Faculty Publications
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Item Comparative evaluation of phosphate abatement using laterite soil and activated carbon(Center for Environmental and Energy Research and Studies editor@ijest.org, 2019) Sreekumar, U.; Thalla, A.K.; Nair, V.V.Abstract: The present study aims to evaluate and compare the suitability of thermally activated laterite soil (TAL) and activated carbon (AC) as adsorbents in the abatement of phosphates (PO4 3?) from synthetic wastewater. The AC was derived from the wasted sludge of an activated sludge process by subjecting it to an activation temperature of 600 °C. The impregnation ratio of 1 (sewage sludge): 1 (KOH) was used for the present study. The soil and wasted sludge were characterized to determine the constituents, and the adsorbents were prepared by thermal and chemical activation, respectively. The AC exhibited a maximum iodine number of 837.51 mg/g using KOH as an activating agent. Batch and column studies were conducted to determine the dependency on pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage and initial PO4 3? concentration. An optimum PO4 3? removal using TAL and AC was achieved around pH 6. The removal efficiency of AC was found to be slightly higher than the efficiency obtained from TAL. The percentage removal of PO4 3? obtained from batch adsorption studies was found to be higher than that obtained by column studies. The equilibrium adsorption data from batch studies were attempted to fit with linear, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Residual and least square analysis confirms the Freundlich isotherm to be the best fit. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2018, Islamic Azad University (IAU).Item Occurrence and environmental risks of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in urban wastewater in the southwest monsoon region of India(Springer, 2020) Thalla, A.K.; Vannarath, A.S.Municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTPs) are considered to reduce the amount of pollutants that enter water reservoirs as a result of wastewater disposal. An assessment of the occurrence and removal of pharmaceutical compounds, mainly nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), in wastewater from the Kavoor MWWTP (southwest monsoon region), India, is presented in this paper. The performance of the MWWTP was monitored in the summer (May) and monsoon (September) periods. The highest inlet concentrations of diclofenac, naproxen, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and acetylsalicylic acid in the wastewater were observed in May and were 721.37, 2132.48, 2109.875, 2747.29, and 2213.36 ?g/L, respectively. The ketoprofen content was found to be higher than that of other NSAIDs in the influent in both seasons, whereas the diclofenac content was found to be the lowest. The removal efficiency (RE) of the target NSAIDs in the Kavoor secondary treatment plant varied from 81.82–98.92% during the summer season. During the monsoon season, the influent NSAID concentration level dropped, probably because of infiltration in old sewer pipes. In addition, a 100% RE was achieved for all the target NSAIDs in the wastewater of the MWWTP. The results showed that secondary treatment plants have the potential to remove NSAID compounds from municipal sewage with consistent performance. The environmental hazards caused by the accumulation of such compounds in water reservoirs are due to open discharge. The environmental risk levels of these compounds were also studied by the environmental risk assessment (ERA) using the European Agency for Evaluation of Medicines approach. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.