Why are some industrial chimneys so high, like what’s the difference if it’s 150 or 300 meters?

Question

Why are some industrial chimneys so high, like what’s the difference if it’s 150 or 300 meters?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Industrial chimneys are (or at the very least should be) built tall in order to emit their gasses above the inversion layer.

Inversion layers are layers in the atmosphere where the temperature stops decreasing with altitude, so when toxic gasses (like ones from industrial chimneys) reach it, they get trapped beneath, thus reducing air quality.

One of the ways to counteract this is to build chimneys above these layers.

I’m sure there are also other reasons to build industrial chimneys tall.