Evaluation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons of Some Woods, Charcoals and Coal of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract Lafia-Obi coal, woods and charcoals from Keffi, Marke and Shamagay in Nasarawa State were evaluated for the presence of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) using standard methods. Samples were saw-milled and pulverized to 200-mesh size and solvent extracted using n-hexane and dichloromethane at 80oC and 30oC for 48 h and fractionated in alumina column. Both fractions were characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) that showed a total of 16 PAHs in the samples. Naphthalene was the highest in amount (0.583mg/kg) in the dichloromethane (DCM) extract of Lafia-Obi Coal while benzo(g,h,i)perylene was the least in amount (0.000mg/kg) in the n-hexane extracts. Benzo(a)pyrene was  the highest in amount (0.326 mg/kg) and (0.300 mg/kg) for both DCM extracts for P. erinaceus wood (Shanjini) and A. leocarpa wood (Marke), while benzo(g,h,i)perylene was the least in amount with (0.000 mg/kg) for n-hexane extracts. In all the samples, the amounts of PAHs were far below their recommended toxic levels.

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Updated: June 25, 2023 — 7:44 am