title: Acidity of vapor plume from cooling tower mixed with flue gases emitted from coal-fired power plant.
abstract: Acidity of products resulting from the reaction of flue gas components emitted from a coal-fired power plant with water contained in a vapor plume from a wet cooling tower was analyzed in a close vicinity of a power plant (710 m from the stack and 315 m from the cooling tower). Samples of this mixture were collected using a precipitation funnel where components of the mixed plumes were discharged from the atmosphere with the rainfall. To identify situations when the precipitation occurred at the same time as the wind directed the mixed vapor and flue gas plumes above the precipitation funnel, an ultrasound anemometer designed for 3D measurements of the wind field located near the funnel was used. Precipitation samples of extremely high acidity were identified - about 5% of samples collected during 12 months showed the acidity below pH=3 and the lowest recorded pH was 1.4. During the measurement period the value of pH characterizing the background acidity of the precipitation was about 6. The main outcome of this study was to demonstrate a very high, and so far completely underestimated, potential of occurrence of episodes of extremely acid depositions in the immediate vicinity of a coal-fired power plant.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, 40-832 Katowice, Poland; Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Biotechnology, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-201 Czestochowa, Poland. Electronic address: hlawiczka.sta@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Stanislaw
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hlawiczka
authors.affiliation: Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, 40-832 Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Korszun
authors.affiliation: Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, 40-832 Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Janina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fudala
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry; D003031:Coal; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D011210:Power Plants
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D003031:Coal
keywords: Acid rain; Acidic deposition; Coal-fired power plant; Soil acidification