The resource intensive human activities (such as mining and extraction of mineral oils for betterment of life and modernization of society) have increased environmental pollution several folds. Products of mining and petrochemical industries are advantageous for the modern society. But waste generated such as BTEX from such industries are carcinogenic, toxic and causes adverse effects on environment and human health. These wastes are classified as hazardous waste which cannot be used further. Pollution of soil-water interface due to the release of hydrocarbons in environment is a major public health concern, and therefore, remediation of these pollutants is needed to reduce risk to human and environment. Various methods such as biological, chemical and physical method are used to degrade these pollutants from wastewater. In the present works photochemical degradation of toluene and benzene in wastewater are studied using activated Carbon−TiO2 composites as catalysts in the presence of UV irradiation in photochemical reactor. Composites are prepared by sol-gel method and further characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transformed-Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The Photocatalytic efficiencies of the synthesized composites were determined by the mineralization of toluene and benzene under UV irradiation in photochemical reactor.

Ozone(O3), and its precursors, Benzene (C6H6), Nitrogen Dioxide(NO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO) and meteorological parameters Temperature, Relative Humidity and Wind Speed were measured in urban air of two sites of significant spatial variations, Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS), Sadipur and Netaji Subhash Chander Institute of Technology(NSIT) Dwarka, during 2017–2018. Samples collected by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has been analysed. The concentrations of Benzene, Nitrogen dioxide and Carbon monoxide were found to be more at DMS than NSIT site in winter season (11.137±3.258, 5.540±1.441, 55.333±12.741, 44.667±10.066μg/m3, 1.433±0.058, 1.033±0.287mg/m3 respectively) and summer season (3.167±1.222, 2.233±0.929, 50.333±2.082, 31.333±6.658μg/m3, 0.743±0.151, 0.443±0.051mg/m3 respectively) while Ozone was found to be more at NSIT than DMS site (40.333±3.215, 34.433±2.503μg/m3 respectively). The maximum concentrations of Benzene for the DMS and NSIT sites, respectively, were 32.4μg/m3 and 17.7μg/m3 and was observed in the month of November while minimum were 1.0μg/m3 and 0.6μg/m3 and was observed in the month of June. For Ozone, the maximum concentrations for the DMS and NSIT sites, respectively, were 100μg/m3 and 101μg/m3 and was observed in the month of June while minimum were 33.0μg/m3 and 28.0μg/m3 and was observed in the month of February and December respectively. Regression analyses were performed to correlate O3 concentrations with C6H6, NO2 and CO in order to infer their possible sources. The study reveals that there is significant correlation of O3 with C6H6 (r2=0.475) and CO (r2=0.985) in summer at DMS and with C6H6 (r2=0.902) & NO2(r2=0.728) in winter at NSIT. The correlation of O3, C6H6, NO2 and CO with Temperature, Relative Humidity and Wind Speed has also been investigated to understand their influence on these pollutants.

In this research, gasoline vapours including Benzene, Toluene, Xylene (BTX) and Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) emitted from vent pipes of underground storage tanks (USTs) were measured at six gas stations in Tehran. Thereafter, gas station No. 29 was selected as a pilot station and equipped with a vapour control system. The vapours were measured during the summer of 2013 and winter of 2014 in two states, before and at the time of gasoline discharge from a petrol tanker to the UST. The results reveal that the average of BTX and TVOCs are 161.22, 200.81, 229 and 647.01 ppm, respectively, higher than the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. The average of TVOCs and BTX in the situation in which the control system is inactive at the pilot station, are 259.13, 55.9, 73.03 and 96.88 ppm, respectively. After activating the control system at the pilot station, the VOCs were reduced by 0.01 ppm. Almost 99.99% control was obtained for this system and 87% of the people living around the pilot station were satisfied and no longer had any complaints about the bad odour of VOCs. It can be concluded that gasoline discharge from the petrol tanker to UST, is the main reason behind the overproduction of VOCs in Tehran's gas stations (P<0.001). So, the most important element is to reduce VOCs at Tehran's gas stations by installing a vapour control systems in all the stations and activating the systems at the time of gasoline discharge.