Environmental monitoring of adulterated gasoline with kerosene and their assessment at exhaust level.

ABSTRACT

Fuel adulteration increases the emission of total hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and respirable particulate matter , and thus adds to air pollution. The study examined the effects of mixing of different percentage of kerosene with petrol on the motorized rickshaw exhausts in terms of volatile organic compounds (benzene, toluene, xylene and ethyl benzene) and total suspended particulate matter (SPM). The personal sampler was used for sampling, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for quantification of compounds. Concentration of volatile organic compounds significantly decreased (p<0.001) along with the increase in fraction of kerosene in petrol. The level of benzene in exhausts while, using petrol (100 %) was significantly higher (p<0.001) than that of three combinations used in this study (75% petrol + 25% kerosene, 50% petrol + 50% kerosene and 25% petrol + 75% kerosene). Similar trend was observed for toluene, xylene and ethyl benzene also. The mean concentration of benzene, toluene, xylene and ethyl benzene were 31.34, 160.93, 10.07 and 5.58 mg m-3 in pure petrol, while 12.30, 51.41,4.89 and 3.16 mg m-3 for fuel combination 75% petrol + 25% kerosene. The observed levels of benzene, toluene, xylene and ethyl benzene were 9.12, 41.04, 4.33 and 2.91 mg m-3 for fuel mixture having 50% petrol with 50% kerosene and levels were 8.36, 20.05, 3.82 and 2.95 mg m-3 were for 25% petrol with 75% kerosene fuel combination. The levels of suspended particulate matter (SPM) increased along with the increase in fraction of kerosene in petrol. The data generated is useful to understand the common volatile organic compounds trend with the increasing fraction of kerosene in petrol.