Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1  735
           The role of industries in air pollution and 
           guidelines: a case study of the city of Tabriz 
                            
           H. Mojtabazadeh
           Azad University, Tehran Centre Branch 
           Abstract 
           The emergence of the renaissance and invention of the steam engine was the 
           beginning of the industrial revolution era, which resulted in the introduction of a 
           large number of industrial complexes as a basis for new investments and the 
           development of the societies. 
                In the light of this issue, some countries (the present developed countries), 
           which were regarded as the pioneers of industrial revolution, were able to 
           continue their way so as to become industrialized, especially in the last three 
                          th
           decades of the 19  century, and it was due to the advantages they had, like 
           specialized manpower and wealth. This also caused a gap between prevention 
           societies and underdeveloped countries.  From that time on, some of the 
           underdeveloped countries, which were in search of finding a way to compensate 
           for the lag, hastily decided to become industrialized while disregarding the 
           hazardous aspects of this phenomenon on their environment (ecological 
           problems). 
                Our country Iran, as well as other countries, in its second developing program 
           decided to consider industrialization in its long term program, therefore the city 
           of Tabriz with a population of over 2 million was selected as the core of the 
           industrialization in this project. In this study the researcher noticed that because 
           of some problems like inaccurate planning and inappropriate location finding for 
           the industrial complexes in Tabriz, it has had a negative impact on air pollution.  
                Right now the city of Tabriz is suffering from some sort of air pollution like 
           other big cities. This article attempts to name some of the key components that 
           have to be considered before implementation of any industrial project.   
           1. Location finding for any manufacturing site in accordance with geographical 
           conditions. 
           2. Classification of the industries according to the amount of pollution they may 
           have. 
           3. Study of the impacts of environmental pollution that is caused by industries. 
           4. Presentation of applied guidelines for minimizing the environmental problems. 
           Keywords:   industry, pollution, environment, sustainable development. 
                                              
               WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 84, © 2005 WIT Press
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             736  Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1
             1 Introduction 
             Nowadays, cities are considered to be the most populated places. Villagers and 
             farmers gradually leaving their habitats and prefering life in the big cities. As a 
             result, cities becoming more and more populated.Yet people have their own 
             needs, they need to find a job, they ask for a better way of life and a raise in their 
             income. 
                  Right in the beginning of the century industrialization and expansion of the 
             factories became the main concern of the developing countries.  
                  The city of Tabriz in Iran, that could hold a large population in it turned to 
             become as one of the industrial poles in the country. Within the years 1967-1975 
             the city of Tabriz was the subject of new changes and developments. But in the 
             process of industrialization and installation of the manufacturing sites and 
             factories, some decision makers and executive managers did not try to take the 
             geographical and topographical conditions of the city into their considerations, 
             therefore, the city of Tabriz became more and more polluted and the peoples, 
             social health and hygiene were endangered. 
                  The consequences of all these wrong measures were the imposition of large 
             amount of expenses on people. 
                  In  this  article  the  researcher  is not only trying to manipulate the present 
             problem but is also in search of finding a solution to the problem that can be 
             implemented in Tabriz and in the other similar places in the other parts of the 
             world. 
             2   Industrial location finding regarding the geographical 
                 conditions of the place  
             Tabriz is the center of east Azerbaijan province and is located in the North west 
             of Iran, within the 46.17 degrees east longitudinal and 35.05 degrees north 
             latitudinal position. 
                  In other words, the city of Tabriz is on the outskirts of Sahand mountain and 
             east west of a place which is called Tabriz plain. The natural land of Tabriz looks 
             like a big ditch which is surrounded by mountains on three sides. It is only in the 
             west that the city opens up into plain lands of brackish type that is the result of 
             the functions of the conical section of a river. The city’s elevation from the sea 
             level is between 11350-12550 meters with a general slope of the land towards 
             the west. 
                  At present most of the big industries and pollutants are located in the south 
             west of Tabriz. In spring southwest wind is blowing high and in the fall and 
             winter it seems to be considerably high. Because of the inversion phenomenon, 
             the situation in Tabriz gets much worse in winter. 
                  Fumes,  smoke  coming  out  of  thermal  power  plants  and  Tabriz  refinery 
             exhausts are taken directly towards the city. One can vividly see the moving 
             pollutant materials that are coming towards the central part of the city. The 
             natural slope of the land from east to west and the specific topographical position 
                                                      
                  WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 84, © 2005 WIT Press
                  www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) 
                                                        Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1  737
                 causes the height of the inversion layer to be lower in the east with regard to the 
                 west. 
                      For this reason, inversion layer in the east drops down earlier than from the 
                 west and this will cause a faster exchange of atmosphere in the east. 
                      Since these big industrial contaminating sources, with their 75.55% 
                 contamination materials are among the most important sources of Pollution, their 
                 dreadful impacts on environmental social, economic and health aspects of human 
                 beings are of great concern. Therefore, all the attempts should be in the direction 
                 of finding appropriate locations with more emphasis on having an understanding 
                 of the geography of peoples social and behavioral way of life as well as trying to 
                 eradicate the echo logical and environmental problems. 
                 3  Classification of the major industries according to the 
                       amount of contamination they make in the place of study 
                 Generally speaking there are three categories of industries that cause air 
                 pollution. 
                       1.   Industries that cause air pollution in their process of production: such as 
                            chemical and petrochemical industries. 
                       2.   Industries that the fuel of which causes pollution: such as thermal power 
                            plants. 
                       3.  Industries that both in the process of production and utilization of 
                            different types of fuels pollute the air such as Foundries, Moulding 
                            industries and Oil refineries.  
                 The city of Tabriz suffers from five different types of pollutants:  
                       1.   Tabriz oil refinery  
                       2.   Tabriz thermal power plant  
                       3.   Tabriz brick burning furnaces across the road  
                       4.   Kaja abad brick burning furnaces  
                       5.   Asphalt making units  
                 4     Industries and their impact on contaminating the 
                       environment 
                 There are different factors and sources of air pollution that have been observed in 
                 the place of study with their amount of pollution. 
                                                             Table 1. 
                                    Air contamination sources                    Percentage  
                                    All means of transportations                    0.49% 
                                    Factories, houses and businesses                0.77% 
                                    Major industrial sources                        98.74% 
                                    Total                                            100% 
                                  Source: Mojtabazadeh Hossein, Tabriz industrial 
                                  development, University of Tabriz 1999. 
                                                                        
                       WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 84, © 2005 WIT Press
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               738  Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol. 1
                        120.00%                                               98.74%
                        100.00%
                         80.00%
                         60.00%
                         40.00%
                         20.00%         0.49%               0.77%
                          0.00%              s               ,    s 
                                             n               s  and
                                                             ie   sse               s 
                                             tio             r es e                 ce
                                             ta                                     r
                                             r               cto  in                u
                                             o                    s
                                             sp              Fahousu                so
                                           All means ofn          b
                                             a                                   Major industrial
                                             tr                                                 
                       Figure 1:      Percentage of the air pollutants in the city of Tabriz. 
                    From the point of view of the amount of air contamination Tabriz Thermal 
               power plant is the second after Tabriz refinery. The amount of the fuel that is 
               used for the production of an average of 700 Megawatts power per hour by the 
               two steam units of the power plant is about 179.9 cubic meters per hour or 
               4,317,600 liters per day or 4102 tons of mazut per day. 
                    Regarding the minimum percentage weight of sulfur (2.5%) and conditions 
               governing the power plant, the type and the amount of contamination materials 
               are shown in the following table. 
               5  Type and the amount of contaminating materials of Tabriz 
                    thermal power plant  
               Asphalt factories in Tabriz and its suburbs are among the other sources of 
               contamination. There are about 17 asphalt unit factories that 7 of them can be 
               found in Laleh Dareh Cie in southwest of Tabriz and the rest are located in the 
               suburbs. 
                
                                                     Table 2. 
                
                  Air contamination material          Amount                    Remarks 
                                                  tonnages per day 
                     Carbon Mono Oxide                  22%            Sulfur oxides May exceed 
                        Organic gases                   1.99           to 246.1 ton per day in the 
                    Nitrogen Oxide (No2)                 54              case of any increase in 
                      Sulfur Oxide (So2)                205.1           the percentage of sulfur 
                           Particles 5.2 weight 
                             Total 266.3  
               Source: Hossein Mojtabazadeh industrial development of the city of Tabriz, 
               Tabriz University 1999. 
                                                               
                     WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 84, © 2005 WIT Press
                     www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)