Empirical quantification and uncertainty assessment of SO 2 and PM 2.5 emission factors of power plants in Chile

In this paper, empirical emissions factors of power plants above 50 MWt are quantified. Also, uncertainty assessments are carried out, as well as comparisons of the empirical emission factors and those retrieved from the document AP-42 of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Predictive models are then developed and mean absolute errors are used to evaluate the performance of such models. The obtained emission factors are between one to two orders of magnitude lower than those retrieved from EPA, pointing out the relevance of using local emission factors in modeling for planning purposes. Moreover, in some power plants, exist a medium to a strong correlation of the emission factors, the power dispatch, and oxygen content, which allow for building effective predictive models using these parameters as predictors.