Investigation of the Presence Volatile Organic Compounds (BTEX) in the Ambient Air and Biogases Produced by a Shiraz Landfill in Southern Iran

Fahimeh Khademi,Muhammad Bilal,Mohammad Reza Samaei,Kourosh Azizi,Stefanos Giannakis,Zahra Derakhshan,Abbas Shahsavani,Jorge Rodriguez-Chueca,Amin Mohammadpour

doi:10.3390/su14021040

Abstract

The generation and emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) affects the environment and air quality, playing an important role in global warming, depletion of atmospheric ozone and emission of unpleasant odors, but also directly affect human health. This study investigated the health risks of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene (BTEX) compounds and biogas released in and around the municipal landfill. Sampling of the VOCs was carried out by the 1501NIOSH method from 8 points over 5 months. The samples were analyzed for BTEX in the ambient air of the landfill, resulting in 0.03–18.09 ppm concentrations, while for biogases a 0.08–25.2 ppm range was found. Assessment of definite health and potential risks showed that the lifetime cancer risk (LCR) for benzene and hazard quotient (HQ) for the BTEX components in all studied sampling sites are higher than the acceptable standard. The high concentration of benzene measured in ambient air indicated that petroleum compounds containing benzene and its derivatives have the highest value in the category of BTEX compounds among all emissions. Therefore, high concentrations of volatile compounds derived from VOCs, especially benzene, should be reduced at the site with control engineering measures.

Highlights

Demographic and technological advances in modern societies have led to massive municipal solid waste (MSW) production that leads to complications in waste management [1,2,3]
At the time of writing, no survey had been published to date on concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on the landfill site under study
The difference observed in the case of maximum and minimum concentrations in the ambient air was due to environmental temperature fluctuations [46,47]

Summary

Introduction

Demographic and technological advances in modern societies have led to massive municipal solid waste (MSW) production that leads to complications in waste management [1,2,3]. Landfilling is, if not the most common, one of the most widespread. MSW management methods in urban communities worldwide [4]. Due to the prevailing conditions of operation, their emissions pose a serious threat to human health and the environment [5,6,7]. Landfill gases (LFG) are produced by microbial decomposition of organic matter in anaerobic conditions [8,9,10,11] and are generally considered a major source of Sustainability 2022, 14, 1040.

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