Global freshwater thermal emissions from steam-electric power plants with once-through cooling systems

Raptis, Catherine; Pfister, Stephan

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2015.12.107

Cited by 44 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…

\frac{\partial T_{w}}{\partial t} ρ_{w} c A_{x} = \frac{Q_{in} ρ_{w} c Δ T_{in}}{\partial x} + \frac{Q_{runoff} ρ_{w} c Δ T_{runoff}}{\partial x} + H_{air - water} w_{x} + \frac{Q_{human} ρ_{w} c Δ T_{human}}{\partial x},

where T w is the water temperature, ρ w is the density of water, c is the specific heat capacity of water, ∆ T in is the difference between the advected temperature from upstream and the river temperature at the current location, ∆ T runoff is the difference between the advected temperature from runoff yield and the river temperature at the same grid cell, w x is the stream width, x denotes the segment length, which is equal to the length of the river grid cell, ∆ T human is the difference between the advected temperature from human heat emission and the river temperature in the same grid cell, and Q human is the water discharged from once‐through cooling systems. It should be noted that the emitted heat was added to the river to warm the water, using the ready‐made data provided by Raptis and Pfister ().…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of anthropogenic nitrogen discharge on dissolved inorganic nitrogen transport in global rivers

Liu

Xie

Zeng

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Excess nutrients from fertilizer application, pollution discharge, and water regulations outflow through rivers from lands to oceans, seriously impacting coastal ecosystems. A reasonable representation of these processes in land surface models and River Transport Models (RTMs) is very important for understanding human–environment interactions. In this study, the schemes of riverine dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) transport and human activities including nitrogen discharge and water regulation, were synchronously incorporated into a land surface model coupled with a RTM. The effects of anthropogenic nitrogen discharge on the DIN transport in rivers were studied based on simulations of the period 1991–2010 throughout the entire world, conducted using the developed model, which had a spatial resolution of about 1° for land processes and 0.5° for river transport, and data on fertilizer application, point source pollution, and water use. Our results showed that rivers in western Europe and eastern China were seriously polluted, on average, at a rate of 5,000–15,000 tons per year. In the Yangtze River Basin, the amount of point source pollution in 2010 was about four times more than that in 1991, while the amount of fertilizer used in 2010 doubled, which resulted in the increased riverine DIN levels. Further comparisons suggested that the riverine DIN in the USA was affected primarily by nitrogen fertilizer use, the changes in DIN flow rate in European rivers was dominated by point source pollution, and rivers in China were seriously polluted by both the two pollution sources. The total anthropogenic impact on the DIN exported to the Pacific Ocean has increased from 10% to 30%, more significantly than other oceans. In general, our results indicated that incorporating the schemes of nitrogen transport and human activities into land surface models could be an effective way to monitor global river water quality and diagnose the performance of the land surface modeling.

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“…

\frac{\partial T_{w}}{\partial t} ρ_{w} c A_{x} = \frac{Q_{in} ρ_{w} c Δ T_{in}}{\partial x} + \frac{Q_{runoff} ρ_{w} c Δ T_{runoff}}{\partial x} + H_{air - water} w_{x} + \frac{Q_{human} ρ_{w} c Δ T_{human}}{\partial x},

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A dataset of power stations dumping heat into rivers was taken from the dataset available in Raptis and Pfister (), excluding emissions into lakes. A total of 1,750 generating units were selected, pertaining to 565 power stations, which account for 12% of the global thermoelectric power capacity.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of anthropogenic nitrogen discharge on dissolved inorganic nitrogen transport in global rivers

Liu

Xie

Zeng

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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“…Hydroclimate risk to power production Hydroclimate risk to power production (e4) index aggregates the combined hazard of four hydrological indicators, peak flows risk, drought intensity change, seasonality and inter-annual variability to a continuous hazard scale (as used with other indicators). This is multiplied by a capacity score according to the installed capacity in each grid square, using a global dataset of water-dependent thermal and hydro power plant capacity [49][50][51].…”

Section: Gcmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global exposure and vulnerability to multi-sector development and climate change hotspots

Byers

Gidden

Leclère

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

200

134

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“…Stewart et al 2013, Pfister andSuh 2015). In a recent study, the cooling systems for the great majority of thermal power plants worldwide were identified (covering 92% of the global thermoelectric power installed capacity), and the thermal emissions for those stations with once-through cooling systems were modelled (Raptis and Pfister 2016). The available data from that work provide a unique opportunity to model power-related freshwater thermal pollution by using these estimates as an input to water temperature models, be they on a small or large geographical scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global thermal pollution of rivers from thermoelectric power plants

Raptis

Vliet

Pfister

2016

Environ. Res. Lett.

Self Cite

105

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Worldwide riverine thermal pollution patterns were investigated by combining mean annual heat rejection rates from power plants with once-through cooling systems with the global hydrologicalwater temperature model variable infiltration capacity (VIC)-RBM. The model simulates both streamflow and water temperature on 0.5°×0.5°spatial resolution worldwide and by capturing their effect, identifies multiple thermal pollution hotspots. The Mississippi receives the highest total amount of heat emissions (62% and 28% of which come from coal-fuelled and nuclear power plants, respectively) and presents the highest number of instances where the commonly set 3°C temperature increase limit is equalled or exceeded. The Rhine receives 20% of the thermal emissions compared to the Mississippi (predominantly due to nuclear power plants), but is the thermally most polluted basin in relation to the total flow per watershed, with one third of its total flow experiencing a temperature increase 5°C on average over the year. In other smaller basins in Europe, such as the Weser and the Po, the share of the total streamflow with a temperature increase 3°C goes up to 49% and 81%, respectively, during July-September. As the first global analysis of its kind, this work points towards areas of high riverine thermal pollution, where temporally finer thermal emission data could be coupled with a spatially finer model to better investigate water temperature increase and its effect on aquatic ecosystems.

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Global freshwater thermal emissions from steam-electric power plants with once-through cooling systems

Cited by 44 publications

References 20 publications

Effects of anthropogenic nitrogen discharge on dissolved inorganic nitrogen transport in global rivers

Effects of anthropogenic nitrogen discharge on dissolved inorganic nitrogen transport in global rivers

Global exposure and vulnerability to multi-sector development and climate change hotspots

Global thermal pollution of rivers from thermoelectric power plants

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