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215585

Assessment of Ambient Air Quality Level at 21 sites in cement sector, Egypt.

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Environmental chemistry

Abstract

The cement industry is prospering in the Middle East countries, especially in Egypt due to the presence of raw materials, as well as increasing population growth in the region and increasing cement demand. Without activating and applying the regulations and laws, which enforced by local government to ensure compliance with national and international standards upon this industry, the increase of cement factories and complementary units in the region may damage air quality and threaten the ecosystems. This paper deals with the monitoring of the ambient pollutants surrounding 21 cement factories during the 2017 year: carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and particulate matter (TSP, PM10, and PM2.5) emitted from the cement production processing. Air pollutants around the cement plants were determined using appropriate sampling techniques according to international standard methods. Results indicated that particulate matter concentrations were higher than all permissible guidelines for ambient air quality. Carbon monoxide concentrations of all sites were lower than permissible limits, while recorded gases concentrations (NO2, SO2, O3) in some sites were comply with those limits. High concentrations of particulate matter at all sites could be attributed to the applied processes for cement production, such as raw materials mining, transportation, blending, quarrying, preparation, and stockpiles. Moreover, kilns operation, clinker cooling, and milling processes were responsible for gases and particulates emission operations. The results indicated also that exhaust emissions were attributed to the type of fuel used and coal is responsible for the production of most pollutants while natural gas produced the least amount of pollution. The use of clean fuel with ideal combustion techniques and the application of interlocking mechanisms to all processes are recommended for the cement manufacturers in Egypt to reduce adverse emissions to the environment.

DOI

10.21608/ejchem.2022.106133.4880

Keywords

Cement industry, Raw material, Particulate matter, air pollution, Living standards

Authors

First Name

Omar

Last Name

Elawa

MiddleName

Ibrahim

Affiliation

Tabbin Institute for Metallurgical Studies (TIMS), Energy and Environment Research Center (E2RC), Iron and Steel St., El Tabbin, Cairo-Egypt, P.O. 109 Helwan-11421

Email

omar_elawaa@yahoo.com

City

Giza

Orcid

-

First Name

Nasser

Last Name

abdellatif

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Air Pollution Research Department, Environment and Climate Change Research Institute, National Research Centre, El Behoos St., Dokki, Cairo, Egypt

Email

nabdellatif@gmail.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

0000-0003-2531-309X

First Name

Tarek

Last Name

Galal

MiddleName

mohamed

Affiliation

Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, P.O. 11795, Cairo, Egypt

Email

tarekhelwan@yahoo.com

City

Giza

Orcid

0000-0001-9847-1051

First Name

Emad

Last Name

Farahat

MiddleName

Ahmed

Affiliation

Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, P.O. 11795, Cairo, Egypt

Email

emad23_1999@yahoo.com

City

Giza

Orcid

-

Volume

65

Article Issue

9

Related Issue

31876

Issue Date

2022-09-01

Receive Date

2021-11-15

Publish Date

2022-09-01

Page Start

47

Page End

57

Print ISSN

0449-2285

Online ISSN

2357-0245

Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/article_215585.html

Detail API

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=215585

Order

5

Type

Original Article

Type Code

297

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Chemistry

Publication Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Assessment of Ambient Air Quality Level at 21 sites in cement sector, Egypt.

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023