Analysis of the air quality effects of power plant emissions

化石燃料的燃烧增加了温室气体(GHG)的排放，并导致空气质量(AQ)下降。由于它们的能见度很高，化石燃料发电厂与这个问题尤其相关。*公众越来越大的压力要求政府取消这些发电厂，以将温室气体排放降至最低，并改善AQ，但这必须以一种保持充足和廉价的能源供应的方式完成。探索这些不同要求的解决方案通常是在模型的帮助下完成的，这些模型允许测试许多可能的方法，并在不招致实施(通常是巨大的)费用的情况下选择最佳方法。在市场经济中，工业部门有责任找到方法，以既成功又有成本效益的方式满足政府法规。在这一努力中，学术研究人员的作用是提供新颖有效的方法，供私营部门合作伙伴实现这些目标。该项目将与私营部门合作伙伴安大略省发电公司合作，开发一种方法，在三个地理尺度上预测化石燃料热电厂排放对空气质量的影响：工厂附近的当地；区域，强调大的人口中心和远距离，这包括国家或国际影响。第一阶段的项目将专注于OPG燃煤热电厂，这些电厂多年来一直是公众讨论和媒体关注的主题。然而，为这个项目开发的模型也将适用于任何化石燃料发电厂，然而，在第二阶段，我们将利用它们来研究美国化石发电厂对加拿大空气质量的影响。这种更广泛的观点将有助于了解加拿大的情况，并为联邦政府和更广泛的模型界提供信息，这些信息将有助于讨论减轻边境两侧设施的空气质量问题。

The combustion of fossil fuels increases greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and causes reduced air quality (AQ).  Due to their high visibility, fossil fuelled power plants are particularly associated with this problem.  There is increasing public pressure for governments to eliminate these power plants as a means to minimise GHG emissions and improve AQ, but this must be done in a way that maintains an adequate and inexpensive energy supply.  Exploring solutions to these divergent requirements is usually done with the help of models, which allow many possible approaches to be tested and the best one selected without incurring the (usually large) expense of implementation.  In a market economy, it is the responsibility of the industrial sector to find methods to satisfy government regulations in ways that are not only successful but also cost effective.  The role of the academic researcher in this effort is to provide novel and effective methods that can be used by the private sector partners to attain these goals.This project will develop, in partnership with the private sector partner, Ontario Power Generation, a method to predict the effects of the emissions from fossil fuelled thermal generating plants on the AQ at three geographical scales: the local vicinity of the plant; the regional, with emphasis on large population centres and the long range, which includes national or international effects.  The first phase of the project will focus on the OPG coal fired thermal generating plants, which have been the subject of a great deal of public discussion and media attention for many years.  The models to be developed for this project will also be applicable to any fossil fuelled power plant, however, and in the second phase of the project, we will use them to study the effects on AQ in Canada of fossil plants in the United States.  This broader view will be useful to put the Canadian situation in context and to provide the Federal government as well as the broader modelling community with information that will be useful in discussions regarding abatement of the AQ problems from facilities on both sides of the border.