Industrial Dry Heat Island and Dispersion of Air Pollutants Induced by Large Coal-Fired Activities
Notable anthropogenic heat sources such as coal-fired plants can alter the atmospheric boundary layer structure and the pollutant dispersion, thereby affecting the local environment and microclimate. Herein, in situ measurements inside a coal-fired steel plant were performed by multiple advanced lidars from 21 May to 21 June of 2021 in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, China. Comparing with an adjacent meteorological site, we found a prominent nighttime dry heat island overhead of the factory, which was 3-10 °C hotter and 30%-60% drier than the surrounding fields. Large-eddy simulations constrained by the measured thermal contrast suggested that the heat-island-induced circulation could upward transport factory-discharged pollutants and horizontally spread them below the residual layer top, forming a mushroom-shaped cloud. The shape, size, and pollutant loading of the cloud were highly determined by thermodynamic variables such as aerodynamic wind and anthropogenic heat flux. Furthermore, these retained residual-layer pollutants can be convected downward to the ground after sunrise through the fumigation effect, causing the peaking phenomena aboveground. These peaks were statistically evidenced to be common in major urban agglomerations in China. The study provides a new insight regarding the origins of residual-layer pollutants and highlights the needs for programming representations of coal-fired heat emissions in mesoscale air-quality models.
Authors
- Junji Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1000-7241)
- Yongjing Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1104-7165)
- Jordi Vilà-Guerau De Arellano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0342-9171)
- Dandan Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4694-3683)
- Yonghong Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2498-9143)
- Scot T. Martin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8996-7554)
- Zifa Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7062-6012)
- Xin Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4243-5072)
- Jianhuai Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9063-3260)
- Xinbing Ren
Institutions
- Planetary Science Institute (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Harvard University Press (US)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (CN)
- Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (CN)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CZ)
- National Institute of Meteorology (TN)
- Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Published
- 2024-11-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02300
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Urban Heat Island Mitigation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.62
Funders
- Harvard University
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- EarthLab, University of Washington
- Wageningen University and Research
- National Key Research and Development Program of China