Large chemical characterisation of PM10 emitted from graphite material production: Application in source apportionment

This work focuses on emissions from industrial sources that are still poorly understood in Europe, especially the carbon industry. The study is based on two intensive sampling campaigns performed in a graphite material production plant for 2 weeks in July 2013 and November 2013 in alpine valleys. The chemical characterization of PM10 was conducted at three sampling sites (outdoor and indoor sites) located inside one industrial area, which is considered as the highest emissions source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Ante valley. The identification of specific tracers among metals and trace elements is commonly used to characterize industrial emissions. In our study, original enrichment factors relative to the rural exposed background have been calculated, and the metallic fraction was not affected by this industrial source. In contrast, the organic fraction of PM10 has a number of features, providing a complete organic source profile and referred to as the carbon industry. In particular, polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASH) have been largely detected from fugitive emissions with rather large concentrations. The average concentrations of benzo(b)naphtho(2,1-d)thiophene (BNT(2,1)) reached 2.35-6.56 ng.m(-3) and 60.5-376 ng.m(-3) for outdoor and indoor sites, respectively. The use of this reference profile in the chemical mass balance model (CMB) applied to samples collected in two sites near industrial areas shows that this source had an average contribution of 6% of the organic matter (OM) mass during the sampling period during the winter of 2013. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.