AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Assessing the Impact of Hazardous Air Pollutants Emitted from Phosphate Fertilizer Plants Ambient Air Quality and Human Health
HSING-WANG LI, Nima Afshar-Mohajer, Chang-Yu Wu, Jean-Claude J. Bonzongo, Vito A. Ilacqua, Yongsuk Choi, Brian Birky, University of Florida
Abstract Number: 558 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract The United States is the second largest producer of phosphate fertilizers in the world. Phosphate products are widely used around the world for fertilizer, detergents, animal feed and food. In Central Florida, there are several phosphate fertilizer manufacturing plants that are potential sources for Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) that have potential adverse health effects. In this study, three types of models (AERMOD View 7.6.1, Chemical Mass Balance (CMB, V8), and EPA’s Human Exposure Model-3 (HEM3) were used to investigate the potential impact of the HAP emissions. The objective of this study was to evaluate ambient HAP concentrations resulting from such emissions and to estimate the corresponding human exposures and health risks.
AERMOD - Six receptor locations were evaluated: four urban areas (Zephyrhills, Plant City, Tampa, Lakeland) and two ambient air monitoring sites (Tower Dairy, Sydney) The maximum annual ground level concentration among the six receptors was found in Sydney, and the concentrations ranged from 0.190-0.617 pg/m3 for Be, Co, Cd, Sb; 1.10-2.07 pg/m3 for Se, Hg, As; and 3.35-5.58pg/m3 for Cr, Mn, Pb, and Ni. In addition, the maximum ground level concentration of Pb (5.44 pg/m3) was much lower than National Ambient Air Quality Standards (150 ng/m3). CMB - According to the source contribution estimated by CMB, three dominant contributions for total metals were from marine (38.8%), coal-fired power plant (27.9%) and lime (12.9%) for the Sydney site, while the phosphate fertilizer plants contributed only 1.41-2.45%. For Cr, phosphate processing facilities contributed 19.9% while other major sources were vehicles (43.9%), coal-fired power plant (25.5%) and soil (7.08%). HEM3 - The maximum off-site risk for Cr (1.4×10-6) and Cr6+ (1.1×10-6) from Facility A were slightly higher than acceptable in standard practice (1×10-6) in the northeast of Facility A (0.25 miles from the stacks). One possible source for the Cr in phosphate emissions is the milling balls made of chromium used in the production process.