Characterisation of dust material emitted during harbour operations (HADA Project)

Harbour activities such as loading, unloading and transport of dusty loose materials may be an important source of atmospheric particulate matter (PM). Depending on the materials, the type of operation and the meteorological scenarios, these activities may have an impact on the levels of ambient air PM around harbour areas. Moreover, air quality at harbours may be affected by nearby urban and industrial emissions. The aim of this work is to compile an inventory of the main characteristics (chemical, morphological, mineralogical and grain size parameters) of the bulk cargo materials and of the material emitted during different port operations for possible use as tracers of the fugitive PM emission sources. For all cases, the tracer characteristics determined for each bulk material were also identified in the corresponding PM material emitted. This inventory could assist the harbour authorities to identify the origin of high PM events recorded by air quality monitoring networks in harbour areas, and could also help modellers to predict the impact of harbour activities on ambient PM levels. The harbour of Tarragona (north-east Spain) was selected for this study given the high volume of solids in bulk handled. To this end, 12 handling operations of selected materials (clinker, phosphate, pyrite ash, Mn mineral, fine Si–Mn, coke (coal), bituminous coal, tapioca, soybean, alfalfa, corn, andalusite) were selected for the characterisation of suspended and deposited PM. In spite of the coarse grain size distribution of these bulk cargo materials, with a very low % in the fraction <10 μm, manipulation of these materials during harbour operations may result in high emissions of PM10 with relatively high levels of potential toxic elements. Furthermore, ambient PM10 in the area with the highest traffic density of the harbour was also sampled and characterised.