Tasneem Abbasi

• BTech, MTech, MS(UK), PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at Pondicherry University

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Plant based system (SHEFROL technology) to treat domestic waste water generated in an Indian Village.

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...

Given that wetlands, especially man-made wetlands including paddy fields, are a major source of the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, a study of the present status of knowledge in this area was carried out with reference to India. Based on printed material, digital repositories, and personal correspondence an up-to-date assessment of all...

Vermicompost (VC) of different substrates, especially of animal manures, is known to be highly potent organic fertilizer but it is not known how beneficial VC is in paddy cultivation. Considering that rice is the world’s third most cultivated and consumed grain, it is important to assess the effect of VC on its productivity. Equally important is to...

Pollution Control System

Prior to the work described in this paper, no report has existed on the use of any Xerophyte is generating vermicompost. Now these authors have been able to develop a process with which the highly invasive xerophyte prosopis (Prosopis juliflora) can be vermicomposted. But does prosopis vermicompost (PVC) have any fertilizer value, given that prosop...

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...

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...

Majority of the accidents occurring in chemical process industry begin with the accidental spill of one or the other liquid fuel. This makes it important to forecast the areas likely to be covered by the spill of a given fuel on a given surface of a given inclination, and to devise accident prevention strategies on its basis. This work reviews all...

We have recently proposed in this journal a new methodology ‘Risk and Distance Minimization in Process industry Units Siting’ (RIDIMPUS) (J Fail Anal Prev 18:83–91, 2018). The methodology has been developed for siting hazardous utilities within the periphery of a chemical process industry in such a manner that the inter-utility distance is minimize...

A large number of highly flammable and/or toxic substances are stored in huge quantities in chemical process industries throughout the world. In the past, when such hazardous facilities have met with a major accident, the resulting explosions/fires or toxic releases have led to massive losses of lives and of property worth billions of rupees. This...

Efficacy of all the existing transient models for forecasting the area attained by accidentally spilled liquid fuels has been sought to be assessed on the basis of experimental data available in prior art. Of the two models for which required inputs are available in the prior art, the model of Huppert (1982) is able to forecast spill area with much...

In separate treatments rice (Oryza sativa) of the Chinna Ponni variety was grown either with the application of synthetic fertilizer (SF) containing 120 kg/ha, 60 kg/ha, and 60 kg/ha of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, respectively, or vermicompost (4 t/ha) with equivalent nitrogen content. The objective was to see whether vermicompost perform...

Chemical process industries often handle, store and transport chemicals which are flammable and/or toxic. Also, often, processes are employed which are carried out at high temperatures of pressures. These happenings constitute major hazards which carry the risk of serious accidents. The bigger the hazard, the greater is the risk associated with its...

Chemical process industries often handle, store and transport chemicals which are flammable and/or toxic. Also, often, processes are employed which are carried out at high temperatures of pressures. These happenings constitute major hazards which carry the risk of serious accidents. The bigger the hazard, the greater is the risk associated with its...

Ipomoea carnea Jacq., also called Ipomoea fistulosa, is among the world’s 100 most invasive weeds. Its ability to grow explosively on land as well as in wetlands gives it a unique competitive advantage over other major weeds like Lantana, Prosopis and water hyacinth, which are either aquatic or terrestrial. This paper presents an overview of the in...

Aqueous extracts of all parts (leaves, stem and roots) of the invasive terrestrial plant coral vine (Antigonon leptopus; Polygonaceae) were used to synthesise silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in a rapid and single-step process at ambient temperature and pressure. The effect of several key variables that influenced the shape and/or size of the AgNPs was...

Twentyeight accidents involving major fires and/or explosions, which have occurred across the world in tank farms storing flammable liquids, have been studied. The focus has been on determining, a) what were the distances between the tank which failed and the tank(s) which were damaged or could have been damaged due to fire/explosion in the former;...

In the original version of this article, Vipin’s name was incorrect. It is correct as reflected here. The original article has also been corrected.

A pool or a pile of a flammable substance catching fire—which is termed a ‘pool fire’—is among the most common of fire-related accidents. In chemical process industries (CPI) in particular, pool fires are the most frequent of all possible types of accidents. Pool fires are also, more often than not, the triggers of larger fires, explosions and/or t...

The design and testing of a novel vermicomposting system, acronymed FLUVTS ─ FLippable Units Vermireactor Train System ─ is presented. It enables rapid vermicomposting of paper waste without the need of pre-composting and requires animal manure supplementation to the extent of only 10:1 paper: manure mass ratio in contrast to reported systems which...

Vermicompost derived exclusively from ipomoea (Ipomoea carnea), a weed notorious for its toxic and allelopathic characteristics, was explored for its potential use as an organic fertilizer. Ipomoea vermicompost (IVC) at four levels (0, 2.5, 3.75, and 5 tonnes/ha) was explored for its effect on the germination, growth and fruition of ladies finger (...

The existing methods for calculating overpressure resulting from a vapour cloud explosion (VCE) were tested for their ability to predict overpressures from unconfined hydrogen explosions. For it, data collated from five reported experimental investigations on open air hydrogen explosions covering 1.4–300 m³ volume of hydrogen-air mixtures and conce...

The paper presents a method for the biomimetic extracellular synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by using the aqueous extracts of all the main parts (leaves, stem and roots) of the highly invasive terrestrial weed mimosa (Mimosa pudica). Aqueous extracts of each of these parts served as reducing as well as stabilizing agents. The effects of key...

Most accidents in chemical process industry, as well as a large number of fires in general, are triggered by accidental spilling of flammable liquids. Such spills either get auto-ignited or are set on fire by one or the other ignition source. If other flammable material happens to catch fire before the initial fire is extinguished, the accident get...

Utilization of Salvinia molesta, an aquatic weed which is notorious for its allelopathy and invasiveness, has been explored by its vermicomposting. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and plant bioassay tests were conducted to analyze the composition and fertilizer value of S .molesta vermicompost. Germination and seedling growth tests...

Very large quantities of flammable substances are produced, transported, and refilled across the world. Of these some, like gasoline and diesel, are liquids at normal temperature and pressure while some others – like liquid petroleum gas (LPG – are pressure liquefied gases. Ever so often accidental spills of these chemicals occur. While some spills...

A new method, RIsk and DIstance Minimization in Process Units Siting (RIDIMPUS), is presented with which hazardous units can be sited in a chemical process facility in a manner that the risk of accidents involving the hazardous units as also the cost of spacing the units is minimized. To achieve this, safety and cost factors were modeled using vari...

The development and validation of a new software named chemical accident simulation tool (CAST) is presented. CAST enables development of scenarios of different types of accidental fires and explosions that can occur in chemical process industry (CPI). CAST is also capable of assessing the likely consequences of such accidents in terms of the area...

One of the most dangerous consequences of an equipment failure in process industries resulting in a fire and/or explosion is the triggering off of the “domino effect” or “chain of accidents.” An accident in a unit may trigger an accident in another unit which, in turn, may lead to yet other accidents. To prevent such an occurance, it is imperative...

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...

Purpose: In a novel attempt, vermicompost derived from an intransigent and noxious weed salvinia was assessed for its fertilizer value and pest repellent properties. Methods: In outdoor experiments which simulated the way vegetables are cultivated by farmers, ladies finger (Abelmoschus esculentus) seeds were germinated and grown in soil supplemente...

The paper presents studies towards development of simple, one-pot, yet rapid processes of generating silver nanoparticles of desired shapes/sizes utilizing the highly invasive aquatic weed, Pistia stratiotes. In an attempt to utilize the entire plant, the extracts of all its parts - Aerial as well as submerged parts - were employed with the silver...

When two or more pool fires burn in close enough proximity to influence one another, the resultant combination is termed ‘multiple pool fire’ (MPF). Even though MPFs occur fairly often in chemical process industries, with highly destructive consequences, much lesser work has been done towards simulation, modeling, and control of MPFs than on stand-...

Environmental pollution has been occurring with increasing intensity and geographic spread ever since the humankind discovered fire about 300,000 years ago [1]. But environmental pollution began to attract popular attention on a global scale only since the lower half of the previous century [2–4]. This has happened as growing population and industr...

Just as carbon dioxide is inexorably associated with global warming, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are implicated in ozone hole. But CFCs are not the only ozone-destroying chemicals in the environment; there are three other classes of substances as well (Fig. 3.1).

The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was established in 1985, under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It had happened very soon after the first experimental evidence had come of the veracity of the ozone hole theory of Rowland and Molina. The evidence was the very low ozone concentrations recorded at the South...

In popular perception ‘ozone hole’ is something similar to a hole in a cloth wherein the hole represents a total absence of the surrounding material. But ‘ozone hole’ doesn’t represent a region of zero ozone concentration in the atmosphere. Rather it represents a region of atmosphere where there is a significant degree of decrease in the concentrat...

Due to the decrease in the quantity of total-column ozone in the stratosphere—which we call ozone hole—lesser solar UV-B radiation (290–320 nm) is absorbed, resulting in greater fluxes of it reaching the earth’s surface. As the UV-B radiation is the most energetic component of sunlight that strikes the earth’s surface, it can have profound effects...

Two major changes observed in atmospheric ozone from 1980 onwards are (1) the strong downward trend of spring time Antarctic ozone since 1980 and (2) the widespread decrease in total ozone in subtropical and middle latitudes since 1982, associated with the eruptions of EL Chichon in March–April 1982 and which has recurred in succeeding years. Figur...

Figure 5.1 illustrates how the Antarctic ozone hole has been initially shaped and how it then expanded quickly. Figures 5.2 and 5.3 depict typical holes (as on October 4, 2004, and September 17, 2009). How ozone profiles have changed over Antarctic and Arctic from the time there was no ozone hole (1962–1972), and since, is depicted in Fig. 5.4.

In this work, we report for the first time a new bioinspired method for Platinum nanoparticle (PtNP) synthesis utilizing a highly invasive terrestrial weed coral vine (Antigonon leptopus) as the main bioagent. Extracts of all three basic components of the plant-leaves, stem and root- were explored and were found to be suitable in effecting the PtNP...

The composition and the fertilizer value of vermicompost derived solely from ipomoea, a weed known for its toxicity and allelopathy, has been studied employing Fourier transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and plant bioassay (germination and seedling growth). The impact of ipomoea's vermicompost on the physicochemical and biological characteristi...

The use of probits is essential for the study of domino effect in chemical process industries, to enable the assessment of the probability of escalation of accidents. This paper reports a more comprehensive and reliable method for formulating the probits than has been accomplished by the earlier reportedmethods It is based on a larger data set, a f...