The air-pollution control system of a lead-acid-battery recycling industry was studied. The system comprised two streams with gravity settlers followed by filter bags for the factory indoor air and the metal-recycling furnace, respectively. Efficiency in particle removal according to mass was found to be 99.91%. Moreover, filter bags and dust from the gravity settlers were analyzed for heavy metals by Wavelength Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence. The results showed high concentrations of Pb and Na in all cases. In the filter bag samples from the indoor atmosphere stream, Ca, Cu, Fe, and Al were found in concentrations higher than that in the filter bag samples from the furnace stream. The opposite was found for Na. Tl and K were only found in furnace stream bag filters. The elemental concentration of the dust from the furnace fumes stream contained mainly Fe, Na, Cd, Pb, Sb, and Cl, while the indoor main stream contained mainly P, Fe, Na, Pb, and Sb. In all cases, impurities of Nd, Ni, Rb, Sr, Th, Hg, and Bi were found. The high efficiency of the air-pollution control system in particle removal shows that a considerable reduction in emissions was achieved.
The contribution of emissions from the stack of a lead battery recycling plant to atmospheric lead concentrations and, eventually, to the topsoil of the surrounding area, were studied. A Gaussian dispersion model, of the American Meteorological Society/United States Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model, (AERMOD) was used to determine atmospheric total suspended particulate lead dispersion, which originated from stack emissions, over the wider study area. Stack emission parameters were obtained from online measurements of the industry control sensors. AERMOD simulated two scenarios for four calendar years, 2015 to 2018, one for the typical stack measured operating conditions and one for the legal limit operating conditions (emissions from the stack set by legislation to 0.5 mg m−3). Deposition fluxes modeled the input of atmospheric total suspended particulate Pb to the topsoil of the area. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses were used to determine lead concentrations in the topsoil. The modeling results were compared with topsoil of six inhabited locations downwind from the stack in the direction of the prevailing winds to estimate the influence of lead deposition on topsoil near the industrial area.
The estimation of visibility is of significant importance in aviation safety and forms part of the measurements routinely collected in real time to provide safety guidelines and decisions. Our work concerns the creation and implementation of a lidar-based visibility estimation system as part of the SAFETRANS research program. We created a reproducible system to (1) support standard airport equipment, (2) serve simultaneously as a visibility meter and a ceilometer reporting on cloud cover, (3) offer increased accuracy and improved capabilities compared to standardized equipment currently in use while (4) requiring minimal user training to function. This work presents the visibility estimation and cloud cover algorithms and subsequently reports on results of field tests in a number of Greek airports under various atmospheric conditions.
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