• Estepa, C.
• Maragkidou, A.
• Lennikov, V.
• Querol, X.
• Viana, M.
• Borrell, C.
• Fuente, G. F. De La
• Hämeri, Kaarle Juhani
• Francisco, I. De
• Fonseca, A. S.

Abstract

<p>The ceramic industry is an industrial sector in need of significant process changes, which may benefit from innovative technologies such as laser sintering of ceramic tiles. Such innovations result in a considerable research gap within exposure assessment studies for process-generated ultrafine and nanoparticles. This study addresses this issue aiming to characterise particle formation, release mechanisms and their impact on personal exposure during a tile sintering activity in an industrial-scale pilot plant, as a follow-up of a previous study in a laboratory-scale plant. In addition, possible particle transformations in the exhaust system, the potential for particle release to the outdoor environment, and the effectiveness of the filtration system were also assessed. For this purpose, a tiered measurement strategy was conducted.</p><p>The main findings evidence that nanoparticle emission patterns were strongly linked to temperature and tile chemical composition, and mainly independent of the laser treatment. Also, new particle formation (from gaseous precursors) events were detected, with nanoparticles</p><p>A potential risk for nanoparticle and ultrafine particle release to the environment was also identified, despite the fact that the efficiency of the filtration system was successfully tested and evidenced a &gt;87% efficiency in particle number concentrations removal. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.</p>

Topics

• nanoparticle
• impedance spectroscopy
• chemical composition
• ceramic
• sintering
• laser sintering