Abstract
Effect of automobile polluted soil with five soil concentration (0 (Control), 25, 50, 75 and 100%) was observed on early seedling growth performance and biomass production of Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss). The treatment of 75% automobile polluted soil significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the seedling length (18.60 cm) of A. indica. The automobile polluted soil treatment with the concentration of 50% slightly increased the root length as compared to control. The automobile polluted soil treatment with the concentration of 25, 50, 75 and 100% negatively affected shoot length of A. indica as compared to control. The treatment of all concentration of automobile polluted soil progressively decreased the total leaf area A. indica as compared to control soil treatment. The automobile polluted soils also showed negative effects on biomass production of A. indica. The automobile polluted soil treatment at 25% concentration significantly (p < 0.05) affected shoot, leaves and seedling dry weight of A. indica as compared to control soil treatment. The order of relationship between production of A. indica's seedling dry weight and automobile polluted soil treatment was observed as root > shoot > leaves > total seedling.
Key Words
automobiles; polluted soil; neem; seedling growth; biomass production
Address
(1) Shagufta Parveen, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and Muhammad Shafiq:
Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan;
(2) Mohammad Athar:
California Department of Food and Agriculture, 3288 Meadowview Road, Sacramento, CA 95832, USA.
Zaki S. Seddigi, Saleh A. Ahmed, Shahid P. Ansari, Naeema H. Yarkandi, Ekram Danish, Mohammed D.Y. Oteef, M. Cohelan, Shakeel Ahmed and Abdallah M. Abulkibash
Abstract
Advanced oxidation processes using UV and catalysts like TiO2 and ZnO have been recently applied for the photocatalytic degradation of MTBE in water. Attempts have been made to replace the UV radiation by the solar spectrum. This review intends to shed more light on the work that has been done so far in this area of research. The information provided will help in crystallizing the ideas required to shift the trend from UV photocatalysis to sunlight photocatalysis. The careful optimization of the reaction parameters and the type of the dopant employed are greatly responsible for any enhancement in the degradation process. The advantage of shifting from UV photocatalysts to visible light photocatalysts can be observed when catalysts like TiO2 and ZnO are doped with suitable metals. Therefore, it is expected that in the near future, the visible light photocatalysis will be the main technique applied for the remediation of water contaminated with MTBE.
Key Words
photocatalysis; degradation; MTBE; doping; TiO2; ZnO
Address
(1) Zaki S. Seddigi, Saleh A. Ahmed, Shahid P. Ansari and Naeema H. Yarkandi:
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, 21955 Makkah, Saudi Arabia;
(2) Ekram Danish:
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia;
(3) Mohammed D.Y. Oteef:
Chemistry Department, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia;
(4) M. Cohelan:
Research Center for Brewing and Food Quality, Technische Universität Munshen, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany;
(5) Shakeel Ahmed:
Center for Refining & Petrochemicals, Research Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran-31261, Saudi Arabia;
(6) M. Abulkibash:
Chemistry Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran-31261, Saudi Arabia.
Abstract
Pharmaceutical wastewater effluents are well known for their difficult elimination by traditional biotreatment methods and their important contribution to environmental pollution due to its fluctuating and recalcitrant nature. OTC is one of the nonbiodegradable antibiotics that makes antibiotic-resistant, so it can make be high risk for environment. NZVI can be a good choice for removal of OTC in aqueous solution. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the amounts of NZVI and OTC to be used at pH 3 and under 200 W, UV-A irradiation. The responses were removal percent of absorption at 290 and 348 nm, TOC and COD of OTC. In the optimum condition, Linear model was performed 155 ppm of OTC were removed by 1000 ppm NZVI after 6.5 hours and the removal efficiency of absorption at 290 and 348 nm, TOC and COD were 87, 95, 85 and 89 percent, respectively. In the similar process, there is no organic compound after 14 hours. The parameters ORP, DO and pH were investigated for 6:30 hours to study the type of NZVI reaction in process. In the beginning of reaction, oxidation was the dominant reaction after 3 hours, photocatalytic reaction was remarkable. The mechanism of OTC degradation is proposed by HPLC/ESI-MS and four by products were found. Also the rate constants (first order kinetic chain reaction model) were 0.0099, 0.0021, 0.0010, 0.0049 and 0.0074 min-1, respectively.
Abstract
The groundwater has been a major source of water supply throughout the ages. Around 50% of the rural as well as urban population in the developing countries like India depends on groundwater for drinking. The groundwater is also an important source in the agriculture and industrial sector. In many parts of the world, groundwater resources are under increasing threat from growing demands, wasteful use and contamination. A good planning and management practices are needed to face this challenge. A key to the management of groundwater is the ability to model the movement of fluids and contaminants in the subsurface environment. It is obvious that the contaminant source activities cannot be completely eliminated and perhaps our water bodies will continue to serve as receptors of vast quantities of waste. In such a scenario, the goal of water quality protection efforts must necessarily be the control and management of these sources to ensure that released pollutants will be sufficiently attenuated within the region of interest and the quality of water at points of withdrawal is not impaired. In order to understand the behaviour of contaminant transport through different types of media, several researchers are carrying out experimental investigations through laboratory and field studies. Many of them are working on the analytical and numerical studies to simulate the movement of contaminants in soil and groundwater of the contaminant transport. With the advent of high power computers especially, a numerical modelling has gained popularity and is indeed of particular relevance in this regard. This paper provides the state of the art of contaminant transport and reviews the allied research works carried out through experimental investigation or using the analytical solution and numerical method. The review involves the investigation in respect of both, saturated and unsaturated, porous media.
Key Words
contaminant transport; porous media; saturated; unsaturated; experimental investigation; analytical studies; numerical modelling; finite element methods (FEM); meshfree methods
Address
S.B. Patil and H.S. Chore:
Department of Civil Engineering, Datta Meghe College of Engineering, Sector-3, Airoli, Navi Mumbai-400 708, India.
Abstract
Macronutrients (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+), yield and yield components, bioaccumulation and translocation of metal in plant parts of three Vigna species (V. cylindrica, V. mungo, V. radiata) were evaluated at 0, 50, 100 and 150 mg kg-1 soil of Nickel (Ni). A marked inhibition (p < 0.001) in the distribution of various macronutrients was noticed in these Vigna species except for Mg2+ content of the shoot and leaves. Similarly, all species retained more Ca2+ in their roots (p < 0.05) as compared to the aerial tissues. Ni induced a drastic decline (p < 0.001) for various yield and yield attributes except for 100 seed weight. Toxicity and accumulation of Ni in plant tissues considerably increased in a concentration dependent manner. Vigna species signify an exclusion approach for Ni tolerance as both bioaccumulation factor (BF) and translocation factor (TF) were less than 1.0. The Ni content of plants being root > shoot > leaves > seeds. Scoring for percentage stimulation and inhibition (respective to control) at varying levels of Ni revealed tolerance of the species in an order of V. radiata > V. cylindrica > V. mungo. The acquisition of Ni tolerance in V. radiata seems to occur through an integrated mechanism of metal tolerance that includes sustainable macronutrients uptake, stronger roots due to greater deposition of Ca2+in the roots, restricted transfer of Ni to above ground tissues and seeds as well as exclusion capacity of the roots to bind appreciable amount of metal to them. Thus, metal tolerant potential of V. radiata could be of great significance to remediate metal contaminated soil owing lesser impact of Ni on macro-nutrients, hence the yield.
Key Words
macronutrients; yield; metal excluders; nickel tolerance; Vigna species
Address
(1) Shabnam Ishtiaq and Seema Mahmood:
Institute of Pure and Applied Biology, Botany Division, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan-60800, Pakistan;
(2) Seema Mahmood:
Division of Experimental and Evolutionary Biology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, G12 8QQ, UK;
(3) Mohammad Athar:
California Department of Food and Agriculture, 3288 Meadowview Road, Sacramento, CA 95832, USA;
(4) Mohammad Athar:
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan.
Abstract
The concern for the global environment ensues researchers from various disciplines to work in collaboration to tackle with the issues of sustainability and environmental conservation for well-being of the people. In this study, we have selected and focused on few basic environment-effecting factors such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide and oxygen concentration level and referred them as meteorological data. In this paper, we present the development of our own customized hardware setup, environmental monitoring device (EMD) to obtain the data. Utilizing the relationship among these basic parameters, represented in the form of formulas and equations, we tried to encode them using Matlab programming. Data visualization is achieved by plotting the graphs of basic parameters obtained from EMD as well for the derivatives using Matlab programs.
Address
Sayed Abulhasan Quadri, Othman Sidek, Hadi Jafar, Nur Amira binti Amran, Ummi Nurulhaiza bt Zabah and Azizul bin Abdullah:
Collaborative Microelectronic Design Excellence Centre (CEDEC), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, Nibong Tebal, Malaysia, 14300.