Identification of the featured-element in fine road dust of cities with coal contamination by geochemical investigation and isotopic monitoring

2021-07-01
Liu, Yuan
Liu, Guijian
Yousaf, Balal
Zhou, Chuncai
Shen, Xiaofei
The exploitation of coal releases large amounts of contaminants into the environment. However, the featured pollutants of coal utilization as well as the scope and degree of their impact remain to be revealed. To identify the featured-element of coal contamination in a complex environment, a typical coal resource city was selected, and the major elements, 18 trace elements, as well as ?13C, ?15N, and ?34S in the fine road dust and certain source materials were analyzed. Through multiple analysis methods, the featured-element was determined step-by-step: firstly, elements with enrichment coefficients greater than two in road dust were focused: Zn, Hg, Pb, Cu, Cd, and Cr; secondly, difference analysis showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) of Hg and Cu concentration at different distance from the coal-fired power plant, making Hg and Cu the only candidates for the featuredelement; finally, through coal-related source materials determination, Cu was not qualified as a featuredelement. Therefore, Hg was the only left element to be considered as the featured-element. To be more convincing, more analyses were performed to support Hg as the featured-element: cluster analysis and isotope monitoring indicated Hg in road dust could originate from coal combustion; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was also conducted, where the forms of Hg in road dust with possible source materials were compared, and the presence of HgO and Hg only in the road dust near the power plant indicated the impact of the power plant on the surrounding dust. Through the health risk assessment, it was found that Hg in the road dust had no health risk, though the study area still had Pb, Cr, and As risks, which were not closely related to the pollutants released by coal-related sources.
ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL

Suggestions

Investigation of alkaline pretreatment parameters on amulti-product basis for the co-production of glucose and hemicellulose based films from corn cobs
Toraman, Hilal Ezgi; Bakır Bölükbaşı, Ufuk; Özkan, Necati; Department of Chemical Engineering (2012)
There is an increasing trend in the world for using renewable sources of fuels and chemicals due to the continuous depletion of fossil fuel reserves besides the environmental issues related with the exploitation of these resources. Lignocellulosic biomass is seen as the most promising candidate to be used instead of fossil sources because of its availability, relatively low price and less competition with food and feed crops. In this study, corn cobs, a lignocellulosic agricultural waste, were subjected to ...
Analysis of Tuncbilek underground coal mine accidents based on risk analysis techniques
Kestel, Sevtap Ayşe; Karpuz, Celal (2000-06-02)
Underground coal mine accidents result in many losses which directly reflects to the cost of mining. The randomness in the appearance of the accidents can be determined by frequency that considers how often a specific type of the accident may occur and the severity of the accident in which a financial loss arises resulted from the occurrence of the accident. Modelling these two basic variables statistically enables the researchers to estimate the probability of future losses and to determine the risk factor...
Investigation of Turkish lignites and biomass at high heating rates by using wire mesh apparatus
Baghirzade, Mammadbaghir; Kazanç Özerinç, Feyza; Department of Micro and Nanotechnology (2018)
Coal continues to play a significant role in energy production over the world. However, its limited procurement and enormous side effects on global warming, make governments and organizations turn towards renewable energy resources like biomass which is CO2 neutral. Prior to utilization of fuels in power plants, it is important to investigate fuel behavior at high temperatures and high heating rates, i.e., close to heating rates in industrial applications. This understanding enables engineers to design appr...
Identification of waste management strategies and waste generation factors for thermal power plant sector wastes in Turkey
Demir, Cansu; Yetiş, Ülkü; Ünlü, Kahraman (SAGE Publications, 2019-03-01)
Thermal power plants are of great environmental importance in terms of the huge amounts of wastes that they produce. Although there are process-wise differences among these energy production systems, they all depend on the logic of burning out a fuel and obtaining thermal energy to rotate the turbines. Depending on the process modification and the type of fuel burned, the wastes produced in each step of the overall process may change. In this study, the most expected process and non-process wastes stemming ...
Comparison of CO2 emission related to off highway trucks and belst conveyors in an open pit coal mine
Erkayaoğlu, Mustafa; Demirel, Nuray (null; 2011-05-13)
Environmental impacts of extraction and utilization of finite resources are crucial more than ever. In recent years, mining industry has been faced with increasing constraints and forced to manage and mitigate the environmental impacts associated with mining. Mining professionals and practitioners have become obliged to make decisions in accordance with certain systematic standards like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This study presents the use of LCA in material handling system selection between off-highway ...
Citation Formats
Y. Liu, G. Liu, B. Yousaf, C. Zhou, and X. Shen, “Identification of the featured-element in fine road dust of cities with coal contamination by geochemical investigation and isotopic monitoring,” ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL, pp. 0–0, 2021, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/90730.