The anammox granular sludge was enriched by shortening the hydraulic retention time (HRT) (from 27 h to 6.67 h) in the UASB reactor, which was fed with ammonium chloride and nitrite as the substrates, and the effect of different HRTs on the nitrogen removal performance of anammox granule sludge was studied. After 159 d of operation, the total nitrogen loading rate (NLRTN) reached 1.72 Kg/(m3·d), the total nitrogen removal rate (NRRTN) reached 1.33 Kg/(m3·d), and the removal efficiencies of NH+4-N (NRENH+ 4-N) and NO-2-N (NRENO-2-N) were over 95%. The ratio of DNO-2-N/DNH+4-N was 1.31 and DNO-3-N/DNH+ 4-N was 0.24, which complied with the chemical reaction stoichiometry of anammox. The colour of anammox granular sludge changed from light red to deep red; the percentage of granular sludge larger than 1.5 mm was the highest, which proportionately accounted for 62.32%; and the surface of the granular sludge was found, via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), to contain abundant functional groups. The inhibitory effect of substrates (NH+4-N and NO-2-N) on anammox was studied via an inhibition kinetics batch test using anammox granular sludge (Day 159) in the UASB reactor, and the test results were fitted in the Haldane inhibition model with correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.9912 and 0.9949.

Waste disposal and management is a serious concern especially in most of the developing countries. Both big and small business holders may influence the quality of their immediate environment. The present study investigated the nature of waste and attitude of different business units towards waste disposal practices around the industrial area of Rosslyn, Pretoria, South Africa. Mixed method approach was used to carry out the research. 138 questionnaires were administered to owners of small and medium-sized business units and managers of big companies. Questionnaires were used to collect information on the nature of waste and attitude towards waste disposal and management. It was noted that the industrial area in Rosslyn is dominated largely by small and medium-sized business enterprises. The level of education of most of the small-sized business units was below matric level. The most common types of waste generated were papers, plastics and discarded food in some disposable materials. The small business holders did not consider waste separation as an important issue and also the purchase of different waste bins for wastes separations. The small business holders believed that it is the responsibility of the government to provide different waste bins. From the companies that render services to big companies, metals are separated for recycling mainly because they can be sold to other companies. Concern for the environment or human did not have any impact on waste management. The study concluded that though there are waste bins in the study area, these seem inadequate thus leading to improper waste management systems around the industrial area in Rosslyn. Workers and small companies’ holders did not see any reason why they should be concerned about proper waste management. Campaigns and education on waste management should be intensified to change attitudes towards proper waste management.

Cashew is an immigrant tree from eastern Brazil and is regarded as one of the top three commercial crops of India. In general, Cashew nutshell contains 25-34% oil and was not much used earlier; however, commercial and industrial applications are being developed in the recent decade. In this present study, 100 kg of dried cashew shells yielded around 18.5 to 22.6% of cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) while 58-63% of waste dark solid oil cake retained in extraction chamber. Eventually, these oil cakes were rich in fibre, protein and energy contents and offered as good alternative to traditional applications in the production of environmentally friendly organic fertilizer for vegetable crops. Also, this study investigated the safety of using CNSL cake as fertilizer for leaf & vegetable; and also noted improvised physico-chemical properties of soil which enhanced the soil fertility thereby leading to high crop yield and nutritional quality. Furthermore, CNSL was also proven to be a phytopesticide for eradication of serious pests, Odontopus varicornis, on cotton plant. Interestingly, toxicity study proved that the applications of CNSL was not only limited to biofertilizer but was also proven to be an effective biopesticide for the control of pest and insects.

The study of Fenton’s oxidation and degradation of Direct Blue 2 (DB2) as the commercial azo dye in synthetic aqueous solution has been accomplished. The optimum oxidative degradation reaction conditions were achieved as follows: pH = 3.50, [H2O2] = 1.1×10-3 M, [Fe2+] = 1.0×10-4 M for [DB 2] = 1.0×10-4 M. Under optimal conditions, 80% of decolouration efficiency was carried out within 15 min of reaction. An engagement between the kinetics of the colour removal rates (ln k2) versus Lazo bond was carried out at the different pH levels. The colour removal rate was increased with decreasing of Lazo bond, in the order of pH: 3.5 > 5.0 > 2.5. The second-order kinetic model provided the best correlation of the data. Effects of various inorganic anions (such as Cl–, SO42-, CO32-, etc.) was studied to enhance the oxidation efficiency of Fenton reaction. Advanced oxidation technologies were developed in this study especially with dealing with contaminated textile wastewater over the use of chemical treatment.

Rajasthan generates 1055 million litres per day as wastewater, out of which 27 million litres is treated and nearly 1028 million litres untreated wastewater is discharged in various water resources. The present study is based on the impact of Kota stone or limestone mining on water resources. Among those villages and census towns, experiencing mining activity, a total of 26 surface water and groundwater samples were tested and analysed. Mining waste often creates eutrophication, toxification, temporary hardness and sometimes permanent hardness. The mining belt was 17.54 km2 in the year 2000 which further increased to 24.25 km2 in the year 2018. The parameters analysed were pH, EC, TDS, alkalinity, total hardness, calcium and magnesium hardness, DO, COD, chloride, sodium and potassium. The predictive mapping for the mining belt was executed in Arc GIS software using Inverse Distance Weightage (IDW) method. The mean of pH was 9.13, TDS 457.12 mg/L, total hardness 593.52 mg/L, calcium hardness is 205.54 mg/L, magnesium hardness 387.53 mg/L, COD 442.2 mg/L, Na+ 139.9 mg/L, K+ 19.40 mg/L, Cl- 318.29, DO 3.04mg/L and alkalinity 14.02 mg/L.

In this study, the adsorption performance of rice wine lees on reactive brilliant red (X-3B) was studied. Five aspects of SEM, FTIR characterization of rice wine lees, initial X-3B pH, rice wine lees dosage and initial dye concentration were studied. The characterization of rice wine lees indicated that it was a good adsorbent due to its larger specific surface area. And the experiment results showed that pH had a great influence on the adsorption effect of rice wine lees, and the adsorption performance decreased with the increase of pH. At the same time, the removal rate of reactive brilliant red X-3B increased with the increase of the dosage of rice wine lees and decreased with the increase of initial concentration of dyes. In the meanwhile, the experimental data were fitted to find that the adsorption of Reactive Brilliant Red X-3B by rice wine lees followed the Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption kinetics was consistent with the intraparticle diffusion model and the maximum adsorption capacity was 12.376 mg/g.

Using a unique dataset of 524 households from an urban hill town of Darjeeling in India, this study addresses two key issues of (a) determining the drivers of risk perception from water use, and (b) understanding whether water treatment decisions and choice of water sources are jointly made by the households. The results from probit model show that the age of the head, perception of the aesthetic qualities of water (odour and colour), education level of the head, the volume of improved water used, water treatment decision and expenditure on the water are the significant drivers of risk perception. The results of a rare investigation on the likelihood of the joint decision of treating water and choice of water source show that these decisions are indeed jointly made in the study area. Households decision to treat water from an unimproved source and the choice of improved water can be seen as substitutes.

The present study had an objective to optimize important parameters viz., incubation period, pH and moisture per cent for vermicomposting of biomethanation sludge admixed with fruits and vegetable waste collected from Gultekadi Market Yard, Pune using Eudrilus eugeniae. The experiment was conducted on the terrace of H.V. Desai College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Pune. The sludge from biomethanation digester running on fruits and vegetable waste was collected and dewatered. The fruits and vegetable waste was collected from Gultekadi Market Yard, Pune and used for the experiment by processing it. The dewatered sludge was admixed with partially decomposed fruits and vegetable waste. The 1kg working capacity plastic trays were used for the optimization of parameters. It was found that incubation period of six weeks, pH 7.0 and moisture content of 70-80% were the optimum condition for Eudrilus eugeniae vermicomposting. The average growth rate mg/worm/day for the optimized incubation period, pH and moisture % was 4.4±0.14, 5.57±0.1 and 7.5±0.47, respectively and at all the three optimized conditions was 7.8±0.6.

Carbon emissions in agricultural production activities have become an important source of accelerating climate warming. At present, low-carbon agriculture is not only an important means to mitigate climate warming, but also a necessary process of transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. Therefore, to achieve the sustainable development of agriculture in China’s Western Taiwan Straits Economic Zone (WTS Economic Zone), the governments should vigorously promote the upgrading and realize the development of low-carbon agriculture. By adopting the latest emission coefficients and the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) aggregation operator, this paper selected agricultural land use, rice paddies, crop production, livestock manure storage and livestock enteric fermentation as the five carbon emission sources, and measured agricultural carbon emissions in the WTS Economic Zone from 2010 to 2017. Thus, from the time perspective, the average agricultural carbon emissions in the WTS Economic Zone showed a fluctuating downward trend, from 762.64 × 103 tonnes in 2010 to 710.02 × 103 tonnes in 2017. From the spatial perspective, total agricultural carbon emissions among regions are quite different. To further clarify the factors affecting agricultural carbon emissions in the WTS Economic Zone, by applying the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model, this paper selected the research and development intensity, the added value of agriculture, the proportion of agricultural labour force, the overall level of urbanization, per capita disposable income of rural residents and per capita arable land areas as the influencing factors, and then measured the direction and degree of the influences on agricultural carbon emissions in different temporal-spatial backgrounds. The results showed that the added value of agriculture, the proportion of agricultural labour force and per capita arable land areas had positive influences on agricultural carbon emissions, while the research and development intensity, the overall level of urbanization and per capita disposable income of rural residents had negative impacts. Although agricultural carbon emissions in the WTS Economic Zone have decreased in recent years, further measures can be taken to effectively reduce agricultural carbon emissions, and ultimately promote the development of low carbon agriculture according to the results of this study.

This study is aimed at investigating the near-surface aquifers within Lekki Peninsula, Lagos, Southwestern Nigeria. Thirty-one (31) Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) data were acquired using the Schlumberger array with current electrode spacing, which varies between 1 and 400m. The VES data were quantitatively interpreted, and the final layer parameters obtained were used to generate 2D geoelectric sections. Litho-logs acquired within the Lekki Peninsula were used to correlate the geoelectric sections to understand the nature and depth of groundwater contained in each aquiferous zone. The lithologies delineated in the study area include the topsoil (fill and/or sand) with resistivity value, which varies between 39 and 1535Wm as well as layer thickness from 0.5 to 5.5m; second layer of wet clay/sandy clay (saturated with brackish water) with resistivity value, which varies between5 and 163Wm as well as layer thickness from 1.5 to 10m; third layer of clayey sand/sand (saturated with freshwater) with resistivity value, which varies between 10 and 898Wm as well as layer thickness value from5 to 34m; and fourth layer of clay (saturated with saline water) with resistivity value, which varies between 1 and 9Wm. Isolated sand bodies (probably unsaturated zone) with resistivity value, which varies from 648 to 3560 Wm, were delineated beneath VES stations 24, 25, 29 and 30. The study concludes that the topsoil (sand/fill), unsaturated zone (conglomerate), silty mud layer (brackish/ freshwater saturated), and sand layer (saline water-saturated) constitute the aquifers and water quality within Lekki Peninsular. The inhabitants of the study area are, therefore, advised to avoid absurd usage of water to reduce the pumping rate and intrusion into the saline water formation.