Environmental and economic issues from changing a major fuel type as energy resource in an industrial city in Korea

Abstract

Ulsan is the largest industrial city of Korea with a population of more than 1.1 million people and national-scale industrial complexes (ICs) including non-ferrous metallic IC, petrochemical IC, automobile and shipbuilding IC. Main sources of air pollutants in major metropolitan cities are traffic emissions (Mamane et al., 2008). However, they are quite different from the main sources from industrial cities. According to the recent study of air pollution source apportionment (Koo and Kim, 2007), 77%, 66%, 87%, and 58% of the total sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), PM10, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), respectively, are from point sources such as power plants and manufacturing plants in Ulsan. In Seoul, the capital city of Korea, with a population of 12 million people, however, 72% and 63% of the total emissions of SOx and VOCs are from area sources.