Pollution
Volume:3 Issue: 3, Summer 2017

Seasonal variation in water quality of Anchar Lake was evaluated using multivariate statistical techniques- principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA). Water quality data collected during 4 seasons was analyzed for 13 parameters. ANOVA showed significant variation in pH (F3 = 10.86, P

The present paper has examined the degrading ability of phenol-oxidizing bacterium, Ralstonia eutropha, for biological removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions under aerobic conditions. Results show that MB has been extensively eliminated as a co-metabolism in the presence of supplementary carbon (glucose) and nitrogen (yeast extract and peptone) sources and the experimental observations indicate that MB is initially adsorbed on the cell’s surface, in accordance to Langmuir Theory, then to be degraded by the cell. The type of nitrogen source, initial pH, aeration rate, and the presence of CaCl2 are all influential factors in the process of MB removal. The biodegradation kinetics modeling has determined that while playing an uncompetitive role, MB inhibits its biodegradation at high concentrations. According to the best fit Han-Levenspiel Model, the maximum MB specific biodegradation rate (rmax), half-saturation concentration of MB (KS), maximum allowable MB concentration (Sm), and the shape factors (n and m) have been 7.37 mg gcell-1 h-1, 32.13 mg/L, 158.8 mg/L, 0.27, and 0.76, respectively.

The Nematodes are roundworms that are found in every environment of the earth. While some species are harmful parasites, others play a vital role in nutrient cycle and medical research. Nematode infestation in the fields is poly-specific; however, depending on the agro-climatic conditions, one or two species are dominant over the rest. The present studies attempts to observe and control the root knot infestation on spinach (Spinacea oleracea), which belong to Chenopodiaceous family and is extensively cultivated in India for its nutritious leaves. Various organic metabolites have been estimated in root knot nematode infested spinach, including chlorophyll, total carbohydrates, and total free amino acids. Spinach plants, infested with root knot nematode, have been treated with peels of lemon, which proved beneficial in terms of increased chlorophyll content. Altered total carbohydrate and total free amino acid content have been found with S/4 of lemon-peel-treated spinach plants. It has been found that the infested spinach shows 137.5% carbohydrate content over the normal plants. The kaghzi neemboo amended spinach contains lower carbohydrate than normal-control. Rate of carbohydrate contents has been found to be inversely proportional to the rate of extracts concentrations as S/4, S/2, and S show 92.5%, 55%, and 37.5% increase over normal-control spinach. The bio-amendment of citrus aurantifolia, (kaghzi neemboo) helps controlling root knot nematodes, which is more beneficial than using chemicals to control the same, as the chemical fertilizer causes pollution, exerting negative impacts on flora and fauna.

The present study investigates an NF process for removal of copper and hexavalent chromium, studying the effect of pH (5, 7, 9) as well as contaminant's concentration (50, 500, 5000 µg/L) at a constant pressure of 8 bar; with the recovery rate, regulated at 75±2%. To determine the main factors, affecting the system performance, and evaluate the interaction effects among the factors, the experiment is designed via RSM Method. The chrome shows a higher rejection, compared with Copper, all over the range of investigated factors. As Copper concentration grows, Cu removal efficiency drops while, the Cr (VI) removal efficiency ascends. Also by increasing chrome concentration, the Cu removal efficiency decreases, while Cr (VI) removal efficiency increases. Results show that with an increase in pH, the Cu removal drops and Cr removal is increased. The pH is the main parameter, influencing the removal rate. It has been found that the maximum removal efficiency is up to 99% and 73% for Cr (VI) and Cu, respectively. There is an adequate agreement between real data and that obtained from the models (R2 was found to be 0.9889 and 0.9664, for Cu and Cr (VI) rejection, respectively).

The present investigation characterizes tannery effluents by determining water quality parameters and some selected trace metallic constituents in order to measure the magnitude of environmental pollution. Effluents and sediments have also been used to isolate chromium-resistant bacteria, collected from Hazaribagh area, Dhaka, claimed to be increasing Cr (VI)-enriched environments, and utilized to reduce Cr (VI). The pH, TDS, DO, and EC values of all investigated samples have been within the range of 4.35 to 9.74, 290 to 9,200 mg/L, 1.5 to 4.90 mg/L, and 587 to 19,000 µs/cm, respectively. The concentrations of trace metallic constituents have been determined by means of Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), giving the following ranges: Cr: 14.282 to 6,769.554 mg/L; Cd: 1.546 to 2.214 mg/L; Pb: 18.808 to 32.026 mg/L; Cu: 1.522 to 2.578 mg/L; Zn: 0.682 to 8.688 mg/L; Fe: 1.37 to 108.556 mg/L; and Mn: 3.494 to 17.17 mg/L. The order of trace metallic constituents in the effluent samples was Cr > Fe > Pb > Mn > Zn > Cd > Cu. The water quality parameters and metallic constituents’ concentration were higher than that of standard permissible limits in all the examined samples. The average number of Cr (VI)-resistant bacteria in the sediment samples with glucose (0.5%, w/v) supplementation was 2.35× 103 CFU/gm at 24h. One of the representative isolate was able to tolerate up to 400 mg/L of K2Cr2O7 as Cr (VI). The bacteria, isolated in the present study, can be used as eco-friendly biological agents for the remediation and/or detoxification of chromium (Cr) pollution from the chromium contaminated environments.

Owing to environmentally-destructive impact of aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, benzene ethyl, toluene, and xylenes or BTEXs, these materials are classified as hazardous pollutants in the air. This study studies cancer and non-cancer risk in District 12 of Tehran Municipality, through these components for two groups of employees or storekeepers and gas station customers. By measuring pollutant concentrations along with doing related calculations, the areas and gas stations of the study area with the highest risk have been found. Results show that Station 7, located in Zone 4, is one of the most dangerous spots in terms of cancer and non-cancer risk to employees or storekeepers in the area. Additionally, there is no risk of non-cancerous disease for the customers, using these stations, during their lifetime. Finally, the study proposes some solutions for making appropriate decisions, concerning the sustainable management plan.

The management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in Nigeria and most developing countries has remained a major public health challenge, thus creating the need for reliable and environmentally-acceptable alternatives. This study focuses on composting assessment as a viable recovery alternative for MSW in six States of Southwest Nigeria, namely: Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, and Lagos. Extensive literature review has been carried out to understand the waste generation patterns in these states. Reported literature data has been assessed for sustainability of composting strategy in terms of organic waste streams, amenable of biotransformation as well as in terms of return through energy saving and material recovery. A life-cycle framework has been used to estimate GHG emissions, available nutrients, and potential compost production, instead of landfill in each region. Results show significant potential compost production of 895,659-, 255,267-, 153,423-, 117,468-, 113,094- and 112, 397-m3/yr for Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti, respectively. It has been deduced from the study that composting would be very beneficial to the economy as its product would boost agriculture production while reducing the budget spent on fertilizer annually.

The present study has been conducted to assess the surface water quality of Halda River from September 2015 to March 2016. DO, BOD5, COD, pH, EC, Chloride, Alkalinity, and Hardness concentrations in water samples have been found to range within 0.93-5.15 mg/L, 30-545 mg/L, 43-983 mg/L, 6.3-7.3, 110-524 uS/cm, 12-56 mg/L, 35-67 mg/L, and 38-121 mg/L, respectively. Multivariate statistical analyses, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as well as Correlation Matrix (CM) have revealed significant anthropogenic pollutant intrusions in water. Cluster Analysis (CA) has indicated decent results of rendering three different groups of resemblance between the two sampling sites, reflecting the different water quality indicators of the river system. A very strong positive linear relation has been found between COD and BOD (1.000), hardness and EC (0.993), pH and DO (0.979), hardness and COD (0.929), hardness and BOD (0.924), EC and COD (0.922), and EC and BOD (0.916) at a significance level of 0.01, proving their common origin entirely from industrial effluents, municipal wastes, and agricultural activities. River Pollution Index (RPI) has indicated that the water from rivers at Kalurghat and Modhunaghat varied from low to high pollution, which is due to the former area's being mostly industrial zone with some domestic sewage, while the latter underwent less industrial activities. On the contrary, lots of agricultural activities have been found in Modhunaghat. Use of river water can pose serious problems to human health and aquatic ecosystem via biological food chain. The present research suggests special preference for proper management of the river with eco-friendly automation along with development of the country's sustainable economic.

The present study is aimed at characterizing the landfill leachate as well as its impact on the surrounding groundwater in Kolkata, India. Landfill leachate has been seasonally characterized from 2012-2014, indicating the landfill site in methanogenic phase with high contamination of organics, nutrients, salts, and heavy metals. Sixty groundwater samples have been analyzed for twenty two physico-chemical parameters in pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon season of 2014. Seasonal alterations of groundwater quality have been evaluated with a statistical tool, Kruskal-Wallis test, to assess the influence of leachate, showing significant changes in almost all its physico-chemical parameters with sampling time. Majority of groundwater samples were contaminated with Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, Fe, and Mn, indicating very little effect of redox control on the occurrence and transport of heavy metals. Comparison of physico-chemical parameters with World Health Organization (WHO) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) indicate that majority of groundwater samples have been inadequate to use as potable water. Therefore, this study would help in developing policies for landfill leachate treatment programs and controlling groundwater pollution at the concerned landfill site.

Certain species of Hermetia illucens, also known as the Black Soldier Fly (BSF), were found in a compost plant in Roorkee located in Northern India. Its larvae are voracious eaters of organic waste, hence can play an ecologically-important role in solid waste management. Morphological analysis of various stages of BSF life cycle by SEM showed that its body along with its wings is densely covered with hair. The identified species of BSF were black in color and oviposited into the composted material. The larvae grew up to 30 mm long in 12 days from an initial length of only 6mm, gaining almost 200% of its initial weight after voraciously feeding on organic waste. The mouth of the H. illucens showed a well-developed mandibular-maxillary complex that had similar characteristics of scavengers, making the insect a suitable candidate for organic waste consumption.

In Nigeria irrigated agriculture is an important tool for economic growth, food security, and poverty reduction during dry periods of rain-fed agriculture. The concentration and composition of dissolved constituents in water determines its quality for irrigation use. Water quality studies strongly suggest that agriculture is a leading source of water quality problems, due to pesticides and other agro-inputs, widely used by farmers to improve agricultural productivity. Poor quality irrigation water would therefore obviously affect soil quality and crop productivity. This study was carried out in 2015 to assess the presence of metals and physical properties of water, used for irrigation in Kwara state, Nigeria. Samples were randomly collected from thirty irrigation sources in three senatorial zones of Kwara State. The samples were analyzed for the presence of metals and water quality parameters, using standard procedures. Results showed that the highest concentration of Sulphate (7.0mg/L), Nitrate (8.9mg/L), Sodium (31.6mg/L), Calcium (3.1mg/L), and Magnesium (0.7) ions were within acceptable limits. The Sodium Adsorption Ratio, an indicator for water suitability in agricultural irrigation as well as a standard diagnostic parameter for the sodicity hazard of a soil, was significantly the highest (22.7) in Kwara North. Results of the study point to the need for an effective irrigation water quality assessment to curb nonpoint source pollution that could be caused by improper use of chemicals and pesticides by farmers.

The current study assesses the effect of fibrous clay minerals’ amendments and arbuscular mycorrhiza incubation on heavy metal uptake and translocation in Eucalyptus grandis and Ailanthus altissima plants. For doing so, Eucalyptus and ailanthus trees have been grown in a soil sample, contaminated with heavy metal iron ore mining and collected from southern Iran. The area under study is arid, with the majority of trees being ailanthus and eucalyptus. Amounts of Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, and Mn have initially been at toxic levels which declined after cultivation. Fibrous clay minerals have been added to soils as a natural adsorbent to adsorb heavy metals like Pb, Cd, Zn, and Mn. Accumulation of the elements in the roots and shoots has been in the following order: Cu>Zn>Mn>Cd>Pb>Fe. The organ metal concentrations have not statistically translocated from roots to shoots of plants, except for Zn and Cu whose concentrations have been significantly higher in roots. Eucalyptus is well capable of extracting elements from contaminated soils, compared to ailanthus, particularly in case of Cu and Cd. The percentage of mycorrhizal colonization proves to be more in pots with ailanthus plants grown in contaminated soil, suggesting enhanced effect of high metal concentrations on plant infection by G. mosseae. AMF assists soil remediation by enhancing the growth and retention of toxic elements by ailanthus, while no substantial change has been observed between inoculated and non-inoculated eucalyptus plants by AFM, regarding translocation of elements to plants. The possibility of increasing metal accumulation in roots is interesting for phytoremediation purposes, since most high-producing biomass plants, such as eucalyptus, retain heavy metals in roots.

The present study attempts to introduce a method of statistical downscaling with a synoptic view. The precipitation data of Golestan Province has been used for the years 1971 to 2010. Employing multivariable regression, this study models the precipitation gauges in the station scale, by making use of 26 predicting components of model HadCM3, on the basis of two A2 and B2 scenarios. However, the minimum predicting components for precipitation in station scale included 26 components for one grid to 390 atmosphere circulation components for the 15 suggested grids. Nevertheless, results indicate minimum error, related to the precipitation models, based on projecting components of the studies of 15 grids. By applying this selected method, the precipitation gauges for 2020 to 2040 has been simulated. General results of the precipitation changes for the yearly decennial average of Golestan Province indicates additive stream of this component, based on both A2 and B2 scenarios. Yet this yearly decennial addition of precipitation go with seasonal and annual changes, i.e. getting drier in summer as well as its subsequent increase in draught issue on one hand, and increased centralization of precipitations in the winter and lack of its proper distribution during year on the other. As a result, changes in local patterns of precipitations throughout the province is promising for maximum increase of precipitation for the farthest southwest area of Golestan, greatly potential for decreasing precipitation of sub eastern area.

For the first time, the present study removes ions of mercury, in the form of Hg (I) and Hg (II) ions, from aqueous solutions by adsorbing them onto titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The effects of various parameters, such as solution's initial pH, temperature, sorbent dosage, initial mercury concentration, and contact time have been examined on the adsorption process. The experimental results have been compared with Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin adsorption isotherms. The maximum adsorption, obtained for Hg (I) and Hg (II) ions, have been 97.5% and 98.6%, respectively. Also, it has been shown that the Langmuir isotherm has better fitting with the equilibrium data than the Freundlich and Temkin isotherms. Thermodynamic parameters of the adsorption, such as and have been calculated, the negative values of which show that the mercury ions adsorption is an exothermic process and that randomness is decreased, respectively. The study of adsorption kinetics shows that the adsorption of Hg (I) and (II) ions with TiO2 nanoparticles is pseudo-second order.

A wide range of chemicals and dyes are being used in textile industry, and are often found in the wastewater produced. This study attempts to investigate the reduction of COD, TSS, and dye in effluents from the dyeing and washing unit of textile industry, using electrocoagulation process. The reactor is equipped with 10 iron electrodes, connected to a direct current (DC) source in a monopolar electrode configuration. In each stage of the experiment, 2.5 l of the effluent enters the reactor and the effects of a number of important operational parameters such as voltage, pH, and reaction time is studied on the removal of COD, TSS, and dye parameters. Results show that the optimum operational conditions are reaction time of 120 min, voltage of 30 V, and pH of 7, which reduces COD, TSS, and dye by 87%, 91%, and 98%, respectively. Therefore, it has been concluded that the efficiency of pollutants removal from the wastewater improves as voltage and reaction time are increased.