Tabassum- Abbasi

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Petroleum and Energy Studies

A novel process and its optimization using bioinspired artificial intelligence techniques is described for the generation of energy precursors in the form of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from date palm waste (DPW). The work was undertaken in view of the fact that about 4 million metric tons of DPW is produced every year, and the bulk of it is left u...

Fire can be especially dangerous when it occurs in hospitals because many patients in any typical hospital are not physically fit enough to quickly respond to emergency measures, especially evacuation calls. The present paper reports an in-depth assessment of the factors which have led to major fire accidents in Indian hospitals. The study reveals...

A state-of-the-art review of biomimetic nanoparticle synthesis is presented. The technique’s origin has been traced to the studies, started over 150 years ago, on the hyperaccumulation of certain metals by different species of plants. How the initial intracellular method of nanoparticle synthesis evolved into the now widely used extracellular route...

Over the years geographical information system (GIS) tools have become less and less expensive as also ever easier to use. This chapter presents a case study in which GIS has been used with essential ground truth validation to set-up ‘bench-marks’ of land-use, flora, fauna, and topography of a typical campus—that of Pondicherry University—with whic...

The river Ganga (the Ganges) is not only one of the largest rivers in India, but it is also revered by the Indians as its most pious and auspicious. The pollution of Ganga in the course of its flow through the Gangetic plain has been exponentially increasing in recent decades, turning the river into one of the most polluted of the world’s major riv...

The potential of the weedy terrestrial herb Plantago major which is variously called “great plantain”, “white man’s footprint”, “way bread”, and “broad leaf plantain”, has been explored in serving as a bioagent in the treatment of sewage in the recently patented and trademarked Sheet-flow Root Level (SHEFROL®) bioreactors. It was seen that despite...

As reported recently by the present authors, vermicomposting by the epigeic earthworm Eisenia fetida transforms the highly ligninous and allelopathic aquatic weed salvinia (Salvinia molesta) into a benign organic fertilizer. The present study was carried out with four other earthworm species, including three epigeic species of different sizes and p...

With vermireactors designed on the basis of the concept of high-rate vermicomposting recently introduced by S.A. Abbasi and co-workers, it has become possible to directly vermicompost phytomass, including pernicious weeds. It has also been shown that upon vermicomposting, even toxic and allelopathic weeds get transformed into highly plant-friendly...

The development of a biorefinery is described based on rapid polishing of partially treated sewage with three different species of macrophytes in the recently developed SHEFROL® bioreactor which functions almost entirely on solar and gravitational energy, requiring no chemicals. It was seen that at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of just 2 h, susp...

India being the world’s second largest cultivator of paddy, it is very important that the extent of the resulting methane emissions is estimated, and steps are taken to minimize these emissions. Peninsular India is a prime rice-producing region; however, no significant information is available on the contribution of this region to methane emissions...

The paper describes the setting up and long-term continuous operation of the first real-life, pilot scale, sewage treatment plant based on the recently patented phytoremediation technology, trademarked as SHEFROL V R. The unit was about three times cheaper to install, operate and maintain than the least expensive of the other wetland-based technolo...

With an objective to develop a closed loop wastewater biorefinery, the performance of two free floating aquatic weeds water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes, Mart, Solms) and salvinia (Salvinia molesta, Mitchell) has been explored when either was used as the main bioagent for treating sewage in “sheet flow root level” (SHEFROL®) bioreactors. Both the...

A recent report in this journal from these authors, which shows that vermicomposting transforms a toxic weed such as lantana into a benign organic fertilizer, can be of practical utility only if processes can be developed for rapid, inexpensive, and sustainable vermicomposting of these weeds. This paper describes attempts leading to such a process...

Ever since solid waste generation began to spiral up from early 1970s onwards enormous efforts have been vested from scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs as also governmental agencies, to control/treat/reuse/recycle/recover Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). But the quantities and complexities of the MSW have only been rising, that too rising steeply… al...

This chapter aims to trace the history of environmental pollution which, in all probability, began some 300,000 years ago when humankind discovered fire. After establishing seminal definitions of pollution, pollutant, and pollution control, the chapter dwells upon the factors which caused increasing pollution across the world and which eventually t...

Phoenix dactylifera, which is perhaps the world’s earliest known cultivated tree, is also one of the most cultivated at present. An estimated 105 million individuals of this species are currently standing in the world, covering about 3% of the world’s cultivated area and generating about 12 million metric tonnes of waste biomass per year. The latte...

These authors have developed novel processes with which bulk of pernicious weds like prosopis (Prosopis juliflora) and ipomoea (Ipomoea carnea) can be bioprocessed into energy precursors and organic fertilizers. But some parts of these plants like stems of ipomoea and soft branches of prosopis are not sufficiently woody to be utilizable as fuel, wh...

A circular (close-loop) biorefinery, which integrates wastewater treatment with the generation of an energy precursor and organic fertilizer, tested at the level of a pilot plant treating 54,000 L per day (LPD) of sewage, is described. In the biorefinery’s first stage, sewage was treated in a novel SHEFROL® (sheet-flow-root-level) bioreactor at a v...

The dreaded weed ipomea (Ipomea carnea), has shown promise as a versatile phytoremediator. But I. carnea plants exude several alkaloids and phenols which are harmful to plants as well as animals. Due to this, the weed imparts as much or more toxicity to the soil as it remediates. These authors have earlier found that upon being vermicomposted by Ei...

In the context of the absence of any prior art on the vermicomposting of any xerophyte—presumably because xerophytes, in general, are structurally tough and have attributes which help them resist biodegradation—the present work has been undertaken. It has led to a procedure which makes even the highly toxic leaves of prosopis amenable to vermicompo...

A brief state-of-the-art review is presented on vermicompost tea which is an emerging organic fertilizer-cum-pest repellant. Its methods of preparation and its effects on the germination, growth, yield, and suppression of plant pathogens have been surveyed.

Earthworms are among the three classes of organisms which contribute more than any other class in tilling and fertilizing soil in nature—ants and termites being the other two. In nature, earthworms feed upon plant debris and animal dropping to produce vermicast which is an excellent organic fertilizer. But during rains and through small streams ‘ve...

Studies are presented in the context of the past attempts at finding nanocatalysts that can boost the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) ? in terms of waste treatment and energy generation. Given the great potential of biomimetically synthesized nanoparticles (BMNPs) in providing less expensive and more environmentally friendly alternatives...

The effect of vermicomposts, derived either from cowdung or the pernicious invasive plant lantana (Lantana camara), has been assessed on the seed germination, plant growth, fruit yield, quality of the produce, and disease resistance of a common vegetable, ladies finger (Abelmoschus esculentus).Seeds of A. esculentus were germinated and grown in soi...

The role of earthworms as one of three most influential classes of scavengers and soil processors in nature—the other two being ants and termites—is well known. But whereas ants and termites are strongly eusocial and hierarchical, with no one except the queen being capable of pro-creation, majority of adult earthworms have fecundity. This makes it...

The two free-floating aquatic weeds—salvinia (Salvinia molesta) and water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) —feature among the world’s 100 most invasive plants and animals. Both occur widely in India as also in most other countries of the tropical and sub-tropical region. In this brief review the attributes of the two weeds, with special reference to...

A novel machine, with the acronym HEVSTOW (high-efficiency vertically stacked vermicomposting system for treating organic waste), of which a patent has recently been granted, is described. It is capable of rapid, inexpensive, and emission-free processing of biorefinery waste and other forms of organic solid waste. The machine is based on the paradi...

The efficacy of the well-known phytoremediation plant pistia (Pistia stratiotes), also called water lettuce or water cabbage, in treating sewage (greywater) was tested by its use as the main bioagent in the recently developed and patented ‘sheet flow root level’ (SHEFROL®) bioreactor. In contrast to previously reported systems, based on constructed...

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...]

Recent studies by these authors have shown that the toxic and allalopathic weed ipomoea (Ipomoea carnea), gets transformed into benign organic fertilizer when subjected to vermicomposting. To derive benefit from this finding, it is necessary that a process should be made available for uninterrupted and efficient conversion of ipomoea into vermicomp...

In view of the great paucity of information on the exact contributions of different causes which lead to different extents of emission of the greenhouse gas methane (CH4) form reservoirs, it is tremendously challenging to develop statistical or analytical models for forecasting such emissions. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have the ability to d...

More often than not, major fires and explosions occur in chemical process industries as also in public places, due to accidental spills of flammable substances. This makes it important to study the dynamics of flammable liquids spilled onto the ground, so that strategies to contain and quench such spills can be devised. Moreover, the risk posed by...

Paddy fields, which are shallow man-made wetlands, are estimated to be responsible for ~11% of the total methane emissions attributed to anthropogenic sources. The role of water use in driving these emissions, and the apportioning of the emissions to individual countries engaged in paddy cultivation, are aspects that have been mired in controversy...

In a first-ever report on this subject, it is shown that a common amphibious plant joyweed (Alternanthera sessilis) can be used in rapid and efficient treatment of biodegradable wastewaters, typified by domestic sewage. The plant was effective when used indoors under artificial lighting, as well as outdoors. It enabled treatment of sewage, varying...

The vulnerability to an accident in a chemical process industry is not merely a function of the severity of a loss of confinement or the size of the area that can be affected by it. What constitutes the impact area is equally important. Vulnerability is a function of several variables—population density, quality of roads (to help disaster managemen...

Several theoretical studies have been reported in recent years which have indicated that large-scale wind farms can have an impact on local and regional meteorology, possibly on climate. Now evidence of it based on field observations has also begun to emerge. The present paper traces the evolution of this knowledge. It discusses the theoretical stu...

Livestock production is among the most ecologically harmful of all anthropogenic activities. It has massive direct and indirect contributions to global warming besides causing widespread ecodegradation in other ways. But livestock production cannot be reduced because, as it is, the global demand for animal protein is far higher than the supply. Whe...

Even as the world has been unsuccessfully trying to dispose off the rising quantities of its municipal solid waste (MSW) and hazardous waste (HW) in a clean manner, it has been confronted with an even more complex problem - of e-waste. Only a few countries in the developed world are able to scientifically recycle or dispose the e-waste they generat...

Of all the renewable energy sources (RESs)―except direct solar heat and light―wind energy is believed to have the least adverse environmental impacts. It is also one of the RES which has become economically affordable much before several other RESs have. As a result, next to biomass (and excluding large hydro), wind energy is the RES being most ext...

Renewable energy sources are widely perceived as 'clean', 'green', and 'inexhaustible'. In recent years the spectre of global warming and ocean acidification, which has been primarily attributed to fossil fuel burning, has brought renewable energy at the forefront of most climate change mitigation strategies. There is strong advocacy for large-scal...

As the global population continues to rise, and attempts to increase arable land area come in sharp conflict with the necessity to retain forests on one hand and pressures of urbanization on the other, the wave of global food shortage that has hit the world recently is likely to hit us again and again.The increasing pressure on land is making meat...