فهرست مطالب

Pollution - Volume:4 Issue: 4, Autumn 2018

Pollution
Volume:4 Issue: 4, Autumn 2018

  • تاریخ انتشار: 1397/07/12
  • تعداد عناوین: 13
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  • M. Saffari * Pages 547-562
    A greenhouse experiment has been planned for this study to delineate the benefits of two types of rice husk biochars (namely B300 and B600 which are prepared at 300°C and 600°C, respectvely) and coal fly ash (CFA), as soil amendments, for decreasing the amount of some heavy metals (like Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr, and Cu) as well as mobility and phytoavailability in an artificially-calcareous multi-element-contaminated soil. The effect of soil amendment on heavy metals’ availability has been evaluated via sequential extraction experiment and phytoavailability of the plant. According to the results, among the studied amendments, B600 has had the highest positive effect on both dry matter yield in corn and heavy metals’ availability reduction in post-harvest soil samples (with the exception of Cr), compared to CFA and B300, due to the increasing specific surface area, CEC, and pH that promote heavy metals’ sorption in the soil through surface complexation and ion exchange mechanisms. Evaluation of heavy metals’ chemical forms in post-harvest soil samples indicates that addition of amendments has significantly decreased mobility factor of heavy metals (with the exception of Cr in CFA-amended soils). In general, application of three soil amendments to this polluted soil has considerable effect on the reduction of heavy metals’ availability and phytoavailability. However, among the studied amendments, B600 and CFA have had the maximum and minimum effect on heavy metals’ availability reduction, respectively.
    Keywords: Amendments, Calcareous soil, Remediation, Mobility factor
  • M. Zouari *, N. Elloumi, I. Mezghani, P. Labrousse, B. Ben Rouina, F. Ben Abdallah, C. Ben Ahmed Pages 563-570
    Industrialization releases significant amounts of various air pollutants such as F, Cd, Pb, particulate matter, etc., which can in turn have a deleterious effect on a variety of biochemical and physiological processes as well as the structural organization within the cells. Responses from plants species to air pollutants is varied with certain species being very sensitive to such pollutants, ending up with well visible and measurable symptoms. Morphological damage is generally visible through lesions on the aerial parts, while biochemical and physiological changes which are invisible can be measured and quantified. This study has been designed to investigate the biochemical and physiological biomarkers of apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) exposed to air pollution. It has been observed that, in comparison to unpolluted sites, lipid peroxidation level has increased in the leaves of apricot trees, grown in polluted areas, whereas photosynthetic capacity (Net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, total chlorophyll, and carotenoids) along with osmotic regulator (proline and soluble sugars) levels have declined. In P. armeniaca leaves, these symptoms can be used as indicators of air pollution stress for its early diagnosis, making them a reliable marker for a particular physiological disorder.
    Keywords: Prunus armeniaca, biomonitoring, lipid peroxidation, gas exchange, photosynthetic pigments, proline
  • M. Ahmad *, Z. Ur Rahman, L. Hong, S. Khan, Z. Khan, M. Naeem Khan Pages 571-579
    Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the foremost gas, emanated from human activities, and the best-known greenhouse gas, contributing to global warming, thus its negative effect on human health cannot be disregarded. The current paper investigates the relation between environmental quality variables, socio-economic factors, and human health from 1960 to 2014 in China, using Auto Regressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) Model. It selects three main environmental quality indicators (carbon emissions from coal, natural gas, and petrol) along with two representative socio-economic factors variables (per capita income and urban population) to explain the interaction mechanism. The results validate the long-term negative equilibrium impact of carbon emissions from the consumption of natural gas, coal, and petroleum on human health. The findings also reveal that migration from the countryside to cities and increase in per capita income improve quality of health. It is suggested that lowering emission of Carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the principal cause of greenhouse gas emissions, should be important in setting up the high quality of life for citizens.
    Keywords: CO2 emissions, per capita income, Urban population, ARDL
  • E. Salehi, S. Ghorbani *, L. Rahimi, R. Salehi Pages 581-592
    One of the most comprehensive tools to show the changing trend in urban ecosystems is by providing periodic State of Environment Report (SoER) for cities in national programs, wherein it is quite essential to have a truthful and realistic view of the current state of the environment as well as significant human impacts. Developing countries like Iran are faced with incoherent and deficient SoER; due to lack of data, which originates from neglecting environmental issues such as poverty, overpopulation, etc. The present study makes a comparative assessment of Tehran and Sydney's SoER in terms of sustainable urban environment indicators with the purpose of recognizing the weaknesses and strengths as well as finding the most important gaps in Tehran's SoER, which can be a useful resource for decision-makers. Results indicate the necessity of establishing integrated urban environmental management. On the whole, this paper recommends programs of environmental development and implementation as suggested strategies to reduce uncertainty and increase the reliability of SoER in the study area.
    Keywords: Urban quality, sustainable cities, environmental indicators, environmental management
  • M. Banaee *, S. Taheri, F. Hedayatzadeh Pages 593-603
    The present study investigates the influence of an organophosphorus pesticide, namely Dimethoate, and cadmium on biomarkers of the green alga, Spirogyra sp., in a 14-day experiment. For so doing, it has exposed Spirogyra sp. to 0.0, 100, 200, and 400 mg L-1 of Dimethoate and/or 1 mg L-1 of cadmium chloride (CdCl2) to observe a reduction in chlorophyll a and b level in Spirogyra sp., exposed to 200 and 400 mg L-1 of Dimethoate as well as algae treated with cadmium alone or in combination with Dimethoate. Levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant in cells, as well as the activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) soar in Spirogyra sp., exposed to Dimethoate and/or cadmium (alone or simultaneously). Also Spirogyra’sexposure to cadmium and/or Dimethoate significantly increases catalase (CAT) activity. However, levels of carotenoids in Spirogyra sp., treated with both cadmium and Dimethoate, decline significantly, with no significant change found in catalase activity of Spirogyra sp., exposed to 100 and 200 mg L-1 of Dimethoate, in comparison to the control group. However, CAT activity rises significantly in Spirogyra sp., treated with 400 mg L-1 of Dimethoate. Cadmium can cause cytotoxicity in 1 mg L-1 concentration of the green algae(Spirogyra sp.). On the whole, investigating the biological and biochemical markers in Spirogyra sp., exposed to different concentrations of Dimethoate, has revealed some concentration-dependent toxicity. Furthermore, Dimethoate can synergistically increase toxicity and bioavailability of cadmium in Spirogyra sp.
    Keywords: Spirogyra sp, Metal, Organophosphate pesticide, Bio-concentration, oxidative stress
  • K. L. Njoku, Z. Ulu *, A. A. Adesuyi, A.O. Jolaoso, M.O. Akinola Pages 605-615
    The extensive use of pesticides leads to accumulation of a huge amount of residues in the environment. As such, the present study investigates the potentiality of Pleurotus pulmonarius to bioremediate dichlorvos pesticides (2,2-dichlorovinyldimethylphosphate) in contaminated soil. DDVP-polluted soils have been contaminated in five concentrations (5% v/w, 10% v/w, 15% v/w, 20% v/w, and 25% v/w), and the soil samples have been inoculated and incubated with pure culture of growing spawns of P. pulmonarius, obtained from commercial mushroom laboratory of Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi, Lagos. The control, however, has not been inoculated. Each treatment has been in triplicates with the soils, analyzed for total amount of DDVP at day 0 and day 60, using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Also, pH, moisture content, and total organic matter of the soil have been determined. Results show that the rate of DDVP degradation in the soils with Pleurotus pulmonarius has been higher than the soil samples without mushroom after 60 days. However, for the control without mushroom (loss due to natural attenuation) and those inoculated with P. pulmonarius (bioremediation) the loss percentage of DDVP ascended with the percentage of pesticide from 5% to 25%. The DDVP loss across all different concentrations of mushroom inoculation have been significant (p<0.05); however, for natural attenuation, it has not been significant (p>0.05), except for the lowest pesticide level (5%). Activities of mycelia have decreased soil pH, moisture content, and total organic matter. There has been a very minimal pesticide bioaccumulation in mushroom tissue, which has not been significant (p>0.05), but considerable at p<0.001, indicating that P. pulmonarius has the potential to degrade DDVP pesticides in soil.
    Keywords: Mycoremediation, Pleurotus pulmonarius, pesticides, Dichlorvos, mushroom
  • A. T. Al Madhhachi *, M. B. Hasan Pages 617-633
    Middle and southern Iraq suffers from polluted soils due to crude oil, spilled on land, leakage from transmitting pipe networks, or petroleum products from refineries. Many researchers have studied pollution impacts on the soil in details, but there is a clear lack of investigation on the influence of crude oil on soil erodibility. Recent researches have investigated the influence of pollution on erodibility parameters, which include critical shear stress (τc) and detachment factor (dc). The variability of dc and τc due to different in-situ scaling has not been thoroughly established for polluted and unpolluted soils. Thus this research aims at investigating the influence of different in-situ scaling ratios (1:1, 1:30, and 1:50) on variability of dc and τc for polluted and unpolluted soils under controlled laboratory conditions, using Jet Erosion Test (JET), and tries to compare the three solution techniques (namely, Blaisdell’s approach, depth scour approach, and iterative approach) to solve dc and τc from JETs for polluted and unpolluted soils. The polluted soil samples have been prepared by submerging the soil surface with crude oil for 24 hours prior to testing. Results show that there have been statistical differences in dc and τc between polluted and unpolluted soil samples on the dry side of water contents with no statistically significant difference of measured dc and τc being observed across different in-situ scale ratios for polluted and unpolluted soils. All told, the study shows less variability of measured dc and τc across different solution techniques, compared to previous study findings.
    Keywords: In-situ scaling, JET, Erodibility of polluted soils, Soil erodibility parameters, Crude oil
  • M. Najaf Tarqi, Y. Askari Dolatabad *, H. Vahidi Pages 635-647
    Nitrate is a major contributor to water contamination, which can affect humans' and animals' health. Due to increased sewage production, growth of agricultural activities, and development of urbanization, recent years have seen an increase of Nitrate in water resources. Drinking water resources in both rural and urban areas of Jiroft City are supplied by water wells, scattered throughout the region. Thus the present research analyses the Nitrate pollution of 31 drinking water wells in summer and winter of 2016, in the urban area of ​​Jiroft City and by means of GIS as well as statistical analysis, presents the results as zoning and survey maps. It also studies and evaluates the effect of rainfall and soil type on the amount of Nitrate. Results from statistical analyses show that the amount of water pollution to Nitrate is independent from the type of land use as well as the soil type. Furthermore, statistical results show that the amount of Nitrate in the wells under test is affected by precipitation, being higher in the winter. Therefore, considering the agricultural density in this area and the untapped use of nitrogen fertilizers, it is necessary to take into account the use of chemical fertilizers for proper management, scientific and practical control, and maintenance of the wells' health safety.
    Keywords: Groundwater pollution, Nitrate, Jiroft City, Statistical Analysis, Geostatistical analysis
  • M. J. Alatabe * Pages 649-662
    The present study evaluates the suitability ofactivated carbon, prepared from Cane Papyrus, a plant that grows naturally and can be found quite easily, which serves as a biological sorbent for removal of Cu2+ ions from aqueous solutions. Fourier transform infra-red analysis for the activated carbon, prepared fromCane Papyrus confirms the presence of amino (–NH), carbonyl (–C=O), and hydroxyl (–OH) functional groups with Bath mode getting used to investigate the effects of the following parameters: adsorbent dosage (among the rates of 10, 20, and 30 g/L), pH values, Cu2+ initial concentration, and contact time. Results reveal higher efficiency (98%) of powdered adsorbent for removal of Cu2+ ions, which is found at pH=6 with 30 g/L activated carbon, prepared from Cane Papyrus, for a duration of 2 hours. The Freundlich isotherm model with linearized coefficient of 0.982 describes the adsorption process more suitably than the langmuir model, in which this rate equals to 0.899. Pseudo-second order kinetic equation best describes the kinetics of the reaction. Furthermore, it has been found that 0.5M HCl is a better desorbing agent than either 0.5 M NaOH or de-ionized water. The experimental data, obtained, demonstrate that the activated carbon prepared from Cane Papyrus can be used as a suitable adsorbent for Copper(II) ion removal from aqueous solutions.
    Keywords: Natural Plants, Biosorbent, Activation, Removal Efficiency, Kinetics
  • L. Heidari, M. Jalili Ghazizade *, A. Salemi Pages 663-673
    Application of aromatic compounds has dramatically increased as raw materials in various industries and different factories have been established to produce aromatic compounds. The current research aims at characterizing industrial waste generation in aromatics production process in petrochemical industries and determining the best feasible alternative for waste disposal. For this purpose, the world’s biggest aromatic producer, i.e. Nouri Petrochemical Complex (NPC), located in Asaluyeh, Iran, has been selected as case study. Firstly, different waste streams, generated during aromatics production, have been determined through a specific checklist. Spent industrial soil, catalyst, spent sieve, and Normal -Formyl -Morpholine (NFM) solvent are the most important identified wastes in NPC, with the former being the most generated waste in NPC with a rate of 600 tons per year. Afterwards, the mentioned waste has been sampled and important physicochemical specification such as heavy metals and organic compounds has been measured. Ni, Cu, and As are remarkable trace heavy metals, observed in all kinds of generated waste. In the next step, industrial waste classification and coding has been done, based on different guidelines. Finally different feasible alternatives like material recovery, sanitary landfill, and incineration have been compared, based on conventional economic, technical, and environmental indices. The best feasible waste disposal methods are the extraction of heavy metals from spent catalysts, recycling of spent molecular sieves and spent industrial soil as additives to building materials, and recovery of thermal energy by incineration of spent NFM solvent.
    Keywords: aromatic products, spent industrial soil, spent molecular sieve, spent catalyst
  • R. Krishna Sharma *, T. Chithambarathau, K. Elampari, S. Nagaveena Pages 675-685
    Surface ozone (SOZ) can be very harmful if it exceeds the threshold limit. It can accumulate over sea and can return back to the land along with the breeze. Rural and vegetation rich areas often record elevated levels of surface ozone because of the variations in Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) levels, wind velocity and direction. Similarly methane is also an important greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in the atmospheric budget. In this work, ozone and methane levels measured during daytime in a mangrove estuary near Manakudy(8.0911 N, 77.477 E),kanyakumari, South India for a period of ten months from March 2014 to December 2014 are analyzed.SOZ showed an imprecise diurnal pattern with an early morning peak whereas methane recorded an apparent diurnality. The maximum value of SOZ was around 50 ppb. Summer months recorded high levels of SOZ followed by Southwest monsoon (SWM) and Northeast monsoon (NEM).High levels of methane were found in SWM followed by NEM and low concentration during summer. The correlation between SOZ and methane was found as r = -0.257, p
    Keywords: VOC, estuary, diurnal, greenhouse, correlation, meteorology
  • F. Tavakoli, A. Badiei * Pages 687-696
    The present study synthesizes Zn-TiO2 photocatalyst via a simple and economic green rout, in which Green Tea is applied as a green reducing agent due to the presence of polyphenols Molecules. Polyphenol molecules in green tea act as a reductant, thus changing Zn2+ to metallic Zn. The by-produced nanocmposites are characterized by using XRD, FESEM, EDS, and DRS. Zn-TiO2 photocatalyst possesses great efficient charge separation properties. In order to investigate the presence of Zn, different weight ratio of Zn to TiO2 (viz. 5 wt%, 10 wt%, 15 wt%, 20 wt%, 25 wt%, 30 wt%, 35 wt%, 40 wt%, 45 wt%, and 50 wt%) have been synthesized and their performance in Acid Orange 7 (AO7) photodegradation, compared with pure TiO2. According to the results, the compound with 25 wt% Zn shows 97% degradation of AO7 as a model pollutant. Also, it has been shown that after three tests with EDTA, benzoic acid, and under Ar gas, photodegradation of AO7 with Zn-TiO2 photocatalyst mainly depends on photogenerated holes.
    Keywords: Zn-TiO2, Green Synthesis, Green Tea, Photocatalyst, Acid Orange 7
  • G. Fazeli, A.R. Karbassi *, Sh. Khoramnejadian, T. Nasrabadi Pages 697-706
    In the present investigation, 41 soil samples were subjected to single step chemical partitioning to assess the lithogenic and non-lithogenic portions of metals in Tehran's soils. The share of various studied metals in the anthropogenic portion ranges from as low as 0.2% to as high as 85% of bulk concentration. Geo-accumulation index (Igeo) showed that Cd falls within "heavily contaminated" soils. It might be inferred that Ni, Cu, Cr, Zn, Co and Ca fall within "Deficient to minimal" class in accordance with enrichment factor (EF) classification.. Enrichment factor values (to some extents) match with the chemical partition studies results (except for Ni and Cr). The very low Ca content of soil samples could be indicative of low biological productivity in the Tehran's soil. Also the very low concentrations of Mn could be indicative of reducing environment in soils of Tehran.
    Keywords: Pollution, Indices, Metals, Contamination, Soil, Risk, Geochemistry, Environment, Urban area, Tehran