Dust Control in Sandy Soils Using Commercial Dust Control Products.

Soil dust is a nuisance, driving hazard, erosion problem, and health risk.  Dust control products are used by the military, in construction, and in industry.  In this study, commercial dust control products were used to treat soil samples.  Polyacrylamide, two ionic surfactants, and an acrylic polymer product were used.  Air-dried, loamy fine sand soil samples (5.00 g) that had been treated with aqueous (0.015% by weight) dust control products were loaded into a dust generator/dust collection device and dust fractions were collected.  Seven fractions were collected from each soil sample: residual = material left in dust generator; trap1, trap2, trap3, trap4, trap5, and trap6.  The last traps in the system (trap5 and trap6) contained water to trap the finest (PM10 + PM2.5) dust particles that would otherwise pass through and out of the dust generator/collection system.  For comparison, an untreated soil sample and a control soil sample were examined.  The control sample was treated only with the same volume of deionized water used for the dust control products.  For all soil samples, most soil material (94 to 98%) was retained in the residual and trap1 fractions.  However, the amount of soil in traps 2 to 6 differed greatly for the dust control products.  Polyacrylamide most effectively controlled dust formation.  The weight percent of dust-size particles in trap5 and trap6 were: 0.10% for polyacrylamide, 0.33% for untreated, 0.44% for acrylic polymer, 0.84% for one ionic surfactant, 0.89% for control, and 1.16% for the other ionic surfactant.