Chapter 4

Dispersion of Pollutants
1 Dispersion characteristics of stack plumes

Dispersion is the process of spreading out pollution emission over a large area and thus
reducing their concentration. Wind speed and environmental lapse rates directly
influence the dispersion pattern. Five classifications of plume behaviour, which may
occur under some commonly encountered metrological conditions, are shown in Figure
1 (a) to (e) and discussed in the following sections.

Coning

A coning plume, shown in Figure 1 (a), occurs under essentially neutral stability, when
environmental lapse rate is equal to adiabatic lapse rate, and moderate to strong winds
occur. The plume enlarges in the shape of a cone. A major part of pollution may be
carried fairly far downwind before reaching ground.

Looping

Under super-adiabatic condition, both upward and downward movement of the plume is
possible. Large eddies of a strong wind cause a looping pattern, Figure 1 (b). Although
the large eddies tend to disperse pollutants over a wide region, high ground level
concentrations may occur close to the stack.

Fanning

A fanning plume occurs in the presence of a negative lapse rate when vertical
dispersion is restricted, Figure 1 (c). The pollutants disperse at the stack height,
horizontally in the from of a fanning plume.

Fumigation

As shown in Figure 1 (d), when the emission from the stack is under an inversion layer,
the movement of the pollutants in the upward direction is restricted. The pollutants
move downwards. The resulting fumigation can lead to a high ground level
concentration downwind of the stack.

Lofting

When the stack is sufficiently high and the emission is above an inversion layer, Figure
1 (e), mixing in the upward direction is uninhibited, but downward motion is restricted.
Such lofting plumes do not result in any significant concentration at ground level.
However, the pollutants are carried hundreds of kilometers from the source.

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2 Stability Classification

For the purpose of calculation of concentration of pollutants downwind of a source the

stability of the atmosphere is classified as :

A= Extremely unstable, B= Moderately unstable, C= Slightly unstable, D= Neutral, E=

Slightly stable, F= Stable

These classifications are arrived at from metrological condition of wind speed, solar
insulation and cloudiness, given in Table 1.

Table 1. Atmospheric stability classification

Surfacea Day solar insulation Night cloudiness

Wind, m/s Strong b Moderate c Slightd Cloudy Clear

> 4/8 <3/8
<2 A A-B B E F
2-3 A-B B C E F
3-5 B B-C C D E
5-6 C C-D D D E
>6 C D D D D

a- at 10 m above ground, b- sun higher than 60º and clear sky, c- sun 35º-60º and few
broken clouds or clear sky, d- sun 15º-35º, cloudy.

The above described stability classification is known as Pasquill's stability classification

which is the most popular one because of its simplicity.

3 Gaussian plume model

Gaussian plume model is used to calculate the concentration of a pollutant downwind of

a point source. Figure 2 shows the three dimensional coordinates system and the
Gaussian plume equation for the case when the value of z is zero, for calculating
ground level concentration:

Where,
C (x,y) = concentration at ground level
Q = emission rate of pollutants, µg/s
H = effective stack height, m
U= average wind speed at effective stack height
s y & s z = horizontal & vertical dispersion coefficients,
m, respectively

The dispersion coefficient depends on the atmospheric stability class and increase with
the downwind distance from the source. Figure 3 gives values of the dispersion
coefficients as a function of distance for various stability classes. The Gaussian plume
equation can be used to predict ground level pollutant concentrations under different

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stability conditions for a given pollution source.

Figure 4 shows the downwind ground level concentrations due to emissions from a
thermal power plant calculated for different stability classes. Note that the turbulence in
an unstable atmosphere results in a high concentration near the stack. Downwind,
however, concentrations drop off very quickly. The stable atmosphere, on the other
hand, has a much lower peak. However, it continues to be appreciable for a
considerable distance downwind.

As shown in Figure 5, the ground level concentration is also quite sensitive to stack
height. In order to disperse pollutants over a larger area, stack heights in the range of
200 to 250 m are quite common. The stack heights shown in Figure 5 are effective
stack heights, which are higher than the actual stack heights because of the buoyancy
of the plume at the emission point, Figure 2.

It is possible to calculate average ground level concentrations over a specified period

by integrating values occurring under different stability conditions and wind speed and
direction. Such data can be presented in the form of isopleths as shown in Figure 6.

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