A Study of Heavy Metals in the Dust Fall around Assiut Fertilizer Plant

doi:10.4236/jep.2013.412170

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Journal of Environmental Protection, 2013, 4, 1488-1494

Published Online December 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jep)

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jep.2013.412170

Open Access JEP

A Study of Heavy Metals in the Dust Fall around Assiut

Fertilizer Plant

Thabet A. Mohamed1, Mohamed Abuel-Kassem Mohamed2, Ragab Rabeiy2, Mahmoud A. Ghandour3

1National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Assiut, Egypt; 2Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Department,

Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 3Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.

Email: [email protected]

Received June 19th, 2013; revised July 23rd, 2013; accepted August 21st, 2013

cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In

ABSTRACT

A study of an environmental assessment of dust fall and the associated heavy metal contents was conducted during the

period from the first of March 2011 to the end of February 2012 at adjoining area of a phosphate fertilizer plant. Around

the industrial area 8 dust fall stations were established and one of them was built upwind far from pollution activities to

be taken as a control sample. Dust fall samples collected monthly weighed and then prepared to be analyzed through

Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) to obtain heavy metal concentration. Meteorological pa-

rameters influencing the distribution of dust fall such as wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, rain fall and

pressure were determined. Results showed that deposition flow rates were 38.2. 47.5, 57.7, 44.3, 39.4, 38.2, 42.7 and

5.9 g/m2·month for the sites No., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively, and were compared with the findings of other in-

vestigators of like industrial areas worldwide. Levels of heavy metal As, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, and Hg in the deposited dust

fall were 3.30, 26.46, 22.33, 235.00, 4.53 and 3.80 µg/g respectively. Enrichment coefficients of the heavy metals in the

dust fall were found to be significant and reached the values 1.81, 0.90, 0.85, 0.65, 0.41 and 0.35 for zinc, lead, cad-

mium, copper, mercury and arsenic respectively. The paper ends with results and recommendations suggesting a meth-

odology to remediate the investigated area polluted with heavy metals and control measures for the fertilizer plant to

reduce pollution into the surrounding environment.

Keywords: Heavy Metal; Dust Fall Station; Deposition Flow Rate; Phosphate Fertilizer Plant; Meteorological

Parameters

1. Introduction

The anthropogenic impact on the adjoining environments

of industrial complexes has been documented in many

parts of the world [1-3]. Heavy metals such as As, Cu, Pb,

Z, Cd and Hg have been evaluated in an agricultural area

nearby the phosphate fertilizer plant, Assiut, Egypt.

Heavy metals resulted from industrial activities are con-

sidered seriously if they exist in the environment with

excess concentration than background values. A large

number of studies have been conducted in urban and ru-

ral environments and reported that particulate matter

surface has a greater tendency of binding up soil derived

elements and larger surface area of small particle size has

affinity of higher accumulation of elemental concentra-

tion [4,5].

Dust fall is depleted continuously from the atmos-

phere through two major routes: dry and/or wet deposi-

tion. The influencing factors of dust fall path depend

upon meteorological conditions such as the intensity and

distribution of rain fall, wind direction and velocity, hu-

midity, temperature and pressure [6,7]. Heavy metal pol-

lution of the atmosphere can be estimated by determining

the concentration of these heavy metals in settleable par-

ticles, because the heavy metals are associated with the

solid particulate matter in many forms. Lead is one of the

metals of most interest in environmental samples. In their

studies, many investigators have concentrated on the

determination of lead alone in particulate matter [8,9] but

other heavy metals have also been extensively studied

[10-13].

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Eight dust fall stations were distributed downwind the

phosphate fertilizer plant to determine heavy metal con-

centration in atmospheric deposition where station No. 8

was placed upwind in unpolluted area to be taken as a

control sample [14]. Dust fall samples were collected

monthly and analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plas-

ma-Microscopy (ICP-MS). Concentrations of heavy me-

tals (µg/g) collected from dust fall stations were obtained

as well as dust fall rates (µg·m−2·mon−1) and their related

statistical data and were compared with other results re-

ported in the literature. Obtained reports of dust fall

measurements showed that the area was enriched with

heavy metals and their concentrations were above the

threshold limit values stated by the environment law

4/1994.

The aim of this study was to estimate dust fall released

in the vicinity of the phosphate fertilizer plant and deter-

mination of heavy metal concentrations associated with

these dusts. These dusts furnished with heavy metals are

deposited in soil raising its mineralogical composition

and give rise to soil pollution. In fact, this is the first data

published in terms of freely available literature on the

levels of heavy metals in the atmosphere since the estab-

lishment of the phosphate fertilizer plant in 1978.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Area

The study was conducted during 2010-2011 around

Manqabad phosphate fertilizer factory (27˚11'47"N,

31˚6'59"E) situated at 9 km north of city of Assiut, Egypt.

The phosphate factory of Assiut, established in 1978 with

an installed capacity of 14,600 mt, to reach the total plant

capacity of 205,000 mt/year. The plant is located be-

tween the western bank of the River Nile and El-Ibra-

heimia navigation canal and joined with the main Ex-

press roads of Assiut-Cairo, Assiut-Aswan and the Rail-

way station. The climate of the area ranges from tropical

to mild where the year is divisible into a hot and dry

summer season (May-August) and a cold winter season

(November-February). October and March are transition

months. Mean monthly maximum temperature ranges

between 20.3˚C in January and 45˚C June and mean

minimum temperature between 15˚C in January and 30

˚C in May. Mean annual rain fall is 180 mm, about 90%

of which occurs during winter season. During the study

period however, the annual rain fall remained below this

level. Wind directions shifts from predominantly north-

westerly during November through March and north-west-

erly to northerly for most of the remaining months.

The soil of the area is alfisols from parent materials

medium in limestone and soil texture ranges from sand to

loamy sand. The area under investigation is an agricul-

tural of 400 feddans, lived by about 6000 individuals

inhabiting in different communities. The original vegeta-

tion comprises of wheat, faba bean, and clover in winter

and in summer plants are sorghum, maize and cotton. In

addition, some fruit orchards like grapes, banana, jawava

and figs. Figure 1 shows the composition of the area

related to the location of the fertilizer plant.

Figure 1. A map showing the fertilizer plant and related samples.

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2.2. Dust Fall Stations

First of all, studies that conducted in evaluating dust fall

around surrounding areas of industrial complexes were

studied [15-21]. Then based on recommendation of the

American Society for Testing and Materials Standard

Method for collection of dust fall ASTM Method D-1739

and analysis books, 8 home dust fall stations were de-

signed and selected as shown in Figure 2. The following

criteria were used to select the stations. The distance be-

tween stations 3 km and sampling must be done in an

open area, far from tall buildings, the distance from

buildings should be at least 20 m, stations should be

away from local sources of pollution, easily accessible

and away from being damaged (Fang, et al., 2004). Col-

lection of dust fall was accomplished using a home dust

fall station as shown in Figure 3. The collector is con-

sisted of a glass box 30 × 30 × 30 cm fixed on a vertical

stand of about 2 m to prevent terrestrial dust to pollute

the sample. The sample was collected in Petri deposition

dish placed above a meter balance interior the glass box

which may give the weight of dust fall directly at any

time. Also the station is provided with an electric circuit

giving alarm to prevent bird’s droppings. The station is

provided with a shield to prevent wind fluctuations. Petri

dishes are replaced at the end of each month to collect

dust fall samples.

Meteorological records indicated that north-west di-

rection is prevailing wind direction hence, it was taken as

downwind direction for the present study. The device of

Global Positioning Systems GPS (Garmen 62s) was used

to demonstrate the locations of dust fall stations. Table 1

gives the global position coordinates of distributed dust

fall stations in the area nearby the fertilizer plant.

2.3. Sample Collection and Preparation

Dust fall stations were mounted 1.5 m high tripods to

Figure 2. Dust fall station in the area near the phosphate

fertilizer plant.

Table 1. Location of dust fall stations and co-ordinates.

E N Station

31 9 7 27 11 48 1

31 8 13 27 11 9 2

31 7 41 27 11 17 3

31 7 13 27 11 38 4

31 7 6 27 11 22 5

31 7 43 27 11 1 6

31 8 30 27 10 58 7

31 6 48 27 12 34 8

avoid the collection of dust picked up by wind eddies.

There was a bird ring on each holder to avoid material

from birds. The collectors were exposed to the atmos-

phere for a sampling period of 30 days. It should be

noted that the measurements represent dry deposition

only, as there were no rainfall during the sampling pe-

riod.

The dry deposits (settleable particulates) were trans-

ferred from the collectors and placed in an iced container

and transported to the analysis laboratory. The content of

dust fall was dried at 105˚C to a constant mass, and then

it was weighed and the quantity of dust fall was com-

puted in µg/m2 month. About 0.10 g of the dried samples

was accurately weighed and extracted with concentrated

ultra-pure nitric acid, sonicated for 30 min in a test tube

heater for one hour, left overnight, and then the solutions

were filtered and diluted with 1% HNO3 in 25 ml poly-

ethylene volumetric flask to the mark [23] As, Cu, Pb, Zn,

Cd and Hg in the dustfall were analytically determined

using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy

(ICP-MS-Perkin Elmer).

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Determination of Dust Fall

The annual mean rates of deposited dust collected in an

agricultural area from March 2011 to the end of February

2012 around the phosphate fertilizer plant have the val-

ues of 38.2. 47.5, 57.7, 44.3, 39.4, 38.2, 42.7 and 5.9

g/m2 month for the sites no. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 re-

spectively. Sites no 1, 2, 3 are located down wind of the

factory, so they received higher deposition rates of par-

ticulate than that of other sites and this is due to the im-

pact of the fertilizer plant on the surrounding area. Fugi-

tive dust and stack emissions especially during charging

and discharging of rock mills are the main sources of

particulate emissions. This rate of deposition is con-

sidered very heavy compared to Pennsylvania guide-

lines for dust fall [24], moreover, these rates of deposi-

tion exceed in terrible amount of standards for dust

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Figure 3. Sketch showing the compartments of the dust fall station [22].

deposits in many countries, for instance, the air quality

standards in USA is 5.7 g/m2·month and is 1.93 g/m2.

month as a background value (Stern, 1986), while it is 14

g/m2·month for industrial areas according to Egyptian

law 470/1970. The Environmental Information and

Monitoring Program of Egypt (EIMP) reported that, re-

ports from developed countries referred that if dust fall

values are less than 10 g/m2·month, the area may be con-

sidered clean. According to [25] SANs (2005) the new

dust fall standard has been established and widely used to

determine the potential of dust fall in residential and in-

dustrial areas. Sans (2005) standard threshold stated that

deposited dust in industrial area lies between 18 and 36

g/m2·month as it shown in Table 2.

Sites no 2, 3 showed the vigorous increase of dust fall

than other sites and exceeding other sites the alert limit to

take action of 72 g/m2·month to immediate action and

remediation required following the first incidence of dust

fall rate being exceeded. Dust fall deposition in Site No.

4 is affected by the emissions of the power plant which

present to the north east of this site, so the dust fall rate

of this site is influenced by the emissions of the fertilizer

factory and the power plant emissions. Site 5 is affected

by the emissions of the fertilizer plant and vehicular

emissions of the high way linking Assiut-Cairo. Site 8 is

a reference where deposition rate is 5.9 g/m·month and it

located upwind and far from pollution. In Sites 2, 3 rate

depositions are 6 times and 7 times to that of the back-

ground site. But rates sites 4, 5, 6, 7 equals 4 times ap-

proximately that of the reference site. This gives evi-

dence that the industrial mechanical operations and

chemical processes take part in the factory is responsible

for the increased rates of dust fall in the adjacent area.

3.2. Heavy Metal Contest in Dust Fall

Heavy metal concentration are represented in dust fall

are given in Table 3 and their related statistical data is

illustrated in Table 4. It is revealed that there is variation

of heavy metal concentration in dust fall collected from

different dust fall stations. The highest concentration

value of Cd reached 11.65 mg/kg in site No. 7 affected

by pollution sources of fertilizer emissions beside ve-

hicular emission from high Express way and railway.

The annual deposition of Cd is 4.53 µg/g and the higher

value of Pb is 51.71 µg/g mainly affected from phosphate

fertilizer manufacturing.

The annual mean value of Pb is 22.33 µg/g that ex-

ceeds much the control value of Site 8 that equals 5.33

µg/g. As for Cu and Zn the maximum values were 46.25,

522.9 µg/g and minimum values are 13.27, 105.8 µg/g

and the mean values are 29.46, 235 µg/g respectively,

and this exceed much the control values of Pb and Zn in

site 8. For Hg and As, the range is about 0.23 to 3.98

µg/g, and 0.41 to 3.46 µg/g for Hg and As respectively.

The maximum values of Hg and As were 7.06 and 4.88

µg/g respectively, where the minimum values 0.25, 0.4

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\ Table 2. Threshold limit values of dust fall [24].

Band No. Label Dust fall rate, D g/m2·month Action taken

1 Residential D < 18 Permissible for residential and light commercial

2 Industrial 24 < D < 36 Permissible for heavy commercial and industrial

3 Action 36 < D < 72 Requires investigation and remediation if two sequential months lie in

this band or more than three occur in a year

4 Alert 72 < D Immediate action and remediation required following the first incidence of dust

fall rate being exceeded, incident report to be submitted to relevant authority.

Table 3. Represents concentrations of heavy metals (µg/g) in dust fall.

St. No. Cd Pb Cu Zn Hg As

1 2.25 12.15 30.72 209.39 0.38 0.41

2 6.68 3.16 16.23 133.43 3.05 3.84

3 3.83 51.72 26.09 175.95 2.52 4.88

4 4.55 24.20 37.33 312.00 2.37 1.58

5 5.08 38.82 46.75 105.08 0.23 3.42

6 2.13 11.02 13.27 399.30 7.06 0.53

7 11.56 33.50 29.57 522.60 8.98 8.46

Control ST 8 1.15 5.22 8.33 27.15 1.53 1.75

Annual Average 4.53 22.33 29.46 235.00 3.80 3.30

Table 4. Represents the statistical data of heavy metals in dust fall samples.

St. No. Cd Pb Cu Zn Hg As

Mean 4.53 22.33 29.46 235.00 3.80 3.30

Max 11.65 51.72 46.75 522.90 8.98 8.46

Min 2.12 3.16 13.27 105.80 0.23 0.24

SD 3.26 17.57 11.58 152.98 3.31 2.84

Median 4.55 24.20 29.57 209.39 2.52 3.24

Quart_1 3.05 11.58 21.18 154.69 1.35 1.05

Quart_3 5.86 37.16 43.07 355.65 5.05 4.36

Range 2.1 - 11.7 3.2 - 51.7 13.5 - 46.8 105.8 - 522.9 0.2-8.9 0.2 - 8.5

µg/g for Hg and As respectively. The annual mean values

0.03, 0.02 µg/g for Hg and As respectively, and these

values exceeds much the control samples of Hg and As

recorded in reference site No. 8.

The fluctuations of wind speed and direction from

north east in summer to the North West in winter af-

fected depositions of these metals and give variation in

the annual concentrations of heavy metal tested in this

area. The annual mean concentrations of dust fall re-

coded in the investigated area were compared with con-

centrations of the same metals measured in other world

countries (Table 5).

A comparison of the results of this study with other

data worldwide (Table 5) indicates that the rate deposi-

tion of our study are generally less than those recorded in

North Sea, Jamaica, Amman and others . Cadmium in the

present study exceeds the value of the same element in

Bombay and W. Mediterranean. All above, the results of

the present study exceed the threshold limit values (TLV)

stated with the Egyptian Environment law 4/1994.

3.3. Enrichment Coefficient

The enrichment coefficients of the heavy metals were

estimated and these are summarized in Table 6. The en-

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Table 5. Deposition rates of heavy metals (µg/m2·month−1

compared with other results reported in the literature.

Location Zn Cu Pb Cd

Bombay, India 3097.0 785.8 269.9 3.28

North Sea 920.5 167.7 453.7 19.4

Jamaica 1525.5 332.1 450.4 184.8

W. Mediterranean 361.6 31.6 345.2 4.3

Amman 2474.4 462.8 349.8 12.5

Assiut, Egypt 235 29.46 22.33 4.53

Table 6. Enrichment factor of heavy metals deposits at the 8

dust fall stations near the phosphate fertilizer plant.

Element Average Enrichment Factor Range

As 1.9 0.2 - 4.8

Cu 3.5 0.3 - 5.6

Pb 4.3 0.6 - 9.9

Zn 8.7 3.9 - 19.2

Cd 3.9 1.9 - 10.0

Hg 2.5 0.2 - 4.6

richment coefficient was computed as the ratio of the

heavy metal concentration in the settleable particulates

(dust fall) to the concentration in the soil collected and

analyzed at the same time [10].

The values in the table indicate high enrichment of the

dust fall and follow the order Zn > Pb > Cd > Cu > Hg >

As. The high values of enrichment coefficients suggest

that these elements are anthropogenic in origin as a result

of fugitive and stack emissions from phosphate fertilizer

plant. Figure 4 shows enrichment factors related to dust

fall stations.

3.4. Correlation Coefficient

The correlation coefficient (r) was calculated from ele-

ment concentrations in order to predict the possibility of

a common source. The (r) values are generally high re-

cording extreme correlation of heavy metals where r =

0.89 for Cd-As and r = 0.88 for Zn-Hg. Table 7 indicated

that there was strong significant correlation for Cd-Hg (r

= 0.54), Pb-Cu(r = 0.53), Pb-As(r = 0.52) and Cu-Hg(r =

0.50). Also Hg correlated Zn with r = 0.48 and Cd corre-

lated Zn with r = 0.44. This may indicate that these met-

als have a common anthropogenic source; possibly fer-

tilizer plant emissions.

4. Conclusions

General observations on the investigated area showed

Figure 4. Enrichment factors of heavy metals in dust fall

samples.

Table 7. The correlation coefficient r calculated of heavy

metals in dust fall samples.

As Hg Zn Cu Pb Cd

0.89 0.54 0.44 0.10 0.18 1 Cd

0.52 0.10 0.04 0.53 1 Pb

0.10 0.50 0.24 1 Cu

0.31 0.88 1 Zn

0.48 1 Hg

1 As

that vegetation environment has been adversely affected

by factory emissions. Changes in plant height, canopy

area, leaf area, total plant biomass, chlorophyll and ne-

crosis may indicate the adverse affects of toxic gases

such as fluoride, SO2 and allocation of dry matter at the

polluted sites [17,23], reported that accumulation of

heavy metals in soil hinders plants from the absorption of

nutrients, affects microbial activity and causes changes

of vegetation characteristics.

The study revealed that the area suffering high rates of

dust fall which deteriorates plants, water, soils and make

confusion for residents. Determination of heavy metals in

dust fall showed that the area is heavily enriched with Pb,

Zn, Cu, Hg, Cd and As and correlation factors indicated

that these heavy metals have anthropogenic origin. Con-

trol measures may be applied to the fertilizer plant and

soils may be provided with remediation technology.

5. Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Atif Abo

Elwafa, Dean of Sugar Research Technology Institute,

SRTI for his support during this work. Also thanks to

Engineer Saleh the General Manager of Environment and

Safety Division in the Phosphate Fertilizer Plant for in-

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formation he provided and support during conduction of

this research.

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