Environmental aspects of selected heavy and trace elements of Cherat Coal deposits
Keywords:
Experimental investigation; Degradation; Trace elements; Toxic; Environmental impact.Abstract
Coal contains many toxic elements which become mobile during mining and combustion processes and contaminate the surface and ground-water quality. The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of coal mining on the degradation of the environment. For this purpose, around 21 coal samples were collected randomly from six coal mining sites within Cherat area and analyzed for arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The results of the chemical analysis of coal samples revealed presence of trace elements i.e. Cu, Ni, Co, Pb, Cr, Zn, Cd, Fe, and As ranging from 5.62–28.12 mg/kg, 9.66–23.63 mg/kg, 4.47–30.96 mg/kg, 43.22–87.32 mg/kg, 20.51–72.4 mg/kg, 5.45–51.82 mg/kg, 1.23–2.58 mg/kg, 1240–2751.1 mg/kg and 3.51–5.77 mg/kg, respectively. It has been also observed that the sample collected from shakot-1(Sk-1) has got the highest concentration of Cu Ni, Co, Pb, Zn and Cd. While Fe and Cr contents were enriched mostly in the coal samples taken from Jabar tar (Jt), Arsenic was abundant in Bakhtai (Bk) coal mine. In comparison with rest of the country and worldwide, Cherat coals have higher concentration of Co, Pb, Cr and Cd but lower in Cu, Ni, Fe, As and Zn contents on the average. This paper presents an experimental investigation of heavy and trace elements of Cherat coal and may serve as a useful information about environmental risks associated with coal mining in Cherat area of Khyber Paktunkhwa.
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