Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment

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Vol. 18(11) November 2014

Preventing membrane bio-fouling in a full-scale plant by textile effluent pre-treatment to produce near zero biological oxygen demand

Muniswami Sudhakar, Ponnusamy Vijayalakshmi and Subramanian Sivanesan

In this study, an effluent treatment process was indigenously designed to combine chemical oxidation with traditional treatment processes such as biological oxidation and physical processes e.g. media filtration and membrane filtration. This treatment process achieved under 1 mg/L biological oxygen demand (BOD) which prevents fouling of the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. One of the authors has patented the chemical oxidation of raw industrial effluent.In this paper, we describe various stages of the treatment methods used and the subsequent effects on plant performance in terms of the BOD reduction. These results were obtained from a full-scale working plant. The textile wastewater samples were analyzed before and after treatment for pH, color, turbidity, total dissolved solids, chemical oxygen demand, BOD, total iron, copper, silica and total hardness. The results showed that the combined treatment methods were consistent and cost-effective means of obtaining the desired RO feed quality and critical for preventing the bio-fouling of RO membrances. The combined process reduced the BOD to less than 1 mg/L and a color removal efficiency of 99.8% was achieved. The treated wastewater will be used as an RO feed for water recovery.

Cytotoxic Carbazole Alkaloids from Murraya koenigii (Rutaceae)

Sukari M. A., Ismail N., Abu Bakar N. H. and Ithnin N. L.

Crude extracts and isolated compounds from leaves, stem bark and roots of Murraya koenigii including (1) mahanimbine, (2) girinimbine, (3) murrayacine, (4) murrayanine, (5) murrayafoline A. and (6) 3-methylcarbazole were screened for cytotoxic activity against HL-60 cancer cell lines (human T-promyelocytic leukemia), MCF-7 cancer cell lines (human breast cancer), HT-29 cancer cell lines (human colon cancer) and HeLa cancer cell lines (human cervical carcinoma cancer). The cytotoxic potential of the isolated compounds was determined by using MTT (3-[4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl]-2-5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide) method. Most of the tested samples showed strong activity against four cancer cell lines with IC50 value less than 30 μg/ml.

Removal of Reactive Orange 107 Dye from Textile Effluent by Adsorption on Acid Treated Fly Ash

Verma Poonam, Chaudhary Pratibha and Kumar Atul

Fly ash, a thermal power plant waste product was activated by N/2 H2SO4 and used as an adsorbent for dye removal. This study investigates the adsorption behavior of Reactive Orange 107 (RO 107) dye on to this acid activated fly ash in batch system. For acid treated fly ash, the effects of various parameters (e.g. mixing time, initial dye concentration, adsorbent doses and pH) were determined spectro-photometrically. First the adsorbent was characterized with FTIR and SEM techniques. The FTIR suggested that the dye on fly ash is probably indicating fly ash – dye complexation. Surface morphology of fly ash and dye loaded fly ash were obtained with SEM. The percentage of colour removal was increased with decreasing dye concentration and increasing contact time and adsorbent doses. Maximum removal of colour has taken place in acidic medium (pH=4). Adsorption data were fitted on Langmuir and Freundlich Isotherm model. Both models showed good correlation coefficients but from the experimental data it was found that the adsorption process using fly ash adsorbent could be well described by Langmuir model than the Freundlich model.

Anticancer activity of Pyrrolo (1, 2-alpha) pyrazine 1, 4 dione hexahydro 3-(2-methylpropyl) metabolite from marine Streptomyces cirratus SRP11

Shiyamala Devi Sureshan and Renganathan Sahadevan

The cytotoxicity and anticancer activities of marine Streptomyces sp. on NIH 3T3 and HCT 15 cell lines were investigated. In the present study, isolate was identified as Streptomyces cirratus SRP11 through 16S rRNA analysis using two specific primers 1221 F (5-GTGAGGTGGAGGGAATCTCA-3) and 1390 R (5-TTCGGGTGTTACCGACTTTC-3). Extraction of secondary metabolites was performed by solvent extraction method using chloroform and ethyl acetate. Cytotoxicity was evaluated by MTT assay using two solvents extract of Streptomyces cirratus SRP11 on NIH 3T3 and HCT 15 cell lines. Chloroform extract was found to be the suitable solvent with percentage of cell viability on NIH 3T3 as 72.79% and percentage of cell death on HCT 15 cancer cell line on 87.96%. Crude extracts of Streptomyces cirratus SRP11 exihibited IC50 in 80 μg/ml against HCT 15 cancer cell line. GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of anti cancer metabolite Pyrrolo (1, 2-alpha) pyrazine1,4 dione hexahydro 3-(2-methylpropyl) in crude chloroform extract. The current investigation proves that the marine derived Streptomyces cirratus SRP11 produces high potential anticancer metabolite against HCT 15 cancer cells and causes less toxicity in NIH 3T3 cells. This study indicates that the metabolite could be utilized as drug against cancer cells on further purification.

The investigation of effects of silica on the environment and prevention of release of the silica particles with simulation of gas-solid flow in a gas cyclone

Hassan Davar, Sepideh Sadat Taghavirad and Mohammad Javad Mohammadi

In the present study, in order to reduce the morbidity of released silica particles from the cement factory, a gas cyclone separator is used in track of the gas-solid flow which is released to the environment. The gassolid flow with turbulence model of RNG k-ε has been simulated and morbidity of released silica particles to the environment has been examined before and after using the cyclone. The results indicated about 99% of solid particles with diameters between 5-15μmcausing shortness of breath and choking- are trapped and 80% of solid particles with diameters between 0.5-5μm-causing serious illness such as silicosis and lung cancer-are also trapped.

A Comparative Study of Photovoltaic (Direct and Battery-Integrated) Cell powered Electro Chemical Oxidation of Synthetic Tannery Effluent

Iyappan Kuttalam, Balasubramanian N., Suguna Lonchin, Saravanan Palanivel and Vedaraman Nagarajan

In this study the technical feasibility of PV-battery integrated DC-DC converter (PV-BIDC) system was used for the electro chemical oxidation of organic pollutant. The model effluent used in this study was synthetic saline water with organic load, protein (Bovine Serum Albumin). The optimum PV array configuration must be reshaped depending on the instantaneous solar irradiation. An effective methodology to adjust the EO- PV-BIDC of system operating conditions depending on solar irradiation has been proposed. The influence of various critical parameters is optimized. This PV-BIDC system has much better performance and advantages and technically it is feasible.

Heavy Metals Pollution of Beach Litter: The Consequence of Human Activities

Thomas B. V.

Recent years witnessed contamination and pollution of the global coastal waters through litter consisting of non-biodegradable materials. Marine litter is categorized mainly into land, marine and general sources based on their local or distant origins. These materials entangle marine life as well as stranding events of poor public perception. This led us in assessing the heavy metals composition in the litter that was identified to be one among the possible pollutants that leached in beaches causing deleterious effect on the marine organisms and its consumers. Furthermore, our assessment not only characterized the site wise and cause of litter distribution in beaches but also revealed the alarming quantity of litter accumulated on these beaches every year.

Application of Multivariate Statistical Analysis to evaluate the Characteristics of Groundwater Quality in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Yang B. M., Chang Y. M., Ou W. S. and Kao C. M.

In this study, groundwater samples collected from 48 monitor wells in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan were analyzed for the inorganic and organic indicating parameters quarterly during a two-year investigation period. The multivariate statistical analysis was applied to evaluate the characteristics of the groundwater quality in Kaohsiung City and the time series method was then used to assess the trend and correlation between 17 indicative groundwater variables. The statistical software SPSS-12.0 (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) was used to perform the factor, cluster and discriminant analyses. Results from the principal component (PCA) and factor analyses show that four principal components could be compiled from 17 groundwater quality indicators obtained from groundwater analyses, which included salinization factor, organic pollution factor, mineralization factor and acid-base factor. Among the four principal components, the major influencing components were salinization factor and acid-base factor. Results show that the four principal component factors were able to represent 78.3% of the total variability for 17 different groundwater quality indicators. Similar to the PCA analyses, results from the Piper diagram analyses show that the site groundwater could be classified into four groups. Through the analyses of the four principal components, the variations in the characteristics of site groundwater quality could be obtained. The groundwater in the coastal area contained high concentrations of potassium ions, sodium ions and magnesium ions and this indicates that salt water intrusion was occurring in this area. According to the organic pollution factor analysis, high values of organic pollution factors were observed in groundwater collected in the urbanized and industrialized areas and this implies that the site groundwater was contaminated by domestic sewage or industrial wastewaters. The major influencing factors in organic pollution factor group were total organic carbon and ammonia nitrogen. Results from this study indicate that the multivariate statistical analysis is a useful and promising tool to effectively evaluate the trend of groundwater quality variation and thus, appropriate and practical groundwater management strategies could be developed.

Rapid determination of phthalate esters in edible oils with short size exclusion chromatography column

Mostafa M. H. Khalil, Ahmed M. Gomaa, Ahmed Salem Sebaei and Moustapha N. M.

Phthalate esters are the best known of endocrine disruptors, so a simple and rapid method is proposed for the determination of eight types of phthalates [Dimethyl phthalate (DMP), Diethyl phthalate (DEP), Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), Dibutyl phthalate (DBP), Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), Dioctyl phthalate (DOP) and Diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP)] in edible oils. Oil samples were simply dissolved in ethyl acetate/n-hexane and eight kinds of phthalates were extracted directly with size exclusion chromatography followed by gas chromatography in combination with mass spectrometry detection (GC-MS) using selected-ion monitoring (SIM). In order to develop a fast and reliable method to meet the legislations of EU, USA, etc., a variety of validation parameters and the procedures of extraction, clean up and keeping blank minimized from phthalate contamination procedure were investigated and optimized. The method detection limits varied from 0.018 mg/kg for DMP to 0.2 mg/kg for DIDP. The method observed a good repeatability results with relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 10%. The method reported an excellent accuracy confirmed with certified reference material and the overall average recovery varied between 86.8% and 95.8% at the three different levels 0.125, 0.5 and 15 mg/kg.

The Effect of Heavy and Toxic Metals in various Vegetables grown in Vellore District (South India)

Sinha Saikat, Amsavel Ray and Sangeetha D.

The effect of heavy and toxic metals present in various vegetables grown in South India (Vellore District) was studied. Simultaneously the use of different standard methodologies and analytical instrumentations for the quantitative analysis of heavy and toxic metals was made. The toxicity of these metals is in part due to the fact that they accumulate in biological tissues, a process known as bioaccumulation1. Even the toxicity level and reasons for increasing concentration of toxic metals were also studied for each and every vegetable for that region. This toxicity may lead to various types of paralysis, neurological disorders and cancer.

Equilibrium, Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Picolinic acid Adsorption on Low Cost Adsorbent Peanut Hull

Waghmare Mangesh, Sonawane Shriram and Wasewar Kailas

2 - Pyridinecarboxylic acid also known as picolinic acid has a wide application in food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Among various purification and recycling technologies, adsorption is a fast, inexpensive and universal method. In present study, the ability of Peanut hull to remove picolinic acid from aqueous solution was investigated as a function of pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, initial acid concentration, stirring rate and temperature. The maximum adsorption of picolinic acid onto Peanut hull was found to be at pH 5, adsorbent dose of 10 gm, initial acid concentration of 0.05 mol/lit, stirring at 80 rpm for contact time of 90 min at 324 K. The experimental results were analyzed using four adsorption isotherm models: Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubunin – Radushkevich. The most suitable kinetic and isotherm models to represent the experimental data were done by Error analysis using various error functions. The kinetic data were analyzed using pseudo – first order, pseudo – second order and intra particle diffusion model. Thermodynamic functions like equilibrium constants (K), Gibbs free energy (ΔG0), entropy (ΔS0) and enthalpy (ΔH0) for adsorption were evaluated. The adsorption process was found to be endothermic in nature.

Synthesis of Diphenyl Methane over Ti-exchanged Montmorillonite K10 Clay

Hazarika Mridul Kumar and Phukan Prodeep

A titanium exchanged montmorillonite K10 clay was prepared by ion exchange method using titanium chloride in aqueous medium and characterized by using different techniques. Catalytic activity of the Tiexchanged clay catalyst was examined for synthesis of diphenyl methane.

Anti-Biofouling studies of surface modified titanium coated with silver nanoparticles for condenser application

Chokkalingam Priya, Ganessin Aravind and Wilson Richard Thilagaraj

Microbial adhesion and biofouling on titanium condenser material used as coolants in nuclear power plants leads to huge economic loss. To reduce the effect of biofouling, surface modification of titanium was carried out in this study by growing nanotube layer (TiO2-NTs) on titanium surface by anodic oxidation method. Further, silver nanoparticles were chemically synthesized and covalently assembled on the TiO2-NTs surface using 3-amino propyl triethoxy silane as coupling agent. The binding stability of the silver nanoparticles was also assessed using Inductive Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis. The surface morphology, topography and phase composition of surface modified titanium was observed and analyzed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray Diffractometer (XRD) techniques respectively. The exposure studies were conducted with TiO2-NTs coated with silver nanoparticles (NT-AgNPs) in sea water for a period of 6 months. Total viable count result of NT-AgNPs coupons shows remarkable decrease in the bacterial adhesion when compared with TiO2-NTs and Control Ti coupons.

Synthesis and Characterisation of Organotin(IV) N-Ethyl-N-Phenyldithiocarbamate Compounds and the Crystal Structures of Dibutyl- and Triphenyltin(IV) N-Ethyl-N-Phenyldithiocarbamate

Nurul Farahana Kamaludin and Normah Awang

A new series of organotin(IV) N-ethyl-N-phenyldithiocarbamate compounds has been synthesised between the reaction of N-ethylaniline amine with organotin(IV) chloride using in situ method. All compounds were characterised using elemental analysis, FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy. The crystal structures obtained were verified using X-ray single crystal analysis. The elemental analysis data were in agreement with the general formula RnSn[S2CN(C2H5)(C6H5)]4-n (where R = Bu and Ph for n = 2; R = Ph for n = 3). The important infrared absorbance peaks and the chemical shifts of carbon in NCS2 group were detected in all compounds. Compound 1 was crystallised in monoclinic crystal system (C2/c space group) whereas compound 4 adopted triclinic crystal system (P-1 space group). The single crystal X-ray diffraction studies of both compounds showed that the dithiocarbamate ligands coordinate to central Sn(IV) atom in monodentate fashion.

Final Effective Distribution of CaO and CaCO3 and its relation to the degree of acidity in treated clays

López-Lara Teresa, Hernández-Zaragoza Juan-Bosco, Horta-Rangel Jaime and Castaño Victor M.

In general, CaO stabilizes the volumetric change of some type of clays. In the treatment of clays with CaO there are some chemical reactions mainly because the Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) formation2. Adding, the value of pH close to 12 indicates that the soil treated with CaO has finished its chemical reaction4. Therefore, this study determined the effective amount of CaO and CaCO3 used in the treatment of clays and simultaneously measured the pH in this process. So, we accelerate the process of CaO-soil treatment simulating a natural deterioration over time. This study starts with the identification of the mineralogy of the expansive clay used as well as their morphology; for this we use X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques respectively. Then, mass loss analysis by Gravimetric Thermal Analysis technique was applied on the treated soil to identify its effective weight. According to results from XRD and SEM of clay, we found it was montmorrillonite type. Of the initial weight of CaO used, only 7% formed CaCO3 and the remaining quantity of CaO stayed within the soil structure. By adding CaO to the soil, pH increases from 7 to 12. This is due to the formation of calcium hydroxide. However, as the days went through, the pH comes back to 7 because of CaCO3 formation continuously although in very small amounts.