Determination on polyaromatic hydrocarbon and heavy metal in ballast water from ships in Kuantan, Pahang Port

Abstract

The objective of the study is to determine the concentration of heavy metal element in ballast water from ships in Kuantan, Pahang port. In this study, seven element of heavy metals were studied. They are chromium, manganese, iron, cooper, zinc, cadmium and lead. The results show that zink may become the most potential dangerous element to the environment especially marine life followed by iron. The other objective of this study is to determine the concentration of polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) compound in ballast water from ships in Kuantan, Pahang port. The target compound groups that were highlighted in this study are P AHs. The P AHs compounds are Naphthalene, Acenaphthylene, Acenaphthene, Fluorene, Phenanthrene, Anthracene, Fluoranthene, Pyrene, Chrysene, Benz[ a ]anthracene, Benzo[k ]flouranthene, Benzo[b ]fluoranthene, Benzo(a)pyrene, Indeno[l,2,3-cd]pyrene, Dibenz[a,h]anthracene and Benzo[ghi]perylene. The hydrocarbon and heavy metal was assessed by one-way ANOV A test. The investigation shows that Benzo (a) pyrene is consider an indicator of contamination because it usually occurs in mixtures of P AHs. Results shows that, there is an absent of benzo (a) pyrene in port water sample collected in Kuantan, Pahang Port. But there are present of Naphthalene, Phenanthrene and Anthracene in every station studied. The introduction of heavy metal compound through ballast water has been identified as one of the greatest threats to the world's ocean. In Malaysia, the ships ballast water management just being implemented. Before this, there is no specific regulation towards the usage of ballast water in Malaysia. There is no recent study on ballast water in Malaysia especially towards water quality in the coast of Malaysia.