Identification of Sources of Solid Pollutants in the Environment Based on Mineralogical, Morphological, and Geochemical Properties of Particles
Content
The environment in which we live today is polluted by a variety of potentially harmful particulate pollutants whose presence in the environment affects the quality of human life. The presence of inorganic solid pollutants in the environment is the result of the action of various natural factors such as the weathering of rocks and soil composition, the dispersion and transport of desert dust, volcanic emissions, natural fires, etc. Most of them are the result of the simultaneous action of natural and anthropogenic sources or a combination of both. As a result, the composition of inorganic particulate pollutants in environmental media can be very diverse and complex, representing a mixture of natural and anthropogenic particulate pollutants. In addition to knowledge of the general, average chemical composition of contaminated media, which is sufficient to determine the presence and extent of contamination, more detailed knowledge of the chemical, mineralogical and morphological properties of individual particulate pollutants is therefore required, which depend on the processes by which they are formed and the chemical composition of the source material and constitute "fingerprints" or indicators for identifying their sources and transport pathways. Knowledge of individual sources, their contributions and transport pathways is essential for effective control of particulate pollutant emissions. Since anthropogenic solid pollutants represent a variable proportion of all pollutants in the environment, their quantity can be effectively controlled and also reduced by targeting emissions to the individual sources that contribute most to environmental pollution.
The project investigated urban-industrial areas with various sources of solid pollutants, where previous studies of different environmental media have shown a high environmental impact of anthropogenic solid pollutants and heavy metals, but where a more precise determination of the contribution of individual sources to pollution has not yet been possible. Various environmental media such as soils, river and road sediments, air and precipitation, which are directly or indirectly linked to ecosystems and humans, were considered. Samples of source materials from each potential source were also used for comparison.
The most important contribution of this method is information on the chemical and mineral composition and morphology of particles, which forms the basis for source apportionment of potentially hazardous particulate pollutants in the environment and which cannot be obtained using conventional geochemical analysis methods, as these methods lose information on the morphology and mineralogy of individual particles. In addition to the characterisation of particles by SEM/EDS, conventional multi-element chemical analyses, mineral composition analyses by powder X-ray diffraction and measurements of airborne particle concentrations by a portable particle counter were also performed.
The objectives of the project were to identify accumulations of inorganic solid pollutants, mainly metal-containing particles, in different environmental media, to characterise their chemical, mineralogical and morphological properties, to assess the sources and the contributions of the sources to the environmental concentrations of solid pollutants and to demonstrate the usefulness of the properties of solid pollutants as source indicators.
The results of the project can contribute to the development of new methods based on the characterisation of individual particle properties to identify more precisely the sources of particulate matter in the environment and to estimate the contributions of individual sources. This will allow effective measures to be taken to reduce emissions of particulate matter and contribute to a better environment.
PROJECT BIBLIOGRAPHY REFERENCES:
1.01 Original scientific articles
- MILER, M., BAVEC, Š., GOSAR, M. The environmental impact of historical Pb-Zn mining waste deposits in Slovenia. Journal of environmental management 308, 2022, 114580, DOI: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 99235331]
- MILER, M. Airborne particles in city bus: concentrations, sources and simulated pulmonary solubility. Environmental geochemistry and health 43/7, 2021, 2757-2780, DOI: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 38478851]
- ZUPANČIČ, N., MILER, M., AŠLER, A., POMPE, N., JARC, S. Contamination of children's sandboxes with potentially toxic elements in historically polluted industrial city. Journal of hazardous materials 412, 2021, 125275, DOI: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 49439235]
- WANG, L., STANIČ, S., BERGANT, K., EICHINGER, W., MOČNIK, G., DRINOVEC, L., VAUPOTIČ, J., MILER, M., GOSAR, M., GREGORIČ, A. Retrieval of vertical mass concentration distributions: Vipava valley case study. Remote sensing 11/2, 2019, 1-20, doi: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 5310715]
- MILER, M., GOSAR, M. Assessment of contribution of metal pollution sources to attic and household dust in Pb-polluted area. Indoor air 29/3, 2019, 487-498, doi: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 2897749]
- ŠORŠA, A., MILER, M., GOSAR, M., HALAMIĆ, J. Follow-up geochemical studies and mineralogical investigations by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) of soil samples from the industrial zone of Sisak, Croatia. Journal of geochemical exploration 187, 2018, 168-183, doi: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 2637653]
- JARC, S., MILER, M., ŠEBELA, S., ZUPANČIČ, N. Sources of sulphate minerals in limestone cave-a possible evidence of anthropogenic activity: a case study in Črna Jama Cave (Slovenia). Environmental science and pollution research international 24/34, 2017, 26865-26873, doi: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 1368670]
- ŠEBELA, S., ZUPANČIČ, N., MILER, M., GRČMAN, H., JARC, S. Evidence of Holocene surface and near-surface palaeofires in karst caves and soils. Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology 485, 2017, 224-235, doi: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 1345886]
- MILER, M. Characterisation of secondary metal-bearing phases in used dental amalgam and assessment of gastric solubility. Environmental geochemistry and health, 39/6, 2017, 1607-1619, doi: .. [COBISS.SI-ID 2619221]
1.02 Scientific overview articles