Anurita Selvarajoo

University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus | nottingham · Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering

PYROASIA forum is an effort to bring a network of researchers and practitioners for the advancement and commercialization of pyrolysis and related technologies for future fuels. Participants are cordially invited to submit their original work for presentation. PYROASIA symposium 2023 will include presentations from all thermo-chemical conversion te...

Drying is an important but energy-intensive industrial process, while spent coffee grounds can be used as an abundant and potential biomass waste to replace part of the coal consumption for green fuel production and circular economy. In this study, an energy-saving strategy for efficiently drying spent coffee grounds (SCGs) by adding hygroscopic wa...

Drying is an important but energy-intensive industrial process, while spent coffee grounds can be used as an abundant and potential biomass waste to replace part of the coal consumption for green fuel production and circular economy. In this study, an energy-saving strategy for efficiently drying spent coffee grounds (SCGs) by adding hygroscopic wa...

Current common practices for concrete production by the construction industry in Malaysia are the use of raw materials and the disposing of construction and demolition waste to landfill. These practices have caused significant environmental impacts (EIs) that could lead to serious environmental health issues. To counter these impacts, the use of su...

Renewable energy sources such as biomass have been proven to be one of the promising sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. However, using biomass directly as a fuel is less attractive due to its high moisture content, poor grindability, low bulk density, and low energy density nature. Hence biomass can be converted into biochr to overcome these...

Conventional urban drainage structures that store water over time are habitat for the mosquito larvae. Appropriate stormwater management practices can help in preventing the breeding of the mosquito larvae. Thus, a study was conducted to evaluate the performance of a proposed bioretention system in controlling dengue at the campus university in Sem...

The alarming rise of food waste all over the world due to population and economic growth must be tackled with better waste management and treatment methods. The current practice of landfilling has been scientifically proven to adversely impact environmental and societal health. A relatively new technology called hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has...

In recent years, various researches and studies have been done to identify ways to convert biomass into biochar, namely by means of thermochemical conversion methods. A few common thermochemical conversion processes for biochar production includes gasification, hydrothermal carbonisation, torrefaction and pyrolysis. Biochar is a highly carbonaceous...

Biochar has demonstrated its potential in carbon sequestration to mitigate climate change. The fact that biochar can be produced from the slow pyrolysis of numerous potential biomasses has also attracted attention. However, research on predicting the effect of different pyrolysis conditions and a wide variety of biomass on carbon sequestration pote...

The rapid growth of the agriculture sector has been facing environmental issues with agriculture waste generation. Agriculture biomass is a good source for biochar production through the pyrolysis process. Biochar is a highly carbonaceous material and has been widely studied on its potential to improve soil quality. It is essential to understand an...

Biochar derived from banana peels can be used as an alternative nutrient in the soil that can promote crop growth while reducing fertiliser usage. Biochar stability has proportional relationship to biochar residence time in the soil and potassium is one of the vital nutrients needed for plant growth. This research aims at providing optimum pyrolysi...

During extreme flood events, various debris like floating vehicles can block the bridges in urban rivers and floodplains. Blockage of vehicles can influence the floodwater hydrodynamics and potentially on the flood risk implications. Such obstructions often raise upstream water levels with back water effects, causing more water to be redirected int...

The current scenario of environment urgently needs alternative biologically synthesized fuels, value-added products, and preparation of catalyst to create a pollution free environment. Usually, several methods are available for the synthesis of various commodities from many biological resources. Microwave-assisted pyrolysis (MAP) is a relatively ne...

Diversified learning is the path to supplement students’ needs in the contemporary generation. These students’ lives have revolved around technology since birth; as such, the role of technology cannot be ignored. Furthermore, this was prevalent during the lockdown imposed by the global pandemic which compelled the incorporation of educational techn...

Malaysia is experiencing rapid urbanisation leading to an increase in the demand of energy. The use of renewable energy can satisfy energy demands and mitigate environmental issues such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Biogas produced from anaerobic digestion from different feedstock such as food waste (FW), palm oil mill effluent (POME), garden w...

Microalgae biorefinery is a platform for the conversion of microalgal biomass into a variety of value-added products, such as biofuels, bio-based chemicals, biomaterials, and bioactive substances. Commercialization and industrialization of microalgae biorefinery heavily rely on the capability and efficiency of large-scale cultivation of microalgae....

Due to rapid depletion of non-renewable energy such as fossil fuel and increasing concerns for green environment, collection of biogas generated from palm oil mill effluent (POME) would be advantageous as source of energy. In this study, empty fruit bunch (EFB) and decanter cake (DC) were used as co-substrates separately with POME to enhance biogas...

In this paper, two biomass that are abundantly available in Malaysia, namely empty fruit bunch and durian rinds were investigated for bio-char production through pyrolysis process. Both biomass was mixed at different ratio and subjected to a temperature of 325 ℃ with a holding time of 2 hours and 5 ℃/ min heating rate. The raw mixed biomass was cha...

The non-renewable nature of fossil energy and the environmental pollution caused by its use, such as haze, make it very urgent to develop clean and efficient renewable energy. By using microalgae biomass as an alternative raw material energy sources like biohydrogen, methane can be produced through fermentation and photosynthesis. Unlike solar ener...

Banana peels are one of the most underutilized agriculture wastes, having a great potential to be converted into various alternative products in many industries. In agriculture, biochar derived from banana peels can be used as soil amendment and soil conditioner. In this study, slow pyrolysis was chosen among the several thermochemical techniques t...

The present study reports the effectiveness of natural plant materials - fenugreek as a coagulant, with okra and Aloe vera as flocculants, to treat palm oil mill effluent (POME). The treatment process was modelled using Central Composite Design (CCD) of the Design Expert software. Standard jar tests were used to determine the important treatment pa...

Due to rapid development in some countries that puts increasing urgency on the global community to replace non-renewable resources, Interest in harnessing energy from other sources like biomass has grown immensely in recent years. Biomass can be converted to energy through thermo-chemical and biological conversion routes. Pyrolysis is one the therm...

Banana peels waste can be utilized to produce high quality biochar that can be incorporated into the soil for sustainable production of crops. This research analyzed several properties of the biochar produced from the banana peel at different temperatures, residence times and heating rates. This study focuses on the biochar yield and the EDX analys...

As the population increases, energy demands continue to rise rapidly. In order to satisfy this increasing energy demand, biogas offers a potential alternative. Biogas is economically viable to be produced through anaerobic digestion (AD) from various biomass feedstocks that are readily available in Malaysia, such as food waste (FW), palm oil mill e...

Global uptrends in palm oil industry have been observed while a vast amount of waste, particularly palm oil mill effluent (POME) which is a type of wastewater that can cause severe environmental pollution has been discharged. This has caused remarkable challenges for palm oil mills to obey the regulations of standard discharge limits, resulting in...

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) and okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) were utilised as natural coagulants and flocculants respectively for the treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME). Optimisation and modeling of the coagulant and flocculant dosages, pH and rapid mixing speed were carried out using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) method by...

Synthetic coagulants and flocculants used industrially in palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment poses environmental and health risks, resulting in greater demand for natural coagulants and flocculants. This study reports the efficiency of Trigonella foenum-graecum (fenugreek) and Hibiscus esculentusas (okra) as a coagulant and flocculant respecti...

This research reports the development and characterisation of three types of natural polysaccharide-based Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) for application in sanitary napkins, namely chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.), chia flour and Mimosa pudica hydrogel (MPH). Physical properties and performances of the materials were tested to determine the absorbi...

Presence of copper within water bodies deteriorates human health and degrades natural environment. This heavy metal in water is treated using a promising biochar derived from rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) peel through slow pyrolysis. This research compares the efficacies of artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (AN...

Raw palm oil mill effluent (POME) is classified as a highly polluting effluent, which needs to be treated to an acceptable level before being discharged into water bodies. Currently, chemical coagulants are widely used in treating POME, but their hazardous nature has caused several health and environmental problems. Therefore, this research present...

Rapid population and economic growth causes the demand for energy is increasing every year. A lot of focus has been put on renewable energy as the fossil fuel reserve is expected to last only a few decades. Biomass is recognised as a potential source of renewable energy but however, it usually requires further processing before it can be used. In t...

Currently, the main energy source are fossil based fuel. Utilisation of conventional fossil fuel is contributing to greenhouse gas emissions which causes climate change. Attention to renewable energy sources has increased nowadays to reduce the high dependence on fossil fuel which is considered not renewable. Biomass seems to be a promising and env...

In the present research, local rambutan seed extract was used as a bio-coagulant for the treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME). Jar test experiments were conducted to find the optimal operating conditions for the removal of turbidity and total suspended solids from POME. At an optimal pH of 3, bio-coagulant dosage of 600 mg/L and room temperat...

Biochar obtained from biomass through pyrolysis can be considered as an alternative source of renewable energy. In this work, banana peels were used as feedstock in the pyrolysis process to produce biochar. Experimental work was conducted using an electric tubular furnace and a Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). The effect of temperature was investi...

Growing interest in sustainable energy has created focus in gasification technology. Biochar can be used in gasification process, where, when the biochar is exposed to gasifying agent, it creates syngas as the product. This study involves the usage of palm fibre wastes to be converted into useful product like syngas. In this study, palm fibre bioch...

In the present study, Opuntia cactus, an environmentally friendly bio-coagulant that is locally available, was used for the first time for the treatment of Palm oil mill effluent (POME). The optimum conditions for applying Opuntia in the POME treatment process were identified by performing jar test experiments. Parameters tested were chemical oxyge...

Coagulation–flocculation has been proven as one of the effective processes in treating palm oil mill effluent (POME), which is a highly polluted wastewater generated from palm oil milling process. Two pairs of natural coagulant–flocculant were studied and evaluated: peanut–okra and wheat germ–okra. This research aims to optimize the operating param...

Biochars, derived from rambutan (Nepheliumlappaceum) peel through slow pyrolysis, were characterised and investigated as potential adsorbent for the removal of copper ion, Cu(II) from aqueous solution. Characteristics of five biochars of rambutan peel with different pyrolytic temperatures ranging from 300 to 700 °C (B300, B400, B500, B600, B700) we...

The energy crisis is a major issue of concern which is mainly associated with rapid population and economic growth. With the increasing trend in annual energy demand, there is a high dependence on fossil fuels to meet this expected increase in energy demand. However, the use of fossil fuels results in a substantial amount of environmental pollution...

Growing energy needs and increasing environmental issues are creating awareness for alternative energy which substitutes the non-renewable and polluting fossil fuels. Biomass is a good feedstock for biochar production through the pyrolysis process. There is potential to generate solid fuel from biomass, as there are large quantities of agricultural...