This paper presents an overview of the implication of geomorphology and sedimentology on the chemical characteristics of sediments of River Sadong, Malaysia. There is limited published work on the effect of topography, climate, soil and geology on the sediments lying in the River Sadong. Studies have been undertaken around Kota Samarahan and Asajaya areas whereby some heavy metal constituents and their environmental effects were determined. The study entails the description of the depositional processes alongside with physical and geochemical changes, without neglecting natural and anthropogenic effects.

The estimation of carbon sequestration in forest ecosystem is necessary to plan for mitigating the impacts of climate change. The present study was conducted in the Cedrus deodara (CD) forests of Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh to estimate the biomass and soil organic carbon stock at various sites of the study area. Overall, 18 plots of 0.1 ha were laid at six sites randomly in the year 2014-15. In CD forest, the mean stem density was 354 trees/ha and the mean basal area and mean volume were 62.28 m2/ha and 719.71 m3/ha respectively. The mean carbon stock for tree aboveground, tree belowground, understorey and litter were 189.93 ton/ha, 37.99 ton/ha, 1.71 ton/ha and 0.72 ton/ha respectively. The soil organic carbon percentages varied from 1.98-2.83%, 1.72-2.11% and 1.56-1.74% at soil depth of 0-15cm, 15-30cm and 30-45cm respectively, and the soil organic carbon stocks ranged from 24.41-32.22 ton/ha, 21.59-29.03 ton/ha and 19.17-26.78 ton/ha at soil depths of 0-15cm, 15-30cm and 30-45cm respectively. The total mean soil organic carbon (SOC) stock up to a depth of 0-45cm was found to be 76.16 ton/ha. The organic carbon percentage showed a decreasing trend with increasing soil depth.

Hydrogen is recognized as the green energy with the greatest potential for future development, but currently, China’s hydrogen production is highly dependent on raw fossil materials, which conflicts with the original intention of developing hydrogen energy. As the abandoned hydropower problem in Southwestern China is serious. The current strategy can be focused using surplus hydropower to produce hydrogen in a green way. In this study, the technical cost and advantage of hydrogen produced using surplus hydropower using the levelized cost of energy model was analyzed. The results show that cheap surplus hydropower will considerably reduce the cost of hydrogen produced using electrolyzing water, and the cost is comparable to that of coal gasification hydrogen production. The hydropower to be abandoned by Southwestern China annually can drive the hydrogen production with 1.2 million tons per year, providing a technically and economically feasible approach to developing hydrogen energy.

Cotton is one of the most important fibres and cash crop of India, which plays a dominant role in the country’s industrial and agricultural economy. About 60% of all commercialized agrochemicals, are insanely applied on cotton fields so that cotton has become one of the most polluted and chemical-intensive agricultural crops in the world. The present study was undertaken to determine the concentration of different organophosphorus pesticides residue in cotton samples collected from agriculture fields of Tijara tehsil, Alwar. A total of 150 samples were randomly collected from the cotton farm. Concentrations of all pesticides in the cotton samples were determined by GC/MS and LC-MS. About 38% of the total analysed samples were contaminated with different residues, among which 10.66% were having the concentration of pesticide residue above the MRL. The study revealed that cotton is highly contaminated with Monocrotophos (22%) followed by Acephate (10%), Chlorpyrifos (7.33%) and Profenofos (5.33%). The possible reasons for high levels of pesticides in cotton are the massive use of pesticides and farmers were not having sufficient scientific knowledge about the chemical nature of pesticides that have been used or the effects of pesticides on the environment and the effects of pesticides exposure on public health, when using them indiscriminately. The presence of pesticides in cotton samples is a serious threat to humans because they further show pesticide residues in cotton products. Therefore, it is recommended to continuously monitor the use of this pesticide in the study areas.

This paper reports the study of photodegradation of Congo red dye which is a major pollutant in dyeing industry using copper(II) chloride dihydrate as a catalyst. The rate of degradation is improved by direct supply of air instead of using other strong oxidants. The effects of other parameters such as pH, catalyst dosage, initial dye concentration and irradiation time were studied. It was found that over 100% of the dye removal can be effectively achieved within 90 minutes of air oxidation at pH 11 and a catalyst dosage of 0.4g/L. The kinetics on the rate of degradation of the dye has also been examined by using UV-Visible spectroscopic technique. Air oxidation of Congo red dye using CuCl2.2H2O was found to obey pseudo-first-order kinetics with respect to the substrate concentration. The study suggests the use of homogeneous CuCl2.2H2O catalyst for the photodegradation of dyes of reactive azo dye category. Future studies on the use of catalytic activity of CuCl2.2H2O for industrial effluents containing azo dyes as a major pollutant can be affected.

The water volume for sediment transport affects the distribution of sediments in rivers and offers important guidance for river dredging, management and remediation. In this paper, with daily water and sediment data of major hydrological stations of main stream of Liaohe River from 1988 to 2010, we calculated the average water volume and unit water volume for sediment transport of the year with the methods of sediment discharge, sediment concentration and erosion and silting ratio correction that are based on net water volume method. We analyzed the relations between change process of water volume for sediment transport and its impact factors to identify the critical water volume for sediment transport for non-scouring and non-silting situation. The results showed that (1) according to the calculation with the hydrological data from the major hydrological stations in Tongjiangkou, Tieling, Mahushan, Ping’anpu and Liujianfang, the average water volume and the unit water volume for sediment transport during the flood season of the year were 13.88×108m3 and 1136.62m3/t respectively; (2) According to the theoretical calculation, the water demand model for hydraulic sediment dredging in the major reaches of the main stream of Liaohe River was determined and there was linear function relationship between the sediment discharge and the water demand. When the channel kept the sediment from silting, the water demand at Tieling was ≥18.73×108m3, ≥5.49×108m3 at Mahushan, ≥2.90×108m3 at Ping’anpu and ≥10.97×108m3 at Liaozhong. In a word, net water volume method can accurately calculate the amount of sediment transport in sediment-laden rivers with a prospect of broad application.

The modelling of chlorophyll-a concentration helps to restrict the harmful effects in marine species caused by increased nutrient loads. The derived satellite data are often used for the monitoring of marine ecology. The common usage of satellite data is monthly average data to avoid the problem of missing values. In order to reduce the effect of missing data, this study employed the cubic spline model by using a satellite data for investigating seasonal variations of chlorophyll-a mapped in an eight-day interval consisting of missing values in Pattani Bay, Thailand from the year 2003 to 2017. This study further used the spline-fitted data for creating the baseline model of chlorophyll-a in Pattani Bay, and for examining the difference between spline fitted and monthly average data. This study revealed that the cubic spline method was able to handle the missing values in satellite data to gain the smoothness in data. When both models were compared, the spline-fitted observation yielded a smoother curve pattern than the monthly average observation. The spline fitted model was also able to display the chlorophyll-a data at any particular day of the year. It was also shown that the chlorophyll-a concentration level in the coastal area of Pattani Bay was higher in the inshore pixels, especially in rainy season.

Waste lubricant oil can be regenerated by flocculation and adsorption to get rid of impurities. In this work, the performance of flocculants (chitosan, sodium carbonate and sodium silicate) and sorbents (carclazyte and silica gel) were evaluated experimentally. The results showed that the combination of chitosan and sodium carbonate had beat results in removal of acid value and mechanical impurities. Silica gel contacting adsorption had the best colour removal. Thermal precipitation (80°C, 24h) was adopted as primary step before flocculation to wipe off heavier particulate matter. The best ratio of chitosan, sodium carbonate and silica gel was 1:1:1, and the best dosage of chitosan was 2% compared to oil. After the re-refining process, viscosity decreased from 186.34 (mm2/s, 40°C) to 155.21 (mm2/s, 40°C), the acid value from 0.26 (mg KOH/g) to 0.06 (mg KOH/g), mechanical impurities content from 3.62% to 1.41%, water content from 0.45% to 0.06%, and light absorbance from 4.31 to 1.17.

An extensive survey was carried out to understand the spatial distribution and possible sources of soil heavy metals in a phosphorus-rich area. A total of 615 topsoil samples were gathered, utilizing a regular sampling grid of 1×1 km squares, and the contents of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), vanadium (V) and zinc (Zn) were analysed to investigate the spatial distribution of these heavy metals, identify their sources, and assess levels of pollution. The results showed that the enrichment factor (EF) of the studied metals decreased in the order Cd > As > Pb > Co > Ni > Cr = Cu > Zn, and the mean contents of Cd, As and Pb were significantly higher than the background values. According to potential ecological risk (RI), 11.2% of the study areas had considerable potential ecological risk and the other areas had low to moderate potential ecological risk. The results of multivariate and geostatistical analyses indicated that Co, Cr, Ni and V, and to a lesser extent Cu and Zn, mostly originated from natural sources; while As and Pb, and to a lesser extent Cd, Cu and Zn, mainly originated from phosphorus-related industrial activities. The results also showed that Cd was affected by water with Cd pollution from the Hanjiang River. These results are useful for establishing policies for protecting local soil quality.

Today’s growing demand for energy has emphasized the need for the search for renewable resources. This demand can be met with by using alternative resources such as biofuel, rather than just depending on non-renewable resources. Therefore, the present study has been undertaken to extract lipid from a species of Bryophyta, i.e. Marchantia polymorpha. 0.044 g of lipid was extracted from 8 g of the bryophyte. Bligh and Dyer method was used for the extraction of lipid. It is a multi-step process in which methanol, chloroform, and NaCl play an important role in the extraction of bioproduct in the form of oily bodies. This small step taken towards energy utilization and conservation will open the new vista to mitigate the problem of energy crisis.