Alkalinity

Water quality of Suswa River in Dehradun was assessed in terms of their Physico-chemical characteristics. Samples were collected on the monthly basis since February to April, 2018 from five sites along the Doon valley. Total number of fifteen samples were collected and pH, Temperature, Alkalinity, Dissolved Oxygen ,Total Hardness , Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) , Salinity , Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Calcium and Magnesium concentration were determined. During the course of study minor difference in physical and chemical parameters of the study area were observed.

The chemical quality of groundwater of western Haryana, India was assessed for its suitability for drinking purposes. A total of 275 water samples were collected from deep aquifer based hand-pumps situated in 37 different villages/towns of Bhiwani region. The water samples were analyzed for different physico-chemical properties, e.g., pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), total harness (TH), total alkalinity (TA), calcium, magnesium, carbonate, bicarbonate, sulphate, chloride and fluoride concentrations. In this study, the average TDS content was greater ranging 1,692 (Bhiwani block) to 2,560 mg l−1 (Siwani block), and other important parameters of water, e.g., TA (442–1,232 mg l−1), TH (437–864 mg l−1) and bicarbonate (554–672 mg l−1), were also higher than maximum permissible limit by WHO or BIS. The fluoride appeared as a major problem of safe drinking water in this region. We recorded greater fluoride concentration, i.e., 86.0 mg l−1 from Motipura village that is highest fluoride level ever recorded for Haryana state. The average fluoride concentration ranged between 7.1 and 0.8 mg l−1 in different blocks of western Haryana. On the basis of fluoride concentration, Siwani block showed the maximum number of water samples (84% of total collected samples) unsuitable for drinking purposes (containing fluoride >1.5 mg l−1) followed by Charki Dadri block (58%), Bhiwani block (52%), Bawani Khera block (33%) and Loharu block (14%). This study clearly suggest that some health deteriorating chemicals in drinking water were at dangerous level and; therefore, water quality could be a major health threat for local residents of western Haryana. The high fluoride level in drinking water has posed some serious dental health risks in local residents.

High temperature represents one of the most serious abiotic stress factors limiting plant photosynthesis, biomass production and crop productivity. Photosynthetic apparatus is an important heat sensor in plants, sensing a wide range of air temperatures, from moderate to extreme. In this chapter we offer current knowledge on both photochemical and metabolic changes occurring within the photosynthetic apparatus in conditions of heat stress associated with signaling and stress response. The heat stress directly affects the heat sensitive sites, mainly Oxygen Evolving Complex of Photosystem II and Rubisco activase. It leads to subsequent indirect effects, such as changes of the redox status of individual components on thylakoid membrane in chloroplast and increase in production of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). Hence, the redox signaling plays the crucial role in enhancement of alternative electron pathways such as cyclic electron flow as well as triggering the signal transduction pathways resulting to heat stress response. The redox signaling in chloroplast is closely associated with ROS signaling, which interferes with regulation also out of chloroplast. The stress response involves mainly production of specific proteins (mostly heat shock proteins or antioxidants) or protective compounds (osmoprotectants) leading to increase of thermostability of sensitive sites or protection against ROS. Different signal molecules contribute in photosynthesis-related heat-stress signaling pathways, such as reactive oxygen species with hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide, calcium, abscisic acid, etc. The specific roles of cytokinins and isoprene in heat stress response are also reviewed.

In this study, a novel continuous reactor has been developed to produce high quality methyl esters (biodiesel) from palm oil. A microporous TiO2/Al2O3 membrane was packed with potassium hydroxide catalyst supported on palm shell activated carbon. The central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate the effects of reaction temperature, catalyst amount and cross flow circulation velocity on the production of biodiesel in the packed bed membrane reactor. The highest conversion of palm oil to biodiesel in the reactor was obtained at 70 degrees C employing 157.04 g catalyst per unit volume of the reactor and 0.21 cm/s cross flow circulation velocity. The physical and chemical properties of the produced biodiesel were determined and compared with the standard specifications. High quality palm oil biodiesel was produced by combination of heterogeneous alkali transesterification and separation processes in the packed bed membrane reactor. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852410014574

Inefficient management of nutrient inputs has put a large constraint on the environment and human’s health. Indiscriminate use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers has led to ground water pollution. So the farmers has to pay close attention to nutrient management and incorporate the concept of balanced plant nutrition into their farming techniques. The balanced nutrition level to plant is provided by managing pH
and Electrical conductivity level of fertilizer solution according to soil pH and electrical conductivity. Developed system comprises of two sensors to measure pH and EC of the fertilizer solution and soil. The output signals from the pH and EC electrode sensors are conditioned with the help signal conditioning cards and then interfaced to microcontroller through inbuilt ADC. Microcontroller will turn ON and OFF
particular solenoid valve to pore the fertilizers into the mixing tank according to the pH and EC level in the mixing tank solution. LCD is used to display the computed results. pH and EC level of fertilizer solution is maintained on the basis of output readings of EC and pH sensors.

In this study, a novel continuous reactor has been developed to produce high quality methyl esters (biodiesel) from palm oil. A microporous TiO2/Al2O3 membrane was packed with potassium hydroxide catalyst supported on palm shell activated carbon. The central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate the effects of reaction temperature, catalyst amount and cross flow circulation velocity on the production of biodiesel in the packed bed membrane reactor. The highest conversion of palm oil to biodiesel in the reactor was obtained at 70°C employing 157.04g catalyst per unit volume of the reactor and 0.21cm/s cross flow circulation velocity. The physical and chemical properties of the produced biodiesel were determined and compared with the standard specifications. High quality palm oil biodiesel was produced by combination of heterogeneous alkali transesterification and separation processes in the packed bed membrane reactor. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0960852410014574/1-s2.0-S0960852410014574-main.pdf?_tid=74bcbdf2-025e-11e4-8ea3-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1404356723_f959262287254ffe4bce3abeee7084d9 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852410014574

Ancient Gerasa (its Greco-Roman name)/Islamic Jerash (its later Arab name) is one of the most well-known pre-modern urban sites in northern Jordan, which flourished throughout antiquity and into the early Islamic period. Direct dating of mortar and plaster in Jerash is challenging due to the area’s abundance of geological carbonates that hamper the use of radiocarbon mortar methodologies as shown by previous attempts. Therefore, this study revisited the important problem of Jerash mortar dating. The aim was to advance solutions to the challenges with geological carbonates through sample pre-treatment and preparation methods such as wet sieving, sedimentation, cryo2sonic and stepwise injection of diluted acid. To characterize the samples we used alkalinity screening and cathodoluminescence microscopy. Ten plaster samples from an Umayyad house, destroyed by the earthquake in 749 CE, in Jerash were radiocarbon dated. These produced 12 conclusive dates out of 20 attempted datings, and here some samples had multiple attempted datings. These dates confirmed the early Islamic date of the house structure, while some samples suggested reuse of older material. Five comparative mortar samples from medieval Finland and Sweden critically evaluated the methodology proposed in this article. These have known ages, and they produced five conclusive dates that compared accurately with the expected ages. Compared to previous attempts at Jerash mortar dating, this study made substantial contributions to Jerash mortar dating.

With the increasing demand for fossil fuels based energy and implementation of progressively strict environmental pollution control standards, treatment of a large amount of co-produced waters (CPWs) from fossil based energy production has become increasingly important. Removal of bicarbonate with H 2 SO 4 has been recently studied as a simple and cost-effective method to decrease the alkalinity of CPWs. The present work investigates the kinetics of the reaction between H 2 SO 4 and NaHCO 3 , which could provide the base for scaling-up the CPW treatment technology. Based on the measured quantity change of the CO 2 gas generated from the reaction between H 2 SO 4 and NaHCO 3 with time under specified initial reaction conditions, the reaction orders with respect to H 2 SO 4 and NaHCO 3 were determined. Experiments were also conducted within the temperature of 15–30°C to find various global rate coefficients of the reaction to calculate the activation energy and the pre-exponential factor of the empirical Arrhenius form of the bicarbonate removal reaction, which are 197.7 kJ/mol and 3.13× 10 34 (mol −3.7 ×L 3.7 ×sec −1), respectively.

Two phenol–formaldehyde resol resin series with different methylation- and condensation-stage alkalinities were studied. The first series was impregnation resins having a methylation alkalinity between 0.5 and 1.5 wt % and a condensation alkalinity of 1.5 wt %. The second series was adhesive resins with a methylation alkalinity between 0.5 and 3.5 wt % and a condensation alkalinity of 6.0 wt %. The chemical structure was analyzed by 13C-NMR spectroscopy, and reactivity, by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The methylation alkalinity was found to affect the distribution of the structural groups of both phenol–formaldehyde impregnation and adhesive resins, but not to the same extent as did the total condensation alkalinity. Also, the results of the DSC analysis illustrate best the reactivity differences due to the condensation alkalinity. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 82: 258–262, 2001

The processes of coagulation and flocculation using high molecular weight long-chain polymers were applied to treat mine water having fine flocs of which about 93% of the total mass was less than 3.02 m, representing the size distribution of fine particles. Six different combinations of acryl-type anionic flocculants and polyamine-type cationic coagulants were selected to conduct kinetic tests on turbidity removal in mine water. Optimization studies on the types and concentrations of the coagulant and flocculant showed that the highest rate of turbidity removal was obtained with 10 mg L-1 FL-2949 (coagulant) and 12 mg L-1 A333E (flocculant), which was about 14.4 and 866.7 times higher than that obtained with A333E alone and that obtained through natural precipitation by gravity, respectively. With this optimized condition, the turbidity of mine water was reduced to 0 NTU within 20 min. Zeta potential measurements were conducted to elucidate the removal mechanism of the fine particles, and they revealed that there was a strong linear relationship between the removal rate of each pair of coagulant and flocculant application and the zeta potential differences that were obtained by subtracting the zeta potential of flocculant-treated mine water from the zeta potential of coagulant-treated mine water. Accordingly, through an optimization process, coagulation-flocculation by use of polymers could be advantageous to mine water treatment, because the process rapidly removes fine particles in mine water and only requires a small-scale plant for set-up purposes owing to the short retention time in the process.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20450117 
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09593330903513245#.Ut31zvsRWM8