Indrasis Das

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | IIT KGP · Department of Civil Engineering

The concentration of persistent organic compounds, including pesticides, in aquatic environments is gradually increasing due to industrial discharge and uncontrolled runoff from agricultural fields. The advanced oxidation process is considered the most effective treatment method for the mineralization of persistent compounds. This research focused...

Ethylene glycol or 1,2-ethanediol (EG) is a persistent and toxic substance in the environment and extensively applied in petrochemical, surfactants, antifreeze, asphalt emulsion paints, cosmetics, plastics, and polyester fiber industries. Degradation of EG by using ultraviolet (UV) activated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and persulfate (PS) or persulfat...

Performance of a batch electrocoagulation/floatation (ECF) setup using punched aluminium electrodes for the remediation of salicylic acid in the presence of cetyl-trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant is evaluated in this research. The operational parameters of ECF technology were optimized in this research and based on the optimized operati...

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are promising technologies for partial or complete mineralization of contaminants of emerging concern by highly reactive hydroxyl, hydroperoxyl, superoxide, and sulphate radicals. Detailed investigations and reviews have been reported for conventional AOP systems that have been installed in full-scale wastewater...

For successful field-scale application of microbial fuel cell (MFC), the power recovery from field-scale MFC needs to be improved considerably with simultaneous reduction in its fabrication cost. These problems can be addressed by applying low-cost and efficient cathode catalyst in MFCs. In this regard, Cu0.5Mn0.5Fe2O4 (CuMnFe) was synthesized and...

Sanitation is the basic quality index of life and proper sanitation practices play a vital role in maintaining the hygienic conditions. Use of human waste (urine and faeces) as a substrate for microbial oxidation is found to be sustainable approach towards improving the sanitation facilities. Advancement in microbial fuel cell (MFC) system towards...

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bioelectrochemical system, which treats wastewater with simultaneous recovery of bioelectricity. Costly proton exchange membrane, like Nafion-117, brings a serious bottleneck towards the sustainable scaled-up application of this technology. For appropriate field-scale demonstration of MFC, the fabrication cost needs t...

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is a novel technology that can be used to sequester carbon and simultaneously produce organic compounds by the application of electricity in the presence of biocatalysts. This investigation was aimed at determining the ideal imposed potential required to synthesize organic compounds from the CO2 present in biogas. D...

Successful field-scale demonstration of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is still a challenge to the researchers due to its diminutive power generation and proliferated capital cost. To circumnavigate these roadblocks, CuZn was investigated as low-cost cathode catalyst in lab-scale and field-scale MFCs. The lab-scale MFC with CuZn as cathode catalyst de...

Clayware membrane amalgamated with 20 % montmorillonite (M-20), acts as an excellent cost effective proton exchange membrane (PEM) for the application in field-scale microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In this investigation, M-20 membrane was pre-treated by acid (M-A), neutral water (M-N) and alkali (M-B), followed by the determination of the membrane pro...

Porous catalysts with higher activated surface area are strategic materials to enhance oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and for improving performance of the microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In this investigation, highly porous cage-like zirconium-metal-organic framework (Zr-MOF) was synthesized by solvothermal method and used as ORR catalyst in an air-c...

Nano-particles of Cu0.5Mn0.5Fe2O were synthesized using co-precipitation technique from analytical grade precursors. The formed nano-particles were dried and subjected to calcination at 900 ºC for 5 h to ensure the formation of single cubic spinel structure. The as prepared nano-particles were characterized using X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) a...

The rise in global atmospheric temperature due to increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration needs to be tackled immediately before it reaches the point of no return. The application of innovative technologies based on the concepts of bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) can contribute in this direction by simultaneously sequestrating CO...

Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) are strategically designed porous material with a very high surface area. Metal ions surrounded by organic linkers form a three-dimensional MOF structure with special abilities like high adsorbing capacity, excellent catalyzing behavior and photo-activity. Presently, MOFs are widely investigated as an adsorbent to rem...

Microbial electrochemical technologies (MET) is an interdisciplinary approach where microbes are used as bio-catalyst for the treatment of wastewater and generation of value-added products like electricity, biofuels etc. This technology is very robust and thus can also be used for the removal of bio-refractory substances from industrial wastewater....

This work investigates the degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) using UV irradiation and the UV-H 2 O 2 advanced oxidation process (AOP). For UV irradiation at 253.7 nm, ∼66% degradation was observed for a fluence of 20 J cm ⁻² and the apparent fluence-based, pseudo-first-order rate constant for 2,4-D was 5.77 (±0.66) × 10 ⁻⁵ cm ²...

Low cost tungsten oxide/bismuth tungstate (WO3/Bi2WO6) composite was synthesized and used as cathode catalyst in microbial fuel cell (MFC). Almost 1.5 times increment in specific surface area of WO3/Bi2WO6 composite was observed as compared with WO3 and WO3/Bi2WO6 exhibited efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) having a current peak of 8.1 mA a...

Waste generation from healthcare facilities now has become a concerning issue as it contains plastic and metals. Medicine wrappers are one of the major portion of healthcare solid waste, which impel intensive solid waste management practice due to less possibilities of deriving by-products. However, it can be recycled and used as electrode material...

A low-cost electrochemically active oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst is obligatory for making microbial fuel cells (MFCs) sustainable and economically viable. In this endeavour, a highly active surface modified ferrite, with Co and Zn bimetal in the ratio of 1:1 (w/w), Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 was synthesised using simple sol-gel auto combustion met...

Overpotential losses on cathode during oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) causes serious performance depletion in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). High cost of existing platinum based noble catalysts is one of the main reason for growing interest in the research of low cost sustainable cathode catalysts to improve ORR in order to enhance power generation...

Bismuth impregnation on pure TiO2 (Bi–TiO2) was carried out and tested in microbial fuel cell (MFC) as photocathode catalyst. UV–Visible spectral observation confirmed higher catalytic activity of Bi–TiO2 under visible light irradiation with reduced band gap of 2.80 eV as compared to pure TiO2 (3.26 eV). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy also...

Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) is one of the most commonly used antimicrobial anionic surfactant present in commonly used soaps and detergents. Degradation of SLS in the anodic chamber of aqueous cathode MFC was conducted in the study using 1 day batch cycle. SLS removal, wastewater treatability and effect of SLS on electricity generation from MFC we...

Microbial Fuel Cell