See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/338544042

Study on Air Pollution Around A Cement Industry in Khulna City

Conference Paper · January 2020

CITATIONS READS

0 471

3 authors:

Rashedul Islam Jobaer Ahmed Saju

Khulna University of Engineering and Technology Khulna University of Engineering and Technology
1 PUBLICATION 0 CITATIONS 18 PUBLICATIONS 11 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Md. Masudur Rahman

Khulna University of Engineering and Technology
5 PUBLICATIONS 6 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Air quality monitoring of Khulna railway View project

Study on Air Pollution Around A Cement Industry in Khulna City View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Jobaer Ahmed Saju on 12 January 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Paper ID: 182

STUDY ON AIR POLLUTION AROUND A CEMENT INDUSTRY IN

KHULNA CITY

Rashedul Islam1, Jobaer Ahmed Saju2, and Md. Masudur Rahman3*

1
Graduate Student, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Khulna-9203, Bangladesh.
<E-mail: rasel.ce18@gmail.com>
2
Postgraduate Student, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Khulna-9203, Bangladesh.
<E-mail: jubayerahmed005@gmail.com>
3*
Postgraduate Student, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Khulna-9203,
Bangladesh.,<E-mail: masudur.ce@gmail.com>
* Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT
Cement production is increasing to fulfill the demand of construction projects in Khulna city by
extending the numbers of cement industry, which emits particulate matter, toxic metal and toxic gases
into the environment. The purpose of the study was to explore the status of ambient air around a
cement industry and level of health concern according to air quality index. A laser particle counter
and environmental test meter were used to monitor the air pollutants from September 2018 to
December 2018. The concentration of SPM, NO2 and O3 were found significantly higher than the
Bangladesh National Ambient Air Quality Standard (BNAAQS). The percentage of PM 2.5 in PM10
was varied from 68.1% to 42.8% and the percentage of PM10 in SPM was varied from 46.6% to
53.3% in September to October respectively. These results indicated that PM2.5 accounted for most of
PM10 in September and PM10 accounted for most of SPM in October. Correlation analysis indicated
that PM10 and PM2.5 were strongly correlated with a significant level p<0.01. The highest correlation
coefficient was found 0.755 for PM10 and PM2.5. Air quality was found unhealthy for O3 and SPM &
NO2 were observed in caution range.

Keyword: Cement industry, Pollutants, PM2.5 /PM10, Correlation and AQI.

INTRODUCTION
Nowadays air pollution has become a funeral concern all over the world. It has adverse effect on
health, ecosystem, culture and customs, etc. (WHO, 2005); (C. A. Pope et al., 2011 ). Badly changed
on climate (Soloman et al.,2007), such as greenhouse effect, acid rain, global worming etc. World
Health Organization (WHO) reports that in 2012 around 7 million people died it means one in eight of
total global deaths. It has been proved that each 10μg/m3 increases in fine particulate which has
caused around 4, 6 and 8% increased risk of all cause, cardio pulmonary and lung cancer mortality (A.
C. Pope et al., 2002). It has nuisance effects on human beings, animals, plants, their biological
communities and habitats and on the soil (Kates, Parris, & Leiserowitz, 2005) also including
premature death, bronchitis, chest pain, shortness of breath, asthma, heart attacks, damage to lung
tissue etc. It occurs when harmful or excessive quantities of substances including gases, particles, and
biological molecules are introduced into earth's atmosphere. It has recently gained importance among
environmental issues and should reduce urgently.
Cement is the critical ingredient in concrete, locking together the sand and gravel constituents in an
inert matrix. Build many infrastructure projects and buildings for the availability of raw material
necessary for the manufacturing of cement (Chaurasia et al., 2014) which became the indispensable
necessity to produce with a large scale to fill the increased demand. According to Egyptian report that
1kg of cement manufactured generated about 0.07kg of dust in atmosphere (Barman et al., 2008).
Enormous quantities of air pollutants are emitted from cement industry including particulate Matter
(PM10, PM2.5, SPM etc.), Sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO),
carbon dioxide (CO2), (Zhang et al., 2011) ground level ozone (O3), lead (Pd), volatile organic
compounds (VOC) etc.
Bangladesh is a developing country and urbanization is also growing day by day. The construction
sector has bloomed during the past few years with the infrastructural development including multi-
stories residential buildings, high-rise commercial buildings as well as many other infrastructure
projects (bridges, fly-over, metro-rail, nuclear power plants etc.). So, the demand of cement is
increased with the increasing of construction. Currently 34 cement companies produce 32 million
metric tons cement per year with the availability of raw materials (Cement, 2015). Enormous
quantities of air pollutants are emitted from cement production and so result in significant
environmental and human health problems. More than 37,000 Bangladeshis die annually from
diseases related to air pollution according to the World Health Organization (The Daily Star, 2018).
The aim of this study to investigate the ambient air quality near a cement industry located at
Labonchora near Rupsha River (sampled area) in Khulna city.

RESHEARCH METHOD
Study Area
Khulna is the third largest city of Bangladesh which is located in south-western Bangladesh. Recently
many cement manufacturing industries are being constructed in Khulna which may cause a
tremendous change in environmental air quality. This study was conducted in Khulna city around a
cement industry.
The geological study location of Khulna is 22.785278°N and 89.580000°E. The study area is
presented in [Fig. 1].

[Fig. 1] Study Area.

Operation of monitoring equipment

Four days data were collected in monsoon season (September and October) and dry winter season
(November to December). Two instruments were setup in front of the industry. Lighthouse
HANDHELD 3016 IAQ Airborne Particle Counter was used for determining the concentration of
particulate matter (SPM, PM10 and PM2.5) and AdvancedSenseTM Pro Environmental Test Meter with
suitable Direct Sense Probes was used for determining the concentration of air quality (NO 2, O3, and
VOC). These two instruments were run to collect 1.5 hours continuous data as shown in the [Fig. 2].

2
 [Fig. 2] Lighthouse HANDHELD 3016 IAQ (left) and Advanced Sense TM Pro with Direct Sense Probes
(right) at the time of operation.

Collecting Data from Instruments

After finishing field work, all data was collected from HANDHELD 3016 IAQ Particle Counter and
Advanced SenseTM Pro Environmental Test Meter by using laptop with help of Wolf Sense PC
software. Data that were stored in the memory of instruments automatically. At first, the two
instruments were connected with laptop using suitable specified cable for each instrument. Here, Wolf
Sense PC software in where two options such as “Download from PC 3016 Particle Counter” for pm
data and “Option of transfer from Graywolf meter” for gaseous pollutants data were selected to collect
corresponding measured data. Finally, the data was saved as Excel file.

Air Quality Index

The air quality index (AQI) is a value representing the status of air quality in an area. AQI is a
communication vehicle to express the air quality of an area and to make people concern in that
specific area as how is quality of air they are going to face. AQI value tells how much clean or
polluted the air is and focuses on health effects. Air quality index formula according to EPA, NSW-
Australia (NSW Government, 2019) is presented in equation 1. The AQI standard for Bangladesh is
given in Table 1 (CASE, 2018).

Table 1: Air Quality Index for Bangladesh.

Air quality index (AQI) Category Color
0-50 Good Green
51-100 Moderate Yellow Green
101-150 Caution Yellow
151-200 Unhealthy Orange
201-300 Very Unhealthy Red
301-500 Extremely Unhealthy Purple

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Variation of Pollutants Concentration
Assessment of air pollutants using Bangladesh air quality standard is shown below in [Fig. 3].
Pollutant SPM value increase in October, November, and December and crossed the standard limit. In
October and November is the two months in where PM10 values high with crossing the standard.
PM2.5 is increasing from September to December but in December it become higher than standard
one. From comprising statistics particulate matter increase monthly from September to December
because of being dry weather in those months and December is winter so the value of pm is rise.
Although NO2 values is low compared with other pollutants but in October and December values
cross the standard. In the case of O3 where September, October and December values cross the

3
standard. The ground ozone increases which may affect the lung, heat, eye etc. of people in the study
area.

[Fig. 3] Variation of pollutants with standard.

The ratios (%) of PM2.5 to PM10 and PM10 to SPM variation

The percentage of PM2.5 in PM10 was found to be higher in September and December. The percentage
of PM10 in suspended particulate matter (SPM) was found higher in October and November shown in
[Fig. 4]. Highest 68% of PM2.5 found to be contributed in the concentration of PM10 in September.
Also, 47 % of PM10 found in SPM concentration in the same month. Regarding the four month of
study period, contribution of PM2.5 to PM10 varied from 42% to 68% and PM10 contribution to SPM
ranged from 36 % to 53 %. These ratios indicate the dominant aspect of fine particles in the
considered area.

[Fig. 4] The ratios (%) of PM2.5 to PM10 and PM10 to SPM.

Correlation among different air pollutants

Correlation of considered air pollutants are shown in Table 2. Correlation coefficient was calculated
by statistical analysis with the help of IBM SPSS software. Highest correlation coefficient, r was
found 0.755 between PM10 and PM2.5 which indicated the strong positive correlation of PM10 and
PM2.5. Negative correlation coefficient found in between particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and
volatile organic compound means downward correlation among them.

Regression analysis of PM10 and PM2.5

The estimated slope was 3.293. Positive slope means that the relationship upward. If the PM 2.5 was
increased, the PM10 also increased. The value of R-Squared was 0.5694. The coefficient of
determination, R2 meant that there was about 57% chance to change PM10 for PM2.5 variation. From
the ordinary least square equation presented in [Fig. 5], PM10 can be predicted by knowing PM2.5
value. On the other hand, relation among PM10 and other pollutants below 5% and it meant no
sufficient relation.

4
 Table 2: Correlation among pollutants.
Classification PM10 PM2.5 NO2 O3 VOC
PM10 Pearson, r 1
N 150
PM2.5 Pearson, r 0.755** 1
N 150 150
NO2 Pearson, r -0.052 -0.159 1
N 18 18 18
O3 Pearson, r 0.203 0.139 0.117 1
N 18 18 18 18
VOC Pearson, r -0.186 -0.199 0.156 0.094 1
N 18 18 18 18 18
**: Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.

1400
PM10 = 3.293PM2.5 - 126.48
1200 R² = 0.5694
1000
800
PM10

600
400
200
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
PM2.5
[Fig. 5] Linear Regression between PM10 and PM2.5.

Air Quality Index (AQI)

Air quality index of air pollutants measured in this study are presented in Table 3. With the help of
above depicted equation 1. Maximum AQI found in the range of 151-200 for ozone in September and
October indicating unhealthy condition for human health. AQI for particulate matter varied from good
to caution and AQI for gaseous pollutants varied from moderate to unhealthy. A, L and C are
accounted for AQI values, level of health concern and colors associated with AQI index consecutively
in this table.
Table 3: AQI values of air pollutants.
Parameters SPM PM10 PM2.5 NO2 O3
September A 79 49 77 94 158
L Moderate Good Moderate Moderate Unhealthy
C Yellow Green Green Yellow Green Yellow Green Orange
October A 122 87 86 113 183
L Caution Moderate Moderate Caution Unhealthy
C Yellow Yellow Green Yellow Green Yellow Orange
November A 145 99 96 94 83
L Caution Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate
C Yellow Yellow Green Yellow Green Yellow Green Yellow Green
December A 150 73 109 132 150
L Caution Moderate Caution Caution Caution
C Yellow Yellow Green Yellow Yellow Yellow

5
 CONCLUSIONS
The result reveals that SPM, NO2 and O3 crossed the standard limit. With the seasonal change, the
PM2.5 contribution is varied from 68.1% to 42.8% in PM10 and PM10 from 46.6% to 53.3% in SPM.
Strong correlation noticed from the Pearson coefficient between PM10 and PM2.5. Maximum AQI
indicates health concern for living people around the study area. The overall view indicates that
cement industry has specific impacts on air pollution and its proper control measure is necessary.
Study on air pollution around a cement industry could be helpful for better understanding of the
situation. Detailed study can be conducted on taking precautionary steps to reduce the pollutants
emission from the cement industry to keep below standard in the Khulna city.

REFERENCES

Barman, S. C., Singh, R., Negi, M. P. S., & Bhargava, S. K. (2008). Ambient air quality of Lucknow
City (India) during use of fireworks on Diwali Festival. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment,
137(1–3), 495–504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-9784-1
CASE, (2018). Ambient air quality in Bangladesh., Clean Air and Sustainable Environment Project,
Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government
of Bangladesh. 1823–1825 (2018).
Chaurasia, S., Ahmad, I., Gupta, A. D., & Kumar, S. (2014). Assessment of air pollution emission
from Cement Industries in Nimbahera, Rajasthan. Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci, 3(3), 133–139.
EBLSL Research. (2015). Cement Industry of Bangladesh. (December), 1–6. Retrieved from
https://www.researchpool.com/download/?report_id=1537474&show_pdf_data=true
Kates, R. W., Parris, T. M., & Leiserowitz, A. A. (2005). What is sustainable development? Goals,
indicators, values, and practice. Environment, 47(3), 8–21.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.2005.10524444
Pope, A. C., Burnet, R. T., Thun, M. J., Calle, E. E., Krewski, D., Ito, K., & Thurston, G. D. (2002).
Lung Cancer, Cardiopulmonary Mortality, and Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Air Pollution.
Journal of the American Medical Association, 287(9), 1132–1141.
https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.287.9.1132
Pope, C. A., Brook, R. D., Burnett, R. T., & Dockery, D. W. (2011). How is cardiovascular disease
mortality risk affected by duration and intensity of fine particulate matter exposure? An integration of
the epidemiologic evidence. Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, 4(1), 5–14.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-010-0082-7
Soloman, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K., Miller, H. L. (2007). IPCC
fourth assessment report (AR4). Climate Change.
The Daily Star. (2018). Air Pollution in Bangladesh: Steep rise continues. Retrieved March 2, 2019,
from thedailystar.net website: https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/air-pollution-bangladesh-steep-
rise-continues-1564513
WHO. (2005). Air Quality Guidelines: Global Update 2005 : Particulate Matter, Ozone ... - World
Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe, World Health Organization - Google Books.
Retrieved March 2, 2019, from WHO website:
https://books.google.com.bd/books?id=7VbxUdlJE8wC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true
Zhang, Y., Cao, S. X., Shao, S., Chen, Y., Liu, S. L., & Zhang, S. S. (2011). Aspen Plus-based
simulation of a cement calciner and optimization analysis of air pollutants emission. Clean
Technologies and Environmental Policy, 13(3), 459–468. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-010-0328-y

View publication stats