Emissions of greenhouse and non-greenhouse air pollutants from fuel combustion in restaurant industry

Information on emissions from restaurant industry is limited in scientific literature. Emission inventory of greenhouse and non-greenhouse air pollutants from restaurant industry was prepared for two Class 1 Indian cities, viz. Nagpur and Raipur for 2010. Emissions were estimated from a primary database on type and amount of cooking fuel combusted in restaurant industry in the selected cities. Liquefied petroleum gas, charcoal, wood, coal, diesel and candy coal are used in this industry, first three being the major ones. Carbon dioxide emission was highest in both cities and liquefied petroleum gas, charcoal and wood were the major contributors to emissions. Total annual emissions of greenhouse gases, viz. carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide were estimated to be 19,251, 27 and 1 Mg year^?1 in Nagpur and 21,207, 34 and 1 Mg year^?1 in Raipur, whereas total annual emissions of non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC), carbon monoxide, total suspended particulate (TSP), sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and black carbon (BC) were 96, 959, 31, 12, 19, 3 Mg year^?1 and 87, 1141, 78, 37, 28, 6 Mg year^?1 in Nagpur and Raipur, respectively, from all the fuels used in restaurant industry. Considering the huge growth of Indian restaurant industry in the last decade and the predicted growth in future, emissions from this industry is assumed to grow and will play a major role in governing regional and national emissions in India.     

Generation and study of satellite gravity over Gujarat,India and their possible correlation with earthquake occurrences

High-resolution satellite gravity data have been generated and utilized to infer subsurface geological structures in the area of devastating earthquake that struck the Bhuj region in Gujarat on 26 January 2001. Latitudinal gravity profiles have been generated in the Bhuj, Anjar and IBF regions across the epicentres (23.5° N, 69.8° E/M_w 7.0 in 2001; 23.2° N, 70° E/M_w 7.0 in 1956; 24.2° N, 69.2° E/M_w 7.8 in 1819). Substantial differences in gravity anomaly patterns as high as 37 mGal could be observed existing near the epicentre regions. These gravitational differences might have caused due to the plate tectonic processes and due to the changes in densities of different lithospheric zones/sedimentary layers. Temporal variations of the satellite-derived gravity and their probable relations with already occurred major earthquakes in this region have been studied. Hence we conclude that drastic changes in gravity anomalies can be considered as a precursor for occurrences of substantially large earthquakes.     

Residual geoid and free-air gravity over the indian offshore from ers-1 high resolution altimeter data

In this study, ERS-1 altimeter data over the Indian offshore have been processed for deriving marine geoid and gravity. Processing of altimeter data involves corrections for various atmospheric and oceanographic effects, stacking and averaging of repeat passes, cross-over correction, removal of deeper earth and bathymetric effects, spectral analyses and conversion of geoid into free-air gravity anomaly. Methods for generation of residual geoid and free-air gravity anomaly using high resolution ERS-1 168 day repeat altimeter data were developed. High resolution detailed geoid maps, gravity anomaly and their spectral components have been generated over the Indian offshore using ERS-I altimeter data and ARCGIS system. A number of known megastructures over the study area have been successfully interpreted e.g. Bombay High, Saurastra platform, 90° east ridge etc. from these maps.     

Sunyaev–Zel'dovich distortion from early galactic winds

We consider the distortion in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) resulting from galactic winds at high redshift. Winds outflowing from galaxies have been hypothesized to be possible sources of metals in the intergalactic medium, which is known to have been enriched to 10^−2.5 Z_⊙ at z ∼3. We model these winds as functions of mass of the parent galaxy and redshift, assuming that they activate at a common initial redshift, z _in, and calculate the mean y -distortion and the angular power spectrum of the distortion in the CMB. We find that the thermal Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) effect resulting from the winds is consistent with previous estimates. The distortion arising from the kinetic SZ (kSZ) effect is, however, found to be more important than the thermal SZ (tSZ) effect. We find that the distortion resulting from galactic winds is an important contribution to the power spectrum of distortion at very small angular scales ( l ∼10⁴). We also find that the power spectrum resulting from clustering dominates the Poisson power spectrum for l ≤(4–5)×10⁵. We show explicitly how the combined power spectrum from wind dominates over that of clusters at 217 GHz, relevant for PLANCK . We also show how these constraints change when the efficiency of the winds is varied.     

Geoid height versus topography of the Northern Ninetyeast Ridge: implications on crustal compensation

In this paper we focused on understanding the isostatic compensation of the Ninetyeast Ridge in the overall context of the Bay of Bengal oceanic lithosphere and the interaction of the ridge system with the north Andaman subduction zone from north of 7–18°N. This region is characterized by the initial interaction of the Kerguelen hotspot with the Bay of Bengal oceanic lithosphere. We used satellite altimeter-derived marine geoid, as it should comprehensively reflect the compensations caused by large spatial wavelength dominated deeper anomaly sources in a hotspot affected lithospheric load like the Ninetyeast Ridge. Our analyses of the geoid-to-topography ratio (GTR), residual geoid, gravity-to-topographic kernel and upward continuation of anomalies show the existence of two different types of source compensation bodies beneath the northern (12–18°N) and southern (7–12°N) Ninetyeast Ridge. In the northern region, the geoid to topography ratio varies from 0.63 ± 0.05 to 0.44 ± 0.03, while in the southern region it ranges from 1.34 ± 0.09 to 1.31 ± 0.07 which resulted in a north to south increase in the apparent compensation depth from ~9 to 28 km. The presence of a shallow Moho, low GTR, broader gravity to topography kernel and the absence of a ridge anomaly from the mantle density dominated upward continued anomaly at z = 300 km indicates that at the northern segment the underplated low density crustal melt is the dominant isostatic compensating body. However, at the southern ridge segment the high GTR, strong gravity-to-topography kernel and the subsistence of the anomaly at long wavelengths, even at z = 300 km represents the existence of large volumes of hotspot related underplated dense material as the source of compensation. The proximity of the dense source compensating body of the southern Ninetyeast Ridge to the Andaman subduction zone affected the regional mantle driven density gradient flow, as observed from the z = 300 km continued gravity anomaly. The existence of a southern Ninetyeast Ridge in such a transpressional regime has caused the formation of a forearc sliver at its eastern flank, which is a major crustal deformational structure developed as a result of ridge-trench collision.     

Gamma Ray and Hadron generated Čerenkov Photon Spectra at Various Observation Altitudes

We study the propagation of erenkov photons generated by Very HighEnergy -rays and hadrons in the atmosphere. The photon productionheight distributions are estimated from semi-empirical methods andcompared with those derived by standard simulation techniques. Incidentspectra at various observation altitudes are then derived after applyingwavelength dependent corrections due to photon attenuation in theatmosphere during the propagation of photons from the height of productionto the height of observation. These are generated both for -ray and hadron primaries of various energies. The derivedproduction height distributions agree very well with those generated bythe simulation package `CORSIKA' at all energies and for both -ray and proton primaries. The incident photon spectra are found to beboth altitude and primary energy dependent. The peak ofthe incident spectrum shifts towards the shorter wavelength withincreasing altitude of observation for a given primary. Also the peak ofthe photon spectrum shifts towards the shorter wavelength withincreasing energy of the primary at a given altitude. The fraction of the UVcomponent in the incident erenkov spectrum is estimated both for-ray and hadronic primaries at various observation altitudes andenergies. Hadron generated erenkov spectra are marginally richer in UVlight and the difference increases slightly at higher altitudes. The fraction of the UV to the visible light in the erenkov spectrum could be a usefulparameter to separate -rays from cosmic ray background only if onecan measure this fraction very accurately.     

Low cost quantitative arsenic determination kit: A method by using silver nitrate

Arsenic sometimes found in ground water which has adverse effect on human health at levels as low as 10μg/L. Arsenic is known to be one of the most toxic element that cannot be destroyed once it has entered to the environment. It is a dangerous poison at high doses but can cure diseases such as syphilis and leukaemia at low doses. The present study comprises a low cost technique for determination of arsenic concentration in groundwater up to 1000μg/L. The method is based on the reaction of arsenic (V) with potassium iodide and stannous chloride in concentrated hydrochloric acid medium to convert to arsenic (III) and needs 15 to 20 minutes time for complete conversion. After reaction with the granulated zinc (arsenic free), the evolved arsine gas is passed through wet cotton wool of lead acetate for absorbing any sulphide impurities and is finally absorbed by wet filter paper of silver nitrate which gives brown colour. The intensity of the colour varies with respect to the arsenic concentration present in ground water. A master colour chart is prepared by the known arsenic standard solution from 0 to 1000 μg/L for measuring the concentration range of arsenic in contaminated ground water. The quantitative arsenic determination is done with the help of colorimetric study. The absorbed colour of filter paper is thoroughly scanned and Red, Green and Blue (R-G-B) values are obtained by colour picking technique with the help of the software ‘Microsoft Paint’ under the operating system ‘Microsoft Windows 7’. The known arsenic concentrations are plotted against the R-G-B values of the corresponding absorbed colour and three master curves are drawn by the software ‘Mat lab’ for measuring the exact concentration of arsenic in groundwater. For validation, arsenic contamination test is conducted for the ground water samples collected from different areas of 24 Parganas district using our very low cost kit and other costly instruments like Digital Arsenator and Atomic Absorption Spectrometer.     

Metal Impregnated Silica‐Carbon Materials from Rice Husk: A Versatile Sorbent for Toxic Organics and Inorganics in Water and Air

Carbon bearing materials derived from rice husk (RH) have long been recognized as sorbents for diverse chemicals – both organic and inorganic. This work presents an overview of studies demonstrating a single step process of carbonization of chemically pretreated RH to produce metal impregnated silica‐carbon char designated as silicarbon materials that can be utilized in sorbing out water‐borne organic and inorganic hazardous substances (such as phenol, hexavalent chromium, fluoride, and arsenic) and air‐borne volatile organic chemicals (such as acetone, chloroform, benzene, and pyridine). The metal‐impregnated silicarbon solids derived from RH appear to constitute renewable, low‐cost, user‐friendly, and efficient materials for control systems for indoor air contamination and for industrial as well as non‐industrial hazardous aqueous pollution.