ESTIMATING THE SPREADING RATES OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS ON UNMODIFIED CELLULOSE FILTER PAPER: IMPLICATIONS ON RISK ASSESSMENT OF TRANSPORTING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

Abstract

The transportation of hazardous materials (HAZMATs) poses an inherent threat to human health and the environment. To comprehensively grasp the environmental impacts of HAZMAT accidents, it is vital to estimate their potential spread. Although numerous studies have addressed associated risks, there is a need to distinguish the spread area of key HAZMATs. We conducted diffusion tests on an unmodified alpha-cellulose filter paper for four HAZMAT compounds: methanol, ethanol, hydrochloric acid, and sodium hydroxide, at set temperatures. We employed an analytical solution based on an amplitude diffusing mass model to compute the diffusion coefficients for each analyte with respect to temperature. Fick's second law was applied using the derived diffusion coefficient values to determine the maximum spread. A finite element model with a Crank-Nicolson formulation was used to assess the consistency between analytical and numerical models for each analyte. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) tests were utilized to validate the model. We can adduce that even HAZMATs with similar functional groups may have different exposure pathway risks with temperature as a key factor. Key parameters, such as spread area, diffusion time, porosity, temperature, and retention factors, may be important spill-site characterization parameters.