Mass and elemental distributions of atmospheric particles nearby blast furnace and electric arc furnace operated industrial areas in Australia
Introduction
The industrial sectors contribute approximately 59% of PM10 and 45% of PM2.5 emissions to the atmosphere in New South Wales (NSW), Australia (NSW EPA, 2012), which can potentially impact the health and environment of the nearby communities. To reduce the impacts from particle emissions and meet the standards and goals set by the National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM), the NSW government has operated an extensive air particle monitoring programme for PM10 and PM2.5 in urban and industrial areas using both continuous tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) technique and gravimetric high volume sampling. However, monitoring of particle mass is not sufficient as the impact of particles on human health and the environment is highly dependent on particle size distribution and associated chemistry (Spurny, 1996, Koliadima et al., 1998; Lighty et al., 2000; Seinfeld and Pandis, 2012, Portin et al., 2013, Mohiuddin et al., 2014).
Understanding the mass and elemental distributions of atmospheric particles is an important parameter, as the toxicity of particles depends on their size and chemical composition, specifically on the concentration of metals in the particles. Coarse particles can be deposited in the upper respiratory tract, fine particles can penetrate into the lungs, whereas ultrafine particles ≤ 0.1 μm can further reach into the alveolar region of the lungs (Krombach et al., 1997, Park and Wexler, 2008, Valiulis et al., 2008). Particles ≤ 3 μm can enter the lower airways during breathing and can deposit in the tracheobronchial and pulmonary regions of the lungs and the highest deposition of particles having a size range of 1 to 3 μm can occur in the pulmonary region (ICRP, International Commission on Radiological Protection, 1995, NCRP, 1997). Metals associated with the particles can mediate toxicity depending on their chemical properties present in the particles (Oberdörster, 1993, Dick et al., 2003, Spurny, 2010). For example, Fe is an essential element for the human body but not in the form of inhalable particles as Fe-bearing particles can stimulate reactive oxygen species on the lung surface, which may further lead to scarring of the lung tissue (Knaapen et al., 2004). Iron and steel industries can generate large amounts of coarse to ultrafine range particles associated with high concentration of Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn (Machemer, 2004, Querol et al., 2004, Querol et al., 2007, Garimella and Deo, 2008). These particles can impact the surrounding areas and the residents can be exposed to elevated levels of atmospheric particles of different mass and metal concentrations. Workers in industries are protected by occupational health and safety regulations; however residents living in close proximity to the industrial boundaries have no separate zoning or regulation protection arrangements, other than the NEPM goals.
The focus of this study was to investigate the mass and elemental distributions of particles collected nearby steelmaking industrial areas that operate under blast furnace and electric arc furnace operating regimes, and compare to one background urban site. Detailed elemental modality was examined in this work, including the elemental mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) and geometric standard deviation (GSD) to standardise particle characterisation. Four sampling sites in Australian urban and industrial areas were selected and ten different size distributions of particles ranging from ≤ 0.18 μm to 18 μm were collected and analysed for particle mass and elemental composition of Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Sr and Pb. This study provides the fundamental information of particle mass and elemental distributions in the vicinity of iron and steelmaking industries. The outcomes of this study may assist the development of improved particle monitoring programmes in the vicinity of industrial areas and also establish an elemental modality dataset which can be incorporated in the exposure and risk assessments of atmospheric particles.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Three sites in the vicinity of Australian iron and steel industries and one site in the urban area, shown in Fig. 1, were selected for sampling of the size resolved air particle samples: (1) Cringila (CR) sampling site was located in the vicinity of the Port Kembla integrated iron and steelworks (blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace), with moderate traffic and strong industrial influence; (2) Rooty Hill (RT) sampling site was located in close proximity to the Rooty Hill mini-mill steelworks
Particle size distribution
Fig. 2 shows that particle size distribution had the highest abundance in the range of aerodynamic diameter from 1.4 to 4.4 μm, for all sites except for the MQ (urban) site, which is characterised by two peaks with the same height. The highest peak in unimodal distribution at all sampling sites also occurred within this particle size range. The next relative abundance was found with the particle size range from 0.1 to 1.0 μm associated with the particles in the accumulation mode. The multimodal
Conclusions
The study analysed particulate matter distribution and modality of atmospheric particles collected in the vicinity of three industrial areas in Australia and compared these with results obtained for one background site. The results from this study showed that the modality types of atmospheric particles are highly variable between the particle mass and elements detected in the particles; and among elements in the particles collected from urban and industrial areas. Both unimodal and bimodal
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge and are grateful for the financial support from the AINSE (grant no. ALNGRA11102), the Australian Research Council (grant no. LP11020063) and the research support from the Macquarie University Research Office (grant no. HDR40940155).
References (40)
Applications of simultaneous IBA techniques to aerosol analysis
Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res, Sect B
(1993)Characterisation of atmospheric fine particles using IBA techniques
Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res, Sect B
(1998)- et al.
Elemental analysis by PIXE and other IBA techniques and their application to source fingerprinting of atmospheric fine particle pollution
Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res, Sect B
(1996) - et al.
Characterization of atmospheric trace elements on PM2.5 particulate matter over the New York–New Jersey harbor estuary
Atmos Environ
(2002) - et al.
Characterisation of trace metals in atmospheric particles in the vicinity of iron and steelmaking industries in Australia
Atmos Environ
(2014) - et al.
Size-dependent deposition of particles in the human lung at steady-state breathing
J Aerosol Sci
(2008) - et al.
Speciation and origin of PM10 and PM2.5 in Spain
J Aerosol Sci
(2004) - et al.
Source origin of trace elements in PM from regional background, urban and industrial sites of Spain
Atmos Environ
(2007) - et al.
Size distribution of airborne particulate matter and associated heavy metals in the roadside environment
Chemosphere
(2005) Aerosol air pollution its chemistry and size dependent health effects
J Aerosol Sci
(1996)
Distribution and seasonal variability of trace elements in atmospheric particulate in the Venice Lagoon
Chemosphere
Measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 in urban area of Nanjing, China and the assessment of pulmonary deposition of particle mass
Chemosphere
Source identification, size distribution and indicator screening of airborne trace metals in Kanazawa, Japan
Journal of Aerosol Science
The role of free radicals in the toxic and inflammatory effects of four different ultrafine particle types
Inhal Toxicol
Characterization of aerosols generated in a steel processing factory
S Pac J Nat Appl Sci
Aerosol technology: properties, behavior, and measurement of airborne particles
Conversion coefficients for use in radiological protection against external radiation
Frequency distributions of PM10 chemical components and their sources
Environ Sci Technol
Inhaled particles and lung cancer. Part A: mechanisms
Int J Cancer
Chemistry and composition of atmospheric aerosol particles
Annu Rev Phys Chem
Cited by (20)
Effects of ambient PM<inf>2.5</inf> and particle-bound metals on the healthy residents living near an electric arc furnace: A community- based study
2020, Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :Approximately half of the total annual crude steel in the country is produced by EAFs. However, the production of iron and steel by EAFs is a significant source of air pollution, including particulate matter (PM) (Mohiuddin et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2015). The EAF process mainly involves the melting of raw materials, such as scrap metals containing the elements Zn, Fe, and Pb; therefore, emissions of particle-bound Fe, Pb, and Zn from EAFs are relatively high (Yang et al., 2015).
Characterization of size resolved atmospheric particles in the vicinity of iron and steelmaking industries in China
2019, Science of the Total EnvironmentSingle-particle analysis of industrial emissions brings new insights for health risk assessment of PM
2018, Atmospheric Pollution ResearchImpacts of iron and steelmaking facilities on soil quality
2017, Journal of Environmental ManagementCitation Excerpt :This means that some of the volatile trace metals are released to the environment through atmospheric processes and particle emissions. Mohiuddin et al. have demonstrated the relative impact of the different steelmaking activities on the local atmospheric particle chemistry (Mohiuddin et al., 2014a) and particle size distribution (Mohiuddin et al., 2014b) indicating the importance of particles to the environmental impact assessment of the industrial processes. The atmospheric particles eventually deposit and may potentially affect the surrounding soil quality, often used by residents for recreational or agricultural purposes.
Comprehensive chemical characterization of industrial PM<inf>2.5</inf>from steel industry activities
2017, Atmospheric EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :Enrichments determined for all trace elements are also in agreement with previous studies. Previous works (Mohiuddin et al., 2014; Moreno et al., 2004) showed high contribution of Pb and Cu but also of Al, Fe, Zn, Mg and Mn on three sampling sites under blast furnace plant's influence. Lime (CaO) or calcium carbide (CaC2) are typically used during the blast furnace operations for desulfurization purposes, which probably explains the high enrichment observed with Ca.