Magnetic characterization of industrial dust from Gresik, East Java']Java, Indonesia

Industrial dust has been known to be a potential health hazard and therefore need to be closely monitored. However, in heavily industrialized area such as Gresik in East Java, Indonesia identifying the source of particular dust or differentiating one type of dust to another might be complicated. In this study, industrial dust in the form of fly ash, cement dust and lime kiln dust from various industries in Gresik were analyzed for their magnetic properties. The measurements include magnetic susceptibility, magnetic susceptibility versus temperature as well as Anhysteretic Remanent Magnetization (ARM) decay curves. These samples were also subjected to Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). The results, fly ash has the highest Fe content and therefore is the most magnetic. The predominant magnetic mineral is spherule-shaped magnetite. As magnetic methods are more straightforward than other type analyses, they are very prospective to be used as alternative methods for industrial dust pollution.