"DETERMINATION OF PAHs IN THE DUST PARTICLES FROM THE BURNING SLAG HEAP EMA, (THE CZECH REPUBLIC)"

References: 14th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2014, www.sgem.org, SGEM2014 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7105-18-6 / ISSN 1314-2704, June 19-25, 2014, Book 5, Vol. 2, 179-184 pp

ABSTRACT
Considering polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as significant indicators of
anthropogenic pollution of the environment, this pilot study observes the content of
selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the dust particles from the
burning slag heap Ema, (the Czech Republic). The relevance of PAHs as a pollution load indicator is also supported by the results of monitoring PAH contents in the air of the Ostrava region, namely because PAHs are characteristic organic pollutants in the overall Ostrava industrial agglomeration. The studied locality is Ostrava’s conic slag heap Ema. It was gradually formed by piling up mine debris from 1920 to 1960 and its top reaches 315 metres above sea level, 1,033 ft AMSL(above mean sea level). The overall area of the slag heap is 82 ha, and it contains more than 4 million m3 of waste rock. The interior of the heap burns at 1,500 ˚C. For the purposes of the pilot study, only six congeners of PAHs, including their sum, were monitored in the dust particles, namely: benzo[a]anthracene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene, anthracene, dibenzo[ah]anthracene and benzo[ghi]perylene. The PAHs dependence on the size of dust particles for the size fraction below 0.063 mm over the 0,063 mm was compared. This study has tested and optimized HPLC parameters in order to establish the best methodology to analyze particle-bound PAH.

Keywords: PAHs, dust particles, Ostrava, slag EMA, HPLC