X-ray fluorescence spectrometry characteristics of oily waste water from steel processing and an evaluation of its impact on the environment

Abstract

Metal-cutting fluids, one of the most consumed materials in the metallurgy industry, turn into oily wastewater after being used in the metalworking processes. The amount of cutting fluids used can reach up to millions of tons. And these invaluable fluids are difficult to distil and expensive, and impossible to store. Even after it is disposed and recaptured, the end product has no commercial value. In this study, the effect of this mixture was examined on the ecosystem using the Allium cepa test system in which onion root tips were treated with three different concentrations of waste-cutting fluid, based on a 24- and 48-h cell cycle. The oily wastewater exhibited a mechanism which triggered the chromosomal and nuclear abnormalities in the onion root-tip meristem and reduced the mitotic index. Common abnormalities observed in the experimental groups based on the water concentration were chromosome stickiness, c-mitosis, and micronuclei formation. In the experimental group with the lowest water concentration, budding nuclei were observed at a different level than all of the other experimental groups. The x-ray fluorescence analysis showed that the concentrations of elements, such as silicon, calcium, iron, and zinc, were higher in the oily wastewater than those in the unused cutting oil.