Which of the following is/are Environmental Hazard(s) due to Geothermal Power…

Concept

Geothermal electricity uses heat and fluids drawn from underground reservoirs. Its environmental hazards can arise from physical plant operations, such as drilling and machinery noise, and from non-condensable gases carried by geothermal steam or water. Lower emissions than fossil-fuel plants do not mean that every emission is zero.

Application

• Noise pollution: drilling, steam venting, turbines, cooling equipment, and other plant machinery can create operational noise.

• Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides: authoritative energy assessments report extremely minute concentrations in some geothermal discharge streams. Sulfur dioxide can occur as a trace gas, while nitrogen oxides can be produced when certain plants use combustion to abate hydrogen sulfide; many plants using other controls emit no nitrogen oxides.

• Hydrogen sulfide: this toxic, strongly odorous gas is a characteristic non-condensable gas associated with some open-loop geothermal systems.

• Carbon dioxide: geothermal fluids can carry dissolved carbon dioxide, which may be released when the pressure falls during power generation.

Cross-check

The U.S. Department of Energy assessment lists operational noise and quantifies carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides from representative geothermal plant types; it also identifies hydrogen sulfide as a characteristic gas. Thus all four listed categories can occur as geothermal-power hazards, although their levels vary by plant design and controls.