TECHNOLOGY
Report cites thermal pollution dangers Growth in power generation could imperil nation's aquatic biosphere by end of the century Heat pollution, according to the Federal Government's water pollution controllers, is a growing menace. By 1985, the electric power industry will be passing through its heat exchangers about 25% of the nation's total supply of surface water. By the year 2000, generated power could reach 1.6 million Mw., compared to today's 400,000 Mw. Single stations of more than 1000 Mw. could be pouring daily as much as 3 billion gallons of warmed water into rivers, lakes, and estuaries. Excess heat accelerates and thus distorts the biochemistry of aquatic organisms. The result is a c h a n g e usually a decline—in reproductive patterns. Effects vary from species to species in ways that biologists have not yet figured out. The relationship of any organism to its environment is very complicated. A Susquehanna River shad, for example, depends on various other forms of marine life. Disrupting a type of plankton, say, affects shad life indirectly whether or not the shad is itself affected by higher water temperatures. The most recent example of how heat alters water around a power plant and degrades the nearby biosphere comes from a University of Maryland report on the Patuxent River estuary, in Maryland. About halfway up the estuary, at a place called Chalk Point, Potomac Electric Power Co. operates a coal-fired station whose two units generate 335 Mw. each at a typical power plant efficiency of 40%. Biological studies leading up to the report began in 1962, two years before the plant began generating current. They were led by Dr. Joseph A. Mihursky, chairman of the department of environmental research at the State of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Laboratory, Solomons, Md. According to Dr. Mihursky's before and after study, some of the effects of thermal pollution included an increase in abnormally green oysters as far as a mile down from the plant, a coloration laid to copper in the plant's discharge water. In another episode, about 40,000 blue crabs were found dead in the vicinity of the discharge canal. Soft shell clam populations dropped considerably as did white catfish and hogchockers. Although the 50 C&EN FEB. 24, 1969
STEAMY FALLOUT. Plant effluent causes the Calumet River to steam, adding to the haze created by smoke from plant chimneys
striped bass population increased, there was a recorded mass death of striped bass in 1967. The report summed up the situation by noting that biological effects of the plants' cooling water are due to a variety of influences: temperature, heavy metals, chlorine, and largely unknown mechanical effects of sucking microorganisms into plant water. The complete approval of water quality standards by the Federal Government is lagging, chiefly because of a lack of data for setting temperature criteria. Up until recently chemical engineers have stood on the sidelines largely disinterested, leaving thermal pollution studies to hydraulic or sanitary engineers. But it is now being realized that chemical engineering principles apply strongly to a host of problems in thermal pollution control. That at least is the thinking of Dr. Leigh Short, a thermal pollution conscious chemical engineer at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Short recalls reading a report written by a civil engineer who contended that a certain stochastic equation pertaining to stream flow had no analytical solution. A quick check through a chemical engineering text-
book turned up the answer. Dr. Short says parallel situations crop up in most aspects of pollution control. Chemical engineers have long had the answers to problems now stumping their brethren, he contends. Dr. Short's thermal pollution projects involve building a three-dimensional mathematical model of a stream —the sort of modern approach called for at a mid-February conference on thermal pollution held at the University of Virginia. A model of that sort would help in guiding power plant engineers in both design and site selection. The meeting, one of several the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration has held around the country, covered biological and technological aspects of thermal pollution control: heat loads, chemical and physical effects, cooling devices, process changes, general ecological effects, and transport and behavior manipulation of discharge. A key manual, "Industrial Waste Guide on Thermal Pollution," went with the conference and can be obtained from FWPCA in Washington, D.C. Of interest to chemical engineers was a paper on research needs delivered by Frank H. Rainwater, chief of
the national thermal pollution research staff at FWPCA's Northwest Water Laboratory in Corvallis, Ore. His paper, besides describing the many parameters needed to develop a successful three-dimensional aquatic model (convection, wind, evaporation, long-wave atmospheric radiation), also called for new ideas on cooling methods. Other meeting topics included the conservation and use of waste heat. About 65% of the energy a power plant consumes is lost. One 1000Mw. power station, FWPCA estimates, would discharge 45 trillion B.t.u/s in its cooling water every year—enough to supply the U.S. textile industry with 257c of its energy requirements. One scheme to prevent this energy waste is to use the heat to propagate commercial fish and shellfish in environmentally controlled pools—largescale fish farming. Another would be to build an industrial complex around a big power plant. Some of the power plant's steam and its heated water would supply the energy requirements of that complex. Some FWPCA-sponsored projects include: • Development of an automatic monitoring station network on the Delaware River below and above points of pollution (Lehigh University, $70356). • Study of the effects of thermal pollution on the biota of Biscayne Bay, Fla. (University of Miami, $37,156). • Development of a model of thermal plume dispersion (Oregon State University, $27,799). • Compilation of thermal pollution research needs (Vanderbilt University, $30,552). • Development of a mathematical model for prediction of temperature distribution ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $27,047). From these descriptions it seems clear that the technical baselines for thermal pollution control are just now being developed. Substantially more federal money will almost certainly be spent on thermal pollution studies with Tennessee Valley Authority, Atomic Energy Commission, and Federal Power Commission probably getting involved. The most orthodox solution to the hot water problem is construction of more cooling towers. Fluor Corp. has just signed a contract with Vermont Yankee Nuclear Corp. to build a $1.5 million helper tower for delivery in 1970. Fluor's vice president for marketing, Richard J. Nanula, says that no new ideas went into the design of that tower, which will hopefully cool Yankee's discharge to ambient water temperatures at its site on the Connecticut River.
Were not name droppers. One of the big reason's we've become one of the best kept secrets in the field of custom manufacturing is that we know how to keep our mouth shut about what we do. We're not unknown, though. Of the 500 largest U.S. corporations listed by Fortune magazine, 100 are in chemical manufacturing. 75 of these 100 are Arapahoe customers and we do custom work for 30. This is pretty good company to keep.
Join the group and see for yourself how we can help solve your special needs-from pilot quantities to a million pounds or more. For more information on how you can benefitfrom Arapahoe process development imagination and proved production capability, contact:
ARAPAHOE CHEMICALS DIVISION OF SVNTEX CORPORATION 2855 WALNUT ST., BOULDER, COLORADO 80302
FEB. 24, 1969 C&EN
51
