Monitoring Air Fluoride Concentration around ALUAR Smelter in Puerto Madryn (Chubut Province, Argentina)

JORGE ZAVATTI; CLAUDIO LOPEZ MORENO; JULIANA LIFSCHITZ; GABRIELA QUIROGA

California

Simposio; TMS 2011 Annual Meeting & Exhibition; 2011

TMS Comittee

The emissions of Total Fluoride (gaseous + particulate) (F−) are one of the significant environmental aspects of the aluminum industry. Therefore the government has established regulations aimed at controlling the environmental performance of smelters through monitoring of F− emissions. Chubut Province (Argentina), sets emission limits, 1 kg F−/ton Al and following recommendations from the World Health Organization, a 16.0 μg F−/m3 guideline for inmission has been established. In this paper we present: i)the monitoring network that ALUAR deployed in Puerto Madryn, 12 air sampling stations; ii)sampling procedures and analysis adopted; iii)the results of air fluoride concentration from July 2009 to June 2010; iv)the validation of these results by three scientific institutes of Argentina. The results show that in Puerto Madryn (100000 inhabitants; 2 km to the South of ALUAR?s Plant), the median concentration in air was 1.61 μg F−/m3 (N = 471 ? p95 = 5.32). These values met the inmission guideline level determined by the supervisory authority.