title: Indirect estimation of emission factors for phosphate surface mining using air dispersion modeling.
abstract: To date, phosphate surface mining suffers from lack of reliable emission factors. Due to complete absence of data to derive emissions factors, we developed a methodology for estimating them indirectly by studying a range of possible emission factors for surface phosphate mining operations and comparing AERMOD calculated concentrations to concentrations measured around the mine. We applied this approach for the Khneifiss phosphate mine, Syria, and the Al-Hassa and Al-Abyad phosphate mines, Jordan. The work accounts for numerous model unknowns and parameter uncertainties by applying prudent assumptions concerning the parameter values. Our results suggest that the net mining operations (bulldozing, grading and dragline) contribute rather little to ambient TSP concentrations in comparison to phosphate processing and transport. Based on our results, the common practice of deriving the emission rates for phosphate mining operations from the US EPA emission factors for surface coal mining or from the default emission factor of the EEA seems to be reasonable. Yet, since multiple factors affect dispersion from surface phosphate mines, a range of emission factors, rather than only a single value, was found to satisfy the model performance.
authors.affiliation: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel.
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tartakovsky
authors.affiliation: Center for Risk Analysis, The Gertner Institute, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 52621, Israel.
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.affiliation: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. Electronic address: dbroday@tx.technion.ac.il.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Broday
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008906:Mining; D008956:Models, Chemical; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis; D010710:Phosphates / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter; D010710:Phosphates
keywords: AERMOD; Dispersion modeling; Emission factors; Particulate matter; Phosphate mining