Prediction of pollutants using aermod dispersion model for a 10MW Coal-MSW incineration power plant Tanjung Langsat, Johor

Abstract

Eventhough Malaysia generates electricity from natural resources such as coal and natural gas, these non-renewable resources become depleted from year to year.  An alternative to this problem is to generate electricity by municipal solid waste incineration. Despite being an attractive option for waste management, the combustion releases pollutants into the air which may influence human health and environment and led to strict enforcement of air quality regulation. Towards attaining the air quality targets, it is essential to evaluate the emission of the pollutants produced from the smoke stack in the plant. AERMOD dispersion model was used in this study to evaluate the ground level concentration of pollutants against stack height in Tanjung Langsat coal-municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration power plant. In this plant, coal was burned together with the municipal solid waste at different ratio. The findings showed the highest ground level concentration of NOx : 0.1316 µg/Nm³, SOx : 0.0344 µg/Nm³, particulate matter : 0.0206 µg/Nm³, dioxin : 7.57×10^-12 µg/Nm³, mercury : 2.86×10^-7 µg/Nm³ and cadmium : 4.56×10^-5 µg/Nm^{3 at} 100 m stack height.  For 50 m stack height, the highest ground level concentration of NOx : 0.2684 µg/Nm³, SOx : 0.0700 µg/Nm³, particulate matter : 0.0423 µg/Nm³, dioxin : 7.74×10^-12 µg/Nm³, mercury : 5.85×10^-7 µg/Nm³ and cadmium : 9.29×10^-5 µg/Nm³. The reported values still lower than the current emission limit stated in the Air Quality Regulation but in the future, this regulation will become more stringent. An improvement should be done to further reduce pollutant concentrations in order to make sure that the power plant meet the stringent future environmental law.