Iranica Journal of Energy and Environment (IJEE)

255-259

Authors: B. Gowtham, S. Pauline

Several industries are using dyes as colouring agents. The effluents from these industries are discharged mainly in to river streams which increasingly creates an environmental problem. The removal of dyes from aqueous solution has a great potential in the field of environmental engineering. There are many methods being employed in the dye removal. Among these methods, Fenton process-based advanced oxidation processes are an emerging prospect in the field of dye removal. This project focuses on the suitability of photo-Fenton process for the degradation of methylene blue dye in terms of COD removal and it is optimized for experimental parameters such as pH, H2O2 concentration, FeSO4.7H2O concentration and contact time. The photo-Fenton process is effective under pH 3. The maximum efficiency of COD removal for 50 mg/L of methylene blue is attained at optimum concentration of 10 mg/L of H2O2, 50 mg/L of Fe2+ and contact time of 30 minutes.

269-273

Authors: M. Kumar, U. Sarao, A. Tyagi, S. Sinha, D. Chauhan, R. K. Tyagi

The present work demonstrates fabrication and scope of the parabolic solar collector setup with significant temperature rise using concentric copper tubes filled with graphite powder. This paper basically focused on application of alternative energy which is convenient to utilize and maintain. The solar collector’s efficiency studies aimed to improvement system performance with respect to energy conversion efficiency. The parabolic collector and the entire setup were fabricated on local workshop. The main objective of the research is to obtain very significant changes in the temperature rise of water from the output gate valve of the collector and to provide a cost efficient method to harvest the solar energy in the most effective way. It also includes comparison of the collector’s performance by installing copper tubes and concentric copper tubes filled with graphite. Testing of the entire system was carried out during the month of April 2015 at Noida (28° 57' N and 77° 32'E). This setup found applications such as a solar geyser, thermal power units, steam generation systems etc.

282-289

Authors: S. K. Sanjeeva, C. B. Nair, G. M. Kini, P. V. S. Rao, S. Ramamoorthy, C. Barrow, P. Ku. Pullela

Crops such as Jatropha and Pongamia are being grown exclusively for biofuel production. An alternative approach is to grow a food crop and use the waste material for biofuel. Distilled technical cashew nut shell liquid (DT-CNSL) can be used as a non-transesterified biofuel and can also act as an additive to enable vegetable oil triglycerides to be used directly with diesel. In this study we evaluate the emission and performance characteristics of blends of vegetable and tallow oils stabilized in diesel with DT-CNSL. It was found, DT-CNSL can be used as an excellent biofuel additive. Triglycerides is directly blended with diesel in the presence of DT-CNSL and then used in conventional diesel engines. DT-CNSL blends of diesel obey emission and performance parameters of diesel. DT-CNSL offers stability to blends of tallow oil in diesel and the saturated nature of triglycerides seems to be not an issue and there is no formation of precipitates or solidification at -10C. This publication demonstrates the use of both tallow oil and plant oils as direct blends of diesel without transesterification in the presence of DT-CNSL.

301-307

Authors: S. S. Magdum, S. K. Varigala, Y. N. Patil, G. P. Minde, J. B. Bornare, V. Kalyanraman

Anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic environment can be simulated in the single stage sequential batch reactor (SBR) . Various design conditions viz., combinations of different phase time and different cycle time, hydraulic residence time (HRT), substrate loading rate, sludge age (SRT) and aeration time were analyzed for optimum biological treatment. The pilot runs were evaluated with the design conditions of food/microbe ratio (F/M) 0.2 per day and MLSS of 4950 mg/L. For the given design conditions 4, 5 and 6 hours cycle lengths were analyzed for their efficient performance with 30-33% of decant volume for sewage containing C:N:P of 100:8:2. Studies on 4 hours cycle resulted in the maximum overall organic and nutrient removal efficiency at SRT of 26 days and HRT of 12 hours. Efficient sequencing of reactions with respect to the simulated biological conditions in the pilot plant studies resulted in better oxygen recovery and low power consumption. Also, the enforced biological selector phase condition resulted in high microbial reaction rates for organic and nutrient removal. The removal efficiencies with 4 hours cycle time of COD, nitrogen (NH4–N) and phosphate (PO4–P) were 90, 92 and 78%, respectively. This study offers a potential option of low HRT nutrient removal SBR process.

316-322

Authors: A. Ravikumar, S. M. M. Nazeeb-Khan

The aim of this study was to examine the potential of clay material for the elimination of excess fluoride from groundwater. This study is based on empirical laboratory research. The Natural clay material was gathered and dried in an oven at 105ºC for 24 hours. The effect of pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, temperature and adsorbent size was investigated. SEM, FT-IR and XRD were used to characterize the physical attributes (particle size, pore size and distribution, surface roughness) of the natural clay material. The removal efficiency of clay material was augmented by raising the adsorbent dose and contact time, and decreasing the initial concentration of F- . At low pH (pH=2), the maximum amount of fluoride adsorbed by the clay material (F- = 1.0 mg/L). The amount of fluoride adsorbed increased from 1.0 to 1.6 mg/L, (C0=2.3 mg/L) with the maximum temperature of 343K. This seems to be the mechanism is endothermic in nature. The results indicated that clay material can be successfully used as an effective adsorbent for F- removal. We concluded that clay material can be a cheap, efficient, and environmental friendly adsorbent of F- from aqueous solutions.

328-333

Authors: N. K. Shukla, Markandeya, V. K. Shukla

The level of arsenic contamination in ground water quality in and around Ballia district was elucidated. The study revealed that most of the locations, the concentration of arsenic ranged from 0.01 to 0.05 mg/L (avg 0.03 ± 0.01 mg/L); which is higher than the permissible limit 0.01 mg/L. The physico-chemical parameters were recorded such as hardness 180 to 220 mg/L (avg 199.10 ± 12.62 mg/L), alkalinity 84 to 112 mg/L (avg 96.40 ± 7.88 mg/L), TDS 225 to 605 mg/L (avg 295.85 ± 87.55 mg/L), conductivity 340 to 916 µs/cm (avg 447.90 ± 132.47 µs/cm), chloride 12.12 to 36.36 mg/L (avg 18.38 ± 7.03 mg/L), pH 7.40 to 7.80 (avg 7.51 ± 0.10), phosphate 0.05 to 0.44 mg/L (avg 0.16 ± 0.10 mg/L), sulphate 3.20 to 12 mg/L (avg 5.86 ± 2.22 mg/L), salinity 0.20 to 1.10 ppt (avg 0.27 ± 0.20 ppt), nitrate 3.06 to 7.64 mg/L (avg 5.11 ± 1.34 mg/L) and fluoride 0.21 to 1.19 mg/L (avg 0.61 ± 0.24 mg/L). The Escherichia coli and coliform MPN number also found in the within the limit (<3/100 mL) except at Chandpur (23/100 mL), Hanumangunj (9.1/100 mL), Bansdih (3.6/100 mL) and Tika Dewari (460/100 mL).

161-166

Authors: P. Goyal, S. K. Sharma, R. K. Tyagi,

There are great concerns, that the IC Engines are responsible for extreme atmospheric pollution. Therefore, the studies on use of alcohols in 4-Stroke spark ignition (SI) Engines are important. In this study, the properties of the blended fuels were calculated. The effect of methanol-gasoline blends on emissions was investigated experimentally. The emissions were measured with the use of methanol-gasoline blends (M5 and M10) have been compared with the pure gasoline. The test was conducted at the constant speed of 90 km/h and at different wheel powers. From the analysis, it was concluded that when the engine was fuelled on methanol gasoline blends, CO2, CO, HC and NOx vehicular emissions were found to decreased at all wheel powers at 90 km/h. In addition, air-fuel ratio also increased with the increase percentage of methanol in the gasoline.

173-180

Authors: M. Yusuf, F.M. Elfghi, S. K. Mallak

This study aimed to investigate how safranin-O can be removed from aqueous solutions by adsorption on pineapple peels. The effect of solution pH, initial dye concentration, contact time and adsorbent dose were studied. The optimum adsorption capacity of 26.08 mg/g was achieved under the experimental condition of pH, temperature and contact time of 6, 293K and 80 min, respectively. Also further analysis revealed that 93.24% of safranin-O was significantly removed at 120 mg/L dye concentration in 80 minutes contact time. From the result of the isotherm studies, it was revealed that the equilibrium data is well fitted to Freundlich model while the adsorption kinetic data showed that the adsorption process was well described by the pseudo-second order kinetic model. Finally, it can be deduced that pineapple peels had a great potential in adsorbing and removal of safranin-o from aqueous solution.

188-194

Authors: A. Talebi, T.T. Teng, I. Norli, A. F. M. AL-Karkhi

Application of an ionic liquid (4-Methyl-2-pentanone) carrier on liquid-liquid extraction of nickel and cadmium from aqueous solutions is reported. 4-Methyl-2-pentanone was found to dissolve in octanol (as diluent) and was capable of extracting both nickel and cadmium ions, however in terms of extraction efficiency, 4-Methyl-2-pentanone has higher capability for nickel extraction in compare to cadmium. The effects of feed phase pH, carrier concentration, mixing time, stripping phase pH and inert salt concentration on extraction of nickel and cadmium were analyzed using factorial design for screening experiment and face centered composite design of experiments for optimization. The results of liquid-liquid extraction process led to removal of 91% of nickel ions and 32% of cadmium from mixed Ni-Cd aqueous feed phase with carrier concentration of 250 mM, feed phase pH of 4, mixing time of 5 minutes and 1.5 M of sodium sulphate as inert salt. In stripping phase, both nickel and cadmium were highly stripped while stripping phase pH was set at alkaline range of 10-11. The effect of feed phase pH on distribution ratio (Feed/Org) for both metals was investigated and the results revealed that one nickel ion is extracted into the organic phase by an average 3.2 of 4- Methyl-2-pentanone molecules to form nickel-4-Methyl-2-pentanone complex, while for cadmium extraction, the carrier molecules involved in metal-carrier complexation is equal to 2.

207-211

Authors: B. A. Almayahi

This study conducted using a NaI (Tl) gamma-ray spectrometer for the assessment of naturally radioactive materials. This apparatus is devoted to the quantitative and qualitative determination of U, Th, and K in soil samples collected from the city of Najaf, Iraq. The average of concentrations in the surveyed soil samples were ranged from 55 to 102 Bq/kg, ND to 448 Bq/kg and 79 to 1887 Bq/kg for 238 U, 232 Th, and 40 K, respectively. To assess the radiological hazard of radioactivity in the soil samples, the radium equivalent activity, annual effective dose, external hazard, and internal indices were calculated. The Raeq values of soil samples were lower than 370 Bq kg-1 recommended maximum levels of radium equivalents in soil.

217-222

Authors: W. M. A. Wan Mohd Khalik, M. P. Abdullah, M. R. Othman

Comparative study of trace level of extracted mercury in different types of water was successfully carried out. Data sets of batch samples were grouped in two clusters (C I; 4, C II; 4) to represent similarity of data structure under optimized and direct extraction procedure respectively. Similarity level for inter batch samples (optimized procedure) was obtained in the range of 96.7 – 99.2 %; which was better than by direct extraction (67.2 – 92.5 %) with mean distance from centroid was calculated at 0.462. The first two components (PC1 and PC2) on score plot explained about 86.2 % (ultrapure) and 73.9 % (salt water) of the total variance in signal data sets. In discriminant analysis, latent variables namely pH, extraction time and temperature were able to enhance the correctness of inter batch sample variations accounted to be 80 and 91.7 %. A fitted model expressed by multiple linear regressions obtained with two organomercury species (methyl and ethyl) were recognized as independent variables explained about 90.04 % (ultrapure) and 90.85 % (salt water) traceability from sum of peak areas. Analysis of real samples gave relative standard deviation value of less than < 0.33 % indicating that good performance in terms of repeatability. Recovery was found to range from 75.62 – 95.46% (river water) and 73.44 - 91.14 % (sea water).

232-242

Authors: S. K. Mallak, M. B. Ishak, M. R. M. Kasim, M. A. B. Abu-Samah

Waste minimization plays an important role in sustainable industrial waste management. It is the most effective method in controlling waste arising. There are some common factors contribute in effective practicing of waste minimization in both developing and developed countries. This study examines and compares the most important solutions and approaches in enhancement of practicing waste minimization among 214 manufacturing industries in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Quantitative data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. It was revealed that improvement in internal monitoring system has the higher effectiveness in practicing waste minimization among other factors (SI=67.40%). Also respondent‘s perception toward approaches regarding awareness, encouragement and cooperation were found significantly higher than other approaches (p<0.05). The findings of this study highlight the necessity of training programs and technology modification as well as improvement in monitoring systems.

86-91

Authors: N. Awang, S. A. Azmi

Air pollution is defined as the presence of any air pollutants in the air that have the potential to cause health effect or cause harm to the environment. This study was conducted to investigate the exposure levels to air pollutants among workers in a depot, and the relationship between the exposure levels and the respiratory level of the workers in the depot. The methods used in this study included measuring the concentration of air pollutants namely CO, CO2, total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), PM10 and two types of heavy metals namely lead (PB) and arsenic (As). Lung function test was also done for workers who were exposed. Three sampling points were chosen to measure the concentrations of air pollutants, namely Loco, power generating car (PGC) and coach lines. Kuala Lumpur Central Office Depot was selected as the control station. Low volume sampler and sampling devices were used to measure the concentration of the air pollutants. This study found that there were three air pollutants with concentrations exceeding the standard limits of suspended particles PM10, lead, and arsenic. The highest concentrations of PM10 and Pb recorded were in the PGC line with 0.49 ± 0.03 mg/m3 and 160 ± 5.13 μg/m3, respectively. The highest concentration of As recorded was in coach line with 36.00 ± 15.50 μg/m3. Statistical test results showed that only the concentration of As had a significant difference between the sampling stations. For the lung function test, the values of forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) for the exposed group were below normal. These findings showed that the depot workers had a lower respiratory level compared to the workers at the depot office. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between spirometry diagnosis of employees who had served more than ten years and spirometry diagnosis of employees who had served for ten years and less. In conclusion, the depot workers who had long exposure to air pollutants had low respiratory levels.

98-102

Authors: A. A. Alexeev, A.S. Syromyatnikova, K. N. Bolshev, A. M. Bolshakov, A. R. Ivanov

In this article, fracturing in large-scale metal structures such as main gas pipelines, fuel and oil tanks operated in Arctic were investigated. It is shown that catastrophic accidents involved in large thin-walled metal structures in large diameter pipelines, tanks and pressure vessels. The fractures occurred not only due to stretch propagation of brittle or viscous fractures, but also followed branching that leads to fragmented fractures with simultaneous movement of many cracks. The character of the fracture depends on the level of the fracture strength. At high levels cracks propagated at a high speed by a mechanism of separation; as a result of crack branching fragment damage occurred. At low level, cracks propagate at a low speed by a cutting mechanism; that does not cause extensive fracturing. The cracks may cause structural and environmental damages.

111-118

Authors: R. Jain, V. Garg

Pesticides poses great threat to the environmental sustainability by affecting its microbial flora and fauna. Fungi are well known for the secretion of extracellular hydrolases for the degradation of these hazardous chemicals from its ambient environment. Hydrolase secreting soil fungi Penicillium aculeatum ITCC 7980.10 was selected for the study of its monocrotophos degrading efficiency under in vitro conditions in phosphorus free liquid culture medium. Fungal strain was molecularly characterized by 18S rDNA analysis as Penicillium aculeatum JQ660374. Monocrotophos degrading efficiency of the isolate was studied under optimum conditions each, at an interval of 5 days for 15 days incubation period. The isolated strain possessed meagre extracellular phosphatase activity 28.33 ± 0.40 U which resulted in the formation of 614.62 ± 0.38 μg ml-1 inorganic phosphates. Degradation process was studied by spectrophotometric analysis at 254nm, HPTLC and FTIR. Spectrophotometric analysis revealed 98.88% degradation of monocrotophos with a prominent decrease in the standard peak of monocrotophos (standard rf 0.19- 0.21) within 15 days of incubation as evident by HPTLC chromatograms. Molecular mechanism as studied by FTIR analysis revealed hydrolytic cleavage of vinyl bond with the formation of PO–4. Degradation of monocrotophos followed first order kinetics with the rate constant (kdeg) of 0.0115 day-1 and half life of 2.53 days. The results of the study conclude that Penicillium aculeatum JQ660374 could be used as an efficient candidate for the detoxification of monocrotophos contaminated sites.

127-133

Authors: M. Derradji, L. Souiki, A.H. Belaze, A. Alayat, H. Berrebbah, M.R. Djebar

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the physicochemical quality of urban sewage from the Annaba region and to recommend appropriate treatment for their reuse and reducing their harmful receptors such as Boukhadra (Site 1), El Bouni (Site 2) and Oued Forcha (Site 3). Analysis carried out for duration of one year (from March 2012 till February 2013). It was revealed that as an organic pollution resulted in a high BOD5 and COD which can reach respectively (140.66 ± 26.62 mg/l of O2) and (298.83 ± 84.40 mg/l of O2) in Site 1, Site 2 is (147.16 ± 33.10 mg/l of O2) for BOD5, and (280 ± 55.67 mg/l of O2) for COD and in site 3 the pollution load is represented by BOD5 (149.5 ± 22.71 mg/l of O2) and COD (287.33 ± 19.09 mg/l of O2). Regarding the TSS, their annual average in three sites were 352.83, 340.83 and 369.26 mg/l, respectively. The reported data were far exceeded the Algerian standard (50 mg/l). The annual average ratio BOD5/ COD for sites 1, 2 and 3 were in the order of 0.47, 0.52 and 0.5, respectively. These results lead the conclusion that the three sewage sites were polluted by organic pollution which was characterized by partially degradable.

141-146

Authors: Md P. Abdullah, Y.F. Abdul Aziz, M. Rozali Othman, W.M.A. Wan Mohd Khalik

The occurrence of organochlorine pesticide (OCPs) residues in surface water of Bertam and Terla River, Cameron Highlands was investigated. Monitoring work was carried out starting from August to December 2014 consisted of six stations. Nine of organochlorine residues were detected throughout that period of study, namely aldrin, heptachlor epoxide, endosulfan II, endosulfan sulfate, methoxychlor, endrin ketone, 4,4'-DDE, beta and gamma HCH. The level concentration of pollutant were found to be in the order endrin ketone (mean 0.317 μgL-1)> beta HCH (0.153 μgL-1)> endosulfan sulfate (0.112 μgL-1)> endosulfan II (0.072 μgL-1)> aldrin (0.071 μgL-1)> methoxychlor (0.06 μgL-1)> heptachlor epoxide (0.023 μgL-1)> 4,4'-DDE (0.011 μgL-1)> gamma HCH (<0.002 μgL-1). The highest total organochlorine residue is detected at 0.955 μgL-1. The highest concentrations for compounds namely methoxychlor (0.06 μgL-1), endrin ketone (0.63 μgL-1) and 4,4'-DDE (0.018 μgL-1) were found at station S2 (Kuala Terla). An analysis in tap water (station S5; Brinchang town) also found some compounds namely aldrin, endosulfan II, endrin ketone and 4,4'-DDE to be within the range of 0.008 to 0.18 μgL-1. To mitigate this present status from continuing to become worse, improving water quality for water supply or reuse for agriculture purpose in Cameron Highlands must be put in high priority among all stakeholders.

5-12

Authors: M. S. Okundamiya,O. Omorogiuwa

Present study investigates the viability of a photovoltaic-diesel-battery hybrid system for electricity generation in Nigeria. It aims to determine the economic, technical and environmental benefits of running a solar photovoltaic (PV) system in Nigeria climatic conditions. The solar irradiation for Abuja (latitude 9.08 °N and longitude 7.53 °E) and residential energy profile are used. The optimum size of the hybrid system is determined by making energy-balance calculations based on Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) software. The impact of interest rate and cost of PV system on the optimum configuration is investigated. Sensitivity analysis is performed by varying the annual average solar irradiation based on solar radiation map of Nigeria and diesel price to determine the viability for other locations. Results showed that the use of PV-diesel-battery system in Nigeria can bring benefits of cost saving and emission reduction without compromising the reliability. However, the range of economic benefits depends on the site meteorology, which varies from 21 to 61%.

20-25

Authors: Y.S. Mohammad, E.M. Shaibu-Imodagbe, S.B. Igboro, A. Giwa, C.A. Okuofu

Activated carbon was produced from rice husk via thermal pretreatment preceding chemical modification with phosphoric acid. In order to study the effect of phosphoric acid modification, the characteristics of the activated carbon produced were determined before and after acid modification and subsequently compared. These characteristics include surface morphology, surface functional groups, surface area, average pore diameter and pore volume. Characterization results showed that modification of the thermally treated rice husk with phosphoric acid enhanced the surface area of the activated carbon from 12.47 to 102.4m2/g. The average pore diameter was also enhanced from 2.4 to 1.82nm. It also shows improvement in micropore volume from 0.0052 to 0.034cm3/g. SEM analysis confirmed the improvement in surface area and pore development resulting from the phosphoric acid modification while FTIR analysis revealed the existence of phosphorous-oxy-containing functional groups on the surface of the phosphoric acid modified activated carbon.

34-38

Authors: O.A. Oyelaran, B.O. Bolaji, M.A. Waheed, M.F. Adekunle

Desertification and deforestation are great problems facing developing nations. Adequate means of disposing wastes are also lacking, hence, converting them to other useful products such as briquettes for domestic fuel is desirable. The purpose of this work is to study some properties of briquettes made from groundnut shell and waste paper admixture with a view of addressing handling, transportation, and storage problems which is associated with biomass when used as fuels. Briquettes were manufactured using a motorized briquetting machine using five groundnut shells, waste paper mixing ratios (by weight), i.e., 10:90; 20:80; 30:70; 40:60; and 50:50. Obtained results showed that briquette produced using 10:90 waste groundnut shell - waste paper ratios exhibited the largest (though minimal) linear expansion on drying. While the compressed (maximum) density of the briquettes ranged between 627.59 kg/m3 and 878.10 kg/m3. For the relax density ranged from 281.43 kg/m3 and 499.38 kg/m3, there was little variation in the relax ratio of 2.22 or 2.23. The durability rating of the briquettes ranged in 55 and 91%. It was concluded that stable briquettes could be formed from waste paper mixed with groundnut shell of up to 20% groundnut shell admixture.

47-55

Authors: A.E.A. Sherif, M.M. El-Kholy, T. M. Salem

To assess the leakage of sanitation service in urban areas on the contamination of water streams and soil besides, a risk assessment study was conducted through the intake of edible plants from irrigated suburban area of El-Zomor area, Egypt. The results revealed that concentrations of trace elements were several folds higher in the studied site compared to the background level in the earth crust indicating that the soil of the studied area is contaminated with heavy metals. Therefore, contamination factor (CF) values of this area indicate that soils were considerably contaminated with Cd, moderately contaminated with Co, Cu, Pb and Mn, but showed signs of low contamination with other metals. Enrichment factor (EF) indicating that moderate enrichment of Cu and very significant enrichment for Cd were contributed to anthropogenic source. To assess the health risk, estimated exposure and risk index were calculated. For the non-carcinogenic risk, the studied elements were not found to cause any risks to the local population, since the hazard index (HI) for studied trace elements were lower than the safe level. The level of cancer risk associated with exposure to these elements falls within the range of safe limits (10-4–10-6) so we consider the risk is unacceptable.

63-71

Authors: A. E. Urusov, A. V. Zherdev, B. B. Dzantiev

Analytical parameters of immunochromatographic test-systems, such as the detection limit and working range, depend on many factors. However, the process of choosing the concentration and composition of reagents applied to test strip membranes, and choosing the membranes themselves has not been systematically described for commercially produced tests or for scientific studies. Here, we present the results of a study to determine how the properties of the test system components, using mycotoxin aflatoxin B1 as an example, affect its analytical performance. A comparison of different membranes used for immunochromatography was performed as well as reagent concentrations and composition of intermolecular conjugates. Optimization of the immunochromatographic system indicated a limit of aflatoxin B1 detection equal to 0.2 ng/mL. The effectiveness of the system in testing plant extracts with minimal (twice) dilution prior to analysis was determined and the final content of methanol in the course of immunoassay was 35%.