THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Željko Ćirović

,

Mirjana Ćujić

,

Mirjana Radenković

,

Jelena Obradović

,

Antonije Onjia

AERMOD AIR DISPERSION MODELING AND HEALTH RISKS OF GAS AND OIL FUELED HEATING PLANT EMISSIONS

ABSTRACT
A significant part of the population in Serbia relies on central heating systems during the winter months, with around fifty heating plants in operation across the country. Common fuels used in these plants primarily include fossil fuels such as fuel oil and natural gas. Combustion of some of these fuels leads to significant emissions of air pollutants. This study evaluates the impact on the air quality of the two heating boilers at the Valjevo city, Serbia, heating plant. Air emissions were measured separately for two heating boilers in the facility using standard reference methodology. The AERMOD air dispersion model was used to estimate the dispersion of various pollutants. A combination of topographical and meteorological data was used to set up a receptor grid exposed to air pollution within a 10 km radius around the heating plant. It was found that the resulting distribution and concentration gradient of pollutant gases and particles were less inclined towards the city center and instead spread eastwards into the surrounding villages. The health risk from the fuel oil boiler was shown to be significantly higher than that caused by the natural gas-fuelled boiler. Nevertheless, the calculated carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks were within acceptable limits. However, further research is required to adequately assess the cumulative health risk generated by other surrounding emitters.
KEYWORDS
AERMOD, hazard index, air emission, carcinogenic, stack, exposure
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2022-02-14
PAPER REVISED: 2023-01-11
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2023-04-27
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2023-05-13
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI220214109C
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2023, VOLUME 27, ISSUE Issue 3, PAGES [2321 - 2331]
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AERMOD air dispersion modeling and health risks of gas and oil fueled heating plant emissions

© 2024 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence