Chemical composition of indoor ash residues

The ash content formed after burning of materials in indoor may be harmful to environment on dumping due to high ionic and metallic concentration. Therefore, the chemical composition of various indoor ash residues derived from burning of the biomass (BM), coal (C), cow dung (CD), incense (IS) and mosquito coil (MC) materials is described in this study. Three samples each of BM, coal, CD, IS and MC materials were burnt. The ash residues were collected and sieved out the particles of mesh size ? 0.1 mm size. The Cl–, NO3–, SO42–, Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+ content (n = 15) was ranged from 0.12-8.27, 0.01-0.64, 0.74-12.53, 0.06-4.47, 0.29-15.45, 0.30-2.51 and 0.68-19.05% with mean value of 1.81 ± 1.18, 0.10 ± 0.08, 3.31 ± 1.66, 1.05 ± 0.70, 4.92 ± 2.04, 1.27 ± 0.36 and 7.68 ± 2.94%, respectively. The composition of metals, that is, Fe, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn and Pb (n = 15) was ranged from 1100-24,600, 12-211, 109-1102, 5-142, 21-145, 25-244 and 5-42 mg/kg with mean value of 95 ± 31, 474 ± 152, 43 ± 23, 75 ± 23, 107 ± 32 and 16 ± 6 mg/kg, respectively. The enrichment and fluxes of ions and metals of indoor ash residues are described.