Research Projects

In Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, more than 750 registered fireworks industries are manufacturing firework crackers. The chemicals such as aluminium, sulphur and potassium nitrate are the main components which act as a fuel, ignitor and oxidizer in the fireworks. Some more chemicals are also added to enhance the performance of the firework products. Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO), GoI, Nagpur, governing these industries and sets safety standard vide Explosive act and rule. According to the PESO, the daily wastes such as the chemicals which are spilled out on the floor, damaged fuses, shells and accessories shall not be accumulated anywhere and the wastes shall be destroyed safely on a daily basis. Normally, the fireworks manufacturers daily collect the wastes and burn them in an open pit at the end of the day. During the burning of the wastes in the open pit, there is a lot of polluted gas emission and the throwing of the damaged cracker into the nearest area which may cause further accident. After the ignition, stray animals may access to the pit. Delayed ignition of the damaged product also causes the fire accident. More ash and other products of the fire may cause the increase of the particulate matter which reduces the quality of the air. Through the literatures, it is found that the optimum method to dispose the explosives is open burning only because of its nature. Many accidents were occurred due to careless handling of waste fireworks while destruction of waste fireworks in a pit located outside the fireworks factory led to one worker being killed and another one being injured by fire/explosion. Internationally, many tried the methods like open detonation and open burning. (SunghyunCho et al, 2020), decompose explosive waste in a rotary kiln is called as incineration(Nijs et al, 2002 and Lee et al., 2016), by fluidized bed produces (Xuguang Jiang et al, 2020 and Sungh yun Choabm et al, 2022), by by controlled combustion makes use of a closed furnace system. (Nico et al, 1998), disposed by biological treatment. (Ndibe et al, 2018, Maleki et al, 1996 and Alphonse Habineza et al, 2017) and by special destruction furnace(Gang An et al, 2012). Moreover, in fireworks industries, all chemicals are inorganic and also waste contains from powder to waste crackers, not uniform in nature. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a process that is not yet in widely used and to validate an advanced method of disposal. The alternative method of disposing the explosives will be land fill after some inertants are mixed to mitigate or deactivate the flammability. By referring to many works in the literature, it is found that mono-ammonium phosphate can be employed as an inertant and currently it is being used as a fire extinguishing agent. After mixing the inertant with the sensitive flash powder, various tests have to be conducted to ensure that the flash powder has become impotent. In this research, flash powder, one of the main raw materials for many products, has been taken for experimental works. Then the required quantity of Mono Ammonium Phosphate (MAP) has been mixed with the flash powder for finding the ignition behaviour by conducting the open burning tests, sensitivity tests and the stability tests. The mixture has been mixed with sand and plant growth has been adopted to find the soil pollution. Also, phytotoxicity studies must be conducted to protect the soil and plant where fireworks waste disposed lands by conducting the tests like plant germination test, growth test, Number of leaves, branches, flowers, fruits in the plant, chlorophyll, carotenoids in the plant and in soil Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium (NPK), Electrical Conductivity test, Potential Hydrogen (pH). Also it is planned to measure the nutrition profile, size, weight and number of tomatoes in each and every plant. Biodegradation studies will be carried out as well as chemical and microbial studies will be studied.