Chemical and Bacteriological Monitoring of Drinking Water from an Urbanised Water Catchment Drainage Basin

The Linggi river drainage basin in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia supplies water to the whole of Port Dickson district and meets 50% of the Seremban district needs. The Linggi River, the main tributary, passes through the highly urbanised and densely populated Seremban district while the water treatment plant is located 16 km downstream. In 1979 the USEPA declared the river unsuitable as a source of raw water whereas the WHO classified it as being heavily polluted requiring more extensive and effective treatment. In order to meet the WHO drinking water standards, an ozonation system was installed in the conventional water treatment plant. The objective of ozonation is for the control and removal of organic micropollutants and other deleterious matters. This study investigated the concentrations and distribution of organic micropollutants, heavy metals, and bacteriological counts in water samples collected from within the catchment and the treated water. The effectiveness of the ozonation system was also studied. The total level of phenolic water pollutants in the catchment was generally found to be very much higher than the maximum recommended level of 2.0 µgl-1. The extensive treatment process carried out at the plant was very effective in reducing the levels of total phenols in the treated water to less than 1.0 µgl-1. However the process was not efficient enough to reduce the levels of some heavy metals as required by the standards, for examples Cd and Pb were still three times higher than the standards of 5µgl-1 and 0.05 mgl-1 respectively. For bacteriological study, coliform group of bacteria, Salmonella, faecal streptococci and injured coliform were monitored in the raw and treated water. The raw water contained coliforms about 1000 times higher than the required standard for raw ater, but after the secondary treatment by ozonation coliform bacteria were absent, however a small number of Salmonella was still present occasionally. The study also showed that restructuring of the district and relocating of some commercial activities along the river banks to other areas carried out over the last five years has improved the general quality of the river water.     

Molecular docking analysis on antifungal properties of acid condensate produced from palm kernel shell

The rise in the number of fungi that resisted antifungal action is of serious concern nowadays. In this study, the potential of acid condensate (AC) produced from microwave-assisted pyrolysis of palm kernel shell (PKS) was investigated for its antifungal properties through molecular docking evaluation. The phenolic-rich AC was determined for its chemical compositions using the GC–MS analysis where compounds with the highest phenolics content were further evaluated (using the Autodock Tools 1.5.7) for its potential enzymes/protein binding properties. From the GC–MS analysis, catechol, guaiacol and syringol were present at highest percentages. This directly correlates with results obtained from the molecular docking works where all these ligands managed to bind (indicated by H-bond, π-stacking, hydrophobic interaction) with some of the amino acid at the active sites which indicate its potential to inhibit substrate binding of this enzyme. As a conclusion, this study demonstrated the potential use of AC from agricultural biomass such as PKS as a natural-based antifungal agent that can reduce environmental and health impacts.     

Taurine modulates dynamics of oxidative defense,secondary metabolism,and nutrient relation to mitigate boron and chromium toxicity in Triticum aestivum L. plants

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The present study was undertaken to appraise the efficacy of exogenous taurine in alleviating boron (B) and chromium (Cr) toxicity. Taurine protects...     

Evaluation of the potential of Sasobit® to reduce required heat energy and CO2 emission in the asphalt industry

Warm-mix asphalt (WMA) has been gaining popularity in the asphalt industry primarily because of its ability to lower the energy required to blend asphalt mixes, which in turn results in less fuel consumption, slower aging of the asphalt binder and reduced emission of greenhouse gases. This paper evaluates the effects of different quantities of a WMA additive known as Sasobit^® on the required heat energy and the amount of CO₂ produced to increase the temperature of two aggregates from three sources and one binder from 25 °C to the point of mixing. The results showed that incorporating 1% Sasobit^® can potentially reduce the required heat energy and amount of CO₂ produced by 2.8% and 3.0%, respectively, for all aggregate types and sources investigated. The paper also presented design charts that enable energy policy makers and engineers to select the appropriate Sasobit^® content to produce the most cost effective asphalt mixture with less environmental impact. The design charts show that 1.6% Sasobit^® content is the most suitable proportion to be blended into the asphalt binder without compromising pavement resistance against fatigue failure. Two similar aggregates from different sources may exhibit similar specific gravities, but their specific heat capacities can vary widely. These differences have a significant effect on the required heat energy, asphalt production cost and the amount of emissions released into the environment.     

Comparative degradation between heavy and light crude oil mediated by nitrogen‐induced cell‐surface hydrophobicity

A bacterial strain UKMP‐10M2 isolated from a Malaysian petroleum refinery was able to degrade 84% of heavy Khafji sour crude and 68% of light Tapis sweet crude within seven days. Analysis of gas chromatography‐flame ionization detector chromatograms show the strain UKMP‐10M2 degraded up to 90% pristane and 50% phytane in heavy crude, but significantly lower pristane (50%) and phytane (30%) were degraded from the light crude. A mixture of aliphatic hexadecane and three‐ring phenanthrene better supported the growth of isolate UKMP‐10M2 compared to using phenanthrene alone, suggesting cometabolism influenced how crude oil with different individual hydrocarbon contents affected the degradation. Peptone as the source of nitrogen increases the emulsifying index in UKMP‐10M2 exposed to heavy Khafji sour crude 20% higher than in light Tapis sweet crude. However, BATH assay showed the same nitrogen source increases bacterial cell surface hydrophobicity of UKMP‐10M2 up to 14% higher in light Tapis crude oil compared to heavy Khafji. This study suggest the nitrogen source plays a decisive role in elevating UKMP‐10M2 bacterial cells hydrophobicity, and in correlation with types of crude oil. Phylogenetic tree analysis based on 16S rDNA sequence results identified the strain to be Rhodococcus ruber.     

Analyzing the relationships between travel mode indicators and the number of passenger transport fatalities at the city level

Objective: A number of efforts have been conducted on travel behavior and transport fatalities at the neighborhood or street level, and they have identified different factors such as roadway characteristics, personal indicators, and design indicators related to transport safety. However, only a limited number of studies have considered the relationship between travel behavior indicators and the number of transport fatalities at the city level. Therefore, this study explores this relationship and how to fill the mentioned gap in current knowledge.

Method: A generalized linear model (GLM) estimates the relationships between different travel mode indicators (e.g., length of motorway per inhabitants, number of motorcycles per inhabitant, percentage of daily trips on foot and by bicycle, percentage of daily trips by public transport) and the number of passenger transport fatalities. Because this city-level model is developed using data sets from different cities all over the world, the impacts of gross domestic product (GDP) are also included in the model.

Conclusions: Overall, the results imply that the percentage of daily trips by public transport, the percentage of daily trips on foot and by bicycle, and the GDP per inhabitant have negative relationships with the number of passenger transport fatalities, whereas motorway length and the number of motorcycles have positive relationships with the number of passenger transport fatalities.     

Chromium retention potential of two contrasting Solanum lycopersicum Mill. cultivars as deciphered by altered pH dynamics,growth, and organic acid exudation under Cr stress

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Chromium (Cr), being a persistent toxic heavy metal, triggered the retardation of plant’s metabolic processes by initiating changes in...     

Characterization and antiinflammatory properties of fractionated pyroligneous acid from palm kernel shell

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Pyroligneous acid (PA) obtained from slow pyrolysis of palm kernel shell (PKS) has high total phenolic contents and exhibits various biological...     

Assessment of the impact of petroleum and petrochemical industries to the surrounding areas in Malaysia using mosses as bioindicator supported by multivariate analysis

Biomonitoring of multi-element atmospheric deposition using terrestrial moss is a well-established technique in Europe. Although the technique is widely known, there were very limited records of using this technique to study atmospheric air pollution in Malaysia. In this present study, the deposition of 11 trace metals surrounding the main petroleum refinery plant in Kerteh Terengganu (eastern part of peninsular Malaysia) has been evaluated using two local moss species, namely Hypnum plumaeforme and Taxithelium instratum as bioindicators. The study was also done by means of observing whether these metals are attributed to work related to oil exploration in this area. The moss samples have been collected at 30 sampling stations in the vicinity of the petrochemical industrial area covering up to 15 km to the south, north, and west in radius. The contents of heavy metal in moss samples were analyzed by energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence technique. Distribution of heavy metal content in all mosses is portrayed using Surfer software. Areas of the highest level of contaminations are highlighted. The results obtained using the principal components analysis revealed that the elements can be grouped into three different components that indirectly reflected three different sources namely anthropogenic factor, vegetation factor, and natural sources (soil dust or substrate) factor. Heavy metals deposited mostly in the distance after 9 km onward to the western part (the average direction of wind blow). V, Cr, Cu, and Hg are believed to have originated from local petrochemical-based industries operated around petroleum industrial area.