Mamta Awasthi

National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur | NIT Hamirpur · Centre for Excellence in Energy & Environment

Cyanobacterial exopolysaccharides (EPS) are heteropolysaccharides with significant biological importance in various industries. Investigating nanoparticles is gaining interest due to their great potential in improving cyanobacterial growth and co-products accumulation. Nevertheless, green synthesis of nanoparticles offers an alternative, eco-friend...

The present work investigates the techno-economic-environmental feasibility analysis of a grid-connected hybrid system as a microgrid in the western Himalayan region, using local renewable resources such as solar, wind, biomass (pine needles). A total of 5 distinct configurations are examined based on available resources in the presence and absence...

Industrial discharge and toxic waste through domestic dwellers with changing lifestyle have increased. Wastewater treatment plants must cope up with the increasing quantity and toxicity with various treatment units. Modifications in the treatment units can enhance the treatment process. The review emphasizes on the state of the art of the wastewate...

India has a profuse reserve of renewables to contribute to energy sectors. In this study, a techno-economic and environmental analysis are carried out for an off-grid hybrid system as a case study in the western Himalayan region. Seven different hybrid systems with and without battery storage are simulated. The PV/Biomass gasifier/Battery based hyb...

In order to satisfy the growing energy requirements and environmental concern, interest toward alternative fuels such as biodiesel, syngas, hydrogen and biogas has been evolved to provide an effective, economic and environment friendly solution to replace the fossil fuel (diesel/petrol) in internal combustion engines. Therefore, in hilly regions, u...

Sufficient accessibility of pine needles in hilly regions is not only resource wastage but also a cause of forest fire threat. The primary motivation of the present study is to utilize locally available abundant pine needles to complement the diesel-based generation/backup unit. In the present study techno-economic and environmental assessment of o...

Growth in global energy demand, with major fossil fuel consumption, has induced detrimental environmental and social impacts. Therefore, in recent years, technologies focused on renewable energy utilization, including biomass energy, have evolved to meet the energy requirements. Bioenergy‐based power generation systems are among the best‐unutilized...

Unutilized pine needles are not only a significant issue of environmental hazards like recurrent forest fires and greenhouse gas emission but also a wastage of resources. The pine needles can be used efficiently for electricity generation. In the present study, simulation research on a grid-connected biomass-based hybrid energy system was conceived...

Untapped pine needles with high potential for energy generation in the hilly area are not only a waste of resource but also increase the chance of environmental hazards as forest fires and GHG emission. This study is conducted to propose a new hybrid system (PV/Wind/Biomass) using abundant pine needle resource as a replacement of existing roof-moun...

Untapped pine needles with high potential for energy generation in the hilly area are not only a waste of resource but also increase the chance of environmental hazards as forest fires and GHG emission. This study is conducted to propose a new hybrid system (PV/Wind/Biomass) using abundant pine needle resource as a replacement of existing roof-moun...

Microalgae biofuels may provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels which has received considerable interest now a days, but if microalgae biofuel production is to be economically viable and sustainable to mitigate the energy crises. Although there is much excitement about the potential of microalgae biofuels, much work is still required in the fi...

The use of fuel wood, crop residue or cow dung for cooking is widespread in rural India and, as it is not purchased, is often the only option for the rural poor. Besides the low calorific value of these residues, it also affects the health due to indoor air pollution. Briquette technology can reduce this rural problem. Moreover the technology can a...

Ethanol production is usually accomplished by chemical synthesis or microbial conversion of carbohydrates present in agricultural products. In a country like India which is the largest producer of bananas, banana peels can be a good source of ethanol production. However these peels are underutilized despite their rich carbohydrate content and other...

Harmful effects of contaminants on the ecosystem and humans cannot be assessed by standard chemical analyses of environmental samples, therefore toxicity tests using live organisms or cells represent a vital part of environmental monitoring. Biological methods based on microorganisms as test-species, have already successfully been applied to enviro...

Algae constitute a major proportion of fish food in rice-fish culture system. Study of algal preferences and their availability in the natural environment might be important for developing natural fish feed. Preparation of formulated feeds using under-exploited materials such as algae not only reduces production costs, but also increases procuremen...

Biological treatment of heavy metals is an effective technology for the treatment of low concentration industrial wastewater. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the zinc and cadmium removal capacities through absorption (active) and adsorption (passive) by free and alginate-immobilized cells of Scenedesmus quadricauda. Immobilized cells have...

Every organism has different potential to accumulate NO3- from the environment. Nitrate reduction processes are perhaps most significant in maintaining water quality by alteration of nitrate to nitrite. A comparative study between the nitrate reductase NR activity of green and blue green algae in presence of heavy metals is being conducted to prese...

We examined the influences of three trace metals on the accumulation of a major nutrient (NO3-) in Scenedesmus quadricauda. A comparative study on metal-nutrient interaction in free and immobilized states of algal cells was conducted. The effect due to interaction between different variables (cell state type, metal type, and metal dose) was studied...

Toxicity of Ni, Zn and Cd has been studied on the green alga Scenedesmus quadricauda. Toxicity was considerably influenced by immobilization of the test organism. All the physiological variables were deleteriously affected in a concentration dependent manner and the metals were found to be more toxic to free state of cells than the immobilized ones...

The essential trace metallic elements, zinc and nickel as well as non essential metal, cadmium were investigated for toxicity in a freshwater green alga, Chlorella vulgaris, which was greatly influenced when the cells were immobilized. A general reduction in growth, photosynthetic activity, nitrate reductase (NR) and alkaline phosphatase (Apase) wa...

The stress effect of Ni and Cd on the ammonium uptake varied significantly (ANOVA test) in free and immobilized state of the test organism. The effect due to the interaction between different variables (cell state type, metal type and metal dose) was studied to depict the significant or non-significant variation in the ammonium uptake by free and i...

Alginate-immobilized cyanobacteria (Anacystis nidulans) and two green algae (Chlorella vulgaris, Scenedesmus quadricauda) were compared for their ability to accu-mulate nickel, zinc and cadmium on their cell surfaces (adsorption). Cadmium and nickel were more efficiently adsorbed by Anacystis nidulans while Chlorella vulgaris showed better adsorpti...

Physiological responses of the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans to direct and indirect exposures to a 0.3-T permanent magnet for different lengths of time were studied. Direct and indirect exposures, different exposure periods, and different magnetic poles produced significantly different effects. We suggest that the magnetic field (MF) caused the...

Physiological responses of the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans to direct and indirect exposures to a 0.3-T permanent magnet for different lengths of time were studied. Direct and indirect exposures, different exposure periods, and different magnetic poles produced significantly different effects. We suggest that the magnetic field (MF) caused the...

Physiological responses of the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans to direct and indirect exposures to a 0.3-T permanent magnet for different lengths of time were studied. Direct and indirect exposures, different exposure periods, and different magnetic poles produced significantly different effects. We suggest that the magnetic field (MF) caused the...