Norhayati Abdullah

• PhD
• Fulbright US-ASEAN Visiting Scholar at University of Michigan

The rapid growth of restaurants due to people's changing lifestyles has been implicated in negative impacts on environmental sustainability made by restaurant wastewater (RWW). To overcome this challenge, this work cultivated Chlorella vulgaris with RWW in the Bubble Column Photobioreactor (BCPBR) to investigate the efficiency of removing pollutant...

With 80% of wastewater globally discharged untreated and non-renewable energy resources rapidly depleting, the call for sustainable solutions has never been louder. Nature-Based Technologies for Wastewater Treatment and Bioenergy Production explores the groundbreaking integration of natural systems and advanced technologies to address critical glo...

The study uses ultrasonic-assisted chemical activation to describe an eco-friendly method for producing activated carbon with high specific surface area and porosity from high lignin-content palm kernel shells. The low activation temperature of 600 °C with the ultrasonic interaction was able to show excellent phenol and methylene blue adsorption, 7...

Limited information is available on the characteristics of algal-bacterial aerobic granular sludge (AGS) treating real wastewater, especially on its alginate-like exopolymers (ALE) production. In addition, the effect of target microalgae species inoculation on the system performance has not been fully understood. This study aimed to reveal the effe...

The number of restaurants is increasing day by day in almost all the developing countries, causing the increase in the generation of restaurant wastewaters. Various activities (i.e., cleaning, washing, and cooking) going on in the restaurant kitchen lead to restaurant wastewater (RWW). RWW has high concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD), bi...

Despite various research works on algal-bacterial aerobic granular sludge for wastewater treatment and resource recovery processes, limited information is available on its application in real wastewater treatment in terms of performance, microbial community variation and resource recovery. This study investigated the performance of algal-bacterial...

As the world’s population is increasing at an unprecedented rate, causing a severe impact on the limited and depleting petroleum reserves by their overexploitation and consumption. It is estimated that due to increasing socioeconomic and infrastructural advancements, we have already consumed about 50% of the petroleum reserves. Furthermore, the exc...

Energy is an absolute entity required to run all the systems in the world. Our excessive reliance on fossil fuels has led to the diminishing of their reserves and serious concern for energy security and sustainability. Moreover, the overconsumption and disproportionate use of fossil fuels is also creating serious risk for the environment, due to th...

Growing population needs several types of materials for their use, one of which is plastics, manufactured more than 400 million tonnes every year globally. The plastics are petroleum based and non-biodegradable, ends up as a plastic garbage in freshwater, marine water, landfills creating a problem to an ecosystem. To overcome all the issues related...

From back in 1950, world production of plastic has expanded to 8.4% of annual growth rate and every year, global plastic manufacture has exceeded 400 million tons. It has been predicted that by 2025, generation of plastic would extend to 500 million tons. regardless of various application of petroleum-derived plastics and petrochemical-based polyme...

Growth in industrial production, urbanization, overexploitation of resources and inadequate waste management, has led to the emergence of many environmental issues. Among these, the generation of wastewaters from various sources causing pollution has been the most afflicting one. With the changing habits of people, the preference is shifting toward...

This study aims to assess the feasibility of cultivating microalgae-bacteria aerobic granular sludge using low-strength municipal wastewater (<200 mg COD/L) as a substrate. A laboratory-scale photo-sequencing batch reactor was inoculated with activated sludge and fed with municipal wastewater. The development and characteristics of microalgae-bacte...

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is defined as the wastewater that contains high concentrations of organics, nutrients and oil and grease generated from the production process of palm oil. Therefore, proper discharge and management of POME is important to avoid deleterious impact on the environment. In fact, solid waste generation is a precursor for i...

A laboratory-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was deployed in this study to examine the relationship between pharmaceutical compounds and anaerobic process performance. The reactor successfully biotransformed up to 87–99% of psychostimulant caffeine, anti-diabetic drug gliclazide, and anti-hypertensive drug prazosin during 92 d...

The changing lifestyle, urbanization, and depletion of non-renewable resources to match the ever-increasing energy demand are causing a pessimistic impact on the environment. The cities are responsible for 75% of carbon emissions and about 60-80% of the energy consumption globally, causing a precarious situation because they only constitute 3% of t...

Population inflation has led to the unprecedented increase in urbanization, thus causing negative impacts on environmental sustainability. Recently, there is an upsurge in the number of restaurants due to the changing lifestyles of the people. There were 167,490 food and beverage establishments in 2015, representing an annual growth rate of 5.1% si...

Increasing thrust on technological advancement around the globe has led to a drastic increase in the consumption of various products or raw materials consequently leading to an enormous amount of solid waste generation. In the developing countries mainly sanitary landfills are opted for the disposal of solid waste because of the economic advantage...

Leachate has become a great deal of concern due to its complex properties which are primarily caused by the high concentrations of organics and ammonia. Thus, proper leachate treatment is required prior to its discharge. Leachate can be treated in various ways, and biological treatment is one of the approaches. This treatment has been shown to be b...

Today's planet faces several critical problems such as resource depletion, environmental destruction, and climate change that affect all areas of life as we know it. Figuring out how to address these issues and prioritizing Earth’s health has been at the forefront of study as it is a key issue that affects us all. One element that requires further...

Rapid population growth, urbanization, economic progress, and changing lifestyles all contributed to an increase in resource consumption and waste generation. Global solid waste generation was about 1.3 BT/year and was predicted to further increase to a tremendous amount of 2.2 BT/year by 2030. Municipal solid waste generation is increasing at a hi...

As the world’s population is increasing at an unprecedented rate, causing a severe impact on the limited and depleting petroleum reserves by their overexploitation and consumption. It is estimated that due to increasing socioeconomic and infrastructural advancements, we have already consumed about 50% of the petroleum reserves. Furthermore, the...

This study attempts to investigate the relationship between the dominance of reducing conditions and the biotransformation of pharmaceutical compounds, which has been scarcely reported in a continuous anaerobic treatment process. Previous batch experiments have discovered the possible implications of different reducing conditions on the biotransfor...

Emergence of organic micropollutants, specifically pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs) in receiving water bodies possess a great threat towards our ecosystem presently and in future. By that, evaluating and monitoring the removal of PhCs, specifically those highly consumed in a certain area, is considerably critical in attempt to minimize discharge of...

Granular instability and a long granulation start-up period are significant challenges in implementing a full-scale aerobic granular sludge system. Identifying extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) components and their interactions is the key determinant to overcoming these challenges. Because of the high complexity of EPS, alginate-like exopoly...

Microalgae species are the potential source to produce protein, carbohydrates, lipids, pigments as well as other metabolites that are currently obtained from conventional agriculture which is having many limitations in terms of sustainability. Algae are the emerging area of study and due to continuous and progressive research they are expected to b...

Cultivation of microalgae in wastewater is strongly related to the selection of suitable species for a specific type of wastewater. Thus, this study presented the cultivation of isolated microalgae strains, Acutodesmus obliquus CN01 and Desmodesmus maximus CN06 using municipal wastewater, along with Chlorella vulgaris NIES-1269 as the control speci...

The advantageous characteristics of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) have led to their increasing popularities among academics and industrial players. However, there has been no bibliometric report on current and future research trends of AGS. This study utilized the available reports of AGS in the Scopus database for comprehensive bibliometric analys...

It is estimated that the solar energy provided to the Earth in 1 h could satisfy the global energy needs for 1 year. Solar energy is an abundant, clean, and inexhaustible source of energy. Therefore it is necessary to find an efficient way of harnessing this energy, and the solar tracking system is a result of this quest. The efficiency of solar sy...

It is being estimated by the World Bank that the operations and maintenance cost for the basic water and sanitation services (WASH) is expected to increase from 4 to 30 Billion USD per year by 2030 which substantially surpass the capital cost of basic WASH services. Still the local and global funding prioritize the capital investment in the current...

Solid waste management is a vital area that needs to be addressed as it leads to a sustainable environment and welfare of the public. Unfortunately, in developing nations, improper solid waste management leads to the pollution of the environment and this affects people’s health. The challenges and the improvement measures for solid waste vary for e...

Wastewater generated from restaurants may pose a serious threat to the environment and the sewer system if not treated effectively. Restaurant wastewater contains many pollutants out of which fat, oil and grease which is more commonly known as FOG are of much concern because of its complex nature and detrimental effects. FOG may congeal due to sapo...

In the revolutionizing world, one of the serious concerns is about the urbanization and changing habits of people. The trend of eating out at restaurants is exceedingly going to fade the culture of cooking at homes. There were about 170,000 restaurants in 2015, representing an annual hike of 5 % as reported by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia...

The overwhelming situation of complex energy demand, environmental pollution and risk to sustainability have led to the advent of microalgae. Microalgae may be grown in varying environments (i.e., pH, nutrients, temperature), non-arable land with less water footprint. Moreover, by capturing light through photosynthesis, microalgae produce larger qu...

The poster will provide an overview about the production of biomass and biofuels using chlorella vulgaris. The study will also elaborate the biotechnological aspects of chlorella vulgaris and its potential in the removal of various pollutants as well as nutrients.

Anaerobic digestion has been studied as a potential enhancement to the existing conventional treatment processes in removing pharmaceutical compounds from wastewater streams. The removals of pharmaceuticals were achieved through biotransformation and sorption to solids. There are instances where complete removal could not be achieved and the compou...

Energy is indispensable for bringing competence, resilience, and comfort for the ever-advancing human lifestyle. Therefore, to satisfy the growing energy requirement researchers are trying to delve in exploring sustainable and renewable energy sources that will contribute to the reduction of carbon footprint and ultimately help to check the issue o...

Composite materials are used in more than 40,000 end-use applications in many large markets including transportation, power, and energy. Macro trends driving more sustainable practices include energy use and availability, the effects of climate change, and the ever-rising population and consumption of resources. Technology and innovation are critic...

Recently, the symbiosis between microalgae and bacteria for wastewater treatment system receives more attention as microalgae and bacteria coexist symbiotically under suitable environmental condition. Moreover, the microalgae and bacteria interaction in granular form had been considered as an environmental friendly alternatives due to the synergist...

Increasing population, urbanization and changing lifestyle has led to enormous generation of municipal solid waste which is ultimately disposed in sanitary landfills leading to the problem of leachate pollution. Leachate needs to be treated with an effective method before its disposal. Among various options available the treatment using anaerobic t...

Improper Solid Waste Management leads to the generation of landfill leachate at the landfills. To reduce the negative impacts of highly toxic and recalcitrant leachate on the environment, several techniques have been used. A lot of research is conducted to find suitable methods for the treatment of landfill leachate such as biological processes, ch...

The increase in global pollution, industrialization and fast economic progress are considered to inflict serious consequences to the quality and availability of water throughout the world. Wastewater is generated from three major sources i.e. industrial, agricultural, and municipal which contain pollutants such as xenobiotics, microplastics, heavy...

Microalgae is an oleaginous expedient having various applications such as production of biofuels (biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas), nutraceutical compounds and the potential to treat wastewaters. The factors contributing to its viability are high growth rate(5-10 times higher than other plants); can be grown in different environments(hot/cold);rich i...

With the rising global population, achieving nutritional food for all is a matter of concern. Therefore, sources of nutrients having low cost and can easily and speedily produce copious amounts ofnutritional value are required. Microalgae stands out for that purpose since it can produce nutrients as well as nutraceutical compounds. “Nutraceuticals”...

Aerobic granular sludge involves microbial community, which allows simultaneous removal of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other pollutants in a single reactor. The feasibility of aerobic granular sludge has been extensively studied for implementation in wastewater treatment for municipal, domestic and industrial wastewater including palm oil mil...

In Malaysia, the population is increasing at a rapid rate reaching 32.6 million in 2019. This has resulted in a tremendous amount of solid wastes being generated which was estimated as about 38,200 tons per day (1.12 kg/cap/day), in 2018 enough to fill the Twin Towers every seven days. 82.5% of which is disposed of in landfills. If not managed prop...

Aerobic granular sludge can be used to treat various types of wastewater, such as industrial, municipal and domestic wastewater. This study investigated the treatment of low-strength domestic wastewater while simultaneously developed aerobic granular sludge in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Activated sludge was used as the seeding for granulatio...

In this study, a two-stage domesticated shear-loop anaerobic contact stabilization (SLACS) system is introduced as a new reactor design to enhance methane productivity with significant reduction in hydrogen sulphide (H2S) synthesis. Due to the rich sulfate content in industrial wastewaters, the initial fermentation phase of anaerobic digestion is h...

Palm Oil Mill (POM) effluent is the primary discharge from the industrial clarifiers during POM processing and a potential substrate for methane production. However, due to its rich content of sulfate components, the initial fermentation phase of anaerobic digestion is highly acidifying which leads to severe performance losses, digester's instabili...

Chemical and physical treatments for cellulosic wastes degradation currently suffer several setbacks that limit its application in the management of palm oil-related wastes. This study isolated and screened fungal strains capable of degrading raw oil palm mesocarp fibre (OPMF). The fungal strains were identified by using the polymerase chain reacti...

Municipal solid waste landfill leachate is of serious environmental concern and is treated using various methods, mostly involving biological treatment. In the present study, an up-flow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) was used for the treatment of matured landfill leachate that contains heavy metals (As, Fe, Ni, and Cd) and formaldehyde (FA). The organ...

A feasibility study on the addition of ferric chloride (FeCl3) as selective regulator to reduce the sulphide reduction activities of sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) in anaerobic digester was investigated. A lab-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) fed with synthetic sulphate enriched wastewaters were operated continuously for 56 d. The in...

The performance of a modified anaerobic baffled reactor (MABR) treating synthetic wastewater at different organic loading rates (OLRs) was investigated. The MABR was seeded with anaerobic sludge taken from a local municipal wastewater treatment plant and fed continuously with glucose at OLRs of 0.258, 0.787 and 2.471 kgCOD/m³·d at hydraulic retenti...

The biological conversion of biomass into methane during anaerobic digestion has been studied by many researchers in recent years. In this study, optimization of methane composition during chemical oxygen demand removal was observed in a multi-stage Anaerobic Bioreactor. Synthetic glucose was used as a feed substrate, and the reactor was operated a...

Breakthrough curves for the removal of Ni(II), Zn(II), and Pb(II) from aqueous solutions using cation exchange resin (Dowex 50W) were determined at dynamic conditions in a fixed-bed column under ambient temperature. The experiments and data obtained were designed and analyzed using response surface methodology, respectively. Three operating paramet...

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill leachate is of serious environmental concern and is treated using various methods, mostly involving biological treatment. In the present study, an up-flow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) was used for the treatment of matured landfill leachate that contains heavy metals (As, Fe, Ni, and Cd) and formaldehyde (FA). The...

The removal of Bisphenol A in river water can be accomplished with the application of ozone. Ozone is widely used to disinfect drinking water due to its strong oxidizing properties. This study was conducted to investigate the removal of Bisphenol A in different areas of Skudai River. Batch experiments were conducted at initial Bisphenol A concentra...

a b s t r a c t Oil Palm mesocarp fibre (OPMF), is a byproduct from palm oil production industries, the waste was utilized as a substrate for biogas production. The main barrier in using this type of biomass is its complexity in biodegradation. OPMF was biological pretreated using oyster mushroom for breaking the complex structure so as to expose t...

Generation of wastes in the form of palm oil mill effluent (POME) is unavoidable due to increase in oil palm development worldwide. Direct discharge of POME into receiving water bodies is strongly discouraged due to high chemical and biochemical oxygen demand concentrations, respectively. Aerobic granulation technology features microbial aggregates...

Oil palm is commonly used in commercial agricultural activities as the second leading export in Malaysia. The main by-products and wastes that are produced from oil palm includes empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm oil mill effluent (POME) generated from sterilizer condensate, palm fibre and palm kernels. Due to its high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD...

The present study investigates the formation of aerobic granular sludge in sequencing batch reactor (SBR) fed with palm oil mill effluent (POME). Stable granules were observed in the reactor with diameters between 2.0 and 4.0mm at a chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading rate of 2.5 kg COD m(-3) d(-1). The biomass concentration was 7600 mg L(-1) whil...