Norli Ismail

University of Science Malaysia | USM · School of Industrial Technology

Biochar, a flexible and durable carbonaceous material derived from marine algae, has attracted considerable interest as an adsorbent for removing pollutants from industrial effluent. Characteristics of biochar were explored by shedding light on the criteria for its production from marine algae. The challenges faced by industries and the role of bio...

Waste concrete aggregate (WCA) can be re-utilised as a recycled material as it applies to numerous functions. High sulphate content in attached cement mortar was identified as a weakness of recycled material due to the developed expansion of delayed ettringite formation (DEF). The DEF results in micro-crack formation, which affects the compressive...

Magnetic chitosan/cellulose nanofiber-Fe(III) [M-Ch/CNF-Fe(III)] composites were isolated for the elimination of Cr(VI), Cu(II), and Pb(II) from aqueous solution. Various analytical methods, such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray di...

The utilization of lignocellulose biomass as an alternative source of renewable energy production via green technology is becoming important, and is in line with sustainable development goal initiatives. Lignocellulolytic bacteria, such as Bacillus spp., can break down biomass by producing hydrolytic enzymes, which are crucial in the successful con...

Metal Chalcogenide Biosensors: Fundamentals and Applications provides an overview of advances in materials development of chalcogenides for use in bio-sensing and sensing applications. The metal chalcogenides include highly reactive metals, noble metals and transition metals. Particular attention is given to the morphology, porosity, structure and...

Food waste is a rich organic matter that can potentially be converted into biogas as a source of renewable energy. The limitation in energy production lies in the presence of volatile fatty acid (VFA) during the anaerobic digestion of food waste due to the high degradation rate. The accumulation of VFA leads to a decrease in pH that exceeds the opt...

Safe disposal of municipal sewage sludge is a severe environmental issue in the wastewater treatment plan worldwide due to its enormous volume of generation and containing hazardous substances. The purpose of the present study is to appraise the possibility of utilizing the municipal sewage sludge as a lipids feedstock for biodiesel production. Lip...

Demand for determining renewable lipids feedstock for the production of biodiesel is increasing with the rapid depletion of petroleum diesel. The present study was conducted to assess the feasibility of utilizing municipal sewage sludge (MSS) as a potential lipids feedstock for biodiesel production. The lipids’ extraction and separation from MSS we...

Antibiotics in the environment represent a significant threat to global public health. Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is one of the second generation groups of synthetic fluoroquinolones and the most widely used antibiotics worldwide. The current work aimed to review and analyze the current methods used for eliminating CIP and identify the approaches for more...

The microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has appeared in the late 20th century and received considerable attention over the last decade due to its multiple and unique potential in converting the substrates into electricity and valuable productions. Extensive efforts have been paid to improve the MFCs performance, leading to the publication of a mas...

Earth and coastal ecosystems are not static, and they usually respond to environmental changes, mostly anthropogenic and climatic. Here, the authors described natural values, coastal landforms, and types of infrastructure that are most likely to be affected by climate change (CC) and provide information for assessing inundation, erosion, and recess...

The current study investigated the mathematical prediction model for the inactivation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (B. subtilis, S. aureus, and E. coli) in kitchen wastewater by bimetallic bionanoparticles (Zn/Cu NPs) using gene expression programming (GEP). The interaction between Zn/Cu NP concentration, time, pH, initial cell concentration, a...

Microalgae immobilisation can be a long-term solution for effective wastewater post-treatment. This study was conducted to evaluate the ability of immobilised Chlorococcum oleofaciens to remove contaminants from palm oil mill effluent (POME) until it complies with the POME discharge standard. First, the native dominating green microalga was isolate...

Millions of litters of multifarious wastewater are directly disposed into the environment annually to reduce the processing costs leading to eutrophication and destroying the clean water sources. The bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) have recently received significant attention from researchers due to their ability to convert waste into energy and...

Materials are the foundation in human development for improving human standards of life. This research aimed to develop microbial composite films by integrating sodium alginate with Bacillus subtilis. Sodium alginate film was fabricated as control. The microbial composite films were fabricated by integrating 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 g of Bac...

Discovering novel bacterial strains might be the link to unlocking the value in lignocellulosic bio-refinery as we strive to find alternative and cleaner sources of energy. Bacteria display promise in lignocellulolytic breakdown because of their innate ability to adapt and grow under both optimum and extreme conditions. This versatility of bacteria...

Xylene, a recalcitrant compound present in wastewater from activities of petrochemical and chemical industries causes chronic problems for living organisms and the environment. Xylene contaminated wastewater may be biodegraded through a benthic microbial fuel cell (BMFC) as seen in this study. Xylene was oxidized into intermediate 3-methyl benzoic...

Omics have given rise to research on sparsely studied microbial communities such as the landfill, lignocellulolytic microorganisms and enzymes. The bacterial diversity of Municipal Solid Waste sediments was determined using the illumina MiSeq system after DNA extraction and Polymerase chain reactions. Data analysis was used to determine the communi...

In this article, the removal of cephalexin (CFX) antibiotic from non-clinical environment is reviewed. Adsorption and photocatalytic degradation techniques are widely used to remove CFX from waters and wastewaters, the combination of these methods is becoming more common for CFX removal. The treatment methods of CFX has not been reviewed before, th...

Benzene in wastewater poses severe toxic effects on living organisms and the environment. For this study, the possibility of using benthic microbial fuel cells (BMFC) for bioremediation of benzene using sugar cane waste as a substrate, while simultaneously producing bioenergy was studied. A BMFC is a membrane-less microbial fuel cell. Benzene was o...

Anthropogenic activities are largely responsible for the vast amounts of pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, cyanides, phenols, metal derivatives, sulphides, and other chemicals in wastewater. The excess benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) can cause severe toxicity to living organisms in wastewater. A novel approach to mitigate this...

Many countries are suffering from the limitation of clean energy sources. Global management nowadays is facing severe problems and challenges in supply energy without destroying the environment. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a solution, that makes the best use of organic matter by changing it to biogas to generate of renewable heat, electricity, and...

This book examines carbon-based nanocomposite materials and their application in various environmental fields, such as wastewater treatment, and air and soil remediation. Featuring illustrations, and tables summarizing the latest research, it gathers up-to-date information on the application of carbon nanocomposites in the removal of environmental...

Bacterial flagella are complex multicomponent structures that help in cell locomotion. It is composed of three major structural components: the hook, the filament and basal body. The special mechanical properties of flagellar components make them useful for the applications in nanotechnology especially in nanotube formation. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs)...

Harmful effects of aqueous metal pollutants and benefits of recycling drive the need for wastewater treatment and recovering metals for reuse. Supported liquid membrane (SLM) separation is one of the potential energy-efficient techniques that can recover metal ions selectively, but improvements in transport rate and stability are needed to improve...

The suitability of bacteria application as fillers to reinforce calcium chloride cured sodium alginate film was investigated through the determination of the physical, morphological and mechanical properties of composite films. There were six species of bacteria isolated from palm oil mill effluent sample. The bacteria sample selected for filler re...

Storage of hydrogen in/on solid‐state materials is predicted from their tendency to adsorb‐desorb hydrogen. It is crucial to find a new class of materials that can reversibly store hydrogen at high rates under reasonable temperature, pressure, and cost conditions. Polymeric materials have recently come to the fore of hydrogen storage technologies b...

This study investigates the separation of two heavy metals, Cd(II) and Cu(II), from the mixed synthetic feed using a liquid-liquid extraction. The current study uses tri-octyl methylammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) as the extractant (with tributyl phosphate (TBP) as a phase modifier), diluted in toluene, in order to investigate the selective extract...

Tons of anthropological activities contribute daily to the massive amount of lignocellulosic wastes produced annually. Unfortunately, their full potential usually is underutilized, and most of the biomass ends up in landfills. Lignocellulolytic enzymes are vital and central to developing an economical, environmentally friendly, and sustainable biol...

Benthic microbial fuel cells (BMFCs) are a kind of microbial fuel cell (MFC), distinguished by the absence of a membrane. BMFCs are an ecofriendly technology with a prominent role in renewable energy harvesting and the bioremediation of organic pollutants through electrogens. Electrogens act as catalysts to increase the rate of reaction in the anod...

The utilization of various types of natural and modified polymers for removing toxicant dyes in wastewater generated by the dye industry is reviewed in this article. Dye wastewater contains large amounts of metals, surfactants, and organic matter, which have adverse effects on human health, potentially causing skin diseases and respiratory problems...

Hydrogen fuel is becoming a hot topic among the scientific community as an alternative energy source. Hydrogen is eco‐friendly, renewable, and green. The synthesis and development of materials with great potential for hydrogen storage is still a challenge in research and needs to be addressed to store hydrogen economically and efficiently. Various...

This book provides a comprehensive and contemporary overview of advances in energy and energy storage technologies. Although the coverage is varied and diverse, the book also addresses unifying patterns and trends in order to enrich readers’ understanding of energy and energy storage systems, particularly hydrogen energy storage, including e.g. the...

Nanotechnology has been proclaimed as an industrial revolution. Early spurt in agrarian development rate as an after effect of the ‘First Green Revolution’ has resulted sprung the rate in agricultural growth. However, it is now experiencing a slowdown. Demands have been rising for enhancing agricultural productivity through several measures and nan...

The objectives of this research were two-folds: firstly, to study the biogas production from anaerobic co-digestion of Thai rice noodle wastewater (TRW) with rice husk and different types of animal manure (cow manure, quail manure, and chicken manure); secondly, to obtain kinetic parameters for the purpose of designing continuous systems. The main...

This paper attempts to understand the effect of the main operating variables, find an optimized operating condition, and develop a model for biogas production from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME). However, POME is a complex substrate with mixed sources of carbon and nitrogen as well as other essential nutrients that makes it difficult to understand c...

An adsorption-desorption process was applied on fermented landfill leachate to adsorb and recover acetic and butyric acid, using activated carbon. In this study, the first, volatile fatty acids adsorption process from fermented leachate was optimized, by investigating various affecting factors such as pH, time, agitation speed, activated carbon dos...

The incidence of antibiotics in various environmental matrices is a major matter as the occurrence is linked to the emergence and prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Country such as China holds the largest allotment of antibiotics utilization in food animal. Whereas, Asian countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, and Vietnam are projecte...

Earth and coastal ecosystems are not static, and they usually respond to environmental changes, mostly anthropogenic and climatic. Here, the authors described natural values, coastal landforms, and types of infrastructure that are most likely to be affected by climate change (CC) and provide information for assessing inundation, erosion, and recess...

The effectiveness of replacing cement with rice husk ash (RHA) on the leachability of copper from stabilized sediment was studied. RHA was added at 5, 10 15 and 20% and also cement was added at 10% throughout to the total dry weight of mixture, after which curing was undertaken at room atmosphere for 7, 14 and 28 days. The immobilization efficiency...

The adsorption of Cd and Pb ions from palm oil mill effluent on a mesoporous-activated cow bone composite powder has been investigated. Adsorbent was developed from cow bones, coconut shells and zeolite. The composite examined in the present work has a BET surface area of 248.398 m²/g. The optimisation of the removal efficiency of the heavy metals...

Biodegradation of pharmaceuticals active compounds (PACs) in secondary effluents by using B. subtilis 2012WTNC as a function of β-lactamase was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) designed by central composite design (CCD). Four factors including initial concentration of bacteria (1-6 log10 CFU mL-1), incubation period (1-14 days), i...

The treatment technologies for greywater are followed by the disinfection processes in order to achieve safe disposal into the environment. The disinfection technologies aim to reduce or minimise the concentrations of the pathogenic microorganism of greywater which have the high potential risk for humans and plants, and, thus, provide safe and aest...

Activated carbon from coconut shell was prepared to investigate the removal of zinc from palm oil mill effluent (POME). The reduction of zinc is significant to protect the ecosystem. The effect of temperature on the adsorbent was observed from the thermo gravimetric analysis while the decomposition of the lignocellulosic structure of the adsorbent...

This study was designed to determine the potential of indigenous mixed microbial consortium isolated from palm oil mill effluent (POME) in reducing organic load and biodegradation of POME. Isolation and identification of indigenous microorganisms was subjected to standard microbiological methods and sequencing of the 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes. Se...

Aims: To study the performance of SMFC in the terms of power generation and toxic metals removal. This study was also focused on the characterization of SMFC electro-microbiology. Methodology and results: A SMFC was designed and loaded with sediment and overlying water. This SMFC was synchronized with wireless data logger acquisition system. The to...

The reuse of treated sewage for irrigation is considered as an important alternative water source in the new water management strategy of the countries that face a severe defciency of water resources such as the Middle East countries. The organic material and fertilizing elements contained in biosolids are essential for maintaining soil fertility....

This study was aimed at identifying indigenous microorganisms from palm oil mill effluent and to ascertain the microbial load. Isolation and identification of indigenous microorganisms was subjected to standard microbiological methods and sequencing of the 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes for the microbial...

The simultaneous effect of different factors such as pH, carrier concentrations, organic phase modifier, and stripping agent concentrations on the extraction and stripping of base metals from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) leachate was investigated. Initially, sulphuric acid and hydrogen peroxide were used in the leaching process...