Noise Impact Assessment of Thermal Plant Facilities on Receptor Environments
1Olu-Arotiowa, O. A., 2,3Adeniran, J. A., 2Yusuf, R. O., 4Abdulraheem, M. O. and 5Aremu, A. S.
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria
2Environmental Engineering Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Ilorin, Ilorin. Nigeria
3Laboratory for Climate and Ocean–Atmosphere Studies, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
4Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ilorin, Ilorin. Nigeria
5Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Corresponding Author Email: adeniran.ja@unilorin.edu.ng; adeniranja@pku.edu.cn
DOI: 10.36108/laujoces/9102/20(0101)
Abstract
Noise pollution is considered as a serious environmental nuisance in the urban areas. This study has used the VDI code 2714 to investigate the impacts of the noise from all the power generation and ancilliary facilities in the proposed Independent Power Plant, Agbara, Ogun State receptor environment. Kriging interpolation method in SurferR 8.0 software to predict noise emission levels within the fence line of the proposed Independent Power Plant. Calculations of possible noise levels at some receptors locations around the plant were carried out using the VDI code 2714. Four operation scenarios were considered in this study. The scenarios considered include: Noise emission from power generation facilities only (Scenario 1); Noise from the use of Compressors and Transformers (Scenario 2); Noise emission from the operation of power generation and ancillary equipment (Scenario 3); and Noise emission from the use of Backup Generators (Scenario 4). The maximum noise from the four scenarios were 112.34, 114.58, 116.61 and 110.01 dB(A), respectively, which is above the 8-hour 90 dB(A) limit recommended by the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMEnv). The operation of the proposed power plant will not have significant impact on the receptor environments except for Karogbaji which receives less than 12 dB(A) for the worst-case scenario (Scenario 3). The modeling results show that the predicted noise levels generated by the proposed operation would generally be within the established noise criteria at all the receptor locations under all conditions.
Keywords: Impact, Noise, Power plant; Receptor environment; Sound pressure level