Thermal Power Plant Pollution

Thermal power plants gives out lot of gas which are harmful to our environment. Thermal power plant is used to converts heat energy into electric power. Chief justice of India SA Bobde said on Friday (29.2.20), he wanted all the thermal plants in the country shut to prevent environmental pollution. Bobde was dealing with a case from Uttarakhand where many projects had come under the court scanner along with Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant. Thermal pollution is the degradation of local environment, in particular the localized waterways, were changed by discharge of waste water from power plant.

Effect on Atmosphere

Thermal power plant produce lot of greenhouse gases, which are by-products of burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is one of the main gas that is released from burning of fossil fuels and it is the main reason for global warming. Thermal power plant is one of the reason to increase the carbon dioxide level throughout the world. Sulfur dioxide is another gas released from power plants. It is not a greenhouse gas, it gave indirect effects to atmosphere because it affect the scattering of sunlight. So it is considered as indirect greenhouse gas. This will return to earth as acid rain and will impact on ecosystem. The level of sulfur dioxide released from thermal power plants depend on the amount of sulfur dioxide released from thermal power plants depends on the amount of sulfur in the coal. The coal used in thermal power plant has an average between 0.1 and 3.5% of sulfur and the thermal power plants are the largest emitters of sulfur dioxide worldwide.

Nitrogen oxide are another gases that released in thermal power plants. It is one of the largest contributor to global nitrogen oxide levels. Both nitrous oxide and nitrogen oxides are not greenhouse gases, but it has an indirect effect on the atmosphere. Nitrogen oxide will cause respiratory issues and they combine with other atmospheric gases and moisture to form acid rain and smog. The other big pollutant to atmosphere is ash in the thermal Plants. Coal is used in thermal power generation which produce fine particles of ash will cause environmental problem. Ash will spread in the atmosphere will contains ash particles like silica, alumina, iron oxide, calcium, magnesium, lead, arsenic, cobalt and copper. Ash contain particulate matter known as PM2.5, are the particles less in diameter.

Effect on Local Environment

Thermal pollution is one the biggest problem in local environment. When the water in power plant is no longer usable, it gets discharged into local waterway. Wastewater generally have high temperature than local natural water, it can increase the temperature of water and it also have negative impact on local ecosystem. The released ash particles contain metal ions which can escape into local ecosystem and it also contain radioactive nuclides. Radioactive nuclides that emit radiation as they undergo radioactive decay through emission of alpha, beta or gamma particles. They affect the local environment from waterways, soil, vegetation and other living organisms.