High resolution numerical simulation of sulphur-dioxide emission from a power plant building

Abstract

Most sulphur-dioxide (SO2) emission calculations have been performed on an annual basis and do not take into account spatial and temporal variations on fine scale. The main objective of this study is to illustrate spatio-temporal variation of SO2 emission pattern using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tools of the area surrounding the Yatagan Power Plant (YPP) building in Mugla, Turkey. In order to simulate the atmospheric conditions, wind speed, wind direction and the emission of SO2 from 3 stacks of YPP including the simplified model of the power plant building, a commercial CFD, FLUENT is used. The results involve 75 km(2) areas surrounding the YPP with a fine mesh resolution of 5 m x 5 m. SO2 emission shows that the CFD tool is able to simulate the emission with fine mesh digital elevation model (DEM). The DEM highly influences the local magnitude and direction of the wind in the domain which effects both spatial and temporal emission distribution of the SO2 gases. It is noted that the hills around the YPP cause the flue gas emissions to move away from the ground for 4 main wind directions when compared with the constant elevation model.