How much damage is caused by Thermal Pollution from power plants to the environment ?
If you are here for this particular query. You are at the right place. Here you will get in-depth knowledge about thermal pollution by power plants like nuclear and coal powered plants.
And the majority of plants are responsible for thermal inbalance.
The power plants like coal-fired and diesel fired are majorly responsible for this. On a flip side plants like hydro and wind are not responsible for thermal pollution.
We also cover emission and environmental impacts of coal based plants, briefly in-depth in this article. (keep reading ! )
The major effects observed by thermal Pollution from power plant is an aquatic ecosystem disturbance.
It directly affects the aquatic animals but as always as a coin has two faces it indirectly affects the land animals too.
There is not only health effects. It affects migration path of fishes. Because fishes try to move from warm to cold water.
Due to thermal discharge sudden increase in the temperature aquatic organism has no other option than living that area.
We also provided ways to control or reduce the thermal discharge through power plants.
In this article we will talk about all that above mentioned topic in depth. If you liked our introduction. Than you will definitely like our article. (keep reading ! )
The article will really provide right and impactful knowledge.
Let's start
Thermal Pollution From Power Plant
Power plant also referred as “power houses.” Because it is used to produce electricity by using petroleum, coal, and other carbonaceous fuel.
Power plant run through this massive machines known as “generators.” Which first convert chemical into mechanical. Then it converts mechanical into three-phase electrical energy.
The electricity produced by these powerhouses are used commercially as well as for public purpose.
For running these plants continuously large amount of water is required.
Water used in the plants absorbs the waste heat produced during the generation of electricity.
Waste heat, make water thermally unstable. And this thermally unstable water is discharged into the water bodies.
A sudden increase of water's temperature as observed in this phenomenon is known as thermal Pollution from coal and nuclear plants.
Due to this thermal discharge, various properties of the water is changed like viscosity, density, microbial activities and DO concentration.
We will go to discuss all the above mentioned changes in this article. (Keep reading ! )
The disturbance in the thermal properties of water bodies affects most of the aquatic ecosystem of that body.
Not all the plants are responsible for this thermal discharge. There are four main types of plant responsible for this.
Coal-fired power plant.
Almost 41% of electricity is produced by this particular type of power plant.
Most of the countries depend upon coal-fired power plants as their major source of electricity.
Diesel fired power plant.
This diesel fuel plants are utilized for generating less quantity of electricity.
Due to its high maintenance cost it's losing its popularity. And the hydro power plants taking its space.
Geothermal power plants.
To generate electricity geothermal plants use steam to rotate the turbines of the generator.
It's becoming more popular in recent time due to less emission of CO2 compared to coal-fired plants.
Combined cycle power Plant
Unlike the geothermal plants, combined cycle use gases, and steam, both to rotate the turbine to produce electricity.
It also emits less harmful gases than any other power house.
The following effects or disadvantages due to power plants thermal Pollution
Increase biological activity
Water is a basic need of each organism. Everyone has a right to access safe and clean water.
And for safe and clean water perfect composition of microbial is very necessary. Scientist use method " Escherichia" to calculate microbial composition.
There are various types of microorganisms present in the water. Some are good and some are equally bad organisms.
Due to the thermal discharge the water become warmer or its temperature increases.
This creates a favorable situation for the reproduction of microbials.
Due to this microbial composition of water become unstable. And water become unsafe for drinking. This is known as “increase in biological activities.”
It can cause various human health issues like illness, diarrhoea, and cholera.
Growth of algae increases.
Thermal discharge bring gradual increase in nutrient status of water bodies this phenomenon is known as accelerated eutrophication.
Eutrophication is a natural process and may take thousands of year but due to the thermal discharge it is accelerated.
It leads to more biological productivity and algae blooms.
The surface of water bodies is covered by algae which bring bad taste and bad odour and also introduces turbidity into the water bodies.
Growth of algae in the surface of water bodies also blocks the sunlight for aquatic ecosystem due to this aquatic organisms face instability in their surrounding.
Decrease in concentration DO
It is defined as amount of oxygen required by the bacteria to decompose the biodegradable organic matter under aerobic condition.
The saturated value of DO in water is in the order of 8 to 15 mg/L. Optimum DO required for healthy fish and other aquatic lives is about 5 to 8 mg/L.
Due to degradation of waste DO level get reduced. If DO drop below 4to 2 mg/L fish and other aquatic lives are threatened and in extreme cases killed.
So when the number of microorganisms increase in the water bodies.
The demand of oxygen also increases but due to the fixed quantity of the oxygen in the water.
Aquatic organism has less oxygen to breath. This will bring them near to death. It can affect the earth ecosystem and food chain.
Other effect of reduced DO is undesirable taste, odour and color prohibiting it's use for domestic and recreational purposes.
How living things of marine ecosystem reacts thermal discharge ?
Due to the thermal instability of water bodies, heat sensitive organism face various health effects and even death.
Their bodies are not able to survive in that particular situation.
Effects on air pollution.
Thermal power plants not affect only on water it also responsible for air pollution.
The amount of harmful gases they emit on a daily basis is very dangerous for human life.
Pollutants like CO, NO, NO2 and SO2, SO3 lead to disease like bronchitis and lung cancer.
How To Control Thermal Pollution From coal and nuclear Plant ?
-) Encourage the reuse of water in power plants. Then we will be able to decrease the amount of heated water discharge in the ocean.
We are able to directly impact on thermal Pollution from power plants.
By reusing the water. Power houses can control the amount of water discharge in the water bodies.
-) Power plant have to cool the heated water before discharging in the oceans.
And use the heat of water again in the process, and increase the efficiency of power plant.
Due to this even after water discharge water bodies not become thermally unstable.
Conclusion
Thermal Pollution from the power plants can be very much dangerous for the environment.
And as we discussed not all the power plants are responsible for thermal discharge.
Majorly coal-fired and nuclear plants responsible for this. And it is one of the major sources of electrical energy in various country.
Through this you can predict that how much thermal pollution is caused by these power plants.
According to us the most dangerous effect of thermal pollution from power plant is impact on the entire ecosystem that will directly affect the food chain.
But we also provide you the best effective ways to Control or reduce this thermal discharge problem.
Tell us what are your perspective about this topic. If you have any queries about this or any other topic comment down below.
We will try to solve your query in comment section.
What is the effect and impact of thermal power plants on flora, soil and control measures for the same. Also provide brief on fly ash generation its effect and impact on flora, fauna and socioeconomic factors.
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