Determination of Carbon Monoxide Content of Exhaust Gases from Agricultural and Road Transport Tractors in Nigeria: A Case Study of Ogbomoso Metropolis

Abstract. Typical symptoms of high percentage of carbon monoxide in the blood of citizens such as headache, impaired judgment, drowsiness, blurring of vision, etc currently exist in Nigeria resulting in high road accident rate. The objective of this study was to contribute to the information buildup required for advocating the urgent reduction of environmental pollution caused by exhaust emissions from Spark Ignition and Diesel engines in Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: (1) determine the carbon monoxide content of exhaust emissions of agricultural and road transport tractors in Ogbomoso, (2) establish whether or not make and engine capacity had significant effect on their carbon monoxide(CO) emissions.

Data on % CO content in the exhaust emissions, make and engine capacity of Seventy(70)tractors consisting of twenty(20) agricultural and fifty(50) road transport tractors operating in Ogbomoso metropolis were collected in a Completely Randomized Experimental Design and subjected to statistical analyses. The results indicated that both tractor types were high emitters of CO because their average CO emissions were 2.445 and 2.448 % respectively. In addition, while the makes of both tractors types had significant effect on their CO emissions, their engine capacities did not have any effect on their CO emissions. Mercedes Benz(a make of road transport tractor) contributed the highest(2.29%) while Massey Fergusson(a make of agricultural tractor) contributed the least(2.26). With these results, it was concluded that the CO content in the exhaust emissions of agricultural and road transport tractors in Nigeria is about five(5) times higher than the recommended maximum level of 0.5% by the US Environmental protection Agency(EPA).