INVESTIGATION OF SO2 RESULTS WITH PASSIVE DIFFUSIVE SAMPLERS AROUND 18 MART CAN THERMAL POWER PLANT IN CANAKKALE

Abstract

In Turkey, one of the major air pollution sources is energy utilization due to the combustion of lignite. Increasing energy consumption and use of domestic lignite causes the unavoidable increase of SO2 pollution. Especially around large combustion plants (i.e. coal-fired thermal power plants), monitoring cost is critical for evaluation of environmental impacts, since their impact area is very large, depending on measurement techniques. Since passive diffusion samplers have the potential to provide a cheap and effective means of determining atmospheric trace gas concentrations, they were preferred for monitoring of SO2 concentrations in the impact area of Can Thermal Power Plant. For more accurate and continuous measurements of air pollutants, an automated continuous measurement analyzer using UV fluorescence was also used. The passive diffusion samplers were co-located with the available AQMS (Air Quality Monitoring Stations), and during the year 2006, the continuous analyzer was co-located with the AQMS in Bayramic County, near the Can Thermal Power Plant. The two different measurement techniques were used to monitor and compare monthly measurements using least-square regression. The temporal variations observed with the passive samplers and AQMS data for SO2 concentrations were similar. The 8-months comparison of 2006, between passive sampler technique and automated analyzer measurement suggests that, in most cases, SO2 results correlate fairly well.