AIR QUALITY AND HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT OF STACK EMISSIONS FROM THERMAL POWER PLANT: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The Industrial Source Complex Short Term (ISCST-3) model has been used to study the distribution of air pollutants from Kota thermal power station, located at Kota city in Kota district of Rajasthan state, India, and then health risk have been calculated. The stack emission rate of SPM, SO2, NOx with stack locations and characteristics along with the meteorological data for 4 month period (March-June 2005) have been used for computing the ground level concentrations of SPM, SO2, and NOx. The 24 hr average model predictions have been used for comparing the observed data measured at seven receptor locations. The model was first validated for its prediction performance and health risks have been estimated in terms of mortality and morbidity outcomes. The results show that the predictions made by model are in good agreement with observed values for SO2, NOx concentrations. Whereas in case of SPM, correlation is low. But this variation may be due to other natural and anthropogenic sources of pollution. SO2, NOx concentrations due to thermal power plant are within the limits in comparison to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards except that SPM exceeds at few places in study area. Furthermore, health effects estimation reveals that the number of man days lost due to air pollution are high. But the acute bronchitis cases in children and chronic bronchitis cases in adults and emergency room visits (ERV) have been found to be low. As far as air pollution level criteria are considered, it was observed that emission from thermal power plant does not deteriorate much air quality over Kota city.