Analysis of ambient SO2 concentrations and winds in the complex surrounding of a thermal power plant

SO2 pollution is still a significant problem in Slovenia, especially around large thermal power plants (TPPs), like the one at Sostanj. The Sostanj TPP is the exclusive source of SO2 in the area and is therefore a perfect example for air pollution studies. In order to understand air pollution around the Sostanj TPP in detail, some analyses of emissions and ambient concentrations of SO2 at six automated monitoring stations in the surrounding of the TPP were made. The data base from 1991 to 1993 was used when there were no desulfurization plants in operations. Statistical analyses of the influence of the emissions from the three TPP stacks at different measuring points were made. The analyses prove that the smallest stack (100 m) mainly pollutes villages and towns near the TPP within a radius of a few kilometers. The medium stack's (150 m) influence is noticed at shorter as well as at longer distances up to more than ten kilometers. The highest stack (230 m) pollutes mainly at longer distances, where the plume reaches the higher hills. Detailed analyses of ambient SO2 concentrations were made. They show the temporal and spatial distribution of different classes of SO2 concentrations from very low to alarming values. These analyses show that pollution patterns at a particular station remain the same if observed on a yearly basis, but can vary very much if observed on a monthly basis, mainly because of different weather patterns. Therefore the winds in the basin (as the most important feature influencing air pollution dispersion) were further analysed in detail to find clusters of similar patterns. For cluster analysis of ground-level winds patterns in the basin around the Sostanj Thermal Power Plant, the Kohonen neural network and Leaders' method were used. Furthermore the dependence of ambient SO2 concentrations on the clusters obtained was analysed. The results proved that effective cluster analysis can be a useful tool for compressing a huge wind data base in order to find the correlation between winds and pollutant concentrations. The analyses made provide a better insight into air pollution over complex terrain