THERMAL
POLLUTION
What is Thermal Pollution?
Thermal pollution is defined as the addition of
excess of undesirable heat to water thereby
making it harmful to man, animal or aquatic life.
Thermal pollution may also cause significant
departures from nor activities of aquatic
communities
Thermal Pollution
Major Causes
Nuclear power plants
Coal fired plants
Industrial effluents
Domestic sewage
Hydro-electric power
Nuclear Power Plants
Nuclear power plants including drainage from
hospitals, research institutions, nuclear
experiments and explosions, discharge a lot of
heat that is not utilized along with traces of toxic
radio nuclides into nearby water streams.
Emissions from nuclear reactors and processing
installations are also responsible for increasing
the temperatures of water bodies. The
operations of power reactors and nuclear fuel
processing units constitutes the major
contributor of heat in the aquatic environment.
Heated effluents from power plants are
discharged at 10o C higher than the receiving
waters that affects the aquatic flora and fauna.
Coal-fired power plants:
Coal fired power plants constitute a major source
of thermal pollution.
The condenser coils in such plants are cooled with
water from nearby lakes or rivers.
The resulting heated water is discharged into
streams thereby raising the water temperature
by 15oC.
Heated effluent decreases the dissolved content
of water resulting in death of fish and other aquatic
organisms.
The sudden fluctuation of temperature also leads to
"thermal shock" killing aquatic life that have
become acclimatized to living in a steady
temperature.
Waste Heat from Power Plants
Industrial effluents
Industries like textile, paper, pulp and sugar
manufacturing release huge amounts of cooling
water along with effluents into nearby natural
water bodies. The waters polluted by sudden
and heavy organic loads result in severe drop in
levels of dissolved oxygen leading to death of
several aquatic organismse of the water.
Domestic Sewage
: Domestic sewage is discharged into rivers, lakes,
canals or streams with minimal treatment or
without any treatment. These wastes have a higher
organic temperature and organic load. This leads to
decrease in dissolved oxygen content in the
receiving waters resulting in the set-up of anaerobic
conditions causing release of foul and offensive
gases in water. Eventually, this leads to
development of anoxic conditions resulting in rapid
death of aquatic organisms
Hydro-electric power
: Generation of hydroelectric power sometimes
leads to negative thermal loading in water
systems. Apart from electric power industries,
various factories with cooling requirement
contribute to thermal loading
Effects of Increased Water
Temperature
Thermal shock aquatic life adapted to a certain water
temperature can go into shock when the temp is
changed even 1 or 2 degrees.
Oxygen dissolved in water decreases
Increases the rate of photosynthesis, which increases
the amount of plant growth
Increases the metabolic rate of fish, which increases
their need for oxygen
Biotic Effects of Thermal Pollution
Changes in the environment may also result in
amigration of organisms to another, more suitable
environment, and to in-migration of organisms that
normally only live in warmer waters elsewhere. As
a result one has the problem of compromising food
chains of the old and new environments.
Biodiversity can be decreased as a result.
Changes of even one to two degrees Celsius can
cause significant changes in organism metabolism
and other adverse cellular biology effects.
Principal adverse changes can include rendering
cell walls less permeable to necessary osmosis,
coagulation of cell proteins, and alteration of enzyme
metabolism. These cellular level effects can adversely
affect mortality and reproduction.
Dissolved Oxygen vs Temp
Control of thermal pollution
Cooling ponds, man-made bodies of water
designed for cooling by evaporation, convection,
and radiation
Cooling towers, which transfer waste heat to
the atmosphere through evaporation
and/or heat transfer
Cogeneration, a process where waste heat is
recycled for domestic and/or industrial heating
purposes
