Details of Richmond Valley Plume Plotter

This page should be read in conjunction with How Plume Plotter Works. It provides more details specific to the Richmond Valley 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 (assumed to be 380000 tonnes per annum):

Stack location: -28.835833,153.028750.
Stack height: 80 m.
Stack diameter: 2.68 m.
Stack gas exit velocity: 18.5 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 (380000 tonnes per annum), using the EU limits (2019 BREF) on pollutant concentrations:

Pollutant	Emission rate per second
Oxides of nitrogen	10.15 g
Particulates	422.9 mg
TOC	845.8 mg
Hydrogen chloride	507.5 mg
Hydrogen flouride	84.58 mg
Sulphur dioxide	2.538 g
Carbon monoxide	4.229 g
Cadmium and thallium	1.692 mg
Mercury	1.692 mg
Other metals	25.37 mg
Dioxins and furans	5.075 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	21.6 μg
Particulates	17.6 μg
TOC	N/A
Hydrogen chloride	N/A
Hydrogen flouride	N/A
Sulphur dioxide	1.5 μg
Carbon monoxide	N/A
Cadmium and thallium	N/A
Mercury	N/A
Other metals	N/A
Dioxins and furans	N/A

Weather data

Wind speed, wind direction, temperature, pressure, and solar radiation are the latest values reported by one of two weather stations. If a value is not available from the primary weather station it is obtained from the secondary weather station. (Some weather stations do not measure solar radiation at all.) The primary weather station is and the secondary weather station is .