Characterization and source analysis of soil pollution in aluminum processing industry based on source inventory

To address the current lack of soil pollution investigations and the significant limitations in soil pollution tracing methods within the aluminum (AI) processing industry, this study profiles its pollution by using data from ten typical enterprises across China. Leveraging the team's prior soil source inventory approach (SIA), we established a comprehensive traceability system to enable precise source analysis. The results identified petroleum hydrocarbons (C10-C40) as priority pollutants. The two key contamination zones were production and solid waste storage/disposal areas, and the two major pollution pathways were solid waste leaching and wastewater leakage. The source analysis was validated in multiple dimensions, and the calculated total pollutant input (40.42 kg) exhibited a ˂20% deviation from the measured soil contamination (34.7 kg). The spatial distribution of the modeled pollutant inputs correlated reasonably well with the empirical data (R² = 0.6). The research is crucial for guiding targeted pollution-mitigation decisions in the industry.