Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header
Content archived on 2022-11-21

Integrated multi-medium approach to the measurement of VOCs in the atmosphere and environment of iron and steelmaking plants and allied activities

Exploitable results

Research was carried out with respect to developing a unified and multi-medium method for measuring volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the field of an iron and steel making industrial environment. The work focused on the development of measuring systems and their application in two types of conditions: measurement at the working place; measurement in an abandoned iron and steel industrial site. The use of VOC detectors coupled with soil sampling equipment has been tested on an abandoned coke-oven site with respect to pollution delineation and mapping. The signals obtained on this type of site necessitate an enhancement of site assessment methods. Coupling principal components data analysis and mapping methods applied to different types of contamination assessment parameters, a specific method has been developed and validated using reference analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds in soils and sub-soil materials for deriving practical recommendations for contaminated site assessment. At the working place, the use of global indices of VOC level using a set of VOC detectors enabled the dynamics of VOC emissions to be followed with a reduced time step, or the VOC levels to be mapped in industrial workshops. In the case of pure compound emissions or multicomponent sources, laboratory studies and in situ applications have been performed to develop and validate the proposed methodology. The results obtained either for site assessment or occupational health give a sound basis for future applications in the field of iron and steel industrial sites.

Searching for OpenAIRE data...

There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE

No results available