The Plume Rise Model Enhancements (PRIME) formulation in AERMOD has been updated based new equations developed from wind tunnel measurements taken downwind of various solid and streamlined structures. These new equations, along with other building downwash improvements have been included as alpha options in the upcoming new version of AERMOD. The PRIME2 options include: • PRIME2UTurb which enables enhanced calculations of turbulence and wind speed • PRIME2Ueff which defines the height used to compute effective parameters Ueff, Sweff, Sveff and Tgeff at plume height and at 30 m • Streamline defines the set of constants for modeling all structures as streamlined. If omitted, rectangular building constants are used. The ORD Options include: • PRIMEUeff which controls the heights for which the wind speed is calculated for the main plume concentrations. • Average between plume height and receptor height recommended in ORD version • Default is current method in AERMOD, stack height wind speed. • PRIMETurb which adjusts the vertical turbulence intensity, wiz0 from 0.6 to 0.7. • PRIMECav modifies the cavity calculations These improvements aim to address important theoretical issues that significantly affect the accuracy of predicted concentrations subject to downwash effects. This research effort was funded in part by the American Petroleum Institute, the Electric Power Research Institute, the Corn Refiners Association and the American Forest & Paper Association. As part of it, the PRIME2 subcommittee under the A&WMA APM committee was formed to: (1) establish a mechanism to review, approve and implement new science into the model for this and future improvements; and (2) provide a technical review forum to improve the PRIME building downwash algorithms. Collaboration and cooperation from the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) has been on-going during the research project resulting in new alpha options aimed at solving known issues with the treatment of building downwash effects in AERMOD. The intent is that these experimental options will be tested by the user community to create enough justification to make these beta (approved on a case-by-case basis) and eventually default options in AERMOD. A preliminary evaluation for the following four cases will be presented: • Arconic- Davenport, IA (formerly Alcoa) • Mirant Potomac River Generating Station- Alexandria, VA • Basic American Foods- Blackfoot, ID • Oakley Generating Station- Oakley, CA The evaluation includes comparing 1-hr, 24-hr and annual averages along with Q-Q plots and isopleths. A discussion related to the results obtained will also be presented.