Balal Yousaf

University of Science and Technology of China | USTC · CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, Faculty of Geochemistry and Environmental Science

Biomass-derived black carbon (biochar) is considered to be an effective tool to mitigate global warming by long-term C-sequestration in soil and to influence C-mineralization via priming effects. However, the underlying mechanism of biochar (BC) priming relative to conventional biowaste (BW) amendments remains uncertain. Here, we used a stable carb...

Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.), a metal-accumulator invasive species, was pyrolyzed under a range of pyrolytic conditions to investigate their influence on immobilization and environmental safety of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the produced biochar. Conditions tested included temperature, retention time, heating rate, gas flow rate an...

Vacuum carbonization is considered to be an effective and promising thermochemical-tool for resource and energy recovery by collecting and reusing pyrolysis products and volatiles. In this study, thermochemical conversion of orange peel to biochar under low- and medium-vacuum pyrolysis conditions were investigated for product distribution and stabi...

Bioenergy is considered a sustainable substitute to fossil-fuel resources and the development of a prudent combination of renewable and innovative conversion technologies are essential for the valorization and effective conversion of biowaste to value-added commodities. Here, a negative pressure-induced carbonization process was proposed for the va...

Emerging organic pollutants (EOPs) are serious environmental concerns known for their prominent adverse and hazardous ecological effects, and persistence in nature. Their detrimental impacts have inspired researchers to develop the strategic tools that reduce and overcome the challenges caused by EOPs' rising concentration. As such, biochar becomes...

Large quantities of phosphogypsum originate from accumulated Tunisian industrial waste each year. Thus, mining effluents that do not comply with Tunisian discharge standards affect the hydrographic network and cause not only soil contamination of trace metal elements but are also considered a source of toxicity in the food chain and ultimately in t...

Chromium (Cr) affects human health if it accumulates in organs to elevated concentrations. The toxicity risk of Cr in the ecosphere depends upon the dominant Cr species and their bioavailability in the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. However, the soil-water-human nexus that controls the biogeochemical behaviour of Cr and its potential toxi...

The structure of biochar produced at various pyrolysis temperatures influences metal geochemical behavior. Here, the impact of wheat straw-derived biochar (300, 500, and 700 • C) on the immobilization and transformation of metals in the contaminated soil-plant system was assessed. The findings of the sequential extraction revealed that biochar addi...

Potentially toxic metals have become a viable threat to the ecosystem due to their carcinogenic nature. Biochar has gained substantial interest due to its redox-mediated processes and redox-active metals. Biochar has the capacity to directly adsorb the pollutants from contaminated environments through several mechanisms such as coprecipitation, com...

In this study, an attempt is made to understand the behavioral intentions towards climate change mitigation using Ajzen’s framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior. It examines the factors that influence mitigation behavioral intentions among local people in Ghana. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique, the analysis finds that climat...

The potential toxicity and ecological risks of rare-earth nanoparticles in the environment have become a concern due to their widespread application and inevitable releases. The integration of hydroponics experiments, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) were utilized to investigat...

Several health issues are related to toxic metals among which Pb, Cr, Cd, and Ni are categorized as human carcinogenic. We analyzed the health risks linked with food chain contamination due to vegetables irrigated with wastewater containing metals. Thirty-six samples of each vegetable, water, and soil (at two depths, 0–15 cm, and 15–30 cm) were col...

The COVID-19 pandemic not only has caused a global health crisis but also has significant environmental consequences. Although many studies are confirming the short-term improvements in air quality in several countries across the world, the long-term negative consequences outweigh all the claimed positive impacts. As a result, this review highlight...

As one of the most common ways to get rid of municipal waste, landfill leachate, waste with complicated compositions and high levels of contaminants, has become a significant threat to the world's environment. Here, the impact of sewage sludge (SS) and derived-biochar (SSB) amendments on the immobilization and potential mobility of heavy metals in...

Abiotic stresses, such as heavy metals (HMs), drought, salinity and water logging, are the foremost limiting factors that adversely affect the plant growth and crop productivity worldwide. The plants respond to such stresses by activating a series of intricate mechanisms that subsequently alter the morpho-physiological and biochemical processes. Ov...

Calcium peroxide (CaO₂) and persulfate (PS) dual oxidant system is an innovative in-situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) technique for the restoration of contaminated groundwater. Several field applications also confirm its efficacy in remediating the groundwater, however, published articles are rarely present. In this work, the performance of the CaO₂/P...

Erythromycin (ERY), designated as a risk-prioritized macrolide antibiotic on the 2015 European Union watch list, is the third most commonly used antibiotic, most likely due to its ability to inhibit the protein. ERY has revealed record-high aquatic concentrations threatening the entire ecosystem and hence demands priority remedial measures. The ine...

Chromium (Cr) contamination in soil and water poses high toxicity risks to organisms and threatens food and water security worldwide. Biochar has emerged as a promising material for cleaning up Cr contamination owing to biochar's strong capacity to immobilize Cr. This paper synthesizes information on biochar modification for the efficient remediati...

An increase in antibiotic utilization worldwide has led to serious environmental problems due to their direct and indirect release into waterbodies. The addition of pharmaceutically active compounds to water results in antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes, which create resistance to the particular antibiotic, requiring the need for a much more p...

Nanotechnology has a wide range of agricultural applications, with emphasize on the development of novel nano-agrochemicals such as, nano-fertilizer and nano-pesticides. It has a significant impact on sustainable agriculture by increasing agricultural productivity, while reducing the use of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Nano-co...

Crude oil is causing widespread pollution in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Phytoremediation, which is an emerging technology, involves the efficient use of plant species to remove, detoxify, and/or immobilize contaminants in the soil through natural processes. For this study, Para grass (Brachiaria mutica) inoculated with a previously...

The transformation of heavy metals in the ash from waste incineration plants is significant for ash management. The migration behavior of trace elements in ash after combustion, semi-dry deacidification, fabric filter, and chelating agent stabilization was investigated from one waste incineration plant using ICP-MS, AFS, XRD, XPS, and SEM. Hazardou...

Toxic elements (TEs) are generally less available in alkaline soils as considerable portions of TEs are precipitated with carbonates/hydroxides or presented in metal–organic complexes. However, intensive anthropogenic activity, the high total concentration of TEs, geochemical behavior of some TEs (e.g., Mo and V), and soil dynamic redox conditions...

Ciprofloxacin, a second-generation synthetic fluoroquinolone derivative widely used in human and veterinary medicines, has the potential to pose a serious risk to aquatic organisms and humans. The current research investigated the removal of ciprofloxacin using biochar treated with clay mineral and subsequently activated with carbon dioxide (CO2) p...

The present study investigated the effectiveness of rice husk biochar (RHB) and chicken manure compost (CMC) amendments on the potential mobility of heavy metals (HMs) and the growth of maize plants in contaminated soil. Results indicated that the potential mobile fraction of Cr (44.43%), Ni (29.93%), and Zn (44.68%) accounted for T2 (2% RHB), wher...

Dumping waste materials into aquatic ecosystems leads to pollution, which directly and indirectly poses a danger to all life forms. Currently, huge quantities of wastes are generated at a global scale with varying constituents, including organic fractions, emerging contaminants and toxic metals. These wastes release concentrated contaminants (leach...

Biomass, as a renewable and sustainable energy resource, can be converted into environmentally friendly and practically valuable biofuels and chemical materials via pyrolysis. However, the process optimization and pyrolysis efficiency are restricted by the limited perception of the complicated mechanisms and kinetics for biomass pyrolysis. Here, to...

The contamination of soil by toxic metal(oid)s has emerged as a major concern worldwide, particularly in developing countries. A metals behavior in the soil environment is influenced by organic matter, mineral phases, and oxidation states in which a particular metal exists. However, the spectroscopic evidence of metal(oid)s interactions in soil wit...

The current study highlights the impacts of mining and ore processing activities on the environment and human health in a south Mediterranean area of southern Tunisia. A geochemical characterization was achieved by analyzing urban soil, stream sediments, mine wastes (tailings, sludge) and phosphate ore, for trace metals “TM” (Cd, Cr, Zn, Mn) have r...

The exploitation of coal releases large amounts of contaminants into the environment. However, the featured pollutants of coal utilization as well as the scope and degree of their impact remain to be revealed. To identify the featured-element of coal contamination in a complex environment, a typical coal resource city was selected, and the major el...

Nanotechnology is an avant-garde field of scientific research that revolutionizes technological advancements in the present world. It is a cutting-edge scientific approach that has undoubtedly a plethora of functions in controlling environmental pollutants for the welfare of the ecosystem. However, their unprecedented utilization and hysterical rel...

Nickel (Ni) is a potentially toxic element that contaminates soil and water, threatens food and water security, and hinders sustainable development globally. Biochar has emerged as a promising novel material for remediating Ni-contaminated environments. However, the potential for pristine and functionalized biochars to immobilize/adsorb Ni in soil...

The intensive use and wide-ranging application of plastic- and plastic-derived products have resulted in alarming levels of plastic pollution in different environmental compartments worldwide. As a result of various biogeochemical mechanisms, this plastic litter is converted into small, ubiquitous and persistent fragments called microplastics (< 5...

Biochar (BC), a low-cost, porous and carbon-rich material, exhibits excellent potential as an adsorbent in the immobilization and removal of environmental contaminants from water and soil. To enhance the surface area, functionalities and adsorption efficiency of BC, various clay and clay mineral-based physical and chemical modification methods have...

The inefficient and incomplete combustion of solid fuel is associated with high levels of indoor air pollutants leading to 3.55 million deaths annually, and the risk is higher in women and children due to their higher exposure duration and unique physical properties. The current article aims to provide a critical overview regarding the use of solid...

Careful designing of biochar (BC) employing biological and industrial waste materials has gained much attention to improve soil health via reducing the bioavailability of heavy metals (HMs) in the contaminated-soil. Herein, a forty-day pot experiment was conducted to explore the influence of micro-plastic (MP) embedded sewage-sludge (SS). The effec...

Soil contamination with heavy metals has become a global environmental-health concern. A series of greenhouse experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of rice straw, rice straw derived biochar (BC), multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and single superphosphate (SSP) on immobilization of Pb and Cu via sequential extraction of BCR, total char...

This study was designed to examine the combined effect of bamboo-biochar (BC) and water-washed lignite (LGT) at copper mine tailings (CuMT) sites on the concentration of Cu and other metals in pore water (PW), their bioavailability, and change in geochemical speciation. Rapeseed (first cropping-season) and wheat (second cropping-season) were grown...

Widespread documentation of antibiotic pollution is becoming a threat to the aquatic environment. Erythromycin (ERY), a macrolide belonging antibiotic is at the top of this list with its concentrations ranging between ng/L to a few ug/L in various global waterbodies giving rise to ERY-resistance genes (ERY-RGs) and ERY- resistance bacteria (ERY-RBs...

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) application in variety of commercial products would likely release these NPs into the environment. The interaction of TiO2NPs with terrestrial plants upon uptake can disturb plants functional traits and can also transfer to the food chain members. In this study, we investigated the impact of TiO2NPs on wheat...

Ecological risk assessment metal(oid)s speciation Multivariate statistical analysis School indoor pollution A B S T R A C T Interior settled dust is one of the greatest threats of potentially toxic metal(oid)s (PTMs) exposure to the children, especially in the school environment. Therefore, it is more worthy of having in-depth knowledge of composi-...

Porous carbonaceous adsorbents are believed to encourage contenders to CO2 uptake however their high production cost has urged researchers towards cheap renewable. In this study, nitrogen-doped carbonaceous adsorbents with high ultra-microporous structure were synthesized by carbonization and activation of chitosan along with urea and KOH simultane...

Ultrafine particles (UFPs) with an aerodynamic diameter of <0.1 µm are emerging as the most dominant and abundant particulate matter. Human exposure to these particles has increased dramatically, especially in the indoor environment as most of the population spend 80 to 90% time in the indoor environment. Due to the small size, it is believed that...

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal present in the environment which causes severe environmental, nutritional, and ecological losses. A pot incubation study was conducted to assess the role of biochar derived from various organic feedstock’s [poultry manure (PM), farmyard manure (FYM) and sugarcane press mud (PS)] and dosages (0, 2.5 and 5 g kg-1 s...

Road dust from coal utilization is a significant source contributing to the generation of pollutants that can affect the health of people residing within close proximity to roadways. In this study, road dust samples were collected from different directions centered around a coal-fired power plant in Huainan. Black carbon (BC), soot, char,organic ca...

In this study, polymetal(iod)s-contaminated mining soil from the Huainan coalfield, Anhui, China, was used toinvestigate the synergistic effects of biochar (BC), raw coal (RC), and hydrothermally treated coal (HTC) on theimmobilization, speciation, transformation, and accumulation of Cd, Cr, and Pb in a soil–plant system via geochemicalspeciation a...

One of the key environmental limitations in coal usage is selenium emission whose removal is focused in this study. We employed hydrothermal treatment to remove Se element and upgrade low rank Huainan coal at 200-300 °C. Pyrolysis temperature given during coal treatment was evaluated to simulate coal transformation into high-rank industrial grade b...

The ever increasing production and use of nano-enabled commercial products release the massive amount of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in the environment. An increasing number of recent studies have shown the toxic effects of ENPs on different organisms, raising concerns over the nano-pollutants behavior and fate in the various environmental comp...

Cadmium (Cd) contamination of arable soils and its subsequent accumulation in food is one of the global issues which needs urgent attention. Field experiments were conducted to explore the impacts of ten silicon (Si) rich amendments on Cd bioavailability and accumulation by maize and wheat irrigated with sewage effluents. Results depicted that appl...

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) use in a wide range of consumer products inevitably releases the massive quantities of these NPs in the natural environment, posing a potential thread to ecosystem-safety and plant health. Here, the impact of AgNPs (100-1000 mg L-1) without and with biochar (@2 % w/v) amendment on maize plants was assessed in hydroponic...

With increased urbanization and industrialization, the global burden of anthropogenic emissions through biomass and fossil fuel combustion has increased significantly, threatening the global climate system, air quality and human health. Half of the aerosol particles emitted as a result of combustion are in the form of black carbon (BC), co-emitted...

Increased population growth, better living standards and improved economic activity put the upward burden on the world’s inadequate water resources. A study was conducted to evaluate the quantity and quality of wastewater generated by industrial and municipal effluent and its treatment efficiency in a semi-arid city Faisalabad, Pakistan. Samples fr...

The question of the degree to which participation by civil society contributes to environmental decisions in post-conflict societies has received little attention. This study sheds light on the extent to which degrees of participation contribute to environmental decision-making in the Puntland State of Somalia using questionnaire surveys. We found...

The question of the degree to which participation by civil society contributes to environmental decisions in post-conflict societies has received little attention. This study sheds light on the extent to which degrees of participation contribute to environmental decision-making in the Puntland State of Somalia using questionnaire surveys. We found...

The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of hydrothermally treated coal gangue (HTCG) with and without biochar (BC) on the leaching, bioavailability, and redistribution of chemical fractions of heavy metals (HMs) in copper mine tailing (Cu-MT). An increase in pH, water holding capacity (WHC) and soil organic carbon (SOC) were obser...

The rapid development in nanotechnology and incorporation of engineered nano-particles (ENPs) in a wide range of consumer products releasing the massive quantities of ENPs in different environmental compartments. The released ENPs from nano-enabled products during their life cycle raising environmental health and safety issues. This review addresse...

The devastations and damages caused by climate change are apparent across the globe, specifically in the South Asian region where vulnerabilities to climate change among residents are high and climate change adaptation and mitigation awareness are extremely low. Pakistan’s low adaptive capacity due to high poverty rate, limited financial resources...

Lead (Pb) is a non-essential and extremely noxious metallic-element whose biogeochemical cycle has been influenced predominantly by increasing human activities to a great extent. The introduction and enrichment of this ubiquitous contaminant in the terrestrial-environment has a long history and getting more attention due to its adverse health effec...

The Indus Basin Irrigation Network (IBIN) plays a vital role in the agricultural system of Pakistan, irrigating seventeen million hectares of cultivated areas. Rapid urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural activities along the Indus Basin have influenced the soil quality and human health; it is, therefore, critical to know its pollution c...

In this study, fabrication of manganese-incorporated iron oxide-graphene nanocomposite (rGO-FMBO) was reported for the efficient activation of CaO2 and generation of reactive radicals for the degradation of sulfamethoxazole (SMX). The effects of different systems, catalyst dosage, oxidant dosage, different pH and different reaction time on the degr...

The extensive use of nano-fabricated products in daily life is releasing a large volume of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in the environment having unknown consequences. Meanwhile, little efforts have been paid to immobilize and prevent the entry of these emerging contaminants in the food chain through plant uptake. Herein, we investigated the bio...

Climate change is a global challenge faced by everyone but the developing countries are highly vulnerable to variations in the environment. This research focuses on the Punjab province of Pakistan and evaluates the impacts and consequences of climate change on general public at local and divisional level. In order to cope with the impacts of climat...

In terms of net intensification in the greenhouse effect ie., rise of global temperature which has triggered melting of glacier thus increasing sea level and acidification of sea, carbon dioxide alone contributes approximately three-fourth of the net greenhouse radiative forcing by man-made (anthropogenic) greenhouse gases emissions. Carbon dioxide...

In the paper, hydrothermally (HT) treated, sulfuric acid (H2SO4), and hydrochloric acid (HCl) washed fly ashes (FA) were used to examine the applied effects with and without biochar (BC) on the bioavailability of heavy metals (HMs) and growth of maize (Zea mays L.) plants in coal-mining contaminated soil. Addition of BC in combination with these pr...

Urban areas under the influence of multi-industrial activities with arid and semi-arid environments witness the significant increase in environmental pollution especially in the water sector. The present study evaluated the water quality and associated health risk assessment through heavy metal pollution. Drinking (n = 48) and surface (n = 37) wate...

Airborne particulate matter (PM) is a heterogeneous mixture of particles with a variety of chemical components and physical features acting as a potential risk to human health. The ability to pose health risk depends upon the size, concentration and chemical composition of the suspended particles. PTEs associated with PM have multiple sources of or...

The application of silicon (Si)under heavy metal stress is well known, but the use of Si nanoparticles (NPs)under metal stress in not well documented. Thus, the experiments were performed to investigate the impacts of soil and foliar applied Si NPs on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)growth and cadmium (Cd)accumulation in grains under Cd toxicity. The p...

Urban areas under the influence of multi-industrial activities with arid and semi-arid environment witness the significant increase in environmental pollution especially in water sector. The present study evaluated the water quality and associated health risk assessment through heavy metal pollution. Drinking (n=48) and surface (n=37) water samples...