Effects of Light Intensity and Growing Medium on Uptake of Benzene and Toluene by House Plants
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Tsao, Che-Wei
Abstract
Benzene and toluene are major indoor air pollutants. They have negative effects on human health. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to screen the house plants with higher absorption rate of benzene and toluene for future application. The effects of light intensity and cultural medium on the uptake rates of benzene and toluene by indoor plants are also studied. Eight common house plants were exposed to 30 ppm of benzene or toluene under strong light (5000 lx) in a 52-L fumigation chamber. Results show that Alocasia Cuculata and Ficus benjamina have the higher uptake rates for benzene and toluene after acclimatized in weak light (500 lx) for 30 days. The houses plants acclimatized in outdoor condition for 60 days showed lower rates of benzene and toluene, and the plants showed fewer chlorophyll. These is no significant difference among three groups of house plants acclimated in strong light, low light and outdoor, respectively for 60 days. House plant acclimatized in blue light for 60 days, showed high uptake rates of benzene and toluene than those in red light. Especially Aphelandra squarrosa as acclimatized in blue light exhibited 223% increase to absorb benzene, and Ficus benjaminav exhibited 285% increase to absorb toluene as compared to that in red light. This result indicate that acclimatization in blue light can increase the absorption of benzene and toluene by plants, but the uptake rate of plants growing under full-spectrum light is still higher than those under blue light. The same fumigation chamber was used to measure the uptake rates of fifteen growing media for benzene. Results showed that the bamboo charcoal had the highest uptake rate of benzene with deposition velocity of 1.6 mm/s. Mixture of three growing media with common media (BVB, KING ROOT plant medium) showed that the mixture from peat moss, KING ROOT plant medium, bamboo charcoal and tree barks by ratio of 1:1:1:1 has the highest uptake rate of benzene. However, when the house plants are grown on this medium or the simple mixture of peat moss and KING ROOT plant medium (1:1), then the is no significant difference in benzene uptake. These results generally indicate that the growing medium can not play the role for cleaning the air pollution, as compared to right plant species with abundant and health leaves and right uptake rates for pollution.
Subjects
Benzene
Toluene
Light acclimatization
Deposition velocity
Phytoremediation
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-100-R97633020-1.pdf
Size
23.54 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):aef47f8d014fd7e4165acf226d9e3793