CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS
VOL. 62, 2017
A publication of
The Italian Association
of Chemical Engineering
Online at www.aidic.it/cet
Guest Editors: Fei Song, Haibo Wang, Fang He
Copyright © 2017, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.
ISBN 978-88-95608- 60-0; ISSN 2283-9216
Risk Evaluation and Repair of the Sites Polluted by
Nitrobenzene Chemical Plant
Jiulin Zhang, Mei Hong
Jilin University, Jilin 130012, China
jiulinzhang2009@aliyun.com
In order to study the potential soil pollution risk of polluted sites with changed purposes in intensive industrial
and commercial areas, this paper has determined the distribution points sampling and monitoring scheme for
the polluted sites by analyzing the production history and future planning of a nitrobenzene chemical plant.
The concentrations of benzene, toluene, chlorobenzene and nitrobenzene in different depths and locations are
tested for single-factor analysis, according to which a risk evaluation is conducted and a current soil repair
method is discussed. According to the result, various organic pollutants especially benzene have polluted the
soil, which is more severe in the upper soil. The pollution degree decreases with depth and only the deepest
soil is not polluted. Therefore, the soil repair technology is to be determined comprehensively according to the
pollution condition with environmental, technical and economic evaluations.
1. Introduction
As a new environmental problem emerging in industrialization and urbanization of China, polluted sites are
resulted from the conflict between rapid urban population and economic growth and scarce land resources.
Sites used to serve factories, warehouses, refuse landfills, gas stations, refuse dumps are required to be
repaired and developed to be residences, public entertainment venues, commercial lands and other
construction lands which are highly demanding in environmental quality (Jiang et al., 2014).
The soil pollution of nitrobenzene chemical plants is more serve (Aghasian et al., 2017), the pollutants of
which include nitrobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), both
highly toxic and difficult to degrade with mutagenesis, carcinogenesis teratogenesis effects (Bianconi, 2012).
Existing in environment for a long time, these substances are transmitted by air or water to earth, geosphere
and stratum cycles all over the world to accumulate in soil, ground water, living beings and other media,
causing severe pollution (Charalampidis et al., 2014) which endangers ecosystems and human health. At
present, the current soil pollution concentration of PAHs in China has risen from μg/kg level to mg/kg level
(Zhu et al., 2012) with the detection rate from less than 20% to more than 80% (Fuhr and Aschwanden, 2017).
In recent years, PCBs are even detected in the soil of Namcha Barwa in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. These organic
pollutants not only degrade soils, but also affect the safety of agricultural products, thus affecting human
health (Gonzalez-Longatt, 2015).
2. Condition of the polluted site and monitoring point
2.1 Condition of the polluted site
The site once was a nitrobenzene chemical plant established in 1992, which stopped production in 2012 with
the production installations on the site dismantled. The dismantled area is a rectangular area of 80 meters
long and 61 meters wide to be used as a logistics and warehousing center (Hari et al., 2013). In operating the
nitrobenzene chemical plant, there might be toxic material leakage and uncontrolled pollutant emissions.
Meanwhile, toxic substances had been flushed into the soil under the plant during the plant and ground
cleaning to cause certain pollution to the soil (Li et al., 2015). Therefore, the site is listed as a suspected
polluted site by the enterprise to conduct sampling and monitoring (Liu et al., 2016).
DOI: 10.3303/CET1762258
Please cite this article as: Jiulin Zhang, Mei Hong, 2017, Risk evaluation and repair of the sites polluted by nitrobenzene chemical plant,
Chemical Engineering Transactions, 62, 1543-1548 DOI:10.3303/CET1762258
1543
Since the site is situated at the upper reaches of the Yellow river with a continental climate in the mid-
temperate zone, there is neither severe heat in summer nor severe cold and winter in the city. The annual
average temperature is 9.1°C, the annual average precipitation 324.8m, the annual average wind speed
0.9m/s, the annual average sunshine duration 2446 hours and the average altitude in the city 1520m. The
geologic structure of the area is the east extension part of the fold system of Qilian Mountain with the upper
part covered with a thick layer of quaternary loess and the lower part with tertiary gravel layer. The base is the
muddy sand of cretaceous system in Hekou formation with stable geologic structure.
2.2 Monitoring point selection and pollutant detection
Since the area of the nitrobenzene chemical plant is small and flat, quincunx is adopted in arranging 6
monitoring points with the sampling depths of 0.5m, 1.0m, 1.5m and 2.0m respectively (Lorin et al., 2014). The
detection and analysis methods for the pollutants are pursuant to the Technical Regulations for analyzing and
Testing National Soil Pollution Survey Samples.
Four organic pollutants, including benzene, methylbenzene, chlorobenzene and nitrobenzene are detected in
the petrochemical plant. See Table 1 for the details of the pollutants.
Table 1: The results of each pollutant test (mg/kg)
Pollutant Benzene Toluene Chlorobenzene Nitrobenzene
0.5m 1# 14.5 50.44 22.74 11.31
2# 16.7 54.86 24.96 11.7
3# 18.1 57.46 27.66 11.817
4# 20.89 61.62 31.68 11.505
1.0m 1# 3.6 37.44 10.44 7.683
2# 3.1 34.06 10.14 7.488
3# 3.8 38.22 11.94 6.201
4# 2.1 39.78 9.66 5.109
1.5m 1# 0.44 29.68 7.28 4.4
2# 0.49 27.36 7.76 4.4
3# 1.02 36.86 10.37 5.8
4# 0.71 37.15 10.75 5.7
2.0m 1# 0.06 6.34 2.1 1.4
2# 0.07 6.73 2.07 1.4
3# 0.07 7.37 2.31 1.3
4# 0.15 15.3 2.21 2.3
3. Pollution analysis and risk evaluation
Table 2: The results of single factor evaluation on pollutants
Pollutant Benzene Toluene Chlorobenzene Nitrobenzene
Standard value 0.2 26 6 3.9
0.5m 1# 72.50 1.94 3.79 2.90
2# 83.50 2.11 4.16 3.00
3# 90.50 2.21 4.61 3.03
4# 104.45 2.37 5.28 2.95
1.0m 1# 18.00 1.44 1.74 1.97
2# 15.50 1.31 1.69 1.92
3# 19.00 1.47 1.99 1.59
4# 10.50 1.53 1.61 1.31
1.5m 1# 2.20 1.14 1.21 1.13
2# 2.45 1.05 1.29 1.13
3# 5.10 1.42 1.73 1.49
4# 3.55 1.43 1.79 1.46
2.0m 1# 0.30 0.24 0.35 0.36
2# 0.35 0.26 0.35 0.36
3# 0.35 0.28 0.39 0.33
4# 0.75 0.59 0.37 0.59
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3.1 Site pollution analysis
The standard value of the Soil Environmental Quality Evaluation Standard for Exhibition Purpose is selected
as the standard evaluation value. The evaluation result is as shown in Table 2 by the pollution evaluation
standard according to the single-factor pollution index method (McMillan, 2011).
It can be seen from the table that the pollutant distribution is related to depth.
3.1.1 At the depth of 0.5m, the pollution indexes of all the pollutants are more than 1, which means the
pollutants have polluted the soil. Among them, the maximum pollution index of methylbenzene is 104.45 far
more than 1, which means the soil pollution by methylbenzene is extraordinarily severe, while other pollutant
indexes are lower than 5.28.
3.1.2 At the depth of 1.0m, the pollution indexes of all the pollutants decrease to some extent, which means
the pollutant concentrations are lower. Yet all the pollutant indexes are still more than 1, which means the
pollutants have also resulted in soil pollution. Among them, the maximum pollution index of benzene is 19 far
more than 1, which means benzene pollution is very severe. But a great decrease compared to that of 0.5m
suggests benzene migrates and degrades fast between in the depth range between 0.5m-1.0m.
3.1.3 At the depth of 1.5m, the pollution index range of all the pollutants decreases to 1.05-5.1, which means
there is still extensive pollution which is alleviated compare to that of 1.0m. Among them, the maximum
pollution index is 5.1, also from benzene, which is lower compared to that of 1.0m. It suggests the migration
and degradation speed of benzene is lowered while the pollution indexes of other organic pollutants are below
2.0.
3.1.4 At the depth of 2.0m, the pollution index range of all the organic pollutants decreases to below 1, which
means none of the pollutants have polluted the soil.
The average of the indexes at the 4 different depths is obtained to draw the graph below for the benzene with
the highest pollution concentration, as Figure 1, which suggests the pollutant content decreases with the
increasing soil depth.
Figure 1: Changes of Benzene Content with Soil Depth
3.2 Health risk evaluation for pollution sources
See Figure 2 for risk evaluation procedure for pollution sources. It includes (1) analysis of pollution sources: to
identify pollutants concerned and their discharge rates; (2) exposure analysis: to identify potential population
exposed to, exposure route and exposure degree; (3) toxicity analysis: to identify the relationship between
pollutant concentration level and health reaction; (4) risk evaluation: to identify the environmental and health
risks of the site (Pino et al., 2015). This paper conducts health risk evaluation for residential lands according to
the population exposure under the residential land condition of the Technical Guidelines of Risk Evaluation for
Polluted Sites (for approval).
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Figure 2: Risk Assessment Procedure for Soil Contamination
Exposure route means the procedure for pollutants in site soil migrate in a certain manner to reach and enter
sensitive receptors (Rudin et al., 2012). Areas to be planned as residential lands in future planning shall be
considered in risks and harms caused by the soil as a source of pollution respectively. Analyzed from a human
health perspective with soil as a source of pollution, children and adults are sensitive receptors who are mainly
exposed to the pollution by oral intake of polluted surface soil, skin contact with polluted surface soil, breath
intake of the indoor and outdoor particles diffused from polluted surface soil, breath intake of outdoor vapor
volatilized from polluted surface soil. Breath intake of indoor and outdoor vapor volatilized from polluted lower
soil, etc. (Sahani et al., 2016). The concept model for residential lands is shown in Figure 3.
As for the site, aniline and nitrobenzene are toxic substances with moderate toxicity and volatility (Wagner et
al., 2016). They may migrate or run off from soils to water, and then volatilize to the atmosphere by which
means it enters human body by breath to jeopardize their health. On the site, there once was an intoxication
accident of a scavenger, who was rescued in time with a near miss from death. The underground water level
of the site is high according to on-site geological survey (1.50-2.50m below the surface). The pollution from
the chemical plant has not yet polluted the underground water for domestic water for the time interval between
the dismantling of the plant and the survey is short. Aniline and other pollutants will pollute surrounding
farmlands along with flowing underground water and volatilize to the atmosphere to jeopardize the heath of
nearby residents.
4. Site environment repair technology
Repair for polluted sites is divided into in-situ repair technology and ex-situ repair technology according to
treatment location (Zhu et al., 2017). Being more economical than ex-situ repair, in-situ repair is relatively
simple in operation and maintenance without costly engineering treatment facilities and long-distance
transportation of pollutants. The disadvantage of in-situ repair is that it is not suitable for sites with low
permeability and complex geologic structure. With long repair time, the repair effect is generally not as
satisfied (DeRouin et al., 2016). In contrast, ex-situ repair is costlier in usage and equipment maintenance.
However, it takes shorter time to repair with satisfying repair effect (Getto and Labriola, 2016).
Figure 4 shows the statistics of polluted site repair project cases in recent years in China (Naeem et al, 2015).
The top four are in-situ soil stripping technology, biodegradation technology, immobilization technology and
soil leaching technology.
It is worth noting that the following factors are to be considered in selecting soil repair schemes: overall
protection requirements, environmental standards or legal requirements for human health and environment,
effectiveness, durability, and short-term effectiveness of treatment, operability, cost and acceptance of
treatment schemes by the government and community residents.
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Figure 3: Assessment model of health risk
Figure 4: Statistics of contaminated repair project case
5. Conclusion
Soil environment in cites is closed related to production and life of the residents by directly influencing
people's physical health. The polluted sites in China are characterized by extensive pollution range, large
area, large depth, complex pollution content, heavy pollution and high risk. This is because of long production
history and great changes in polluting enterprises move from the sites, complex land use and information loss,
poor enterprise management resulting in leakage during production causing severe soil pollution. Ignorance in
the demolition process after these enterprises closed results in pollutant diffusion in soil. The fact that polluted
sites in China are generally used for residential development intensifies the harm to human health. The risk
evaluation of land pollution and polluted land repair are to be further enhanced.
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