Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1995

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Environmental Engineering

Major Professor

Wayne T. Davis

Committee Members

Terry Miller, Chris Cox

Abstract

This thesis examined the significance of NOx emissions from power plants on tropospheric ozone in the Middle Tennessee area using the Urban Airshed Model. The modeling domain used covers a 46,000 km2 rectangle with Nashville, Tennessee located approximately in the center. Located within this area are three coal-fired power plants (Cumberland Steam Plant, Gallatin Steam Plant, and New Johnsonville Steam Plant) which represent the greatest point sources of NOx emissions within the modeling domain. The emissions are based on a 1990 State Implementation Plan (SIP) inventory that has been backcast to 1988. The emissions, including area, point, mobile, non-road, and biogenic sources were chemically, temporally, and spatially allocated throughout the domain.

The NOx emissions from the three power plants were reduced by 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% for two episode dates in 1988 which exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone to determine the significance of power plant NOx emissions on ozone formation. An additional simulation was conducted in which Gallatin's NOx emissions were reduced by these percentages for a third day in 1988 which also exceeded the NAAQS. The results from this study showed that the maximum ozone that the NOx emissions from power plants contributed to tropospheric ozone in the Middle Tennessee Area ranged from 19 to 39 parts per billion (ppb) and was predicted to decrease as the NOx emissions from the power plants were reduced.

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