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Auxin treatment of wetland and non-wetland plant species to enhance their phytoremediation efficiency to treat municipal wastewater

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Auxin treatment of wetland and non-wetland plant species to enhance their phytoremediation efficiency to treat municipal wastewater Authors: Tandon, S A; Kumar, R; Parsana, S Abstract: Auxin treatment of wetland and non-wetland plant species for increasing their phytoremediation efficiency to treat municipal wastewater was studied. The mesocosms were set up with gravels and polyethylene balls as the inert support media. The wetland plant species (Alternanthera philoxeroides, Eichhornia crassipes) and non-wetland species (Chrysopogon zizanioides, Festuca arundinaceae) were treated with six concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0 and 10.0 mg/L) of natural auxins (Indole-3-acetic acid, Indole-3-butyric acid) and a synthetic auxin (1-Naphathaleneacetic acid). The optimum auxin concentration was found to be 2 mg/L of IAA, 1mg/L of IAA and 1mg/L of IBA for Alternanthera philoxeroides, Festuca arundinaceae and Chrysopogon zizanioides, respectively. The removal efficiencies of auxin treated Alternanthera philoxeroides, Festuca arundinaceae and Chrysopogon zizanioides for BOD, Nitrate and Phosphate was 12-15, 30-44 and 29-42 % more than the untreated plants. Page(s): 702-707

Effect of varying the Compression ratio and Injection timing on Performance and emission parameters in CI engine using Mahua Bio-diesel

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Effect of varying the Compression ratio and Injection timing on Performance and emission parameters in CI engine using Mahua Bio-diesel Authors: Hariram, V; Kumar, G M Abstract: Biodiesel derived from non-edible oils have become the need of the hour in order to solve the problem of oil crisis. In the present work, B20 blend of Mahua biodiesel was tested in a single cylinder diesel engine.The engine variables like CR and IT were adjusted together where CR was varied from 16 to 18 with injection timing 20°, 23° and 25° bTDC in order to evaluate the performance and emission parameters. BTE increased slightly and BSEC shown a very slight reduction at higher loads with B20 blend at standard setting. Higher increase in BTE and reduction in BSEC was observed with the advanced injection timing at higher loads. Emissions of UBHC, CO and Smoke reduced with B20 blend and further reduced with advanced injection timing whereas NO_xemissions increased with B20 blend at standard setting and advanced injection timing. Page(s): 695-701

Integrated use of animal manures along with inorganic fertilizers on soil available major and secondary nutrients in bhendi crop (Abelmoschus esculentus L.)

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Integrated use of animal manures along with inorganic fertilizers on soil available major and secondary nutrients in bhendi crop (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) Authors: Dhavappriya, A; Sanjivkumar, V Abstract: A field experiment was conducted in Agricultural college and Research Institute, Madurai, TamilNadu Agricultural university to evaluate integrated use of animal manures along with inorganic fertilizers on soil available major and secondary nutrients in bhendi crop (Arka anamika) with organic sources like goat manure and pig manure combined with inorganic fertilizers on availability of soil available major and secondary nutrients. There were ten treatment combinations replicated thrice in Randomized block design (RBD) in Maddukkur soil series (Typic Haplustalf). Thus result showed that the combined application of 50 per cent Recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) + goat manure @ 6.5 t ha^-1at different stages of bhendi viz., vegetative flowering, fruit and post harvesting stages was found superior and increased the soil available nutrients then other treatments, organic carbon (0.653%), available Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) & Potassium (K) (216.1, 12.4 and 252.40 kg ha^-1) and Calcium (Ca) & Magnesium (Mg) (0.138 & 0.280%) and lowest value registered in the control plot viz., organic carbon (0.435%), available N, P & K (183.8, 8.5 and 189.40 kg ha^-1) and Ca & Mg (0.109 &0.229%) respectively. Page(s): 690-694

Experimental Investigations of Influence of Halloysite Nanotube on Mechanical and Chemical Resistance Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Nano Composites

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Experimental Investigations of Influence of Halloysite Nanotube on Mechanical and Chemical Resistance Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Nano Composites Authors: Ramamoorthi, R; Sampath, P S Abstract: In this paper bi-directionally woven E-glass fabric/epoxy nanocomposite with different loading of halloysite nanotube (EP/GF/HNT) were made by hand layup followed by compression molding processes. Effectiveness of HNT addition on mechanical properties of the glass fiber reinforced epoxy nanocomposites were investigated by performing tensile and flexural property analysis as per ASTM standards. The results show that the addition of HNT significantly improved the mechanical properties compared with unfilled epoxy/glass fiber (EP/GF) composites and the maximum improvements in the properties were obtained at 4wt% addition of HNT. A further increase in the HNT content deteriorates the mechanical behaviour. The XRD, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the reinforcement mechanism and dispersion states of HNT in the nano composite. The results indicate that the compatibility between glass fiber and epoxy were obviously enhanced by the addition of HNT in the EP/GF composites. The chemical resistance properties EP/GF/HNT nanocomposites were also studied by using various chemical regents. It was found that all the composites are resistant to almost all the chemicals used. Page(s): 685-689