Investigating the environmental status of air pollution in Iran's ferroalloy industries (IFI)

Ferrosilicon was used as a modifier in steel and cast-iron production. The most critical pollutants in the ferrosilicon industry are particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and dust, CO, CO2, NOx, and Sox. This study aimed to investigate the environmental status of air pollution in Iran's ferroalloy industry by examining air pollutant control equipment. Iran’s ferroalloys industries (IFI), with a production capacity of 60 thousand tons of ferrosilicon, is located in Lorestan province. Air pollutants were measured in the years 2020 and 2021. The exhaust gases and dust were measured by the XL350 and Westech portable particulate detectors, and ambient particulate matter was measured by the Dust Trak 8520. The data analysis was done using SPSS and Excel software. So that the normality of the data was reviewed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the average of the data was compared with the pollution standards using the one-sample t-test. The results showed that all measured parameters of gases, dust, and ambient particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) during the studied years of 2020 and 2021 were in accordance with the pollution standard. Having suitable environmental equipment including U-shaped pipes to cool the flue gases from the furnace area to the bag house, a cyclone separator for dust removal, the collection of particulate matter (PM), and bag filters in the baghouse have been used for collecting particulate matter (PM) and filtering dust. Also, green space, with more than 60% of the industry space, has played a very effective role in reducing industrial air pollution