MIGRATION OF PARAQUAT DICHLORIDE THROUGH A SANDY-LOAM SOIL

Abstract

Herbicide (paraquat dichloride) application during agricultural activity has been found to have negative consequences for humans and the environment. The soils collected from FUTO Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria were subjected to comparative investigations and analyses. A modeling approach was created in this article to mimic the pollutant (paraquat dichloride) migration process through a sandyloam soil. The two-site parallel inter-phase model is used in this approach to simulate the soil transport process. A soil auger was used to collect soil samples at a specific location. For the experiment, a 40cm x 10cm soil column was utilized with a determined amount of.50ml of 0.5mol/L paraquat dichloride solution. The samples were divided into two categories: uncontaminated and contaminated. According to the findings, contaminated soil had the highest TOC (1.84), low
conductivity (70NS/cm), low porosity (46%), and PH value (4.8), while uncontaminated soil had the lowest TOC (1.04), high conductivity (2000NS/cm), high porosity (48%), and PH value (4.8). As time passes, the effluent concentration in the soil column experiment decreases (0.0117mol/l –0.0115mol/l) and reaches equilibrium (0.113mol/l – 0.113mol/l) between 15 and 20 minutes. The model results in this study are similar to the experimental results.