THE THERMO-ELECTRIC POWER PLANTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT. THE IMPACT OF T.P.P. SUCEAVA ON THE ENVIRONMENT – CASE STUDY

Abstract

The environment represents all of the natural and artificial factors created through human actions, which in tight interaction, they are influencing the biological equilibrium determining the life conditions for the human being and the society developing. The technical
progress brings along, besides so many wonderful achievements, numerous drawbacks and a lot of polluting substances, which may destroy the environment.The environment polluting has became a contemporary, social-economic problem which has taken so big proportions, that required adopting some laws to reduce its harmful actions. The quantification of the human activity effects and the natural processes on the environment, the health and security
of the human being, as well as goods of any kind are achieved by assessing the impact on the environment. The paper presents the way the thermo-electric centrals influence the environment by evacuating in the atmosphere the polluting substances resulted from the burning of fuel in the energetic boilers. There are analyzed the noxa emissions for the combined heat and power plant of Suceava.
The central was projected to work on solid fuel (lignite from the Rovinari basin) combined with fuel oil for stabilizing the burning. Between 1999-2001 people have been working on repairs at the energetic boilers by upgrading from the lignite operating to the
pitcoal operating. The pitcoal is imported from Russia, Ukraine, Australia, South Africa. The source of air polluting is the emission in atmosphere of the polluting contained in the burning gases resulted from burning the fuel in the focus of energetic boilers (SO2, NOx,
CO2, powders). The direct impact of the polluting (SO2, NOx, CO2, powders), evacuated in the atmosphere by the burning installation, takes place in areas relatively close to the central, on distances from hundreds of meters to tens of kilometers (by affecting the air quality and solid, acid deposition on the soil), this depends of the evacuated polluting quantity and the climatic factors in the area.
The gas polluting emission effects can manifest on wide areas, at noticeable distances from the source (some hundreds of kilometers) by the acid rain apparition (because of the SO2 emissions) and even at global scale through contribution to the sere effect (because of
the CO2 emissions).The thermal power plants in Romania were built during a period in which their impact on the environment was undervalued and constraints relating to environmental protection were relatively few. The location has been chosen most often by other criteria (sources of cooling water, fuel, energy consumers) and less after the environmental impact.
Stack height was considered a means (only) effective to prevent air pollution in the neighboring area, the dispersion of the combustion gases over a large area around the plant. For the case the combined heat and power plant of Suceava is observed that exceeded the
maximum permissible limits for the pollutants SO2, NOx, and particulates in the combustion gases discharged, compared with the limit imposed by GD 541/2003. Solution with high funnel is no longer sufficient and that the rules will be supplemented with measures to limit emissions into the atmosphere for each noxa separately.