Sugarcane bagasse into value-added products: a review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Strategic valorization of readily available sugarcane bagasse (SB) is very important for waste management and sustainable biorefinery. Conventional SB...     

Nitrate contamination in water resources,human health risks and its remediation through adsorption: a focused review

The level of nitrate in water has been increasing considerably all around the world due to vast application of inorganic nitrogen fertiliser and animal manure. Because of nitrate’s high solubility in water, human beings are getting exposed to it mainly through various routes including water, food etc. Various regulations have been set for nitrate (45–50 mgNO₃^?/L) in drinking water to protect health of the infants from the methemoglobinemia, birth defects, thyroid disease, risk of specific cancers, i.e. colorectal, breast and bladder cancer caused due to nitrate poisoning. Different methods like ion exchange, adsorption, biological denitrification etc. have the ability to eliminate the nitrate from the aqueous medium. However, adsorption process got preference over the other approaches because of its simple design and satisfactory results especially with surface modified adsorbents or with mineral-based adsorbents. Different types of adsorbents have been used for this purpose; however, adsorbents derived from the biomass wastes have great adsorption capacities for nitrate such as tea waste-based adsorbents (136.43 mg/g), carbon nanotube (142.86 mg/g), chitosan beads (104 mg/g) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide modified rice husk (278 mg/g). Therefore, a thorough literature survey has been carried out to formulate this review paper to understand various sources of nitrate pollution, route of exposure to the human beings, ill effects along with discussing the key developments as well as the new advancements reported in procuring low-cost efficient adsorbents for water purification.

     

Performance assessment of single slope solar still by the incorporation of palm flower powder and micro phase change material for the augmentation of productivity

Water scarcity necessitates a cost-effective and productive solution. This study focused to enhance the productivity of single slope solar still by incorporating the better weight of palm flower powder (micro-sized) in the basin and micro phase change material heat storage bed under the basin. In this aspect, the different quantity of palm powder weights such as 10, 30, 50, 70, 100, 120 and 150 g in the basin was experimentally examined. The absorber basin containing 50 g of palm powder has better productivity of 37.25%, whereas for 10, 30, 70, 100, 120 and 150 g, they were 11.85, 24.78, 36.8, 33.05, 10.25 and ? 20.22% respectively. The influence of palm powder with different weight% impregnated in the paraffin wax was analysed. The maximum thermal conductivity of 0.33 W/m K was obtained in the sample containing palm flower powder of 20 wt%. The experimental investigation was carried out with 50 g of micro-sized palm powder in the basin and thermal storage bed under the basin containing 20 wt% of micro phase change material (PCMPFP-SS) and conventional solar still (CSS). The overall distillate output of PCMPFP-SS was 4670 and 4250 mL/m² on day 1 and day 2 respectively. On the other hand, the overall distillate output for CSS was 3030 and 2800 mL/m² on day 1 and day 2. From the economic analysis, it was found that the cost per litre (CPL) of PCMPFP-SS and CSS was $ 0.025 and $ 0.032 respectively. Moreover, the payback period of PCMPFP-SS was lowered from 5.1 to 4.1 months compared to CSS.

     

Deciphering the role of nanoparticles for management of bacterial meningitis: an update on recent studies

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membranes called meninges and fluid adjacent the brain and spinal cord. The inflammatory progression...     

Multivariate assessment of outflow water quality in highly urbanized creek system: implication of natural and anthropogenic processes

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Nutrient source and transport study in tropical creeks adjacent to megacities are sparse on a regional and global scale. High-frequency chemical data...     

Green method of stemming the tide of invasive marine and freshwater organisms by natural filtration of shipping ballast water

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Marine and freshwater pollution caused by transport of invasive species in shipping ballast water is a major global problem and will increase in...     

Improving the feasibility of aquaculture feed by using microalgae

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The aquaculture industry is an efficient edible protein producer and grows faster than any other food sector. Therefore, it requires enormous amounts...     

Porous material based on modified carbon and the effect of pore size distribution on the adsorption of methylene blue dye from an aqueous solution

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Carbon porous materials obtained through KOH activation of a furfural?+?hydroquinone?+?urotropine mixture were applied as...     

Effects of air pollution on monumental buildings in India: An overview

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Recent advancements in environmental monitoring and analysis have created public and institutional awareness on the social and health impacts of air...     

Conditional effect of governance quality on the finance-environment nexus in a multivariate EKC framework: evidence from the method of moments-quantile regression with fixed-effects models

This paper investigates the mitigating effect of governance quality on the finance-environment nexus in a multivariate EKC framework in 123 selected countries during the 1990–2017 period. We mainly employ the method of moments-quantile regression (MM-QR) with the fixed-effects model, among others. First, the MM-QR estimator reveals that financial development reduces environmental quality more significantly in countries with initially higher levels (the 75^th and 90^th quantiles) of CO₂ emissions than in other countries (the 25^th and 10^th quantiles). Second, the attenuating effect of governance quality on the finance-environment nexus is more remarkable in nations with low initial levels (the 25^th and 10^th quantiles) of CO₂ emissions. Third, we find that the marginal positive effect of financial development on CO₂ emissions is smaller under a good regulatory framework than under corruption control and the rule of law, especially in the top emitters (the 75^th and 90^th quantiles). Fourth, unlike oil, which has a considerable negative impact on the environmental quality of the major emitters, renewable energy usage reduces CO₂ emissions in countries in all quantiles, primarily in the lowest quantiles. Fifth, the findings also show that urbanization dramatically worsens environmental quality in all economies, particularly those in the lowest quantiles. Finally, we confirm that the EKC hypothesis holds in all countries across different quantiles. The study’s final section discusses policy implications for sustainable development in all countries.