International Journal of Research in Chemistry and Environment (IJRCE)

Monitoring of Pesticide Residues in Different Agriculture Fields Effect of Different Home Processes on the Pesticides Elimination

Gehad G. Mohamed, M. Saleh, Hala M. Ibrahim — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The effect of washing, storing, boiling, peeling, cooking with and without vinegar and frying on pesticide residue were investigated for vegetables and water/soil samples collected from Aga-Dhakahlia (Field 1), Nobaria, Behera (Field 2) and Giza (Field 3). Residues of organophosphorus, carbamate, organochlorine, fungicide, pyrethroid and abamectin pesticides.in the processed were analysed by gas and HPLC chromatography. Statistical analysis showed that potatoes contained the highest levels of dimethoate and diazinon as organophosphorus pesticides. Residue of pirimiphos-methyl in green bean and potatoes and residues of methomyl, abamectin and dicofol in cucumber and tomatoes were found to be were higher than their corresponding MRL’s. Effect of some common food processing techniques (simple washing combined with cooking and/or frying techniques and drying of green bean) were also investigated and the results reported their effectiveness in residues reduction. It was found that, washing process eliminated approximately 13-60% of organophosphorus, 20-50% of carbamates, 19-25% of cypermethrin, 60% of dicofol, 100% of penconazole and 18-75% of abamectin residues. Peeling of washed cucumber removed 65% of malathion, 66% of methomyl, 80% of dicofol and 83% of abamectin. It might be concluded that a combination of simple washing and peeling removed 10 to 85% of insecticides if applied before consumption. As well, cooking and frying might help to remove 25-100% of the residual insecticides. Irrigation and drainage water were contaminated with pesticides such as malathion, dimethoate, methomyl, aldicarb, dicofol and abamectin. Effect of storage on the abamectin found with vegetables and soil after spraying suggested that the residue of abamectin was gradually decreased with storage time. Final recommendations for this study is that monitoring programmes of pesticide residues in local produces must be expanded to include all food items and potentially harmful pesticide residues in order to generate information and establishing data based on food contaminants.

Energy Content of Alcohol Fuels and Blends with Gasoline

Radda Abubakar, Linus N. Okoro, Clifford Nwaeburu — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In this research we report the comparative energy content or heat value of alcohol fuels as well as blends with gasoline obtained from both steel and bomb calorimeters. The energy content of the alcohol obtained from the two calorimeters differ widely, with the values of the energies obtained from the steel calorimeter far less than the values obtained from the bomb calorimeter. We observed that the energy content of the alcohol fuels increased from methanol through to pentanol. Meanwhile, the energy of the blend increases with the increase in carbon content of the alcohol, except for blends beyond E15. Additionally, the blend of the fuels gave higher energy values than the pure alcohols using any of the methods.

Physicochemical Assessment of Textile Effluents in Chittagong Region of Bangladesh and Their Possible Effects on Environment

Jamaluddin Ahmed M. , Nizamuddin M. — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This study was carried out to assess the untreated textile effluent quality in Chittagong region of Bangladesh. In order to study the different physicochemical parameters, effluent samples from fifteen selected textile industries were collected and analyzed during the period 2010-2011. Collected samples were analyzed for the parameters temperature, pH, EC, TDS, TSS, DO, BOD, COD, %NaCl, transparency, acidity, CO₂, alkalinity, total hardness, chloride, sulfate, phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, lithium, chromium, iron, manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, silver, cadmium and lead using the procedure outlined in the standard methods. The laboratory findings were compared with the recommended values set by the Department of Environment (DoE). Except the metals Li, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, As, Ag, Cd, Zn and Pb, and the anion nitrate the other parameters for most of the textile industries were found beyond the standard limit set by the DoE. Besides these the parameters namely color, transparency, acidity, CO₂, alkalinity, total hardness, %NaCl etc. for which no standard values are recommended by DoE were also not in good conditions. From Pearson Correlation program, significant positive and negative correlations were found for different parameters. These assessment data indicated that textile effluents of Chittagong region are highly polluted and these effluents, when discharged, leads to pollution of the nearby water body which affects not only the aquatic environment and human beings of the surroundings but also poses a serious threat to ground and surface water resources of the adjoining areas.

Studies of Hydrodynamic Behaviour and Syn-Gas Production from Biomass Solid Wastes Using Fluidized Bed Gasifier: An ASPEN Plus Simulation

Tripathy Rajesh , Sahoo Abanti — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Fluidized bed gasification is one of the potential techniques for production of clean and eco-friendly fuel. ASPEN PLUS simulator is a strong tool for investigating the behavior of a process and it can be readily used to access various aspects like feasibility of an operation, effects of operating parameters on the performance of a gasifier. In the present work, the simulator has been used to simulate the effect of different system parameters (viz. Steam Flow rate, steam to biomass ratio, air flow rate, temperature, equivalence ratio, pressure) on the reaction kinetics mainly, on the product gas composition and carbon conversion efficiency of the fluidized bed gasification. Again hydrodynamic behaviour of the Fluidized Bed Gasifier (cold model) has been carried out with respect to different static bed heights and particle sizes of the bed material. The dolomite has been used as a bed material. Temperature was observed to be the most sensitive kinetic parameter thereby implying as the important aspect of gasification when operated under atmospheric pressure. Use of steam as a gasifying agent was observed to improve the syn-gas production.