Trace Metal Samples Collected in the Front and Back Halves of the E.P.A. Stack Sampling Train

Abstract

A Purdue University industrial source sampling team has been involved since 1972 with a number of industrial and municipal collaborators, in order to characterize the flow of trace metals into the atmosphere. The plants involved in this cooperative research effort include the East Chicago municipal incinerator, rated at 450 ton/day of residential and commercial solid waste; a multiple furnace open hearth shop at a Northwest Indiana steel mill producing approximately 8 million ton/yr of steel; a coker arid sinter plant serving a 100,000 ton/yr vertical retort zinc production facility; and the Purdue University coal fired power plant equipped with 250,000 lb/hr steam boilers. At each of these facilities a number of stack samples have been obtained using the standard E.P.A. train. Analysis of the probe, filter, and impinger catch showed that in each case the front half of the E.P.A. Method 5¹ sampling train was highly efficient for collection of trace metal particulate.