with particular emphasis on the power plant and present a road map for future
research work.

14

CHAPTER 2: DISPERSION OF GASEOUS POLLUTANT FROM MULTIPLE ELEVATED
STACKS AT NLC
2.1 Atmospheric Diffusion Equation
The emissions from an elevated stack are advected by the wind along the wind direction as well
as dispersed due to the turbulent eddies in the flow. For the case of gases the assumption can be
made that the concentration of the gas does not affect the dynamics of the flow. Then the species
transport equation can be separated from the momentum transport equation. Once the flow field
is known this equation can be solved to give us the concentration distribution. Generally the
effect on the concentration field of molecular diffusion due to random molecular movement is
much less than that of turbulent dispersion due to eddies in a turbulent flow field, such as that
existing in the atmosphere. Thus the diffusion terms are justifiably neglected. The final equation
we arrive upon which describes the dispersion of a gas in a turbulent flow field is called the
Atmospheric Diffusion Equation (The terms Dispersion is more appropriate than Diffusion
but we use it since it is prevalent in literature) [2].
( ) t X S
x
c
K
x x
c
u
t
c
i
ii
i i
j , +
|
|
.
|
\
|
c
c
c
c
=
c
c
+
c
c
(2.1)
Where the velocity and concentration are ensemble averages and K is the eddy diffusivity. X is a
position vector. The subscript < i > implies summation of terms with < i > going from 1 to 3.
Apart from this Eulerian approach to describe atmospheric dispersion many workers use a
Lagrangian approach as well [7,8]. However for our study we used a simpler Eulerian based
model the merits of which will become apparent, especially for our objectives. A complete
description of the concentration in the atmosphere will require a solution of the equations of fluid
flow as well as equation 2.1. This is not practical for our purpose of large scale dispersion
modelling and is way too expensive. Instead several analytical models are available in which
suitable parameters are experimentally determined to ensure a better match of model results with
reality. CFD simulation of environmental flows are carried out for small cases mainly to verify
the simpler models or help develop better descriptions of critical parameters.
The simplest and most widely used analytical models is the Gaussian plume equation for a fully
reflecting earth with will be described in the next section.
2.2 Gaussian Plume Equation
The Gaussian plume equation was derived from the atmospheric diffusion equation for a case of
homogeneous stationary turbulence with fixed wind speed along a specific direction which is
invariant with height. The major assumptions made are listed below [2]:
15

1. Continuous emission or emission times equal to or greater than travel times to the
downwind position of interest so that diffusion in the direction of travel can be ignored.
2. The material diffused is a stable gas or aerosol (<20 mm diameter), which remains
suspended in the air over long periods of time.
3. Mass is conserved through reflection at surfaces.
4. Steady-state conditions during the time interval for which the model is used, usually one
hour.
5. Constant wind speed, u, with height is assumed.
6. Constant wind direction with height is assumed.
7. The wind shear effect on horizontal diffusion is not considered (effect becomes large
after ~10 km).
8. The dispersion parameters are assumed to be independent of z and functions of x (and
hence U alone).
9. The averaging time of all quantities are assumed to be the same.

Even if the turbulence is assumed to be homogeneous as a first approximation, the presence of a
solid boundary at the ground level must be allowed for to conserve mass. Usually, the ground is
assumed to be a perfect reflector and its presence is represented by a mirror image source placed
below the ground. If the effective source height is assumed to be at elevation h, the
concentration can be estimated through superposition.
If the x axis is taken to be along the centerline of the plume in the direction of the mean wind,
with y (the horizontal axis) and z (the vertical axis), it can be assumed that a plume traveling
horizontally at a mean speed u, disperses horizontally (y) and vertically (z) so that the
concentration of a pollutant at any cross section of the plume follows the normal Gaussian
Probability distribution.
y
,
z
are the standard deviations of the dispersions in the y and z
directions. S is the source strength. Thus, for any point (x,y,z) in the plume the concentration C
of pollutant at that point is such that [2]
C
g
*
(x,y,z) = q/(2u
y
z
)exp(-y
2
/(2
y
)
2
)[exp(-(z-H)
2
/(2
z
)
2
)-exp(-(z+H)
2
/(2
z
)
2
)] (2.2)

Figure 2.1: Gaussian Plume Model
16

2.3 Dispersion Parameters and Atmospheric Stability
The amount by which the plume spreads depends on the turbulence of the atmosphere i.e. the
state of mixing. This is characterized by the stability of the atmosphere which is dependent on
the temperature profile of the atmosphere and its deviation from the adiabatic neutral profile.
Thus the values of the dispersion parameters
y
and
z
depend on the stability of the atmosphere.
A neutral atmosphere neither enhances nor inhibits mechanical turbulence. An unstable
atmosphere enhances turbulence, whereas a stable atmosphere inhibits mechanical turbulence.
The turbulence of the atmosphere is by far the most important parameter affecting dilution of a
pollutant. The more unstable the atmosphere, the greater is the dilution.
The stability is characterized by a parameter called the Monin-Obhukov length which accounts
for the buoyancy effects with respect to the inertial effects to characterize stability. Its
determination is a non trivial matter and so most studies use a discrete set of classes called the
Pasquill Classes. These were first proposed by Pasquill (1961) and later modified by Turner
(1969). They make use of routine meteorological measurements to classify the state of stability
of the atmosphere [2].

Table 2.1: Pasquill Stability Classes
As mentioned before, the dispersion parameters should depend on the state of stability. The
sigma values should also increase with downwind distance from the plume according to Taylors
statistical description of homogeneous turbulence. Briggs proposed empirical formula for the
estimation of these parameters of the gaussian dispersion model for urban and open country
conditions. These have been used in this model as well. They are applicable to bent over plumes.
17

A comprehensive handbook describing the standard methods employed in atmospheric
dispersion modelling is reference [18].

Table 2.2: Briggs formula for dispersion parameters
2.4 Plume Rise and Effective Wind Speed
The Gaussian air pollutant dispersion equation requires the input of H which is the pollutant
plume's centerline height above ground level. H is the sum of the actual physical height of the
pollutant plume's emission source point and H-the plume rise due the plume's buoyancy. Most
of the air dispersion models developed between the late 1960s and the early 2000s used what are
known as "the Briggs equations." Briggs divided air pollution plumes into these four general
categories:
1. Cold jet plumes in calm ambient air conditions
2. Cold jet plumes in windy ambient air conditions
3. Hot, buoyant plumes in calm ambient air conditions
4. Hot, buoyant plumes in windy ambient air conditions
Briggs considered the trajectory of cold jet plumes to be dominated by their initial velocity
momentum, and the trajectory of hot, buoyant plumes to be dominated by their buoyant
momentum to the extent that their initial velocity momentum was relatively unimportant.
18

Although Briggs proposed plume rise equations for each of the above plume categories, it is
important to emphasize that "the Briggs equations" which become widely used are those that he
proposed for bent-over, hot buoyant plumes. In general, Briggs' equations for bent-over, hot
buoyant plumes are based on observations and data involving plumes from typical combustion
sources such as the flue gas stacks from steam-generating boilers burning fossil fuels in large
power plants. Therefore the stack exit velocities were probably in the range of 20 to 100 ft/s (6 to
30 m/s) with exit temperatures ranging from 250 to 500 F (120 to 260 C).
To determine H in this model, the formula proposed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
which are the Modified Briggs Equations have been used.
1. For hot effluents with heat release (Q
H
) of10
6
cal/s or more
h = 0.84(12.4+0.09h)Q
H
0.25
/u (2.3)
2. For not very hot releases
h = 3W
o
D/u (2.4)
The exit flue gas temperature for Thermal Power Station I in NLC is 158 C. This has to be
treated as a cold discharge (Briggs, G.A., 1971) and hence the formula for not very hot releases
specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards has been used (2.4).
The wind speed at the effective stack height is required in the Gaussian plume equation.
Moreover the calculation of the plume rise requires the wind speed at the stack height.
Measurements of wind speed are generally made much closer to ground level (10 m) and thus a
method of calculating the wind speed at any height given a ground measurement is necessary.
The variation of wind speed with height follows a logarithmic relationship. This has been
confirmed by measurements and can be explained by similarity theory [2]. A simple-to-use
empirical formulation relates the wind speed at any height to that at a reference height in terms
of a power law:
p
r
r x x
z
z
z u z u
|
|
.
|
\
|
= ) ( ) (
(2.5)
The exponent (p) is dependent on the surface roughness and the stability class of the atmosphere.
The surface roughness parameter for different surfaces is given by Voldner (1985).
19

Table 2.3: Surface Roughness
For our case we take its value to be 1 because of the extensive tree cover over NLC. The value
of p can be determined once the stability is known using the following figure:

Figure 2.2: Variation of p with surface roughness and Monin Obhukov Length for ref. height of 10m
The Monin-Obhukov length is related to stability in the following manner:

Table 2.4: Monin Obhukov Length and Atmospheric Stability
20

2.5 Adapting the Gaussian model for multiple point emission sources- generation of
monthly average contours
The Gaussian plume model is suited for a single elevated source. Building a model for a multiple
point source case can be done by superimposing the predicted concentrations from all sources at
any point. Thus any point of a grid, laid over the region of interest, can be fed into the equation
(2.2) and the concentration calculated. This is then repeated for all other sources and added to
obtain the overall concentration at that point. However the coordinates to be inputted to eq. 2.2
are different from the global map coordinates. Thus a transformation of coordinates is required.
This involves both translation and rotation. The transformation is depicted in the figure below
and the equations of transformation are presented. This development was an independent
achievement which however can also be found in current work [9].

Figure 2.3: Transformation of Coordinates
The next consideration is the adaptation of the model to predict monthly mean concentrations.
NLC has provided us with data on the monthly average ambient air concentrations at the 13
measurement stations. Hence we need our model to deliver similar meaningful average results.
In order to achieve this, the concentration at a point due to all sources is calculated once for
every wind (magnitude and direction). These concentrations are weighted by the frequency of the
particular wind and averaged to get a monthly mean. If we are averaging at a particular time then
21

it is possible to use the wind data at that particular time for all the days of the month, in which
case the weighting factor would be the inverse of the number of days of the month. If however
we are interested in an average of a different period then the wind data will have to be divided
into classes based on magnitude and directions. Each combination of magnitude and direction
would be taken as a wind in the model with an appropriate frequency. Such a classification of
data as well as useful visualization of the raw data as wind roses can be obtained with the
freeware WRPlot VIEW
from Lakes Environmental Software
.
2.6 Simulation for April 2009- Results and Discussions
Meteorological data was provided by NLC for the months of 2008-2009. This data included
measurements of solar radiation, wind speed, and wind direction among others. The month of
April 2009 was chosen for presentation in this report as it is a dry month and thus useful for our
study of dry deposition in the next chapter. For the sake of brevity the other results have not been
included here but will be similar in nature differing due to the changing wind patterns and solar
insolation received.
Meteorological data was provided for three times of the day. Average concentration contours
were calculated for 08:30 and 14:30.

Figure 2.4: Average contours SO
2
for 08:30, April 2009
22

Figure 2.5: Average contours SO2 for 14:30, April 2009
From the above figures the role of the wind in driving the pollution over different areas of the
Neyveli township is clear. The rose like diagram in the top corner represents the wind directions
and magnitude experienced during April 2009. They are blowing from the end of the arms and
towards the centre. The colors give the magnitude.
It can be seen that there is a significant change in the wind direction from morning to evening.
This means that there will be a good deal of residual concentration left at regions which will not
be receive direct emissions from the stacks at 1430 but which were recipients of the pollution in
the morning at 08:30. In the next chapter it will be shown that the removal of such residual
pollution is a major benefit of having a large tree cover near sources of atmospheric pollutants.
It is seen that during this month the receptors 5, 9, 10 and 11 do not receive any emissions. This
result is borne out in the data provided by NLC. Further receptor 6 receives the highest
concentration in the afternoon. This result is also apparent form NLC data.
The usefulness of such a model will be realised in Environmental Impact Assessment Studies
which aim to identify the impact of setting up a new power plant, or in our case the impact of an
expansion. It will also be useful in determining the intermittent pollutant levels between
measuring stations and will give a clear indication if there is a possiblity of a considerable rise in
the level of pollutant between stations.

23

CHAPTER 3: ESTABLISHING THE EFFICACY OF THE CLEANSING ACTION OF
TROPICAL EVERGREENS
Once pollutants are released into the atmosphere they can leave it either by removal or by
undergoing a chemical reaction. Removal mechanisms are of two types-dry deposition and wet
deposition. In this chapter we will look at dry deposition in some detail while rain washout, a
mechanism which is part the set of wet removal mechanisms is discussed in the next chapter.
3.1 Deposition Velocity- Theory of Resistances
Dry deposition is of considerable importance in calculating the overall budget of a species in the
atmosphere. Furthermore, the substance which gets deposited can affect the deposition surface in
many ways, often adversely. Hence the quantification of dry deposition is important from a dual
perspective and much work has been done on the subject. Experimental measurements of dry
deposition fluxes via techniques such as eddy correlation and accumulation, the gradient method
as well as analysis of the depositing surface-natural or surrogate, have been carried out in
different parts of the world. These studies, apart from giving local information, form a basis for
the development of modelling techniques to predict the dry deposition flux when measurements
cannot be made or are inconvenient. In our case it is indeed not convenient to make such
measurements and thus we will be focusing on the modelling of dry deposition. For more
information on experimental techniques the interested reader may refer [2,10-13]. Work has also
been done to verify the various models available and generally it is found that one or the other is
better depending on the conditions (wet or dry) and climate (mid-latitude or tropical) [13-15].
For a good review of the state of the science the reader may refer to the references [2,16,17].
When the flux of a species which is irreversibly taken up by a surface is being modelled then the
process is simpler since the surface can be considered as a perfect sink. When there is no flux of
gas away from the surface then the deposition can be modeled by the inferential resistance
method in which it is assumed that the concentration of the gas at the depositing surface is zero.
If not then the flux will have to be written in terms of the concentration difference at the
reference height and at the surface. In the case of SO
2
the inferential method is suitable and thus
the flux to the ground is taken to be directly related to the concentration in the atmosphere.
Another assumption made is that in the surface layer (100-10 m above the ground) the flux is
constant. Thus at any reference height the flux can be represented by a first order relationship as:
F= VdC (3.1)
C is the concentration measured at the reference height. Vd is a parameter called the deposition
velocity as it has the units of ms-1. It varies with height, as it must since the flux is assumed to
be constant. Thus the problem of determining the flux of a species is transformed into the
determination of the deposition velocity. Such a formulation is widely used since it is easy to
incorporate into dispersion models, especially analytical ones. It is also easily incorporated as a
surface boundary condition to the atmospheric diffusion equation.
24

The process of dry deposition is usually divided into three stages:

1. Transportation from the free atmosphere to the receptor surface (turbulent layer transport)
2. Transport through the quasi-laminar layer near the receptor surface
3. Capture or absorption by the surface.

Figure 3.1: Process of Dry Deposition [16]
The stages in the dry deposition process are treated analogously to the flow of electrical current
through a network of resistances in series. This approach is called resistance modelling of dry
deposition (Garland, 1977). In this analogy, the aerodynamic resistance (r
a
) refers to turbulent
transport from the free atmosphere down to the receptor surface, the boundary layer resistance
(r
b
) applies to transport across the quasi-laminar layer near the receptor surface and the surface
resistance (r
c
) refers to the interaction of the gas with the surface. This resistance is called the
canopy resistance for deposition onto canopies. The inverse of the total resistance is the dry
deposition velocity (Vd).
Vd = (r
a
+r
b
+r
c
)
-1
(3.2)
An advantage of the resistance analogy is that processes are separated and related to
measurable quantities. They allow the lumping of complex micro-physical processes into a
25

single parameter. The disadvantage of this simplicity is that Vd is difficult to specify and may
lead to significant deviation from measured values especially under conditions which are not
accounted for in the model. This could occur if that particular condition was a rare occurrence at
the location where the model was developed and hence it was not given much attention. For eg.
the parameterization of Wesely (1989) [19] shows errors of 60% under wet conditions [14]. In
the next sections we will describe the methods of calculating the resistances for gases. Methods
for calculation of resistances for particles can be found in [2].
The final step in the dry deposition process is actual uptake of the vapor molecules or
particles by the surface. Gaseous species may absorbed irreversibly into the surface; particles
simply adhere. The amount of moisture on the surface and its stickiness are important
factors at this step. For moderately soluble gases, such as SO
2
and O
3
, the presence of
surface moisture can have a marked effect on whether or not the molecule is actually
removed. For highly soluble and chemically reactive gases, such as HNO
3
, deposition is
rapid and irreversible on almost any surface. Solid particles may bounce off a smooth
surface; liquid particles are more likely to adhere upon contact.

3.2 Aerodynamic Resistance

Turbulent transport is the mechanism that brings material from the bulk atmosphere down
to the surface and therefore determines the aerodynamic resistance. The turbulence intensity
is principally dependent on the lower atmospheric stability and the surface roughness and
can be determined from micrometeorological measurements and surface characteristics such
as wind speed, temperature, and radiation and the surface roughness length. During daytime
conditions, the turbulence intensity is typically large over a reasonably thick layer (i.e., the well-
mixed layer), thus exposing a correspondingly ample reservoir of material to potential surface
deposition. During the night, stable stratification of the atmosphere near the surface often
reduces the intensity and vertical extent of the turbulence, effectively diminishing the
overall dry deposition flux. The aerodynamic resistance is independent of species or
whether a gas or particle is involved except that gravitational settling must be taken into
account for large particles.
The aerodynamic component of the overall dry deposition resistance is typically based
on gradient-transport theory and mass-transfer/momentum-transfer similarity (or mass-
transfer/heat-transfer similarity). It is presumed that turbulent transport of species through
the surface layer (i.e., constant-flux layer) is expressible in terms of an eddy diffusivity
multiplied by a concentration gradient, that turbulent transport of material occurs by
mechanisms that are similar to those for turbulent heat and/or momentum transport, that
measurements obtained for one of these entities thus can be applied, using scaling
parameters, to calculate the corresponding behavior of another. Expressions for the
aerodynamic resistance are most easily obtained by integrating the micrometeorological
26

flux-gradient relationships. Applications of similarity theory to turbulent transfer through
the surface layer suggest that the eddy diffusivity should be proportional to the friction
velocity and the height above the ground. Under diabatic conditions the eddy diffusivity
is modified from its neutral form by a function dependent on the dimensionless height
scale, , where L is the Monin-Obukhov length.
The vertical turbulent flux of a quantity, say, C, through the (constant-flux) surface layer
is expressed as
(3.3)
where K is the appropriate eddy diffusivity and F
a
is, by definition, constant across the
layer. From dimensional analysis and micrometeorological measurements, the eddy
momentum (K
M
) and heat diffusivity (K
T
) can be expressed by
(3.4)
(3.5)
where k is the von Karman constant,
is the friction velocity, and
and
,
respectively, are empirically determined dimensionless momentum and temperature profile
functions.
If Eq. (3.3) is integrated across the depth of the constant-flux (i.e., surface ) layer from
down to
, the flux
may be written as
(3.6)
where, as above,
and
refer to concentrations at the top and bottom of the constant -

flux layer and denotes either
or
, whichever is deemed analogous to

the species profile function. The aerodynamic resistance is thus given by
(3.7)
The integral in Eq.(3.6) is evaluated from the bottom of the constant-flux layer (at
,
the roughness length) to the top (
, the reference height implicit in the definition of
). If suitable empirical forms of the stability dependent temperature profile are assumed then
the above equation (3.6) can be integrated to yield explicit expressions for r
a
. These expressions
can be found in [2] and are given below:
27

( )
) __( 0 1 _
) _____( 0 _
) ___( 1 0 _
15 1
1
7 . 4 1
) (
4 1
unstable for
neutral for
stable for
T
< <
=
< <
+
=
,
,
,
,
,
, | (3.8)

( )
( )( )
( )( )
( )
) (
) (
) (
tan tan 2
1 1
1 1
ln ln
1
ln
1
7 . 4 ln
1
0
1 1
2 2
2
0
2
0
0
unstable
neutral
stable
z
z
u
z
z
u
z
z
u
r
r
r r
o
o
o
a
(
(
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
+ +
+ +
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
(
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
=

-
-
-
q q
q q
q q
k
k
, ,
k
(3.9)

Where
0
q =( )
4 1
0
15 1 , and
0
q =( ) L z
r 0 0
4 1
, 15 1 = , ,
The theory is applicable only in the surface layer where the flux in non divergent and can be
assumed constant, that is the Richardson No. should be between -3 and 2. An approximate
maximum extent is 100m.

In order to use the above equations it is necessary to determine the friction velocity and the
Monin- Obhukov length. The friction velocity can be calculated by

( ) | |
0
*
ln
) (
z d z
z ku
u
= (3.10)

where u(z) is the velocity at a certain height z. The displacement length d can be defined
(Panofsky and Dutton 1984) as typically 70%80% of the height of the large roughness
elements. Thus, d can be neglected in this equation when z is much greater than d. The roughness
length z
0
is generally a function of surface roughness, even though it may be affected by the
wind speed (when the roughness elements bend with the wind) and by the wind direction when
different terrain features surrounds the region. The roughness length can be developed as a
function of season and surface type. The values of the surface roughness z
0
(cm) for each surface
type are presented in the Table 2.3 (Voldner et al. 1986).

When a direct measurement of L is not feasible the Monin Obhukov Length can be determined if
the Pasquill Stability class is known according to the formula (L. Golder 1972)
) ( log
1
0 10
z b a
L
+ = (3.11)
28

The coefficients in the above equation are given for different Pasquill classes in the table below:

Table 3.1: Correlation parameters for the determination of Monin Obhukov length from (3.7)
3.3 Quasi Laminar Resistance

The resistance model for dry deposition postulates that adjacent to the surface exists a
quasi-laminar layer, across which the resistance to transfer depends on molecular properties
of the substance and surface characteristics. This layer does not usually correspond to a
laminar boundary layer in the classical sense; rather it is the consequence of many
viscous layers adjacent to the obstacles comprising the overall, effective surface seen by
the atmosphere. The depth of this layer constantly changes in response to turbulent shear
stresses adjacent to the surface or surface elements. In fact, the layer may only exist
intermittently on such surfaces as plant leaves, which are often in continuous motion.
Whether a quasi-laminar layer actually exists, physically depends on the smoothness and
the shape of the surface elements, and to some extent, the variability of the near-surface
turbulence, but, in terms of the theory, it is considered to exist.
A viscous boundary layer adjacent to the surface of some obstacle on which deposition
is occurring is an impediment to all depositing species, regardless of the orientation of
the target surface. Molecular and Brownian diffusion occur independently of direction;
molecular diffusion can occur to the underside of a leaf just as easily as it can to the
top surface. The flux across the quasi-laminar sublayer adjacent to the surface is
expressed in terms of a dimensionless transfer coefficient, B, multiplying the concentration
difference across the layer, C
2
-C
1
. Since, under steady-state conditions, this flux is equal to
that across the surface layer, we write
(3.12)
where C
1
is the concentration at the surface, and, by convention, the transfer coefficient is
dimensionalized by
. The quasi-laminar layer resistance is then given by
(3.13)
29

The quasi-laminar resistance
depends on the molecular (for gases) or Brownian (for

particles) diffusivity of the material being considered. This dependence can be accounted for
through the dimensionless Schmidt number, Sc = v/D, where v is the kinematic viscosity of
air and D is the molecular diffusivity of the species. Measurements over canopies have
shown
to be relatively insensitive to the canopy roughness length
. A useful expression
for
for gases in terms of the Schmidt number is (Wesely, 1989),
(3.14)

3.4 Surface or Canopy Resistance

Surface properties greatly influence the rates of particle and gas dry deposition, either
directly through chemical reactions with the surface or indirect ly through perturbation of
the quasi-laminar layer. The capture of gases by vegetation depends primarily on the
accessibility of the gas to reaction sites within the plant. Numerous field studies show
that r
c
is the dominant resistance for SO
2
deposition to a plant canopy (Matt et al., 1987).
The resistance offered by soil, building materials, water, and snow surfaces to gaseous dry
deposition generally depends on the moisture level and pH of the surface, and the
solubility and reactivity of the gas. For SO
2
, the solubility is pH dependent, and, as a
result, a moist surface may offer greater resistance with repeated exposure.
The canopy resistance r
c
is usually the most difficult of the three flux resistances to
evaluate theoretically. Under ideal conditions, r
c
can be related to surface conditions, time
of day, season, and so on. In field studies providing independent measurements of the dry
deposition flux, r
c
is sometimes determined as simply the difference after the aerodynamic and
quasi-laminar resistances have been subtracted from the measured inverse deposition velocity , r
c

= v
d
-1
r
a
r
b
. There is a sizable body of work devoted to estimating r
c
as a function of
chemical species, canopy type, and meteorological conditions. It is usually presumed that,
once deposited at the surface, the gas or particle is captured irreversibly and cannot
reenter the atmosphere.
The surface or canopy resistance r
c
poses the complexity in specifying a quantitative
model. r
c
is assumed to be zero for particles and thus in developing a model for r
c
we need
consider only gases. The approach adopted here is based primarily on the methodology
developed by Wesely (1989) [19] for regional-scale modeling over a range of species, land-
use types, and seasons. The surface resistance is calculated from the individual resistance by
(Figure 3.3)
(3.15)
30

C
z

r
a

r
b

r
st
r
m

C
m

r
lu
C
lu
Vegetation

r
c
r
dc
r
cl
C
cl
Lower
Canopy
r
ac
r
gs
Cg
C
c
Ground
Figure 3.2 Resistance Schematic for Dry Deposition Model of Wesely (1989)
where the first term includes the leaf stomatal ( r
st
) and mesophyll ( r
m
) resistances, the
second term is outer surface resistance in the upper canopy ( r
lu
), which includes the leaf
cuticular resistance in healthy vegetation and the other outer surface resistances; the third term is
resistance in the lower canopy, which includes the resistance to transfer by buoyant convection
(r
dc
) and the resistance to uptake by leaves, twigs, and other exposed surfaces ( r
cl
); and the
fourth term is resistance at the ground, which includes a transfer resistance ( r
ac
) for processes
that depend only on canopy height and a resistance for uptake by the soil, leaf litter, and so on at
the ground surface ( r
gs
).
The bulk canopy stomatal resistance is calculated from tabulated values of r
j
(where r
j
is the
minimum bulk canopy stomatal resistance for water vapor)

, the solar radiation ( G in W m
-2
),
and surface air temperature ( T
s
in
o
C between 0 and 40
o
C ) using
(3.16)
Outside this range, the stomata are assumed to be closed and r
st
is set to a large value. The
combined minimum stomatal and mesophyll resistance is calculated from
31

(3.17)
where
is the ratio of the molecular diffusivity of water to that of the specific

gas,
is the effective Henrys law constant (M atm

-1
) for gas, and
is a normalized (0 to
1) reactivity factor for the dissolved gas (Table 3.3). The second term on the R.H.S of (4.32)
is the mesophyll resistance for the gas of interest.
The resistance of the outer surfaces in the upper canopy for a specific gas is computed from
(3.18)
Resistance
Component
r
j
r
lu
r
ac
r
gsS
r
gsO
r
clS
r
clO

Seasonal Category 1: Midsummer with Lush
Vegetation
100 2000 2000 100 300 2000 1000
Seasonal Category 2: Autumn with Unharvested
Cropland
500 8000 1700 100 300 4000 600
Seasonal Category 3: Late Autumn After Frost,
No Snow
500 8000 1500 200 300 6000 600
Seasonal Category 4: Winter, Snow on Ground
and Subfreezing
800 9000 1500 100 3500 400 600
Seasonal Category 5: Transitional Spring with
Partially Green Short Annuals
190 3000 1500 200 300 3000 700
Table 3.2: Input Resistances (s m
-1
) for Computations of Surface Resistances ( r
c
) [19]

Species Rate of
Molecular
Diffusivities

Henrys Law
Constant
b
(H
*
)
( M atm
-1
)

Henrys Law
Exponent
a

(A)
Normalized
Reactivity
( f
o
)
Sulfur dioxide 1.89
-3020 0
a
The exponent A is used in the expression H(T) = H exp{A[1/298 1/T]} to calculate H at the surface
temperature.
b
Effective Henrys law constant assuming a pH of about 6.5.
Table 3.3: Relevant Properties of Gases for Dry Deposition Calculations [2]
32

The resistance r
dc
is determined by the effects of mixing forced by buoyant convection
(as a result of surface heating of the ground and/or lower canopy) and by penetration of
winds into canopies on the sides of hills. The resistance (in s m
-1
) is estimated from
(3.19)
where is the slope of the local terrain in radians. The resistance of the exposed surfaces
in the lower portions of structures ( canopies or buildings) is computed from
(3.20)
where r
clS
and r
clO
are given for each season and mixed forest including wetland in
Table 4.1. Similarly, at the ground, the resistances are computed from
(3.21)
The values of the parameters needed for computation were tabulated be Wesely [19] for different
seasons and different land use types. Caution must be exercised while selecting values. The
importance of the seasonal type is that the amount of tree cover varies. A more modern
parameterization by Zhang et. al (2003) [20] incorporates a LAI (leaf Area Index) which varies
with season differently for different vegetative types. This provides for a better description
especially in parts of the world which are different in vegetation and climate from the place for
which the model was originally developed. For this study we have used the Wesely
parameterization and selected the values for deciduous forest since NLC has a large tree cover.
The values for various seasons are given below. For April the obvious choice is mid-summer
with lush vegetation. For the months of November December seasonal category 3 may be used.
For more information the reader is referred to the original work [19]. Values from Wesely are
presented in Table 3.2 [19]
Table 3.3 lists relevant properties needed to calculate gaseous deposition layer and surface
resistances for this model. It is important to recognize that the reactivity factors assigned
to the depositing species are approximate and may vary significantly with the vegetation
type or state. The Henrys law constants can be adjusted for temperature using the
expression given in the footnote to the table and adjusted for pH on the leaf surface.

33

3.5 Deposition Velocity for SO
2
, April 2009
The above computations were performed for the month of April 2009. Data was provided by
NLC. The values of r
a
, r
b
and r
c
were computed at three times of the day- 02:30, 08:30 and
14:30. The reference height was taken arbitrarily as 90m. The results are presented below along
with the calculated deposition velocities.

Figure 3.3: Vd calculation April 2009 08:30

From a comparison of figures 3.4 and 3.5 we see that the aerodynamic resistance is higher in the
morning.This is primarily due to the lower wind speed at 08:30 as well as due to the more
convective nature of the afternoons at NLC. The surface resistance remains nearly the same due
to the healthy sunshine received right from morning to afternoon in April. The deposition
velocity is generally higher in the afternoon. In the night the stomata closes due to the absence of
34

stimulation by light. Hence no gas uptake through the stomatal pathway is possible and the value
of surface resistance rises appreciably leading to low values of deposition velocity. The large flat
portions of fig. 3.6 are due to the threshold values set for friction velocity and velocity when the
measurements are too low and attributable to errors in measurement or anomalies.

From the above figures we find that during the day time in April the average Vd value can be
taken as 0.006 ms-1. We will use this value in the further studies in this chapter where we will
investigate the role of the extensive tree cover in controlling air pollution at NLC. The
computations described above can be easily carried out for other months. For the reader who is
interested in more examples of such computations we suggest he refer [21-23].

Figure 3.6: Vd at different times during the month of April 2009

35

3.6 Removal from a Continuous Plume
The stacks at NLC emit polluting gases round the clock throughout the year unceasingly. These
emissions can affect human life and the environment adversely if they are concentrated to high
levels at any location. Thankfully nature has an amazing capacity to absorb anthropogenic
stresses such as polluting emissions. While this cannot be seen as a green signal to continue to
harming the environment, it is heartening since any switch over to green fuels will take a
considerable time. Until then we must rely on fossil fuels. Under such circumstances it is indeed
important to understand the mechanisms by which we can naturally reduce the harmful effects of
these emissions. Cleansing of air by trees has long since been viewed as once such mechanism.
This is one of the reasons behind afforestations and greening of urban areas. However, what
affect would 17 million trees have on a power plant which emits around 3000g/s of SO
2
alone
everyday of the year 247? No study on this scale has been conducted thus far- especially not in
India where the unique conditions of climate and vegetation make borrowing results from mid-
latitude regions unsatisfactory.
In this work we systematically investigate the role of tress at NLC. The first step is to establish
wether the trees are capable of sucking out pollution from the plumes which are being
continuously emitted. Do they act as a type of anti-pollution system-counter acting the stacks and
fighting to keep the air clean? To answer this question the deposition velocity calculated in the
previous section is incorporated into the dispersion model to account for the depletion of the
plume due to the dry deposition flux of SO
2
onto the trees. The new reduced concentrations are
then computed and compared with the old. This computation is not a trivial task and complicates
the coding task considerably. Furthermore there is not much literature available which describes
a model/methodology suitable for our task. This proved to be the most challenging task of the
modelling exercise. The results were however far from spectacular from an environmentalist
point of view. Instead as one should expect, the source strenghts are far to high and the pollution
is carried over the trees too quickly for the canopy to have any affect on the ambient air
concentration at a location directly in the path of a plume. While the flux of SO
2
is considerable,
the replenishment from the source is much higher. Below, two plots of the average
concentrations of SO
2
, with and without including depostion, are presented for comparison. The
month chosen is again April 2009. There is hardly andy change-indicating the incapability of the
trees to clean the air in regions directly affected by such strong emitting sources as we have at
NLC.
36

Figure 3.7: April 2009 14:30 Without Dry Deposition

Figure 3.8: April 2009 14:30 With Dry Depsition; Vd=0.006m/s
Do these results mean that planting 17 million trees is a wasted effort as far as keeping the air
clean is concerned? The answer is a definite No and section 3.8 tells us why. Before we proceed
it is important to take a look at things from the point of view of the trees.

3.7 Deposition of polluting species onto the canopy

In the previous section, it was mentioned that the flux of SO
2
is considerable. While this may not
affect the ambient air concentration at regions along the plume path, it is important in terms of
quantifying the amount of substance deposited at a vegetative surface over time. The deposition
of acidic substances such as SO
2
can have various harmful impacts upon the trees. For these
reasons and to demonstrate the validity of the opening statement of the section we present below
the mass of SO
2
deposited over NLC if the entire region were afforested. The value at any point
represents the mass collected per hour over a 200230m rectangular area about the point. These
computations, performed for a fully vegetated NLC, are for illustrative purposes. To demonstrate
the ability of the model to handle situations with varying extents of green cover, we present a
simulation for the case where only half of the map is covered by forest (Vd=0.006m/s) while the
rest is not (Vd=0.002m/s).
37

Figure 3.9: Amount of SO2 deposited; entire map vegetated

Figure 3.10: Amount of SO2 deposited; half map vegetated

3.8 Removal of residual pollution- Cleansing action of trees

While trees do not have much impact on direct pollution levels they however have a major
impact on the level of residual pollution. Residual pollutants are those which are not being
directly emitted at the time of analysis. These pollutants were emitted earlier and are no longer
being emitted by the source. Such pollutants will remain in the atmosphere unless they are
advected by wind, transformed by chemical reaction or removed by either dry or wet deposition
mechanisms. It is here that the trees play a big role.

We can also refer to such conditions, when the pollution is being removed without any further
addition, as conditions of no-replenishment- a self coined term. Under such conditions the trees,
over several hours, can scavenge much of the pollution- dramatically reducing air pollution
levels. These conditions would occur over large areas of NLC every day. A comparison of fig.
2.4 and 2.5 will show that the wind changes direct appreciably during the day. This will leave
behind residual pollution over large areas of NLC. Moreover when a moderate morning wind is
followed by a mild afternoon breeze, as was the case on 30
th
April, then removal of these
residual pollutants is left to the tree cover. In the absence of trees the pollution levels would
remain considerably higher until a strong wind picks up and advects the gases away. Of course it
38

would only pollute another region! In the figure below the regions which on an average are left
with residual pollution is shown. This figure depicts the relatively higher concentrations during
08:30 as compared to 14:30 for the month of April 2009.

Figure 3.11: Relatively higher concentrations of SO2 at 08:30 as compared with 14:30
Under the conditions of low winds the pollution will remain over the trees and be gradually
removed from the atmosphere. The air above the trees will be in vertical motion depending on
the stability of the atmosphere. Under stable conditions the pollution remains trapped at the
surface while at unstable conditions strong mixing can dilute the pollution throughout the
atmosphere.

Consider a column of mixed air containing the pollutants reaching form the surface of the
vegetative canopy up to the top of the well mixed layer of the atmosphere. This is the region of
the atmosphere in which the air is churned about and can be considered as a stirred tank. During
the night this height will be low- about 100m due to the formation of an inversion layer.
However during a summer afternoon it can extend beyond 1000m. For this case we have taken
the height to be a 1000m.

Thus we have a scenario in which species are being removed at the bottom surface of the
atmosphere while it is being mixed by the turbulent eddies of the flow. Such a situation can be
represented by the following mass balance on the species (SO
2
) for a column of air of height
equal to the mixing layer height, H
mix
.

mix
d
H
C V
dt
dC
=
(3.22)
39

This equation when integrated yields the following expression for the time dependent
concentration in the mixed zone of the atmosphere, where C
0
is the initial residual concentration.

|
|
.
|
\
|
=
mix
d
H
t V
C
dt
dC
exp
0
(3.23)

3.9 Cleansing of Air by trees on 30
th
April 2009

In order to study the removal of residual pollutants under the conditions of no-replenishment
described above, it is necessary to consider a particular day when such conditions prevailed. 30
th

April 2009 was such a day when a moderate NW wind of 1.7 m/s swept NLC at 08:30 while a
mild breeze (0.3m/s) blew from the east at 14:30. Under such conditions practically all the
morning pollution levels would remain as residual levels during the afternoon. These pollutant
gases will not be carried away by the mild wind, however there will be strong turbulent vertical
mixing during the afternoon since the conditions will be unstable. The height of the mixing layer
is taken to be 1000m. In the figures which follow contours of the residual concentration are
presented at various time intervals after 08:30. The purpose of this study is to give an
appreciation for this role of trees and not to demonstrate the exact transient concentration
profiles. Thus although the variation of wind between 08:30 and 14:30 are not considered and the
advection is neglected we feel this case study still serves to bear out the discussion of the
preceding paragraphs.

Figure 3.12: Concentrations of SO2 after zero and two hours

Figure 3.13: Concentrations of SO2 after fours and eight hours
40

The removal of pollution is clearly seen at receptor thirteen, where the concentration decreases
by about 70g/m
3
over 8 hours.

3.10 Conclusions

When viewing these results it must be remembered that the atmosphere is most unstable at
afternoon, during the summer. During winter days the mixing layer can be a few hundreds of
meters high while at night it can be just a 100 meters due to the formation of an inversion layer.
Under such conditions pollution emitted during the earlier hours can get trapped during the night
and create harmfully high levels of pollution. This would be prevented by the removal action of
the trees which would be much more pronounced when the mixing height in eqn. (3.19) is
reduced from 1000m to 100m. Of course ground level pollution would be removed to a greater
extent. This is why trees should be planted in urban areas where the major pollution source is at
ground level and the residual pollution often is trapped during the night. The presence of trees
would then definitely improve the air quality.

It is important to note that for the above simulations the entire study area was taken to be covered
by trees. Although this is not the case, we do not expect any deviation in our ultimate conclusion
since NLC has such a large tree cover. In future work the data on the location of forest cover will
be obtained from NLC and the study repeated, as well as further investigation carried out into
other cases wherein the trees can play an important role.

41

CHAPTER 4: SCAVENGING EFFICACY OF THE NORTH EAST MONSOONS

India receives heavy rainfall from two distinct monsoons. The South East Monsoon, bearing
moisture from the Indian Ocean, holds sway over most of the Subcontinent from June to
September. The North East Monsoon (NE Monsoon) or Retreating Monsoon brings moisture
from the Bay of Bengal and empties itself over the South Eastern coast of India during the
months of October to December. It is the latter which forms the basis of this study-this study is
therefore timely as some of the worlds mega cities (i.e. Chennai and Kolkata) are along this
coastline.
The State of Tamil Nadu, located along the South East coastline, is most affected by the NE
Monsoon and receives rain rates almost thrice that of mid-latitude precipitation (>150mm/hr).
The state and neighbouring regions are home to several industries and power plants which spew
SO
2
laden emission throughout the year. During heavy precipitation events, much of the air
borne pollution is washed away by the rain leaving the air fresher- a common experience for
locals living in industrialized areas. However, the downside is a reduction in the pH of the rain
water reaching the earths surface. In order to quantify these phenomena it is necessary to study
the mass transfer of the trace pollutant gas (SO
2
in this study) into falling rain drops, against a
backdrop of rain rates and rain drop size spectra. In order to identify areas of particular concern it
is necessary to develop need-based atmospheric dispersion models. While many such studies
have been carried out for the mid-latitudes, there are hardly any definitive quantitative studies
over the tropical regions. We believe that ours is a first study which deals with precipitation
scavenging of intense showers of the NE Monsoon over a sensitive region in tropical India.
4.1 Transient Interface Mass Transfer of SO
2
into a falling Rain Drop
The well mixed model of liquid gas interface mass transfer is used in this section. A liquid drop
falling at its terminal velocity through the atmosphere experiences considerable shear at its
surface which induces internal circulations inside the drop. This allows us to make the
assumption that there are no concentration gradients inside the drop (well mixed assumption).
Hence the resistance to mass transfer is considered to exist only in the gaseous film surrounding
the drop.
For a gas which dissolves in water according to Henrys Law we can write the following
expression for the time rate of change of concentration [1]
dC
l
/dt = (12f
g
D
g
*
/D
2
) [C
g
(C
l
/ K
H
RT)] (4.1)
f
g
is the ventilation coefficient which is the ratio of the mass transfer of the gas for a drop falling
at its terminal velocity to that of a stationary drop.
D
g
*
is the modified diffusivity which is obtained from the binary diffusivity of SO
2
(D
g
) in air by
the following expression:
42

D
g
* = D
g
/ [1 + (8D
g
/D V
G
)]

(4.2)
, the mass accommodation coefficient is assumed to be 0.5 for this study [1] and V
G
, the
molecular thermal velocity can be computed by [2]
V
G
= [ 8RT/(M.M) ]
1/2
(4.3)
The SO
2
in the liquid phase is present in a dissociated form. The prominent species present at
moderately acidic pH levels is the bisulphite ion. For the sake of simplicity and keeping the goal
of this section in mind, we decided to consider the dissociation of SO
2
into bisulphite (HSO
3
-
)
alone without considering any further oxidation reaction of bisulphite-the time of fall required
for the saturation of a drop will increase if we were to consider these additional aqueous
reactions. Thus by the current approach we can get a lower limit on the time to saturation which
serves our purpose. In order to write equation (3.20) in terms of HSO
3
-
concentration we must
introduce the dissociation constant (K
1
) of the reaction of formation of HSO
3
-
.
The equation for the transient concentration of HSO
3
-
is:
dC
L
/dt = (12f
g
D
g
*
/D
2
) [C
g
(C
L
2
/ K
H
K
1
RT)] (4.4)
In this study we are concerned with wet scavenging in a local the region around the source of
emissions. It is unlikely that the emissions can travel up to the cloud base for there to be any
significant in cloud scavenging. Thus, we can assume that the concentration of HSO
3
-
in the rain
droplets as they fall from the cloud base will be negligible. Then the initial condition for
equation (2) is dC
L
/ dt = 0; C
L
= 0. This first order differential equation can be solved to yield an
expression for the transient concentration of HSO
3
-
in the drop.
C
L
(t) = C
Lsat
tanh[ (k C
g
t) / C
Lsat
)] (4.5)

C
Lsat
is the concentration in a saturated droplet which should be in equilibrium with the ambient
air concentration of SO
2
:
C
Lsat
= [C
g
K
H
K
1
RT]
1/2
(4.6)
k, the average mass transfer coefficient accounts for both collisional as well as diffusional
uptake:
k = (12D
g
*
f
g
)

/ D
2
(4.7)
The value of the ventilation coefficient can be determined from the following empirical relation
[1] in terms of the Reynolds (Re) and Schmidt Numbers (Sc).
f
g
= 0.78+0.308 Sc
1/3
Re
1/2
(4.8)

The dimensionless numbers are defined as:
43

Sc = D
g
/ (4.9)
Re = DU
t
/ (4.10)

We have used the following relation for calculating the terminal velocity [3]

U
t
= Q(D/2) ; the constant Q = 8630 s
-1
(4.11)

It is found that the concentration follows a tan-hyperbolic curve, finally attaining saturation after
a certain time of fall. The values for the parameters used in the above equations are given in table
4.1 [1].
D
g
, Gas Phase diffusivity 14.1 mm
2
s
-1

M.M, Molecular Mass SO
2
64 gmol
-1

v , Kinematic viscosity of air 14.1 mm
2
s
-1

K
H
RT, Henrys law constant product 30 (dimensionless)
K
1
, Dissociation Constant 1.2310
-2
mol L
-1

Table 4.3: Parameters for use in Equation (4.2)

Equation (4.2) was used to plot the transient concentration of a drop as it falls through the
atmosphere. Here the time of fall was expressed in terms of the distance of fall after evaluating
the terminal velocity for each drop. The ambient air concentration was taken to be 150g/m
3
.
This is the ambient concentration one can expect around NLC due to the emissions of Thermal
Power Station 1 (TPS1) which is based on observations as well from model results. The profiles
of concentration with time are plotted in figure 4.1.
44

Figure 4.1: Concentration of bisulphite in a falling drop
It is observed that the distance for which the drop falls before becoming saturated increases with
the drop diameter. While the small drops (D~0.5 mm) saturate in less than 50 meters, the
moderate sized drops (D~ 2mm) fall for 200m before attaining saturation. It is observed and
discussed in a following section that the average diameter of rain drops increases as the
precipitation rates increase. For the high intensity rainfall of the NE Monsoons, there is a
propensity of moderate to large sized rain drops and thus we can safely assume that the drops do
not get saturated as they fall through a plume of emissions from the NLC. Hence the rain will
wash out SO
2
from the upper reaches of the emitted plume to the ground level. NLC is one of the
largest power plants in Asia-we expect that this expectation will obtain for most power plant
emissions over the Indian Subcontinent as well as over other countries which receive NE
monsoon rains.
4.2 pH of a drop when it reaches ground level
Apart from washout of emissions we are also concerned with the acidity of the rain water. Thus
it is useful at this stage to compute the pH of a rain drop which reaches the ground. We assume
that the pH of a rain drop as it leaves the cloud base is 5.6 due to absorption of CO
2
in the upper
atmosphere. Applying the principle of electro-neutrality, we can find the new pH of a drop due to
the absorption of SO
2
and its subsequent dissociation to HSO
3
.
The concentration of H+ ions in a drop leaving the cloud base is given by
[H
+
]
ini
= 10^( pH
ini
) ; { pH
ini
= 5.6} (4.12)
[H
+
]
abs
=[HSO
3
]
abs
(4.13)
pH
ground
= log
10
( [H
+
]
ini
+ [H
+
]
abs
) (4.14)
The pH of drops of different sizes when they reach the ground is depicted in figure 4.2.
45

Figure 4.2: pH of drops of various sizes at the ground level
The lower flat part of the curve represents drops which get saturated prior to their reaching the
ground- they attain a minimum pH of 4.5 for drop diameters up to 1 mm. The larger sized drops
(those exceeding diameters over 1mm) are unsaturated. The ground level pH of these drops
varies with their diameter. When the concentration of SO
2
in the air remains constant during a
rain event, a preponderance of large drops will ensure a higher rainwater pH. Thus we can
conclude that the heavier rains of the NE Monsoons will have less acidic content that the milder
showers, at mid latitude locations, since the number of large drops increases with rain rate.
4.3 Quantification of plume washout Scavenging Coefficient
The flux of a gas species from the air into rain drops per unit height of the atmosphere (W), due
to washout by rain, can be approximated by a linear relationship [2].
W= C
g
(4.15)
Where: is the scavenging coefficient with units of time
-1
.
The flux (F) of a gas species to the ground from a column of the atmosphere of unit cross-
sectional area (where the concentration of the gas is horizontally constant) is given by:
F = C
g
dh (4.16)
Thus if we represent the integrated concentration of the species from the ground to the upper
reaches of the emissions as C
T
, then for a value of which is constant at all spatial positions, we
get the flux at the ground at any point (x,y) as:
F(x,y) = C
T
(x,y) (4.17)
46

Thus, if we have the spatially distributed concentrations around an emission source we can
integrate the concentrations with height at every point to evaluate C
T
. With a suitable value of
one can easily compute the flux of species to the ground due to washout by rain. The above
formulation is valid only if the gas is irreversibly soluble. This is not always the case for SO
2
.
However, our results in section 2 show that drops with diameter above 1mm do not become
saturated as they fall through an industrial plume. Thus for high rain rates of the NE Monsoons,
where the majority of the drops are of a moderate to large size, it is safe to proceed with the
assumption of irreversible absorption of SO
2
without significant error for our subsequent
computations of the scavenging coefficient.
The scavenging coefficient, at a particular rain rate, for a size distributed spectra of rain drops is
given by [2].
= K
c
D
2
N(D) d(D) (4.18)
Where: N(D) is the drop size distribution function which represents the number concentration of
drops of a given size (units: m
-3
mm
-1
)
K
c
is the empirically determined mass transfer coefficient of a gaseous species to falling drops
and can be evaluated by the correlation proposed by [4].
K
c
= (D
g
/D) [2+0.6(Re)
1/2
(Sc)
1/3
] (4.19)
The drop size distribution varies with rain rate and is determined by fitting experimental drop
size distribution (DSD) data to established mathematical distributions. Many different
distributions have been used to represent the DSD of rain. These include the Marshal Palmer,
Lognormal and the Modified Gamma Distributions. In the work of Konwar and coworkers [5] it
is shown that the Lognormal and Modified Gamma distributions are similar and that they both
provide a better fit of the DSD than the Marshal Palmer distribution. They also show that the
Modified Gamma distribution gives the best fit for the DSD data for rain samples over Gadanki
located in Tamil Nadu, India. S.S. Roy and coworkers [6] have studied the DSD for rain over the
Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu and have fitted the data to a gamma distribution. Fortunately,
NLC the target area for the application of our work is located in the district of Cuddalore.
Assured by the work of Konwar et. al [5] we decided to adopt the gamma distribution of S.S Roy
et al [6] for our study. Curves of the gamma distribution for various rain rates are shown in
figure 3. It can be seen that the peak diameter increases as the rain rate increases. The modified
gamma distribution function is:
N(D)=N
0
D
exp(-D) (4.20)
47

Figure 4.3: Rain drop size spectrum for various rain rates over Cuddalore [6]
Using the modified gamma distribution function (4.20) in equation (4.18) we numerically
integrated the resulting expression to yield the value of the scavenging coefficient. This was
repeated for all the rain rates studied by S.S. Roy et al [6] to generate the curve shown in figure
4. Since we require rain rates greater than 100mmhr
-1
in our study it was necessary to extrapolate
the data by fitting a regression line to the same.
= (2.196110
-5
) p + 1.924410
-4
(4.21)

Figure 4.4: Scavenging coefficient for various rain rates
In order to determine the spatially distributed concentration of a pollutant around an elevated
emission source such as an industrial stack, it is necessary to employ an air dispersion model. In
our study of NLC we developed a Gaussian model which accounts for plume rise, the convective
nature of the boundary layer using solar insolation data, the Pasquill Stability classes, wind speed
48

and direction to yield C
g
*
(x,y,z) , the gas-phase SO2 plume concentration . A detailed exposition
of Gaussian dispersion models can be found in [2].
During a rain event, the effect of plume washout can be included into a Gaussian dispersion
model by reducing the source strength by an exponential factor which involves the product of the
scavenging coefficient and the distance from the stack along the prevailing wind direction.
Hence the washed out concentration is given by [2].
C
g
*
.washout
(x,y,z) = exp(-x/u) C
g
*
(x,y,z) (4.22)
Thus as a parcel of air travels through the rain and away from the stack, the concentration of the
soluble species will be exponentially depleted by the rain. Equation (4.22) can be used to
simulate plume washout only if the rain drops do not become saturated with SO
2
as they falls
through the plume. The results of Section 4.1 allow us to make this assumption.
The rain which washes out SO
2
from the atmosphere will reach the ground with a reduced pH.
We consider the increase in H
+
ions due to the dissociation of dissolved SO
2
into HSO
3
-
. First we
compute the amount of SO
2
brought to the ground per unit area by the rain, for a unit time using
equation (4.17). The volume of rain water over that surface for a unit time is simply the rain rate.
Thus the concentration of HSO
3
-
ions can be estimated at any location which in turn allows a
computation of the pH at that location.
4.4 Investigation of Wet Scavenging and Rainfall Acidity at NLC

Meteorological data was provided for the month of October by NLC as well as data on their
Thermal Power Station and its emissions. This data along with plume rise calculations are shown
in Table 2. This work is concerned with the emissions from the first thermal power station
(TPS1). We apply the model developed in Section 3 for a typical October day which received
heavy showers to the tune of 122.4mmhr
-1
. A horizontal wind of magnitude 1m/s blew in from
the North East at the time of the shower. The concentration contours of SO
2
surrounding the
Thermal Power Station in the absence of rain is first shown for the sake of comparison. Then wet
scavenging is accounted for and the new contours are shown (Figure 4.5). It is clear that the large
drops of sharp NE monsoon showers rapidly cleans the ambient air-for an hour of rain fall with
an intensity of 122 mm/h, the plume concentration depletes considerably. Finally contours of the
rain water pH are displayed in Figure 4.6-pH values are acceptable over almost all the 13
receptors. This was possible only because of the preponderance of very large drops during
monsoon showers. The text markers represent the receptor locations where data collection
facilities are located.

49

Stack SO2
emitted
(g/s)
Height of
Stack (m)
Top Inner
Dia. (m)
Flue Gas
Velocity
(m/s)
Horizontal Wind
Speed (m/s)
Speed at Stack
height(m/s)
Plume
Rise (m)
Effective Stack
Height (m)
1 227.8 60 5.1 20.2 1 1.9 165.1 225.1
2 271.4 60 5.1 20.2 1 1.9 165.1 225.1
3 153.2 60 5.1 13.5 1 1.9 110.3 170.3
4 306 120 5.1 27.2 1 2.4 174.4 294.4
Table 4.4: Details of the stacks emitting SO
2
and the plume rise

Figure 4.5: Contours of SO
2
with and without the shower

Figure 4.6: Contours of pH of rain water around NLC
50

4.5 Conclusions
Rapidly developing economies like China and India are also among the most populous countries
in the world. This entails spiralling energy requirements for billions of people becoming
increasingly affluent. Renewable sources of energy and nuclear power will require another three
decades to match power production through conventional methods. Coal based power plants still
powers most of Indias cities- inevitably spewing out enormous amounts of acidic pollutants. If
one were to quantify ambient pollution levels over an industrialized region in India, one would
expect alarming levels of noxious pollutants. However, it must be borne in mind that the
subcontinent experiences an enormous amount of received precipitation through the North East
as well as the South West Monsoons.
Environmental Impact Assessment studies in developing countries address the issue of power
plant induced pollution. However, they borrow and apply models developed for more temperate
climes relevant to the mid latitudes- tropical climes receive precipitation intensities often 10
times higher than their mid latitude counterparts. In addition, the receptors of such pollutants are
located over urban conurbations where the populations are several orders of magnitudes higher
than over the mid latitudes.
In this carefully selected case study we have shown results for the first time how the intense NE
monsoonal rains cleanse the atmosphere of a large township centered on Asias largest lignite
based power plant. We have placed a particular emphasis on the characterization of the drop size
spectrum emanating from showers over the South Eastern Coast of India covering Asias
megacities of Calcutta and Chennai. To our pleasant surprise we find that although the source
strengths from the NLC stacks are of the order of 200 g/s, the ambient air quality standards are
seldom exceeded over 13 receptor locations of the township, particularly during October to
December every year. Clearly, ambient air pollution is partitioned into the dispersed phase which
is received at the ground. This brings out the issue of the quality of the rain water received. Our
study reveals that owing to the peculiar nature of the NE Monsoon precipitations there is a
preponderance of large drops exceeding 1mm in diameter. These drops will fall through
industrial plumes without becoming saturated. It was further observed that the larger the drop
size, the higher will be its pH when it reaches the ground. These large drops would be non-
existent or would be fewer in numbers for the milder mid latitude precipitation intensities. For
the first time we have established an empirical relationship between the scavenging coefficients
for the rain rates expected during NE Monsoonal showers. The dilution effects in these large
droplets raise the pH to almost acceptable levels.
We expect that the results from this first study can be easily adapted to other monsoon dominated
regions in many other developing nations. The mathematical analysis presented can be used by
EIA specialists, policy planners at the decision making level, as well as by other power plants in
the making.
51

CHAPTER 5: OVERALL CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

The air dispersion model developed in this work is able to predict the patterns of concentration
distribution about the NLC stacks. This model will be useful to NLC in their routine meetings
with the Pollution Control Board as well as when they plan for any expansion. However before it
can be used by NLC some more work will have to be done on the code. At the top of the agenda
is the incorporation of a better treatment of calm winds. The Gaussian equation over predicts
concentrations when the winds are low (below 0.5 m/s). Moreover when the wind speed at the
stack height is less than 1m/s, the plume may not bend over at all. This will lead to lower
concentrations than currently predicted. A simple effective method of treating such a situation is
by using a puff type model in which dispersion alone causes the spread of the emissions in all
directions, radially outwards. This will be the approach used by us in our future work.

In addition the codes for the dispersion model will have to be suitable packaged in a user friendly
system- possibly a GUI framework, before it can be used easily by NLC or any other interested
party. A comparison of our model results with standard software would be enlightening. It would
demonstrate the benefit of a tailor made model as well as reveal any shortcomings. AERMOD is
one such software widely used around the world and a comparison of our model with the same is
definitely on the cards.

With regard to our investigation of the role of the 17 million odd trees at NLC the work is far
from over. Next we plan to get data on tree cover from NLC and carry out more detailed
simulations under various conditions of no-replenishment. The deposition velocity
parameterization can be upgraded to that of Zhang et. al. [20] and a NLC specific LAI
incorporated.

The wet deposition studies were carried out for the case of SO
2
alone. This study will have to be
extended to NOx as well so as to give a complete picture of the rain water acidity. Apart from
washout, the extension of the entire model, including both dispersion and dry and wet deposition
to NOx is a part of the NLC agenda and the work will be commenced shortly.

Large amounts of Suspended Particulate matter is emitted from NLC each year. The
development of parallel models for SPM is a major task since the mechanisms involved in
dispersion and deposition of particles are different from those involved in the case of gases.
However, the exercise will be simpler, now that we have developed a model for gases. This work
is also one of the project objectives.

Air pollution is an evil which we are not going to be rid off any time soon. Especially in India we
will remain heavily reliant on coal for years to come. In such a situation a detailed study such as
the one described in this thesis is important to capture a glimpse of the overall picture. The
emissions from the stacks not only reach the lungs of living beings but have several other
destinations mediated by complex microphysical pathways. The understanding of these
processes is far from complete and more work must be done especially in developing regions of
the world. NLC, Asias Largest Lignite based Power Plant, is an ideal study area.

52

This work indicates that in spite of large amounts of emissions the environment may have some
respite during the monsoons (October-December) because of the heavy rains which wash away
the pollutants, at the same time ensuring that the rainwater is sufficiently dilute. Dry deposition
round the year also helps to keep pollution levels in check by reducing residual pollution levels.
Of course, deposition only removes pollutants from the air to transport them somewhere else.
Whether their new destinations results in them being less harmful due to some chemical
transformation, as within leaves of plants or by any other mechanism, deserves close attention.
This calls for a detailed analysis of micro physical processes such as the transport of SO
2
through
the stomata and its transformation to sulphate, via numerical 3D modelling. Such a study is also
on the authors agenda.

53

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Undergrad Thesis-1 - Advection Dispersion, Deposition and Rain Scavenging of Chemical Constituents NLC

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Undergrad Thesis-1 - Advection Dispersion, Deposition and Rain Scavenging of Chemical Constituents NLC

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Analytical Modelling of the Advection, Dispersion, Deposition and Rain

Scavenging of Chemical Constituents emitted from the Stacks of NLC

in the drop (mol L

in the drop at saturation (mol L

ion concentration due to dissociation of absorbed SO

from Lakes Environmental Software

is the friction velocity, and

refer to concentrations at the top and bottom of the constant -

, whichever is deemed analogous to

, the reference height implicit in the definition of

. The quasi-laminar layer resistance is then given by

depends on the molecular (for gases) or Brownian (for

to be relatively insensitive to the canopy roughness length

for gases in terms of the Schmidt number is (Wesely, 1989),

is the ratio of the molecular diffusivity of water to that of the specific

is the effective Henrys law constant (M atm

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