Correction to: Groundwater geochemical facie: implications of rock-water interaction at the Chamba city (HP), northwest Himalaya,India

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The correct presentation of Eq. 10 is shown in this paper.     

Climate change impact, mitigation and adaptation strategies for agricultural and water resources, in Ganga Plain (India)

Agriculture consumes more than two-thirds of global fresh water out of which 90 % is used by developing countries. Freshwater consumption worldwide is expected to rise another 25 %by 2030 due to increase in population from 6.6 billion currently to about 8 billion by 2030 and over 9 billion by 2050. Worldwide climate change and variability are affecting water resources and agricultural production and in India Ganga Plain region is one of them. Hydroclimatic changes are very prominent in all the regions of Ganga Plain. Climate change and variability impacts are further drying the semi-arid areas and may cause serious problem of water and food scarcity for about 250 million people of the area. About 80 million ha out of total 141 million ha net cultivated area of India is rainfed, which contributes approximately 44 % of total food production has been severely affected by climate change. Further changing climatic conditions are causing prominent hydrological variations like change in drainage density, river morphology (tectonic control) & geometry, water quality and precipitation. Majority of the river channels seen today in the Ganga Plain has migrated from their historic positions. Large scale changes in land use and land cover pattern, cropping pattern, drainage pattern and over exploitation of water resources are modifying the hydrological cycle in Ganga basin. The frequency of floods and drought and its intensity has increased manifold. Ganga Plain rivers has changed their course with time and the regional hydrological conditions shows full control over the rates and processes by which environments geomorphically evolve. Approximately 47 % of total irrigated area of the country is located in Ganga Plain, which is severely affected by changing climatic conditions. In long run climate change will affect the quantity and quality of the crops and the crop yield is going to be down. This will increase the already high food inflation in the country. The warmer atmospheric temperatures and drought conditions will increase soil salinization, desertification and drying-up of aquifer, while flooding conditions will escalate soil erosion, soil degradation and sedimentation. The aim of this study is to understand the impact of different hydrological changes due to climatic conditions and come up with easily and economically feasible solutions effective in addressing the problem of water and food scarcity in future.     

Dissipation of flubendiamide in/on Brinjal (Solanum melongena) fruits

A field experiment was conducted at Anand Agricultural University, Anand during Sept-Dec, 2009 to study the rate of degradation of flubendiamide in/on brinjal fruits following foliar application of Fame 480 SC at 90 (standard dose) and 180 (double dose) g a.i. ha(?-1). The residues estimated using HPLC revealed persistence of flubendiamide in/on brinjal till 3rd and 7th day after the last spray at standard and double dose, respectively. The residues of flubendiamamde were reported as parent compound, and no desiodo metabolite was detected. The initial deposits of 0.17 and 0.42 μg g(?-1) in/on brinjal fruits reached below determination level of 0.05 μg g(?-1) on the 5th and 10th day at standard and double dose, respectively. The half life of flubendiamide on brinjal fruits ranged from 2.68 to 2.55 days. Soil samples analyzed on the 15th day after the last spray revealed residues at below determination level (0.05 μg g(?-1)) at either dose of application.     

Enhancing the efficiency of nitrogen removing bacterial population to a wide range of C:N ratio (1.5:1 to 14:1) for simultaneous C & N removal

• Simultaneous C & N removal in Methammox occurs at wide C:N ratio. • Biological Nitrogen Removal at wide C:N ratio of 1.5:1 to 14:1 is not reported. • Ammonia removal shifted from mixotrophy to heterotrophy at high C:N ratio. • Acetogenic population compensated for ammonia oxidizers at high C:N ratio. • Methanogens increase the plasticity of nitrogen removers at high C:N ratio. High C:N ratio in the wastewater limits biological nitrogen removal (BNR), especially in anammox based technologies. The present study attempts to improve the COD tolerance of the BNR process by associating methanogens with nitrogen removing bacterial (NRB) populations. The new microbial system coined as ‘Methammox’, was investigated for simultaneous removal of COD (C) and ammonia (N) at C:N ratio 1.5:1 to 14:1. The ammonia removal rate (11.5 mg N/g VSS/d) and the COD removal rates (70.6 mg O/g VSS/d) of Methammox was close to that of the NRB (11.1 mg N/g VSS/d) and the methanogenic populations (77.9 mg O/g VSS/d), respectively. The activities established that these two populations existed simultaneously and independently in ‘Methammox’. Further studies in biofilm reactor fetched a balanced COD and ammonia removal (55%–60%) at a low C:N ratio (≤2:1) and high C:N ratio (≥9:1). The population abundance of methanogens was reasonably constant, but the nitrogen removal shifted from mixotrophy to heterotrophy as the C:N ratio shifted from low (C:N≤2:1) to high (C:N≥9:1). The reduced autotrophic NRB (ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria and Anammox) population at a high C:N ratio was compensated by the fermentative group that could carry out denitrification heterotrophically. The functional plasticity of the Methammox system to adjust to a broad C:N ratio opens new frontiers in biological nitrogen removal of high COD containing wastewaters.     

Effect of magnetic field on the removal of copper from aqueous solution using activated carbon derived from rice husk

Adsorptive removal of copper by activated carbon derived from modified rice husk (ACRH) was studied in the presence and absence of magnetic field (MF). The ACRH was prepared from the normal rice husk treated by NaOH solution and subsequent pyrolysis at 450 °C in the absence of oxygen. The physicochemical properties of ACRH's were determined before and after the adsorption process to delineate the adsorption mechanism. The BET analysis confirmed that the fabricated ACRH has a specific surface area of 8.244 m²/g with a mesopore to micropore ratio of 0.974. It was observed that the micropore structure gradually replaced the mesopores, and the surface area of the micropore increased (from 0.9219 to 4.1764 m²/g), and the pore diameter was also decreased from 180.381 to 46.249 Å after pyrolysis. The CHNO/S test result reveals that the carbon content was increased from 42 to 67.8% in the ACRH after pyrolysis. The batch sorption studies were performed by varying the initial adsorbate concentration, temperature, agitation speed, pH, adsorbent dose and contact time for magnetic and non-magnetic conditions to analyze the effect of the magnetic field. The univariate studies show that the maximum experimental adsorption capacity was 4.522 mg/g and 3.855 mg/g, respectively, for these two conditions (representing the magnetic impact) at 25 °C with an adsorbent dose of 2 g/L and an agitation speed of 150 rpm. It was also observed that the removal efficiency was 94.55% and 77.96% (magnetic and non-magnetic condition) at pH 7 with a concentration of 10 mg/L in 2 h. The test result on the impact of exposure time on the magnetic field suggested that the magnetic memory influenced the removal efficiency; after 40 to 60 min, the maximum removal efficiency was achieved, around 80 to 90%. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model was best fitted with the experimental data with a rate constant as 0.1749 and 0.1006 g/mg/min for these two conditions. The Temkin model delineates the adsorption isotherm suggesting the heat generated during the adsorption process is linearly abate with the coverage of the surface area of the adsorbent. The thermodynamic model confirms that the copper adsorption is spontaneous (ΔG = ? 3.91 kJ/mol and ? 6.02 kJ/mol), wherein the negative enthalpy value (ΔH = ? 36.74 kJ/mol and ? 25.74 kJ/mol) suggested that the process is exothermic irrespective of magnetic interference. The significant enhancement of copper removal was observed by incorporating the magnetic field, showing an increase in sorption capacity by 17.48% and a reduction of reaction time by 88.12%.

     

Development of economical and highly efficient electrolyte using vanadium pentoxide for vanadium redox flow battery

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Vanadium pentoxide can be an inexpensive replacement to vanadium sulfate in synthesizing vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) electrolytes. In this...     

Minimizing changing climate impact on buildings using easily and economically feasible earth to air heat exchanger technique

The biggest challenge of the 21st century is to satisfy the escalating demand of energy and minimize the globally changing climate impact. Earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) system can effectively reduce heating affects on buildings. An experimental study was carried out by designing EAHE system using low cost building materials like Bamboo (Bambuseae) and hydraform (cement and soil plaster) to reduce the energy consumption of buildings and minimize the impact of climate change. This system utilizes earth’s constant subterranean temperature for naturally heating or cooling the inlet air. This study was carried out in the North Eastern part of India. An open loop EAHE system was developed to predict the heating and cooling potential of the system. Within the system locally available bamboos were used for constructing the tunnel pipes and soil-cement mixture plaster was used to enhance the conductivity of the bamboo pipes. Soil-cement mixtures are capable of decreasing the humidity by 30 to 40 %. Majority of the North Eastern region of India, have humid climatic conditions through out the year. Experiment was performed continuously for 7 days and the result shows that irrespective to the inlet air temperature (ranges from 35 °C to 42 °C), outlet air temperature was recorded between 25 °C and 26 °C, which shows the effectiveness of the system. After a series of experimental analysis the study reveals that underground tunnel based fresh air delivery system is one of the easily feasible and economically feasible techniques which can drastically reduce the energy consumption of the buildings and help in addressing the continuously escalating demand of power and minimizing the impact of changing climatic conditions on buildings.