An integrated environmental risk assessment framework for coal-fired power plants: A fuzzy logic approach.

Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 8109978 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1539-6924 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 02724332 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Risk Anal Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE; MEDLINE

Publication: 2002- : Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers
Original Publication: New York : Plenum Press, c1981-

This study quantifies the environmental risk of a coal-fired thermal power plant during operation by using environmental monitoring data, site surveys, and documented evidence. The following criteria are assessed: emissions (CO, SO 2 , NO x , PM 10 ), impact on aquatic ecosystem (fish protection at cooling water intake and cooling water discharge temperature), and waste management (fly ash and bottom ash). Fuzzy sets were defined for each criterion, taking environmental regulatory context as an expert judgment. A survey was conducted with multiple stakeholders to determine the relative importance of risk factors. The survey results showed that the most concerned risks are SO 2 and NO x emissions. The proposed method estimates the risk of each environmental criterion separately and then accumulates them into an environmental risk index (ERI). Accordingly, we assessed the Catalagzi coal-fired power plant, which has been in operation on the Black Sea coast in northwestern Turkey. For this case study, the ERI resulted in a value of 0.78 (on a scale of 0-1), showing high environmental risk to the facility. Moreover, the applicability of the proposed framework was tested in several existing coal-fired power plants using simultaneous measurements. All studied coal-fired power plants in Turkey have unacceptable pollutants (PM 10 , SO 2 , and NO x ) concentration levels indicating high health risk potential. The application of the integrated environmental risk assessment framework showed that new environmental regulations are needed in Turkey to specify more strict emission limits and to monitor CO 2 , fine particulate matter emissions, cooling water discharge, and fish protection at cooling water intake.
(© 2022 Society for Risk Analysis.)

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Keywords: coal-fired power plant; environmental monitoring; environmental risk index; fuzzy logic; turkey

Date Created: 20220317 Date Completed: 20230320 Latest Revision: 20230320

20230320

10.1111/risa.13908

35297076