Details of Matraville Plume Plotter

This page should be read in conjunction with How Plume Plotter Works. It provides more details specific to the Matraville version of Plume Plotter.

Stacks and buildings

The proposed incinerator's building layout is not known, so it is (unrealistically) assumed that there are no buildings near the stack. The presence of such buildings would cause building downwash and increase ground-level concentrations.

Stack measurements

Apart from the stack location, these are estimated from the proposed incinerator's annual throughput (200000 tonnes per annum):

Stack location: -33.96222,151.21806.
Stack height: 65 m.
Stack diameter: 1.97 m.
Stack gas exit velocity: 18 m/s.
Stack gas temperature: 140 °C.

The following values are used for albedo, Bowen ratio and roughness length:

Albedo: 0.2.
Bowen ratio: 1.
Roughness length: 0.2.

Emissions

The emission rates of pollutants are estimated from the proposed incinerator's annual throughput (200000 tonnes per annum), using the EU IED limits on pollutant concentrations:

Pollutant	Emission rate per second
Oxides of nitrogen	8.909 g
Particulates	445.5 mg
TOC	445.5 mg
Hydrogen chloride	445.5 mg
Hydrogen flouride	44.55 mg
Sulphur dioxide	2.227 g
Carbon monoxide	2.227 g
Cadmium and thallium	2.227 mg
Mercury	2.227 mg
Other metals	22.27 mg
Dioxins and furans	4.455 ng

Background levels

The background levels of pollutants used are not very local: they are taken from the 2016 proposal for the Eastern Creek incinerator in Western Sydney:

Pollutant	Background concentration per m³
Oxides of nitrogen	23 μg
Particulates	19 μg
TOC	N/A
Hydrogen chloride	N/A
Hydrogen flouride	N/A
Sulphur dioxide	3 μg
Carbon monoxide	N/A
Cadmium and thallium	N/A
Mercury	N/A
Other metals	N/A
Dioxins and furans	N/A

Weather data

Weather data is taken from METAR reports from a local airport: Sydney International.